Life Game In Other World
Chapter 692: Is This the Talent a Martial Master Should Have? (Extra-long - , Seeking Monthly Passes)

Chapter 692: Chapter 692: Is This the Talent a Martial Master Should Have? (Extra-long Chapter, Seeking Monthly Passes)

Deres’s footsteps lightly tapped as he vaulted over the table, thrusting his sword toward He Ao’s brow.

This move, just like the probing one earlier, was swift and clean, a direct stab at He Ao’s life.

However, this time, he did not sit upright as he had before, leaving himself an out.

This was no longer about probing He Ao.

At the same time, once He Ao had revealed his spear, Deres’s action of rising was also about crossing the barrier between the two, attacking in defense, and directly closing the distance with He Ao.

Short weapons are naturally at a disadvantage against long weapons in an open area. Once the distance is widened, He Ao could easily strike the soft sword-wielding Deres, who in turn couldn’t reach him; and thus, the fight would start with He Ao gaining the upper hand with his weapon.

In contrast, if Deres forcibly closed the distance, confining the fight to close-quarters, the long spear’s range would be limited. Plus, with the soft sword’s unpredictable nature, He Ao would be at a disadvantage regarding weapons.

Coupled with the original disparity in strength between him and Deres, this disadvantage would be further magnified.

Both were well aware of this.

So when Deres drew his sword and thrust, ready to drag He Ao into a close combat tussle, He Ao also kicked off the ground and leapt back, swinging his hands holding the spear across towards Deres’s neck.

He too opted for offense as his defense.

But his spear was longer than Deres’s soft sword; given the base distance between the two, his blade was more likely to reach its target.

Of course, his intent with this strike was not to slit Deres’s throat but to push back Deres’s movements, continuing to maintain their distance.

However, as he watched He Ao’s spearhead swipe toward him, Deres did not dodge; he looked at He Ao, smiled slightly, and without any fear for He Ao’s attack, he reached out his other hand to grab it.

Crack—

Accompanied by the sound of a blade biting flesh, Deres actually caught the spear, right at the junction between the blade and the shaft; the sharp lower edge of the spearhead sliced open his flesh, and red blood stained the cold blade.

But at that moment, He Ao no longer had the energy to look at the blood on the spear.

Although Deres was stronger than He Ao, He Ao’s two-handed spear was not so easily blocked by one of Deres’s hands.

The sweeping shaft still impacted Deres but did not offer a chance to strike at his vitals.

Meanwhile, though his figure was jolted by the impact, Deres maintained his offensive, the soft sword stabbing toward He Ao’s brow, even briefly controlling He Ao’s weapon.

In such a short distance, this very first move seemed poised to become a deathblow to He Ao.

Stronger than He Ao in both strength and overall ability, Deres harbored no contempt for He Ao, instead willingly taking an injury in exchange for a chance to strike the killing blow.

Fortunately, He Ao’s reliance was not solely on the spear to fend off Deres. As he flicked the spear blade, he also shifted his body to the side.

As he saw that sword thrusting toward him, he continued to dodge while supporting the shaft and grabbing the bottom of the long spear, whipping it upward in a fierce twist, shortening the spear as the sharp blade swept across the palm of Deres’s hand that was gripping the blade.

All this happened nearly simultaneously; while He Ao retracted the spear shaft and spun to dodge, the short sword’s tip had already reached in front of him, almost grazing his cheek as it flew by.

Had he hesitated even for a split second just now, his brain would have been impaled on that sword’s tip.

But as the blade skimmed past He Ao’s face, Deres’s movements didn’t stop, and he forcefully withdrew his sword, slashing sideways toward He Ao’s nose.

There was hardly any pause between these two moves—the transition of force was as smooth as flowing water.

Clearly, Deres had already considered what to do should the first strike fail.

If this sword succeeded, He Ao’s head would be split in half.

Clang—

But the envisioned scene of blood and brains splattering did not occur. The shortened spear that He Ao had just lifted was perfectly positioned in front of the soft sword’s blade.

At the same time, He Ao took advantage of the momentum to retreat, tilting his head.

The soft sword’s tip, almost simultaneously bent around, circling He Ao’s neck, then recoiled back into position.

He Ao had just moved his head; if he had been a split second later, the sword tip would have pierced through him by now.

Almost at the same time that He Ao and Deres started fighting, a few C-level warriors who seemed to have merged with Polluted Monsters also emerged from the stairwell.

However, as soon as they came out, they saw the dizzying fight between He Ao and Deres.

Although He Ao and Deres had already exchanged several blows, it happened in the blink of an eye.

They only saw Deres draw and swing his sword, while He Ao waved and pulled his gun.

Between this back and forth, it appeared that He Ao had blocked Deres’s attacks, that much was certain, and their leader seemed to have been injured as well.

They had never imagined someone could block Deres’s attacks, especially after catching a glimpse of the corpse of a C-level on the ground, they were momentarily stunned and dared not step forward.

"What a fine weapon!"

At this moment, Deres just glanced at the cane gun in He Ao’s hand and praised it.

If it weren’t for the gun’s ability to contract naturally, and He Ao’s reinforced Divine Sense keeping it from being snapped by Deres, the battle would have already been over the moment Deres grabbed the gun’s barrel.

Despite that, in just two movements, Deres had executed three fatal moves against He Ao.

And He Ao’s current situation was actually not as good as the C-level warriors observed from the sidelines.

Even though he had blocked Deres’s lethal moves and even inflicted a small injury on Deres, not to mention that the injury was self-inflicted by Deres, the distance between the two was now completely closed.

Once Deres got in close and latched on, he would never let go.

This meant that He Ao’s strategy of maintaining distance to utilize his spear’s advantage had utterly failed.

The already huge gap between them was further widened.

"Nice sword!"

But He Ao showed no fear at this moment, returned the compliment, and immediately withdrew, swinging his short gun to deflect Deres’s flexible sword.

Instead of retreating, he advanced, thrusting his spear toward Deres’s chest.

Deres also leaped up at the same time, dodging the spear tip aimed at him, and lifted his flexible sword, which had been deflected by He Ao, swooping down from above like a soaring eagle, aiming a neck-cutting strike.

Realizing his attack had missed, He Ao did not hesitate; he spun around, his short gun swiping over his head, blocking the incoming flexible sword, and while Deres was landing, he squatted down, his legs forming a bow, and thrust his spear once more at his neck.

This spear thrust was exceedingly fast but was still parried by Deres’s quickly swung flexible sword, which knocked the force askew.

He Ao thus spun back, trying to widen the distance again, while Deres stepped forward, continuing his relentless pursuit.

In that instant, He Ao spun his body, executed a hawk flip, his spear thrusting out like a dragon, aiming directly at Deres’s approaching face.

Deres didn’t expect He Ao to counterattack during a retreat, but he was unfazed, simply deflecting with his flexible sword, trapping He Ao’s short spear with it, and with a forceful tug, directed He Ao’s stabbing spear elsewhere.

At the same time, the flexible sword aimed for the Butterfly Knife that was embedded in the spear, attempting to ’scrape’ it off directly.

He Ao immediately vibrated the spearshaft, twisted the curved handle he held, extending the short gun into a long spear, and thrust it again toward Deres’s face.

Deres tilted his head slightly, evading this thrust, but his flexible sword slid along the spearshaft, detaching itself naturally.

Yet as Deres lost his grip, he smiled faintly, and with a reversed hand, he raised the flexible sword, driving force to the tip, stabbing at He Ao’s abdomen.

He Ao immediately used his spear to block the thrust.

Concurrently, the sudden counter caused He Ao’s center of gravity to become unstable, the force reverberating through his body, and he quickly rolled backward to dissipate it.

But Deres’s movement didn’t stop; he continued forward with a thrust. Although He Ao rolled away, the sharp sword tip still sliced through his abdomen, with blood glowing with a purple-red light soaking through his white shirt.

Seeing the glint on the blood, Deres’s eyes narrowed slightly, but his hand movements did not cease and continued to thrust forward.

This thrust was again blocked by He Ao, but the gap that had briefly widened between them was once more closed.

Meanwhile, as He Ao was still tumbling through the air and hadn’t landed yet, he swiftly transformed his long spear into a short one, then reached for the butterfly knife on the tip of the spear and, astonishingly, he directly detached the knife that was serving as the spear’s blade, then flipped to land on his feet.

Deres’s eyes gleamed slightly as he smiled, "Good decision."

In that moment, He Ao had already realized that Deres would never allow him the chance to create distance, and using a soft sword against a short spear, a type of sturdy stick-like weapon, inherently had its advantages.

Therefore, He Ao decisively broke down the short spear into two weapons—a butterfly knife and a cane, of different lengths, one in each hand. He shifted from single to dual weapons, introducing more variability to suppress the unpredictably agile soft sword.

In fact, he was now completely overpowered in terms of weaponry. If he had continued to cling to the extendable spear form, yearning for the long spear’s advantages and trying to create distance, he would have surely perished within five moves.

This was the reason Deres praised He Ao for his good decision. In such fleeting combat, very few people could recognize this problem in time. And even if they could, they might still yearn for the long spear’s advantages and attempt to create distance.

Even if that yearning lasted only a second, it could mean the difference between life and death.

While Deres praised him, his own actions did not stop for a moment.

Although his strength was greater than He Ao’s and he indeed overwhelmed him, in this brief exchange, he hadn’t managed to gain any significant advantage.

He Ao’s speed, reflexes, as well as his skill in diffusing force and his terrifying combat intuition, all narrowed the gap between them a bit.

They differed, but the gap was not that vast.

He Ao’s moves were not as oppressively overwhelming as Deres’s, but each one was executed with a determined, from-death-to-life sharpness.

This proved that the ’old brother’ in front of him had also crawled out of life and death situations countless times.

Of course, facing Deres’s praise, He Ao was far from complacent.

He was well aware that he was the one at a disadvantage now.

His Super Memory had been trying to build a combat model for Deres from the start of the fight, predicting his moves.

But Deres’s movements had almost no obvious pattern to them, and with each step pressing in, He Ao estimated that by the time the combat model was established, the fight would already be over.

He only had ten seconds of burst time, and even though that was only being used intermittently to gather strength during the combat, half of that time had already elapsed.

He clenched the cane and butterfly knife in his hands.

Life and death would be decided in these remaining five seconds.

The next second, Deres swung his sword at He Ao once more, who lifted the butterfly knife to block the blade; as Deres withdrew to strike from the bottom, He Ao immediately twisted his wrist, pointing the knife downward to block the hit.

A faint tingling sensation reverberated up his wrist from the slight vibration.

Holding the weapon in one hand, he no longer had the strength that came with holding the spear with both hands. Against Deres’s powerful attacks, he could only attempt to adjust his stance and employ the skill and power gathering techniques of his Fist Technique in reverse, to diffuse the onslaught.

Of course, this was not his first time utilizing this skill, but something he had been attempting since the beginning of the fight, even since Deres’s initial probing assault, to neutralize the force of his opponent’s attack.

By now, he had gained a preliminary understanding of these skills and began integrating them with his own Fist Technique, turning these skills into moves that further complemented his fighting style.

While these force-dissipating techniques couldn’t directly enhance his strength, they enabled him to distribute the enemy’s force throughout his body, preventing any single area from being suddenly breached.

Though he took the same amount of damage, this method of dissipating force clearly allowed him to fight longer and withstand stronger blows, in turn indirectly boosting his stamina and defensive capability.

At the beginning, with Deres’s force exceeding his by a third, it was utterly impossible for him to defend with just one hand, nor was single-handed defense viable, which was why he didn’t initially opt for dual weapons.

After He Ao managed to defend against Deres’s consecutive double strikes with one hand, Deres finally paused for a moment, looking up at He Ao.

He realized that He Ao was actually growing amidst the battle, achieving a breakthrough in some sense.

What kind of absurd Talent was this? Could the Martial Master’s Talent Sequences be this formidable?

Had all the Martial Masters he saw before been impostors?

At that moment, He Ao had actually been pushed back near the stairwell, precisely among several C-level Mercenaries who were arriving.

These individuals finally snapped out of their daze and, mustering their courage, morphed into different Polluted Monsters and lunged at He Ao.

He Ao lifted another cane in his hand and stabbed it through the throat of the monster in front.

Then, with a forceful throw, he blocked the few monsters that were rushing towards him from behind.

Watching He Ao, who was being oppressed by Deres, kill one of their own with a backhand strike, the monsters hesitated for a moment, realizing they might have been overconfident, and quickly shrank back.

In fact, if they had really surged forward along with Deres’ oppression, they definitely could have inflicted damage on He Ao.

But as Deres said, these C-level mutated by Polluted Monsters were all inferior products; they might surge forward with the wind but would immediately cower against it.

Taking advantage of the moment Deres was distracted, He Ao killed the fastest one, and they did not dare to continue advancing.

However, He Ao did not focus his attention on these individuals, because Deres had already snapped out of his daze at this moment.

Deres had actually noticed everything that had just happened, but he did not count these C-level monsters as part of his combat strength. As long as they did not drag him down, they were essentially aiding him.

He glanced at He Ao and lifted his sword to continue thrusting and sweeping forward.

He Ao turned the wrist with the sword tip upwards, blocking the hilt of Deres’s flexible sword, and at the same time, his body suddenly leaned toward the side of the flexible sword, avoiding the spinning stab that resulted from the collision’s bend.

At the same time, his Butterfly Knife slashed diagonally forward, slicing open the wrist of Deres’s sword-holding hand.

This was the advantage of a short blade like the Butterfly Knife: flexible, variable, and fast.

Deres jerked his hand back sharply, looking at the red blood seeping from his wrist.

This strike did not cause him much damage, but it meant that He Ao was no longer oppressed by him and had the ability to fight back.

Without stopping, He Ao took advantage of Deres’s slight surprise and thrust his Butterfly Knife forward fiercely.

Deres immediately raised his sword to block.

He Ao immediately retracted the knife and thrust again, the blade level, cutting towards Deres’s neck, blocked once more by Deres.

In the blink of an eye, the two exchanged several moves, leaving the inferior C-level onlookers dazzled.

In fact, even at this moment, He Ao had not shown the strength to defeat Deres, only just managing to fight back.

And as He Ao once again thrust his knife toward Deres’s face, a red glow suddenly lit up in the depths of Deres’s mournful eyes.

A horrifying oppressiveness exploded in He Ao’s mind in an instant, the chilling pressure involuntarily curling his body into a crouch.

At that moment, He Ao seemed to be facing not the battle-hardened old Mercenary, but a knight of a Divine Being clad in radiance and blood.

And he was the crouching ’heretic’ beneath the sword.

A terrifying and raucous cacophony of chaos blasted in He Ao’s ears, the oppression from the Soul weighing on his shoulders as if a pair of monstrous hands pressed down on his body, forcing him to kneel.

"Punishing Knight?"

He Ao struggled to rise, refusing to kneel under the oppressive force.

This Talent Sequence seemed not only to have the combat power of a warrior, but also, like a shaman, to draw upon mysterious forces.

The canny posture He Ao had just managed to obtain was now easily crushed like fragile thin ice.

Only at this moment did Deres exert his true strength.

He watched He Ao calmly, not immediately launching another attack but sighing lightly, "Old buddy, your Talent is too good. Given more time, you might surpass me."

A lion uses all its strength even when hunting a rabbit.

That was his respect for He Ao’s Talent.

He would not give He Ao any more time, not even the time to breakthrough during the battle.