Shang watched the wheel while Sword recovered to its Saber State.
The wheel stopped, and the Affinity of his opponent was…
Metal.
SHING!
Shang's opponent appeared, and Shang looked over.
It was a woman with silver hair and sharp eyebrows. In a way, she looked a bit like Sarah.
The Mage also had this aura around her that pushed people away from her.
The jester slowly lifted his hammer and hit the bell.
DING!
As always, Shang started his assault of Shooting Stars and Hidden Suns.
The Mage activated Mana Shield and used Mana Step, as always.
Shang's attacks continued as he blasted toward his enemy.
At that moment, the Mage narrowed her eyes and moved her fingers to the side.
SHING! BANG!
A small needle made of metal left her hand and hit a Shooting Star, making it explode prematurely.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The same thing happened for all of Shang's other attacks.
'Seems like my basic assault won't get me very far against this opponent.'
Shang switched his offensive style and only unleashed Hidden Suns.
The Mage used another needle to stop Hidden Sun.
Whoosh!
Yet, the needle missed!
Hidden Sun had suddenly collapsed into a Shooting Star at a random spot.
This was the same thing Shang had used against that one spider on level nine in the beast category.
It was the bane of people that could block his attacks with precise strikes.
BANG!
The new Shooting Star hit her Mana Shield, and she lost about 4% of her Mana.
She tried to parry the next two attacks again, but they just collapsed at random places, making it impossible for her to foresee where she had to throw her needles.
After getting hit by three attacks, she decided to change her approach.
Instead of only shooting one needle at a time, she shot a bunch of needles at once.
That did the trick, but it also required her to use more Mana.
Although she was still recovering more Mana than she was using, she wasn't recovering much.
Then, her Focus lit up.
SHING!
Space in front of her seemed to warp as a nearly imperceivable cut traveled across reality toward Shang.
This was the same attack that one High Mage had used while Shang was assaulting one of the camps of the Grandmountain Kingdom.
BANG!
Shang used an Ice Blast to jump over the attack, but a second slice quickly shot at Shang's new location.
BANG!
Shang blasted toward the ground again, avoiding the second one.
A powerful High Mage would have probably timed that attack better, but a powerful High Mage also had the ability to foresee their opponent's attacks to a certain degree.
As an average Mage, Shang's opponent didn't have that ability. She had to act according to what Shang did, giving him more space to avoid her attacks.
Then, Shang started to alternate his attacks.
Sometimes, he was using normal Hidden Suns.
Sometimes, he was using normal Shooting Stars.
Sometimes, he was using collapsing Hidden Suns.
This increased Shang's attack rate while still being very difficult to foresee.
Instead of risking getting hit, Shang's opponent decided to use the Needle Array to block every Spell.
Now, she was using just as much Mana as she was recovering.
Shang had a pretty good grip on his opponent's fighting style by now.
'She can use these needles whenever she wants, and even though they don't take much Mana, getting hit by one will still be troublesome enough to force my armor to use its Magic Circles.'
If this Mage were on Shang's level, he could probably just walk through these needles. The most they would do would be to draw a bit of blood from Shang.
These needles used very little Mana, but for a Mid High Mage, very little Mana was still enough to threaten Shang.
'Seems like I have to enter my Long Sword State again.'
Shang came closer to the High Mage until only 800 meters were between them.
Then, just when Shang was about to unleash a normal Shooting Star, he threw his Saber instead.
The Mage's eyes widened, and she shot a Needle Array at Shang's Saber.
CLINK! CLINK! CLINK!
The needles harmlessly bounced off Sword, and it reached her Mana Shield.
BOOOOOM!
Star Shatter!
She lost a lot of her Mana, and she was thrown into the distance.
SHING!
But Shang was already in front of her!
Shock!
Then, the world around her turned black.
Isolation!
But in comparison to the last Mage Shang fought, this one knew what to do.
A Needle Array appeared in her hands.
But then, her eyes widened.
Four other Shangs had appeared around her, and all of them looked real!
They all lifted their swords with impressive speed.
At that moment, the Mage narrowed her eyes.
She would let the attack hit.
She knew that four of the five Shangs had to be illusions, and she knew that she would only get hit by one of them.
At that point, she would know who the real one was.
All five Shangs struck forward.
At that moment, she realized that they wouldn't strike her at the same time. There was a tiny gap between whenever a strike would hit.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The Mage took a deep breath in terror.
All five attacks had sapped her Mana!
And she still didn't know who the real one was!
This was another new technique for Shang's Long Sword State.
In the Commander Stage, Shang had created Shadow Image and Vanish, and this technique was a more refined fusion of these two.
Isolation already made it easy for Shang to use Vanish due to all the Darkness Mana around him, and creating a couple of Shadow Images was also easy inside Isolation.
When Shang used this technique, he would quickly move around in an invisible state and hit wherever one of the Shadow Images would hit their opponent.
This meant that Shang's opponent wasn't surrounded by four illusions but five!
This technique was designed to throw the enemy into a panic. They would be unsure what they should attack, and they were more likely to make mistakes due to the high pressure this technique put on their mind.
They would believe that they would be attacked by everyone around them.
Shang decided to call this technique Paranoia.
And Paranoia did its work.
The Mage fell into a panic, and she decided to attack all five Shang's with a Needle Array.
But the needles shot through all the Shangs without injuring them!
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Another five attacks hit.
Then, the Mage's terror exploded.
A humongous amount of Metal Mana gathered around her, and an instant later, it exploded outward.
It seemed like the reality around her was cut apart by hundreds of cuts spreading out from her location.
She would destroy everything around her!
Sure enough, the darkness around her vanished, just like the five Shangs.
SHING!
And then, the darkness returned, just like the five Shangs.
When Shang had seen her prepare her attack, he had used Shock to retreat into the distance.
Then, he had used another Shock to come close again.
Shang's attacks were too fast to react for her in her current state.
BANG! BANG! CRACK! SHING! SHING!
And she was dead.
The third attack broke her Mana Shield, and the last two split her into pieces.
Shang's body had shriveled up by quite a bit, but he could probably recover before the next fight started.
He knew that the next opponent would not be easy.
