Whoosh!
Amidst the ecstatic cheering of the audience, Leron and Valyr charged at each other at the greatest speed they could muster. However, with his superior AGI stat, Leron was able to get the first move in, brandishing his daggers in a cross pattern.
Fortunately, Valyr was able to halt his momentum at the very last moment, leaning backward to barely dodge the two daggers. Though he had armor covering most of his body, due to the fact that it was light armor, and the fact that Leron had triple digits in his STR stat, he was certain that his armor would be pierced through without a problem, as if Leron's daggers were a hot knife cutting through butter.
With that, he retrieved the spear behind his back as Leron continued with his onslaught of attacks against him, hoping to land at least one of them on Valyr by relying on his high STR and AGI stat. Unfortunately for Leron, even though Valyr was lacking somewhat in the AGI stat, he made up for it with his greater combat experience by dodging all of his opponent's attacks with the smallest possible movements.
Of course, this sight did not go unnoticed by the audience, who were left looking at the scene in silence as they wondered whether what they were seeing was a hallucination or not. In fact, even Wells and Arcenne were left at a loss for words as they watched Valyr maneuver his way through the various attacks Leron sent at him from various angles, all of which seemed to be dodged by him without much of a problem.
Eventually, a question appeared in their minds as they watched Valyr wield his spear in retaliation against one of Leron's attacks, swatting both of Leron's daggers away from the man's body as he made use of the opening he had created.
'Is this even the same Valyr that we know?'
"Oh no, you don't!" Just as Valyr utilized the entirety of his strength to propel his spear towards his opponent's chest as best as he could, Leron used the entirety of his strength to bring his daggers in front of the spear's trajectory, barely blocking the attack in time.
"Mn?" Though Leron inwardly let out a sigh of relief that he had barely blocked Valyr's attempt at getting the first strike between him, he also noticed that he had been pushed back a few steps backward from the force behind Valyr's spear, eliciting a light frown to appear on his face.
"I won't let you have your way that easily." Swatting Valyr's spear away from his vicinity, Leron then moved to his opponent's flank, attempting to land an attack on the man's shoulders, failing to do so as Valyr's spear swatted his daggers away.
Nevertheless, the man did not relent as he approached Valyr from various angles once more while thinking about the strength Valyr showed in the attack that he barely blocked in time. 'Didn't they say Valyr is only in the middle of Rank 1?'
Allowing his muscle memory to take over as he continued to bombard Valyr with attacks, Leron pondered over the question for a bit before eventually coming to a plausible conclusion. 'He must have put all of his free points on strength. After all, forging needs a lot of strength in order to be able to shape metal.'
'If that's the case, then shouldn't his other stats be low? How is he keeping up? Does he have a Rare class or something?' Though Leron was curious on what the answer to his question was, the orders that were given to him continued to linger in his mind, which was to end the battle against Valyr as swiftly as possible.
Clang!
With Leron's daggers and Valyr's spear clashing against one another, the force behind both attacks pushed both sides away from one another, giving both sides the space they needed in order to plan out their next move. Unsurprisingly, with how aggressive one side had been in attacking so far, Leron swiftly made his way where Valyr stood, his speed doubling in the process as he generated a great amount of momentum.
"[Defense Aura]." Noticing that Leron's daggers started to glow a faint red, Valyr went ahead and activated one of his defensive buffing skills as assurance in the off chance Leron's attack landed on him. But of course, he had no plans of getting hit by it.
"Take this! [Crimson Tempest Cross]!"
"[Elusive Dash]."
Whoosh!
With the gap between the two almost non-existent, Leron swiftly raised both of his daggers before slashing down in a cross pattern, leaving a red X in front of him as he thought to himself that Valyr had definitely received a grievous injury from his attack.
However, amidst his attack, he noticed that there was no resistance to his attack whatsoever, prompting him to take a look in front of him, only to see Valyr standing a couple meters away, giving Leron the feeling that the latter was watching him make a fool of himself.
"You fucker!" Gritting his teeth beneath the dark fabric, Leron darted towards Valyr once more, employing his superior agility to close the gap between the two of them.
"[Serpentine Sprint]." In response, Valyr activated the second move he had unlocked from [Serpent Steps Movement Style], which allowed Valyr to do the opposite.
Unlike [Elusive Dash], which acted as a short-range teleport skill that moved him a few meters away from his original point at most, [Serpentine Sprint] was a buffing skill that greatly increased his movement speed for a certain amount of time.
With the skill activated, Valyr continued to increase the distance between the two of them, leaving Leron no choice but to chase Valyr down as he employed his superior agility to its limits.
"You can't escape, Valyr!" Realizing that it would be difficult for him to close the gap in the short term, Leron decided to resort to taunting. "You're my prey and you know that!"
"The fact that you're running away from me means that you know you can't beat me! Your silence already tells me what I need to know!" As he said these words, Leron let out a slightly maniacal cackle, which Valyr felt was quite odd. Though, after mulling over the actions and the words Leron had spoken to him so far, he then came to the conclusion that Leron was just showing his original personality.
'I don't know why he decided to hide his personality up to this point…'
'But this just makes the next part even better.'
"Silence, huh?" After a bit more running, Valyr decided to respond to Leron's taunt. "Well, I have been silent for the most part during this duel, so you're not wrong."
"But to say that I'm your prey? You're getting something wrong here." At these words, Valyr decided to stop running, prompting the expression on Leron's face to turn into a devilish grin as he closed the gap between them within an instant before swiping down with his dagger.
Whoosh!
Though Valyr retaliated with his spear in response to the attack, the spear seemed to hit nothing but air in the eyes of the audience. On the other hand, a long diagonal gash appeared on the surface of Valyr's chestplate, eliciting the grin on Leron's face to become even wider. "Hahahaha! I'm getting something wrong here? You're the one who's wrong!"
"Is that so?" In response to Leron's words, Valyr pointed down on the floor, prompting the former to wonder why the latter decided to point down all of a sudden. However, once he did, his pupils shrank in fear as a bloodied finger laid there on the ground.
His bloodied finger.
Watching as only then did Leron realize what had occurred, clutching the hand that had one of its fingers cut off in pain, Valyr let out a slightly malevolent chuckle as he finally went all out, his aura swiftly surpassing Leron's.
"As I've said earlier, you're getting something wrong here."
"After all, you've been my prey all this time."
