After a short beam of light, Shang's opponent appeared.
It was a young woman in her twenties. She had long purple hair, and she wore a set of thin, black armor. On her back was an elaborately designed longbow.
'The bow and her armor don't feel simple,' Shang thought. 'Her armor can probably protect her from a lethal strike, and her bow is probably augmented with Magic Circles. It's very possible that the speed of her attacks rivals the speed of an Early Adept's Spells.'
The jester lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
At that moment, the woman opened her eyes, and she looked at Shang with a cold expression.
A moment later, she took out her bow.
BANG!
Shang charged forward, destroying the ground beneath him as he ran with all his speed. Just like when he fought the Adepts, distance was all that mattered in this fight.
The woman pulled out a long piece of iron. It wasn't an arrow, surprisingly. It was just a long piece of iron.
She pulled the piece of iron back on her bow and pointed at Shang.
A moment later, something purple materialized on the end of the piece of metal, and it quickly assumed the shape of an arrowhead.
At the same time, some ridges appeared at the other end of the stick of metal.
'I see,' Shang thought as he realized why there were no prebuilt ridges on the metal rods.
If Shang hadn't had so much combat experience, he would have never even thought about this aspect.
Just when Shang took a step, she released her arrow.
Since Shang had just taken a step, it meant that he wasn't ready to immediately step to the side.
Her timing had been perfect.
Shang's foot awkwardly hit the ground and slightly changed his balance.
SHING!
The arrow barely missed Shang's torso.
The woman's eyes narrowed as she took out the next piece of metal.
She had not expected Shang to dodge her arrow like that. Her timing had been perfect.
Shang's equilibrium became a bit awkward due to the sudden step he had needed to take, but he quickly managed to fix it before his opponent could shoot another arrow.
The ability to dodge that arrow only existed thanks to the thousands of Adepts Shang had fought against.
Yes, thousands.
On one hand, one could say that Shang had only fought Mages for a month, and that wasn't nearly enough time to become proficient in fighting against them.
However, one also had to remember that Shang had been fighting them without end.
Shang had literally fought several thousand Adepts in the last month.
How many Mages had the red uniforms fought against?
Definitely fewer than that.
The red uniforms only fought Mages once per week, and they would, at most, get to fight twice each.
In order to fight the same number of Mages as Shang, they would need to spend years like this.
Dodging this arrow was the culmination of fighting so many Adepts, and it definitely wasn't easy to pull off. After all, the arrow had been about as fast as the Spell of an Early Adept.
One had to remember that incredibly talented warriors could fight average Mages on their level. An incredibly talented Early General Stage warrior could fight an average Early Adept.
Shang's opponent was one of these incredibly talented warriors, which also meant that she had the power to fight an average Early Adept, an opponent Shang hadn't managed to win against yet.
'However,' Shang thought, 'being able to fight someone and winning against someone are two different things!'
A second later, the next arrow was ready, and Shang's eyes shone.
She released her arrow.
The arrow shot towards the left side of Shang's chest with incredible speed.
How did Shang react?
He jumped to the left!
An instant later, the arrow was pointing to the right of Shang's chest since he had already jumped into the arrow's path.
And then…
It missed!
The arrow curved towards Shang's right, missing him in the process.
The woman's eyes narrowed even further as she quickly retrieved several more metal rods.
Shang had noticed that the ridges on the arrow's back had been slightly curved, which meant that the arrow would curve to Shang's right.
That was also why she had shot at the left side of Shang's chest. If someone attacked a normal person's left chest, the target would quickly evade to the other side. After all, evading into the attack would be suicide.
However, if Shang had jumped to the right, the arrow would have hit him in the middle of the chest.
By now, there were only twenty meters between the two of them.
Shang's opponent now had three metal rods in her hand, and all three of them were transformed into arrows.
Since she had to create three arrows instead of one, it took her more time.
By now, Shang was only five meters away from her.
The next arrow pointed at Shang.
She let go of the arrow.
Shang jumped upward.
But the arrow didn't arrive!
She had caught the arrow before it could leave the bow, and she had put a second arrow on top of the first one!
Then, she jumped back and pointed her two arrows at Shang, who was currently in the air, unable to evade.
Shang noticed the ridges in the arrows and pointed his left hand at the ground.
The woman let go of her arrows.
BANG!
Shang used an Ice Blast to shoot himself over the approaching arrows. One of the arrows had been straight, while another one had ridges that would make it curve to the ground in case Shang somehow managed to land.
The first arrow missed Shang.
CRK!
But the second arrow buried itself into Shang's abdomen!
Shang gritted his teeth. 'She spun the arrow by 180° before firing!'
Shang wasn't bothered by the pain, but he could feel his life energy rapidly moving towards the arrow.
However, this wasn't the Darkness Element.
No, this was the Poison Element!
A big part of Shang's life energy was absorbed by the arrow and transformed into something else. Then, it released the poisonous life energy back into Shang's body!
Shang quickly pulled the arrow out of his abdomen, taking a big chunk of flesh with it, but it had already done a lot of damage.
His opponent pointed the last arrow at Shang, who was nearly above her by now.
Then, she let go.
Shang's eyes focused on the arrow, and his mind went into overdrive.
For an instant, he felt like time was passing very slowly.
BANG!
The woman's eyes widened.
Shang had kicked her arrow away!
What unreal timing!
Parrying an arrow was even harder than avoiding it!
Where did he learn to do something like that?!
This was the culmination of Shang's training against the Mana Push Spell.
Shang pointed his left arm to his back.
BANG!
Two explosions occurred at the same time.
One was an explosion of fire coming from Shang's left hand, and one was an explosion of purple mist appearing around the woman's body.
Shang landed in the purple cloud and slashed with his sword.
Shang saw some red in the purple cloud, but he didn't feel much resistance from his sword. He knew that he had hit something, but he wasn't sure what he had hit.
And then, the Magic Circle of Shang's uniform appeared above his head.
