...…

Clang!

Cling! Clang!

Shin and Owen continuously exchanged a few more blows for quite some time, before they finally decided to disengage from the battle for a moment. And after separating from each other, both of them quickly took a deep breath to calm themselves down and regulate their breathing.

Even if their virtual bodies were seemingly inexhaustible, that didn't mean they could fight an intense battle continuously. Especially if that battle was between two equally strong players with talents that were on par with each other.

After a few more moments, Owen looked at Shin and said.

"You are really an interesting guy. That Immediate Response is a rather rare physical type of Peak-Class Talent. What's even rarer, a Battle Genius wielding such talent. You got a fearsome talent combo there.

"

Shin released the 'Meteor Form' of the 'Mondi's Style' Legacy Skill before putting the Yamato back to its sheath. After that, he looked at Owen and replied.

"You are not that bad either. That 'Extreme Senses' talent of yours is also somewhat hard to find. And to think that I am going to found a fellow Battle Genius is also quite unexpected.

"

While saying all of those, Shin was also thinking about the abilities of 'Extreme Senses' Peak Talent. 'From what I remember, Extreme Senses is somewhat similar to Arthur's Foresight Talent. It's just this talent enhances all of the 5 major senses instead of eyesight alone.'

'Even if its eyesight ability is somewhat weaker compared to Foresight, the enhanced senses of touch and hearing are more than enough to fill that gap. And with this enhanced senses, the wielder of this talent is able to guess the move of their opponents and plan how to perfectly defend or counter it.'

After that, he clicked his tongue before muttering to himself.

"Tch! What's more, this talent is in the hands of a Battle Genius like me, which makes this battle even more troublesome. But it also makes things even more interesting that can keep me entertained.

"

Then he paused for a moment as he suddenly recalled something. 'From what I can remember, this talent can also further evolve after training it to its peak. And that talent will become the 'Supreme Sensitivity' talent, which is combing all of the other senses and making it into one.'

'With this improved talent, the wielder could perceive their surroundings without having any blind spots; it's like seeing their surroundings in an Omniscient point of view. The only difference of this 'Super Sensitivity' talent to 'Pinnacle Omniscience' is the utilizations of their senses.'

'The Super Sensitivity focuses on 'Perceiving', where the wielder uses all of their senses to 'feel' their surroundings and use all of the information that the wielder's senses got for defending and counter attacking.'

'The Pinnacle Omniscience, on the other hand, focuses more on 'Predicting'. It is linking all of the other senses and using them to foresee the next move that the opponents will do before throwing a counterattack corresponding to it.'

'It is more like one is reading the opponent's movements to see what will happen next, while the other is directly predicting the next move by just seeing what's in front of the wielder.'

Reaching this point, Shin suddenly realized something and mumbled.

"I wonder which is stronger between the two.

"

After that long but quick trains of thought, Shin took a quick look at the Arena Clock and saw that they were only less than 5 minutes before the first stage of the Tournament ended. 'That battle is only 5-minute long? But it felt like I was already fighting him for more than one hour.'

Then he turned his head back to his opponent, who seemingly did the same thing as him and had similar thoughts in mind.

Shin suddenly clicked his tongue and muttered.

"Tsk! I still want to test some progress against his guy since it is quite rare to find someone with similar talent as mine. But this is just the first stage of the tournament so I can't reveal all of my cards yet since there was the risk of getting exposed to the other strong participants.

"

As he was saying all of these, he was checking his Status Window to see if there were still some skills and abilities that he could currently use for this battle. Then his thoughts suddenly turned blank as his eyes trailed along with a certain information on it.

'Personal Trait: Ultra Instincts (Could be improve)' – It had been long since Shin took a look at his Status Window, and it also almost forgot about this trait that he had.

What's more, Shin also couldn't feel the effects of this personal trait since the environment inside the game was somewhat different from the Real World. But at the same time, there was also a time when he felt the immediate effects of this trait.

Even though he couldn't quite remember the exact time when it happened, he was still pretty sure that he took advantage of this 'Ultra Instincts' personal trait. And that was when he somewhat combined it with his breathing technique.

"Should I give it a try?

" muttered Shin as he turned his attention back at his opponent once again. But the moment he looked at Owen, a sudden thought suddenly entered his mind.

"Wait! If I can recreate talent in this world, then it is also possible for others to do it as long as they are quite familiar with their talent in the real world.

"

At the same time, Owen was actually having the same exact thoughts with Shin.

"If that was the case, then I guess it was worth grabbing this opportunity to test my limits on using this in-game talent.

"

"That way, I will not lose anything since the other participants are going to be aware about this personal trait once they watch this battle.

"

Having these thoughts in mind, Owen immediately took his battle stance once again and to Shin.

"We still have enough time for this. How about taking advantage of this moment for a little more to further improve ourselves?

"

Hearing this, Shin suddenly wore a satisfied smile behind his mask before replying.

"That is exactly my plan. Sometimes, meeting a fellow Battle Genius is quite good for our training.

"

"Exactly my thoughts! So, should we immediately start round 2? There are only 3 minutes remaining on the clock,

" said Owen before releasing his Aura Manifestation. Then, a figure of a huge bison suddenly appeared behind him while releasing a very strong pressuring aura.

Black furs were covering the entire body of this buffalo while the pair of crimson eyes that it had were glaring at Shin very fiercely.

Meanwhile, the pair of sharp horns on each side of its forehead, were curving upwards. And since the bison was currently lowering its head, those pair of horns were now being pointed at Shin in a dangerous manner.

At the same time, Shin took a deep breath to regulate his breathing. After that, he circulated the energy inside him according to the breathing technique that he was currently using in the real world.

While he was doing that, he also released the new Aura Manifestation that he currently had. And with that, the huge white tiger with two pairs of angelic wings on its back, suddenly appeared behind Shin.

This majestic tiger was currently looking at Owen's bison with arrogant eyes as if it was telling the latter that it was not worthy enough to challenge its existence.

And as if responding with the white tiger, the bison suddenly exhaled a bunch of air from its nose, which also created some white smoke from it. At the same time, it rubbed its right foot on the ground and indicated that it was ready for battle anytime.

On the other hand, their possessors were currently standing on their spots while looking at each other calmly.

As expected, Shin was the one that made the first move on the next instant. And just like earlier, he started with an opening move that transformed himself into a streak of light.

Swoosh!

Seeing this, Owen suddenly knitted his eyebrows before muttering to himself.

"Starting with the same move? Are you underestimating now?

"

After that, he was planning to use the same move that he used earlier to stop the tracks of his opponent. But before he could even activate the defensive skill that he wanted to use, he suddenly felt that there was something off. And trusting his senses, he abandoned the idea of using the skill that he intended to use and switched with an AOE defensive skill instead.

Then a golden light suddenly appeared around Owen and spun around him before creating a dome of golden energy that was protecting him from all direction.

'Knight Skill: Holy Protection'

A moment later, the streak of light that was charging towards him suddenly changed its direction and moved diagonally to the right. But midway, it suddenly did another turn and moved to the left on the next instant.

'Epic Combat Technique: Shifting Drive'

'Slayers Skill: Moonlight Steps' (x3)

Shin used yet another combat technique that he had heard from the dungeon of his awakening quest so that he could spend all of the charges of his 'Moonlight Step' movement skill while shifting his direction.

At the same time, he kept the 'True Sight' skill activated and looked at the barrier of his opponent while he was changing his direction.

He was trying to find the weakest spot of that barrier. And as he was expecting, this special observation skill didn't fail him as he was able to spot the weakness almost immediately.

With that, Shin quickly used yet another 'Shifting Drive' to change his 'Moonlight Steps' into 'Moonlight Splitter'.

Swoosh! Shing!

Clang!

But even if he was able to shatter the golden barrier surrounding Owen, his sword still failed to land at his opponent as it was being blocked by the round shield once again.

But Shin was kind of expecting; it was natural for Owen to become familiar with his own skill after all. He just used that trick earlier to confirm some things. And from the looks of it, he was right.

With that, Shin raised his head and looked straight at Owen's eyes and said.

"So, you really have the 'Supreme Sensitivity' personal trait.

"

Hearing this, Owen seemed to release some chuckles and said.

"With those words, I can tell that you also achieved the evolution of your personal trait, the 'Ultra Instincts'. So, shall we help each other to familiarize with it?

"

Shin suddenly smirked hearing the confirmation and said.

"That was the original plan. But that is as long as you agree not to use any other abilities aside from combat techniques.

"

"Exactly my thoughts,

" replied Owen before forcing Shin to move backwards.

Clang!

And after agreeing with those terms, the two seemed to smile with each while muttering to themselves. 'Meeting a fellow Martial-Artist with the same mindset is really good for improving oneself'.

Then they immediately started engaging with yet another melee exchange, which was also much more intense than the previous ones.

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