Chapter 500: Intense clash of Heavy Blades

Joshua kept pace with his opponent as her speed seemed to be growing the more they clashed with each other. He was slowly getting pushed back and if it wasn't for the fact that he had spent time sparring against great swordsmen like Adrian, Victor, and Ivan then he'd be struggling to keep up with her technique as well. It was clear that she was a natural born user of swords and she had nearly as much technique as Ivan. She wasn't in the same league as Adrian since he was a natural with a blade well before the world changed. Joshua doubted that she was a world renowned swordsman before things changed.

If Joshua had to compare her skill level to someone that he has fought or sparred against in the past then it would be Victor. Ivan was far more experienced than her and had more technique that forced Joshua to use his aura to keep up with his skill with a sword. Victor however fought in a similar fashion to this girl even if they had different jobs. They both tried to speed up the pace of fights and make them seem as hectic as possible instead of relying on pure technique. Joshua wouldn't normally have trouble with such things, but without his aura he was certain that he'd eventually get warn down and make a mistake if things continued the way that they were going.

For a moment Joshua was starting to wonder if he was going to have to actually use his aura, but then he took notice of something strange. At first Joshua thought the reason his opponent was trying to speed up the pace of the fight was because it was the way that she was used to fighting, but when he was able avoid a strike and counter with a heavy kick to the stomach that sent her stumbling backwards he could tell that she was starting to get to sloppy. Even though Victor liked to push the pace of a fight he never got sloppy. Any injuries that he took were ones that he was planning on because of his soul beast abilities, he didn't make glaring mistakes like Joshua's opponent had.

After kicking her away Joshua was given time to prepare for the next onslaught and while watching his opponent carefully he was able to see that the energy boost that she had at the start of the battle was starting to wane. His opponent seemed to notice this as well so she pulled out another rune that she smashed against her blade quickly. It was clear that she had a period of time that the boost would last and once it ended all of her advantages would be gone and then she'd have to either start using skills to try to hold Joshua off or another boosting rune stone to last longer. Since she didn't use another boosting rune stone and used a different one instead Joshua figured that she either didn't have one or couldn't use them multiple times in a row. He wasn't sure, but all he needed to focus on was the fact that she was trying something new.

The stone that his opponent smashed against her sword caused it to glow as winds started to gather around it and a shrill sound emanated from it. The blade started vibrating quickly, but it was hard to see with the glaring light coming from it. For a moment she struggled to hold the blade as it settled in, but the amount of energy that was constantly swirling around the sword was on a similar scale to when Joshua coated his own blade and empowered it with aura. He had seen other people use skills that could empower their blades for an upcoming attack, but all of the times he had seen such skills they could only be used for one attack. By the amount of energy swirling around her sword Joshua wasn't sure if that would be the case this time around.

He didn't have much time to think about it as she started to sprint in his direction once more. Her blade was still bursting with energy and Joshua braced himself to block her first blow. He needed to get a good idea of how powerful the rune had made her blade. This time around he actually did use a skill to keep his posture, he used the rock steady skill that allowed him to take on the charged and powerful attacks of gigantic beast. Although his opponent wasn't a powerful beast he knew that her upcoming attack might just be that powerful.

When she got close enough to him Joshua watched as she swung her blade overhead and slashed directly downward. Joshua quickly positioned his scale blade to block the blow, but the moment her blade connected he felt as if a building was collapsing on top of him. His scale blade creaked for a moment from the powerful force that was crashing into it and Joshua was instantly forced stumbling backward as the arena beneath the both of them broke apart. Once Joshua was knocked back her blade kept traveling and slammed into the ground causing a large explosion of a combination of energy and wind that sent Joshua sliding even further away.

Once the first collision was over Joshua realized how much of a disadvantage he was in without using his aura at all against such an opponent. If one of those attacks had actually landed on him then the match would be over even with his current high level defensive gear. In fact blocking that blow with his scale blade without any type of aura actually worried Joshua for a moment. It seemed as if his scale blade might actually fracture from the force of the blow, but the material it was made of seemed to hold up well even under such extreme circumstances.

Joshua didn't have much time to figure things out as his opponent came shooting through the dust she had created from her last attack and her blade was still coated in the energy that hardly seemed to dim at all. It was clear that she was going to be able to continue to attack him with the blade over and over for a while, and each blow would be powerful enough to take Joshua out of the competition if they landed. When she struck at Joshua this time she swung her blade horizontally and Joshua knew blocking such an attack would be foolish since he had nothing to brace against.

Avoiding the blade by leaping over it Joshua watched his opponent for any openings, but she was easily able to swing her sword around and attacked again forcing Joshua to dodge. It became a game of cat and mouse for a brief period of time with Joshua dodging all of her attacks. They were both enjoying the match, but Joshua could see that if things continued the way that they were going then his opponent would eventually run out of steam, but he wasn't the only one that seemed to realize this fact. Once the Stranger's Guild member figured out that she wasn't going to be able to easily land a hit with the way that things were going she decided to change up her approach. Her blade was slowly loosing energy from the rune, and it would only get weaker the longer things dragged on. Her speed and strength were starting to slowly drain away as well.

Joshua was prepared to dodge around another quick swing, but instead of aiming for him directly she started slashing her blade downward over and over again. Each time she did this Joshua either dodged and had to block the fallout from the powerful attack slamming into the ground which would always knock him away due to the explosion, or he would have to block the blow and hold on with all his strength. At first this was hard to keep doing, but after a few exchanges Joshua was able to start holding his own and knew the fight was starting to turn in his favor. Eventually Joshua was back to clashing blades with his opponent normally as her runes had finally run out. Without the large boost the match started to become one sided as Joshua was now the faster opponent even if she still had the strength to match him in clashes.

Eventually Joshua was able to take advantage of his opponent getting easier to read and caught her off guard as he stomped on her foot as she tried to back away and was able to get a good slash across her shoulder as she rolled to the side to avoid getting her head cut off. The injury slowed her down even more so she pulled out three more rune stones and tossed them around her. It was clear to Joshua that she was forced to going back to the mana cord strategy that other members of her guild had been using due to her current state. Joshua was already close to her so the runes activated immediately.

Bright lights busted from each of the stones as large cords shot out in Joshua's direction. They were all around stronger than the cords that Joshua had seen the last time he had encountered the traps and he knew it had something to do with the amount of mana in his opponent. Although he was still facing a melee fighter, this one was of higher level and had more mana for the traps to base their strength off of. Before Joshua could get surrounded by the cords he decided to use a skill that would empower his blade as an energy slash was concentrated around his scale blade. He didn't unleash it in an attack from distance, but instead kept it surrounding his blade as a bastardized version of aura.

Joshua charged forward directly towards his injured opponent who was clearly hoping the mana cords would be able to restrain him for a just a moment so that she could get in a lethal blow. Such a tactic might have worked if she was a mage using the runes, but the mana cords weren't nearly strong enough to hold him back. He made a deadline charge directly towards her with his scale blade shining with energy. Whenever a cord came close to him he would cut it down and move forward without stopping and giving her more time. By the time he was directly in front of her she tried to cut down at him when he got close, but when there two blades clashed the energy slash gave him the strength to overpower her sending her blade into the air as he cut her down. She vanished from the arena bringing an end to the clash of heavy blades.