Chapter 19: Party and Duel - Part 3

'Now, How can I defeat him?' I said to myself as I watched Willy run towards me.

Willy slashed me with some kind of pattern. 'Zigzag vertically?' I said to myself as I find it myself weird.

'I usually see sword techniques with zigzag patterns but they are all horizontally. If it is vertically, then you can't block it because of its movement. Luckily, I retreated and saw this pattern'

I noticed the other participants on the sideline and some of them are doing something. Theo is reading something.

'Ah, come to think of it! The [Wild Earth Boars]'s are kind of fast! I remembered every move of his that day! It is not fast nor slow but he can defeat the fast boars!'

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'I see, so that is the last form of this technique, huh?' As I finished reading the last form of the assassin technique that Falcon just gave me, I returned my gaze to the field and noticed that the Ain is doing some kind of familiar stance.

"[Xeros Moon Style!]" I immediately said. Lucy and Viole looked at me in surprise and Viole asked after a moment of silence between our group, "What do you mean?"

"Remember the day we are raiding the [Guardian Wolf Den]? The [Wild Earth Boar] is very fast, isn't it?" I asked and he replied with a nod.

"Our sword style is not fast nor slow but it can defeat enemies even though they are fast or they are strong. I used it once inside the dungeon. I used the first form of the [Xeros Moon Style], the [Moon Trick] and [Moon Fall]"

"[Moon Trick]?" Lucy asked curiously and I replied, "I can't tell you much because this is our sword style but the user can trick the enemy that the user will slash to the left but in reality, the user will slash on the opposite side"

"How about the [Moon Fall]?" Yuno asked from behind of Viole. "[Moon Fall] is a simple vertical slash technique that is fast enough to trick the enemy that it is fast. It is all about trick and illusion, our sword style is." I said with a little bit of worrying tone.

"Unless he has the talent to get enlighten immediately after realizing what is the sword form for, he won't get any backlash." I continued and sighed.

"What might be the backlash?" Viole immediately asked as he grabbed both of my shoulders.

"On the stance, he is using, it is probably [Moon Trick]. The backlash pf [Moon Trick], if it is not proper, you will get intense muscle pain, the bone might break or worse, crippling," I said while I looked away on the face of worrying Viole.

I remembered how I trained it a year ago... I have to endure muscle pain and broken bones while training, forcing me to enlighten. That is a cruel way of practicing the moon style of Xeros.

"I hope, if there is just a backlash, I hope it is only a minor one..." I muttered as I looked at him.

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'Ugh. what is this? My muscles are tightening!' He groaned as he raised his sword above his head and waited for Willy to come.

"What's that?" Willy said as he felt bloodlust into Ain's eye.

'How dare you look at me with those eyes?!' Willy said to himself as he immediately dashed to Ain.

Willy grinned as he dashes. He can see the future attacks of the enemy through prediction. That is why he didn't manage to dodge a slash from Ain earlier because he didn't see that incoming or you can say that he can't dodge it because he is still yet to be in the ground earlier.

'I don't know this technique of his but I can see where he will slash. He will slash in front of him!' He thought as he confidently dashed towards Ain.

That is what he thought... When Willy thinks that the timing is right, he immediately dodged but the slash that he predicted didn't exist. Willy is surprised that the attack is where he standing right now. 'That is impossible! I thought that it is a front slash but it is fake?!'

When the sword is about to hit Willy's waist, "THAT'S IT!" The referee said and continued, "Willy lost, Ain won!"

"Why?!" Willy said angrily and the referee explained, "You can't dodge the attack and you got tricked! Even if you can dodge it, you will get a grave injury! Plus your sword is not even tried blocking the sword attack from Ain. Thus, the conclusion for this match is that Ain won"

Willy can't say anything because everything is true.

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'I guess there is nothing wrong with him? no, his muscle is tightened. He forced himself...' I said to myself as I looked at Ain who is coming in our direction.

"Haha, you tricked him!" Viole chuckled as he looked at the exhausted Ain.

"I'm tired! How many minutes is our match?" Ain asked me and I replied, "3 minutes"

"Huh? I thought it would be more than 5 minutes!" Ain said and noticed that I am staring at me. "Make sure that you must take our permission to use our sword skills first before using it, okay?" I tapped his shoulder and noticed that it is as hard as a statue.

"Because of that, your muscle stiffened. Haha. Get rest and make sure that you will massage your shoulder" I said and he replied with a surprised expression on his face, "How'd you know?"

"You just used [Moon Trick] that I used in the game, aren't you?! There is always a backlash on the 12 forms of our sword style. You're fortunate you know? You only got muscle pain. When I am training that form, I experienced practicing with broken bones and painful muscle pain" I said as I remembered how it is painful in the past.

"Haha, well, I only used it because you used it in the game to defeat fast boars. The sword style that you are using is not fast nor slow, that is what I remember thinking on the day we are conquering the dungeon" He stated and I just sighed in relief.

"Then, let's go to the second match: Bryan Vasquez versus Cera Bernardo!" The announcer yelled successfully and then the two people from the participants stood up.

I can hear mumbles in the crowd such as, "This will be interesting!", "Top genius of Vasquez versus the top genius of bernardo!"

***

When the two of them stood on their side, the referee immediately yells, "FIGHT!"

When Cera is about to take her bow, Bryan already made a move.

'Fast!' I thought as I continued saying to myself, 'This will be, an absolute victory!'

I said that as I watched Bryan used some sort of assassination technique. He doubled himself as if he created a copy clone of himself that made Cera confused.

She just shot an arrow on one of the Bryan but there's nothing is there. "Then the other one is the real one!" She grinned and I said to myself as I watched Cera grinning, confident of winning, 'Bryan is not one of those two, he is...'

When Cera immediately shot the arrow using a technique that is probably called [Compressed Arrow] that is always used as the deciding move for the Bernardo family. But when it hits the clone, it only passed through, "That can't be!"

'...behind you'

"[Assassination Technique: Cascade!]"

"THAT'S IT!" the referee yells but it is too late, He already slashed Cera's back from his neck to waist downwards. She is insanely bleeding.

"Call the medics, immediately!" The announcer said to the staff beside him and then the audience from the bleachers immediately caused a riot.

'Cera's family?' I said to myself and then the girl that probably is part of her family yells, "Why to injure her that much?!"

"Assassination technique is an absolute kill technique, it is unavoidable, you know?" Bryan said coldly as he stared with blood lust at the woman who complained. The woman fell down to his knee because of fear.

Everyone is still shocked. One of the top geniuses of 12 families got defeated by the Vasquez family. It is a real scoop.

'Well, if you will rank our family's power, it is possible that Bernardo is the weakest on all family and the most powerful is our family because we focus on honing martial arts, after all.' I said to myself as I looked at Cera who is getting taken by the medics.

Everyone in the bleachers got disappointed in battle because it didn't even take 2 to 5 minutes. It only takes less than a minute!

"So we have another powerful opponent, huh?" Lucy said and I replied in confusion, "Bryan is the first son of the Vasquez, right? Didn't he participated in this event from the last party?"

"Nope, his second brother, Lemuel is the one who participated. Well, Lemuel also died that day in the hands of the warm goddess, Marielle. It is a brutal fight" Lucy said as he started to look down after he mentioned the name of the warm goddess, Marielle.