CLANG, CLANG, CLANG—
The Dueling Field resounded continuously with the clashing of tal. Players with weaker vision couldn't even see what was happening on the platform; they could only catch glimpses of two blurry figures shifting and leaping, constantly kicking up pebbles and dust.
[Clean Hit!]
[Critical Hit!]
[Clean Hit!]
Words indicating hits floated in the air, but even the mbers of the Watcher's Society standing below the stage, recording with their specially made slow-motion caras, couldn't tell who had hit whom.
Li Ang glanced over and said indifferently, "Amber has landed six hits, scoring eight points. Dragon Liath Leopard has only landed three and is about to lose."
"Hmm?"
Mule furrowed his brows. Just as he was about to ask, he saw that the two on the stage had already separated.
The female pirate Amber landed lightly on the ground. Her lavish, Baroque-style clothes bore several slashes, and so of her long, wavy red hair had been cut off.
HUFF...
In her right hand, she gripped the handle of her blade, its tip resting on a piece of broken stone. She lifted her left hand, and with her fair, delicate fingers, gently wiped a sar of blood from her beautiful face. Then, she slipped her fingers into her mouth, closed her eyes, and savored it slowly as if it were red wine.
"Your blood," Amber said as she opened her eyes, a sickly, wild smile playing on her lips. "Is quite nice."
...
On the other side of the Dueling Field, the emaciated, half-dragon figure of Dragon Liath Leopard slowly stood up. His body was covered with deep gashes from which crimson blood continually flowed, dripping down his arms and legs onto the ground, pooling into indistinct, shadowy puddles. The wounds that had been stitched together had torn open again; through the deep gashes, one could glimpse the pale white bones within. He looked to be in a pitiful state.
In the audience, at the six o'clock position, Xing Hechou involuntarily clenched his fists. He had a premonition that Dragon Liath Leopard might not be a match for his opponent, but he hadn't expected such a scene.
"Don't worry," Xun Zian, beside him, said with a steady voice. "It's not over yet."
As if responding to Xun Zian's words, Dragon Liath Leopard, infused with shadow dragon blood, lifted his head, his gaze coldly fixed on the female pirate. He could feel the venom on the blade's edge paralyzing his muscles, corroding his rationality, and sapping his strength. It wouldn't be long before he would bleed out from his wounds and be declared injured by the System once again. His opponent stood motionless, probably waiting for him to fall on his own, saving her the trouble of delivering a finishing blow and risking a desperate counterattack.
Spirit Energy Value left: 400...
That will be enough.
Ignoring the severe pain from his lungs, Dragon Liath Leopard took a deep breath, his skeletal chest swelling proudly. His hands, now with four fingers after his half-dragon transformation, rose and ca together in a gesture of cradling sothing. In the center of his palms, a rapidly spinning, mist-like shadow began to brew.
Shadows from every object on the Dueling Field, including Amber's, detached from their original hosts. Like flowing light, they soared toward the half-dragon, rging into his palms.
"Hmm?" In the audience, Wang Hu suddenly narrowed his eyes. "This move..."
"Not good!" Perch's face changed drastically, and he instinctively stood up.
On the stage, Amber also sensed sothing was amiss. Her expression tightened. The Tidal ssenger, her curved blade, flicked up a piece of broken stone from the ground, striking from below in an upward slash, unleashing a splash skill that dealt indiscriminate damage to the conical area in front of her.
At the sa ti, the phantom of a massive ship appeared behind her. It was a sailboat difficult to describe with words. Its keel wasn't made of massive timber; instead, it was the upper half of a giant's skeleton. The giant's skull, lifted high, served as the ship's figurehead, while its massive arm bones folded back to form the hull. The six sails of the ship were the wing mbranes of so sort of flying creature. The entire sailboat, composed of four layers, was constructed from timber, rusty gears, connecting rods, pistons, crankshafts, and biological bones. It looked more like a living creature than an inanimate vessel.
Between the layers of the sailboat, a large number of cannon barrels were distributed, densely packed and hidden behind gunports. There were primitive smoothbore guns, more advanced rifled mortars, and even modern tank main guns and near-future electromagnetic railguns. The crew mbers operating these cannons were incredibly diverse: from Half-beasts clad in cast-iron armor to slender, golden-haired, blue-eyed High Elves; from ordinary Human Pirates wielding crude muskets to Spirit-absorbing Mages in splendid robes, levitating in the air. The only thing these "crew mbers" had in common was their expressions: frenzied, excited, bloodthirsty—just like their master who had summoned them.
The mont the gigantic bone sailboat's phantom appeared behind Amber, the air in the entire Dueling Field seed to freeze. Xing Hechou and Xun Zian, in the stands, watched as Amber raised the Tidal ssenger, about to strike down, the giant ship behind her poised to charge.
The next second, Dragon Liath Leopard suddenly fell to the ground, the shadow sphere brewing in his hand dissipating into smoke.
[K.O.!]
The System's announcent rang through the arena. Amber raised her eyebrows slightly in surprise. With a flick of her blade, the phantom of the bone sailboat instantly dissipated.
So the poison took effect... he lost consciousness before the skill could fully activate.
Amber smacked her lips with a hint of boredom, sheathed the Tidal ssenger, and with a light push off the ground, jumped down from the Dueling Field.
A single-elent, limited-space Dueling Field really can't let the shadow dragon bloodline unleash its full strength. Perhaps in a different setting, I would have been forced to reveal more of my cards...
Pondering lazily, Amber waved off the dical team organized by the Global Occult Coalition (which offered paid ergency treatnt to players to prevent death) and turned to look toward Dragon Liath Leopard.
Agents of the Special Affairs Bureau, who had been prepared and seated in the front rows of the stands, had already rushed onto the field and carried Dragon Liath Leopard into a dical pod. The dical pod was oval-shaped, its surface covered with transparent, curved plastic. Vector nozzles were fitted underneath, allowing it to navigate terrain. Through the clear plastic, a green light screen could be seen inside the pod, performing a complete scan of Dragon Liath Leopard's body. Then, a multitude of chanical arms sprang from the inner wall, equipped with various surgical tools, stitching wounds, extracting venom, and spraying Hemostatic gel.
Automated, efficient, convenient, intelligent.
The design of this dical pod is rather problematic, though. No matter how I look at it, it resembles a coffin... the sliding-cover kind.
Amber shook her head, uninterested in the prototype representing the future of surgical operations, and headed straight for her companions at the six o'clock position in the stands.
Before she could step out of the Dueling Field, a sudden flash of crimson light enveloped her. The three fine claw marks left by Dragon Liath Leopard on her arm healed instantly. Shards of shadow hidden in the wounds evaporated with a HISS.
It's over...
Li Ang sipped his iced cola, squinting. Because the Sky Fighting Arena barred the flow of Energy between the inside and outside of the Dueling Field, he couldn't sense the true pressure of the bone sailboat Amber had summoned.
However, seeing a good portion of the Dueling Field forcibly shaved away... that ship must be extraordinary.
Li Ang sighed with slight regret. "They're strong, these two."
With the battle between Dragon Liath Leopard and Amber as a benchmark, the other duels seed sowhat lackluster in comparison.
A pretty lady in Hanfu nad Litang Jianxue, with a fan as light as air, summoned a Tornado that blew her opponent out of the arena.
An ECM mber dressed like an office worker, holding a short iron rod, fought evenly with Spear Narrow from Sword King Court, who wielded a Longsword. Their battle raged across the Dueling Field, high and low, replete with sound and light Special Effects, yet no score notifications appeared.
The two from Burn Wind Guild had a symbolic exchange of a few moves before deciding the winner with rock-paper-scissors, best two out of three.
The battle on Dueling Field number five... The Tauren Warrior was severely pressured at first but grew stronger as he was pumled. The more he was injured, the more berserk he beca, finally ending the match with a ground-shaking heavy strike that blasted his opponent out of the arena.
After watching several matches, Li Ang's iced cola was nearly empty. He stood up, clapped his hands, and said with a smile to the puzzled Mule, "It's no fun just watching. I'll sign up for a match. I'll be right back."
[All contestants who have received the System announcent, please gather at your designated Dueling Field.]
The low, rough electronic voice of the System sounded again within the building.
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