Chapter 1231: Four to Six
An accelerated step to the side avoided Zac's slicing chop. His attack pursued without giving pause, but the much larger reaver was as slippery as an eel. He dodged again, disrupting Zac's tempo with a lightning-quick jab before resuming his oppressive siege. The heaviness of Kator's punches belied their speed, and their rhythmic thuds couldn't be fully absorbed by the reinforced steel walls.
Joanna followed every movement and every transformation of Dao from the sidelines, even if she knew it was impossible for her to follow in their footsteps. Her understanding of Dao and how it influenced reality was too lacking to achieve true integration.
If it had been before, she would have been overwhelmed by a sense of inadequacy by the beautiful yet deadly dance before her. Today, she only felt pride over Zac's rapid progress. It was like a new person stepped into the sparring chamber every morning. It still wasn't quite enough to create a perfect counterbalance against Kator's refined technique, which clearly had borrowed much from a powerful Heritage. At least the jeering taunts had been replaced by focused silence.
Besides, she had no reason to mourn the loss of something she never had now that she'd found a road of her own. Observing the daily spars was a ceaseless font of inspiration to her [Eight Hells Suppression], the comprehensive set of techniques imparted by her master. She'd opened the first gate of Hell through slaughter on the battlefield and was enlightened to the second with the help of Rava.
Joanna could tell the Eternal Servant hoped Indra Eyler's purpose and allegiances would rub off on her. Joanna wasn't against the idea of helping Rava to reciprocate her grace, but it would depend on the path Zac chose. The Limitless Empire and its grand design meant nothing to Joanna, who'd chosen to live and die with the Atwood Empire.
"Time!" Joanna said.
The battle continued, though a sharper song replaced the meaty thuds. It would take a casual observer a few moments to realize the two had taken out practice weapons. Their auras and movements had made it feel as though they'd been fighting with weapons all along. Zac continued his relentless, suffocating advance, refusing to be trapped in Kator's restricting quagmire.
Every swing was a sermon on the Dao of Conflict, every feint and counter fundamental truth that could be utilized by large armies as well as individual champions. It had a natural flow that the brutal and practical killing techniques of [Eight Hells Suppression] couldn't mimic. Even then, it was impossible to say which approach would come out on top if the fighters were equally matched.
Generalized combat systems couldn't keep up with a true Dao Technique. Even elites following peak-quality Heritages would be one or two minor grades behind. Indra Eyler, whose affinity with the Dao was similarly unimpressive as hers, had come as close as humanly possible to breaking that established truth when creating [Eight Hells Suppression].