Chapter 504: Adrian versus Victor

After the match Joshua was brought back to the waiting room one last time for the day. He was glad that he didn't go into the match underestimating Marcus or he could have been taken out from the first tactic that Marcus used at the start of the match. Joshua knew for a fact that Marcus hadn't done anything similar throughout the entire tournament just so he could take some of the stronger contenders by surprise. He even set up things so well that if he did somehow when the match nobody would be able to tell what he was using to attack Joshua from afar outside of the fact that there was a crossbow involved. The smoke hid everything from view and everyone would just have to assume that Marcus was somehow moving around extremely fast through the smoke along with Joshua with all of the explosions going off everywhere.

Joshua was impressed with the strategies that Marcus had come up with after mostly being used as a tracker and trap specialist during dungeon dives. He was far more creative in one on one battles than Joshua was expecting and that could only bode well for the Fenrir Guild's future. With that match behind him Joshua started concentrating on his next one while flipping through the different battles available for him to watch while waiting. He did come across some interesting ones with Natalie taking down a powerful tank and Aito actually finishing off an old friend in Martin that Joshua had fought against in the battle arena in the past. All of the matches at this point were interesting with mostly high seeds being the only ones left around with the occasional Cinderella story that was likely going to come to an end by the end of the day.

The match that Joshua ended up stopping on to watch was one between two people that had spent a lot of time sparring against each other over the past few months since they were both a part of the Fenrir Guild and they were both swordsman. Adrian was up against Victor in a battle of a number one seed against a number four. In Joshua's opinion Victor's seeding was low for someone that hadn't lost a single match up to this point, but it was likely due to his fighting style of taking injuries to gain strength. Even if that was the case Victor had no trouble making it to this point.

The battle was a clash of two distinctly different style of swordsmanship. Adrian had far superior technique and was able to create a flow with his blades that could have you on your back foot within seconds. He was also amazing at shifting his style from a blitz of well-orchestrated attacks into a wild frenzy that would leave you clueless on where his attacks would be coming from. Victor on the other hand used overwhelming force that only got stronger and stronger as the match went on. His swords were heavier to bolster that advantage and as he grew stronger every hit could send his enemies off their feet and into a precarious position.

The match was currently still in the phase of the two swordsmen testing each other out as they would clash for brief periods of time before disengaging the moment they realized they hadn't created any openings. Both participants were the type to rely on their swordsmanship more than skills for the most part, but they would use anything to get the upper hand in this match with the current situation. Joshua knew that Adrian had the advantage in this fight, but he also knew that if Adrian was able to take out Victor cleanly then any wound that he caused him would only make things tougher for the rest of the match.

After the two of them finished sizing each other up with their clashes they were prepared to take the next step in their match. From the start it was clear that Adrian had an advantage when it came to speed and technique, but on the other side of things even without taking any injuries it was clear that Victor had the strength advantage from the get go. Both sides were duel sword users with Adrian being a bit more adept at using two blades at once with a proper form. The next clash was more serious as Adrian dodged to the side avoiding Victor's initial slash and quickly responded with a short slash that was aimed for a weak point.

Joshua could already see the strategy from both sides' perspectives. In Adrian's case he was clearly planning to use one of his best skills for tearing opponents apart quickly, the weak point skill. Most of Adrian's fighting style revolved around that skill at the moment and it allowed him to keep his flow and pace of combat while also being able to do devastating damage to his opponents without taking huge risk. He knew where his opponent's weak spots were during combat, and even better he knew how to manipulate them to leave them wide open. His other skills were all there to help him make hitting those weak spots even easier.

On the other side of things Victor was already trying to bait Adrian into landing shallow hits that would only empower him in the long run. His initial strike seemed to be one that would leave him wide open, but with Victor's well thought out light armor the only openings were ones that wouldn't leave any real heavy injuries with his position. Once Victor saw that Adrian hadn't fallen for it and aimed for his neck instead, he backed away slightly and disengaged from the fight. In that brief clash so many little thoughts were going that showed how each side planned on going at the fight.

Victor took the lead and charged over once again trying to keep Adrian from gaining the pace of combat, but at the moment his strength wasn't enough to break through Adrian's guard. This allowed Adrian to change the direction of Victor's blade and avoided most of the force behind the blow. Adrian then started striking at Victor's blades instead of his armor allowing him to avoid injuring Victor with light injuries while controlling the pace of the fight. For the moment the two were stuck in a deadlock where Adrian had control over the pace of the fight, but at the same time he wasn't able to get a good enough opening to leave a major injury that wouldn't just make Victor stronger.

For a while this situation continued, but eventually things had to change and the use of skills seemed to be the thing that was going to change the current situation. Adrian was the first one to use a skill so that he could try to find an opening to attack Victor without feeding into Victor's strategy. He used his movement skill increasing his speed so that he could easily avoid all of Victor's erratic attacks while also getting time to look for an opening to take advantage of. Joshua knew for a fact that Adrian was seeing several little openings to go after, but he wasn't taking any. He also refused to use long range attacks since Victor would love for that to happen. Up close Adrian could take out Victor with one precise strike, but that would only happen if Victor made a glaringly bad mistake. From a distance Adrian could do little more than slightly injure Victor with energy slashes that would likely be taken head on just to empower Victor even more.

Victor was having trouble judging which attacks he could let hit him without being gruesomely injured with the sudden increase in speed and the after images created by Adrian's skill. This put them in another form of stun lock that seemed to drag on for a few minutes. Adrian couldn't find that perfect opening while Victor couldn't go to crazily all out like he wanted since it would give Adrian that perfect opening with his increase in speed. The crowd was stunned by the raw amount of swordsmanship that was being shown in the match. Both sides avoided using extremely flashy skills and were both relying on their blades to win the battle.

Eventually the match came to a point where Adrian finally had backed Victor into a bad position and was able to knock him off balance with a well-placed strike. Adrian didn't let the opening pass as he struck directly for a small gap in Victor's light armor that was a glaring weak point that Adrian had been looking to hit for the entire match. The strike was extremely quick to the point where Victor wasn't even able to react to it after being knocked out of position. Adrian had an excited smile on his face when he made the strike and the amount of blood that drained out from Victor after taking the blow showed just how damaging the strike was. In most cases this attack would have ended the match, but instead Victor had a blood curdling grin on his face.

Everyone expected Victor to vanish from the arena, but instead a blood red aura seemed to surround him as his skin turned red and his hair almost looked like it was on fire. Adrian leaped away in shock at the sudden change of events while the crowd seemed to be in a similar state. Joshua was intrigued with this new skill that Victor was showing off, but before Victor could even make a move another wound suddenly appeared in the exact same spot that Adrian's previous attack had hit in the blink of an eye. It was as if a sudden blade struck out of nowhere. Joshua turned to look at Adrian and noticed him smiling proving that whatever happened was his doing, but Joshua could clearly see that Adrian hadn't moved from the spot.

After the sudden turn of events Victor vanished from the arena after it had judged that he had taken too much damage. It was clear that the second strike at one of his weak points was enough to push the arena to judge him down for the count. Adrian waved to the crowd after the match filled with intricate sword play and was taken away from the arena as well. Joshua just shook his head trying to figure out what exactly Adrian had done to avoid having to deal with whatever that transformation Victor was going through. Joshua put that thought to the back of his mind as it was time for him to prepare for his last match of the day.