"Hehe, I came to the same conclusion as well, but that just makes the battle more exciting; I was forced to come up with a variation of the Heavenly scar technique just to beat Alf, so what will I think of next to defeat Marley?" Said Elif with an excited smile, which is quite uncharacteristic of him.
With the one-hour intermission, the only thing I did was fill up my Qi reserve and mentally prepare myself to fight against Marley; just as Lynda said, not even halfway through the intermission, she had fully healed me up, leaving me in prime fighting condition. Something I didn't realize until now was that my understanding of sword intent had deepened, and if I had to guess, it was because I found a different way to utilize my sword intent rather than just coating Hokori in it.
'I can feel it; I'm close to acquiring Sword aura; I just require some time to fully digest the experience I gained from fighting Alf, sadly I won't achieve Sword aura before my fight with Marley; I'm sure it could slightly improve my already abysmal chances of defeating her.' Pondered Elif as he continued mentally preparing for the fight.
Time continued to move with me meditating on the throne until it was almost time for the final match to commence; calming my emotions and getting rid of any stray thoughts, I stopped meditating and stood up before making my way to the arena below.
"Do be careful, your highness, and try not to be so reckless as your previous fight." Advised Illumia before Elif left the booth.
"No promises." Said Elif as he flashed a smirk at Illumia before his face returned to its previous indifference and left the booth.
Landing in the arena at the same time as Marley, I focus entirely on her while tightly clutching an unsheathed Hokori as I ignore everything else, even blocking out the loud cheering of the spectators.
"I've been waiting for this moment to show everyone that I, Marley Eve, am the greatest among the younger generation and that not even a Prince can compare to me!" Said Marley with arrogance as enormous as the heavens while looking down upon Elif.
I found her statement unbelievably foolish from my perspective, I mean, currently, she may be the strongest among the younger generation, but she's four years older than me, while I've only been cultivating for two years. I would say give me another year, and I'll be capable of defeating her, but I'm sure by then she'll have advanced to an Early Divine, meaning the half-step chasm would come into play, but either way, she isn't someone that'll be a problem for me in the long run, my cultivation base will eventually surpass her's and leave her in the dust.
"Whatever you say, fool." Responded Elif as curtly as possible while angering Marley at the blatant disregard he had for her.
With only four words, I had angered her enough that she attacked me first as she flew high into the sky before launching a palm attack at me. Of course, I had to respond accordingly, so I launched my purple palm at her incoming attack. When they collided, my palm could only hold back her attack for a second before it got destroyed and continued heading right for me. Clutching Hokori with both of my hands, I hold my sword above my head while coating it sword intent before bringing it down and launching a Heavenly scar right toward the incoming palm, yet just like what previously happened; her attack was merely stopped for a second before it obliterated my purple sword wave, arriving even closer to my location.
With how close the palm was, continuing to attack it would be foolish, so I swiftly vanished from my spot while using the Elven Body Flicker, only to appear in the sky behind Marley. Quickly, I attacked with several sword waves as I tried to catch her off guard. However, to my disappointment, she retaliated by launching another palm attack, and I watched how it smashed through every single one of my attacks while heading straight for me. As I was about to move from my spot, I sensed Marley's earlier attack appear from out of nowhere as she tried to pin me between both of her attacks; however, since it was only two palm attacks, it was still possible for me to evade them, but from observing the previous battle, I saw how she was able to control multiple different techniques at the same time, so I knew if I continued evading them, I would eventually get trapped by her before all of her attacks struck my body. If that happened, I would immediately lose the battle.
'Well, so much for Illumina's advice for not being reckless.' Pondered Elif as he headed straight toward Marley's first attack while launching several Heavenly scars at it to weaken it as much as possible before crashing into it.
When the palm finally started showing apparent signs of cracks, I stopped attacking it and braced myself before colliding with it; the moment it hit my body, I felt several of my bones crack, and some of my organs received slight injuries, luckily no vital organs like my heart, lungs or brain sustained any damage. Crashing through the palm and destroying it, I quickly move from the spot and gain some distance between Marley and me while keeping my senses locked on Marley's other attack.
It may seem stupid to use my body as a weapon instead of destroying it with regular attacks, but I also have to consider my Qi reserve during the battle. I may have an abundant amount of Qi, but I still have a limit, and fighting against someone who wields the strength of three whole major realms above me is incredibly taxing on my Qi reserves; however, the point of using my body as a weapon was because I don't believe this match will last long at all, and If I try to keep myself out of harm's way then my Qi reserve will quickly get emptied, leaving me as an easy target for Marley. So that's why I decided to try my best to save my Qi since if anything were to cause my defeat, it would be my lack of Qi before the collapse of my body.
While I was floating in the distance, trying to devise a plan of attack, it seemed like Marley no longer wished to wait as she rapidly approached me. I, on the other hand, made sure to keep some distance from her because if she forced me into close combat, she could use the other palm attack to attack me from behind; however, keeping my distance from her quickly proved to be difficult as she was faster than me. Thanks to my unique movement technique, I was still more agile than her, which allowed me to always narrowly escape close combat with her.
Unfortunately, when I launched a few attacks at her after having once again evaded her, I sensed how she seemed to coordinate another attack with her palm technique, leaving me in quite a dangerous predicament.
'Two options, one, continue evading her and the palm attack for as long as I can, or two, destroy her palm attack.' Thought Elif, though he had already come to a conclusion as he began aiming all of his attacks toward the incoming palm attack.
Just like I did previously when the palm was weakened, I crashed my body through the palm, destroying it while also further injuring my body. Now that the other palm was destroyed, I could fight Marley without worrying about her cornering me with the palm attack. Wiping the blood trickling down my mouth, I stopped trying to evade confrontation with Marley and began attacking with the Fairy Sword Dance, and when Marley saw this, she responded by bringing out the weapon she used against Maga, a spear.
Even with the technique increasing my speed of attacks, Marley could still parry my attacks; not even the illusory swords managed to catch her off guard. I was currently the only one getting injured since Marley would stab me with her spear in between my attacks, and every time the spear pierced my body, some of her Qi would enter my body and ravage my insides, wrecking my organs as they were much weaker than my skeleton.
Honestly, at this point, I had no idea what I could possibly do against her; she was just too strong for any of my attacks to do anything to her, so I just continued attacking her, never once slowing down my relentless attacks. However, as time passed, my mind slowly became empty, with merely the word 'Aura' occasionally appearing. Yet, I was so preoccupied with Marley that I didn't even notice the sword intent on Hokori started experiencing changes.
Over time the colorless sword intent that coated Hokori slowly started becoming visible. The color was unsurprisingly purple, however even though the sword in my hands was glowing purple, I didn't notice it, at least not until one of my attacks finally managed to injure Marley, catching us both by surprise and causing me to tear my attention away from Marley.
'What happened to Hokori? No, nothing happened to Hokori; it's my sword intent. Its changed; it's much more powerful and fluid; is this Sword Aura!?' Pondered Elif in fascination as he analyzed his sword aura that covered Hokori, only to be quickly interrupted when he suddenly felt the great waves of pain that erupted throughout his entire body.
'Ugh, my body's in such pain; how did I only realize it now!?' Thought Elif as he quickly inspected his body with his divine sense, only for him to be slightly shocked at his body's condition.
To say my body has seen worse days wouldn't necessarily be a lie, but my body could definitely see better days; the amount of injuries my body has accumulated is quite a lot, small spear holes in several different places on my body, while cuts practically cover my entire body, leaving me a bloody mess. However, when I remembered I was in the middle of the match, I quickly focused on Marley, only to see her grabbing onto a cut on her arm, causing a smirk to form on my face, though with all the blood covering me, I'm willing to bet I look pretty scary, or incredibly adorable, one of the two; or probably both.
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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/UDA82gq7 (Note: this link only lasts for one week)
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Elven Legacy (Chapter 175: Treasure Realm) || Hero of Harmony (Chapter 56: Time Flies) || One Piece: Chaos Kong (Chapter 89: Fleeing Centaurea!) at [patreon.com/Ozonelayer691]