Chapter 25)

My taunt seemed to have really riled Morant up, he didn't have that passive aggressive look anymore.

"Who do you think you are? You're speaking to me as if we are on equal footing. You will never be able to defeat me." He spoke with a stern voice, spitting on the ground after finishing his sentence.

"You talk so highly of yourself for someone who's losing to a so called 'hero' who has never held a sword before coming here." I came back at him. I could feel a smile forming on my face, it felt good.

"QUIT MOCKING ME!" He yelled, suddenly rushing forward with erratic slashes from his sword. I could tell that there was no sense of coordination anymore from him, just random attacks from different angles that would never be able to create an opening to hit me. 

I could hear the same hellish screams coming from his sword, with each slash the green flames covered my sword, I could see the skulls biting at my sword's blade, staggering my movements slowly as I struggled to guard against his attacks.

"Where's your taunting now?! You can't seem to understand that a weakling like you should stay as such! Accept your loss already!" He continued to shout. His attacks kept getting faster as the clash continued, but his slashes were becoming more and more predictable, the same angles and motions each time. 

I waited until I could figure out the right moment to counter his movements. Up from the left, down from the right, up, down from the left, up from the right. It was a continuous cycle of those same movements. No wonder I was able to go up against him, he can't catch me off guard.

He lifted his sword up, I was able to predict that he was going to attack me by slashing his sword downwards, so I moved my sword sideways, knocking his balance off towards the right. I could see his mocking laughter turn into absolute fear when I retracted my sword from my counter attack, ready to end the match at that moment. 

As I raised my sword to finish the match, I thought I could see something a faint green form in front of me. I didn't want the match to last any longer, thinking that he would try to guard my attack, I lowered my sword as fast as possible. 

I only stopped midway.

I was right about him being able to guard my attack, but it wasn't actually him. What was in front of me looked like a ghost, a green, flaming soldier wearing armor. The soldier seemed to have blocked me with his own sword, pushing me back so Morant could regain his composure.

"Hahaha...! You thought that I would just go down that easily? You might know what Essence Projection is... But you won't win against my Essence Manipulation!"

He was right about me not knowing whatever Essence Manipulation, but I guess it has something to do with the soldier that ended up stopping me from defeating him. 

"I can't believe I even had to use this against you, but it doesn't matter! A weakling needs to learn..." Before he could finish his sentence, I could see two more soldiers rise up from the ground, the green flames from their body blowing into the distance. They each held a sword, a spear, and a shield. 

"HIS PLACE!" He shouted, raising his hand towards me. 

Without warning, the three soldiers had appeared in front of me, each with their weapon raised high.