Wait a minute
He was planning on using close-range illusions to hide his real attacks, but what if he
Luke kept dodging Ren's attacks, Until Luke suddenly ducked, but created an illusion of himself still standing up. A second later, a whip came from the side to strike Luke only for it to hit the illusion, passing straight through it.
"What the fuck—" Ren said.
Now that the whip attack had missed, Luke immediately took his opportunity and dashed toward him. Ren panicked and immediately tried to attack Luke again, but—wish, boom, wish—his attacks kept missing because now Luke had started using his illusions from close range to help him dodge.
After all, Shadow Radar told Ren his location—not what the hell he was doing. So when the illusion showed him standing, he might actually be jumping in the air… or crouching low.
"Dammit, dammit…" Ren muttered while still throwing attacks at Luke. I've got to focus on him and him alone.
He tried to see Luke's shadow, and it was really difficult. He stopped trying to feel the exact location and instead tried to feel at least a blob of shadow. He obviously knew that wasn't accurate, but it was something.
But he had to hurry.
Before he knew it, Luke was in front of him.
"Fuck," Ren muttered.
He saw Luke disappear but he knew he was still there. Luke had just used his illusions to make himself "disappear."
Ren focused even harder on his Shadow Radar, trying to feel the shape of Luke's shadow—and he succeeded… somewhat.
The blurry mass of shadow started forming a shape.
A narrow shape.
Really narrow.
What the hell it was too vague to tell the details. the Narrow shape is he supposed to guess from The shape he can't tell what it is, but for a second Something came into his mind he had a guess at what this could be.
But He didn't have time to question The thought further. He had to act.
He immediately thrust his palm forward, reinforcing it with his Shadow Skeleton, and struck upward into the open space in front of him.
Clank.
Something hit his palm.
Luke appeared right in front of him—he had been mid-strike, bringing his sword down in a vertical slash, but Ren's palm had stopped the blade.
Without a word, Luke tried to lift his sword again to continue the attack.
But Ren acted faster.
He unleashed a Shade Jab point-blank at the sword from his Shadow Skeleton arm.
Crack—
Luke's sword shattered in half from the impact of Ren's Shade Jab.
It completely shocked Luke, and before he could react any further, Ren punched him with his other hand enhanced with Shadow Skeleton.
The punch landed on his stomach. Luke almost puked from the impact, but he held it in and let himself be flown back from the force to give himself some distance.
He rolled on the ground a little bit until he got back on his feet and stood up, staring at Ren—who was far, but not too far. Not far enough to make an effective whip attack.
Two steps.
From the two of them each, and they could clash again.
But that was problematic.
Because he glanced at his broken sword.
Luke is a swordsman—and obviously he does have experience in martial arts—but he believes that he doesn't have enough experience to fight someone who focuses on martial arts like Ren.
But he really doesn't have any choice.
So Luke dropped his broken katana and got into a fighting stance.
Luke and Ren glared at each other, not moving for a second.
Then they shifted—ready to move—
But smack.
Something hit Luke in the back of the head.
Even though he got hit, the strike wasn't powerful enough to affect him much with his enhanced physique.
When he looked back to see what hit him, he saw a blonde girl holding a metal pipe.
Luke's eyes widened.
He completely forgot that there was another person supposed to be here.
But then he shivered because he heard footsteps coming from behind him.
"Fuck—"
He tried to reposition himself—
But bang.
A reinforced fist hit him on the cheek.
He almost flew away, but he didn't—because Ren grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back, then punched him again with his right fist enhanced with Shadow Skeleton.
Then punched him with his left fist, also enhanced with Shadow Skeleton.
He kept switching Shadow Skeleton between his limbs—sometimes punching him, sometimes kicking him.
Ren was completely wailing on him.
He refused to give Luke the opportunity to get his senses back.
Luke was completely in shock—after all, powerful and painful attacks were constantly landing on him—but he gritted his teeth, trying to get his senses back.
But the pain didn't let him.
Still… slowly and surely, he was getting his head back together.
And Ren noticed it—deciding to finish this right now.
Ren immediately performed a roundhouse kick that sent Luke flying to the side, shattering the wall. But Luke didn't break through it.
Luke tried to get his bearings back, thinking this was his chance to get out of this chain of attacks—but he saw Ren in front of him, winding his right arm for a powerful palm strike.
Luke eyes were wide open.
He couldn't dodge it. He couldn't move.
Out of desperation, he even tried to use his illusion—but that didn't work.
The palm attack landed on his stomach. The wall shattered behind him, and while the palm strike reached its maximum reach, Ren immediately launched a Shade Jab from the same arm, hitting Luke's stomach point blank.
That made Luke puke—but before anything could even leave his mouth, he got teleported away.
Ren stood there, still in his attack position.
Then he sighed—and fell on his butt.
"Holy shit, that was close," Ren muttered.
This was the longest battle he had so far—and definitely one of the toughest.
He did fight Mark back in the nightclub, but he wasn't alone. Kai was there with him.
So this was technically his first one-on-one battle that he completed alone.
Well… not alone.
He looked back at Sophia.
Sophia was walking toward him, carrying the puppet.
"What you did there was great. Reckless—but great nonetheless," Ren said.
Sophia chuckled. "Yeah, I know. But once I saw the opportunity, I had to take it. By the way, what were you doing there ren asked
"Well, I heard all the explosions and I knew staying in one place would be dangerous, so I decided to move from the edges. Luckily, I ended up close enough—and in the right position—to see your fight and do my thing. And by the way, the fight was awesome. Especially when you broke his sword. And your finishing move—they were incredible."
Ren got up from the ground while Sophia was talking, scratching his head in slight embarrassment.
"I know that move was something I had for a while, but it was kinda unexpected."
Even though he used Shade Jab on the sword, he didn't expect it to break. He expected to maybe knock it out of Luke's hand or something—but apparently Shadow Skeleton enhanced the power of his Shade Jab.
Not only that, a palm strike done with Shade Jab at the end seemed to enhance the power even further.
"I think I'm gonna call it Shade Strike."
Before they could talk any further, a ring came from their phones.
When they checked it, it said:
Congratulations on winning Extraction. You will be teleported out immediately.
And with that, they both disappeared.