ATAPOW Chapter 188
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Chapter 188: Duel of Knights
“Clank!!!” Sparks bursted outwards and splattered on the ground.
The hexagonal candles around the spectator’s seats wavered between dim and bright due to the contest of strength, with their engravings emitting a dim radiance.
The berserk wind that swept out and engulfed everything in its path prevented Lin, who was in the center of this vortex, from opening her eyes. Those fierce gusts had already shaved off the lower half of her silver hair, which previously extended all the way to her waist.
“Ssshhh… Boom!” A dull, explosive noise resounded. Shortly after, a dark-silvery silhouette flew backward and smashed a dent into the wall.
“#@#%#……@” A series of words formed by completely unrecognizable syllables resounded through the vibrations that had yet to settle.
The sight of the motionless dark-silvery knight impacting the stone wall made the black knight slightly shake its head.
“Crack!”The sound of rocks shattering and tearing apart in chunks resounded as the dark-silver knight moved them aside and got up to his feet. The punch he unleashed at the ground caused cracks to appear on its surface as the gaze radiating from behind the seams of his helmet turned icy cold as lightning.
In response, the black knight raised his head slightly. Shooting a scarlet gaze through the seams of its helmet, he began to inspect the dark-silver knight nearby who had assumed a fighting stance once more. This made it nod its head imperceptibly and let out a low and muffled voice.
It then directed the tip of its sword in his direction, curling its finger in provocation before immediately turning its heel around and walking away. In the process, it had completely disregarded Lin who was within reach of itself.
Its intentions were clear to Ji Bai, who moved towards the opposite end of the colosseum in sync with his opponent.
“Cough, cough…” The smoke lingering in the air caused Lin to cough a couple of times. Despite that, her flabbergasted gaze flickered between the black and the darkish-gray knight.
In her confusion, she was completely baffled why the pair who were fighting a bitter battle earlier had silently reached some sort of sudden consensus at the next moment.
Shortly after, the two took up position at opposite ends of the colosseum.
Piercing its longsword into the ground, the black knight performed a slight bow with its hands on its handguard.
Ji Bai returned its salute with his longsword pressing against the back of his shoulder.
Following that, the two adopted their fighting stances.
“Whoosh!!” The fierce flames atop the stone candles let out a roar and burned even more vigorously.
“Clink!” A dull collision rang out and seemingly lit up the atmosphere in the tomb.
“Clap, clap, clap, clap…” The collision of stone slabs caused a perfectly timed rhythm to surge outwards periodically.
Slightly dazed, Lin directed her gaze towards the spectator stand — at the spectators clapping their hands.
Despite being classified as inanimate objects, these stone statues which were denied the gift of life were actually clapping their hands for the two knights dueling below; In a manner no different from humans.
The sound of their stone palms colliding against each other and the stiff manner of the statues’ movements made for an extremely bizarre sight.
However, all of that did not divide the attention of the gladiators below, as their respective gazes remained fixed on their opponent.
This time-transcending scene of this moment seemed to resemble the colosseum of ancient times, where gladiators dueled with cold-hard weapons.
Despite how rambunctious the place was, Lin found herself unable to avert her attention from the pair that was confronting each other.
“Boom!!…” A scarlet light blossomed outwards, as the black knight trampled against the fragile floor of the colosseum, causing it to shatter with a loud bang as it initiated an assault against its opponent.
The floor tiles along its path shattered in its charge.
The sound of broken tiles erupted in droves, as the speed of the black knight became imperceptible to the naked eye.
“Clank!!!” In the next instant, the sound of metal colliding against each other rang out in a volume loud enough to pierce through both clouds and rocks alike.
The blades of the pair interlocked with each other, causing sparks to surge out as the ground sank downwards with them at the center.
“Clap, clap, clap!!!…” The applause from above seemingly grew in intensity at that moment.
“Clack, clack, clack…” The fang-shaped longsword pressed against the massive sword as Ji Bai could seemingly hear sorrowful wails coming from its body.
If it was not for the fact that his profound-metal sword was made with vampire workmanship, it would most probably have been cut into two by now.
Lin was stunned, as she was well-aware how terrifying the black knight’s attacks were…
‘Was Ji Bai this strong?? I never expected him to be capable of blocking this monster’s attack head-on.’
As he experienced the devastating onslaught of attacks, Ji Bai narrowed his eyes behind his helmet.
He had never fought against such an outrageously strong opponent before.
There was no doubt that its previous move could easily slaughter a whole row of red devils.
Such prowess made it extremely difficult for him to imagine the true nature of the monster packed inside that armor.
But no matter their strength, there were only two classes of opponents in Ji Bai’s eyes:
The first class was too weak to even hope of harming him, while the second class just happened to be the type that could deal substantial damage to him.
However, no matter the class they belonged to, it was impossible for them to kill him off instantly.
A portion of the damage they dealt would be absorbed by the [Radiant Armor].
In the black knight’s hands, the large sword was as nimble and light as a dagger.
Its chops and cuts rained down in a heavy torrent, causing a series of ‘clang-clang’ collision noises that lingered on without end.
This was a game —A showdown between one’s reflexes and muscle memories which had undergone a long period of training; A contest between sword masters.
Sparks incessantly flew out from both weapons, with glints and flashes of cold steel visible at every moment. It was possible for one’s eyes to explode from all the stimuli if they took a closer look at the spectacle.
In the eyes of an outsider, this appeared to be an evenly-matched battle.
However, only Ji Bai knew that the black knight before him was not using its full strength at all.
It had only utilized simple slashes and thrusts, without any complicated sword techniques in between. Even the power of these moves had been restrained.
A negative emotion gradually grew in Ji Bai’s heart.
He was unhappy from being looked down on. In a fair and square duel, not using one’s full strength was practically an open insult to one’s opponent.
“Clank!!” The large swords of both parties collided once more. However, the instant they separated, Ji Bai made an extraordinary decision.
He thrusted directly at his opponent’s throat and ignored the large sword cutting towards his neck.
“Crack!” In terms of speed, the black knight, whose attacks left Ji Bai no room to do a counterattack, naturally held the superiority.
Thus, before his thrust could land, its massive sword had already landed on his neck.
Surprisingly, it did not chop his head off and only caused an explosive metallic sound to ring out.
A wave of dizziness hit Ji Bai.
Despite his sacrifice, the tip of his fang-shaped longsword pressing against the black knight failed to deal even the slightest bit of damage, and instead, got blunted.
Making use of the chance that the black knight was stunned, Ji Bai took a side step and bent his knee forward.
“Vata Trasta!(Frail Life)”
[Disaster Class— Radiant War Chariot]
“Thud!” Fully charged, his cross-shaped armor crashed against the black knight, causing it to stumble. However, that was all it did, as it failed to inflict any actual harm to it.
Ji Bai used this opportunity to take a step forward and unleash a heavy downward slash.
[Berserker’s Fury]
“Clink!!” The fang-shaped longsword ferociously landed on the shoulder of the black knight. However, it didn’t manage to shake its body in the slightest.
Even so, Ji Bai didn’t perform that move in hopes of hurting it. Rather, it was to convey a message.
He raised his blunt sword upwards and pointed it at the black knight.
As if it had read his mind, the black knight raised its head and pointed its sword back at Ji Bai.
—Stop fooling around and treat this seriously.
—As you wish.