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nCrow might not have landed an attack and always fell short whenever he tried to.

nBut every try made Samil reveal more and more of his strength. Crow also didn't try the same angle again. Every attack had a different pattern and a different approach, making Samil guard himself from more angles.

nHowever, if someone has to focus on so many things, it is only natural for them to lose their focus and leave at least one opening. More often than not, that one single opening ends being a clean and direct.

n*PHEW* *PHEW* *PHEW*

nCrow hit three wind blades that were flying from three different directions and appeared to be falling down freely. At that moment, another wind blade came at him laterally.

n*PHEW*

nAt the last minute, Crow hit the blade and he was launched like an arrow through a very narrow gap. Making him appear at the wind sphere covering Samil.

n*BAM*

nHe lodged his dagger and it created an explosion, disrupting the flow of wind sphere. The gap is created and Crow's second dagger glowed with blood colored runes.

n*BOOM*

nSamil opened his eyes and mouth at the same time.

n*WHOOSH*

nHe blew a jet of air, that was condensed, compressed and rotated into becoming a lethal wind missile.

nIt was aimed at Crow's chest, it was almost point blank range, making it nigh impossible to miss. Crow's dagger brushed past the surface of that wind missile before it made its way through a narrow gap and reached Samil's shoulder.

nAt the same time, Crow's body took the brunt of the wind missile as he was blown away. The myriad of wind blades and cannons disappeared. The contact created a flashy explosion as both participants moved away from their original spots.

nCrow landed on the ground and dug his feet in to stop his movement.

nSamil didn't move as far, but he definitely stepped back. When the dust settled, Crow looked at his opponent hopefully.

nHis dagger is indeed lodged in, but it didn't show any bleeding. Samil's shirt which was torn revealed a special leather armor underneath. The dagger is lodged into that armor and didn't even hit the skin.

nThe dagger is glowing with blood colored runes which seemed to be countered by the blue colored runic inscriptions of the armor. Samil frowned and looked at Crow.

nCrow also had his shirt completely torn and his glowing vest inside took quite some damage. He was also using a special defense item. It seemed like both of them are prepared.

nSamil's frown deepened, even though Crow's armor is damaged, it is not enough. The attack should have penetrated through him. A person two levels lower than him shouldn't be standing there with just some partial damage to the armor.

nSamil's expression became a bit twisted. He was no longer assuming that lotus position and instead stood there on the ground.

nHis robes and hair fluttered in the wind. The surrounding sand and dirt started moving. The sphere that Crow just broke came back and it is revolving with a speed multiple times faster than before.

nCrow grinned wildly and took out another dagger. Now, both of his daggers are glowing with those blood colored runes. His whole body is boiling with his Divine energy as he made his move. In an instant, Samil created a large tornado. The surrounding earth was all deformed and huge chucks of soil and rock was reduced to mere dust in that high speed tornado.

nFrom within the tornado, a huge wind missile came out as a tangent aimed at Crow.

n*SWOOSH*

nCrow slid over the surface of that missile and deflected it, moving towards the tornado. Everyone was amazed at how Crow is even resisting the wind currents. In all fairness, he should feel like a broken kite by now.

nHis body shouldn't be able to move in that wind. He should have lost all control. But as he moved, his body ignored all the wind resistance. Only when he used the direction of wind currents to his advantage to dodge or deflect the attacks, he did let them hit him.

nOtherwise, everything went smoothly.

n*BAM* *BAM* *BAM*

nSamil multiplied his attacks, but they were met with direct blocks from his daggers. Whenever a dagger touched the attack, Crow took a lot of force which made him falter and absorb some damage, but the missiles were easily diffused and deflected, making the attacks mostly useless.

nUntil now, there was only one proper exchange between the two. The rest of them are just blocking, parrying and dodging. And Sam anticipated a second exchange soon.

nHe is not the only one and he is not wrong. The second exchange did happen.

nThe blood colored hue spread from the daggers to Crow's whole body and all of a sudden, it didn't even look like he is moving. He was there in the air one moment and the next one, he is just a couple of feet away from the sphere.

n*SWOOSH*

nHe threw a dagger at the incoming wind missile. The dagger hit the missile, diverted its direction and spun in the air and moved like a parabola, before it started dropping from the top.

nAnother dagger appeared in Crow's hand as he lunged forward. He passed through the wind missiles, blades and air cannons. He pierced through the tornado and could see the sphere. With his two daggers, he stabbed the spear vertically downwards.

n*BOOM*

nThe red colored aura along with inscriptions started spreading throughout the spear and exploded. Samil who is a pure mage was unable to take the force to his body. His shirt completely disappeared as the dagger rays ravaged all over him.

nThe armor on which he counted on suddenly exhibited a weird behavior. The runes stopped working as the blood colored energy lines appeared on it.

n*SWOOSH*

n*SWOOSH*

nCrow threw both of his daggers at him, hitting him on his chest and abdomen, then he caught the dagger that was still spinning in the air before he lodged into Samil's chest squarely.

n*BOOM*

nThe hit landed with explosive energy, but the energy that required to pierce Samil, was enough to make the muscles on his arms to tear. Crow is bleeding from his arms just by the attack he delivered and Samil puked blood in response.

nThe winds died and both of them fell to the ground.

nCrow stood up while panting heavily. Even though it didn't show in the earlier stages, he put too much effort into the dodging and all the fatigue did build up. It is only that he needed the first dagger to do its job by disabling the armor.

nThen he used most of his energy to break the defense, the two daggers to land some soft attacks, enough to distract and finally the last attack to land decisive blow.

nFrom breaking the sphere to land the final blow, it took less than a second.

nIt took some time for most of the audience to even register what has actually happened. But whatever the price, he managed to win the round.

nLing Tian stepped in and announced the win. Crow hurriedly came back to the stands and took a special elixir.

nHe didn't even have time to enjoy his win as he tried to recover his energy.

nSam was kind of impressed. He has seen Crow practice in the hub before, seeing it in real life is much better. Samil on the other hand. It could only be said that he has limited himself way too much with his abilities.

nHis attacks are very one dimensional with wind blades, cannons and missiles. He uses the condensed wind for defense. His control is impeccable, but since his constitution is only of a pure mage, he didn't focus on movement too much and developed in a much more defensive way.

nHis strategy has always been keep a robust defense and taking people down after wearing them down.

nEven though Sam still is not completely sure of the unique nature of Crow's attacks, they did work well beyond his expectations. Maybe he needs to study the information from the hub a bit deeply and understand this style.

nAs he was thinking, the arena was rearranged properly. An elder with earth element recreated the whole arena and it was a good as new.

nLing Tian gave Sam a look as he walked in. It is time for Sam's fight.

nThe only remaining middle stage cultivator to fight a peak stage cultivator. Sam took a deep breath and got ready.

nIf he has any chance of winning, he has to fight a bit dirty. He is confident on taking on Late stage cultivators easily. But peak stage… he has to be a lot more careful than usual and might have to remove some of his cards.

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"Next Fight.

nSam Versus Marron.

"

nSam looked at the woman who wore a complete maroon dress. She walked into the arena and Sam heaved a sigh before following suit.

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