...

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Massive explosions and deafening sounds were being created every time Shin and Owen's weapons had a collision.

Given that their weapons were covered by some special powers, the explosions created by the collisions were much eye-catching to watch.

At the same time, the originally basic gladiator's arena was now completely devastated. Its appearance was now more similar to the desolate place where Shin and Liszt fought against each other.

That battle arena no longer had its flat surface. Instead it now had a lot of craters scattered on the whole field. The audiences could even compare this place with the surface of the moon.

Meanwhile, the main characters of this fight were currently having their very intense fight in the largest crater at the center of the battle arena. And in this fight, the spectators witnessed what would happen if someone with strong and powerful attacks met a person with sharp counters and almost impenetrable defense.

Currently, the battle was still in the deadlock. Since the [Yamato] was empowered by the power of the 'White Star', the power behind each of its swings was too strong to that point that it could send anyone flying.

(White Star (From the new Eclipse Wielding): Mutated Powers of the Sun mixed with some Powers of the Moon. Shin's in-game version of Yang.)

But no battle how powerful the swings that Shin made with this sword, Owen was able to completely nullify it with his shield which was enhanced by a mysterious power that had the mix of golden and bluish-white color.

What's more, Owen was also executing a mysterious combat technique where he could absorb the force behind his opponent's attack.

This was somewhat similar to Shin's 'Yin-Yang Twist' which could absorb the forces from his opponent's attack and resend back with his next attack together with his own force.

But unlike this one, this combat technique that Owen had was redirecting the force that he took towards the ground after being absorbed. And this was also the reason when the ground beneath his feat sank on it whenever he blocked each of Shin's strikes with the [Yamato].

On the other hand, the other attacks from Shin which was with the [Blue Demon's Blade] empowered with the 'Abyssal Cold', was doing much better compared to the attacks that he was doing with his other sword.

(Abyssal Cold: Counterpart of the 'White Star)

If Shin's attacks with the [Yamato] were strong, heavy and powerful, then the attacks that he was sending with the [Blue Demon's Bane] were light but fierce and deadly.

Since his left-hand sword was a rapier which was too light, the speed of his attacks was insanely fast. And even if most of his attacks with this sword were only stabs and thrusts, the threat that they were giving to Owen was insanely high.

Each of Shin's stabs were like flashes from Owen's perspective. But instead of white ones, these flashes were completely black which made them somewhat hard to notice. And due to that, Owen was being forced to dodge from time to time.

And if you add the slowing effects generated by the dark aura surrounding the rapier, Owen was even more unwilling to get hit even by a scratch from those stabs.

Shin thought a lot of combinations with his Eclipse Wielding combat technique. Given that he could change the forms of his left-hand sword, he was thinking that he could mix the Eclipse Wielding with them.

With that, he could just shuffle the combinations to increase the number of cards that he had. Unfortunately, expectations and reality always clashed against each other. Even if Shin thought that this was a really good idea, transforming it into real action was easier said than done.

But thanks to this idea, he was able to create his own 'Elemental Spirit Possession' during his time in the 'Awakening Quest Dungeon'. At the same time, he also discovered the real essence of the Yin-Yang Swordsmanship' that Professor Plum had shown him before.

Due to the said problem that he had in the Real World, he could only train half of the real 'Yin-Yang Arts' of Old Plum. Due to that he was unable to fully explore the real meaning behind this profound Martial-Art.

But it was different in this world. Since the issue of 'Seed of Hatred' was almost nonexistent in this world, he had a very low risk training the other style of his Martial-Art in here.

Unfortunately, he didn't have the other half of the 'Yin-Yang Arts' since Old Plum was too afraid that this crazy disciple of his would do something insane if he gave the whole copy of the Martial-Arts.

But he thought it was still fine even if he gave the whole first chapter of the 'Yin-Yang Swordsmanship'. After all, Shin still had no access on how to use the other Internal Qi of his style. So, it was pretty much a given that he couldn't use the other half of this swordsmanship.

But it was completely a different case in the Virtual World. Since he coincidentally had the twin powers that had opposing properties in this world, practicing this swordsmanship was much easier.

Though, learning this swordsmanship didn't go as smoothly as he had expected. After all, you couldn't get everything in just an instant.

At first, he still couldn't properly use both of the styles since things didn't go as what he originally planned; midway, he tried to practice the sword-drawing style quite unexpectedly which led him to delay practicing his 'Yin-Yang Swordsmanship'.

What's more, he was also thinking that there was something missing with the powers of the Sun and Moon that he originally possessed.

Fortunately, he was still able to build the foundation bit by bit which led him to gain some access with another type of mana; the powers of the Black Sun and Silver Moon. Even though he felt that there was still something missing in it, he continued to persevere and explore the style.

It was until he learned the real essence of duality. 'For every Yin, there would always be a corresponding Yang'. This meant that these two forces shouldn't be independent as the opposite sides attract and compliment each other; each side should have the core elements of the other not just as simple as the dark and light, soft and hard, light and heavy or any other things.

Realizing this, Shin learned that each of the powers that he had should influence each other to a certain degree. With this, he came up with his current version of 'Eclipse Wielding' combat technique.

With the accumulated battle experiences that he had so far, together with the in-game knowledge that he had collected, he thought that he was already getting near to the ideal style of this swordsmanship.

As he watched more of the high-class battles of this tournament and after exchanging blows against some of the top-tier players, his insights on his own style started to grow more and more; especially after experiencing different types of battle.

And this feeling was being stimulated by this certain battle that currently he had. Owen was just too perfect to perfect his battle style.

Each of Shin's attacks was becoming even stronger and faster compared to the initial bout. The stabs that he was throwing with the rapier on his left hand was becoming much sharper, more accurate and more deadly.

On the other hand, the attacks that he had on his other sword was gaining a much stronger destructive force as the time went by. Just hearing the sound of his swings was already enough to send chills for anyone, much less the powerful shockwaves created by the collisions.

And due to the two different styles that Shin was throwing with each of his swords, Owen felt that he was being attacked by two completely different people.

But even if that was the case, Owen was not going to be easily overwhelmed either; after all, he was also a Battle Genius who could improve during battle.

Given that, he was also able to adjust to each of Shin's continuously growing assaults. He even managed to adapt to the unpredictable attacks that seemed to be coming from all sides.

With the continuously rising intensity of the battle, the audience couldn't help but be on the edge of their seats and held their breaths once again. They were also not willing to blink their eyes even for a split-second for being afraid to miss even a single moment of this battle.

This seemingly equal battle continued to be in this state for quite some time until some changes had happened; Owen was starting to feel some mental fatigue as their battle progressed. And this was when Shin's real advantage came in which was his insanely powerful willpower.

But in this kind of battle, Shin didn't feel right if he was going to win this way. So, out of his respect for this guy who was worthy of his recognition to be a good rival, he decided to retreat for a moment and gave Owen some space to breath.

Owen was suddenly taken aback by Shin's retreat. From what he could see, Shin was still able to hold on this state much longer than him. In fact, all he needed to do was to continue throwing those intense attacks and he would win this battle with no problem.

At first, he was thinking that Shin was underestimating for giving him some breathing space. And naturally, that was going to make him furious. But the moment he saw what Shin was currently planning, he couldn't help but smiled bitterly.

"Such an honorable individual. Respecting your opponents to this degree?" muttered Owen as he understood Shin's intention.

After a slight pause he then continued. "Since you want to end this with this last exchange. Then let me give you the respect that you deserve too."

He then put more strength on both of his legs before jumping high up in the sky. And when he reached the apex of his jump, he controlled his center of gravity to hover up in there for quite some time.

In there, he put his sword and shield together and fused them into a single entity; they transformed into a round shield with sharp edges that had a pointed spike on its dead center.

After that, Owen hid his body behind the huge shield before descending towards the ground. And while falling, a blinding light with alternating gold and bluish-white color suddenly surrounded him.

At the same time, there was also some lightning dancing around the blinding figure of Owen which was creating a very loud crackling sound. And as he descended towards the ground, the momentum of his fall was becoming more and more powerful as if he was some sort of blazing meteor descending towards the earth with unstoppable force.

'Self-Created Skill (Combined) (Tier 2): Holy Meteor Downfall'

Meanwhile, Shin was also preparing his final move.

When he saw Owen jumped very high in the sky which made him look as if he was flying, Shin knew that his opponent was going to use a very unusual skill. Given that, he planned to use one of the cards that he never used before.

"Looks like it is finally time to use this skill, huh?" Shin immediately released the 'Eclipse Wielding' combat technique together with the 'Conviction Form' of Modi's style legacy skill.

After that, he quickly sheathed his sword while taking a sword-drawing stance. While in this stance he started gathering all of the mana that he could get from all directions.

He maintained this stance for quite a few seconds without doing anything. He even still had this posture even Owen was already starting to descend towards him.

From the eyes of the spectators, Shin seemed to be dead meat already since the 'Meteor' was already getting near.

But Shin was not thinking the same, he was confident that he had enough time to charge his skill.

Fortunately, Owen really came from a very high place from the sky which gave Shin enough time to gather the required Energy that he needed. And when the 'Meteor' reached the height of a three-story building from the ground, the accumulation of powers on Shin's sheathed sword finally reached its peak.

And without further ado, Shin quickly pulled the [Yamato] out from its sheath and swung it in the air, sending a huge crescent sword with intervening color of black and white.

'Class Fighting Skill (Combined) (Tier 2): Purgatory Stance'

Shing!

Boom!

The 'Meteor' slowed down drastically when the huge sword wave collided with it. Regardless, it still continued to fall down with a slightly slower speed but with still powerful and unstoppable force.

Seeing that, the spectators thought that it was already over. But unknown to them, it was just only the beginning of the final assault.

.....