Chapter 245: My Dear Competitor
Just as he had predicted, Elyssara was back in her seat, with a calm expression plastered across her face, doing the best she could to mask the impure emotions that bubbled violently beneath her skin.
Jacob saw her when he looked out into the crowd, but he would pay her no mind, as he currently had an opponent in front of him. What was worse? This opponent had a weapon!
Jacob inched closer until he was at a reasonable distance from this man. The man had auburn hair, with greying sideburns and a matte-black beard. When he blinked, it was as though time slowed around him. Jacob could feel the man’s heartbeat, which moved at 30 beats per minute. Any slower and he would be considered dead. This suggested that the man who comfortably sat on the hilt of a sword before him was deathly calm.
"Hello there, dear opponent. My name is Vayburn. V-A-Y-Burn. It’s my honor to spar with you," the man said before Jacob could even muster a single word. He stepped down from the sword and gripped the pure alligator-hide hilt tightly as a powerful aura oozed from his pores.
"How are you allowed to use a weapon here?" Jacob had already figured that the man must surely have had a constellation supporting him by now. But he gave the man a chance to say it himself. It was normal for constellations to approach fighters and sponsor them if they believed that they had... or had shown promise in any way.
The man smiled, a calm smile that merely showed the left side of his lip curved upwards. "It’s all thanks to my generous benefactor. The Blade God. He hath given me his blessings and encouraged me to fight with my spirit." The man pointed into the crowd and revealed a small, built-looking man who sat with a nonchalant expression.
Certain benefits came with accepting a constellation as a benefactor. They could give cash, they would ensure rule bypasses, and help you in any way they needed to win the tower. In Elyssara’s case, they could also offer physically intimate benefits.
But all would have to be repaid. It was non-negotiable, whether one completed the tower or not. The benefactors would decide the gift, considering how much they had invested in the person.
Failure to win the tower would incur an even more serious repayment deal.
"That’s interesting, I can see him. And why do you need a benefactor?" Jacob asked calmly, his tone as flat as ever. His heartbeat remained steady.
The man paused before he responded, his sword tightly gripped in his hand as he raised his head up, as though to look at the sky. But there was none, just rock.
"As long as I have been alive, I have sought perfection, I have sought conquest, and I have sought opportunities. None of these things have brought me any form of joy, nor have they brought me any satisfaction. Instead, I find myself regressing, reliving the same moments over and over again. And let me tell you, I picked up a lot of things in my many lives, which I have now channeled into fulfilling my dream... Conquering the ultimate challenge. The Tower of Sun.
"I have trained my entire life for this, and I will not let anyone stop me... Maybe I can finally find fulfillment, and the satisfaction I have long craved for. That is why I need a benefactor. Even though I am fine with my current physical prowess, an advantage never hurt anyone."
Jacob could tell from the faint glint in this man’s dark brown eyes that he was being brutally honest, and that he really believed that he had an ace up his sleeve.
It was all fine and good. Jacob had heard the man’s side of the story. He then smiled wryly and struck a kung fu pose, with his arm and leg stretched out, aimed at his opponent.
"Ohh, you’re ready?" Vayburn smiled in turn, a gleam of excitement flashing in his eyes as he raised his pristinely polished blade, the light reflecting neatly off of it. The blade hummed faintly with a hint of bloodlust, but it appeared as though it had never claimed a soul before. "I can see you’re very powerful... but I will thoroughly enjoy this, my fierce competitor."
"Try your best to."
Jacob had already ascertained that this man had a skill known as , which meant that whenever he swung his sword, he could attack any place in which his opponent was going to be in the next 10 to 20 seconds, which made it especially hard to evade his strikes. In some ways, it was similar to , since it was also very high in efficiency.
Jacob knew what to do.
Instead of dashing at the man headfirst or waiting for the man to lunge into an attack, he quickly created two clones and watched them dash at an unimaginable speed towards the man, who calmly stood there, taking a deep breath. Each of them came with their arms stretched to the extreme, ready to throw two very hard punches at the man’s face.
Vayburn had seen this skill before. He would evade and strike the belly of one of them while the other...
His thought process was completely interrupted by a tough pair of shadowy hands gripping hard at his foot to hold him in place. He hadn’t expected that move and, as such, widened his eyes in surprise.
But before he could move again, another pair of tough hands grabbed his arms, holding him still as the two clones rushed in for the hit.
Jacob stood and watched. His lips curved in a sinister smile as he had already seen how this little trick of his would play out.
Both Elyssara and the Blade God watched with different expressions on their faces as this man was about to be hit with one of the strongest attacks that they had seen so far...