The sun was high up in the sky as two combatants faced each other in the middle of thousands of people.
This is the moment all of the soldiers were waiting for, they wanted to see their military leaders face off against the other army's military leaders.
Unfortunately, time was limited so there would only be five duels amongst each side's top 5 strongest combatants.
The first one up for Resonance City's side is Zander and he was up against a Terravallean general named Marcus.
"Begin!"
Geraint announced the start of the match and the two combatants started circling each other almost immediately.
Currently, most of the battalion commanders were stuck at tier 5 advanced swordsmanship but their physiques had already reached tier 1 master combatant physique.
Zander was also one of the battalion commanders trying to search for an opportunity to break through to Swordmaster.
Fortunately for him, he was chosen as one of the five combatants who would fight for Resonance City's side.
Zander looked forward to this duel as well because this might be the chance to break through that he was looking for.
After a few seconds of circling each other, Zander decided to attack first.
He charged at General Marcus and slashed his sword diagonally at a tricky angle.
*CLANG*
"Tch…He was able to block it huh?" Zander muttered to himself.
This fast charge plus diagonal strike opener is a genius probing move developed by Zander himself with the help of Greyson.
Greyson was a tier 4 advanced swordsman with a wtier 1 master combatant physique.
Zander tested different types of moves against a tier 4 advanced swordsman and this move was never blocked by Greyson even if he knew it was coming.
This means that this move can only be blocked by tier 5 advanced swordsmen and above.
Since General Marcus was able to block the probing blow, it means he was at least as strong as Zander.
During a battle against experts, having an idea about the strength of your opponent is crucial. Especially when the two of you don't know each other well.
Just because of this simple probing move, the strategy of "acting like a pig to eat the tiger" will never work on him and he will never be caught off guard.
Zander immediately fell back and slowed down his pace upon knowing that the opponent was either equal or stronger than him in terms of strength.
He quickly used Blanc's patient fighting style to fight against Marcus.
In contrast, Marcus didn't even know that Zander already got a lot of information from him just from that single clash.
Seeing that Zander slowed down his pace, Marcus simply thought that he was intimidated after their clash earlier.
He immediately dashed towards Zander to try and overwhelm him with a flurry of strikes.
*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*
Unfortunately for him, Zander was able to block all of his attacks.
"Hoh? Even a battalion commander here is on par with my generals huh?"
Geraint rubbed his chin. He was honestly intrigued by how strong the combatants were in this city.
After clashing more than 50 times against Zander, Marcus was getting more and more impatient.
He knew that his men were watching closely and as a "General", he couldn't lose to a battalion commander.
Unbeknownst to him, such a poor mentality would be the difference maker.
Zander saw firsthand how Blanc managed to defeat Alexander by simply making him overthink. This time, he plans to do the same thing to Marcus.
He simply stood his ground, calmly blocked Marcus' attacks, and patiently waited for an opportunity with a poker face.
"Tch! Why are you not attacking? Are you a coward?!"
After more than a hundred exchanges, Marcus already lost control of his emotions.
What's shocking though is, that Geraint was smiling. He thought that Marcus was dominating Zander and it would only be a matter of time before Zander was defeated.
Unfortunately for him, although Zander isn't as quick as Blanc when it comes to memorizing patterns, he still learned some of Marcus' attack patterns.
"Arghh!"
Marcus groaned in pain after being struck by Zander's blunt iron sword on his rib area.
"You finally decided to attack now?! Come! Fight me!"
*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*
"What's wrong?! Is that the best you can do?!"
Marcus taunted, he wanted to get back at Zander after suffering from a clean horizontal slash. He felt that a few of his rib cages were broken and he wanted revenge.
"City Lord! This fighting style of yours is so evil!"
Zander was inwardly laughing, he didn't know that even he could use Blanc's fighting style.
Although Marcus' swings were still compact, Zander started to see some openings. It seems that Marcus only had a few attack patterns and it doesn't look like he was a Swordmaster.
If he was a Swordmaster, then he would've already used his Sword intent to break through his annoying fighting style.
"Chance!"
Zander saw a chance and kicked Marcus cleanly on his abdomen.
"Kuahkkk!"
Marcus was a bit disoriented by the kick so he wasn't able to defend the diagonal slash this time. He was struck cleanly in his left shoulder before Zander finished him off with a chop to the neck.
The Resonance City crowd went wild as their battalion commander, Zander, brought glory to Resonance City in the first round of the duels.
A swift and concise counterattack by Zander!
Even Geraint himself didn't realize that Zander was only waiting for an opportunity.
"Wha– What the hell happened?! Damn it!"
Geraint couldn't believe what happened. The swift counterattack happened in a span of 5 seconds which immediately ended the fight.
He couldn't help but curse as Zander took the first round for Resonance City