Duncan didn't hold back even a single percent of his strength when he slashed at the sword light.
He knew that the sword light emanating from the short sword was dangerous. Sword attacks are inherently more offensive than other kinds of attacks. They had a sharpness to them that was hard to replicate even by saber attacks. Combined with the presence of the sword light, this attack was really dangerous to the current him to defend against.
Hence, Duncan didn't even think of defending. He attacked back with Absolute Severance slash multiple times, hoping to negate quality with quantity. He didn't know if the attack by the small sword was as powerful as the sword cultivator boasted. However, the sword aura emanating from the small sword gave him a bad feeling. So, he didn't slack off with his response.
And just like he expected, the sword aura from the small sword was indeed domineering.
The small sword cut through Duncan's first two slashes and then finally got bogged down by the third one. Even then, it wasn't enough to stop the small sword. The small sword cut through the last slash at last and landed on his torso within the blink of an eye.
Duncan felt the sharp aura of the small sword intuitively. He felt the sword digging into his body. Duncan was sent staggering back several paces as the small sword returned to its owner.
Duncan had to get down on one knee to keep his balance by the time he negated the impact from the small sword. He looked down and found a long cut running across his torso from one end to another.
Even though the small sword was only the size of a palm, the attack it delivered was not less than an actual sword. Duncan felt as if he had been slashed by a regular sword.
Blood dripped down from the cut and Duncan felt a stinging sensation across his torso. Taking a deep breath, Duncan looked at the sword cultivator in the distance. The sword cultivator was sporting a frown at the moment.
It was clear that he expected to heavily injure Duncan in one blow. But, Duncan was able to mount some defense at the last moment causing the injury to become far lighter than what the sword cultivator would have wished.
Duncan sneered at the sword cultivator and got back to his feet. Even though he was injured, Duncan was happy deep in his heart. It was fine as long as he could defend himself. He was not worried about getting injured. He didn't care about it actually. What he was worried about was the possibility of being unable to defend himself.
Right now, it became clear to him that wasn't the case. Sure, the weapon of the sword cultivator was powerful. He will admit that. But, it wasn't so powerful that he would not even have a chance of defending himself.
Even with a sneak attack, the sword cultivator was not able to injure him seriously. This was just a flesh wound. Duncan didn't care about such things. His body had a high regeneration rate. Already the bruises and scratches he had sustained were fading away. That was one of the advantages of having a powerful body.
Just as Duncan felt like going after the sword cultivator and gifting him back a slash, he felt another attack coming for him. This attack also felt no less dangerous than the one from the attack from the small sword.
Turning around, Duncan was confronted with a large saber beam hurtling towards him with a small saber. Duncan immediately mounted his defense without a second thought.
This time he sent out five Absolute Severance slashes and finally repelled the small saber. By now, delivering an Absolute Severance slash was like breathing air to Duncan. It was an instinctive thing. So, he didn't exert himself much while using it.
The same couldn't be said for his two opponents either. The toll it took on their body for them to unleash such attacks that were far beyond their level was not small. Their breathing had already become ragged. Duncan knew that these two weapons couldn't be used for long by these two people. Since that was the case, all he had to do was hang in there until these two ran out of energy and go on the offensive.
Just when Duncan was breathing a sigh of relief, all three of his attackers joined hands and attacked him together. Duncan's face became grave and he had to hastily mount his defense, lest he became heavily injured.
Duncan didn't have the confidence to negate all their attacks together. At this moment, Duncan realized a flaw in his martial art. While he had top-grade attack techniques for his level, he didn't have any true trump card that would aid him at a critical moment. This was a big flaw that he hadn't realized until now.
So, Duncan could only madly send out one slash after another, trying to keep those three weapons at bay. After sending out countless slashes, Duncan felt drained. Even then, his attacks weren't enough to negate all three weapons.
A large seal slammed into his body and sent him flying into the distance once again.
"Surround the region," Jiang Chen shouted anxiously. "Do not let him escape. Keep him entangled if he tries to escape."
Jiang Chen ordered his subordinates. The man who had received Jiang Chen's eye signal earlier, immediately set off with the rest of the group to surround the area completely and prevent Duncan from escaping this place.
Seeing the change in the situation, the onlookers became excited. Ever since the three prodigies brought out their trump cards, the demonic cultivator wasn't able to gain the upper hand anymore.
The spectators rejoiced seeing that the chances for the righteous cultivators to prevail over the demonic cultivator were high from their point of view. As they say, amateurs watch the show, while only experts understand the intricacies. In their mind, the outcome of the fight was already decided.
They couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief seeing how dominant the three prodigies were at the moment. They didn't think that the demonic cultivator would turn the tables and obtain dominance after the unveiling of trump cards.
Duncan felt his entire body ache as he came to a stop.
He had a split second to make a decision during the final moments of the clash. Even though he had sent out countless slashes to rebuff the three weapons, the attack power of these weapons wasn't something to be taken lightly.
The three weapons crushed through his attacks. The only thing his attacks did to help was that they were able to reduce the power of the three weapons and make it more bearable for him to tank.
In the end, when the final slash he had sent out was crushed, he had a split second to make a decision. With the three weapons approaching him from different directions, he could only evade two at most in the time available to him. So, Duncan took the decision to take on the seal instead of the sword and saber.
Duncan rather preferred tanking blunt force attacks compared to sharp attacks delivered from swords and sabers. With a blunt force attack, the impact was spread across a region, unlike sharp attacks.
Duncan hoped that by spreading out the impact of the weapon, he would be able to withstand more. And he bet on it. Luckily, for Duncan, his bet paid off and he was able to easily negate the impact from the attack with his strong body.
As far as the pain he experienced and being sent flying away, Duncan felt it was a better exchange. Gritting his teeth and withstanding the pain emanating from all over his body, Duncan stood back up with a determined expression on his face.
Looking at the trio, they seemed to have expected it and were already advancing towards him to attack him. Duncan noticed that the trio were not looking at this moment. While tanking attacks from those three weapons was incredibly hard, using them also seemed to be hard for the trio as well.
He also noticed that they had put away those weapons and were attacking him with their techniques now. Duncan deduced that they wanted to wear him down first before using the weapons to finish him off. Duncan felt that he shouldn't give them such a chance.
The movements of these people who were eager to surround him also fell in his eyes. Duncan felt like laughing looking at their efforts. He wasn't going to run away. If he did that, all he worked for until now would become a waste. The price was too high for him to pay. So, no matter what, he wouldn't retreat from this place without collecting enough slaughter qi.
Letting out a huff of derision, Duncan gripped his sword and rose up to meet the trio. It was time for him to show these imbeciles how sharp his sword was. Just because his sword couldn't handle the three weapons they had, it didn't mean it couldn't take on these three without the support of those weapons.
Just as the trio arrived in front of him, Duncan attacked them without showing any restraint. Three Absolute Severance slashes greeted the trio causing them to defend using their signature moves.
"<Absolute Severance!>"
"<Splitting The Sky!>"
"<Mountain Cleaver!>"
"<Three Mountain Seal: Heaven And Earth Seal!>"
BANG!!!
A large plume of dust engulfed the area causing the spectators in the distance and the ones surrounding the area to look at the dust cloud in anticipation.
*****
A/N: Check out my other stories and let me know your thoughts...
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