Chapter 52: Escalate

Right before the three get into their position.

Grace asks Sunz: So, what is the most efficient way to help improve your skill?

Sunz: Hmm, I guess just fighting like this will be your last battle.

After hearing that Grace has a devious smile on her face. "Ok!!!" she immediately kick Sunz in the stomach, which sent him flying to his corner. "Let's go!" she says to Jihu then run at Sunz with her rapier in hand.

Jihu *laughs* "Haha. Did not expect that!" then follows right behind her.

After being kicked like a ball into the goal. Sunz immediately sees both Grace and Jihu attacks, which make him quickly stand up, pull out his sword, and cover his stomach with his right arm.

Grace attacked Sunz first and her attack was blocked successfully. After that Sunz can see many visions of Grace's next attacks but for Jihu, his attacks appear briefly and disappear with no follow-up.

The battle continues with just only Sunz and Grace up against each other with no signal from Jihu. At this moment Sunz's stomach feels better, and so does his tempo with Grace. After many blocks, Sunz finally faster than Grace and starts taking the lead.

But that moment wasn't long when both of their stances broke from Grace countered Sunz's attack. After the break, Sunz saw a vision of Jihu appear in front of him. When he tried to block Jihu's attack with his right arm, it was cut off.

The vision disappears and Jihu is clearly in front of Sunz.

At that moment, Sunz stops seeing other options (Does this mean over…). (With one hand in the air and the other weaponless… I can't think of anything else.)

(maybe…maybe there…still other option… no no NO!!!!!!!!!)

Sunz's right hand immediately reaches for the sword as his left slowly releases. His left hand hadn't fully released its grip on the sword, but his right had already grabbed and pulled it through his left hand. Managed to block Jihu's attack and push both of them away from each other.

Grace manages to support Jihu from falling over after him being knocked into her. Then she ask "What were you doing? Aren't we both supposed to train him?"

Jihu: My fighting style is different from you two. 'Speed' isn't my friend, 'Precision' is!

Grace: That's good, but hurry up and heal that moron. He is bleeding!

Jihu "No way! He ain't that careless…" Then looks at Sunz's hand and sees blood dripping down his fingertips, (Oh shit! he really is bleeding.)

Jihu says to Sunz: OK buddy stop. Let's me patch you up first then we can continue.

Sunz: Sorry, but I can't. I'm feeling an adrenaline rush right now so it would be a waste to stop. Plus it's not like I can pause in the real battle.

Jihu: Well said! Can you please step aside Grace? This is personal.

Grace left the stage with a worrying look on her face.

Sunz immediately attacks Jihu after Grace leaves. Jihu was able to block Sunz's attack with ease.

After the first attack, Sunz thought that he would be able to predict Jihu's next movements but nothing appeared. Ignoring the fact that his ability is broken, Sunz transfers the sword to his left hand without any issue and continues attacking.

After some attacks, Sunz's left hand starts to sweat, which comes in contact with his cut. Forcing him to switch back to his right hand. This continues for a bit longer with Sunz continues switching his hands to wield the weapon.

After the first switch that caused his hand to bleed every action later on was conducted flawlessly but still needs some improvement.

Throughout the fight, all Jihu did was parry Sunz's attack and comment "Looks like your left isn't as good as your right!" which made Sunz answer with a smile "That's why I need you two help me to improve it!"

Jihu feels that Sunz's adrenaline rush is losing its effect. So he forcefully grabs Sunz's wrist mid-switching, raises that arm up, and stabs Sunz in the heart, penetrating through his body.

Jihu says "Without elements you sure are useless!" then pulls his sword out of Sunz and releases his wrist. The sword doesn't have any blood on it after being pulled out but there was blood dripping onto the floor after the stab.

Sunz doesn't know why he couldn't predict that lethal move. When he tried to speak the only word coming out of his mouth was "traitor…" and he fell to the ground with his hand still clenching onto the sword.

The one thing that comes to Sunz's mind after falling is (It cold).

Suddenly Jihu feels that his surroundings become extremely cold. Immediately he looks at Grace and sees that she is in tears.

Grace mumbles: Let's see if you can heal this!

The whole room feels another critical burst of cold air from Grace as she summons an identical rapier made of ice in her other hand.

Grace throws her ice rapier at Jihu to start the fight. Jihu held up his sword to block the attack and it was successful, but the rapier exploded into a cold fog after contact which knocked Jihu back a decent distance and numbed his whole body.

Jihu summons a water sword in his free hand and it instantly freezes, which removes the numbness from his body. He tosses the frozen sword to the ground and then shouts "He NOT DEAD!!!"

Grace walks through the fog, then looks at Jihu with her soulless eyes and says "He better wake up soon then…"

The fog doesn't disappear. Instead, it flows to Grace's free hand to recreate the ice rapier.

Then Grace starts to count "1…2…3…4…5… Time's up…"

Immediately attack Jihu with many quick follow-up attacks. Jihu was able to block all of the hits from the normal rapier, which created a clear open for the ice rapier to hit. Each time he was hit by the ice rapier it left a frostbite mark on his body. The more damage he receives the more numb his body becomes.

Jihu (She wasn't this strong in the tournament. If it's similar to Sunz's condition. Then all I must do is stall.) After thinking and taking damage. Immediately perform a powerful swing that creates a gust at Grace.

The attack doesn't flinch her but enough to make her raise an eyebrow. Then all of the frostbite marks on Jihu disappear and Grace's body slowly being encase in ice, starting from her feet.

Jihu has a sigh of relief: Whew! That should keep you busy for a while…