Chapter 129
129 Mirror
Joan stared straight at the fog her sword drawn the tip facing the ground as she put herself in a sort of relaxed posture, it was the starting pose of her sword technique the ‘sword mirror’.
Her mind wrapped around her blade and body to form a sort of mirror effect everything around her will be reflected in her mind their surface thoughts and activities making this move especially efficient in countering melee type enemies as she would be one step ahead of them, it was especially efficient for detecting sneak attacks as the mere thought of attacking or hint of killing intent would immediately be perceived.
Sandro who was hidden in the fog saw her pose but didn’t care he just waltzed around leisurely with the makeshift bone spear in his palm, he walked right up to his opponent following a specific but subtle path.
Although he was not a warrior he was very proficient in biology and he was well aware of some weak spots in vision and perception although cultivation was a process to make oneself strong and reduce one flaws but the flaws still existed no matter how minute they may be.
Taking advantage of the environment and the control of his body reducing his presence the tiny flaws in her perception were magnified and he came within attack distance of her and immediately burst out piercing the air as makeshift spear travelled at an alarming speed towards her head.
Joan noticed the attack but it was already too late the angle speed and power that burst out seemed to be precisely calculated ensuring she would not have enough time to swing her weapon to disarm the attack, despite this she was not worried although she developed the sword mirror aimed at sneak attacks but she knew the moves were not perfect and there were always ways to temporarily circumvent her perception the mirror pose not only allowed here to increase perception it also allowed her body to follow her thoughts at almost the same speed like a mirror for a short period of time, like magic her sword swiftly traversed the air and hit the side of the spear shifting the trajectory of the weapon.
Sandro who saw his attack deflected did not fret he simply released his hold on the spear and gestured with his free palm and the bone forest around him simply stretched their sharp branches towards Joan, seeing the swift attacks a sharp glint shone in her eyes as she murmured two words silently in her heart ‘mirror world’
A few feet around her seemed to turn to an absolute area whatever attacks that entered the range was swiftly cut off by her blade she summed to have multiple arms as her blade swiftly traversed blocking all attacks just using the right amount of force to destroy the branches.
Sandro had taken the opportunity to slip back into the fog, although he had earlier stated he wanted some exercise he was doing nothing but stalling, he just wanted to keep her preoccupied, his current body was simply in shambles and every movement was accelerating its demise, what’s more, he was a necromancer although he dabbled in some combat techniques so as to have the means of self-protection but no necromancer would prefer to fight in close combat if they didn’t have to.
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Joan who was enveloped in the storm of attacks soon grew accustomed to the tempo of stabs and whips and soon broke out with a circular slash cutting through the surrounding bones giving her a little breathing space as she assumed a different stance holding her sword horizontally making the reflexive body gleam slightly as her lips slowly moved.
“Reflection”
With those simple words, time seemed to stop the attacking bones stopped and the entirety of the domain seemed to have been affected as the poisonous fog dispersed only leaving some stubborn pockets lingering around. Joan who saw this scene had a slight smile on her lips as she sheathed back her blade, ignoring the now stagnant trees and walked slowly toward the figure who was leaning on a big bone branch not far from her.
Despite the lack of surface injuries on Sandro, Joan knew he had already lost combat power and in a matter of seconds he would perish. Sheathing her blade wasn’t because of her arrogance but it was because she was certain the battle was over after all she was battling a clone not just any clone but one that was already on its last legs.
The nature of the last attack was the reason for her confidence it was a terrifying move that already dabbled lightly in terms of rules, of course, such an attack was demanding in its condition for activation and so her previous moves from the beginning of the sword technique such as mirror world and the starting pose of the sword mirror were all to ensure the success of the last and final move.
The sword move ‘reflection’ ensured all attacks that had hit her previously would be restored and reflected through her mind, the short bust of intent to kill during their previous clashes allowed her to recognize the imprint and taste of the attacker’s mind and with the accumulation of subsequent attacks the imprint or coordinate would grow clearer and then the using the force intent and momentum of all the previous attacks that had befallen her she would reflect such attacks to the opponent like a mirror reflecting light but unlike a mirror which was based on light her mirror technique was based on the mind and so the attack would not travel through physical means but would be reflected on the soul level, the speed of movement and bizarre transport method made sure this technique was virtually unavoidable.
The core concept of her practice and her domain was simple as the name of her moves suggest it was all birthed from a simple philosophical thought ‘the mind is like a mirror’ and her domain was constructed on this basis.
Sandro had actually guessed all this but he didn’t expect her practice had reached the point where she would be able to simulate casual type attacks although this was outside his calculation it didn’t matter cause his goal had been basically achieved anyway, the relationship between time and death was a close one after all time needed to pass for one to reach the inevitable end and it was only natural as a necromancer to dabble in such aspects, in fact the main reason the battle with Joan was so direct and lacklustre apart from the poor condition of this body was that most of his energy was used to subtly manipulate the time of his domain which was the main reason he created the structure in the first place, thinking of this he didn’t bother struggling but just passed away with a smile on his face.
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