Town Competition (6)

"Number 14, and Number 9, please enter the stadium." The Addresser called out. Khoru's eyes twitched when he heard this, realizing that the Addresser called his number. He felt butterflies in his stomach as he walked down the seats and entered the stadium.

His opponent was a woman with dark green hair and white-ish yellow eyes. Her gaze was sharp and she held a stern expression on her face. She held up her weapon, which was a bow, and drew back the bow-string, aiming directly at Khoru's head.

'I wish she would have fought someone else before me so that I could've seen her powers.' Khoru thought as he summoned his blue sword. He didn't think using his purple sword would give him an advantage, at least not against this woman.

Plus, it hardly did any physical damage.

The Addresser raised his hand and said, "Let the match commence!" He slammed his hand onto the table and the crowd immediately began to buzz.

"Oh that kid is in for it now!"

"I bet he hasn't grown much in strength. It still baffles me how he managed to beat Qiu Wei during the Ghostly Blade Family's tournament."

Many people looked down on Khoru for being a bastard child, where there were only a few people who sat quietly and watched. One of them being one of the supreme elders of the family and Hao Jianyu.

Hao Jianyu's gaze was sharp and it remained on Khoru during the entire battle. She looked as if she wanted to tear him apart.

Khoru immediately dashed to the left when the Addresser started the match. He looked back and saw an arrow already planted into the ground where he was just standing.

'She's fast!' He thought as he dashed across the entire stadium. He didn't know how he should or would approach her, given her extremely fast draw speed.

He zig-zagged across the stadium, weaving through all of the arrows that rained down on him. Eventually the arrows stopped flying and the woman stopped shooting.

'Rule number one, never rapid fire with a normal bow! Especially when you have perishable arrows!' Khoru watched her as she pulled another quiver out from nowhere. His pupils shrank and he was utterly shocked.

He didn't know how she did that or where the quiver came from but he became alert again.

His gaze hardened as he rushed forward, trying to approach the woman as fast as possible. She saw him approaching her, yet she did nothing but draw the bow. As soon as he reached her, she let go and the arrow flew threw the air like a small missile.

Khoru made a split-second decision and pivoted his body to dodge the arrow, just barely missing the opportunity to hit her.

'Dammit! She knew that was going to happen!' Khoru quickly realized that his opponent was rather clever. Regardless, he rushed forward at her again and swung his sword down on her bow, expecting it to brake.

The woman wasn't expecting him to continue to chase her, so she was a bit sluggish with her counter-act. As Khoru's sword fell down upon her, she contorted her body and dodged it by a hair's width.

Boom!

The sword lodged itself deep into the stadium after missing the woman.

"That Pan Meli, I always knew she had more strength than she let on! She's from the Pan family after all, one of the best archer families within the neighboring towns."

"Don't you remember her Martial Spirit? I remember rumors going around about how she lost it."

People chattered about Pan Meli's background and how strong she was, which only made Khoru even more anxious than he already was.

"Ha!" Khoru rushed forward and executed the elementary version of his sword art against Pan Meli, trying to reach her with the yin and yang energies. She gritted her teeth and weaved through each storm of yin and yang energies that came her way.

She drew her bow again and let go, shooting an arrow through the storm while half-expecting it to survive against such violent energies.

Khoru's lips curved into an upward smile as he quickly approached her while executing the sword art. He was five strokes away from the final slash.

Each attack grew stronger than the last until Khoru unleashed the final slash and sent a wave of yin and yang energies flying at Pan Meli. Her pupils shrank as she suddenly jumped back and held out her hands in a defensive stance.

"Come out!" She summoned her Martial Spirit at the last second which came in the form of a bright green butterfly. It was two times her size and flew in front of her before quickly transforming into a translucent shield.

Khoru's attack was ultimately nullified and dispersed shortly after, leaving him shocked at the fact that his attack was deflected so easily.

'Even though its only the elementary version, it shouldn't have been countered so easily! That butterfly must be a strong Martial Spirit...' Khoru knew there was no more time to go easy on Pan Meli so he backed up to gain distance.

He took a stance with his sword, as if he were about to unsheathe a swift and silent katana.

'The good thing about my Martial Spirits is that they can both transform into different sword types now!' Khoru boasted in his mind. His blue Martial Spirit, which was previously a cross-blade, turned into a katana.

It retained all of its power and gained more slashing power than before, while losing a bit of its penetrating power in return.

Khoru held his katana there as Pan Meli watched him carefully with her butterfly shield still deployed. Neither of them moved as they stared into each other's eyes, waiting on each other to move.

"First stroke!" Khoru whispered to himself as the Spirit Qi surrounding his sword fluctuated violently and he ripped it from his side. A loud ringing sound echoed throughout the stadium as the katana flew out and whipped out a massive body of yin and yang energies.