Chapter 130: Also a Hero
Chapter 130: Also a Hero
Translator: Oneshotwonder Editor: Tehrn
Despite the carelessness and reduced perception Wings of Heaven suffered after entering the battle trance, he still had superb intuition and years of training at his disposal. That advantage, combined with the deadly power granted by the battle trance, had made Einherjar Wannabe helpless and hopeless in defending himself.
Even the audience wasn't sure who they should be cheering for as they became torn apart between their virtual hero and the real-life hero.
Einherjar Wannabe was soon forced into a corner; he was overwhelmed by his opponent's sudden surge of power.
Suddenly, Ulysses hacked squarely at Wang Tong. It was a direct and straightforward attack without any unnecessary feints or embellishments; however, it was more powerful than any attack Wang Tong had seen before.
The blade traveled so fast, its aura left a streak of reddish blur along its path.
Einherjar Wannabe didn't flinch; instead, he closed in. Some of his fans had recognized this move and wondered if he wanted to pull out his old trick of stopping the blade with his bare hands. That might have worked before, but it would be impossible this time.
Wang Tong gritted his teeth and poured out his soul energy into his fingers, as they flicked at lightning speed and with explosive force at the blade.
When the blade was only a hair-thin distance away from Wang Tong's head, it finally stopped, followed with a loud shattering noise as pieces of the blade fell to the ground.
Before Wings of Heaven realized what had just happened, Wang Tong raised his hand and hacked with full force at his opponent. Wang Tong's blade-fist was not less deadly than Ulysses's blade as it also took on a blade aura. Similar to a blade-aura, the aura of the Blade-fist could disintegrate anything upon contact, and unknown to many people, this was the real power of the Blade-fist.
Ulysses was shaken by the attack as he took the strike with its full force. And then the two fighters stood still without saying a word. The audience waited and then was confused.
"Is that it? This is the end?"
"None of them had fallen to the ground yet. It can't be the end."
"I... lost," Ulysses heard himself saying.
He then looked up at the sky and heaved a deep sigh. He had never expected to see the real form of the Blade-fist. Thanks to his opponent's kindness of not following through with the attack, he was still able to stand on the stage. He was in awe of the immense power this young soldier possessed, and therefore, he decided to give up his forlorn attempt to win the battle.
"Thanks to you, honorable veteran, I was able to finally understand the real power of the Blade-fist. It was I who is in debt to you," Wang Tong announced as he bowed deeply at Ulysses. His sincerity was unmistakable.
"Haha! Hahahaha..." Ulysses suddenly burst out laughing. There were many mixed feelings in his laughter: joy, pain, regret all coalesced into a gale of laughter that shot through the air.
Ulysses signed off, and that was the last time he appeared in the IPA.
The members of the Golden Star saluted in unison in reverence of their captain. The other in the audience also felt a sense of deep respect to this veteran that rose inside of them. This was a truly meaningful fight.
In a squalid corner somewhere on earth.
"Hey, Boss, Boss! Where have you been? Einherjar Wannabe has won again! And again, you have missed it."
"Yeah, what a pity that you have missed that fight, it was wild!"
Ulysses cracked a smile and said, "I couldn't help it, guys! My belly becomes upset whenever I am nervous! I had to go number 2!"
"Haha, fine, you don't have to watch it, as long as you keep this virtual café running."
"Haha! Einherjar Wannabe! Hooray!"
A group of teenagers cheered for Einherjar Wannabe's victory around Ulysses.
As Ulysses walked away from the teenage crowd, he somehow felt strangely satisfied.
In the PA system, although the two combatants had already signed off, lots of people remained online discussing the fight. There were too many unsolved riddles surrounding this fight.
Someone had checked the polls and announced that, toward the end of the match, the majority of the people of the audiences had thought that Einherjar Wannabe was going to lose due to the unbridgeable gap.
However, not only Einherjar Wannabe was victorious, he seemed to have done it against all odds.
"Oh for f*ck sake! He won? Again? HOW!" Miao Xiu's yelled on top of his lungs, and his rage had startled Luv Ma.
"Is that excitement or resentment? What the f*ck man." Luv Mar gave Miao Xiu a dirty look for disturbing him.
"Of course, it is excitement! It's great news! You know what it means?" Without waiting for an answer, Miao Xiu continued, "It means that only I, Miao Xiu, can defeat that bastard."
Luv Ma rolled his eyes, "He didn't even accept your challenge, dude. He had just defeated someone who is a tier above him. That is unthinkable."
"What's your estimate of his soul energy?"
"Hold on." Luv Mar moved his fingers furiously on the keyboard for a while. "175 at its peak... I'm dumbfounded. Did technique really play such an important role? Or was it because he had a much greater GN force."
"Not likely. Even if he had a stronger GN force at his disposal, with the same level of soul power, the utilization rate of GN force should remain the same. It is evident in this fight that his overall power has remained same as his previous fights. Regarding natural talent, I don't think he is even as much as me."
"To be honest, I had felt the same. But..."
The two of them suddenly found themselves out of words as they stared at each other. But they were thinking of the same thing: the power copy ability. Everyone's signature moves or coup de grace required specific tactics to implement; therefore, it was almost impossible for someone to pick it up quickly and use it, much less master it. However, Einherjar Wannabe seemed to have had done just that in every fight.
Not only Miao Xiu found it implausible but also did everyone else. Many more mysteries surrounded Einherjar Wannabe. For example, no one had figured out how he had blocked the last attack and what did he use at the end... was it really the Blade-fist?
It was common knowledge that a fighter could infuse his weapon with his GN force, and thus creating a blade-aura to increase the damage. However, it was much harder to do the same with one's own body as it required exponentially more GN force. An ordinary fourth tier fighter would be able to create a blade aura, but only a handful of very talented fifth tier fighter had supposedly achieved having an aura on their body parts. No one had ever heard of a fourth tier fighter, such as Einherjar Wannabe, achieving the same.
On top of all the mysteries, Einherjar Wannabe's strikingly young age had made things even more perplexing.
The employees of DREAM were engrossed in their work, trying their best to create a video analysis as soon as possible. Ever since Einherjar Wannabe appeared, they welcomed working over time since they knew that some surprises were guaranteed in store for them. The immense joy of witness miracles at first hand was something even money could not buy.
When they had first confirmed the identity of Wings of Heaven, they had felt a little bit disappointed, fearing that Einherjar Wannabe's defeat would be inevitable. Even Cameron had felt unnerved. He had hoped for a tougher opponent so that the fight would be more exciting, but he was also afraid of Einherjar Wannabe's defeat since once that happened, the mysterious fighter would lose all of its commercial values.
When Einherjar Wannabe released his final strike, even the usually-calm Cameron had jumped out of his seat and cheered loudly.
By then, Cameron felt that even the official tournaments seemed pale and boring in comparison with Einherjar Wannabe's fights.
As Einherjar Wannabe's fame grew, his influence had eventually reached beyond the PA system, bringing much-needed attentions to the PA system that was otherwise slowly dying-by-attrition
The official release of the video analysis had hit the internet soon after the fight, and it had stirred up another wave of disturbance. People's jaw almost dropped to the ground as they watched Einherjar Wannabe's fingers jabbed 325 times at the blade during the last second of the standoff.
Some seemingly incredible moves would lose its novelty under scrutiny, but studying carefully at Wang Tong's move only evoked more curiosity.
The recording also cleared people's doubt regarding his aura-infused Blade-fist. The aura and the techniques were both authentic. Although Einherjar Wannabe didn't follow through the strike until the end, the attack had shattered Ulysses's defense and ended the fight spectacularly.
"What scares me is how calm he was, despite being a crazy bad*ss," Miao Xiu commented in one of his online posts.
Meanwhile, in Bernabeu, students were having a heated debate about the mysterious fighter. Apache was about to leave the video room with a solemn face. He had come to watch this fight willingly, without Cao Yi's urge.
Cao Yi stopped him and asked, "Don't go yet, tell us what you think." Cao Yi then took out a notebook and was ready to record what he was about to hear.
Apache turned his head around said, "He doesn't seem like a 16 years old, but rather a veteran." Then he scurried out of the room.
At the moment of life and death, when most ordinary fighters would have been shaken and paralyzed by the fear of facing the battle trance, Wang Tong did not waver even the slightest. Wang Tong's calmness and steadfastness had unsettled Apache, for he knew at first hand that it would take years of brutal killing to forge such an adamant will.