Gale-Blade

As he grabbed the blade that was handed over to him, Gale-Blade conceded the fact that Wang Tong was not a wimp, but a strong opponent, he gathered himself to concentrate on the fight. "Hey yo, put on your METAL suit man, I'm not gonna go easy on you this time."

"Don't you worry about it, do your best, I really wish to see the famous move 'Strike of the Gale Blade'."

The slightly arrogant tone in Wang Tong's words had provoked Gale-Blade. If he didn't know that this so called Einherjar Wannabe was only sixteen years old, Gale-Blade would have thought that he had met a master level opponent.

Gale Blade held a serious expression in his eyes, as a deep whir became audible after his soul energy erupted from the nexus, driven by the perpetuating pulses of GN force.

"Taste this!"

Gale-Blade took a step forward and thudded the sole of his boots flat on the ground as the blade, held tight in a pair of hands with whitening knuckles, swooped in a half circle.

This was a ferocious battle hardened strike technique, one could even feel the weight carried by the strike in a meter distance, but Wang Tong stood still without even flinching which made the audience think that Wang Tong might have gone mad.

"Gods" someone in the audience seats let out a disbelieving cry.

Just when the strike reached the peak of its strength, its momentum ceased as Wang Tong held the back of the blade with two fingers that had crept there unnoticed in the middle of Gale-Blade's powerful and swift strike.

"I told you, do your best." Wang Tong jolted his hand and sent Gale-Blade staggering a few steps back.

The crowd was sizzling with disbelief and astonishment. It had happened so fast that no one could see how a bare hand could stop such a powerful attack infused with GN force.

Gale-Blade did not take advantage of the amplifying effect of his METAL suit, the offense focused Martian Feral Beast-X. But after he tasted humiliation for the second time, he allowed his METAL suit's effect to kick in as his armor started to emanate a faint dark red light which contrasted with the fiery expression in his eyes.

Energy started to build up in Gale-Blade's dantian, his eyes locked onto Wang Tong like a stalking lion ready to pounce on its prey. He was about to deploy his coup de grace, the ultimate strike of Gale-Blade. It was this spectacular move which the audience had been waiting to witness at every round of Gale-Blade’s fight.

Like most Martian's brash combat style, this coup de grace required the attacker to give up all defenses and to go almost berserk; in return, it would strike a paralyzing fear into an opponent's heart. Even a flinch of the opponent meant their catastrophic defeat under the overwhelmingly ferocious momentum of the attack.

Wang Tong could tell that this attack was different than the previous two as its aim was more precise, its force was more brutal, and above all, this strike was infused with sizzling GN force amplified by a METAL suit, which could disintegrate any human flesh upon contact. But Wang Tong simply stepped back casually without flinching.

One notable characteristic of a Martian's attack was its sheer speed as their non-stop assault would leave no opportunity for the opponent to counter, which always had turned the match into a solo performance.

As each and every strike fell towards Wang Tong, a swirling lance of ruby light spilled out from the blade, filling the arena with red flashes; however, Wang Tong didn’t flinch nor did he step back any further and, instead swayed his body at will from side to side, evading the singeing attacks.

“Hack, hack, hack…” Gale-Blade seemed to have lost his consciousness as he poured out the momentous strikes like the suffocating wild gales on the ragged mountain peaks.

There was a total of twenty-eight consecutive hacks and slashes in one round of Strike of the Gale Blade, but when the 28th slash fell to the end of its strength, Wang Tong was perfectly unharmed. With one hand, Wang Tong clamped tightly to the back of the blade which had fallen still right below his groin, the other hand followed with a palm strike towards Gale-Blade.

The battle-hardened Martian suddenly swayed his body to one side, twisting the handle in one hand so that the blade broke free from Wang Tong's iron clamp. With the sharp edge of the blade then facing upwards pointing directly at Wang Tong's groin, Gale-Blade struck hard as he yanked his arm up to destroy whatever lies in-between his groin. Wang Tong didn't freak out at the despicable move out of primal instinct like most people would have; he calmly hugged closer towards the attacker and wrapped his arm around Gale-Blade's head swiftly and quietly like a python latching onto a large sized prey.

As Wang Tong’s body turned around, so did the neck in his arms’ firm embrace, and then the match was over with a crisp snap of neck bone.

Wang Tong didn't intend the battle to end in such a brutal way, but that "neck twisting" move had already become muscle memory while fighting against the Zergs, as it was necessary in order to prevent the severely wounded ones from willingly exploding their body as a suicide attack.

First, the audience members were speechless, then quickly arguments erupted among them over the origin of this mysterious "neck twister". Some had asserted that, based on their years of fanboy/girl experience, the "neck twister" must have executed his move many times before since his movement looked effortlessly fluid. But everyone was sure about one fact, that Wang Tong was not from the military nor any schools since "neck twisting" would never be allowed to be taught.

Wang Tong noticed the searing looks beamed at him, he turned on his heel to hurry off the stage as he feared the crowd would boil over at his unconventional technique.

"Why are we leaving? You just fought another lame noob, ‘Gale-Blade’... pff… worse than a butter knife!" Mr. Wannabe said in an unsatisfied tone.

"He was not bad, especially the last attack, it was powerful; albeit lacking in speed, it’s better suited to war rather than duels like this."

"Since when did you become so modest? Anyhow, we need to find a tougher opponent, there have to be some matches for truly powerful fighters."

"I agree," Wang Tong said as he checked the game manual, and indeed there were matches for higher level players, but with Wang Tong's current level, he stood no chance of participating in those matches.

"Miao Xiu, Miao Xiu, come see, Einherjar Wannabe has been playing again, and he has just defeated a dude with a third tier METAL suit."

"Watch him for me; I'll be there right away!"

Miao Xiu stopped messing around with a cute girl in his arms; to him, a thrilling fight always seemed more tempting than the soft body of a girl.

A challenge message appeared in Wang Tong's mailbox as he started to feel helpless in joining any higher level matches. He studied the challenger's profile: "Forty wins and zero loss." Wang Tong figured that he was either a bad-ass fighter or he cheated, that would be the only two explanation for a 100% winning rate.

"Maybe we should give it a try?" Mr. Wannabe pleaded as he didn't want to stand around and wait since Wang Tong likely wouldn't be able to wait for very long before he had to head back to school which meant Mr. Wannabe would have to wait for another full week.

"Sure," Wang Tong accepted the challenge.

"Hurry Miao Xiu, he has accepted your challenge, I have picked the location for you. Everything is the same old,” Luv Ma cracked a smile as he spoke. Luv Ma was well aware of Miao Xiu's strength; after all, he had defeated forty high-level fighters without losing once. The reason that he was relatively unheard of was mainly because of Miao Xiu’s pet peeve with the crowd, as he put it, "Too many audience members make me feel like a circus monkey." Therefore he gradually self-ostracized from the TPA but had been causing trouble in real life instead.

That was right; Miao Xiu had injured an instructor on the first day of school.

"There we go, don't let me down dude, I had to give up a sweet night just to come here to fight you," Miao Xiu muttered anxiously.

Both Wang Tong and Miao Xiu arrived at the designated battleground, and both were filled with anticipation. This battle ground was very secluded with a very small audience. Just like in the real world, there were also introverts and extroverts in the game world.

None of this mattered to Wang Tong since he did not know anyone anyways.

Soon the two challengers appeared, one called "Nonchalant Playboy" and the other called "Sharp Razor". Wang Tong watched them as he noticed how well-defined their facial features were, “They must be Ivantians,” he thought.

Something stirred the air around Wang Tong's ear, a pulse of energy perhaps, he watched as Nonchalant Playboy gave him an agitated grin.