Child of Destiny

Shin glanced at the group of sand soldiers before him before giving his skill panel another look.

“This is going to be a bit more interesting,” he mumbled before summoning his phantom clone.

‘Phantom Swordsman Skill: Phantom Apparition’

Swoosh!

Right after appearing, the Phantom Apparition stood right beside Shin while looking emotionlessly at the group of sand soldiers.

Shin only knew that the goal for this trial was to understand and learn more about his secondary combat class and improve his mastery of the skills under it.

Aside from the skills that he was already very familiar with, he still had yet to get any of the hidden skills that his Phantom Apparition possessed.

Shin was quite confused at first, thinking that this was not much different from what he usually did with Secondary Combat Class.

However, when he thought that this was just the first floor and still in easy difficulty, he believed that it must be guiding him steadily toward his goal.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Not long after, his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the strong and uniform set of footsteps, signifying that the sand soldiers were now marching toward them.

Rumble!

In response, Shin slightly pursed his lips before manually controlling the Phantom Apparition with his mind.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

He then urged it to use the strongest skill that he had in Phantom Swordsman Class while also using his version of it.

‘Phantom Swordsman Skill: Phantom Dance’

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Shin and the Phantom Apparition were split into multiple images, creating a set of nine phantoms each, which scattered and charged straight to the incoming sand soldiers.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The sand soldiers swiftly responded, raising their spears and shields forward, while maintaining their formation.

They tried to attack the incoming phantoms with coordinated movements, sealing off any possible route that the latter group could take during their advance.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Unfortunately, despite all their efforts and a highly coordinated set of attacks, they failed to stop the opposing side.

All their attacks passed through the bodies of the phantoms, unable to deal any real threat to the opposition.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Shin and the Phantom Apparition continued to swap places with other phantoms, dodging all those attacks and slipping through the tight formation of the sand soldiers.

They managed to pass through all those blockades and reached their main target within the shortest time possible, cornering the latter with their flanking attack.

In these kinds of situations, it was more effective to catch the leader of the opposing side rather than wasting his time in useless skirmishes.

Shing!

Shin charged forward and was about to unsheathe the [Yamato] to throw a deadly strike toward the sand general.

Swoosh!

The Phantom Apparition, on the other hand, used the shadow underneath the sand general’s feet to appear behind the latter while brandishing its pair of sabers.

Shing! Shing!

These attacks were perfectly timed and flawlessly coordinated, not giving the opposing side any time to properly react.

At least, that was what Shin thought until the sand general made its move.

Bang!

It suddenly kicked the ground, launching itself forward to great Shin.

Swoosh!

Due to its sudden charge, it barely avoided the series of slashes thrown by the Phantom Apparition.

Shing!

However, it was now facing Shin, who was already in the middle of unsheathing the [Yamato] and about to slash it forward.

Tap!

However, before Shin could even fully unsheathe the sword, the hand of the sand general suddenly moved forward and accurately hit Shin’s arm with its palm.

“Eh!”

Those movements might look simple and lack any form of power, but Shin’s movements were suddenly cut midway, preventing him from completing his actions.

“This move again!?” Shin frowned deeply since the scene was quite familiar to him.

It was the same move that Faker usually used against him during their training sessions. It might look simple, but it was highly effective against him, especially when he was trying to unleash his sword-drawing techniques.

Bang!

Shin had no choice but to push the sword back to its sheath while also twisting his body alongside these movements, hiding the sheathed sword from his opponent’s sight.

At the same time, he also tried to retreat to create enough space between him and the sand general. He needed this space to unleash a more powerful move to compensate for his earlier failure.

Swoosh!

The sand general tried to chase after Shin, but the Phantom Apparition stuck to it.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The Phantom Apparition gathered all its phantoms before re-casting the skill once again to surround the sand general.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

It seemed to be planning to trap the sand general with its phantoms before unleashing its attack.

Shin, on the other hand, could not help but furrow his brows even deeper when he saw this. He had never given such an order to the Phantom Apparition nor tried to control its movements when executing all these actions.

It had taken the initiative to do all these. Given how fast and smooth its actions were, it looked like it did not require Shin’s input on most of its movements.

Shing! Shing! Shing!

The Phantom Apparition tried to attack the sand general from multiple directions, constantly switching its place to make it hard for the latter to read its movements.

However, the sand general was not that simple. It managed to spot the true body among the phantoms and even predicted the latter’s thoughts.

Bang!

The sand general accurately struck the true body among all the phantoms, sending it toward Shin, who was already in the middle of unleashing his attack.

Swoosh!

Unfortunately for Shin, the Phantom Apparition had blocked his line of sight, making it impossible to unleash his attack.

Whoosh!

Instead of circling, Shin directly used one of his phantoms, switching places with it.

He was about to attack when he saw the sand general appear before him.

“This guy sure is fast,” he mumbled before quickly retreating. Creating a space between him and his opponent was the most basic move that he had learned from Faker whenever he was using his sword-drawing techniques.

He particularly wanted to avoid those hands that were clearing, targeting his arm to stop him from fully drawing the [Yamato].

Bang!

However, before he knew it, the sand general had already raised its right leg and extended its foot forward.

It accurately hit the bottom of his sword’s hilt, stopping him from drawing it once again.

“Damn it!” Shin cursed right after, quite confused how he missed the movements of his opponent.

It felt like he was fighting a ghost that never showed any signs when moving around. It was as if he were fighting a highly trained assassin and an extremely skilled martial arts expert combined.

“Wait! Martial Arts!?” mumbled Shin as he continued to retreat away from the sand general, who kept on chasing after him.

He had yet to find the true purpose of this trial aside from knowing that this was supposed to be targeting his Assassination Techniques, particularly the Phantom Swordsman Skills.

His only clue was the word ‘mirage’ mentioned when he was choosing the trial and its difficulty earlier.

“Does it want me to stay put and let my Phantom Apparition do all the work?” he thought before turning toward the direction of his clone and seeing it engaging in an intense battle against the sand soldiers that were swarming at it.

Shin then turned at the sand general before retreating quite far from it. He had even returned to the original spot where he was standing earlier.

He then realized that the sand general stopped pursuing him before returning to its original spot as well.

It stood haughtily on top of a dune while overseeing the ongoing battle between its soldiers and the Phantom Apparition.

Seeing this, Shin seemed to have become enlightened and realized something.

“Is the first trial meant for testing my control and authority over my clones?” he mumbled before turning toward the ongoing battle between the Phantom Apparition and the sand soldiers.

After observing for quite a while, he furrowed his brows quite deeply before shaking his head. “No, it shouldn’t be that simple. There must be some other requirements as well.”

This was proven by the earlier actions of the sand general. Since they could attack him, there must be another condition other than controlling his clones or phantoms.

Shin fell into deep thought while watching the Phantom Apparition fight the sand soldiers, spamming its skills, which were mostly unfamiliar to Shin.

He was still thinking about what he was missing when he suddenly started focusing on the movements of the Phantom Apparition itself.

He had unknowingly entered a deep trance while also subconsciously activating his True Sight Skill.

His mind also wanted to use his Duplicator’s Eyes, but the system suddenly interfered and prevented it from activating.

Not long after, Shin seemed to have forgotten everything and solely focused on the Phantom Apparition, removing all the other ‘distractions’ in his mind.

All the movements of the Phantom Apparition were clearly reflected in his eyes, including even the flow of energy in its surroundings.

……