?The sudden vanishing of Ning brought a layer of confusion to the whole battle that the girl could not handle.
She felt Essence around her and could vaguely sense where Ning was, but it wasn't accurate at all. At best, she could only tell that he was beneath her. As for the preciseness, it would have to wait until Ning appeared again.
As she thought that, Ning surfaced behind her, and the vagueness turned firm as she knew exactly where he saw.
A glow surrounded her, immediately blinding everyone who watched her before she quickly turned around to cut at Ning with her sword. He had caught him off guard, and this was the best time to—
The sword stopped like it had hit a wall. The light vanished and a smiling Ning emerged from the brightness, the two scythes of his hands firmly interlocking the sword in between them.
His smile grew wider and he tore the sword apart.
The girl shrieked in panic.
The broken sword suddenly turned into a bright flash of light and disappeared from right in front of everyone, and Ning vanished back into a pool of shadow. A moment later, he appeared further away from the girl.
"You!" the girl growled in a low voice.
Ning looked at her and gave a rueful smile. "I will give you one later," he quickly told the girl. "I have a few light swords."
The girl was still seething in anger, but it lessened a bit after hearing him. She nodded slowly but snorted all the same.
Ning said nothing and instead created a vortex of shadow in front of him that quickly turned into a spike that flew toward the girl. The spike hit the girl right in the chest and she was thrown far away.
The fight was over.
People cheered all around him, but Ning didn't celebrate his fight at all. He just looked at his scythe, wondering if he had won a bit too early. Did he have anything more to show?
'No, that's all,' he thought and quickly turned all around, excitedly raising his hands in cheers. He couldn't hear anything and he could barely see vague figures constantly moving in the seats beyond the barrier.
He didn't wait to leave right away and quickly spoke up. "I call this the Twin Shadow Scythes, a single weapon with two bodies attached together by a thin line of shadow that can extend for a long distance, longer than the length of the empire itself."
"If it goes over that distance, it comes back to you through the shadow, and no one will be able to stop you."
"Aside from that, it is also very special in that the weapons have techniques attached to them that you don't even have to learn. With these weapons, you can travel into the shadow and come out of it at any time. You do not need Shadow Essence to do it. Even someone with Light Essence can use it, but they will have a much harder time with it than others."
He waited for a moment, assuming people would love to talk during this time. Waiting for the people to calm down, he continued.
"This will be sold at 2 PM tomorrow in my shop, Heeran's love. Come over if you wish to buy this," Ning said putting the scythe back, ready to leave. Before he got out, however, he turned around to the girl and brought something out.
A thin blade made up of light appeared in his hand and he tossed it toward the girl. The girl quickly caught it midair and was surprised at the weight of the item.
The weight of an item before bonding depended on the element they were made from. Artifacts made up of Earth and Crystal were usually the heaviest, with water following close behind.
Other elements like Wind and Fire weren't that heavy. Light and Shadow were especially light, the barest weight of which they gained from having been converted from element to matter.
The girl had held Light swords before she bonded them so she knew that the one she was holding was heavier than most she had ever seen. Even the expensive ones.
'Just how much light did he pour in here?' she wondered. Realizing she was lost in her own thoughts, she quickly looked back at Ning to thank him, but she was too late.
Ning was already gone.
Ning left the Arena without meeting anybody and went back to his shop he was being taken care of by Hadden.
The boy quickly recited the proper greeting he was meant to give to a customer but stopped halfway through when he realized it was Ning and Rova.
"Did it go well?" he asked. He wanted to go see what his teacher did too, but unfortunately, he was too beat up to say anything. Ning still didn't hold back on letting him get hurt every morning.
"It went better than well," Rova said excitedly. "Your teacher made something incredible."
She quickly turned around. "Boss, what exactly did you do? Can you teach me too?" she asked.
Ning shrugged. "Sure, when I have the time," he said. He turned to Hadden. "Any customers?"
"2," the boy answered. "One left after realizing it was not you here, and the other found out you were already gone to the arena and hurried off. No sales."
"I see," Ning said. "Good job."
"You go get something to eat, boss," the girl said. "I will look after the shop for now."
"No, you go," Ning said. "We're closing the shop for today."
The girl looked perplexed. "Closing the shop? What for?" she asked.
"Let's just say… renovations," Ning said, giving a cheeky smile. "Alright, off with you two. Hadden taken Lory and Umbra out as well. I don't want to hurt them on accident."
"Got it," the boy said and walked away.
"What are you going to do?" Rova asked warily.
Ning only put a finger to his lips in a hushing gesture. "You'll find out soon enough."
