22 – (Season 1) Expert Swordsman Hidden Cloud

As Jim dashed towards Hidden Cloud, he prepared to throw a couple of rocks to use substitution jutsu. However, Jim paused his attacks as his institution told him that going through with his attack would not end up good for him.

Jim stopped in his tracks 4 feet away from Hidden Cloud. Surprised, Hidden Cloud asked why he stopped running. Jim replied that his intuition was warning of danger if he stepped closer. Hidden Cloud smiled and said “your intuition wasn’t wrong”. As soon as he said those words, he pulled a second sword out of his inventory. Hidden Cloud was now duel wielding two swords injecting his mana into both blades. Jim identified the range of his attacks at roughly 4 feet around Hidden Cloud.

While Jim was analyzing Hidden Cloud he stepped forward and swung his right hand sword vertically. Jim blocked his sword as his intuition told him dodging would be futile. Hidden Cloud was surprised that Jim did not choose to parry and block instead. Hidden Cloud was ready to follow up with a sword wave to block off Jim’s escape routes and end the battle with a large sword wave. Instead Hidden Cloud slashed vertically and chose to use a weapon breaking technique. His left hand sword thrusted toward the Jim sword, specifically, he was aiming where the most amount of pressure was held between the two swords in stalemate.

Jim realized his intention and swelled up his muscles to repel Hidden cloud back 6 feet. He knew that since he went from a one handed swordstyle to dual wielding, his strength behind each sword strike cannot match Jim’s combined strength in his one sword. Hidden Cloud was impressed that he was able to analyze the situation to this degree. Any other opponent would have been confused and have their weapon break or sustain significant damage.

Hidden Cloud asked “Who are you”

Jim knew that he wasn’t asking a simple questions. He responded “I am a nobody. I am a solo player and do not belong to any guild”.

Hidden Cloud perception of Jim grew during the fight as a respected swordsman, to grow to this degree without resources or a guild/mentor was only found in geniuses. Out of respect, Hidden Cloud no longer hid any of his cards and activated his mana domain. Jim felt his a status suppression equal to about 10 percent of his strength. He noticed that this was a straight mana suppression without any attributes or elements attached. Hidden sword started dashing toward Jim. As soon as he took his first step, Jim summoned his clones Jake and Adam. Hidden Cloud was surprised as the ninja class was known in his world to be below average due to the same reasons it was below average in Jim’s universe, the clones would have very limited functions as controlling them took too much mental strength. In a flash Jake and Adam started running in opposite directions perpendicular to Hidden cloud as Jim retreated backwards.

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Hidden Cloud was now in a disadvantageous position as he was surrounded by three players in a triangle formation. He was confused as he had never seen clones move in such precision, almost as if it was another player. Hidden Cloud had no time to be impressed as Jim and Adam started running towards Hidden Cloud. All three players threw small rocks from all sides even though Jake was sitting down praying. His praying buff negated the mana domain from Hidden Cloud and elevated Jim and Adam’s stats by 10 percent. Hidden Cloud could tell that his mana domain was being negated and his enemies are moving faster than ever. He could tell that he was losing control of the battle flow. He decided to go after the clone that was sitting down praying. Adam Already took a leap to start his mountain hammer technique; however, he jumped too early as Hidden Cloud ran past in and slashed at the air behind him creating a sword wave. He didn’t want anyone anyone following behind him as his goal was to kill Jake first. Jake smiled and said substitution jutsu. As soon as he said those words Jake and Adam switched places. All of a sudden, Jake and Jim switched places. Jim said batter up. As Jake was motionless for 5 seconds, hidden perception activated and Jim’s horizontal slash knocked Hidden cloud back with sudden force. Hidden Cloud was able to block the attack with both swords; however, it still cost him 70% of HP. He was surprised that Sera was still hiding his strength this much. Hidden Clouds thoughts were interrupted as Adam used substitution jutsu to switch with a rock that was flying towards Hidden Cloud’s back from the start of this skirmish. Adam yelled Mountain Hammer as he smashed his bone weapon down with all of his force. Hidden Cloud was not expecting this and was not able to block this at all killing him on the spot.

System notification: Battle Over, Winner Sera. You have 10 minutes to collect your reward.

Hidden Cloud regenerated in an instant and walked over to Jim. He presented a wooden token.

He said “This represents my authority in my clan and is a token to treat you with respect. Come find me in universe 2 if our paths cross again. Both Hidden Cloud and Sera had mutual respect for each other. As Hidden Cloud did not win the battle, he did not get any rewards so he left promptly after giving Sera his clan token.

After Hidden Cloud left, Jim went over to a pool of blood left after he killed Hidden Cloud. He took out the bone weapon and tried to absorb the blood. Unfortunately, the bone did not react. Jim thought about it and concluded that since Hidden Cloud was not a monster, he couldn’t absorb the blood. He didn’t want the blood to go to waste and took a small container and stored the blood in his inventory. After storing the blood, he took a look at the rewards.