Chapter 144: A Skill Difference Leads to Restraint (Part 2)

“Clang!” With a crisp sound, Little Weil’s arm trembled slightly, and the longsword in his hand almost flew out. What the hell was going on? Seeing the Devil Masked Youth’s second sword thrusting again, Little Weil quickly moved sideways, and his longsword swept out again. This time, it wasn’t aimed at the youth’s sword, but directly at his body.

The Devil Masked Youth retracted and thrust his longsword again, narrowly hitting the tip of Little Weil’s sword just before Little Weil’s sword could reach his body. “Ding~ ding~ ding~” Like rain hitting banana leaves, the Devil Masked Youth’s longsword launched a fierce attack. Simple, almost too simple, thrusts aimed at Little Weil’s throat, face, chest, and shoulders, each incredibly fast.

Awkward! Little Weil found that he could only passively defend. In terms of speed, the opponent, whose overall attributes were below his own, actually had the advantage. How was this possible?! What shocked Little Weil even more was the accuracy of his opponent’s sword strikes. Each hit landed in a very uncomfortable spot, requiring more effort than usual to dodge or parry, and also distorting his movements. For every three parries, he had to dodge one, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the opponent’s attack speed. The opponent’s attack rhythm was also very strange, fluctuating in speed and constantly changing in power.

Which movement in swordsmanship is the fastest? Thrust! The Devil Youth, whose speed and strength were inferior to his own, actually managed to completely control the rhythm of the battle with his exquisite thrusting swordplay. Not only was he gradually falling into a disadvantage, but his arm also seemed to be experiencing a slight abnormality. How could he feel sore and numb in such a short time?!

He couldn’t continue like this. Little Weil moved quickly, trying to create distance, while the Devil Masked Youth pursued relentlessly, his slender longsword thrusting out like a venomous snake from different angles, delivering one fatal attack after another. Little Weil’s heart stirred. He held his longsword across his chest, no longer parrying or blocking. Instead, he relied on his agility and strength to block directly, using the Devil Masked Youth’s power to quickly retreat.

Suddenly, Little Weil’s vision blurred. The thrusting sword coming at him split into three, accompanied by a whistling sound. Not good! This was advanced swordsmanship, advanced swordsmanship with a confusing effect! Little Weil crouched down, changing his longsword from a block to a horizontal sweep, while also protecting his face, adopting a desperate, injury-for-life fighting style.

“Ding~” The Devil Masked Youth’s longsword obliquely struck the tip of Little Weil’s sword. But this time, he had already closed in on Little Weil, spun around behind him, and his longsword swept across his throat.

The battle ended! A chill ran from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. The Devil Masked Youth’s longsword was still resting on Little Weil’s neck. With a soft “clank,” Little Weil’s right hand trembled slightly, and his longsword fell to the ground. He lost! No, he almost died! If it weren’t for the protection of the golden light, he would have been dead! The Devil Masked Youth had no intention of holding back. His last sword strike was aimed at slitting his throat, but it failed due to the golden body protection.

“You lost!” The Devil Masked Youth’s tone was very flat, as if he was just stating a fact, but his heart was very bitter. This feeling of being unable to control his own destiny, how long had it been since he had experienced it? Was he mistaken? He was a devil. Generally speaking, wasn’t he the one who toyed with others? Why was he, a devil, so miserable as to be treated as a toy by others?

Little Weil looked at his trembling right hand and tried to clench it twice. The numbing sensation was still there. Just now, his arm had instantly gone numb as if electrocuted, then the longsword in his hand slipped out, and he was tragically defeated by a single fatal blow from his opponent.

“You won the first round. We’ll start the second round in an hour.” Little Weil picked up his longsword with his left hand and glanced at the Devil Masked Youth. The battle hadn’t lasted long, but his opponent was sweating. Although he had lost, he had barely sweated, and the only sweat that appeared at the end was cold sweat, from being scared.

His opponent had defeated him, and even dominated the entire battle,

yet he had expended a considerable amount of physical energy! Little Weil’s mind stirred, and he transformed into a golden light, disappearing from the arena. The Devil Masked Youth flexed his sore arm, and his body was also enveloped in golden light, instantly teleporting to the military tent.

Inside the bell tower, Little Weil began to call out to the proxy elf, “Rewind the entire battle process, slow motion, one action at a time.”

“Ding~, battle process rewind initiated. One hundred contribution points deducted. Apostle’s contribution points are insufficient, allowing on-credit payment.” The proxy elf would not miss any opportunity to extort Little Weil.

Anyway, he was already heavily in debt, so these few contribution points didn’t matter. The entire battle process was rewound bit by bit. The Devil Masked Youth’s exquisite swordsmanship and artistic combat skills slowly unfolded before Little Weil like a beautiful scroll.

“Simple thrusting, combined with precise prediction and incredibly difficult changes in speed. What a terrifying guy.” Little Weil understood, but it was precisely because he understood that he felt terrified. “Muscle paralysis caused by continuous vibrations? My strength wasn’t even 30% utilized?! Is this guy a devil? Can he even perform such movements? Is this really something my body can do?”

For a full hour, Little Weil studied his opponent’s attack methods and how to counter them. For this, he paid two hundred contribution points to curry favor with the proxy elf, from whom he extracted some corresponding techniques, counter-techniques for this kind of swift, ruthless, yet continuous snake-like attack. In essence, it was still his shallow accumulation. The best, or rather, the most fool (clumsy) way to deal with this method was actually the sword and shield knight’s fighting style, which only required a small shield for defensive counterattacks. His lack of experience, technique, and steady fighting was insufficient to deal with a true master. He needed to strengthen his defense to wear down his opponent, and at the same time, increase his own offense.

However, his defense was already insufficient; would attacking expose more weaknesses? Only now did Little Weil realize what it meant to be outmatched in skill and to be constrained. He was clearly the one with superior overall physical attributes, wasn’t he? But in such a situation with a huge gap in technique, experience, and realm, those slight physical attributes seemed unable to bridge the gap anymore.

What to do? How could he win? Leveraging his strengths and avoiding his weaknesses was a given, but weren’t his weaknesses a bit too numerous? Strengths? Heh heh, compared to this old monster who had lived for hundreds or thousands of years, his strength should be his youth, right? Youth is capital, but it doesn’t seem to apply to devils.

chaptererror;