“To think he can freely merge two skill systems, stacking both their effects and damage…”
Yan furrowed his brow in exasperation, a peculiar expression settling upon his face.
“If that’s the case, couldn’t you merge all your blade and spear skills into a single move?”
“You’d be walking the path of ‘a single sword strike’—ah, no, ‘a single blade shattering ten thousand techniques’?”
If such a feat were truly possible, Yan couldn’t conceive of even the slightest method to counter Guan Ying.
After all, if a single strike possessed both crowd control and displacement, all while inflicting obscenely high damage, what would be the point of even fighting?
“I considered doing just that myself…”
Guan Ying let out a helpless laugh.
“But then I discovered that when skills merge, mana consumption and cast time also stack. Since then, I haven’t dared to attempt merging more than four skills at once.”
“I see.”
Yan nodded in response, letting out a soft sigh of relief.
‘Well, at least the inherent ability of Guan Ying’s Companion-grade weapon wasn’t as monstrous as Yan had imagined.’
‘It still had its drawbacks, after all.’
Even so, Yan still regarded Guan Ying as an incredibly formidable opponent; simply standing there, wielding his guandao, Guan Ying exerted immense pressure on him.
After all, no one could predict what kind of combined [Special Skill] his next move would be—yes, for now, they would simply call these composite skills “Special Skills.”
And furthermore…
Yan still didn’t know what this guy’s innate Companion skill was.
The unknown bred fear; facing an opponent about whom one knew nothing was certainly less advantageous than facing one whose every move was understood.
Just the inherent skill of a Companion-grade weapon was enough to overwhelm Yan with pressure, let alone an elusive, hidden Companion-grade skill.
‘He’s even more troublesome than I imagined,’ Yan mused. ‘It truly is Xiao, isn’t it? Not only is she a powerful expert herself, but her friends are equally formidable…’
‘If only I had known, I wouldn’t have gotten involved with her. I just gave her some food, and she insisted on challenging me to a match. Now, if I lose this match, I’ll have friends like Guan Ying stepping up to fight next…’
Yan’s thoughts left him between laughter and tears.
“Oh, right, I should tell you in advance: after watching your previous few arena defense matches, I’ve pretty much figured out your innate skill.”
Guan Ying suddenly remembered something, smiling as he spoke to Yan.
“Oh?”
Hearing this, Yan raised an eyebrow with interest.
“Is that so?”
“I’m not entirely clear on the specifics, but one aspect is absolutely certain.”
Guan Ying subtly flexed the fingers of his right hand, which gripped his guandao, his sharp eyes fixed intently on Yan.
“You can freely cancel your own skills, can’t you?”
Yan paused for a moment, then nodded with a smile.
“That’s right.”
After all, ever since he had stepped onto the arena, he had fought several matches under the public gaze, so it was only natural for a part of his Companion-grade skill’s effect to be discovered.
This particular effect was, after all, quite obvious; Yan’s several “feints” had always been turning points for victory. Each time he interrupted his own skill, it invariably caught his opponent off guard, so it wasn’t surprising that the spectating players had noticed.
At least, that was Yan’s assessment.
“Hahaha, did I actually guess it right?”
Guan Ying, however, revealed a look of genuine surprise.
“Huh? You bluffed me?”
Yan stared at Guan Ying in disbelief.
“No, no, no, haha… I, I didn’t. I just made a guess that was close enough; I noticed that the cast times for some of your skills in your previous attacks seemed a bit off, so I just took a shot in the dark…”
Guan Ying clutched his stomach, laughing so hard he doubled over.
“Through a screen, who can clearly see when your skills are cast and when they end? So I wasn’t entirely sure, but now that I’ve heard you admit it yourself, I can finally relax, hahaha.”
“Fine… as long as you’re happy.”
Yan, sighing in resignation, pressed a hand to his forehead and said with a wry smile that he admitted defeat.
“You truly have an excellent mentality.”
Guan Ying ceased his laughter, his gaze, tinged with appreciation, falling upon Yan’s face, which showed not a hint of anger.
“If it were anyone else, they might have lost their temper and charged up here without a second thought, regardless of the consequences.”
‘So that was his plan all along,’ Yan realized. ‘No wonder generals always exchange insults before two armies clash.’
“You flatter me…”
Yan offered a bitter smile, clasping his hands together in a gesture of helplessness.
It wasn’t that he *wanted* to have a good mindset; life simply forced him to.
The Flame Dragon Guild in the old server, his mischievous friends in real life, and his spear practice had long since polished his temperament to a smooth, resilient state. As long as something didn’t cross his bottom line, he could generally just laugh it off.
‘Perhaps this is just the way of adult life, alas…’ (A sigh from Yan, who had just celebrated his eighteenth birthday and officially become an adult.)
“As an apology for guessing your innate skill… and for ambushing and bluffing you earlier, how about I reveal some information about my own innate skill?”
Guan Ying shrugged with a smile, speaking thus.
‘Oh? Such good fortune? Now you’ve got my attention!’
Yan immediately reined in his wandering thoughts, his eyes, filled with anticipation, turning to Guan Ying.
“That would be…”
Guan Ying drew out his words.
The anticipation in Yan’s eyes intensified.
“My innate skill isn’t suitable for one-on-one combat, so I won’t be using it in this arena match. That’s all.”
Guan Ying rapidly finished his statement, then stood silently in place, holding his greatblade, watching the stunned Yan.
“Huh?”
‘That’s it?’
Yan looked at Guan Ying with a bewildered expression, only to find the other man unmoving, showing no intention of saying another word.
Alas…
Yan let out a helpless sigh.
‘Well, never mind. We are opponents, after all, and he’s already been more than generous by saying this much. Even if his claim of “not using his innate skill” was a ploy to make me lower my guard, there’s nothing Yan could do about it…’
‘For now, I’ll just assume he’s telling the truth.’ (After all, even if he *was* lying, without knowing his innate skill, there was no way to guard against it.)
Considering only his inherent ability to “merge multiple skills,” the drawbacks were still quite apparent.
Namely, the more skills merged into a [Special Skill], the slower its casting speed and the higher its mana cost.
Slow casting speed and high mana consumption meant that Guan Ying couldn’t integrate [Special Skills] into combos.
In other words, Guan Ying either had to choose to use ordinary combos, like Yan, to control an opponent from the moment they were CC’d until death, or he had to opt for striking with [Special Skills] one blow at a time.
If Yan were in his shoes, he would most likely choose the latter.
For if Guan Ying chose the former, it would be tantamount to him voluntarily forfeiting all his advantages, leaving him with virtually no chance of victory against Yan, who could freely cancel his own skills.
However, if he chose the latter, there was little else to say: if Yan were hit by another [Heaven-Splitting Blade] like the one just now, one more such strike would send him sprawling.
Half his health gone in one hit, two hits to finish him off—what else needed to be said?
Still, Yan estimated that the cooldown for these [Special Skills] likely accumulated with each merged skill; otherwise, Guan Ying would have already made his move…
‘Damn it! So Guan Ying wasn’t kindly revealing his hand to me just now, but rather stalling for time while waiting for his cooldowns!’
Suddenly realizing this, Yan jolted awake, tightening his grip on his spear.
‘Attack! And attack quickly! Don’t give him a chance to cast or cool down his [Special Skills]!’
‘And I mustn’t fall into his rhythm!’
Yan, making a decisive choice, swiftly launched his offensive.
He didn’t recklessly use a movement skill to close the distance between them. Instead, spear in hand, he charged towards Guan Ying, relying on his sheer movement speed.
Guan Ying stood firm, gripping his greatblade with both hands, adopting a ready stance, and simply watched Yan rapidly approach.
“Middle Guard Spear!”
Leveraging the momentum of his sprint, Yan turned sideways and thrust his spear forward. In a blink, the sharp spearhead lunged towards Guan Ying’s chest.
“Heaven-Splitting Blade!”
Guan Ying grinned, seemingly imbued with ample confidence by the [Heaven-Splitting Blade] Special Skill, which appeared to be off cooldown. He violently swung the move, bringing it down towards Yan’s face.
Alarms blared in Yan’s mind, and he hastily interrupted his [Middle Guard Spear].
“Piercing Flash!”
In the very next instant, the [Heaven-Splitting Blade] struck empty air. Yan’s body, which had been standing there, dissolved into an afterimage, instantly flashing behind Guan Ying, evading the attack by mere inches.
“Backflip!”
Guan Ying quickly turned and backflipped, creating distance from Yan and denying him any chance to combo. The missed [Heaven-Splitting Blade] seemed to irritate him, and he bit his lower lip.
“Being able to freely interrupt your own skills, coupled with your incredibly fast reactions, truly makes you a difficult opponent. No wonder Xiao was caught in your combo by accident.”
Indeed, in terms of raw power, Xiao was even stronger than Guan Ying. Had she not initially been unaware of the effects of Yan’s innate skill, how could she have accidentally been caught in his combo and hastily forced out of the fight?
“Hahaha! But don’t celebrate too soon…”
Guan Ying suddenly burst into laughter, brandishing his greatblade with fierce power. A surge of domineering aura erupted uncontrollably from within him, and Yan felt a wave of oppressive presence wash over him.
“For moves like that [Heaven-Splitting Blade] just now…”
“I still have seventeen more blades.”
The Eighteen Blades of Spring and Autumn.