Chapter 1455 (2/2)

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The confrontation on the other side of the arena was enough to briefly distract Paolo, and he allowed that distraction to persist and Huang Shou to slip away from him. Gradually, the flexing muscles of his left arm loosened and relaxed. He lowered his limbs and studied the results of Huang Li and Kayle’s clash.

Huang Li was covered in wounds, holding his wo dao with only a single hand, and panting. But Kayle stood with a strange smile on his face. There was a long cut across his shoulder that oozed a few small drops of blood. This time, it seemed like Kayle was on the losing end.

Paolo almost felt bad for the young man from Zone 7.

“Like I said,” Huang Li managed to cough out while he struggled to catch his breath. “I am unable to control the full might of the Skill. So if I use the Sky-Slaying Sword-”

“Then we will finally have an interesting clash,” Kayle interrupted. He rolled his shoulders and accelerated forward. “Don’t waste any more of my time.”

Huang Li’s eyes narrowed. But Paolo couldn’t help but notice how the sharp image around the young man was becoming more concrete. He was growing at an extremely fast rate. So quickly that he couldn’t help but be impressed.

But in the end… Paolo thought with a hint of sadness.

“Fine then,” Huang Li announced. That endless tide of wind that had risen and towered above the arena finally shattered and the waves crashed downward. Clouds howled and churned beneath the sheer mass of air that was swirling above. There was a dragon crashing down to condense on Huang Li’s wo dao, but it was so large that Paolo could barely see light reflecting off of its scales. It was a blurry and massive thing.

With a simple cut toward the grinning Kayle, Li yelled. “Sky-Slaying Slash!”

The vast pillar of air condensed around his sword was ignited by the power of the motion. The image exploded outward, a huge spectral pair of jaws snapping shut on Kayle’s body. But Paolo’s partner’s smile never wavered. His eyes, in fact, widened with joy. “Sever.”

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

Kayle staggered backward, several fingers on his hand bleeding and broken from colliding directly with the Skill. But in front of him, Huang Li fell to his knees with a shocked expression; the dragon above him was completely bisected.

A cold sun shone down through the fissure Kayle’s Skill had made in the cloud cover.

“Damnit… Kid! The preparations are ready!” Huang Shou said loudly. Paolo glanced at the old man but didn’t bother to move at all as the other activated some Skill. Inwardly, Paolo was quite impressed at the old man’s gumption; the different spots where he and Huang Shou had clashed now began to glow in a grand formation. The fact that he had managed to sneakily do so was a surprise.

...but in the end, this is not a stage for the two of you.

“Hey, Kayle,” Paolo grunted. Huang Li spat out a mouthful of blood, forced himself to his feet, and then began to tremble as the formation Huang Shou created pumped power into his body. His eyes narrowed into slits. His image sharpened even further. “You took the first one, how about I handle this next one?”

“I believe you already lost your chance,” Kayle replied smugly, looking up at the writhing body of the dragon that was condensing in the sky. Whereas before it had simply been a hanging specter, now each scale stood out in sharp relief. The dragon’s claws were the size of coffins. Thin flames spurted out of its nostrils as it imperiously surveyed the humans below it. “This is all mine.”

“Sky-Slayingggggggg-” Huang Li began. Huang Shou sagged to the ground, seemingly haven given all his strength to the formation. The sky above darkened further, the dragon casting a long shadow across the arena floor. People in the stands chattered excitedly, enjoying the powerful display.

“Thank you, Huang Li,” Kayle replied with a satisfied expression. Then he went completely still and focused his entire person on his image. For a split second, the purest form of Kayle image was like a blinding lunar eclipse below the massive body of a dragon. A single pure divider between two vast swirling darknesses. Or perhaps it was to distant points in the darkness, connected by a single tether of energy. The image spun slowly, infinite and shifting.

Even Paolo didn’t know the true form and function of that image. That was why fights against Kayle were so interesting.

“-SLLLLLLAAAAAAASSSSSSSSH!” The blade of Huang Li’s sword was covered in a tornado that he brought brutally downward in a vertical cut. Kayle adjusted his footing and moved his hand horizontally. That blurred motion became the line of energy, the divider.

Before the force of the Skills met, the two images clashed. Without any fanfare, Kayle’s image devoured the dragon of wind and ripped to shreds the hollowed-out Skill that remained beneath it.

It is not a fair contest. Paolo reflected, almost sadly, as Huang Li collapsed. In terms of specificity and dedication, he is not in our league. They might seem close, but that last difference is not a simple gap to cross. If images were colors, Huang Li would be blue and Kayle would be turquoise. Both a similar color, but considering the total package...

Across the stage, Huang Shou released a long sigh as he saw his younger partner collapse. A few seconds later, the audience erupted in cheers.