“Come on, let’s have a good match. Let me see how much you’ve improved over the past few years. Don’t slack off just because you’re under the Girl.”
Tartaglia directly dragged Neo all the way to Yaoguang Shoal, then rubbed his fists and said to Neo expectantly.
There were few people around here, so the two could fight without holding back.
“Whew…”
“Then let me see what you’re capable of now that you’ve become a Harbinger.”
Neo lightly exhaled a breath of cold air.
The power of his Delusion was quickly activated, and ice crystals spread outward from the ground.
“Compared to the last time we fought, you’ve gotten quite a bit stronger in terms of elemental power…”
“Since you’re using your Delusion, I won’t hold back either.”
Tartaglia raised his eyebrows and said in surprise, then raised his hand and put on the mask on his head.
Lightning lit up around his body.
“Riptide Rush!”
After activating his Delusion, Tartaglia condensed two short swords from Electro energy in his hands.
His body transformed into lightning and instantly charged toward Neo, leaving behind only two deep pits flickering with electricity.
He almost reached Neo’s face in the next instant.
The two short swords in his hands had already combined into one double-ended sword, which he thrust forward.
‘Fast!’
If an ordinary person faced this lightning-fast strike, they probably would have their heart pierced before they could even react.
“…”
The instant Tartaglia moved, Neo held his breath and suddenly raised his left hand in front of himself, but not to block.
Instead, he deliberately moved forward to meet the attack, causing Tartaglia to have no time to withdraw his strength.
Squelch!
“?”
Tartaglia’s pupils contracted slightly.
Unable to pull back his strength in time, he stared in shock as the double-ended sword pierced through Neo’s right shoulder.
He admitted that Neo’s body had been very tough before, but when faced with a sharp weapon, he should at least dodge, right?
‘Why did he deliberately move into it…?’
Just as Tartaglia was puzzled, he noticed a smile appear on Neo’s face.
The next moment, an ice shield quickly condensed on Neo’s left hand, which was held in front of him.
It wasn’t a shield generated by “Indestructible,” but one Neo had created purely with his own elemental power.
However, he had made the shield exactly the same size as Bron’s shield.
“Carrian Retaliation!”
Neo gave a light shout, then suddenly twisted his waist and swung the thick shield in his hands with the strength of his entire body.
Bang!
The huge shield, as thick as a door panel, carried the sound of rushing wind and slammed into Tartaglia, who had already spent his previous strength and had yet to gather new strength, like a train speeding through a snowy country.
With a loud crash, it sent his entire body flying, drawing an arc through the air.
‘What incredible strength…’
Tartaglia forcibly twisted his body in midair and landed on his feet, but even so, he rolled once across the sand.
‘The wound… recovered?’
When Tartaglia steadied himself and stood up again, he found that the penetrating wound on Neo’s shoulder had already disappeared, leaving only a hole in his clothes.
His flesh was smooth and intact as before.
“Looks like if I want to defeat you, I’ll have to put in some effort like before. But that’s exactly what I wanted!”
Seeing this, Tartaglia’s fighting spirit grew even stronger.
This meant he didn’t have to hold back too much.
Given his experience, he had faced opponents with powerful regenerative abilities before, so he quickly guessed that Neo had deliberately taken his attack because of his powerful recovery.
The next moment, lightning flashed, and Tartaglia once again gripped the double-ended sword and charged toward Neo.
Facing the attack coming at him again, Neo no longer used his body to take it head-on.
Instead, he swung the heavy ice shield to block.
Superconduct, Superconduct, Superconduct…
Lightning and ice intertwined across Yaoguang Shoal.
Even the ice crystals Neo had spread beneath his feet continuously flickered with purple lightning.
Although Tartaglia was very fast, Neo still blocked most of his attacks.
For the ones he truly couldn’t block, he deliberately moved forward and let Tartaglia hit him, then fiercely smacked him with the shield.
This ice shield was thicker than a coffin board, and getting hit by it was no pleasant experience.
However, Tartaglia’s attacks ultimately relied on Electro energy.
Although the wounds on Neo’s body recovered, he still felt somewhat numb, making his movements less agile.
And just as Neo had thought before, his own attacks simply didn’t have much killing power.
Among the skills he had obtained from the system, only “Weaklings Retreat” had any real offensive power.
Right now, it was basically impossible to knock Tartaglia down with nothing but shield strikes, and he had also become wary of them.
Landing a precise hit that sent him flying like before was difficult.
“Neo, why are you only thinking about defending now? Have you forgotten how satisfying our fights used to be?”
Forced back once again by the swinging ice shield, Tartaglia could only combine the two short swords into a double-ended sword, then use it like a bow, drawing it back and forming a lightning arrow before aiming it at Neo and speaking.
“A satisfying fight…?”
Hearing Tartaglia’s words, Neo understood something and slowly lowered the shield in his hand.
The next moment, the Cryo energy activated by his Delusion slowly gathered around his body.
Frost spread along his hair, seemingly turning his black hair white as snow in an instant.
Seeing this, Tartaglia casually shot the arrow toward an unlucky Hilichurl in the distance, then looked at Neo expectantly, waiting for him to bring out his true strength.
“Whew…”
Activating the power of his Delusion to its limit, Neo once again exhaled a breath of cold air, and Cryo energy slowly gathered in his hands.
He then gripped the gathered elemental power with both hands and flung them to either side.
The Cryo energy, as obedient as his own limbs, immediately condensed into the shape of two long swords.
“Again!”
After condensing the two long swords, Neo gave up defending.
He forcefully stepped on the ground with his toes, instantly shattering the ice crystals beneath his feet, and shot forward.
“Huh…”
Looking at the “white-haired” boy flying toward him with two swords in his hands, Tartaglia was stunned for a moment.
‘Th-this looks kind of familiar…’
But he didn’t remain stunned for long.
He hurriedly used his two swords to block Neo’s series of slashes, and the sound of clanging weapons rang through the air.
“You… where did you learn these moves?”
While blocking Neo’s attacks, Tartaglia couldn’t help asking. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
“Of course I learned them from you. After all, I’ve watched you use them so many times that even a pig should have learned them.”
“Raging Tide! Divide… ah, forget it, Riptide Rush!”
Neo used Tartaglia’s moves, continuously slashing forward with his two swords.
Faced with Neo’s series of attacks, Tartaglia could only block and dodge at the same time.
During this, he also tried to counterattack, but he found that Neo didn’t react to his counterattacks at all.
He even deliberately moved forward to meet them, causing Tartaglia to be unable to withdraw his attacks in time and leaving completely unexpected wounds on Neo’s body.
Under normal circumstances, this was completely suicidal behavior, but the wounds that had been cut open on Neo’s body healed on their own within seconds.
“You…”
“I’m so jealous!”
After being suppressed by a series of attacks, Tartaglia instead became excited.
If he had this kind of regenerative ability too, he wouldn’t need to have any concerns during battle.
With that thought, he hardened his heart and directly imitated Neo, neither dodging nor avoiding Neo’s attacks.
Neo hadn’t expected him to suddenly respond this way either.
He hurriedly tried to withdraw his strength, but the Cryo-infused long sword in his hand still cut a wound into Tartaglia’s arm.
Bang!
Tartaglia took the opportunity to close in and fiercely struck Neo in the abdomen with an elbow.
The tremendous force passed straight through his body, instantly tearing open a hole in the clothes on Neo’s back, and sending Neo flying.
“Don’t worry about me. A wound like this is nothing.”
The next moment, Tartaglia, transformed into lightning, appeared behind Neo while he was still flying backward, then raised his hand and brought the two swords down in a crossed slash.
“Stand behind Bron!”
The heavy blow to his abdomen hadn’t made Neo lose his ability to fight.
Enduring the severe pain churning through his abdomen, he raised his hand.
The ice shield appeared again and blocked Tartaglia’s attack, while Neo himself remained completely still.
If it had been the previous ice shield, Tartaglia was confident he could cut it apart.
But this time, it wasn’t condensed from Neo’s elemental power.
It was an ice shield carrying one use of “Absolute Defense.”
This caused the two swords in Tartaglia’s hands to almost be knocked out of his grip, and his palms trembled slightly.
He could only quickly pull back to create some distance and recover.
After blocking the attack, Neo landed safely and hurriedly raised his shield in front of him before charging toward Tartaglia.
When Tartaglia thought Neo was going to ram him with the shield, Neo suddenly leaped into the air, rotating the enormous shield with both hands and smashing it down heavily from above.
“In the name of Preservation!”
Although he hadn’t obtained this skill from the system, Neo still blurted out the line.
Anyway, they were both the type of people who liked shouting out the names of their moves.
There was nothing embarrassing about it.
BOOM!
The earth seemed to tremble.
Countless grains of sand mixed with ice fragments were thrown into the air, and a large crater appeared in the already relatively soft beach.
“Good one! Foul Legacy: Oblivion!”
Amid the dust of sand and ice fragments filling the sky, lightning suddenly lit up, and a double-ended sword instantly cut through all the dust.