Child of Destiny

Shin stood in the void without moving, observing his surroundings closely. He also kept his guard all the time, making sure to respond to any kind of threat that would be thrown at him.

The entire place was currently filled with powerful killing intent that was constantly piercing through his bones, trying to overwhelm him with its presence alone.

Due to this, Shin’s senses were constantly being affected alongside his decision-making.

This situation reminded him of his sparring sessions with Jeremiah before, who was constantly filling the air with his overwhelming killing to put a lot of pressure on him during the battle.

It was a special technique that Jeremiah had, which targeted his opponent’s senses. After all, they would surely have a hard time fighting him when their senses were being messed with by such a strong environment.

In a sense, it was an inferior version of a domain technique that the Domain Creation Stage Martial Artists controlled in their realm.

It was somewhat similar to the ‘False Domain’ that Shin had learned from Professor Plum during his special training in the mountains.

However, the difference between these two techniques was the number of ‘casters’.

Jerimiah was alone yet capable of filling the air with his extremely powerful killing intent, while the current situation and atmosphere were created by a large number of opponents, who were continuously releasing their killing intent and constantly directing it to him.

Jermiah was using this technique to distract his opponents and fool their senses before luring or forcing them from committing mistakes during the process.

Meanwhile, the current situation that Shin had was much more troublesome since all these killing intents were directly coming from multiple directions and solely targeting him, which meant that all of them were real.

Aside from this, there was also the invisible force that was constantly pressing on Shin, which was making his movements a bit awkward and sluggish.

On top of this, this pressure was slowly getting stronger with every passing second, making it harder for Shin to move the longer he stayed in this place.

“Tsk! So this time, it is not just to ‘help’ me train my newly acquired techniques and recently improved movement control, but also to hone my mind as well?” mumbled Shin, seemingly trying to guess the nature of this trial.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

While he was lost in thought, Shin suddenly sensed a series of movements around him along with tingling sensations coming from different parts of his body.

This clearly indicated that multiple attacks were currently being directed at him.

“Tsk!”

What made it worse was the fact that Shin only sensed these attacks when they were only about two to three meters away from him. This clearly showed how much senses had been dulled due to this troublesome environment.

Swoosh!

Shin swiftly responded, dodging the attacks one after another, without facing that much difficulty.

However, when he was about to counterattack, he realized that his assailants had suddenly disappeared without a trace. “Huh? Already gone?”

“That’s not right. I am sure that they are still around me just now,” he mumbled while furrowing his brows deeply. “Don’t tell me they will suddenly disappear once they finish their initial ambush.”

He was still lost in thought when another series of attacks flew at him.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

This time, their number had increased twofold while the areas that they were targeting were much more troublesome, especially when the angles from which they were coming were quite tricky to deal with.

Some of them were meant to cut his legs, while others were targeting his back and arms. There were also quite a few that were heading straight to his head and chest, while the rest were directed at the other vital parts of his body.

Regardless, Shin swiftly responded, executing the ‘Phantom Shroud’ to make his figure quite illusory along with the overlapping phantoms with his body.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Shin was just testing whether he could confuse his opponents, trying to see if they were ‘alive’ and not just some puppets meant to attack him or something with similar purposes.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

However, it seemed like the result was much better than what he expected, dodging everything without much of a problem.

“Let’s continue with this pace then,” he mumbled, wanting to see how the opposing side would respond.

Based on the initial attacks they launched, it seemed they were following a systematic pattern designed to counter his style.

However, what came next made him raise his brows quite high.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The series of attacks that came after him next was much deadlier than the previous two ambushes.

The number of attacks increased further, doubling the previous total, while the angles and targeted areas became much harder to deal with.

Moreover, these attacks did not just go after him, particularly in his vital areas. A number of them were not directed at any parts of his body, but at any areas around him, seemingly trying to seal his movements.

Even the movements of his phantoms seemed to be purposely targeted by these attacks, further limiting his movements.

“They are adjusting to the techniques that I have just used to deal with them?” Shin raised his brows after realizing that he now had extremely limited choices right now.

Frowning deeply, Shin decided to further test the waters before doing anything else. He continued to dodge the series of attacks by increasing his speed when switching places with his overlapping phantoms.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

With this, he dodged yet another round of attacks.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

However, he was barely able to catch his breath when another series of attacks flew straight at him.

This time, their numbers were much greater than the previous ones, while their trajectory became even more absurd. The angles that they were taking were now covering an even larger area, which further shrank the space that he could maneuver with.

Seeing this, Shin decided to use his sheathed sword to block most of the strikes that he could not dodge while continuing to utilize the ‘Phantom Shroud’ to its highest potential.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Clank! Clank!

Right after he finished blocking the final attack, the next batch immediately followed, not giving him any time to catch his breath.

Moreover, the timing of these attacks was much trickier to deal with, especially when most of them were arranged to catch him during his dodging process.

It was as if they saw through the future, accurately targeting the areas where he was most likely to dodge.

“They are truly adjusting to my actions, huh?” he mumbled before deciding to face them head-on.

Ta-ta!

He stopped his actions and took his signature sword-drawing stance. He then quickly unsheathed the [Yamato] and swiftly swung it multiple times, forming a dome with the intertwining flashes that it created.

Click!

‘Jade Kirin Scripture: Quick Draw – Flash Firmament’

Shing!

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Clank! Clank! Clang!

A series of metallic sounds rang throughout the place, along with the metal sparks that flew in the air for every collision that his sword made.

There was a slight pause from the darkness when he finished blocking all the attacks, somewhat giving Shin a brief breathing time.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

However, this ‘rest’ only lasted for a couple of seconds before he was subjected to another series of attacks.

This time, the timing and angles were much harder to read, especially when they were densely attacking him from all directions.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Shin tried to deal with them with the same tactic, but he realized that a few of them managed to find a gap in his defenses, exposing the flaw in his technique.

“Eh!?” Shin could not help but raise his brows when he saw this before quickly retreating while dealing with these sneaky attacks.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Shin dealt with the next batch of attacks through the combination of multiple movement techniques under his arsenal while also mixing them with the ‘Phantom Series’, surviving yet another barrage of attacks.

He managed to survive yet another assault, but he quickly found himself in a much more dangerous situation right after.

Whenever he proceeded to use more tricks under his sleeves when dealing with them, he always found himself in a difficult predicament right at the very next moment.

It was as if the next series of attacks were meant to counter all the other techniques that he had already used.

Moreover, it was not just one or two techniques, but the collection of all the techniques that he had already used.

Whether it was his movement techniques, such as the ‘Phantom Series’, or his other offensive and defensive techniques, all of them would be countered by the next batch of attacks.

Shin was even forced to scatter his phantoms in every direction, trying to increase his choices whenever he wanted to dodge.

However, it turned out to be a terrible decision because the number of attacks just further increased and became much harder to survive.

This forced him to keep those phantoms with him instead, only using them for Phantom Shroud and such.

……