Chapter 210: Zachary’s Ultimate Limit
Everything happened too fast. In a blink of an eye, the jet of the Magnetic Aurora was destroyed. Zen only took a short time to complete the process, shorter than Zachary.
“...” Zachary's jaw dropped. With that short spell, he had experienced so much shock that his senses went numb.
Zen saw that Zachary was spacing out, but there were more Magnetic Aurora shots coming their way. He calmly cautioned Zachary, “More shots of Magnetic Aurora are coming! Watch out!”
Four jets of Magnetic Aurora were hurtling towards them now.
After taking an overwhelming hit on his self-esteem from Zen, Zachary felt chills through his veins and his face became more serious.
When it came to the practice of swordsmanship, it was crucial to maintain the sword heart, hone the sword intent, and be able to resist all kinds of disturbances to do away with any devil inside.
Just now, when Zachary saw the power of Zen, his heart became unstable. If his sword heart was flustered, his sword intent would be impaired affecting the power of the sword. A wavering sword heart was one of the great taboos for swordsmen.
Seeing Zachary recovered quickly, Zen slightly smiled, 'He is, after all, a swordsman practicing swordsmanship. I'm amazed at how fast he can stabilize his sword heart!'
Without another word, Zen put on his serious face in order to handle the jets of Magnetic Aurora.
The Magnetic Aurora shots came to them nonstop and the quantity kept increasing after every wave.
The first wave only came with one shot of Magnetic Aurora; the second one came with two shots; the third arrived with three shots, and so on.
To keep the crystal ball safe, it was vital to disrupt the speed of the Magnetic Aurora.
The Magnetic Aurora was a highly purified energy extracted from polar magic stones. This kind of Aurora was extremely stable and barely affected by external disturbances.
For instance, the dragon intent concealed in the dragon-shaped energy of Zachary's sword was effective in confronting enemies or killing supernatural beasts, but it would not impact the Magnetic Aurora that much. If one wanted to hack a jet of Magnetic Aurora, he still had to rely on his sword intent–or his sheer comprehension of the swordsmanship.
Hence, fighting the Magnetic Aurora was the best way to hone one's sword intent.
Zen and Zachary were hacking at the Magnetic Aurora continuously. They powered it through from the first wave all the way to the fifteenth wave.
A total of thirty Magnetic Aurora streaks zoomed over simultaneously. Zen and Zachary each handled fifteen streaks.
“Breakthrough!”
The light from Zen's sword was like glinting ripples on a lake charging towards those jets of Magnetic Aurora.
Bands of sword light blurred the scene, vanquishing all the Magnetic Aurora in an instant.
The fifteen Magnetic Aurora streaks came at varying speeds, but still, they couldn't match Zen's speed. In no time, Zen dissolved the fifteen streaks.
Meanwhile, Zachary's speed was not as rapid as Zen's. As he was working on his share of streaks, he already felt a bit strained.
It cost him a deal of time to finish each Magnetic Aurora jet. Though the jets were moving at a normal pace, they were all targeting the crystal ball. Zachary couldn't let one miss. Three damages would eventually cause the crystal ball to be ruined.
“Rumble! Rumble!”
Shots of dragon-shaped sword energy soared out from Zachary's Candle Dragon. As the Magnetic Aurora jets dashed forward, Zachary destroyed fourteen of them, but one slipped and continued flying towards the crystal ball.
Zachary attempted to block it, but he was too late. He could only watch the jet as it wedged towards the crystal ball.
“Clatter!”
A small crack spread from the bottom of the crystal ball.
Zachary's face darkened. He never thought that the first crack would appear on the fifteenth wave. He used to manage to keep the crystal ball intact until the seventeenth wave. Comparing from his previous performance, it seemed that he was regressing.
Zen, on the other hand, looked quite cool. He could give Zachary a hand, however, since the Seven Star Sword Light Platform was a place for people to polish their own sword intent, it would be meaningless to practice here if one resorted for other's help. Hence, Zachary could only rely on his own effort.
After the crack appeared on the crystal ball, Zachary got pumped up to fight. He even rushed in front of the Magnetic Aurora several times to brandish his sword.
Even though those Magnetic Aurora jets were not soaring too fast, one would still be severely injured if he accidentally got hit by any of them. Thus, Zachary's desperate act was rather reckless.
Despite the recklessness, Zachary's effort was quite effective when he was desperate. He was able to stop all the jets from sixteenth to seventeenth wave.
As always, Zen handled the two waves rather effortlessly, not missing any single shot of Magnetic Aurora.
However, when the twentieth wave arrived, Zachary let in another jet of Magnetic Aurora. Behind him, the crack already sprawled up to the middle part of the crystal ball. This was already a critical circumstance—if the ball was hit by one more jet of Magnetic Aurora and shattered, Zachary's practice would end.
After fighting off the twentieth wave, Zachary sighed. He then laughed and commented, “I did a pretty good job. Before this, I could at most pull it through till the seventeenth wave without missing any shot. Then, I would let one shot escape in each wave from eighteenth through the twentieth wave. But this time, I already made it to the twentieth wave. But anyway, I'm afraid I can't get through the twenty-first wave.”
Zachary felt thoroughly dejected now. A while ago, he was still despising Zen for being unworthy of the fairy weapon. But to his surprise, Zen held it together with no difficulty at all. On the contrary, he himself was about to be knocked out any moment now.
Zen drew back the Streamer Sword and asked nonchalantly, “You'll never know it until you try, right? Besides, we're not really fighting on a battlefield, so there's no way you can die here. Only when you truly intend to risk your life can you possibly comprehend the ultimate art of swordsmanship. If you're willing to have another go, you can probably overcome the twenty-first or even the twenty-second wave. But if you give in, your game is over.”
Hearing those words from Zen, Zachary felt a bit confused. He mused, 'As long as I act carefully, the Magnetic Aurora won't be able to hurt me. Maybe it's the right time to test my limits!'
With this resolve, Zachary's pupils narrowed, and a wisp of fierce energy unfurled from inside his body.
A swordsman's energy was originally extremely sharp. If one's heart kept generating such sharp energy, he could use his sword to defeat anything in the world.
The change occurred unknowingly. Even Zachary didn't notice that his comprehension of swordsmanship had become a bit more profound.
“The twenty-first wave is coming, go get it!” Zen said in a low but calm voice.
“Good timing!” Zachary's life vitality surged up instantly and gathered in the Candle Dragon sword. Then, he began to thrust the sword repeatedly, sending jets of dragon-shaped sword energy in all directions. The entire platform was drowned in the roars of dragons.
Zen was still moving steadily, waving his sword at all the streaks of Magnetic Aurora that flooded in from all directions. As the number of the streaks increased, Zen gradually felt stressed, but his stress was far less severe than Zachary's.
“Rumble, rumble, rumble...”
Zachary smashed twenty streaks of Magnetic Aurora at a stretch. However, there was one streak that escaped his defense, and it was shooting towards the crystal ball.
Although Zachary was hardly breathing now, and it seemed impossible to catch up to it. But he remembered Zen's words and thought he still had to go for it. Thus, he took a deep breath and galloped towards that streak of Magnetic Aurora with his sword energy raging in his hands.
“Roar!”
Just as the streak of Magnetic Aurora was about to crash into the crystal ball, Zachary's dragon-shaped sword energy destroyed it at the right time.
But since Zachary's posture for doing this thrust was incorrect, he fell heavily onto the ground, face down. When he scrambled to his feet, half of his face was black and blue.
At the sight of Zachary's face, Zen smirked, “Well done! You did your best!”
Zachary gasped and replied, “It went well and it's record-breaking for me. I did power through the twenty-first wave! I still couldn't believe it!”
Zachary had spent quite some time on the Seven Star Sword Light Platform. Before today, his best record was at the twentieth wave, but he got stuck. The one time he made it through the twentieth wave was because of other's help that allowed him to narrowly block the last jet of Magnetic Aurora and come to face the twenty-first wave.
Today, Zachary successfully conquered the twenty-first wave all by himself and entered the twenty-second round. It was indeed unbelievable!
The interval between waves of the shots was always short. Before Zachary could catch his breath, the twenty-second wave was already fast approaching them.
Although Zachary went all out, he failed to get through the twenty-second wave. The last streak of Magnetic Aurora relentlessly crumbled his crystal ball. Zachary was drenched in his sweat, as if he had just fallen into a river.
A martial art practitioner using a sword as his weapon was usually more agile than a practitioner using a spear or a broadsword, so he would seldom look like a mess. However, since Zachary just pushed himself to the ultimate limit, he looked quite a mess right now. And that was a brand-new experience for him.
He collapsed onto the ground like a paralyzed man. While he was trying to catch his breath, he saw Zen was still dealing with the jets of the Magnetic Aurora with composure. He could only think to himself, 'This guy is really a monster. He took the eighth level at the Seven Star Sword Light Platform, but he already faced with Magnetic Aurora with no difficulty.
How freaking powerful this guy is!'