Note: long Chapter! The big mace in my opponent hand suits his tall and bulky physic and the thing odd about him is the jovial smile hanging in his face. It looked like he had not come for battle but for sightseeing. We both stood in the center of the arena with our weapons ready, just waiting for tong to sound. "Tong!" The tong sounded loudly indicating, the start of the battle. "Ahhh!" George shouted loudly as he came toward me with mace in his hand. I did not get surprised by hearing his shout as he is one of those people who can’t battle silently. I sensed the two fluctuations from him as he came at me. From the color of a layer of energies covering his body, he seemed to activate his strength and speed type skill. Compare to other top opponents, his speed seemed average but I am not fooled by it. This is all but trick, from what I’ve read in the forum. It is written that the strengthening skill he used is a hybrid type. Not only it provides strength, but it also provides something like instant speed, coupled with the second-speed type skill he had activated, he can instantly increase his speed in a moment notice. That is why I am not moving from my spot till he comes close to me, to others it is very idiotic but to me, it us best chose as I can do instant movement and now I have knight grade shoes which made me faster than before. So, even if he activated his instant movement right after coming close to me, I am confident in getting away from him. As he comes close to me, I sensed an intense fluctuation and George speed increased suddenly. That fluctuation is not because his speed increased suddenly but he activated his third skill which is an offense. ’’Take this!" He said loudly as the layer of sand had covered his mace, producing thorns of sand all over it. He again increased his speed and his mace come toward my head swiftly. If I did not do something this very movement, that mace going to blast my head, injuring me heavily. I now see why most of his opponents have become quite an injured fighting him. "fur fur fur fur fur...." I instantly ignited all the jets behind my back moved sideways with my instant movements. His mace was only armed away from me when I moved away, I would have not taken such risk if I was not confident. Fire Strike! I launched my attack as I move, I launched this attack at the perfect moment. This attack going to hit him very hard, I said smilingly. "Hehe!" he smiled weirdly seeing three bolts of mana coming toward him. As I launched the attack, I was sure at least one of my mana bolt will hit him when my mana bolt halfway into the distance, I saw his sand mace getting bigger. I turn happy for movement thinking he is enlarging his weapon but soon notice, he is not enlarging his weapon but manipulating his skill, so it at like a shield. Audience as well as me, couldn’t help but gasp seeing this. This one hell of skill control! "Ping ping ping!" my three fire bolts had collided against his big fire mace rapidly as I took the sip of the potion. ’’Well it’s a good move but if it’s all you have then you should go home!" He said and swung his mace and thorns of sands came at me. "Furfur fur fur fur..." I ignited the jets behind me dodged the sand thorns. I knew about this move of his and been vigilant against it. So, as soon as I saw him swinging his mace, I quickly moved away. As I dodged his attack, I saw him coming toward with corner of my eye. Fire Strike! I attacked him with fire strike again but this time, instead of using his sand type skill, he used his defense type skill and came at me without stopping. I felt a little worried seeing that but again ignited fire jets behind me to the limit, not only that I even activated my Grade 1 strengthening skill and speed type skill. My speed increased suddenly and distance between us which was lessening increased again. This is my highest speed and I am confident that very people will catch up to my speed as not only I had ignited jets and used my grade 1 skills, I even have the help of my newly acquired knight grade boots. "I will not let you ran away!" he said and increased his speed again. I am shocked seeing this, I thought his earlier speed is limit but seeing him swiftly coming at me, I noted this is his ultimate speed. Fire Strike! I attack again but like the last time, he activated his defense skill with decreasing his speed. A spark of fear rose my heart but I quickly squashed it and started to think. There is only one option left! I thought about to see him coming ever close to me. "Furfur!" I ignited two biggest jets under my feet and jumped back to put more distance between us. This move might not have possible in the fighting ring due to its limited space but in the arena, there is enough space to do that. As I was jumping back, I sensed a fluctuation of mana, only to see numerous disc of sands were materializing around George. I ignited my sword and enlarged my shield to regular size seeing the disc. This sharp disc made of sand is the second attacking type skill of George. I have seen what these sand disc could do and very very careful about it. I had seen the big cuts these discs made on defeated opponents of George. I don’t want those cuts on my body. ’Whoosh!’ he released the seven discs at me. Sky Steps! I activated the sky and took a slight jump above, this jump will not help me dodging all the discs but it will elevate a lot of pressure on me. By jumping, I already dogged the three discs, as for the rest of the four, I have to counter them with my sword and shield. "Pang pang pang pang!" I defended against two of his discs with my shield while the other two with my sword. As I was just finished defending against these discs, I saw another round of discs halfway toward me. I am not surprised me seeing those discs toward me and already prepare for them. Sky step! I took another jump backward thought the systems and defended against the sand discs the same as earlier. Seeing this, his ever jovial smile had turned little stiff and before he could anything, I already landed on the ground. We kept attacking each other but both of us attacks useless against each other. No matter how much we try, we never able to harm the single hair of each other head. This is very tiring but I have no other choice if I had an extra knight grade skill, I would have used it but sadly I didn’t have any. In these three months, I many times before wanted to buy an attack type Grade 1 skill. I have more than enough money to buy them but I didn’t buy any as I know they will be useless. In these three months, my strength had grown exponentially that I don’t think I will need any attack type skill as I have my fire strike. As against Corporal stage monsters and opponents, my strength type skill Nine Raging Strike is Enough. A most important reason, I didn’t buy Grade 1 skill because it is useless against those wearing knight grade artifacts. That is why I didn’t buy them as I would have become the butt of a joke if I had used Grade 1 skill right now. To opponent like George, it woulfeellt like the touch of a feather. Suddenly George stopped and I also stopped at a healthy distance from him. The jovial smile that used to hang around his face completely gone and his face become serious. Looking at his serious face, I got startled because of hlollooklittle ugly listlessly This is probably the main reason for that smile on his face, as he knows that after that smile is gone, he will look ugly. "You are very good! To make me use this skill of mine!" he said. Hearing him say that my heart skipped a beat and I put little more distance between us but he did not seem to mind that, as kept standing on the same spot. "I wanted to use this skill after I get into the Top 25!" He said and he ran toward me. His speed increased more but he will not able to catch me at if kept running and jumping back. As came at me, I sense power fluctuation only to find that sand is hovering around him and slowly the sand is turning into thin needles. Next moment hundreds of needles converged around him. There are hundreds of needles, there is no chance of dodging this thin needle, even if one has good defense skill as they will piece through every defense. These needles physical damage is very little but they are most vicious for another reason. Especially for me as the fire jets behind my back need full concentration and those fucking needles are a danger to my concentration. There are hundreds of those needles, no matter how much I try, I will not able to dodge them. I had to minimize the damage and think it come out this predicament safe without losing this battle. "Go!" Geroge waved his hand and hundred of needles came at me. "Ahhh!" hundred of needly swiftly came at me, I wanted to dodge but it was futile as there are too many of them. I felt pain all over my body due to these needles, the only area safe is my head and chest. Before I knew it, the sudden onslaught of needles broke concentration and next moment, I saw sand mace coming at me. I am fucked! I thought as I saw mace coming at me and I hastily put my shield front of me. "Bammmmm!" "Puh! Puh!" "Crack!" The mace loudly clashed against my shield and I flew away but not before vomiting mouthfuls of blood. I think some of the bones also broke and I became injure even more. Not only that, I can see George following behind, ready to launch another attack. I was feeling despair as I didn’t have a definite strategy to deal with coming blow when I felt something from Ashlyn. About time! I have been waiting for this feeling for a fucking week and now it came. I am leveling up finally.