Getting hit in the back by Alf's hammer, I got sent flying in the distance as I felt some of my bones crack while my organs slightly trembled; that was all from one attack. Stopping myself in the air, I swiftly parried an incoming attack from Alf before piercing Hokori in her forearm and then retreating afterward, dodging another swing of her hammer.
I believe we've been fighting for almost six minutes, yet to me; it seems like we've reached the most exciting and vital fight of the match since now that we know each other's fighting style well enough, we can launch more deadly attacks at each other without worrying about getting caught off guard.
Evading an attack from Alf that caused the entire area around me to get crushed, I launch several Heavenly scars at her, only for most of them to cause no damage, but that's fine as most of them were meant to distract Alf, while the others targeted the weak points in her defensive technique with great precision, though still, very few of them actually managed to sneak by Alf and land on her body.
Once I stopped attacking, I launched myself toward what I've come to call a 'Walking Mountain', and when I got close to her, I performed my only other offensive technique, Fairy Sword Dance. As my feet and sword became in sync with one another, I coated Hokori with sword intent and began launching an onslaught of sword attacks at Alf, forcing the Walking Mountain to become a Stationary Mountain.
By the time Alf got done blocking my sword, Hokori would already be in the motion of attacking her again; the longer this went on, the faster I attacked, and combined with my sword intent, Alf was beginning to have trouble defending herself. When I reached the maximum speed that I could perform using the Fairy Sword Dance with my current proficiency, I started fully utilizing my technique by manifesting illusory sword slashes and sending them toward Alf.
Right, when I finished slicing Alf's chest, an illusory sword attacked Alf, causing her to try to defend it; however, as it was an illusion, it merely went right through her body without causing any damage, but the action of her focus being shifted to that illusory sword gave me an opening to slice her underarm, also one of her weak point. My attack had drawn blood from her since even though she had her defensive technique activated, throughout the whole fight, I'd been accurately targeting her weak points, waiting for an opportunity just like this.
Alf quickly caught on to the illusory sword, but it didn't matter; even though she knew that one of the attacks was an illusion, she couldn't differentiate them from my actual sword, so she was still forced to defend against every attack, and that allowed me to constantly attack several of her weak points, slowly whittling her down with minor cuts.
Though unfortunately for me, the favorable situation didn't last long as shortly after, Alf used that large-scale offensive technique right in between us, attempting to injure both of us, and as much as I wanted to tank the attack and continue forcing Alf into a corner, I knew doing that would practically make me lose the match, as unlike Alf, I didn't learn a defensive technique. So reluctantly, I stopped attacking and quickly escaped the area using my movement technique, just in time, too, as right when I left, the area in the sky where I was fighting Alf violently shook before calming down.
However, when I looked at the bleeding and injured Alf, I noticed her skin had become even rougher, along with thorns poking out, the same technique she used against her previous opponent. From what I knew about this technique of hers, she can't move much, or her speed is just incredibly slow, but her defensive capabilities are ridiculous, and currently, I won't be able to cause any damage to her.
'What am I supposed to do now? Going any closer would be stupid, and fighting from a distance won't cause her any injuries; this is quite the dilemma.' Thought Elif as he quickly gathered his breath before launching several Heavenly scars at Alf from a distance, only for all his attacks to get destroyed when they collided with Alf's body.
However, when I saw that smirk appear on Alf's face, I got slightly annoyed as it felt like she was mocking my cowardice for not getting close to her, or maybe I was completely overthinking things because Alf doesn't seem like one that would mock her opponent, at least not in the middle of battle, though it didn't matter since I quickly concluded that if neither of us gets close to each other, this battle will be a tie.
'I won't be able to get past her defense with just some sword intent; however, what if instead of launching a Heavenly scar as a wide sword arc, I compress it onto the tip of Hokori along with my sword intent? I don't know if it'll work, but why not try? If that doesn't work, the only other option would be to use a talisman or some pills, and since this isn't some life and death battle, I'd rather lose this battle than resort to such shameful means.' Thought Elif as he tightly gripped Hokori before vanishing from his spot and speedily moving through the sky to Alf's position.
Once I neared Alf's position, I was instantly forced to evade a swing from her hammer before approaching her once again; when I landed in front of the 'Mountain', I began attacking her with Heavenly scars while trying to compress them as small as possible, sadly Alf didn't just stand there and let me do that, I also had to deflect her hammer constantly, and I could feel the power behind each of her swings were stronger than before, most likely since she believes I won't be able to harm her, so she forgoes worrying about defense.
I, on the other hand, am the complete opposite; just one of those attacks would be devastating for me; even deflecting them causes my wrists to strain, and now that she doesn't have to worry about her defense, the number of attacks she's swinging at me has dramatically increased, leaving me with little time actually to attack her. It's only worse when she uses that large-scale attack, as I'll have to evade it quickly since the following attacks will leave me with many injuries.
With how chaotic the fight currently is, it was only a matter of time before I made a mistake; as I went to deflect Alf's hammer, it suddenly became faster, which ended up causing me to get hit on the left side of the body, I didn't have enough time to evade, so I flew to the left, trying to offset the damage as much as possible, but even so, the moment Alf's hammer, came in contact with my body, the bones in my left arm were instantly crushed along with the left side of my ribcage breaking, a few of the bones even punctured my lung.
The amount of pain I was assaulted with was quite intense. Still, it couldn't compare to when I fought against the ninth heavenly tribulation lighting, so I didn't lose my bearings and quickly got back into battle with Alf while my bloodied left arm drooped to the side beside my slightly caved-in chest.
Tightly gripping Hokori with my remaining arm, I once again deflect Alf's attacks while counterattacking when given small windows of opportunity, though now that I got a disabled left arm, Alf would constantly aim her attacks there, and while it was even more dangerous than usual, it allowed me to slightly predict her attacks ahead of time, giving me an easier time at deflecting her attacks. Now the match has turned into a battle of pure attrition. Will Alf wear me down first, or will I somehow defeat her? While my chances seem to be against me, I'm confident in myself.
Deflecting Alf's hammer that aimed for my wounded left side, I attacked her with a Heavenly scar, but this time it was different; instead of a large arc that would emerge from the sharp side of my blade, it shot out from just the tip of Hokori with incredible speeds. Once the small purple beam hit Alf's body, it caused a crack on her skin before blood started oozing out of the crack, greatly surprising Alf; I didn't waste that chance and launched another purple beam at the same exact spot, making the crack increase in size.
When I saw my attack succeed at bypassing Alf's defense, I was ecstatic, but I kept a cool head, while my facial expression still showed the indifference it had for the entire match. When Alf returned to her senses, she instantly tried backing away, but, just as I predicted, her speed was incredibly slow compared to before, so slow that I could chase after her without even using a movement technique. As I followed after her, I launched a few Heavenly beams at her, all of them hitting close to the same spot and causing even more blood loss, which had been my goal for the entire match since from watching Alf's previous match, I knew injuring her with her defense would be a difficult task, so I decided the best plan would be to slowly whittle her down with blood loss from causing several different cuts on her body throughout the fight, and only recently had my efforts started showing from the slight decrease in accuracy from her attacks.
However, this battle wasn't over yet; Alf still was standing firm with only various light injuries, while I, on the other hand, had a disabled left side along with my Qi reserves nearing empty, though the only reason my Qi was so low, is because of all the failed attempts at compressing the Heavenly scar at the tip of my blade.
Once we re-engaged back into battle, I took more of a defensive role because of my low Qi reserves, while Alf was like an animal backed into a corner with how aggressively she swung her hammer at me, I don't know how much longer the battle went on far, but Alf and I had our last exchange before I used the rest of my Qi to launch a heavenly beam directly at her inner elbow, completely breaking open her armor and destroying a major blood vessel, causing her to fall to her knees from the sudden amount of blood loss of the already deadly low volume of blood in her body.
"That was a wonderful battle Prince Elif, though if we were to fight again, I would win." Commented Alf before she collapsed unconscious onto the ground from having blood so low that even substituting it with Qi didn't help anymore.
"I enjoyed the fight and learned a lot as well, though while I like that confidence, I'm going to have to disagree with you on that." Said Elif, as his indifferent expression eased up before trying to fly away, only to fall beside Alf from his injuries.
'Yep, won't be able to explain this to Elaine; haa, problems.' Thought Elif, with a sad sigh as he pictured Elaine angry at him for getting hurt.
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Created a discord server, so if anyone wishes to join, it also works this time; I've reset it again, https://discord.gg/JXqGGDbc (Note: this link only lasts for one week)
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Elven Legacy (Chapter 170: Punishment Concluded / End of V5) || Hero of Harmony (Chapter 51: Lunch) || One Piece: Chaos Kong (Chapter 81: Color of the Supreme King) at [patreon.com/Ozonelayer691]