Chapter 161: To be at Daggers Drawn
Translator: Double_L Editor: Tehrn
Jiang Long logged in earlier than Einherjar Wannabe. His avatar was exactly how he looked like in real life: tall, fit, and handsome like a standard Ivantian. His hands were undoubtedly solid and firm since the House of Jiang was pretty famous for their martial art techniques that focused on them. According to a legend, their ancestors were the ones who had figured out all of the tactics from ancient martial art manuscripts.
The Firmament Palm Strike emphasized on the balance between force and flexibility, and apparently, it was pretty well-known across the Moon. Moreover, one of the famous dojos there was owned by the House of Jiang. Based on its overwhelming power, the Firmament Palm Strike was indeed "The Greatest Palm Strike of All".
Furthermore, the actual strength of Jiang Long shouldn’t be underestimated as well since he was crowned as the No.1 amongst third-year students of Lustre Academy.
The crowd was cheering in the arena. In the beginning, Jiang Long expected that most of the spectators were here to cheer for him since he was quite a celebrity himself and that Firmament Palm Strike of his was also something that most people had been talking about. However, to his surprise, almost eighty percent of the crowd was here to cheer on Einherjar Wannabe and believed that he would win in the end.
Apparently, everyone was longing for one thing: Witnessing whether or not Einherjar Wannabe would be able to mimic the Firmament Palm Strike just like how he did with the Fist of the Racing Tiger!
If he really pulled it out, that would be totally absurd!
Nevertheless, Jiang Long thought it was only bullsh*t. He believed it would be impossible for someone else to defeat him using his own tactics because the Firmament Palm Strike was not as straightforward as the Fist of the Racing Tiger. Moreover, Jiang Long felt that he was superior to Wang Ben since he hadn’t needed a second attempt to be mind-opened. This match would be his chance to show everyone who was the boss.
It was pretty easy to identify the IPA players and the TPA players among the crowd. The excited ones were obviously the IPA players because to them this fight was nothing more than a circus show; in contrast, those who were sitting patiently were, of course, the TPA players.
This match had successfully drawn the attention of many Ivantians, especially the students from various academies, and most of them were mainly from academies across the Earth Confederation. Apparently, watching Einherjar Wannabe’s matches had recently become an educational entertainment due to the fact that the number of strong opponents was growing, not to mention the challengers were mostly aces from different academies.
At last, Einherjar Wannabe logged in, this time he was pretty punctual.
Jiang Long sneered as he moved his wrists and got ready to fight.
Checked!
Checked!
Crowds roared in excitement as the match begun!
"Everyone said you’re good at mimicking others, but today you shall witness something that’s impossible to mimic!" Jiang Long spoke confidently and sprung into action as he said that. He wasn’t wearing any METAL Suit since Einherjar Wannabe himself wasn’t wearing any. His ego was telling him that wearing a METAL Suit would make him look like a chicken; after all, he was the successor of his family’s Firmament Palm Strike, and only cowards would need one. He would make Einherjar Wannabe regret not wearing a METAL Suit for his protection.
Jiang Long unleashed a strike with his palm without giving Wang Tong any time to respond, the attack wasn’t even his Firmament Palm Strike; however, the successor of the Firmament Palm Strike was able to turn ordinary moves into scary attacks.
Wang Tong immediately countered Jiang Long’s palm strike with a punch. He might not be an expert in palm strikes, but he was definitely very familiar with punches.
Bam…
Both fighters unleashed their GN Force as they began to brawl, but no one was backing down. The uniqueness of Jiang Long’s tactics was its capability to randomly switch between fierce and softer strikes, which would create a huge physical and mental stress to his opponents, and this was especially effective against most of the ferocious tactics with straightforward fighting style. However, that was only an idle theory since this was the first time the two of them fought against each other. Many of the spectators were eager to see if Jiang Long’s Firmament Palm Strike was really able to outshine Einherjar Wannabe’s version of the Fist of the Racing Tiger.
Soon, Wang Tong learned the difference after exchanging blows for about ten times. He managed to discover that the Fist of the Racing Tiger was the best amongst all ferocious punching tactics because it was able to magnify the power of the GN Force; however, the punches would become weird, and the power would also plummet if any other aspects were added into it. Yet unlike punching tactics, palm strikes were totally different as it consisted of a lot of variations, and the user could alter the attributes of his attacks through different patterns. This was why the Firmament Palm Strike was known to be the mightiest palm-based tactics of all, and also why it was crowned as one of the Ten Greatest Martial Arts of the Ivantians; the Firmament Palm Strike was no doubt the real deal.
As their fight went on, Wang Tong was able to notice Jiang Long’s superb proficiency in his tactics and also his vast experiences in hand-to-hand combats. Wang Tong was impressed by Jiang Long’s perfect implementation. His movements were delicate, and the way he struck was flawless, not to mention that the pattern of his attacks was unpredictable, yet every single strike was smooth and clear. Perhaps all of these were due to Jiang Long’s classic "perfectionist" personality of the Ivantians; nevertheless, it still made him very different from Wang Ben.
If Wang Tong wanted to further elaborate the differences between Jiang Long and Wang Ben, he would judge them based on their psychological differences. Obviously, Jiang Long was steadier and more mature than Wang Ben.
Wham…
Every punch and palm strike was like a clash between GN Forces. Jiang Long was quite happy with his opponent, at least Einherjar Wannabe wasn’t some weakling that wasn’t worth his time. Einherjar Wannabe was even stronger than he had expected, and it was not surprising that so many other aces had failed to defeat him. However, Jiang Long still believed that it was a dumb move to mimic the others.
All of a sudden, Jiang Long began to change his posture. The spectators immediately held their breaths as he stretched his right arm as it seemed that Jiang Long was about to unleash his Firmament Palm Strike after a series of warm-ups.
Jiang Long began infusing his palms with GN Force as he gradually initialized his Soul Energy. Wang Tong, on the other hand, was paying attention to his movements. Suddenly, Jiang Long launched a palm strike that was totally different from his previous attacks; the output of the GN Force was basically the same, but the way he struck had changed, and noticing the difference, Wang Tong decided not to counter the attack with his fists but instead unleashed a chop attack!
Wang Tong then unleashed a ferocious chop with his right arm, but Jiang Long was able to foresee and dodge the attack through observing Wang Tong’s posture. In fact, every single tactic required to surprise the opponent in order to bring the maximum outcome; however, some moves like the chop attack was too easy to be identified, which explained why Jiang Long was able to alter his pace and dodged Wang Tong’s "karate chop" before it hit him. Generally, fighters who were good at punching attacks or palm strikes also needed to master their pacing, which basically was divided into steady paces or swaying paces, or else their lower torso would become an easy target for their opponents.
Jiang Long’s pacing was just like the style of his Firmament Palm Strike, variable and unpredictable; the opponent would be stressed out by predicting his movements upon entering the strike zone of the Firmament Palm Strike.
It was Jiang Long’s turn to strike back after dodging Wang Tong’s chop attack, he then countered with a palm strike that was infused with an immense amount of GN Force, which somehow felt like the forceful Fist of the Racing Tiger. Wang Tong’s first reaction was to dodge his attack; however, Jiang Long sneered as he saw Wang Tong’s reaction, and, he wouldn’t give his opponent a chance to escape!
The quintessence of the Firmament Palm Strike was, in fact, the inner-dispersal of the GN Force, and the immense force was disguised under a simple-looking attack; nevertheless, Jiang Long was impressed by Einherjar Wannabe for being able to sense the might of his palm strike.
To Jiang Long, his palm strike was second to none!
Wang Tong acknowledged that dodging would only confuse his own pace and rhythm, it was practically impossible to shake off the balance of a well-trained fighter like Jiang Long, not to mention that Wang Tong first had to do something about his Firmament Palm Strike.
Bam…
Wang Tong had no choice but to take the hit. Immediately, the attack sipped through his skin, and the extreme force penetrated his bones like a drill; waves of impact even managed to clash onto his defense made of GN Force. It took Wang Tong seven steps back to cancel the impact of Jiang Long’s attack; on the other hand, Jiang Long struck a confident posture after the attack, like he was trying to tell Wang Tong that this was only the beginning!
Wang Tong shook his arms as he realized the power of the Firmament Palm Strike, it was indeed flawless tactics. However, Wang Tong immediately came up with an idea to counter his palm strikes, but before that, he knew he had to give Jiang Long some pressure in order for him to unleash his ultimate strike!
Jiang Long struck again with the same pattern. Apparently, he had decided to use the same pattern because he was confident that Einherjar Wannabe would never be able to figure out a way to counter the Firmament Palm Strike. Only this time, he shall deliver the final blow and shatter everyone’s expectation on this character; furthermore, he wanted to teach him a lesson for being a copycat.
But to his surprise, Wang Tong didn’t dodge or counter with any chop attacks or punches. As the palm strike approached, Wang Tong was seen infusing his index finger with GN Force while pointing toward Jiang Long’s palm!
Immediately, Jiang Long backed down, not because he was afraid of any fingerstyle attacks, but because of the overwhelming amount of GN Force on Einherjar Wannabe’s fingertip that would cause him a lot of trouble if the attack manages to hit his palm. It was known by martial arts practitioners that palm strikes inhibit punches, punches inhibit fingerstyle attacks, and fingerstyle attacks inhibit palm strikes. The fingerstyle attacks were the most difficult tactics to learn and also the easiest to counter amongst those three major types of attacks, and even Cisco had only chosen to improve the nimbleness of his fingers but not to improve the cohesion of the GN Force.
It also explained why only a few chose to practice fingerstyle tactics. Wang Tong, himself, was not a practitioner as well, yet he had the advantages in this category because he was used to the cohesion of the GN Force in his Tactics of the Blade. In fact that was not even a fingerstyle attack, he was just infusing GN Force on his fingertip; nevertheless, it was able to startle Jiang Long.
As Einherjar Wannabe launched his "fingerstyle attack", Jiang Long was pissed off by the fact that Einherjar Wannabe had gained the upper hand, which triggered the quiet crowd to cheer out loud again; he was jealous.
"Jiang Long is about to suffer," Miao Xiu made a jolly comment.
"I don’t think so. Although the theory of inhibition does exist, yet it totally depends on one’s actual strength. Jiang Long is known to be one of the aces of Lustre Academy, I’m sure he’ll be able to handle things like this." Luv Ma shook his head.
"But Einherjar Wannabe is not a nobody either, I’ll give him two thumbs up if he is able to mimic the Firmament Palm Strike by the end of this match!" Miao Xiu replied while chewing his bubble gum. Luv Ma often joked that Miao Xiu would soon become toothless because he loved to chew on tens of gums at a single time.
"Thumbs up or not, I’m sure he’s stronger than you." Luv Ma rolled his eyes at Miao Xiu.
Miao Xiu bit back, "My dear friend, I heard that your beloved has returned. Would you like me to deliver a love letter on your behalf?"
Luv Ma blushed. "You sonuvab*tch! I swear I’ll sterilize you if you say another word!"
"Woah, relax bro, take it easy!" Miao Xiu replied, yet he didn’t stop making fun at Luv Ma and even teased him like a sissy, instantly Luv Ma was pissed off and felt like hitting him with a chair.
"Woah, stop, something happened!" Miao Xiu surrendered, he was surprised to see the calm and steady Luv Ma would lose his cool when the name of House of Zhang’s little missy was mentioned. Miao Xiu wasn’t interested in the little missy of a rich family at all, not to mention that she was a flat-chested girl, and he preferred girls with big knockers; however, he began to wonder if Luv Ma was interested in flat-chested girls.
Something did happen back in the arena. Jiang Long finally realized that Einherjar Wannabe knew nothing about fingerstyle attacks, but the guy was only trying to shoot out concentrated GN Force toward his palm, somehow Jiang Long was angry at Einherjar Wannabe for underestimating his Firmament Palm Strike.
Jiang Long then began to increase the number of his attacks as they exchanged blows again; however, Wang Tong was not able to hit his palms. The center of his palms might be his weakness, yet Jiang Long had been practicing for years and of course knew how to overcome his weakness through altering the pattern of his palm strikes, which would be able to weaken fingerstyle attacks. In another word, the fingerstyle attacks would not be able to cause any harm to the Firmament Palm Strike since the attacks couldn’t reach the center of his palms; however, he was still able to launch an extensive range of attacks since the Firmament Palm Strike was unaffected.
Jiang Long managed to turn the table after three strikes, and immediately, he unleashed a series of ferocious attacks with his Firmament Palm Strike, once he went full-force, the opponent would be trapped in a vortex of palm strikes. Finally, Jiang Long had gotten serious.
Basically, people who studied unique tactics hated those tactics that were specifically designed to counter them, like the daggers drawn the relationship between a snake and a heron. Nevertheless, Einherjar Wannabe’s little tricks had upset and taunted Jiang Long for good.