...…

Bang!

Both Shin and the Liszt were sent flying backwards the moment they tried to infuse a few more energies on their weapons. And as they flew backwards, both of them did the same thing as they simultaneously flipped backwards to control their center of gravity.

A moment later, the feet landed back on the ground. And when it happened, these two immediately kicked the ground to launch themselves towards their opponents once again.

At the same time, they were also enfolding their respective weapons with some elemental powers. Shin covered both of his swords with a silver light that had a chilling aura while Liszt lit his saber with a flame that had a deep purple color.

'Epic Combat Technique: Moonlight Wielding'

'Epic Combat Technique: Shadow Flame Enhancement'

Bang!

Another explosive collision was created the moment their weapons clashed for another time. And after a slight pause on their movements, both of them swung their weapons at each other.

Shin's arms turned into a bunch of blurs as he swung both of his swords left and right. At the same time, those swords were leaving some trails of lights on their path, which created a wall of grids around Shin.

On the other hand, Liszt was not as flashy as Shin. Each swing that he was doing with his saber seemed to be much simpler compared to the latter's sword strikes; they were even much slower in comparison. But the power behind each of those swings was much more powerful compared to those sword slashes.

'Epic Combat Technique: Infinity Edge'

'Epic Combat Technique: Savage Barrage'

Clang! Clang! Cling!

Cling! Clang! Cling!

Sparks were flying in the air every time their weapons clashed against each other. And from the looks of it, their battle seemed to be in a complete deadlock. But in fact, Shin was actually being pushed back as the time went by.

Logically, Shin should have a slight advantage on this exchange since he was much faster than Liszt. What's more, he was also using a dual-wielding style of fighting where he could throw more attacks compared to his opponent.

But since each of Liszt's attacks were much stronger compared to Shin's sword slashes, the latter needed to swing his swords twice at his opponent's saber so that he could completely nullify the force behind each of its strikes.

But at the same time, the rhythm of Shin's attacks was being messed up because of that very same reason. What more, he also couldn't properly execute the force absorption ability that his 'Infinity Edge' had since he needed to match his opponent's power.

With all of these, Shin was being pushed back by Liszt bit by bit. Fortunately, his 'Moonlight Wielding' was able to slow his opponent's movement due to the slowing effect that it had. And because of that, he was able to buy enough time for himself to regain his footing.

The exchange continued to be in this kind of state for quite some time, making everyone to be on the edge of their seats. If they were not in the virtual world then they might die watching this fight since they almost forgot to take a breath because of the intensity of the ongoing battle.

A few more moments had passed, and both Shin and Liszt were starting to get used to each other's battle styles. Damages were even popping up above their heads. But contrary to this, the two of them were starting to get pressured as the battle progressed.

Liszt was starting to feel the lethality of Shin's Battle Genius talent as he was starting to feel the rapid growth that his opponent had. What's more, his movement and attack speeds were starting to get affected by the slowing effect of the 'Moonlight Wielding'.

Due to that, he was forced to purposely take some non-lethal damage so that he could trigger the special passive of his class.

...

Berserker Class Unique Passive (Enhanced by Special Battle Physique):

– Berserk:

Every time your HP falls by 10%, attack speed and movement speed increase by 5%.

If the HP falls below 75% mark, Attack Power increases by 25%

If the HP falls below 50% mark, gain a lifestyle of 10%

If the HP falls below 25% mark, gain an immunity against any crowd control skills (Grappling Skills excluded)

If HP falls below 10% for the first time, HP regen will increase by 500% (Only occur once every 10 minutes)

...

These were the main reasons why Liszt was so fearless at taking damage. Since he was fortunate to have a high-ranking battle physique, he took full advantage of it so that he could become unstoppable in any match.

Well, that was only if his opponent couldn't burst out his HP Bar in one go. And since Shin was quite known for taking down his opponents in one shot, he needed to become extra careful in this battle. Due to that, he didn't dare to have his HP lower than 70%.

At the same time, Shin was equally having some trouble in this battle. Even if he didn't have any idea about the Class Specific Passives that his opponent had, he still made a guess on what kind of abilities were those.

He already studied Liszt's battle style during the time when he was waiting for the start of the match; so, it was not that hard for him to figure out those special passives during the battle.

But his main concern was the special ability that his opponent had. The thing where he was unable to hit Liszt even if he was sure that his sword should have successfully hit his opponent.

'Tch! What kind of ability was that?' Shin was so confused at thinking about this.

He was sure that it was not an in-game skill like his 'Moonlight Steps' since he tried hitting Liszt with four consecutive attacks earlier with each pair being thrown at the same time.

Those two slashes were perfectly timed where the first two slashes were meant to force his opponent to use that stage ability while the second pair of attacks was meant to hit successfully.

One of the first two strikes passed through Liszt's body while the other one was successfully blocked by the saber. If it was an in-game skill like Shin's 'Moonlight Steps', then both of his swords should have passed through Liszt since the saber was supposed to enter an incorporeal form just like the owner's body.

After that, Shin immediately tried to throw the second pair of slashes, trying to see if the same thing was going to happen. And just like what he was expecting, the same thing did really happen.

'There must be some patterns to it,' thought Shin while continuing this exchange.

'From that Molton Potter guy's not, it is commonly known that Mages are the bane of the Berserkers. And that also means that they are weak against magical skills.'

'But from all of the performances that this guy has shown so far, he has some ability to counter a lot of magical skills. Which is also why he is quite hard to deal with.'

While he was thinking about those, Shin suddenly noticed the frost layers on Liszt's body which indicated that he was affected by 'Moonlight Wielding' Combat Technique. 'Huh?'

After that, Shin clicked his tongue as a sudden thought entered his mind. 'Tsk! I don't really want to use these two combat techniques together since they put quite a toll on me. But from the looks of it, I really have no other choice.'

Then Shin forced Liszt to take a step backwards before hopping backwards so that he could create some space between them.

Naturally, Liszt wanted to give chase. But before he could even make his move, Shin was already swinging his swords midair before releasing the stored power of the Silver Moon on each of his swords.

After that, five huge vertical sword waves were sent towards Liszt while traveling in a cone shape direction.

'Slayer Skill: (Enhanced) Crescent Cleave'

Seeing the incoming sword waves, Liszt didn't even think twice before activating once of his lifesaving skills. He raised his saber in the sky and released the purple flames enfolding it, which created a dome-shaped barrier around him.

'Self-Created Skill (Combined): Shadow Flame Sacrifice'

Boom!

The sword wave that was coming after Liszt suddenly dissipated the moment it collided with the purple barrier. But at the same time, it also shattered the barrier right after the collision.

Then the cloud of dust created by the collision started subdued a moment later. At the same time, Shin was revealed to be at Liszt's sight once again. And just like earlier, both of his swords were being covered by some sort of elemental powers.

But this time, they had different shades of color. The [Yamato] was blazing with a pitch-black flame while the [Nemesis Nullifier] was releasing a sliver light with a chilling aura.

This was the previous version of Shin's 'Eclipse Wielding' combat technique. And he used this lesser version since maintaining this form required a smaller amount of concentration compared to its newly improved version.

But despite that being the case, Liszt's face suddenly turned serious the moment he saw the change of style of his opponent. Especially when he could feel the change of the atmosphere around Shin.

Shin twisted his neck left and right which created some cracking sounds. Then he looked at his opponent before saying. "Alright! Let's restart with another round. But this time, I am not going to play along with your game."

...…