33 Assault 2 (2/2)
The strike connected with the green wind blade and pushed it to the right and off into the the dense trees where everything in a coned shape exploded for a distance of 20 meters, stirring up strong winds and fluttering the robes of both combatant.
The debris of leaves, wood bark and tiny sticks fell back to earth like a rain storm. After witnessing Hartley saving he lives of the merchants, the lanky man with a emotionless face moved forward whipping up the debris that just fallen.
With an explosion of blue sparks at his feet,Hartley stepped forward to meet him head on. One sword with a blue aura and the other green clashed in the forest.. BOOM!
The clash was so fast and violent... that it produced a shower of multi-colored sparks and a translucent bluish-greenish dome around both fighters for a split second, which then exploded out flattening a circular pattern around them, all trees and greenery were now just brown earth looking like it was tilled by very enthusiastic farmers this morning.
The merchants scrambled away for their lives in shock as debris inflicted minor injuries on their bodies. The lanky blonde haired man for the first time showed emotions, as his face twisted in pain and he was pushed back 3 steps, the place between his thumb and index finger started bleeding.
Hartley's physical body was a 2nd layer xiantian so he had no such side effects. The man with a grim look on his face switched to a defensive stance holding he sword pointing upwards and out in front of his chest with his right leg slightly behind the left..
Hartley smiled, in a situation like this, offence was one's best defense, to be in a stationery position right now was just inviting death.
Blue sparks exploded from his feet again as he closed the distance with three steps and slid to stop in front of the lanky man, with a twist of his wrist the red short blade sliced at the man's left knee, then the silver blade in his right hand slashed at his right shoulder.
The lanky man struggled to block the first strike and get his sword back up in time to parry the shoulder strike, but he barely managed it as another shower sparks exploded out...
By this time Hartley had already, with the aid of negative gravity applied to his red short sword, aimed a sweeping horizontal strike at the man's left waist again.
With grim look of desperation and concentration the lanky brought his sword down diagonally to protect his left side, while the lanky man was in desperation Hartley took a quick long stride to the right and slashed out with his silver blade again, now with a savage grim look on his face the lanky man brought his sword up to block in panic, but this time he was blocking in the wrong place and his head had already been sent rolling on the newly tilled soil, fertilizing it with a shower of red.
Hartley's strike with his red short sword was never meant to kill the opponent.
It was always a distraction to make him defend the maximum area possible with his heavy sword, in his defensive stance there was a limit to how much space the heavy sword could cover.
With that quick stride to the right that Hartley made, the maximum area to defend had become impossible and he lost his head after a quick four strike combo that ended with what looked like a simple slash to the untrained eye.
The merchants were relieved, they gave Hartley their thanks, updated him about the events that occurred in the bandit camp and then went on their way.