"This is going to be really tough," thought Li Wei as he watched the videos of his opponent. The girl in the video was simply too strong. She perfectly moved with her sword, using it like an extension of her body.

All her opponents were quickly defeated, not even lasting for more than ten minutes. The girl in the video seemed to be doing all of this effortlessly.

Li Wei was first pleased when he saw that his opponent was a member of the Fleeting Clouds Sect, but he took it all back when he saw that it was a player from the Li family. Although anyone could have used the name "Li Yuxin", considering that she belonged to the sect, there was 99% chance that she was from the Li Family.

"I wonder what she will think when I'll use the Myriad Sword Dance? Well, she probably already knows that"

...

On a desolate volcanic land, two meteors suddenly appeared in the dark sky and fell at two different locations. One of them was Li Wei. As he opened his eyes, he immediately recognized the map he was in: The Scorching Ground.

Around him, the earth was completely black, and cracks could be found everywhere. Sometimes, bright yellow glows would come out of these cracks showing that lava was not too far below his feet. It was his first time on this map; there were so many available that even after 10 battles, he did not even fight on this one.

The map was rather simple, there were slight elevations and hills so that the 2 fighters would not be able to see each other directly but apart from that, there was no vegetation making it hard to hide.

As the countdown reached zero and the light barrier around him disappeared, Li Wei immediately charged towards the center of the map. It was the highest point of the map on top of a hill and so, represented a strategic point. He was intently focusing and looking at the small details of his environment. This time, his opponent was quite strong. If he wanted to maintain his win streak, he needed to be serious.

...

On the other side of the map, Li Yuxin was very calm. She has never been in a hurry in these ranked battles. To her, the win streak was not really important, gaining experience and honing her techniques were more important. And that was why she was disappointed in the ranked battles; her opponents did not hold for long.

It was her second time on the Scorching Ground and she knew that there was no need to hurry. She knew how dynamic this map was. It did not matter if the player was trying to flee, they would eventually meet and end up fighting.

However, that did not mean that she liked this map. The environment was quite desolate and dirty. In fact, it looked like a volcanic eruption just took place; there was a strong smell of sulfur and ashes could be found everywhere.

Li Yuxin walked at a normal pace towards the hill at the center, her long blue sword at her waist was ready to be drawn at all time.

Three minutes later, she noticed a silhouette appear on top of the hill. "It looks like this guy is fast! Let's see what kind of player the sect recruits!"

...

As soon as he arrived at the top of the hill, Li Wei quickly noticed Li Yuxin walking up the hill. She easily stood out of this ashen environment. Her slim white figure was very noticeable especially when the ground around her was completely black.

The two fighters looked at each other for a second before they both started to move towards each other. There was a fair distance of 200m, charging now would just be a waste of energy but both readied their swords.

The distance separating the two was quickly reduced to about 50m before both charged towards the other. Taking advantage of his higher position, Li Wei ran as fast as he could, wanting to use the additional momentum he would get.

[Strengthen]

"Cling Cling"

The 3 swords violently struck each other in a deadlock, Li Yuxin trembled for a second upon receiving the shock, but she managed to hold her ground. She was aware that Li Wei's strike would be more powerful than hers. Not only was he using his two swords, he also had the momentum's advantage. It would make sense for her to dodge but instead, she chose to use her [Strengthen] and hit the swords at a particular spot, minimizing the damage she would take.

Having successfully stopped Li Wei's charge, Li Yuxin followed by quickly attacking left and right.

"Cling Clang"

The swords met several times, but none were able to directly hit their opponent. Li Wei started to focus. The girl in front of him was probably like him, a warrior that invested heavily in dexterity. Even with his two swords, he was unable to hit the girl no matter how hard he tried. She was using a single long sword and that was enough to parry most attacks. The one she would fail to block, she would simply dodge them by sidestepping.

The sword Li Yuxin was using was different from Li Wei's, not only in appearance but also in term of stats. Although the stats were simple, there was a lot of information not revealed on the information screen. For example, the weight and shape of the sword would definitely affect its wielder and attack speed. All these information formed part of the hidden stats of the weapons that players would need to carefully study on their own. Li Yuxin sword was longer but also much thinner than Li Wei's. As a result, it was sharper and had better piercing effects but also had lower durability.

"You are not too bad! It looks like the sect is recruiting strong players," commented Li Yuxin as she tilted her body trying to attack Li Wei's right leg.

The latter quickly jumped back to dodge the attack before swinging his own sword.

"Thank you! You aren't bad either!"

"Cling!"

"I am very curious! I never saw you before... Which family are you from?" asked Li Yuxin.

"Definitely not the Li family!"

"If you want to stay mysterious, then let's see how you fare against that," excitedly said the girl as she activated her skill: [Sword Storm Dance]

Hearing her, Li Wei internally smiled. He was finally going to be able to witness the real skill. Although he practiced it, he simply followed the instructions and his instinct, he was never able to see the actual original skill in action.

"Cling cling!!"

The swords met each other again and there was visibly no change in Li Yuxin's attack. However, Li Wei quickly noticed that the girl's attacks were getting stronger and stronger!

[Sword Storm Dance] was not about suddenly dealing a lot of damage but instead slowly increasing it! It was basically adding to the ongoing combo and this would continue to cumulate as long as the combo was not broken. And so, as long as the dance went on, the damage could even reach infinity. But that was physically impossible; the skill was about consistency and control.

Making a 2-3 strike combo was easy but beyond that, things were much harder. The user needed to control the strength and direction that he was swinging the sword or else, it would be hard to bring back the sword in time to continue the combo. It was true that using two swords made it easier to increase the combo, but it also made it easier to mess up!

[Howl]

Wanting to disrupt the combo, Li Wei decisively used his skill, but Li Yuxin was already prepared for that. Many players tried the same thing and she always reacted by using her own [Howl] to negate the other.

Li Wei frowned as he saw that his attempt at breaking away was blocked. Although he could always parry his opponent's attack, he was now taking 1 to 2 damage every time he did so. Since he could not break her combo, then there was only one thing he could do: start his own combo!

[Sword Storm Dance]

He immediately activated his own skill and met head to head with Li Yuxin. The latter was surprised to see someone else use her family's skill and asked: "Who are you? How can you know this skill?"

However, Li Wei did not answer. He focused intently on trying to get back an advantage. Over the last minute, his HP already dropped by a quarter simply due to the stacking 1 or 2 damage from parrying.

The two were in a deadlock; both were constantly attacking, increasing their combo but that was useless as the other would also become stronger. It was like an infinite loop. Li Wei tried to think of ways to break this deadlock but did not find any appropriate one. Using skills like [Cleave] or [Impale] would cause him to use a lot of force completely breaking his combo. If he used a skill, there would be no way for him to be able to attack again in a short amount of time. Besides, no matter which skill he used, there was a high risk of missing! Which will then mean that his opponent would still have her attacks empowered but he would not.

Li Yuxin was thinking about the same thing. It was the first time she had such a long combo; she naturally did so against unmoving mannequins but against a real person? Never! Her wrists were starting to ache after all these sword strikes, and she definitely did not want to lose this battle and so, there was only one thing she could do!

"I have to applaud you for this! You are very strong but unfortunately! You have only trained the Myriad Sword Dance up to the first level!" quietly said Li Yuxin.

She said it softly but in his state of high concentration, Li Wei naturally picked this up! He blinked his eyes as he saw the girl activate the second skill of the Myriad Sword Dance.

[Sword Coda]

The wind around Li Yuxin suddenly became alive and moved along her sword which was violently swinging towards Li Wei.

As its name suggested, this skill would bring an end to the combo. In musical terms, the word “Coda” is commonly used to describe the last part or end of a piece; it often depicts the very climax of the song.

While it seemed that Li Yuxin was simply using her skill to increase the damage dealt, that was not the real intent! The movements of her sword and body were synchronized in such a way that wind would gather around her. The Myriad Sword Dance was all about using the wind around the user to deal damage. By dancing, the user would control the flow of the wind and even compress it around him.

The damage dealt by Sword Coda could theoretically reach infinity if enough wind was gathered but Li Yuxin did not reach that level yet. There was a limit to what she could do, the maximum damage she ever dealt to a mannequin with this skill was 120 Damage!

However, as soon as Li Wei heard Li Yuxin murmur, he immediately reacted and used his Gliding Steps to fall back. Thanks to his fast reaction, he was able to dodge the sword but the sword itself only accounted for 30 Damage, the real threat was the wind going along with it. It was compressed into the shape of a dragon charging towards Li Wei.

The latter was nervous, his instinct was clearly screaming "Danger!!!". But there was no way for him to dodge! Although his armor would reduce the damage to about 60, he was not willing to take that much damage! That would leave him in a very critical condition.

With the transparent dragon of wind charging towards him, Li Wei let go of his left sword and raised his palm at the dragon. At the same time, he activated his ring's skill: [Chaos Sphere]

It was the first time he was using that skill in front of another player! Being hit by the [Sword Coda] would mean his immediate defeat. He could only take out his trump card to counter it. He also had [Earth Wall] in reserve but unfortunately, that skill had a cast time and right now, time was incredibly precious.

[Chaos Sphere] was an instantaneous spell, the only problem was that it would not be strong enough to completely stop the [Sword Coda]. Even when reinforced with Li Wei's wisdom, the skill would deal at most 50 Damage but that was already drastically reducing the damage he would take.

The dark sphere quickly appeared on Li Wei's palm and shot towards the dragon of wind.

[Boom]

An explosion occurred right in the middle of the two fighters and both were knocked back a few meters. Li Yuxin was surprised as she saw the black sphere suddenly appear out of nowhere. It was clearly an equipment skill, but it was so different from all she had seen till now and before she could react, she was blasted away by the explosion.

Li Wei was also hit by the explosion's wave in addition to the remains of the wind dragon. He rolled a few meters backward but quickly got himself together as he stared at his opponent.

The explosion not only separated the two fighters but also lifted all the ashes within a 20-meter radius! Now, these ashes were slowly falling back on the ground making it look like it was raining.

The situation was back to the beginning, except that Li Wei was left with only half of his HP while Li Yuxin still had two-thirds left but when it came to MP, Li Yuxin's was almost depleted.

Both parties were vulnerable but at that moment, the ground started violently shaking!

"Mmmm, it looks like ten minutes already went by since the start of the fight!" said Li Wei to himself as he bent down to grab the left sword that he previously released.