Chapter 117: Enticing Battle
Translator: Oneshotwonder Editor: Tehrn
Cisco's move was the famous Flying-Death Consecutive Combo.
It attacked the target at three different spots with full force at the least expected moment. Cisco landed on his feet, looking graceful as ever.
Cisco had the fight under his full control, leaving no room for Einherjar Wannabe to meddle with his plan. People started to see the gap between the two fighters.
Every single movement that Cisco had executed required years of training but Cisco had pulled them off perfectly.
The arena turned quiet as the IPA players started to take in what had just happened. However, in the training room at Capth, the audiences remained calm since they had all expected Cisco to win with ease.
To Cisco's classmates, Einherjar Wannabe was simply a fighter in the virtual world, and most of them believed that Einherjar Wannabe's rise to prominence was mainly due to his imitation of others tactics, such as the Tactics of the Racing Tiger.
As Einherjar Wannabe's body thudded heavily onto the ground, the IPA player's They didn't have to wait long for their answers; the crowd became excited when they saw that Einherjar Wannabe was back on his feet. Einherjar Wannabe stretched his neck and felt relaxed as if he had just had a massage session. "Time for some warm up," Wang Tong thought to himself.
Cisco knew that he wouldn't defeat Einherjar Wannabe in the first round of attacks because he didn't use full force, but he was surprised nonetheless to see that his opponent stood up as if nothing had happened to him.
Einherjar Wannabe's body suddenly blurred and disappeared right in front of Cisco who was still pondering how his opponent had come out of his attack unharmed.
Inch Step!
...Momentum Punch!
Cisco did not have time to react; he blocked the punch with his arm out of instinct. The blow sent him stumbling back a few feet, and before Cisco had gathered himself, Einherjar Wannabe was already within his attack range.
Cisco registered a sly smirk flashing across his opponent's face and realized right away Einherjar Wannabe's next move: he was going to copy his Flying-Death Consecutive Combo.
Wang Tong spun his body around and jabbed a fist at Cisco that sent him flying. While Cisco was still in the air, Wang Tong launched himself upward and delivered the three kicks.
Unfortunately, Cisco had already seen through his plan, and therefore he was able to block the first two kicks. All the while, Cisco gritted his teeth, trying to stomach the humiliation of his signature move being copied right in front of him.
Wang Tong had quickly registered that the third kick would not be any more effective; therefore he quickly changed the direction of the kick. Wang Tong's foot hooked onto Cisco's shoulder and bore him down with his body weight.
Cisco thudded heavily to the ground, while Einherjar Wannabe landed back on his feet, not any less graceful than his opponent had looked earlier.
Cisco stood up with a solemn face; he started to become serious about this fight. He was not enraged by the taunt because he felt that there was no need to be angry at such a laughable and childish imitation.
Cisco flexed the muscle, and he stretched his long and elegant fingers. He had cut the fingernails to a precise length as manicure was an important part of keeping a perfect appearance.
"Let me show you something that you won't be able to copy."
Wang Tong saw that the corner of Cisco's lips lifted a little before Cisco started the Inch Step again. Cisco closed in onto Wang Tong in lightning speed, and in a blink of an eye, Cisco was already within his attack range, and then he punched at Wang Tong.
Wang Tong's knee jerk reaction was to counter the attack, but right away he noticed Cisco's body seemed to have shifted sideways just slightly. It was the Butterfly Dash! Wang Tong knew that he had walked into a trap.
The Butterfly Dash segued into the Inch Step at the last moment almost seamlessly. However, Einherjar Wannabe was able to react accordingly, thanks to the fact that the Inch Step had not glamoured him in the first place.
Right when everyone thought that Wang Tong was safe, Cisco's movement changed again and traced the signature arc in the air and delivered the Campus Arc!
Three techniques had been combined seamlessly into one single move, and it was almost impossible for the opponent to react. Cisco's feet traced an arc at the back of Einherjar Wannabe as everyone thought they were going to witness the defeat of Einherjar Wannabe. However, they watched as Einherjar Wannabe bowed at them and comically dodged the attack. As Cisco's feet whizzed on top of his head, he wrenched his right feet up and kicked heavily at the attacker. Cisco pulled himself back in a hurry but was caught off guard.
Einherjar Wannabe raised himself slowly and didn't pay any attention to the searing stare of his opponent.
Cisco had never encountered such a difficult opponent. He felt there was something in his opponent's moments that had hindered his performance, but he could not put the finger on it.
In all the battles that he had partaken, his combo was always effective, even against much stronger opponents. However, the same technique seemed to have little to no effect on this Einherjar Wannabe.
"Is it possible that he had seen through my method from the beginning? That's preposterous!" Cisco thought.
Feeling hard-pressed to find an answer to his opponent's real strength, Cisco conceded that Einherjar Wannabe was not as simple as he had thought.
Cisco had reckoned that conventional moves would have little to no effect on Wang Tong even if he meshed them together, because as soon as the combination was broken down into individual pieces — a skill that Einherjar Wannabe possessed — the combination became predictable. This might be an effective move against other fighters, but not against Einherjar Wannabe.
Wang Tong was compelled to learn and experiment different kinds of battle techniques. However, he needed proper opponents to experiment new techniques with. So far, Cisco had proven to be a great opponent in that aspect. Unlike fighting against IPA fighters, which Wang Tong would focus on honing his adaptive skills, this fight would be an excellent opportunity to test his techniques in a more realistic scenario.
Without realizing so, Wang Tong had already formed his own combat style. That was to use the Tactics of the Blade as the foundation and build upon it with other fighter's techniques he had learned during fights.
Wang Tong had realized that although he had the most powerful tactics at his disposal, it would be very dangerous to rely too heavily on just one tactic. Therefore, he needed to expand his arsenal and be more diverse in the techniques he deployed.
Einherjar Wannabe initiated another round of attack. Cisco watched as his opponent's Inch Step changed into the Butterfly Dash, and then he saw a fist flying at his face, and he acted out of instant and threw himself at his opponent.
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