Martial Online.

"Good job."

Moriarty said and high-fived Ambrose.

Ambrose, after high-fiving, sat down on the ground and sighed heavily.

"I'll leave it to you."

"Nn." Moriarty nodded and approached the gate with a serious gaze.

As he stepped closer to the gate, his aura again became overwhelmingly intense.

"I am sorry, shit…" Penguinstrike muttered to Foxbreath with a defeated look.

"I'll finish this." Foxbreath said seriously. "I don't know what trickery that bastard used, but I'll win!"

"Good luck; you can do it!"

Penguinstrike cheered him on and went to stand by the sidelines, watching Foxbreath with a mix of hope and worry.

Foxbreath stopped and took a deep breath. His shoulders tensed, and his hidden muscles rippled.

His fingers wrapped around his longsword's hilt and squeezed tight.

The longsword trembled in his grip as if it were vibrating like a tuning fork.

'What is the trick behind the cheating?'

Foxbreath wondered inwardly as he stared through the metallic gate's gaps to see Moriarty standing on the other side with the spear in hand.

'When he veered off my sword, my side was exposed a lot.

'But how did he manage to strike me? The video showed that he didn't move an inch, unless it was his soul ability!

'I have heard that there is a soul ability that can freeze time for a very small time. If he did that, he would've been able to strike me without video recording it!'

Foxbreath's eyes squinted as he realized that was a very good possibility. However, he wasn't sure how he could counter that.

'He masked the attack as defense, so he must use the time-frozen ability when he deflects my attack. I now know the timing of when he'll try to attack.

'As long as I somehow manage to block his attack, I can expose his cheating!

'However, but how do I do that?'

Foxbreath turned to the countdown clock, which had only ten seconds left!

He gritted his teeth and felt his sweat trickle down his face as his mind raced like a Formula One car. He had to think fast and come up with a plan before time ran out.

'I now know how!'

Foxbreath's smile grew large, his cheekbones rising as he discovered an brilliant solution.

'A long-range attack, that's it!

'His time freezing ability can't last long; otherwise, it's absurdly overpowered.

'There must be a time limit, and I think it is only a second or two.

'That's not a lot of time, but because I was so close to him, he managed to slice me and return to his previous frozen stance.

'In the camera, it looked like he didn't move at all because of that.

'However, if I attack from far enough, he has to first attack me and try to return to his previous position. There's no way that he can do that in mere seconds if I attack from afar.

'Checkmate, fucker!'

Foxbreath leaped backwards, distancing himself from the metallic gate, and then moved his longsword into a stabbing stance.

The blade of the longsword started burning with glorious flames.

"What are you doing, bro?" Penguinstrike asked in confusion.

"I'll expose this fucker for cheating. Just stand aside. This will be our victory." Foxbreath said confidently.

Penguinstrike's eyes widened in surprise, and even though he didn't know where his confidence came from, his lips still turned into a slight smile.

On the other side of the metallic gate, Moriarty saw him retreat and saw that he was planning for a long-range attack.

"…"

Moriarty stayed silent and twirled the spear around, putting it right in front of his body with the blade pointing straight to the ceiling.

At that moment, he started spinning the spear around with incredible speed, creating a gush of wind that threatened to knock everyone off balance.

'Spinning your weapon doesn't matter, cheater.' Foxbreath thought with a smirk. 'You'll get exposed!'

At that moment, the countdown clock reached zero, and the metallic gate disappeared.

"Raaaah!" Foxbreath stabbed his longsword through the air. "Breath of the Inferno!"

Golden flames dashed out of the longsword's blade and flew straight towards the spinning spear, engulfing the air in a fiery blaze.

Moriarty narrowed his eyes, took a single step forward, and smashed the spear against the golden flames, still spinning the spear against the flames.

The gush of wind fought against the golden flames, but they were clearly not enough to extinguish the blazing inferno.

The golden flames tried to break through the spear, but it wasn't really successful.

However, a few burn marks appeared on Moriarty's face from the intense heat.

"Argh…"

His health started to slowly drop.

On the other side of the room, Foxbreath tensed up.

'He is going to attack me about anytime now!'

At that moment, Moriarty twirled the spear around and slashed through the golden flames with a swift and precise motion.

The golden flames dissipated into thin air, leaving behind a trail of sparkling embers.

"Ngh…" Moriarty touched his slightly burned cheek and checked their health.

[Team: Phoenix Quill - 2%]

'That was close.' He thought with a relieved sigh.

Then, the countdown clock got reset, and the metallic gate appeared again.

'He didn't attack me?' Foxbreath thought in shock and then laughed. 'I guess he must've realized that he would've gotten caught. A cheater and coward as well!'

Penguinstrike laughed happily. "You did it, bro!"

"Hah, this is our victo—"

Foxbreath was about to proclaim arrogantly, but then a long, stretching wound appeared across his chest. It was deep and bloody, causing him to fall down on his knees.

"H-h-how…" Foxbreath coughed out blood and looked towards Moriarty with a look of shock and disbelief.

His vision was so blurry, perhaps because of his tears, but he couldn't see Moriarty properly, except that he was currently walking further away from him.

"Bro!" Penguinstrike screamed in shock.

"How…" Foxbreath whispered, and he felt warm tears stream down his cheeks.

"T-this cannot end here. Not like this."

Foxbreath gritted his teeth in pain and shouted with blood-

covered teeth.

"How! Answer me, how did you do this?!"

Moriarty stopped walking and turned to face Foxbreath without a single smile on his face. He looked very stern and serious, as if he wasn't playing around anymore.

"The ultimate defense," Moriarty said.

"T-the ultimate defense?" Foxbreath whispered in confusion. "What does that mean..?"

Moriarty turned to face Foxbreath, and in that split second, there was an unknown figure standing behind Moriarty, dressed in knight's armor, who looked tall and imposing with a broad back and a helmet with a menacing visor.

Moriarty raised a finger, which was pointing towards the ceiling, and looked like a hero from ancient tales of valor and bravery. The figure behind him also pointed towards the ceiling.

And the figure started to say something, but those words came straight out of Moriarty's mouth.

"The ultimate defense is something that makes others not want to attack you. If there is a defense that cannot be broken through, then why would anyone want to waste their time and energy trying to attack in the first place?

"This is the Mantra of Ayl.

"If you want to find out what the ultimate defense is, visit Ayl and discover it yourself."

Moriarty sheathed the spear on his back and walked away with an imposing aura.

"Ayl…"

Foxbreath whispered, and at that moment, he and Penguinstrike exploded into a cloud of blood and vanished from the room.