Child of Destiny

……

Bang!

Cling! Cling!

Shin continued his barrage of attacks at Diablo, slowly suppressing the latter. But the more he gained the upper hand, the stronger his uneasiness became.

His instincts were clearly warning about something!

Unfortunately, he couldn’t understand what it was, making him just continue what he was doing.

Hu~!

But while he was doing it, he suddenly took a deep breath and further focused his mind to prepare himself for what was about to come.

Seeing the changes in Shin’s eyes, Diablo knew that he could no longer delay his plans. If he let this opponent get more in the groove, he knew that the tables would further flip in his favor.

‘Special Ocular Skill: Demon Eyes (Phase II)’

Activating the skill, Diablo’s eyes suddenly released an even brighter glow, catching Shin’s attention.

Shin immediately understood why his unease was coming from when he saw that purple glow. He wanted to stop the upcoming disaster but it was already too late at this point.

Swoosh!

The time seemed to stop from Diablo’s point of view. Then a series of images and information suddenly entered his head.

Ugh!

He couldn’t help but groan painfully due to the sudden headache that assaulted him alongside the information that he just received.

He already used this skill for a lot of time already but he still couldn’t get used to the pain that accompanied it in every usage.

But when he was done processing all of the information, his discomfort immediately disappeared. It was replaced by a sensation where he could feel that he could destroy everything.

Whoosh!

Then his eyes took another change. This time, his pupils turned from deep purple to crimson red and the part around it was painted black even further.

It was at that moment when time resumed moving.

He stared at Shin straight in the eyes, sending a sudden chill on the latter’s back!

The moment they made eye contact, Shin unconsciously raised his sabers and crossed them in front of him due to the sudden threat that he was getting.

Bang!

Then he was suddenly sent flying by an unknown force.

He didn’t know what hit him but it was too strong for him to withstand. Fortunately, he managed to defend against it in time, making it unable to cause him any damage.

He adjusted his body in the air while continuing to look ahead. He refused to remove his eyes in front of him as he knew that this was only the start.

Shin immediately felt the power behind that attack right after his feet landed on the ground. And due to how strong it was, he was forced to put in extra effort to stop himself from sliding further.

His feet drew a long trail on the ground filled with snow during the process. Just looking at it could indicate how strong that previous attack was.

The snow on the ground was thrown in the air and created a thick cloud due to the previous explosion, obstructing Shin’s line of sight.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Under the cover of that curtain of snow, a group of daggers covered with purple mana was sent flying toward Shin. Each of them was carrying a strong force as they traveled in the air with extreme speed.

These flying daggers were thrown with great precision as they not only target Shin but they were also covering the places that could possibly be his path of retreat.

But that was not the only thing about them since Shin couldn’t also use his magical attacks against it since it would create another cover that could obstruct his line of sight once again.

Shin wanted to use his Moonlight Steps and Void Steps to easily escape this situation, but he found it to be an obvious choice. It could be what his opponent was planning to make him do.

The two of them already familiarized themselves with each other to a certain degree, so it was natural for the two of them to have a certain level of understanding of how each other worked.

Trusting his instincts, Shin chose to hold his ground and decided to face the incoming daggers head-on.

He further strengthened the energies covering his sabers before deflecting every dagger with great accuracy.

Cling! Cling! Cling!

Swoosh!

Shin read Diablo’s plans right which forced the latter to charge out of the curtain of snow, revealing himself once again.

But this time, there were some changes in his appearance. Aside from the glowing eyes he had, there was now a pair of black horns sticking out of each side of his forehead. They were curving towards the back of his head before pointing upwards when they reached the middle of his head.

The air surrounding him completely changed, giving Shin an immense threat that he only felt from a selected number of people.

Shin steadied his stance and waited for Diablo to reach a certain distance.

The latter continued to move fearlessly forward. He seemed to have no plan of using his movement skills yet and wanted to only rely on his raw speed this time.

Then Shin quickly swung the [Dawn Blade] forward right after Diablo reached the desirable range that he wanted. He threw a horizontal slash in the air while releasing the accumulated power of the Brilliant Sun that he gathered.

‘Extra Skill: (Modified and Enhanced) Flame Burst’

Whoosh!

A crescent wave of white flame was sent flying toward Diablo, matching the speed of the daggers that were thrown earlier.

But the Shadow Dance was still continuing forward and not showing any sign of stopping. Instead, he leaped forward and flew over the blazing wave while executing a spinning roll in the air.

He then did a quick flip right after his foot touched the ground before continuing to move forward. And due to those movements, he managed to maintain the majority of his speed despite being hindered.

Whoosh!

But Shin quickly followed up his attack with another sword wave. Though, he used the [Dawn Blade] this time and released the power of the Abyssal Moon instead.

‘Slayer Skill: (Modified and Enhanced) Half-Moon Slash’

This following crescent wave was perfectly timed and almost reached Diablo in an instant right after it was released.

But despite having his face right in front of the edge of that energy wave, Diablo remained calm and responded accordingly.

He moved his head alongside the path of the ‘Half-Moon Slash’ and leaned his body backward. And at the very same moment, his legs were also bending over and made him kneel.

He could feel the cold powers of this particular energy wave as it flew over his face.

Due to his insane speed, he still continued moving forward by sliding on the ground.

Then he forced his body to stand up before pouncing at Shin like a hungry beast, coming after its prey. 𝒃𝒆𝒅𝙣𝒐𝒗𝙚𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝒎

Shin quickly responded to it and immediately swung the [Dawn Blade] to greet Diablo in midair. He even bent over to make the trajectory of the saber upwards, limiting the path that the latter could use to dodge.

But to his surprise, Diablo managed to narrowly dodge his attack by doing a strange maneuver in the air that slowed him down.

Diablo bent his body and rolled in the air as Shin’s saber barely missed him.

Shin since timed his counterattack perfectly, the slight delay that Diablo did to slow himself made that attack hit nothing but air.

Diablo flew over Shin’s head and landed behind him before trying to strike Shin with his shortsword on the now exposed back.

‘Extra Skill: (Modified) Backbreaker’

Shin might have been taken aback at that insane maneuver that Diablo had shown but he still managed to recover himself from the shock and quickly countered.

He used the momentum of his failed attack to jump in the air and spin around, borrowing the spinning force to strike his opponent with the [Dawn Blade]. His body also launched downward as he used an offensive to counter.

‘Extra Skill: (Modified) Falling Lightblade’

Cling!

Their weapons clashed briefly, creating mental sparks that flew in the air, before continuing in their respective directions.

Shin might have avoided that crisis but since he was now kneeling on the ground, he could no longer be in a suitable position to attack.

‘Slayer Skill: Moonlight Steps’

Swoosh!

He immediately used his movement skill to escape but Diablo was in his hot pursuit.

‘Shadow Dancer Skill (Tier 2): Shadow Waltz’

Whoosh!

He predicted the spot where Shin was going to appear and quickly thrust his stiletto without any hint of hesitation. It was as if he was confident that this attack was going to land.

‘Extra Skill: (Modified) Vital Strike’

Puchi!

(-34,992)

(-3,000) (Bleeding Damage)

And sure, it was!

It perfectly landed on Shin’s waist right after his body re-materialized!

Due to how fast it happened, Shin didn’t even have the time to execute a combat technique and use another charge of the skill.

Shin didn’t have the time to dwell on what happened and quickly disappeared within an instant, trying to escape once again.

‘Elemental Skill (Void): Void Steps’

Whoosh!

‘Shadow Dancer Skill (Tier 2): Mors Ballo’

Whoosh!

Shin was teleported to a random location, ten meters away from his previous location. But Diablo was ahead of him once again and was already waiting for him.

Fortunately, Shin was already expecting it and quickly used another charge of ‘Moonlight Steps’ to get away. He was not in a position to attack, so he had no choice but to run for the time being.

The cycle continued as Shin experienced the real terror of what a Shadow Dancer could do. He was forced to repeatedly run away without retaliating.

He managed to block a couple of fatal attacks that could instantly kill but he failed to defend against the majority of attacks.

Fortunately, the Elemental Skill that he got from ‘Whitie’, the ‘Holy Light’, and ‘Sacred Blessing’, had some healing properties that he could use to recover his Health Bar.

There was also the ‘Eclipse Pulse ‘, a defensive skill, that forcefully put the series of attacks from Diablo to a sudden halt.

But those skills could only delay Diablo and buy him some time to recover. It still didn’t change the fact that he was currently at a complete disadvantage.

If he didn’t find the right solution to deal with the insane speed and crazy maneuvers that Diablo had showcased, then this duel already had a clear winner.

‘It is always ahead of me! It is as if he is reading my movements like a book!’ thought Shin to himself as he blocked yet another attack from his opponent.

‘It is not Reality Manifestation since he is clearly giving off a different aura. It must be a skill,’ he added as he looked at Diablo’s glowing eyes. ‘And it is most likely related to those eyes.’

Shin was still debating if he was going to use his own trump card, the Reality Manifestation. But he felt that he couldn’t use it yet and endure a little more.

‘It is not like I am already out of options yet. I still have a few cards that I have left,’ He wanted to test his limits for the time being before using such a ‘cheat-like’ state that would instantly decide the outcome of this battle.

……