Bab 98: Their second fight
Zhang Zi and Bai Yun ran at each other. Zhang Zi knew that Bai Yun was better than him at close combat so he couldn't let him get too close. So just as Bai Yun got close to him, get swung his spear to make Bai Yun stop in his tracks.
Bai Yun returned the attack with his sword. The two of them exchanged a few attacks, but neither of them could gain the upper hand. After a while, Bai Yun grew frustrated. He then suddenly used his full strength to jump backwards and create some distance between them.
It was time to use the secret technique he had been developing just to deal with Zhang Zi.
Bai Yun took a deep breath. Suddenly Zhang Zi had a weird feeling. He felt hat Bai Yun was not really there, even though he could see him. Zhang Zi was having a difficult time telling where to strike.
Suddenly Bai Yun took a step to the right. The moment he did so, Zhang Zi thrust out his spear and it pierced exactly where he was standing at a moment ago. For a moment everyone was confused because it felt as if Bai Yun had moved even before Zhang Zi struck out.
The spectators were not the only ones confused. Zhang Zi was too. He had no idea what just happened.
But he was not too easily discouraged. Putting it out of his mind, Zhang Zi thrust out with his spear again. But a weird thing happened again. Bai Yun had moved before he had even attacked. Once again he missed.
Bai Yun smiled at Zhang Zi. Then he suddenly knelt to the ground. The next moment Zhang Zi's spear passed over Bai Yun's head harmlessly.
One after the other Bai Yun took steps in the arena with a smile. Right after he moved Zhang Zi would strike at the place Bai Yun was at. Each and every one of his attacks were being completely useless. Zhang Zi roared in frustration while attacking. He could tell that Bai Yun wasn't simply dodging his attacks, that there was a trick involved. He just couldn't see it.
It wasn't just Zhang Zi who was frustrated. Even the crowd had gone quiet. Even Song Hui had stopped waving her flag. The entire crowd and the referee watched the show on the arena in stunned silence. And as far as they were concerned, it was a show.
For every time Bai Yun moved, Zhang Zi would attack the place he had been at. If Bai Yun moved to the right, Zhang ZI would then strike at the left. If Bai Yun tilted his head, Zhang Zi would then strike past him. They were even more clear than Zhang Zi that his attacks were coming after Bai Yun had already moved. It looked as if the two of them were putting a play or the audience.
But they were wrong. It wasn't a play. It was a puppet show.
A puppet show set up by a masterful puppeteer.
What they were seeing was the result of Bai Yun's special training. The special weapon he had come up with just to deal with Zhang Zi.
What Bai Yun was doing was studying his opponent and predicting his moves. But not just predicting his moves. He was moving just before Zhang Zi struck. But just doing this alone won't be enough to confuse Zhang Zi.
The more difficult part laying in confusing the opponent. People like Zhang Zi had ample fighting experience. Just moving at the last minute won't be enough to stop then. What Bai Yun was doing was tricking that fighting experience.
When someone is fighting, they take in a lot of information. The pose of the opponent, their breathing, which muscles are tense and so on. One might not even be aware of all that information he is receiving. But it is not possible to calculate all of this information to come to a judgment quickly. So the subconscious mind takes over analyzing all that information. So what one calls fighting intuition is the judgment given by the subconsious by analyzing all the information in front of it.
And Bai Yun was giving Zhang Zi's subconsious wrong information. By posturing wrongly, he was making Zhang Zi calculate wrongly. It was this posturing that gave Zhang Zi the feeling that there was something wrong with his eyes. It was incredebaly difficult to master this skill. Bai Yun had been beaten up to an inch of his life when he was training to remaster this skill. Even training dummies used the same kind of information to judge how to fight. Except they had formations instead of a subconsious brain. But once he mastered it, the training dummies could no longer hit him. In fact, some of them even overheated due to the problem with the information and reality and broke down.
And this skill was also only useful against people like Zhang ZI who had a good amount of fighting experience. If one had no fighting experience, like Song Hui, there was nothing to fool. At the same time, if their fighting experience was abundant, like Bai Yun, it was impossible to fool. Unfortunately for Zhang Zi, he fell in the narrow gap where the fighting experience was just enough to be fooled.
And thus the fight continued for a while. One step at a time, Bai Yun slowly closed in on Zhang Zi. He could not go too fast as otherwise, his technique would fail. But Bai Yun finally got withing Zhang Zi's range. Zhang Zi was no longer able to strike at Bai Yun. With a loud roar, Zhang Zi finally crashed his spear into the ground. But Bai Yun easily dodged the attack. The next second, Bai Yun rapidly closed the distance between them and then drove his sword through Zhang Zi's right shoulder.
Zhang Zi stood there panting as blood slowly trickled out of his shoulder. He pointed to his shoulder. "You never attacked anyone else before. What is this, a special treatment just for me?" He asked.
"You're too dangerous. I can't take any chances." Bai Yun replied. He put his other hand on Zhang Zi's spear and held it in place.
"You know, I thought that you are too dangerous too. Thats why I prepared a trump card to deal with you." Zhang Zi said grabbing Bai Yun''s arm tightly and holding him in place.
"What?" Bai Yun said. But the next secoond his eyes flew open. His god sense was screaming. There was danger close by.
Bai Yun threw away the spear that he was holding on to. With his full strength, he tried to jump to the side. But Zhang Zi had a death grip on his hands, and it wasn't successful. Barely had Bai Yun jumed, when the spearhead of Zhang Zi's spear exploded. Pieces of the spearhead raced outwards like small little daggers, piercing into both Bai Yun and Zhang Zi.
Searing pain raced through Bai Yun's body as he felt shards of the spearhead stab into his body. Bai Yun rolled down on the ground, bleeding and in pain. He slowly stood up, with pieces of the spear stuck into him.
"I should have known somthing was up when you didnt use your shockwave ability until now. I suppose that the spear was hollow and it exploded using your shockwave abilty?" Bai Yun asked.
"That's right. Specially made just for you." Zhang Zi replied. He then groaned as he pulled out Bai Yun's sword that was stabbed into his shoulder. With a wince, he then threw it out of the ring, so Bai Yun could not retrieve it.
Bai Yun looked down at himself. There were five shards stabbed into his back and side. One by one Bai Yun sloly pulled them out. As he did so, copious amounts of blood started leaking from his body.
Bai Yun stared at Zhang Zi. Two shards had missed him and had stabbed into Zhang Zi's chest and right arm. Zhang Zi pulled the two shards out and dropped them. Zhang Zi then tried to grab his spear from his back, but his left shoulder and right arm were both too damaged. He didnt has the strength to hold on to the spear and dropped it. But he picked it up with great determination and got into a fighting posture.
"Well, this is a nice little pickle we have found ourselves in. We are both too severely wounded and losing a lot of blood. Me from your spearhead, you from my sword. I bet we won't last another five minutes before we pass out from blood loss." Bai Yun said.
Suddenly the referee stood up. Just as he was about to say something both Bai Yun and Zhang Zi raised their arms.
"Not now." Bai Yun said.
"Just tell the medics not to let us die once we have a result." Zhnag Zi continued.
The referee thought of intervening, but one look at the two young men glaring at each other and the thought flew out of his mind. He sighed and sepped down. He then gently signaled the medics to get ready to treat them as soon as there was a result.
Zhang Zi and Bai Yun ran at each other. When he got close, Bai Yun suddenly used wind motion and closed the distance between them. Zhang Zi's spearhead glowed with the shockwave ability, but it missed Bai Yun. Bai Yun jabbed his hands at Zhang Zi's injury in his right arm. Zhang Zi groaned in pain, and his grip on the spearhead loosened. Bai Yun grabbed the spear, leaped back and threw it away.
Bai Yun and Zhang Zi stared at each other. Neithor of them had any weapon. And they were seriously injured. So they tried to stop the bleeding as much as they could and continued.
When the two of them reached each other's range, they both threw a punch at each other, which was easily blocked. Zhang Zi attacked with a kick, but Bai Yun easily blocked it with his knee. Zhang Zi was slightly faster than Bai Yun, but Bai Yun was easily holding Zhang Zi back by predicting Zhang Zi's attacks.
Zhang Zi and Bai Yun contined to trade blows for a few minutes. Suddenly Zhang Zi slipped on a bit of blood on the floor and lost his footing for a moment. Bai Yun was waiting for this moment. He immediately landed a punch on Zhangi ZI's injured shoulder. Zhang Zi grunted in pain. But Bai Yun did not stop. He immediately punched him again, and then send him flying with a kick.
Zhang Zi fell on the ground but got up quickly. He looked down to see that his robe had turned bloody. He knew he had to finish it soon.
Then Zhang Zi and Bai Yun ran at each other once again. They knew that they did not have long to fight, so they both charged up with their strongest attakcs. Bai Yun was using the lion's roar, while Zhang Zi had poured all that he had had into his shockwave ability. One step at a time, the quickly closed the distance between them.
With a shout, their arms collided. When the two attacks hit each other, there was a powerful impact. For a moment, the two of them stood there pushing against each other. After a few minuts, there was an explsion and both of them flew back.
Both Zhang Zi and Bai Yun fell on the ground. The entire stadium watched them in stunned silence. But then the two of them started to move, almost at the same time.
Slowly one step at a time, the two of them stood up. Both of them were bleeding too heavily by now. They barely stood up and stood there glaring at each other. But both of their eyes were barely functioning, so they could hardly see anything.
"Damn." Zhang Zi said.
And then Zhang Zi slowly collapsed to the ground. In front of the silent stadium, Zhang Zi slowly fell.
Bai Yun stood there silently. He caught what happened. And then slowly he raised his fist to the air.
"Long Tian wins." The referee finally announced.
Hadiah
-- Hadiah diterima Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
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