The audience fell silent for a moment.
Fartooth's attack just now was too sudden. The Fallen Knight, who was about to launch an "unknightly" sneak attack, was caught off guard and took the hit. Under the massive impact, he flew three meters before stopping. However, thanks to the protection of his black armor, he withstood the attack. But his upper body armor was in bad shape, already covered in spiderweb-like cracks. It definitely couldn't take a second hit.
"Holy crap! The little bird is that fierce?"
"Damn it, playing dirty, are they? Since when do knight competitions involve ranged attacks?"
However, most people weren't discussing this. They were just shouting. This was the kind of intense battle they wanted!! What the hell was the regular season in the past? Fights between famous knights were interesting and exciting, but when rookie knights or weak knights fought, it was just an axe-to-axe slugfest. Only an idiot would watch that. It was less entertaining than a cat-and-dog fight on their doorstep.
"Waiter! Waiter! My card! My card!! I'm sending the little bird ten more super-fliers!! What? Insufficient funds??"
"Brilliant! Brilliant!"
In the arena.
Justyna took a deep breath, steadying the slightly chaotic Originium energy in her body. She was Infected, so her proficiency in manipulating Originium energy was, to an extent, better than an ordinary person's. However, Justyna didn't know any Originium Arts. She loved bows. So, back in her hometown, Justyna had figured out a way to combine her specialty with her Originium energy to maximize its effect: by infusing the bolts with Originium energy.
If it hadn't been infused with Originium energy, the bolt from her self-made crossbow wouldn't have been nearly that powerful. However, this combat method was extremely taxing for Justyna, who was still young, had little combat experience, and had never received any standardized training.
One shot...
Justyna pulled a second sharp, spiral spike from the quiver on her back, nocked it on the crossbow, and continued to gather her Originium energy.
Although Chaos Knight and Fallen Knight had gradually lost their basic human ability for independent thought due to various experiments, their combat instincts remained. Even without thoughts, they knew exactly how to fight, how to coordinate, and how to react in any given situation.
Although the armor on his upper body had blocked it, the powerful impact still caused dark blood to trickle from the Fallen Knight's mouth. He climbed up from the ground, his eyes under the helmet filled with rage, growing even redder. With a roar, the Fallen Knight suddenly charged toward Justyna.
The announcer roared: "Oh!! The Fallen Knight is charging!! He's been completely enraged by Fartooth Knight's 'cunning bastard' attack! After all, who likes a cunning bastard these days? Faced with the furious Fallen Knight, how will Flametail Knight withstand the anger of the duo?"
Justyna, who had been gathering energy, saw this and quickly pulled the trigger, firing a normal bolt. However, due to the performance limitations of her self-made crossbow, its power was far from the previous shot. The Fallen Knight raised his heavy knight shield in front of him. With a *clang*, the Fallen Knight's body paused for a moment, then continued charging at Justyna. As a warrior, Sona couldn't possibly let someone slip past her.
Sona, who was tangling with Chaos Knight and faintly gaining the upper hand, saw this and quickly used her small frame to forcibly block the Fallen Knight's charge, again and again.
"Holy crap!! Little squirrel is awesome! Blocking two!!"
"I'm reminded of an old saying from Yan: 'One madam guards the pass, ten thousand cannot get through'!!"
"????"
Sona's combat talent was quite good. With only one month of systematic training, she was able to contend with two knights who had tacit coordination. Her future path would surely be a long one.
She didn't dare use a breathing technique.
On one hand.
For the current Sona, facing two knights at once—who were not weak and had excellent coordination—with their incessant, tricky attacks, she could only rely on her outstanding dynamic vision and agility to barely dodge the dense barrage. In this situation, Sona couldn't find an opportunity to stabilize her breathing technique by dodging rhythmically, as she had against the Pincerbeast. The main reason was that while the Pincerbeast was strong, its brain was... well, just so-so. And its agility couldn't compare to a human's. It's like the time-honored saying in games: large bosses are often easier to fight than humanoid bosses. Even though they have more power, 'big body, weak spot'. In reality, it's somewhat similar. Like trying to catch a fly buzzing around in the summer. As long as it doesn't stop, a normal person really can't catch it.
Fortunately, Sona had gone through a month of Lucas's hellish training. Plus, Lucas would occasionally inject a tiny bit of prayer power to boost her stamina. If it were the old Sona, let alone fighting two, it'd be a question if she could even beat one. And among all that, Total Concentration Breathing provided the most help, raising Sona's stamina and reaction speed by a large margin.
"Third bolt!!"
With a *swoosh*, the third spike shot out. This one wasn't infused with Originium energy. The Fallen Knight, who was fighting Sona, quickly blocked it with his large shield. In that brief opening, Sona nimbly rolled to dodge an attack from Chaos Knight at her side, and her sword deftly sliced open the already-cracked armor on the Fallen Knight's chest. *Crash!* A piece of his chest armor shattered, exposing the dark skin underneath.
It was clearly their first time meeting and their first time cooperating.
But Sona and Justyna seemed as if they had trained together many times. Justyna always managed to fire a shot at the perfect moment, creating an attack opportunity for Sona.
Justyna knew in her heart.
After being successfully sneak-attacked once, and given the functional limitations of her self-made crossbow, she knew her subsequent normal bolts couldn't truly threaten knights of this level. So, by tacit agreement, their focus shifted. Originally, Sona was the tank in front, blocking two, while Justyna was the DPS, dealing damage from the back. Now, Justyna was responsible for harassing with normal bolts from the side, creating reasonable attack opportunities for Sona. Justyna calculated that her current energy reserves could only fire two more special, Originium-infused attacks. She didn't fire them randomly, but waited for the right opportunity.
"Ah!! Flametail Knight is still fighting!!! She's still dealing damage! She's still dealing damage!!"
The announcer roared with excitement.
This battle had gone on for too long, even longer than the previous matches combined. From the start until now, a full thirty minutes had passed. Fighting for thirty minutes... and fighting nonstop for thirty minutes... this was extremely rare, even in high-level matches during the Knight Major preliminaries.
After all, a long fight time meant, on one hand, that both sides were evenly matched, and on the other, it proved that both sides had ridiculous stamina.
In the audience.
"Holy crap, this is awesome!! I didn't expect a regular season spring tournament to be this hype! When I saw they were holding the championship this year, and that many of the big knights wouldn't be participating, with only a bunch of small fries, I wasn't interested in today's regular season at all. I didn't expect! They'd pull this on the very first day! Awesome!"
"Waiter! Waiter! Another case of beer!"
The situation in the arena was not as splendid as the announcer and the audience saw.
Sona, after all, had just fought an intense battle not long ago. Her stamina and Originium energy hadn't fully recovered. And after half an hour of continuous, high-intensity combat, Sona's stamina was already depleted. The only reason she was still standing was because she was forcing herself to.
And the coordination of these two Sarkaz twin knights was perfect. Even with Justyna creating opportunities for Sona from the side, they still couldn't take one of them down first.
"Left! Duck and slash!"
In Sona's mind, Lucas was always there like a coach, giving pointers. For the past half hour, Lucas had been giving her on-site pointers, and this practical guidance had indeed taught Sona a lot.
"Mhm!!"
"Can you still hold on?"
Lucas asked.
"I can, I can hold on, Mr. Reeve!"
In truth, Sona's stamina was already failing, but she stubbornly clenched her jaw and held on.
Lucas knew very well how much stamina Sona was burning.
However, he didn't say anything.
Handling a situation where your stamina is gone and the tide is turning against you also requires experience.
To truly become strong, it's not just about having great power or unparalleled swordsmanship. In this day and age, a fight isn't two strongmen seeing who's stronger, nor is it two snipers dueling mid. It's the sum of a whole series of stats: stamina, skill, battle planning, endurance, combat experience, and more.
The strong don't always beat the weak.
The skilled swordsman won't necessarily beat the sloppy one.
If a person stays at home practicing swordsmanship all day, even if they master a technique, it's a question whether they can beat an ordinary mercenary who has been through life-and-death situations for years. Because the mercenary won't play by the rules. Winning is all that matters.
These two Sarkaz knights seemed to have been specially modified by experiments. Not only was their strength greatly enhanced, but their stamina was also ridiculous. After a full half-hour, they didn't seem tired at all and were still relentlessly attacking Sona.
"What do I do...."
Sona's current stamina made it difficult to even maintain Total Concentration Breathing, let alone muster a breathing technique.
Do I have to trouble Mr. Reeve again?
No!!
Mr. Reeve has already helped me so much. I can't keep troubling Mr. Reeve like this.
Hold on! Hold on!
Calm down. Think hard. Recall Mr. Reeve's words.
Sona took a deep breath. This time, she simply gave up on Total Concentration Breathing and used her own physical strength to keep dodging. The moment Total Concentration Breathing was released, Sona's speed seemed to slow. A blade she could have perfectly dodged before grazed her body, leaving a deep gash in her armor.
"Sona!!"
Justyna gritted her teeth from a distance. She was never good at melee combat to begin with, and after being infected with Oripathy, the strength in her arms became even weaker than an ordinary person's. This was fatal for a knight, as she couldn't even swing a sword. Thus, the crossbow became Justyna's only choice.
Justyna looked at the emptying quiver of spikes on her back and clenched her jaw.
"Damn it!"
As for the front line.
Sona seemed to have entered a very strange state. She relaxed her mind, relying on her body's instincts to dodge the two knights' attacks. One blow after another left numerous wounds on Sona's body. While not fatal, the flowing blood still dyed Sona into a bloody figure.
Think...
Sona took a deep breath.
Her memory went back to when Lucas first started teaching her the breathing technique.
"The breathing technique doesn't just rely on your mouth, your nose, or your lungs. It relies on your whole body! Use your entire body to 'breathe'."
Lucas's earlier voice echoed in Sona's mind.
Whole body...
Breathe...
At first, Sona didn't quite understand what this meant. Doesn't breathing rely on the nose or mouth? How can the body breathe?
But...
Suddenly.
Sona stumbled and failed to completely dodge the Fallen Knight's heavy sword. The heavy blade struck Sona's chest armor. Fortunately, Sona's armor was brand new. If it had been her old, cheap set, it would have shattered. But even so, Sona was sent flying by the heavy sword. The powerful force ravaged her internal organs, and she spat out large mouthfuls of blood.
"Sona!!"
Justyna cried out in alarm. Without hesitation, as the two knights were about to press their advantage, she released the attack she had been saving. The glowing spike, imbued with Originium energy, tore through the air and shot toward the Fallen Knight. However, the Fallen Knight, having been hit once, wasn't about to be hit a second time. He raised his heavy shield in front of him. But the force of this bolt was too great. Even with the heavy shield blocking, it still forced the Fallen Knight to retreat step by step.
After firing the bolt, Justyna clenched her jaw, biting her lip so hard it bled, and forcibly gathered the last of her energy.
Charge...
Fire...
Another glowing bolt shot out, flying toward the Chaos Knight beside him.
Firing her two strongest shots in one go completely drained Justyna's strength. She knew her own limits. All she could do now was buy Sona one last sliver of time.
Nearby.
Sona spat out another large mouthful of blood. She endured the pain and forced herself to stand up. A bright light flashed in her light brown eyes.
"I think I get it..."
Use my body, use my soul, to breathe!!
Sona spat out the blood in her mouth, then, enduring the pain in her lungs, took a massive deep breath.
Lucas was stunned for a moment, then smiled in relief.
The air around Sona formed a cyclone, continuously pouring into her lungs. The blood in Sona's body flowed faster, and her muscles became more and more active.
This is... the real Total Concentration Breathing!!
Hooo....
A large cloud of mist exhaled. Within the mist, golden lightning flashed.
"Thunder Breathing! Thunderclap and Flash!!"
In an instant.
Sona became lightning itself. A series of deafening booms exploded. By the time Justyna reacted, Sona was already standing behind the two Sarkaz knights. The next second.
*Psssh!!*
The sound of shattering echoed.
The armor on the two Sarkaz knights shattered, and large amounts of blood sprayed from within.