Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 302: Match 8

After the Shield Bearer came a man who fought with Daggers. He played dirty, using a poison dagger to slowly try and defeat Stanley.

Stanley didn’t let that happen. He ran down the man, fighting at a close range where he dealt more damage than the man could throw his daggers.

In the end, Stanley easily won.

Stanley felt weird at the lack of fatigue of any sort when the match ended. Regardless of how strong he had become in these past few months, he had still always felt fatigue and pain. And yet, the lack of it was quite an interesting experience.

Light converged in front of him and he stared at his 8th opponent. He had come this far, so he wanted to go all the way to 10. He waited for his opponent to fully form, and when he did, Stanley paused.

He looked at the man, a regular young man in his 20s, with a slim and slender body, holding a sword. It was this sword that had caught Stanley’s attention.

He looked at the sword and then at his own. They were the same swords. The same blade, the same hilt. Even the same red leather wrapped around the handle.

He was going to have to fight against someone who was a swordsman, it appeared.

The loud voice of the game master came in booming as he counted down until it was time for the match to start. At the end of it, Stanley dashed.

His opponent dashed as well and the two clashed their blades at the center of the arena. Stanley parried the strike and slid his sword down the blade until he got a chance to cut the man around his hand.

Immediately, a portion of his opponent’s health bar had dropped while a larger portion of his blue bar had increased. Stanley ignored the changes and fought back.

The two clashed swords back and forth, but compared to his opponent, Stanley knew that he was the superior fighter. He had enough training from his days as a Defender back in his town, and then by Red once he joined the AAA.

With that training, he was more than enough to fight this swordsman, even though he was supposed to be one of the superior opponents.

Stanley fought tremendously, defending and parrying the attacks that came for him and retaliating when he found the chance to. Little by little, the swordsman’s health bar dropped.

Stanley stayed at a close enough distance where he could keep an eye on his opponent’s every move. He didn’t give any space for the man to use the technique he had used to defeat the shieldbearer from his last battle.

He had no doubt the attack would be the same.

There were multiple times when the man did try to use his technique, but every time, Stanley would disappear into his dead zones, going outside of his vision so he could not target him.

Each time, his opponent ended up with a slash on the back or a stab through the shoulder. By the end, Stanley had lost barely a third of his entire health when he managed to defeat his opponent.

With the 8th opponent done, Stanley advanced to the next round.

"Congratulations!" the voice shouted. "You have defeated someone who wields the same weapon as you. You have successfully advanced onto the next round where you will receive the best prizes should you win. Good luck."

Lights coalesced before him after a moment and it turned into his next opponent. A young woman with two blue guns.

Stanley looked at the guns and couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in surprise. He remembered those two guns. The guns themselves he could’ve forgotten, but the dark blue jewel on one of them, and the empty spot on the other one had caught his attention.

’Are the last three going to be the weapons I was given as a choice before I started?’ he wondered.

The first one was the sword, and the second one was the gun. At this rate, Stanley already knew what the last weapon and fighter were going to be.

’The scythe!’

His attention was brought back to the match immediately as the voice began counting down once again.

Stanley looked at the gun and wondered how he was going to fight it. He would have to be careful with it like he was with the shield or the arrows. He didn’t know how many times the girl could shoot without stopping, so he needed to prepare.

’Dash in, attack, don’t let her gain her momentum,’ he thought. Since he did not need to worry about being hurt when wounded, he could continue charging.

So, when the match began, Stanley immediately rushed forward.

The woman began shooting right at the moment Stanley charged. He held his sword in front of him and guarded against the bullets that came at him.

He could feel each bullet being blocked and see the health bar above him chipping away a tiny portion at a time. He arrived right before the woman and skidded to a stop right in front of her.

He swung down his sword the moment he arrived there, slashing at her vertically. The woman moved to the left at the same time, dodging the attack while shooting at him.

Stanley ducked and twisted his body as he tried to cut her leg, but the woman jumped. Shooting at him twice.

One of the bullets went past his head, while the other struck him right in the forehead. He felt the knockback from the bullet but no pain came.

Stanley immediately rolled on the ground as more of the bullets shot where he had been. He stood up, turning around to slash at the woman, only to find her running away to the other end of the arena.

The intelligence of this opponent of his was much stronger than the other ones he had fought before. Perhaps the swordsman was the same as well, he simply hadn’t noticed.

Now that he had noticed it, he needed to come up with a good way to defeat her.