When Kojo took a step back, inhaled a deep breath of air, and came at her for the next attack, Tang Yue unexpectedly, took a step forward and blocked the incoming slash head-on.
Against Kojo's decisive and precise slash, hers looked completely amateurish. It looked as if she was fumbling with the sword.
"Hmph. It's no use. Give up." Kojo roared.
Her half-assed mockery of an attempt at swordplay only ended up angering Kojo further.
The elf again retreated and came back at her with full force.
Tang Yue tried her best again and clumsily blocked the attack.
She was really not doing this on purpose.
If she knew it better, she would have done it better, but unfortunately, her swordplay was still at the basics.
Thanks to her upgraded agility, and the fact that the elf was placing more importance on strength rather than speed, even with all the armor holding her down, Tang Yue was somewhat able to meet the attack at least.
But every time their attacks connected, she was pushed away by a step or two.
"Hmm…" The snake pondered. She was not really gaining any meaningful combat experience this way.
So she didn't waste any further time and decided to start phase 2 of her plan. She was going to end this match sooner than she had planned.
The next time when Kojo came forward to slash at her, Tang Yue directly aimed for his thick bulging biceps which were uncovered by any armor.
Since they have had quite a few exchanges by now, he had a good idea of her strength level and did not pay much attention to this incoming slash.
He was confident enough to be able to deal with it using the sheer rigidness of his body.
And of course, just as he had expected, the slash barely did any damage at all to him.
In fact, it just graced the skin. It hadn't even nicked it slightly.
"That tickled!" He haughtily harrumphed and prepared for the next attack. The audience as well laughed at that pathetic attempt and jeered.
But the next instant, the man surprisingly stopped mid-air. His hand that was raised to land an attack at Tang Yue also stopped.
Everyone couldn't help but wonder what was happening. Even Tang Xi had her eyes peeled open.
But Tang Yue was not in the least surprised. This was only expected and she chuckled lightly.
"This fight is over." She put her sword back into her space pearl and started walking out.
WHAT?? What the hell is she doing now? How is the fight over?
Before anyone could react, the very next second Kojo fell down limp on the stage.
His body started twitching wildly and his mouth started frothing.
His pale white sturdy muscular body suddenly started turning a light shade of blue starting from his shoulder.
"Poison!!!" Someone in the crowd shouted.
The healers immediately rushed in and the referee hurried and called the end of the fight.
"Winner Tang Yue." He declared.
Tang Yue nodded and stepped out. Her gaze was calm and unwavering as she walked down and started undoing all the armor layers one by one.
However, except for her, no one else was moving!
Even Lotte was gob-smacked. Everyone was staring at her with utter hatred and anger in their eyes.
"Poisoning your opponent??!! How despicable!" Kojo's brother and his close friend yelled out in anger.
He couldn't stand it any longer. He and Kojo had worked hard in their lives. They built their strength and power bit by bit.
Since they were commoners, even though they had the talent, not many resources were available to them.
They had to scrap and suffer for every single opportunity that came their way.
And now this stinking rich bitch comes from somewhere and smashed down all their efforts to nothingness??? It was ridiculous!
He wouldn't even be this angry if Kojo had lost fair and square against a worthy opponent. After all, that was the way of the world.
The strong won and the weak lost.
But to die from something underhanded like poisoning?? That was just not fair!
What poison could even have such an instantaneous effect??
He was livid with anger.
"You... You killed him! You bitch! How dare you attack my brother with some black market poison?" He shouted in anger.
"This is unfair. This is a criminal offense. You killed him purposefully!"
In his anger, he had already long since stopped caring about who Tang Yue was and her royal status.
He was tired of these noble family assholes pushing them left and right like puppets.
Faced with his overwhelming hostility, Tang Yue turned around and simply looked at the man, her emerald eyes calm and steady.
"Why don't you watch your tongue? Wasn't this a fight just now or were we merely exchanging pointers? Why should I go easy on my opponent?"
"Did I ask him to underestimate me? Did I force him to fight with me?"
"And before you wag your tongue some more, you should turn around and look at your brother first."
The elf angrily turned around and to his surprise, he saw that the healers had stabilized his brother's conditions.
He did not look like he was in any immediate mortal danger and the elf sighed in relief.
In fact, Tang Yue had already confirmed with that sleezebag old man about the effectiveness of the poison on Emperor Realm experts.
And as usual, the system had also called her stupid a few dozen times and then told her that it was not life-threatening for an Emperor realm expert but it would definitely render them injured for a while.
This was why Tang Yue had painstakingly licked and spat on her sword well in advance, coating it thoroughly with her venom.
Since she had upgraded her toxicity several times now, she no longer even needed to break the skin and touch the bloodstream.
The mere skin to skin contact itself was deadly.
This was one of the reasons why she was so confident about securing a spot in this contest.
After all, she just couldn't simply rely on her stack of armors.