Chapter 294 - 288 : Sato’s Opponent

"You're...!!"

Sato stared at the figure in front with an expression as if he had seen a ghost. He never would have expected that his opponent would be this person.

"Hehe. Surprised?" A mocking voice sounded out.

As the bright light from the formation of the figure had dispersed, a young man with black silky hair was revealed. He looked to be about 20-21 years of age and had the body of a model. With black eyes and thin lips, his facial features were very appealing to the opposite sex. A handsome face and a perfect body all in one, made him the dream guy of many girls. Most importantly though, he looked exactly like Sato.

"So the third challenge is to battle myself. This is weird." Sato couldn't help but think out loud.

From a third-person view, the scene in the black stone arena was such a strange sight to see. 2 young men that looked exactly the same, just like a pair of identical twins, stood opposite each other on the stage. They looked so alike, even in their clothing, that the only thing that could be used to differentiate them was their aura. The one on the left side was calm and collected, like a mature and responsible adult. The one on the left, however, looked to be more overbearing as he stood in a lax posture and had a condescending smile on his face as he stared at the other one.

"Heh. Don't compare me to you. I'm a lot stronger than you weak piece of sh*t and you will soon realise it." Sato 2.0 said with a smug.

Sato twitched his lips as he heard those words. It looked and sounded strange coming from 'his' mouth. 

While it did look like him, the personality of this copy was a whole lot different. It was like the total opposite of him; overbearing and extremely self-confident, to the point that it was nauseating to speak with him.

However, while this copy had a prideful tone and spoke with a gloating tone, Sato didn't keep a complacent expression when facing him neither did he doubt its words about being stronger.

The Trials of the Caventry weren't something to be underestimated. Rationally, the final challenge should be the most difficult of the three. Even if it wasn't as difficult as the [Labyrinth of Helios], it should still be close in comparison. In other words, while this opponent looked like Sato, his true strength might even be much greater than that of the Blood King and maybe just a bit below the second sector's guardian, Child of the Titan race [Atrit]. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense as to why he was granted an unlimited number of deaths within the challenge's duration of 24 hours. As for why Sato believed that the copy in front of him couldn't be as strong as Atrit, this was because that would make the challenge impossible to pass, hence becoming meaningless to judge one's strength and potential. No matter what, the game mechanics and rules would at least give players a chance of success no matter how little.

'The only way I can find out about his true strength is by engaging him in a fight.' Sato analysed with a calm mind. Nonetheless, he didn't intend on making the first move but took on a defensive stance and waited for the clone to attack.

Sato knew that it was impossible to pass the challenge in one try so he hoped to use this first round to understand the copy's strength. To do this, he had to remain on the defensive and not on the offensive. Also, while less likely to be, there was still a chance for Sato to win in the first round if he could time a counterattack properly.

"Yaaaawwn. Are you done yet?" The carefree copy said with a bored tone. From its words, it was evident that the clone was waiting for Sato to think of different strategies to use against it before it would attack.

For one to give their opponent prep time to scheme against them, they were either foolish or extremely confident in their strength. Sato guessed that the copy was of the second group but he was still annoyed at its casual demeanour. Anyone would be irritated if their opponent didn't take them one bit seriously. However, Sato didn't lose himself to anger and attack. He still kept his defensive stance and waited for it to make the first move.

"Planning on holding your defence huh? If I were to attack, not only would you grasp my fighting style but as long as I make a single mistake, you will retaliate without holding back and possibly defeat me, or at least suppress me. Interesting." The copy smiled as it revealed Sato's thoughts.

"Looks like I underestimated you." Sato replied with a slightly grim expression.

What it said was true. Sato was indeed hoping to capitalise on a mishap from the opponent's side to retaliate. After he had stepped foot on the arena, Sato noticed that his skills had all gone off cool-down and his body was rejuvenated back to its peak. All the stamina and energy he had lost had also been recovered. With all of that, especially the skills that had refreshed, Sato saw an opportunity to win in one round, so long as he timed his attacks well and utilised his skills properly. But with the clone knowing this, it would be a lot more difficult to pull off.

'Difficult but not impossible.' A glint flashed in Sato's eyes.

"Hehe." The copy seemed to know what Sato was thinking but it wasn't bothered about it. It had the utmost confidence in its strength and didn't believe it would lose to Sato.

"Here I come."

Since Sato wasn't going to make a move, the copy decided to do so. Making an announcement just before it attacked was its way of telling Sato that it was the stronger of the two.

*Bang*

The copy hurtled forward with a bang as its speed surpassed Sato's even at his peak. There was a distance of at least 15 metres between them but with the speed the copy approached, this distance would easily be covered within a second.

Seeing the imposing momentum at which the copy closed in, Sato moved forward to attack. He was still at the edge of the arena so there was a possibility that the clone's attack would send him out of it.

While the voice didn't say anything about the fight be limited to the arena, Sato could guess so. There had to be an underlying reason for the arena's existence so Sato guessed that falling off of it was the same thing as failing. Unknown to him though, his analysis was correct. This part of the challenge wasn't mentioned because it was expected of the challenger to guess this. One could say that it was a test of the challenger's battle experience and thinking because these two things were required to figure it out.

*Clang*

Sato didn't use any skills against the copy as he clashed with it. He wanted to test its strength and ability so simply fighting with his techniques and skills was enough.

"You're strong…" The clone said as the two figures were both forced back after that collision. 

"But not strong enough."

The copy was only forced back by 2 steps whereas Sato took 4 steps backward, almost reaching the edge of the arena.

'How is this possible?' Sato questioned himself as he calmed down the surging blood in his body.

From the collision just now, Sato discovered that the [Strength] of he and the copy was just about the same, otherwise, he would have received damage from that clash, no matter how little. Yet, even with the two being tied in [Strength], the power of the copy's attack was at least two times more effective than his. In other words, even with the same attributes, the copy could use them two times more efficiently than Sato, resulting in an overall difference in power.

"Hehe. This will take a bit more effort than I presumed. You are quite stronger than I thought. But it doesn't matter, you will still lose.." The copy flashed Sato a grin as its momentum slowly rose.