Child of Destiny

…

Shin stood a few meters away from his opponent while maintaining his relaxed stance. But despite how his stance looked, Dylan couldn’t find any flaw in it. He couldn’t find any kind of opening he could take advantage of.

Given that, the young swordsman had no choice but to maintain his stance and wait for his Sword Qi to accumulate enough strength to take the initiative.

Whoosh!

A gentle wind started to revolve around Dylan as he locked his gaze on Shin. And after a few moments, the wind surrounding him created a vortex that seemingly protected him from any harm.

‘Divine Swordsmanship: The Divine Wind’

Swoosh!

Dylan was about to make his move when he suddenly saw that body of his opponent flickered for a brief moment.

Shin was still standing in the same spot since he took his stance, but Dylan knew that his opponent was no longer in there. “An afterimage!”

Swoosh!

Dylan quickly spun around while also swinging his sword at the same time.

Clang!

And within an instant, his spin was suddenly halted as his sword was suddenly blocked by the pair of katanas of his opponent who appeared behind him out of nowhere.

Metal sparks flew in the air as the two rivals stared straight into each other eyes for a short instant before putting more strength in their arms to push their opponents away from them.

Clang!

Dylan slid backward, leaving a long trail on the ground as he tried to nullify the force that pushed him away. And right after stopping himself, he quickly kicked the ground and chased after his opponent.

In the meantime, Shin flipped multiple times in the air to lessen the burden that he took from the previous collision. 𝒃𝒆𝙙𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝙡．𝙤𝒓𝙜

Ta-ta!

Then the moment when his feet touched the ground, he quickly launched himself forward while planning to greet his opponent’s attack with a powerful strike of his own.

During his charge, he crossed his arms in front of him with both of his katanas positioned beside his shoulders, parallel to the ground. And since those katanas were covered by black and white Qi respectively, Shin left a trail of light behind him as he continued to move forward.

‘Yin-Yang Swordsmanship: Twin Annihilation’

Seeing that, Dylan quickly stopped his charge with a powerful stomp that created a small create underneath him. After that, he raised both of his arms holding his longsword while inhaling deeply.

Along with his actions, the wind that was surrounding him earlier suddenly gathered on his sword while revolving violently on it. Then his sword released a jade-colored glow before he swung it downwards.

‘Divide Swordsmanship: The Separation of Clouds’

Swoosh!

Dylan timed his swing perfectly as Shin was almost upon him when he threw that attack. And in response, Shin swung his katanas simultaneously in a horizontal manner to counter the descending sword of his opponent.

Boom!

A powerful explosion quickly followed the collision of their attacks which created a strong shockwave in every direction.

Crack!

At the same time, the ground underneath their feet suddenly sank and slowly spread around to create a huge crater on it.

The two ignored what was happening around them and continued to hold their ground. Each of them refused to show any kind of weakness since they both understood that a slight misstep would lead to their defeat.

Shing!

Dylan took a step backward while pulling his sword alongside his movements. Then he borrowed the momentum that he got from it to turn around and threw a spinning slash horizontally.

The air on the path of his sword seemed to be cut in half as it traveled towards Shin who was currently maintaining the posture that he had from the previous exchange.

‘Divine Swordsmanship: Going against the Current’

Naturally, Shin would stand there, do nothing, and let himself get hit by the incoming attack. Right after seeing the movements of his opponent, he quickly moved his feet and swiftly executed a foot technique.

Swoosh!

‘Advance Yin-Yang Arts: Astral Steps’

Shin’s body turned into a blur for a brief moment before it was split by the incoming sword of his opponent. Fortunately, it was just an afterimage that was left behind by his fast movements.

Bang!

The ground in front of Dylan exploded, as his spinning slash released a very sharp Sword Qi that drew a long curving line on it. But despite how powerful that attack was, it was still meaningless if it didn’t hit his opponent.

Dylan quickly turned his longsword upside-down as he placed it against his right shoulder while releasing a large amount of Sword Qi that surrounded his entire body.

He also squatted his hips and lowered his stance to readjust his center of gravity while planting his feet firmly on the ground.

‘Divine Swordsmanship: The Unmoving Mountain’

At the same time, Shin suddenly appeared on his right side all of a sudden while holding his katana over his right shoulder, parallel to each other. And after a brief moment, he quickly swung them downwards, slamming them towards his opponent in a horizontal manner.

‘Yin-Yang Swordsmanship: Dusk Ruins’

Bang!

The initial collision was pretty easy to endure, but the explosion that followed after was something else. And due to the opposing properties of the Sacre Qi and Demonic Qi, the explosion that they created was pretty significant.

Because of that, Dylan was pushed back by that powerful strike. He also drew a long stride on the ground due to the strong force behind the explosion of Qi. But aside from that, he didn’t suffer any kind of injuries.

But at the same time, Dylan’s center of gravity was slightly shaken since he still needed to nullify the residual force left within his body due to his attempt to absorb the impact of the previous collision.

Whoosh!

And naturally, Shin would not miss such a rare opportunity to finally put Dylan into a passive state.

He jumped out of the cloud of dust, created from the previous explosion, and charged toward Dylan very aggressively. And during his charge, he used the previous foot technique that he used earlier to leave a series of afterimages behind, creating an illusion where there was a lot of copy of himself, charging at his opponent all at the same time.

‘Advance Yin-Yang Arts: (Modified) Astral Steps: Ghost Evanescent’

It was a skill that Shin originally created inside the game with the inspiration of using this particular technique. And since he could do it within the virtual world and both worlds were using a similar system, why not do it the other way around?

Dylan already fought Shin within the game and he also watched a couple of his battles before, so he was quite familiar with a few of his signature moves. Given that, he naturally had an idea of what Shin was currently thinking.

‘This guy sure is something,’ thought Dylan to himself for a moment before revealing a confident smile. ‘But you are not the only one who has that kind of talent.’

He then took his natural battle stance where he held his sword horizontally in front of his chest while gathering a large amount of Sword Qi on it. And when the accumulation process reached its peak, he suddenly swung the sword in a horizontal manner while also releasing all of the accumulated Qi at the same time.

‘Divine Swordsmanship: Splitting the Heaven and Earth’

Swoosh!

The Sword Qi drew a crescent line in front of Dylan while continuing to move forward. And during the process, all of the afterimages on its path were devoured within in an instant.

That was definitely a powerful attack and something that a swordsman on Dylan’s level shouldn’t be able to do. But he was able to achieve such a supposedly impossible feat due to his constant practice coupled with the inspirations and experiences that he accumulated within the game.

Being top experts in the real world, Nathan and Eugene were naturally taken aback by what they saw. Releasing a Sword Qi and throwing it toward their opponents was pretty natural for any swordsman who was able to reach certain attainment in swordsmanship. Actually, it was even a basic standard.

But what surprised the two experts was the power and the scale of the attack that Dylan just did was something that only a real Swordmaster could achieve.

“I know that his son of yours is really close to being the youngest Swordmaster in the history, but I don’t expect for him to be able to execute such a high-level Sword Qi Release,” commented Nathan with squinting eyes.

He then paused for a moment before asking. “Hey! Tell me honestly, is that kid of yours already in Swordmaster Level?”

Hearing that, Eugene shook his head and smiled bitterly before saying. “Do you honestly believe that being a Swordmaster is that easy to achieve?”

“That little genius may be talented and already on par with those fake Swordmasters who are claiming that they are already in that sword attainment, but he is still far from being the match of the real ones who already perfected the style of swordsmanship that they are chasing.”

After that, he turned his attention back to the match and pointed his chin towards his son before continuing. “That kid only managed to mimic such a high-level technique with the help of his simple tricks. But in exchange for what? Look at how tired he is after executing it.”

Casting his gaze toward Dylan, Nathan immediately noticed that the young swordsman was currently doing his best to stabilize his breathing while looking cautiously at the cloud of dust in front of him.

Then Nathan heard Eugene’s next words. “What I am more surprise about is your clan’s little monster withstanding such a powerful attack head-on.”

Whoosh!

Right after those words left his mouth, everyone saw something fly out of the cloud of dust and continued to fly toward Dylan at an unbelievable speed.

……