The Sword and The Shadow

Legg was dressed exceedingly simply that day. He wore only a pair of long beastskin pants and bared his upper body, wearing only a fang necklace around his neck. On both his arms were thick wrist guards, and he tied his long, black hair into a ponytail he wore behind his head.

Leguna looked at the muscles on the barbarian and his eyelids couldn't help but twitch. "Aren't you going to wear other equipment?"

"How much equipment do you think we have here?" Legg said with a chuckle, "We barbarians aren't nearly as rich as you humans."

"Hah, have you become addicted to mocking me?"

Leguna frowned when he noticed Legg was barefoot. He didn't even bother to wear shoes!

"Weren't you having the greatest time showing off?"

Legg's mastery of the common tongue was only getting better.

Leguna couldn't be bothered to argue.

Legg received a set of adamantium gloves from his attendant. Adamantium was a metal even higher in grade than mithril. While its magical properties pale in comparison to mithril, it won out in hardness. It was a great material to make weapons with. Then again, that was the only item that distinguished the barbarian king from the rest of the barbarians.

Leguna sighed. He didn't think that the barbarians were living in such harsh conditions. It was worse than he thought. All the barbarian king that ruled over 200 thousand of his own could spare was a set of gloves.

Now, he understood why Legg was so determined.

[So he picked a faster weapon intentionally, huh? Looks like he doesn't plan on letting you take advantage of your speed,] Gahrona commented after she saw those gloves, [Ley, be careful. Even though gloves aren't as powerful as heavy weapons like axes or hammers, Legg's strength is not to be underestimated. You'd be in grave danger just taking a punch from that."

"I understand." Leguna nodded. The last time, he used his speed to gain an edge on Legg, but it looks like Legg learned his weakness and wanted to make up for it with gloves.

"Weapons are blind. Even though this isn't a duel to the death, there might be accidents. If you die, I hope Hocke won't blame me for it," Legg said after he put on the gloves.

"Likewise," Leguna shrugged.

He wondered what would happen if he really were to die by Legg's hands? Would Annelotte avenge him? How would they fare in a fight against each other?

Leguna shook his head and cast away those unnecessary thoughts. Currently, the shaman organizer of the duel introduced the two fighters to the other barbarians in Dosrakian. Following the excited cheers of the barbarians, the shaman announced the start of the duel.

Leguna lowered his body and unleashed his impetus to blend into the environment. Thankfully, Legg had instructed his men to clear the snow from the arena, so there was no snow that would leave any footsteps, only the cold, hard ground.

Leguna carefully controlled his movements as he crept towards Legg. The huge man was calm and collected and didn't seem the slightest bit nervous at the disappearance of the enemy.

Leguna knelt in a corner and observed Legg for a full minute before choosing to attack Legg behind his right flank.

Lighteater silently pierced towards Legg's lower hip. Apart from the slight spatial waves, there wasn't any trace of his approach.

Yet, Legg was able to detect the silent killing intent. He hurriedly turned around and blocked Leguna's strike with his gloves.

"Spatial Cut!"

Lighteater converted the shadow impetus into spatial impetus. Even though Leguna was still in stealth, the sharp-eyed would be able to notice that the space twisted obviously around Leguna.

Legg detected the change and humphed slightly before infusing even more impetus around his glove.

Clang!

The strike rang clear, but Leguna's move wasn't able to do much more than leaving a faint dent on the gloves.

While Haden's spatial impetus was really destructive, it could easily be suppressed by higher-level impetus. If the enemy's impetus was higher than Haden's, there was little spatial impetus could do. That weakness was similarly inherited by Lighteater.

As it was daytime, Leguna could only use Host of Darkness up to the second stage. His impetus was only at the 16th stratum. How could he compare with Legg's 18th-stratum impetus? His spatial cut was ineffective for that reason.

Legg looked at his gloves with some surprise. The material the glove was made of was tough and it was also enchanted to be much tougher. It was supposedly really hard to damage, but Leguna's strike actually left a mark on it. That spoke to the level of damage Leguna was capable of dishing out.

Leguna didn't panic after that failed strike. Patience was a most important virtue for an assassin. And if he could drag the battle on for another half an hour, he would be able to enjoy the benefits of fighting at night. He wouldn't be foolish enough to go all out just yet.

Though, he wouldn't be cowardly to the point of hiding in stealth indefinitely. He chose to attack with Wave Blade instead.

After noticing that Leguna could still maintain stealth after an attack, Legg was even more shocked. He twisted his shoulders and wore a gloomy expression.

Leguna made his advance once more and attacked Legg's back with Wave Blade. Legg noticed the attack in time and blocked with his left hand before swinging his right towards the spot he predicted Leguna would be in.

None of them was injured throughout this bout. Leguna launched five more Wave Blade attacks, but all of them were blocked by Legg. By then, Legg seemed rather impatient.

Leguna kept his cool and inched closer, preparing for another ethereal attack. Leguna had only managed to master the beginner level of Wave Blade. He could only slash once without breaking stealth. While that may seem amazing to most, Leguna knew the distance between Wayerliss and him. That elf of a teacher could launch eight strikes while maintaining stealth!

This time, he picked to attack Legg from up front. All the previous attacks were launched behind, so he felt that it would serve to misdirect Legg's attention to his rear instead.

But it turned out that Legg wouldn't make such an elementary mistake. Not only that, he found the crack in Leguna's move!

"Haargh!"

He didn't hesitate the moment he found the attack coming from ahead. His eyes shone bright before the barbarian launched his 18th-stratum impetus out as a wave with a loud bellow before charging straight at his assailant.

Leguna knew that it wasn't good the moment Legg caused his impetus to explode, so he cut the attack off midway. However, he didn't avoid the wave because he knew he was slower than the speed out sound without Shadow Blink.

Legg's War Cry sent Leguna into a stupor for half a second, and the barbarian didn't intend to give up on that chance. He raised his impetus-infused leg and kicked it towards Leguna's chest.

Bam!

Leguna was sent flying like a cannonball, crashing into a nearby slope and leaving an imprint in it.

"That kind of attack won't hurt me! Quit it with those petty tricks and fight me like the last time!" Legg bellowed.

"Hehe!"

Leguna climbed out of the slope, relatively unharmed. The kick didn't wound him that badly after all.

That kick could've killed a crimsonblood bear, but Leguna had activated the barrier on his armor after realizing Legg's next move and also formed a layer of impetus armor on his chest.

Despite the layers of protection, the kick was easily able to shatter through them. Leguna shuddered at the thought if he hadn't deployed the defenses in time.

[Legg's destructive power is shocking as ever,] Gahrona said with a solemn tone, [Ley, you have to be careful. The slightest mistake will cost you against an enemy of this caliber!]

[Understood!] Leguna stretched his body before he raised Lighteater and shot forwards like an arrow towards Legg.

That's fast! Legg's eyes narrowed when he saw that kind of speed. Though Leguna only improved by one stratum over the past year, his speed was 1.5 times it was back then! Entering the high order seemed to benefit Leguna quite a bit.

But Legg didn't fear a strong enemy. Instead, he felt all the more excited. To him, there was nothing more fun than fighting a strong opponent.

He let out an ear-piercing roar before charging towards Leguna.