Well Laid Plans

Cheng Xiu twisted her body away from the straight thrust to her guts and parried the follow-up jab.

Her trance-like state was gone and a deep frown etched over her face.

Their momentum was faster than it was before.

Cheng Xiu could feel the difference between how EverHill acted before and the way he acted now. His attacks were more fierce and more thought out.

There were traps and subterfuge in his attacks.

There were moments when he would let her get close to him so that he could limit the range of actions that she could take.

Cheng Xiu was able to defend against attacks that went for her critical points but she found herself frustrated at being unable to avoid the smaller attacks.

Even with absorbing Wild Qi, she did not seem to have enough momentum, always being pulled in and outmanoeuvred. And without the trance-like state that she was in before absorbing Wild Qi was much harder.

This meant that her wounds healed slower and slower, and with the barrage of attacks that EverHill threw at her, the number of wounds on her body increased by a large amount. Cheng Xiu finally knew the difference between those with and without experience. She found herself immersed more and more into the rhythm of their blows.

Despite the pain, her body was in and the exhaustion that was slowly gaining on her, Cheng Xiu's heart started to beat faster in excitement.

Her dark, Phoenix eyes burned with passion and a glint of stubbornness.

She wouldn't be killed today. She wouldn't let these "experts" who forced her into an Arena match just because she tried to save her own life be the ones to get what they wanted.

'Face an enemy that wants you dead with your strength!'

It was a motto Cheng Xiu had used when she used to play adventure-type games. Because in these situations, the only advantage she would have against her enemies was her intelligence. Her planning.

She suppressed a smile that wanted to grow on her lips as she calmed down and a plan formed in her mind.

Her eyes glowed with a hunger to see her plan coming to fruition.

EverHill jumped towards her.

Surrounded by trees, there wasn't much room for either of them to move freely.

Cheng Xiu's options were limited.

Cheng Xiu backed away just as fast as he moved forward and found herself backed up to a tree.

EverHill rammed the spear towards her. The chance of her dodging to the side so that his spear would be lodged in the tree was high, and so EverHill summoned the short spear at the ready.

Cheng Xiu dodged.

EverHill smirked.

Cheng Xiu grabbed hold of the spear just as it was about to pierce the thick stem of the tree and used the movement to haul herself up into the tree.

EverHill blinked up at her in surprise.

She was going to do an overhead stab?

That move would leave her front wide open! Was she stupid or was she giving up?

Cheng Xiu jumped down, her sword aimed at EverHill's face.

EverHill spread his legs apart to brace himself and readied his weapon to attack her straight on.

As she got closer, EverHill felt danger all around him.

Trusting his instincts honed over the years, he fell to the ground and rolled away.

Six swords stabbed into the ground when he had just stood.

EverHill's heart shook in fear. He had forgotten their existence again. There was no doubt.

SelaXiu had a skill that used Mind Magic.

It was so subtle that he couldn't even detect it but he was sure of it in his heart.

Cheng Xiu landed on the ground softly and turned to look at him.

EverHill felt his heart quiver in fear at the fire he saw in her eyes.

Cheng Xiu observed the man and guessed that he must have figured it out.

What she used was not actually a skill but a technique that the Arena Market had and it was a technique that she was very familiar with in the other game that she played.

It was called Illusion and that was exactly what it was. It taught the user how to use your Qi to control the perception of Reality of others.

What Cheng Xiu used was a watered-down version of it, that allowed her to "forget" about her crucial skills at the right moment.

There was no real way around it, except to always keep it in your mind.

Once you are distracted you are affected.

Cheng Xiu just needed to do something that would attract his attention and EverHill would focus on that, forgetting about the real threats.

Experts of the technique could exert their will on the people they wanted, rendering those people into puppets who do their bidding.

The technique was easy to employ.

All she had to do was send trickles of Qi into EverHill's body every time their weapons came into contact. And then she could just use the Qi in his body the way she did Weapon Weaving.

As long as she had the superior mental strength and kept the distractions to a minimum, she would be able to lure EverHill the way she wanted.

Or she should but, EverHill was no push-over and his ingrained battle instincts made it hard for her to trick him as much as she wanted to.

Cheng Xiu had formed a plan in mind when she had seen the change in the mental state of EverHill but it hinged on the fact that she could distract him long enough to execute it properly.

With EverHill aware of her "mind magic", she wasn't sure it would be so easy to trick him.

On the other side, EverHill gritted his teeth in frustration. The moment he thought he had a handle on her, she did a manoeuvre that he hadn't seen coming.

Cheng Xiu dashed towards him with her sword again.

EverHill jumped back, his eyes on the sword copies that were slowly coming out of the ground and on Cheng Xiu.

Her eyes brightened in excitement. It was time.

EverHill saw an opening as she came at him at high speed.

He summoned both his spears and his javelins to attack her.

Her sword copies were flying behind her.

EverHill met her head-on.

At the last moment, before the spear met with the tattered robes of Cheng Xiu's chest, the sound of a choked voice left EverHill's mouth.

The javelins and spears stilled.

Cheng Xiu's sword impaled EverHill in the chest.