Martial Online.

The room with black rock and boiling pits of lava had steamy and warm atmosphere. It was constantly shaking and trembling.

Julian raised his sword and repeatedly struck the crimson shortsword, sparks flying like fireworks in the night sky.

Clang, clang, clang!

Julian's arms moved at incredible speeds, as did the sword. His sword clashed with the dual shortswords, creating a symphony of metal clashing that echoed throughout the room.

Ambrose moved his dual shortswords, clashing against Julian's sword and blocking and deflecting the slashes.

They pushed each other a step backwards, then rushed forward and entered another exchange of quick strikes and parries.

Julian narrowed his eyes and swung with a wide arc from the left side.

Ambrose smashed his dual swords against the sword and then used his strength to push Julian back a few meters.

At that moment, Julian's sword started to glow with silver light, and then he swung it in front of his body, sending a wave of silver energy towards Ambrose.

Ambrose clenched his teeth and coated his dual swords with the golden light, then smashed them against the silver energy. The collision created a blinding explosion of light and power.

Julian tapped the ground two times very quickly and jumped over Ambrose. He landed behind him and stabbed his sword backward.

Ambrose smashed the sword away with a powerful swing and stabbed his other sword towards Julian with surgical precision.

As Julian was about to parry it away, Ambrose flicked his wrist, changing the direction of the stab, and grazed Julian's cheek with the crimson blade.

Julian lashed his kick at him, but Ambrose quickly blocked it with his thigh. It didn't create any damage as, for some reason, Ambrose's thigh swelled with muscles.

At the moment of impact, Ambrose quickly used Muscle Defense to protect himself from the blow.

Julian leaped off the ground and kicked him in the chest.

Ambrose fell back, but quickly recovered and blocked Julian's follow-up sword strikes with his dual swords.

Julian didn't show much emotion, even though his cheek was slowly dripping with blue blood from the previous graze.

At the moment, they weren't aware of the shock that was going on in everyone's mind in the outside world.

After all, they were witnessing the strongest player of the current age struggling against this newcomer—Ambrose!

They thought it was a swift victory for Julian, but the fight so far had been equal and so intense that everyone couldn't properly breathe.

Ambrose and Julian exchanged another round of devastating blows, each seemingly matching the other's strength with flawless precision.

However, there was something odd going on that only the most experienced fighters realized.

Ambrose had a calm look on his handsome face, and he wasn't sweating as much as before.

He simply blocked and parried Julian's strikes while lazily trying to counterattack. However, in the eyes of an unexperienced person, the attack still looked so fast that they couldn't keep up.

Julian responded with the same energy, blocked the lazy counterattacks with ease, and countered with a flurry of strikes, but there wasn't a lot of strength behind those strikes.

It looked like they were both waiting for something.

At that moment, the ground started shaking as if a sudden earthquake had started.

A portion of the black rock vanished, and another lava pit appeared.

The space in the room was filled with intense heat and the smell of sulfur. There wasn't as much solid ground left to stand on.

At that moment, both Julian and Ambrose clashed their swords with a ferocious force, and the ground below them cracked open, revealing a narrow chasm below.

Neither of them was holding back anymore!

Ambrose's eyes slightly narrowed as his foot slid backwards, barely able to maintain his balance on the edge of the crumbling ground.

'His strength is increasing!'

Julian's expression drastically changed from indifference. He didn't look as casual anymore, and his veins were bulging in his neck, pulsating with power.

At that moment, Julian pushed the dual shortswords away and leapt towards his opponent with unbelievable speed.

Ambrose clenched his teeth and clashed with him with a force that nearly shattered the rest of the ground below them.

Julian rushed forth and clashed with the dual shortswords, each strike creating a loud echo. Their arms moved at incredible speeds, the clash of metal against metal filling the air with a cacophony of sound.

The fight continued with the same intensity, but Julian was constantly pushing Ambrose back. He couldn't stop the powerful onslaught for even a moment.

As Julian was about to strike again, he suddenly twirled his sword around and stabbed straight through Ambrose's foot. It was unexpected and surprising.

Ambrose only frowned and cross-slashed towards Julian's chest, but he quickly pulled out the sword from the foot and blocked the attack just in time.

At that moment, Julian pushed him away and slashed down, but Ambrose blocked it in a nick of time. However, he only used his right-handed sword to block and then stabbed his left-

handed sword forward.

Julian pushed the other shortsword away and saw the other shortsword approach his side. Then he used strange footwork to sidestep past the attack.

However, it looked like the shortsword would reach his waist, but it went straight through, as if it were attacking Julian's shadow and not his real body.

'What?' Ambrose's eyes widened.

Before he could react, Julian stabbed his sword through Ambrose's shoulder and separated his arm from his body.

The left arm fell to the ground, still grasping the hilt of the crimson shortsword.

'That was nice!' Ambrose gritted his teeth with a pale face. 'That was very fucking nice! He tricked me.'

When Julian stabbed through his foot, it opened a clear line of attack, which Ambrose tried to take advantage of, but because of his lack of speed, Julian managed to block it off.

Then Julian pushed him away, but he followed up with an overshoulder slash. That was easily blocked by Ambrose, and there was another opening to attack.

Again, he tried to take advantage of that, but it was blocked. However, there was also the third advantage, but it was as if Julian expected it; he perfectly evaded it and then countered, which managed to cut off his arm.

It was just as if Julian expected that all to happen!

There were three advantages that Ambrose could use to harm Julian, but he gave them on purpose.

He wanted Ambrose to shift from defense to offense, as he couldn't break through his rock-solid defense. There were more weaknesses in his offense.

After doing that, Julian finally found that one, split-second chance of weakness and used that to his greatest advantage.

'I was led right by my nose and fell right into his trap,' Ambrose thought to himself.

It wasn't that he was angry, but he was extremely impressed, as Julian was not only strong and good at swordsmanship; he was very smart and cunning.

In that field, Ambrose had to agree that he was solely lacking in comparison.

While he believed that he could think five or six steps ahead of his opponents, Julian was able to think over ten steps ahead of him, which gave him a big enough advantage.