Chapter 2907: Rudimentary Innovations (1/2)
When Venerable Trey Walinski advanced to expert pilot, he did not live long enough to complete the Annihilator Sword Style.
Oh sure, the basics were all there. Its repertoire even incorporated a couple of empowered techniques.
Yet after Ketis fought against numerous disciples of other sword schools, she recognized that the Annihilator Sword Style possessed too many gaps.
If Venerable Trey didn't die when he was at the prime of his life, he would have been able to flesh out his sword style.
As it was, he died before he could work out the defensive and movement techniques of his sword style.
This caused the Annihilator Sword Style to possess a purely offensive character. As long as Ketis was on the attack, then she could take full advantage of the power of annihilation to demolish the opposition.
Yet in situations where she was put on the defensive and the power of annihilation wasn't enough to break the deadlock, the sword style became a lot less impressive!
It was no wonder why the Annihilator Sword School failed to gain any inheritors after the death of its founder. The sword style it taught was too incomplete, causing it to become far too one-dimensional in practice.
This shortcoming had become especially obvious after Scipia launched her latest offensive!
”Hahaha! No one is able to last forever against my Whirling Dervish! Either my attacks will break you, or you will break mine!”
Ketis quickly figured out what made Scipia's Whirling Dervish technique so powerful.
The Unrelenting Raider was able to spin and build up her angular momentum with significantly greater ease than she should considering her physical prowess.
It was as if Scipia turned herself into a spinning top!
The worst part about this was that Scipia didn't slow down over time. She spun a little faster after completing a couple of revolutions. This not only increased the frequency of her attacks, but also put a lot more force behind the blows!
Ketis did not dare to block the shortswords head-on anymore. She had to leverage all of her skill and strength to deflect the incoming attacks and redirect all of the incoming force into the air.
Yet even as she fended the dervish, Ketis patiently accumulated energy. Her willingness to destroy grew stronger as she actively fed this desire. As Shiva's blade continued to grow darker, she finally judged that she had done enough to execute her first self-invented move!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Ketis deflected and diverted a couple more attacks before she keenly grasped the small window of opportunity where Scipia was still preoccupied with spinning around for another round of attacks.
While this window of opportunity was too short to allow Ketis to launch a conventional counterattack, the move she was about to pull off was much swifter!
”Release!”
Shiva rapidly slashed forward. As it swung in Scipia's direction, the dark energy that covered it loosened up and propelled forward as if Ketis had just whipped it off the blade!
A cloud of annihilation energy expanded as it continued to surge forward! If any of it landed onto an unprotected body, then the consequences would be dire, but Ketis was confident the protective measures in place could stop her move from going too far.
Before the energy shield had time to activate, Scipia had already formed her own countermeasure.
Even as she spun, she rapidly darted backwards. This bought her enough time to complete her spin while rapidly swinging her shortswords in a defensive posture.
Her quick actions generated a defensive barrier formed out of sword energy!
The glowing sword energy barrier only lasted for a brief amount of time, but it was more than sufficient to block the annihilation energy from going forward.
Ketis clicked her tongue at the sight. What a useful defensive technique!
”Damn, you almost killed me.” Scipia joked. Despite her words, she did not sound as if she just avoided a brush with death. ”I've long known you were able to project your sword energy, so I never let down my guard.”
It was worth a try. The move she pulled off was quite simple. She simply borrowed some of the principles of the Executioner technique and applied them to the Annihilator Sword Style.
While the results were extremely rough, it still represented a change in the Annihilator Sword Style.
She had already begun to innovate!
Unfortunately, that was all she had. She lacked the time to create more sophisticated moves with the Annihilator Sword Style.
After taking a deep breath, she let go of her destroyer mindset and put Shiva back into her sheathe. She solemnly drew her CFA greatsword from her back.
A different kind of intensity began to well up from her mind. Her unyielding will grew sharp and strong. Scipia clearly sensed the distance and grew a little more serious.
”You're finally pulling out the big one. I've been waiting for this.”
Ketis pinned Scipia with her sharp eyes. ”The real fight starts now!”
She charged forward and chopped her greatsword in a way that forced her opponent to defend!
CLAAAANG!
Even if Scipia managed to cross her swords and meet the incoming attack, the force and momentum behind the blow was on another level.
This time, it was the Unrelenting Raider's turn to take a step back!
Ketis did not let up. She pulled back her greatsword and attacked as quickly as possible.
CLAAAANG!
It didn't matter to her that Scipia managed to block her obvious moves. Ketis merely repeated her actions and hacked down her sword at a slow but disturbing pace.
Though Scipia looked a bit aggrieved, she was unable to launch any counterattacks. Her swords were too short and she needed to spend a bit of time to get within reach.
This brief time interval was more to launch another counterattack!
As their wills increasingly pressed against each other, Scipia knew that she could not let the current situation go on like his further.
Without announcing her move in advance, the Unrelenting Raider blocked yet another heavy swing before she rapidly turned and swung her crossed blades forward.
This motion caused her to relieve the momentous glows that had previously covered her shortswords.
Ketis immediately recognized the threat and blocked the incoming sword energy waves with the flat of her CFA greatsword.
”Ooof!”
Though she successfully blocked the energy attacks, she failed to account for their momentum! Somehow, the illogical and poorly-understood sword energy conveyed a lot of momentum that completely push Ketis back!
”You're mine now!” The Unrelenting Raider grinned as she was already darting forward.
Ketis was in a very dangerous position right now! She had a lot of trouble with restoring her balance after feeling as if someone attempted to push her over!
Scipia approached faster than before. Her twin swords glowed brightly as was about to launch another flurry of attacks!
”I'm not falling for this trap!”