All out

Liling took a deep breath in. "Fine. What is your request?" She asked.

"Hmm, it's not related to the fight we're gonna have, so I'll just ask you about it after our little fight. Is that fine with you?" I asked.

"Yea, okay. Let's fight then, I guess." She took a fighter's stance with her guard up.

"Very well. First one to give up loses… Ah, why does it sound stupid when I said it like that? Anyway, it's basically a fight where anything goes without pulling off a potentially harmful stunt." I explained the rules once more, just to confirm that the tournament rules I'm thinking about are the same one that she is thinking as well.

"Great! I hope you come at me with full strength!" Liling roared as she looked ready to defend whatever that came to her.

Somehow, her words irked me. I don't know why it irked me, but it did. I guess I was planning to use her as a dummy to test out my powers against. But she looks excited. I can't possibly do that, right?

"Are you sure about that?" I asked.

"Huh?"

"You sure you'll be fine if I fight with my full power?" I asked again.

"Yea! It'd be pretty fun, don't you think? I'll make sure to beat you at your best!" Liling sounded confident as she said that.

You see, in my past life, I was a pretty competitive person. If someone makes a declaration like the one that Liling just did, I won't be satisfied until I crush them with all my might. Well, I don't think it could be said as competitive at that point, huh?

Anyhow, for the sake of convenience, I'm gonna call my obsession to destroy people as competitiveness. Liling brought that spark back. So, I'll make sure to crush her as well.

[You look disgusting, you know?]

{Wait, didn't you say that I looked beautiful before? What's with this now?}

[Yea, the face does look beautiful. However, the smile you're dawning right now doesn't suit it.]

Oops, I think I accidentally leaked my emotions in my face. What a blunder, huh?

[... Hua, you're a lot stronger than her now. So, remember that this is a match, not a fight.]

{Yea, sure!}

[Honestly, how can a person change like this in a short period of time? It genuinely concerns me.]

{... Wish me luck, Goldy.}

[You won't need it.]

{Tch, don't spoil it for the people.}

[Ha.. Really… It's not like there's anyone listening to my bs other than you.]

{You never know, Goldy… You never know.}

"Are you ready?" Liling asked as she saw me standing still.

"Yup!" I nodded my head.

"Then let's fight!" Liling brought her bear defense shield out.

The last time she did it, I couldn't penetrate it with my scythe. So, I'm not gonna do the same tactics again. Didn't she ask me to go all out? Then let's do that!

I closed my eyes. I wasn't in the spirit realm, but I could see it- the jade dragon. It looked majestic. I caressed it. I felt the energy entering me. This energy slowly covered my entire body, giving out a faint jade aura. I turned on Dragon's rage.

Since I had my Dragon's rage on, all I have to do is to walk to Liling and she would drop her guard for a second. I can use this time to close my distance with her and use my scythe directly on her….

But she asked me to fight with my all, right? Then shouldn't I use the scythe from the beginning. A rushing dragon should be more fearful than a normal walking one, right?

While I was thinking about it, I unconsciously brought forth my Qi scythe. I don't have to concentrate as much as before to bring that forth now. Somehow, this abnormal speed of learning makes me afraid. If me, a random mob character can advance this ahead, don't you think the main characters of this story are monsters?

Anyway, I rushed towards Liling, and as I expected, she felt fear. And this made her drop her defense almost entirely. The bear shield was barely functional to the point that it took nothing for my Qi scythe to break through it.

And with that, her defense was done with. She realized what was happening and tried attacking me this time. However, it was too late for that. If she wanted to do something like that, she should've gotten into it before I rushed at her.

The constant looming fear might be a part of the reason, but she missed every single hit she tried at me. In the end, it wasn't that difficult for me to actually land a hit on her. That's when I realized something—my attack pattern is lame.

Like, most of the people have multiple attacks, one cooler than the other, while I have nothing but my Qi scythe. Even with the martial arts that I learned, I really couldn't use it to the full extent. The only things I learned is how to dodge anything that comes at me and how to land a hit on the opponent. No flashy technique or cool moves… The life of a mob character, eh?

Whatever, it doesn't matter now, does it? All one has to do is to hit and not get hit. And as long as I'm able to do it, it is working.

[Look, I like it when you get that realization moment, but you're in a fight. Weren't you planning to go all out for this?]

{Hey, weren't you the person who asked me to remember that this is a fight?}

[That I did. But…]

{Hehe, so hesitant! You wanna see my silver hair power as well, eh?}

[If it doesn't trouble you that much.]

{Dang, you being polite about something doesn't sit right with me.}

[Well, it's just because it's a skill that I don't know!]

{Okay, you don't have to wait for long! I was planning to use it as well!}

I didn't use my silver hair skill, even though I was in my empress costume because of my journey's lengthy nature. But now I don't have to worry about stuff like that. It truly was a blast seeing Liling's surprised face as my jet black hair slowly turned into silver.

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