Chapter 84: desperation

Boom!! The hermit didn’t relent, as he ended the combo with a horizontal slash with both his swords. Emily blocked this blow with her sword, but she lost her footing, falling down from the force released by the blow.

Bam!! She slammed down on the floor, as strength finally disappeared from her body. “Is this it? Am I dying here?” She couldn’t help but ask herself inwardly, as tears rolled down from her eyes.

She never wanted to be a gladiator, but this was not a choice that she could make, this is how this age is. She could not help but feel boundless hatred, as her thoughts continued unrestrainedly. “Mom, Dad, why did you give birth to me in this era?”

The strong survive and make use of the weak, as sources of entertainment. She knew that in this age, the one with the biggest fist speaks, but she was still indignant.

Why was she born in this age of cruelty? Why did she have to witness this barbarity? Her vision gradually darkened, as she felt that she had no reason to live in this world again.

As she sank inwardly into the bottomless pit of regret, she remembered a saying in one of her favorite books, “The advent of the archmage”. Celine always quoted that, the circumstance of her birth was beyond her control. But the circumstance and directory of her life, will definitely be in her control as long as she was alive and kicking.

Thinking of this, she suddenly started feeling a strange kind of emotion overwhelming her thoughts. Her mentality was experiencing a unique change, she started feeling strength slowly gather back in her.

The power of morale was rearing its head, a thought was all it took to trigger it. Morale is a very essential tool in battles, if your morale is dead, then basically you are dead. She suddenly felt that, it was not right for her to be wallowing in depression because of the circumstances of her life.

“I was born in this cruel age without my consent, good”.

“But I will not succumb to it, I will not die a nobody. The trajectory of my life and death will be at my fingertips, not at others fingertips. Even if I can’t change the world, I will try”.

As she thought of all these, her opponent was not waiting for her as he stabbed down with his sword. Her only saving grace, was that her thought process was far faster than the battle’s tempo.

Strength returned to her bones, as her eyes snapped open. Her dizziness temporarily disappeared, as she saw the sharp tip of a sword drawing closer rapidly to her head. Boom!! The sword stabbed down with speed, she was able to remove her head at the last second, but not without an injury.

The hermit failed in killing her, but succeeded in blinding her left eye, as he advanced forward to finish her off. Pu! Pu! Pu! Pu! His 2 swords blurred as he stabbed with insane speed while advancing forward, this was his self-created technique, that he adapted to his battle art.

This went further to tell how good he was, as even Clark didn’t have his own self-created technique, though he never tried creating one.

He adapted and improvised this technique from a game he played, shadow fight. It is an old game, but people still play it for fun, though this one was an updated version he programmed himself.

This age, you can’t be programming a game and call yourself a computer genius. Almost everybody with an implant, can do simple things like programming, as their implant made learning super easy. You have to be able to program huge battle A. Is, before you can call yourself a computer genius.

He created this technique, from one of the characters in his updated shadow fight 2, “Hermit”. If you play shadow fight 2, you would notice that there was a skill that Hermit performs often against strong opponents. He advances forward quickly, bends down and stabs with his 2 light swords rapidly at his opponent.

This was what he improvised into his own, to create a brand-new technique. He called it, “The blurred strikes of death”. From the name alone, you will know that this was his killer move, or better still his finishing move.

Despite this, Emily did not lose herself to despair this time, as she also launched herself forward to meet her opponent bravely. If trying meant death, she was ready for it this time.

Whoosh!! Whoosh!! Whoosh!! She quickly forgot herself completely in the battle as she slashed, cut, hacked and stabbed like her life depended on it. And her life really depended on it, this time.

Her battle art mainly focused on abnormal evasion maneuvers. To be more direct, her battle art was not a fully offensive oriented one. But today is a do or die affair. It’s either she survives and kill her opponent, or her opponent survives and kill her.

The battle became very bloody and fast paced that majority of the spectators now saw only blood, the rest details was too fast for them to catch up to. The hermit never imagined that this female opponent would fight so ferociously, he was now injured all over as his strength started waning.

Though she suffered multiple injuries from withstanding his self-created technique. She still persevered, fighting fiercely as they both experienced more injuries.

He knew clearly that his opponent has sustained a lot of injuries, far more than he sustained. But he couldn’t help feeling a sense of regret, why did he foolishly start this aggressive exchange of blows in the first place? He would have preferred the slow progressive one instead, if he could predict the future.

Whoosh!! Emily evaded another fatal sword strike from her opponent, she dodged it, preventing it from killing her. But it still cut her cheek, removing some flesh and a good amount of her long hair.

Dodging was already now instinct to her, as she countered with her own sword strike. Their fight already broke the record for the longest battle fought, as neither of them refused to succumb to defeat.

It was already over 30 minutes, since they started using their battle arts and the fatigue was slowly seeping in. In addition to when they exchanged normal strikes, they already fought for over 2 hours.

Ahh!! The hermit yelled in frustration, as he suddenly made a decision. He was surprised at his opponent’s endurance and tenacity, so he decided to end the battle early. According to his calculations, this was more to his favor.

Pu! Pu! Pu! Pu! He increased his fight tempo exponentially, as his hands blurred stabbing repeatedly. He gritted his teeth in pain, as his injuries widened further due to the increased pace his hands and body moved at. His opponent couldn’t react in time, the first 3 stabs impaled her as she groaned in pain.

In normal circumstances, she would have retreated, but not this time. She retaliated back, as she also increased her tempo while screaming out, to help her better endure the pain she was currently feeling.

The battle quickly reached a climax, as only the sounds of metallic collision rang. The 2 gladiators broke their limits, as their hand speed completely erupted. Despite this, the outcome of the battle was still a mystery, as they were both evenly matched. No one had an overwhelming advantage.

The commentator was lost for words, he didn’t know what to say again as the fight was just too fast paced. Whoosh!! Whoosh!! 2 slashing sounds reverberated, as the 2 gladiators suddenly stood still. The spectators were perplexed and tense at the same time, as they watched keenly.

The hermit stared blankly, as his head slowly rolled down from his body. Emily didn’t get to see all these though, as she suddenly held her throat, her vision blurred as the blood on her face slowly covered her eyes.

Splurt!! Blood flowed out of her throat, as she fell to her knees. Her consciousness was already escaping her grasp, as she slightly heard thudding sounds coming closer to where she was.

She finally lost consciousness, as the pain and fatigue overwhelmed her, only her physique as a 2nd rank high-grade soldier was saving her from immediate death.

The spectators yelled and cheered wildly, as medical practitioners rushed into the cage with a stretcher to carry her away. Despite her sorry and uncertain state, the spectators still cheered for her as she undoubtedly won. And most especially, the battle was really a nerve wracking one.

At the last moments of the battle, even though the hermit increased the tempo of the fight, he was still clear headed. As soon as he succeeded in stabbing her thrice, he ended the combo with a slash at her neck.

She reflexively shifted her upper body backwards, but the sword still cut her throat. Despite this, she mustered her strength as she threw both her swords at him.

After he cut her throat, he backed away in relief to avoid any desperate counter attack. This was his mistake, as he failed to react to the 2 swords flying horizontally at him in time. The 2 swords cut his neck through cleanly, a lapse in his reaction was all it took for him to die.

He could only stare wide eyed, refusing to believe it, as his head separated from his body. Emily didn’t know the outcome of the battle; the sword throw was just a desperate attempt at victory which paid off.

“Is this my end?” Was the last question she asked herself, before falling unconscious.

This was Clark’s first time, that he was so on the edge when watching a battle. He didn’t know when, but he already started seeing Henry and Emily as genuine friends.

He finally stood up, as he went to console the crying Henry. Forget any ridiculous assumptions, he was still a boy, still in the morphing stage to become a man. The feeling of seeing your childhood friend being stabbed repeatedly, was definitely not a pleasant one. He is a soldier, but he is a soldier with emotions.

His new friend cried for a long time as he consoled him, before they both went to the medical bay to know of her condition.

Because of this fight, he started feeling a greater urge to improve and increase his strength. His current strength was just too insignificant to influence the bigger things.

He had to sit behind a projection, watching helplessly as his friend was being beaten up, it sucks man. As he walked with Henry, he inwardly calmed his emotions, being angry was just an emotion of losers. He’ll just have to work harder, become stronger and directly change the world’s situation.

If others heard his thoughts, they would probably laugh at him for boasting, but he was not boasting. He knew that his goal was hard, not only hard, but very very hard.

According to the ancient boxing legend, “Mohammed Ali”. “If it was easy, everybody would do it,” it was not easy, which only warranted him to be more hardworking and focused.

It was hard and dangerous, but the first astronauts Neil Armstrong and his partner still landed on the moon. They didn’t give in to fear, no matter how big and impossible their goal seemed. It was only because of how daring human beings are, that enabled them to develop to this stage. No pain, no gain.

Some people think an individual was too small to influence a country. Well, he’ll prove to the world that he, Clark Pendragon was not a regular human.

He’ll fight to accomplish his goal, even if it meant dying.

[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate. I spent some effort in fine tuning this chapter, I hope it didn't disappoint. If you love this book, please leave your power stones behind to support it.]