Child of Destiny

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Shin was currently exchanging intense blows against the Knight Golem, creating a series of explosions in every collision.

He was unable to take the same approach that he used against the Lizard Warrior earlier, since he was unable to find any weakness in this Knight Golem.

This open was no different from the hollow armor of a knight, which came alive after a ghost possessed it. It was because of these characteristics that it was hard for Shin to find its weakness.

What made it troublesome was its immunity against physical attacks. If only he could use magic or elemental powers against it, then he would have a much easier time against this creature.

Unfortunately, most of his other skills were currently banned by the tower.

Due to this, Shin was unable to find any good opportunity to take down the Knight Golem before him. Unless he found its weakness, dealing with it would be much more troublesome.

Clank! Clank!

After exchanging for a few more times, Shin made a skillful retreat, trying to distance himself from the opposing side and to create enough space where he could observe it more clearly.

From his knowledge, the weakness of such creatures was their cores. So long as he found its core, dealing with it would be much easier.

“There are no visible signs from the outside, so it can only be found within the armor itself,” mumbles Shin after watching the actions of the Knight Golem for quite a while.

He had been exchanging blows against it for quite some time already, so he pretty much knew most of its parts already, and he had never found any weakness coming from the opposing party.

“If I can’t find it outside, then it can only be within its body-… or should I say armor?” he mumbled.

Right after, Shin slightly changed his approach. He started targeting the joints and other gaps in this living armor hand.

He knew that once he got them, he would be able to break them into pieces, giving him the chance to see what was inside.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Bang!

Unfortunately, the opposing side seemed to see through his intention and started protecting those parts, preventing Shin’s sword from cutting through its defenses.

What Shin found interesting about this Knight Golem was its fighting style. It was not just randomly swinging its sword and shield, but rather used them skillfully.

From his perspective, it seemed to be using a unique combat technique or even a proper martial arts. Moreover, it was more focused on defense than on anything else.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

After a few more exchanges, Shin realized something even more interesting about this technique.

“Those sword and shield movements-…” Shin squinted his eyes as he closely observed the actions of the opposing party, particularly when they were defending.

“It was moving its sword and shield rather slowly, yet they were still able to deflect all my attacks,” he mumbled as he focused his eyes entirely on these movements.

Clank! Clank!

“Not only that. Its body movements were quite strange as well. Is it an advanced armor technique?” he added while furrowing his brows.

An Armor Technique was quite famous among knights and paladins, who wore heavy armor during battles.

Due to them focusing on defense most of the time, these kinds of knights and paladins wore thick armors that could block and withstand most of the attacks of their opponents. It was a highly effective method to withstand blows, which could also create an opportunity for a counterattack.

However, due to these armors being quite thick and sturdy, their weight was usually heavy, which was not ideal for mobility techniques.

Most of the heavy knights and paladins were stationary and extremely slow when fighting.

They might be extremely durable, but they were also extremely slow, making it easier for their opponents to target them. This also made it easier for other classes, which were extremely mobile, to harass them with their speed.

For range classes, kitting was the best way to deal with them, while hit-and-run tactics were advisable for most of the melee classes, especially assassins and thieves.

For the same classes, on the other hand, a direct confrontation was necessary, where the battle would only be decided through the techniques of each side.

In this area, the one with better armor technique was mostly the one with the better edge during such battles.

Armor Techniques was the way to utilize the armor of a knight to its fullest potential during battles. It was not just the core armors that were usually used when defending, such as armguards and shin guards, that were regularly used on multiple occasions.

Armor Techniques also utilized the shoulder guards and even the top armor itself.

“The essence of these armor techniques is mostly to minimize the damage that the incoming strikes head at them, particularly the ones that can be avoided,” mumbled Shin, recalling the details that he knew about these techniques.

Arthur was a knight, so Shin learned a thing or two from him.

“Sometimes, they also used small movements throughout their bodies to let those attacks slightly brush through their bodies before bouncing them off,” he added after watching the Knight Golem’s movements a couple of times.

From what he could see through his True Sight, this Knight Golem was skillfully avoiding the blade of his sword, or only letting it scratch the surface of its armor before using a gentle force to push the sword away.

Along with the momentum of his strikes, the sword usually bounced off through these actions.

“Interesting,” Shin found himself becoming more interested in this method the more he saw it in action.

“What if I apply this principle with my methods as well?” he mumbled, seemingly gaining some insights from this battle.

Clank! Clank!

He blocked the attacks from the Knight Golem before distancing himself from it a little and resuming his thoughts. “But I can’t completely mimic it since I am not wearing heavy armor like them.”

His class belonged to the Swordsman Class, which was a balance between others.

Swordsmen focused more with high damage, but not as powerful as Berserkers. They were mobile, but not as fast as thieves and assassins. They also had decent magic powers, which focused on Sword Qi attacks with decent range, but they were not as destructive as mages.

They also had a decent defense due to them wearing light armors, which had a slightly stronger defense compared to leather armors, but weaker when compared to heavy armors. However, this made them much faster and more mobile when compared to knights.

“How about forming a layer of mana over my armor for extra protection?” he thought before shaking his head, understanding that he could not do it with his current strength due to the restrictions that the tower had placed on him.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

After a couple more exchanges, Shin seemed to have remembered something, particularly when he was dodging.

During these exchanges, he was mostly using the ‘Phantom Waltz’, where all his phantoms stacked with his body over the other and produced a series of overlapping afterimages to confuse his enemies.

“What if I use the phantoms instead of mana guard?” he mumbled before applying this thought right after.

With the overlapping images that he created with his movements and the phantoms, Shin was able to dodge most of the attacks from the Knight Golem.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

However, his rhythm was a bit odd and awkward, creating a few gaps in his movements.

“I am subconsciously avoiding the incoming attacks due to my battle instincts kicking in,” he mumbled while dodging yet another series of attacks from his opponent.

Then, it was at that moment when something struck his mind. “That’s right!”

“Since the phantoms were closely stacked together, I can just use them to ‘swap’ places with them whenever an attack was about to reach me,” he said with bright eyes, feeling that he was walking the right path. “That’s it!”

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Shin did not wait that long and immediately put his idea into practice. He took the initiative to engage in an intense melee against the Knight Golem while focusing on dodging rather than exchanging blows with it.

He did not throw any kind of attacks since he wanted to focus on this new insight that he had just gotten and perfect it with repeated practice.

Shing!

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Right after Shin got the hang of it, he started ‘swapping’ places with the overlapping phantom and dodging the incoming attacks, not just once but multiple times.

With his steady pace, he was able to master this new technique fully and became an additional movement of his ‘Phantom Series’.

It had a similar form to his ‘Phantom Waltz’, but their essence was different.

If the ‘Phantom Waltz’ were meant to confuse his opponent and mess with their rhythm, then this new technique was for increasing his evasion rate and protecting himself from all the incoming threats.

“Let’s call it the ‘Phantom Shroud’ then,” he said right after completing the new technique.

…