Summoner of Miracles

"Woo!"

"Goo!"

Right after the duel began, Saichou and Hanachou spread out while Rozen was charging straight toward Heathcliff with a one-handed sword shrouded by light in his hand, but that was not the Sword Skill's light. That was the light effect due to the weapon's enhancement level.

After four months, obviously, Rozen could no longer use Anneal Blade +8, not to mention he was currently in the middle of clearing the 26th Floor, so he had to swap it with a much better weapon.

As Kirito said before, Rozen currently had several excellent weapons, and each of them was basically on par if not better than Kirito's weapon.

Rozen was currently using his favorite weapon, the Queen's Knightsword +20.

At this time, Rozen used the weapon that is usually cherished (the king sword of the country +20). It was a weapon that Rozen obtained from a fleeing princess during his quest to obtain two flags that he used to tame Hanachou. Even without enhancement, that sword should still be usable until the 30th Floor, and yet Rozen managed to enhance it to +20, making it even stronger to the point that it could deal a lot of damage even to the 25th Floor Boss that nearly wiped out Aincrad Liberation Squad, but most importantly, it granted the wielder 10 points of both STR and AGI, which was very rare.

However, this sword wasn't perfect either, it had a shortcoming, which was its low durability, and thus he prepared several weapons as a backup. Otherwise, he would've stuck to the Queen's Knightsword.

Rozen used it in this duel. He had no intention of holding back against Heathcliff. He'd use everything in his arsenal, be it weapons and Tamed Monsters.

As if realizing Rozen had no intention to hold back, Heathcliff raised the cross shield in front of him with the one-handed sword right behind and charged toward Rozen composedly. He looked like a general charging into the battlefield, so breathtaking.

In the blink of an eye, both of them already stood where the duel window between them earlier appeared.

Right at this moment, Rozen planted his foot hard on the ground and jumped to the side.

The first thing to keep in mind when facing a Player who used a shield was never to attack them head-on because it will be blocked by the shield. Attacking them where the shield couldn't cover them was the best way to deal with shield users.

But of course, the opponent was not a fool either.

(It wasn't that difficult to guess that i'll dodge right away. Heathcliff will definitely attack once he knew where I jumped, or even use a Sword Skill since I won't be able to dodge again right away)

But even if Rozen knew Heathcliff would be able to see through his move, he could parry Heathcliff's attack with his own Sword Skills and then ordered Hanachou and Saichou to apply a negative status effect to Heathcliff while both of them were unable to move due to the Sword Skill's post-motion. Rozen was convinced that the Rainbow Butterflies' Skills should work against Players, including Heathcliff, since even Floor Boss couldn't resist their Skills.

Rozen was basically as good as winning at this point, or so he thought…

Hitzcliffe did attack Rozen.

If it was a One-Handed Sword Skill that Rozen was familiar with, Rozen should be able to block it or even parried it.

However, the attack Heathcliff used at this moment was completely beyond Rozen's expectation.

"Swish!"

The sturdy cross shield pierced through the air and went straight toward Rozen

Yes.

A Shield.

Instead of attacking with his one-handed sword, Heathcliff rammed his shield toward Rozen, which caught Rozen off guard.

(He used the shield to attack…!?)

That was impossible.

This was not the real world. The items that could be used to attack were strictly regulated by the system, and only the items that were approved by the systems could be used to attack. Of course, shield should be only for defense purposes, and it shouldn't be able to damage the opponent. Yet, Heathcliff was using it to attack at this moment, and the system approved it. Of course, Rozen would be surprised

Rozen had no choice but to block the attack with the Queen's Knightsword

"Clang!"

Rozen's body shook when he blocked the attack since it was quite a heavy strike, and he had to step back to reduce the impact of the attack. However, Heathcliff saw it coming.

"Shhhnnnn!"

Heathcliff raised his one-handed sword that was illuminated by Sword Skill's light.

Upon seeing the Sword Skill's light, Rozen stopped retreating.

Despite being caught off-guard, Rozen was familiar with all One-Handed Sword Skills around his level. As long as he saw the pre-motion, he should be able to figure out which Sword Skill the opponent would use, thus predicted its trajectory.

It was just…

(Is he really gonna use the Sword Skill that I am familiar with?)

Recalling how he was caught off guard earlier because Heathcliff could use his shield to attack for some reason, Rozen decided to neither block nor parried with his Sword Skill. He instead kept putting the distance between them by stepping back and held the Queen's Knightsword firmly in front of him

The next moment…

"Shhkk!"

Heathcliff's sword struck down like thunder. The speed and the trajectory were unlike any One-Handed Sword Skills that Rozen knew. No, not just One-Handed Sword Skills. He, in fact, never saw any Sword Skill like that.

Rozen has already memorized all Sword Skills from every weapons, including Katana, that Klein wielded, and other Extra Skills such as Martial Arts, so it should be impossible for him not to recognize this Sword Skill.

In other words, what Rozen was seeing was an unknown Sword Skill.

"Clang!"

The moment Rozen blocked the unknown Sword Skill that Heathcliff used, their weapon sparked.

Hadn't Rozen retreated earlier, he wouldn't be able to completely block Heathcliff's Sword Skill, and he might fall victim to Heathcliff's shield attack right after, but because he managed to put more distance between them, the moment Rozen blocked Heathcliff's Sword Skill, he was pushed back because of the sheer power of the Sword Skill.

Rozen used this chance to create more distance between them and stepped back even faster.

"Oho?" Heathcliff raised his brow as if admiring Rozen's unexpected move, and then said: "I didn't expect you to actually dodge that one, I'm sure you've never seen my Sword Skill earlier, I thought it would catch even you off guard."

Upon hearing Heathcliff's words, Rozen didn't instantly respond; he just stared at Heathcliff intently, while racking his brain.

A shield attack that shouldn't exist, and unknown Sword Skill. These gave Rozen some clue.

"Extra Skill…"

An Extra Skill that no one has discovered yet.