Solitary Sword Sovereign

Chapter 74- Survival

Clang!

That was the only sound in the hallway as the two men clashed. The sword was the tiger, the spear was the dragon, only one beast can rule the mountain, and that rule shall never change!

Ignius attacked with a maddened frenzy, doing everything he could to reach Will's vital points. But Will's reaction would always be just in time. Will was smooth and graceful like a swallow in his attacks. His presence was weak but his resolve was strong. Under the never-ending barage from Ignius, he held his ground, receiving not even so much as a scratch.

When he utilized his 2nd Door, Ignius was stunned once again, forcing him to try to end the battle as soon as possible. Learning how to utilize each Door was as difficult as climbing a mountain with one hand tied behind your back. When Ignius remembered that Will had Dual Mind Propagation he calmed down, but also came to a frightening conclusion.

'How many more Doors can he utilize? According to Modus, he has six Doors open. He couldn't possibly open all of them right?'

Ignius' goal was to kill Will, but due to restrictions placed upon him by Modus, he could not bring out his full power. Will was unaware of this and kept wondering why he was holding back. According to his estimate, Ignius was capable of killing him in one strike if he so wanted.

Having a thousand minds was not just for show. Modus came into mind as Will fought. Especially considering how Ignius knew he had a connection to Modus, Will thought it possible that Modus was behind this battle.

'Is this supposed to be a training exercise?'

Will found this somewhat hard to believe because try as he might Ignius could not hide the killing intent in his eyes from Will, no matter how disciplined he was. Especially now that Will was in Martial Harmony.

'There is no doubt that Ignius hates me down to his core. But why? What could I have done to anger such a powerful user?'

Thousands of scenarios ran through Wills' head as he fought but none made sense to him. He simply did not have enough information!

If Ignius wanted to tell Will why he hated him so much he already would have, so Will didn't even bother to ask. He simply kept on fighting, trying to find an opening to finish the battle. Thankfully for him, he didn't have to wait long.

In his rush to try and kill Will Ignius thrust with a bit too much force, giving Will a window of opportunity. Will ducked and stepped forward slashing horizontally from the right. Ignius snorted in disdain believing that he could react in time, unfortunately, he underestimated his opponent.


"Ha!"

With a shout, Will rotated his cultivation base to the max and forced his yuan to burst through his meridians.

3rd Door!

4th Door!

5th Door!

All the way to the 6th Door!

Will's power surged like a billowing tidal wave and his momentum increased by many fold. This sudden increase in power caught Ignius off guard causing his movements to slow down for a fraction of a second, but that time was all Will needed to unleash a True Strike!

As Will's sword got closer to Ignius, blue energy that was the result of fusing yuan and intent formed on the edge of Will's katana. Ignius was quite familiar with True Strikes. Thus his entire body shivered in fright at what was to come. A True Strike from a Sovereign at level 50, utilizing the 6th Door!

Ignius was however not an amateur. He reacted quickly. Since his body couldn't react fast enough he regrettably used a skill which he did not want to use, because it came at a huge cost.

A ripple in space occurred at what was supposed to be the impact point between the katana and Ignius' waist. A sensation which Will was somewhat familiar with made him gasp inwardly. This was a sensation that only occurred whenever the Dao was being manipulated forcefuIly. Will saw his sword disappear into nothingness.

An odd sensation spread across his entire body making Will shiver uncontrollably for a moment. Suddenly Will's own katana appeared right beside his head, aiming to cleave his head in half!

Ignius was disappointed at the cost of this action, but he was none the less ecstatic at the thought of Will dying, despite the repercussions.

A True Strike with all  Doors being utilized is extremely powerful, and the momentum is too great to stop. He is going to die from his own technique!

Or at least that was supposed to happen.

Indeed the sword was about to kill its own master, but Will truly brought out the exceptionality of Martial Harmony. With a slight manipulation of his fingers, he changed the direction of the blade. Then using his left hand he forceful propped his up his right hand. Resulting in the sword flashing above his head. It is at that moment that Will released the energy of the True Strike.

A blinding light surrounded the duo, followed by the sound of breaking glass. As the light subsided, Will was shocked to find himself upon the ice platform within the sky once more!

In front of his was a long trail of melted ice that stretched for many meters, and at the end was a bloody Ignius in the horse stance with spear in hand.

Will was surprised, not because Ignius was alive, but because the spear was still in Ignius' hand!

Thanks to his left hand Will had managed to change his horizontal strike into one that curved vertically. He should have hit both Ignius and the spear that was above his head.

Upon closer inspection, Will found out that the hand holding the spear was completely disfigured. Multiple muscle fibers that were shredded made their way into Will's eye.

As Will stood up he could not help but gulp. The sheer strength and mental fortitude required to have achieved such a feat was incredible. Immense respect for his opponent started budding in Will's heart.

After breathing out heavily, Ignius opened his eyes and stood up. His clothes had been shredded and his body was riddled with cuts everywhere, nevertheless, he looked even more intimidating than before. To Will, Ignius looked like a war god born in blood.

"To force me to use 20% power. I must admit I never expected this."

'20 fucking percent? Nigga you must be fucking crazy!'

Will spewed profanities in his heart at his opponent's words. If that was only 20%, then Will shuddered to think about what 100% was like. Hanzo had made Will feel hopeless, but at least Will could not estimate how strong he was so he could console himself. 

Yet before him was a man who blocked his full  100% True Strike with his body at only a fifth of his cultivation. Not to mention he did not even bring the qi outside his body or attack using intent.  All the skills he used were support skills.

Will was once again reminded of how weak he was, leading to memories of what happened with Hanzo to flash before him. Will had a powerful foundation of skills, but his level was just too low. Will thought what happened to Ashley was unfortunate, but he believed that as long as she wasn't dead it was okay, he would avenge her. All he needed to do was level up. Hanzo was strong, but Will knew that if he reduced the level gap, Hanzo would not even be worthy of cleaning his shoes.



Nevertheless, facts don't change. What bothered him was the fact that he was weak! Utterly useless against Hanzo!

Will was not a kind person. Ashley had followed him willingly thus he didn't feel much guilt, but he did want to kill Hanzo for acting the way he did. Will was not kind but he was also not forgiving.

After calming himself Will looked to Ignius to see what he would do, only to see the man jump off the ice sheet without saying so much as a single sentence. Will was flabbergasted at the sudden turn of events. He intended to chase after the man only to have Modus appear in front of him!

"Not so fast"