Masked Knight

Chapter 253: Break!

"He has achieved a great breakthrough indeed." Rody sighed silently. The Fielding he met outside Thunder City was merely a man who possessed great strength, but the present Fielding seemed to have comprehended some ‘rules’!

"Where’s your weapon!" Fielding let out a breath and growled.

Rody smiled. He did not bring his Dragon Spell Scimitar to the banquet tonight. He nonchalantly stretched out his palms…

A wisp of golden fighting energy appeared on the previously empty palm. As the spiritual energy gathered, it formed the appearance of a sword which shone brightly. Shadows flickered on Rody’s face under the glowing light of the golden fighting energy. Fielding’s eyes glinted ruthlessly, "Condensing energy to form an object? Good! I did not expect that you’re a Sacred Swordsman! The subordinate of Duke of the Tulip Family is indeed incredible!"

Fielding pointed at Rody with the short battle-axe in his hands and asked loudly, "Are you sure you’re not going to use any weapon?"

"Yes!"

Fielding no longer asked any questions. He suddenly shouted, "Kill!"

His loud voice was earth-shattering, and everyone there felt as though a clap of thunder exploded right beside their ears. All of them thought the Paladin’s first strike would be so powerful and devastating, but Fielding’s figure flashed unexpectedly and disappeared in front of their eyes, and then reappeared in front of Rody!

A chilling light struck down from his hands!

That was the difference!

When Fielding fought against Rody outside Thunder City, every blow was violent and powerful. But now when he struck his axe, the force was plain and simple without any overflow of extra energy. Immediately, Rody’s pupil constricted. Fielding’s blow carried a strange force. Before the axe struck down, it was as though an invisible energy had already locked down his opponent’s entire body!

Everyone gasped as they saw Rody’s figure instantly split into two after being struck by Fielding’s axe!

Before they could actually cry out in alarm, they noticed that Rody’s figure, which had split into two halves by Fielding’s axe, started to fade away slowly.

Residual image!

Among them, only Fielding saw Rody’s movements clearly. When he brought down his axe, he could immediately feel the force he exerted struck on nothing. At that moment, it was as if the enemy had managed to escape his energy lockdown and vanished completely in front of his eyes!

Nobody could make out Rody’s moves, but Fielding saw it clearly...What Rody did to avoid his first strike was merely taking one step aside!

It missed by a width of one step!

Pow! There was a dull noise of something cracking apart. It turned out to be the King’s throne which was sitting far above, just a few meters from where Rody had stood, split into small fragments!

"Wonderful!" Rody’s voice rang out beside Fielding. As he was avoiding Fielding’s blow, he was surprised that the blow was no longer the type of uncontrollable violent force which the Paladin used to display when he struck.

In other words, Fielding had already reached the state where he could completely control his force. With each blow he delivered, he could now focus all his strength in a linear motion preventing any wastage of energy! Although Rody managed to avoid his blow, due to the force being directed in a straight line it smashed the King’s throne into pieces, but those standing on either side of the throne were not harmed at all!

Rody’s voice struck Fielding’s ears like a thunderbolt. He flipped his axe and pulled it back for a second attack.

In the eyes of the onlookers, Fielding’s blow was extremely dangerous. If he did not control his force well, even though it could kill Rody, he could also accidentally cut himself at the waist!

Rody’s body immediately spun violently on the spot. His actions were slick as though his whole body was covered in oil. When Fielding’s axe swept across his direction, Rody’s body seemed to have gently bounced off as soon as the axe struck. Without much effort, he swerved behind Fielding.

"Hmph! Trying to hide?" Fielding snorted. He suddenly bent over, sliding his other hand under his arm to the back and shoved his palm.

A strong blast of energy suddenly fired from Fielding’s palm, forming a fan-shaped wave!

Boom! A bolt of golden light emitted from his palms and swept across the floor, causing the hard stone floor to crack. Behind Fielding, a four-to-five-meters-wide and several meters deep pit was plowed out of the ground.

One of the onlookers standing several meters away yelped when he saw the light blade emitted from the Paladin’s palm coming straight at him.

In that brief moment of shock, the light blade coming in his direction abruptly halted. One step in front of his feet was a deep pit, formed as a result of this blow, but surprisingly, the person standing at the edge was unharmed!

Fielding was already capable of controlling his force to such precise level!

Following the light blade hurled by Fielding, Rody could not dodge so he leaped into the air! Everyone followed his movements and looked into the air.

Thoughts flashed in Fielding’s mind like bolts of lightning. Seeing that Rody was so agile, he decided to deliver a massive blow across the floor, so that Rody had no room to dodge except to leap into the air!

Right now, Rody’s body was still in midair but Fielding had already turned around. He crouched down all of a sudden, shrinking himself into a mass and shot into the air towards Rody!

Fielding went all-out in this strike!

Fielding thought to himself, Rody would not be able to exert any force in midair so it was impossible for him to dodge this blow now!

Rody knew very well in his heart that if he was merely a Sacred Swordsman, it would be definitely impossible to dodge this blow. But as one of the strongest in this field, flying in the air was not a problem to him at all. Though he could fly at will in midair, Fielding’s blow was really fast. Rody sighed. He did not have the heart to deliver a killing blow, so he merely warded off the attack with the light sword formed from gathered fighting energy.

"Clang!"

A sharp, ear-piercing noise of metals clashing together.

Everyone could see clearly the two men colliding in midair. The battle-axe in Fielding’s hand clashed with Rody’s light sword. The light sword in Rody’s hands was after all formed from gathered fighting energy. This simple type of weapon formed from gathered fighting energy could never really fend against real weapons, especially against a Paladin who also had golden fighting energy surrounding him.

After the violent collision, Rody bounced far away. The light sword in his hand shattered into tiny pieces and vanished.

Both of them bounced off after the collision, their bodies shooting up high in the air before they landed on the ground.

It was just a brief moment from the start of their fight till now, and their movements were fast as lightning. After several strikes and dodges, they had finally collided with each other!

Though their stands were somewhat complicated, being able to witness the duel between the two masters was too wonderful even if it had been just the blink of an eye. After a moment of silence, the crowd burst into cheers! Crown Price Aven who was obsessed with martial arts was so enthralled, his eyes glittered as he watched the fight.

"You are very powerful!" Fielding did not move but his eyes narrowed as he gazed at Rody standing at a distance, "I have fought the Duke of the Tulip Family at Thunder City. Your power is not any weaker than him!"

Rody sighed and did not utter a word.

Fielding had indeed achieved great advancements. During the battle of Thunder City, Rody only managed to defeat Fielding after a spiritual Dragon Transformation. At that crucial moment, Rody suddenly realized how to control one’s strength. Which was why though both of them, a Sacred Swordsman and a Paladin, were of equal strength, Rody’s comprehension of strength control had enabled him to triumph over Fielding.

But now, Fielding had improved by leaps and bounds. He had already attained the same level as Rody had in Thunder City. It was unclear how he managed to do that, but it must have been the stress from losing the battle at Thunder City, as well as Rody’s words regarding strength which gave him a huge inspiration.

Rody had already encountered the power of all Paladins in the Roland Continent.

The Paladin from Dragon Tribe who died at the sea was not even worth mentioning. Before Rody had a breakthrough in his original power, he was already able to suppress him. Though his opponent later recited the Dragon Spell to awaken the Mystic Dragon Power in his body and threw Rody into the sea, it was not because Rody’s power was inferior to him. In fact, when both were compared in accordance with their powers, the Dragon Paladin at the sea was weaker than Rody at that time.

The other three Dragon Paladins he met later on, Wind Dragon Amu, Snow Dragon Ice, as well as Fire Dragon Ni Lin, their powers were slightly greater.

Especially that Fire Dragon Ni Lin who had already comprehended the ‘Rules’. He could use the Rules to carry out his own Dragon Enchantment, but he had not yet achieved the level of ‘inventing new rules’ in the field. Ni Lin was by far the most powerful amongst the Paladins Rody came across, even more powerful than Augustine who was well known as the greatest Paladin in the Roland Continent!

But Fielding’s power had already surpassed Ni Lin just by the fact that he could completely grasp the rules of strength. After all, when Ni Lin fought Rody, each of his blow seemingly shook the heaven and earth.

Little did he know that such moves, though extremely powerful, three out of ten of the force would have leaked away following each strike. One’s power was not determined solely by the magnitude of his strength but the manipulation of strength! That Fielding standing before him, his manipulation of strength had reached its peak among those at the ranks of Paladin!

"I find it strange." Fielding said coldly, "If I’m not mistaken, your understanding of the skills regarding strength is very high. But during my first encounter with the Duke of the Tulip Family at Thunder City, he had not attained such a state yet. It was only in the middle of our battle that his skills were suddenly enhanced...but as the subordinate of the Duke, you already possess such power!"

Rody smiled, "What’s so strange about this? Similarly, before I came here, I heard that Augustine was the strongest Paladin of the Roland Continent. But now it seems that your power is perhaps above Augustine!"

The muscles at the corner of Fielding’s eyes twitched. He answered in a deep voice, "Good! Let me see how powerful you are then!"

Rody bowed his head silently. After a while, he suddenly looked up in the King’s direction and saw the King nodding at him. Rody knew he had no choice. He could not hide his power now and he must defeat Fielding neatly. If he loses this battle, it would leave a bad impression with the ambassadors from the various kingdoms of the Roland Continent present tonight. It would be a terrible blow to the confidence of their alliance.

"Okay." Rody seemed to smile at him, "Are you sure you want to see that?"

Fielding had an icy look on his face as he stood there holding the short axe in his hands. Everyone in the hall had a weird feeling as though the whole space was contracting, with Fielding acting as the core of contraction. It felt like the surrounding air and force were all sucked in by Fielding, who stood there like a lifeless vacuum.

Unlike the other Paladins who would radiate raging flames of fighting energy during battles, Fielding completely concealed all his energy. If not seeing with their own eyes that a person was standing there, the crowd would have thought it was just an illusion. Fielding seemed to have assimilated his energy field with his surrounding! But at the same time, another invisible energy field spread out, giving chills to everyone.

"Rody, is he capable of winning?" the Crown Prince asked worryingly.

Seth yawned and replied lightly, "Your Royal Highness, you should pray for Fielding instead..."

Fielding finally raised his axe once again. He pointed its spike at Rody and bellowed, "Use a weapon! My next attack will not be as easily warded off as the previous one!"

The Crown Prince suddenly yelled, "Earl Rody, take this sword!"

Right now in this hall, he, as the Crown Prince, was the only one eligible to bring in a sword. He waved his hand and swung his sword towards Rody, but Rody did not even bother to give it a glance. He held out his hand and waved it slightly. Following a ringing buzz, Rody had flicked off the sword flung by the Crown Prince, and it flew across the air before thrusting into the ground.

Rody gazed at Fielding standing before him, and spoke in a strange tone, "Fielding, do you think that you have ascended the highest realm by training to the level of being able to use anything as your sword?"

He held out a straight finger and continued softly, "You are wrong! You said you have achieved the state where you can use anything as a sword, but no matter which weapon you use as the sword substitute, you still remain in the realm of ‘form’! But for me, I do not need a sword anymore!"

Rody moved in an instant, seemingly taking a step forward. His voice echoed in the great hall, "Because I am the sword!"

"Because my sword is formless!" He suddenly did a downward stroke with his finger. Fielding who was standing far away could sense a fierce murderous aura though he did not physically see a light cut of any sort. He instinctively held up his short axe to fend himself.

After a crisp cracking sound, the short axe in Fielding’s hand suddenly broke into two. He then felt a cold sensation on his face. A fine cut was drawn horizontally across his cheek, little by little blood slowly trickled from the wound...

The blow caused Fielding to retreat three steps before he could actually regain his balance. He looked blankly at the short axe that had broken into two, his hands slightly trembling.

"Impossible!" Fielding whispered, "How did you ascend to such a realm?"

A murderous look flashed in his eye. He then gave out a long howl and raised his hand. All of a sudden, the Crown Prince’s sword which was originally planted in the ground raised up and flew into his hands!

Fielding finally raised the sword and charged at Rody!

Nobody saw how Fielding initiated his moves. All they felt was the intense sword energy emitted by the sword in Fielding’s hands which seemed to have pierced the air even before he took a step forward.

They could even make out the waves of the air before him splitting apart. Fielding’s body and the sword integrated as one, charging towards Rody!

A soft sigh fell on everyone’s ears.

"Fielding, you still don’t understand, do you?" Rody’s eyes flashed with pity, "I fought against form with formlessness. You have already lost!"

Originally, at that speed Fielding would have come up close to Rody in the blink of an eye. But after Rody completed one whole sentence, Fielding was only able to take seven steps forward!

In the beginning, nobody was able to see his movements clearly as his speed was extremely fast, like the speed of a lightning. But after a few meters, his movements abruptly slowed down.

As Rody drew a horizontal line with a slight stroke of his finger, an invisible sword energy immediately formed in front of Fielding. Though he tried hard to breakthrough Rody’s invisible sword energy with his sword, it was as if he required to exert all the force in his body to move each step.

If Fielding’s speed was like lightning and gale at the start of the few meters, then now Fielding was like an old ox pushing a cart, each step forward required extreme effort.

Rody moved a step forward. Although it was just one step, he had already come in front of Fielding instantly. Fielding was still struggling with the sword energy in front of him. The sword in his hands gradually buzzed in distress as it could not withstand the stress any further. The sword vibrated slightly then it slowly bent, losing its straight form!

Rody was just standing half a meter away from Fielding, but Fielding’s sword could not move forward anymore, not even an inch!

Rody looked at Fielding with some sorrow in his eyes. He did not hate Fielding. In fact, he even sort of pitied him but at the same time had some respect for him.

Fielding was just a pitiful man. He pursued his love but was rejected. On the other hand, the pride of a knight which he valued so dearly was crushed when he was defeated in battle. However, the failure did not devour him. It instead became a driving force that pushed him forward on the road of improving his martial arts. And he did achieve a breakthrough!

The only pathetic thing was his encounter with Rody!

Rody gritted his teeth and he slowly held out a finger, placing it lightly on the tip of Fielding’s sword. A deep, low note slowly came out from his mouth...

"Break!"