Shang knew that he couldn't possibly beat Susan, but that also wasn't his goal.
Susan was the biggest issue for Jerald, and as long as Shang managed to distract Susan for a while, Jerald would be the one fighting her.
Even though Shang was using Distortion to approach her, he could feel that Susan knew exactly where he was, which didn't surprise him.
Susan was a Peak High Mage, and she even had a Darkness Affinity. Darkness Affinities dealt with a lot of subterfuge and illusions, making them similar to Light Affinities.
For a moment, the two of them only looked at each other.
Then, Susan's shoulder moved just a tiny bit.
When fighting another person physically, looking at the shoulders was the best way to see when an attack was coming.
As soon as Shang saw the slight movement, he immediately summoned all his Mana and life energy.
Shang knew that he wasn't fast enough to react to Spells after they were already cast, which meant that Shang had to guess what kind of Spell Susan was going to use and act appropriately.
It was a guessing game for Shang.
BANG!
Just as Shang put his sword in front of him, a black streak hit it.
The black streak was thin and barely visible, but the power inside it was horrifying.
As the black streak hit Sword, Shang's entire body atrophied to a terrifying degree as he summoned more and more Light Mana.
The spot where the streak and Sword touched started to shine brightly.
Half of Shang's body mass vanished.
He barely looked like a skeleton with some skin.
Shang gritted his teeth.
Then, he grunted and pushed his sword to the side.
CLING!
The streak bounced off Sword and shot to the side, missing Shang.
Shang had to take a deep breath after that.
Originally, he wanted to use Reflection, but he just couldn't muster enough Mana and life energy to make it work.
His body was simply not powerful enough to reflect Susan's casual Spell.
Because of that, Shang changed Reflection to Refraction at the last second.
Directly after using Refraction, Sword began to burn with black fire, and Shang swung forward.
A wave of black fire shot at Susan.
While still swinging upwards, Shang stopped his swing and held his Great Sword in front of him.
TCHIIIIIIII!
The black wave of fire was blown apart, and a wave of destructive black energy hit Sword.
Like a stone in front of a blowtorch, Sword cut apart the black energy, resulting in most of it missing Shang.
Most of it.
Since the Great Sword State wasn't as wide as the Colossal Sword State, the sides of the blast still hit Shang's shoulders and parts of his torso and legs.
These parts immediately vanished, and Shang felt a terrifyingly powerful force of Darkness Mana entering his body, consuming his life energy.
Then, Shang's right eye shone.
All the Darkness Mana inside of him suddenly transformed into Light Mana, healing his body.
In just an instant, Shang was nearing his peak again, and the healing water he was receiving finished it.
This was Abyss Cometh, one of Susan's strongest Spells.
Luckily, it didn't only destroy the target's body but also tried to poison them with Darkness. Without that second component, Shang wouldn't have been able to heal his body this quickly.
This had been the first time in Shang's life that he had been poisoned by pure Darkness Mana. He had theorized that he would be able to transform this kind of Darkness Mana into Light Mana, but he had actually never tried it.
Sadly, this only worked on pure darkness.
Poison Affinities would still poison him successfully.
Just when the wave of darkness passed Shang, his sword caught on fire again and swung upward, releasing another wave of black fire.
When Shang's Saber reached its peak, he immediately pulled it back and threw it forward.
Star Shatter!
He knew that he couldn't block the next attack, and this was the best alternative.
As soon as he threw his Saber, he immediately released three Blasts from his feet to jump upward.
BANG!
A thin, black streak destroyed the wave of fire.
Then, it flew past Star Shatter.
CRACK!
It hit Shang's chest, his armor exploding into pieces.
BANG!
And everything below the middle of Shang's chest exploded and shot into the distance.
The healing water and Mana stopped coming from his armor since it had been obliterated.
Shang could only grit his teeth and use his life energy and Mana to recover, his entire body regrowing in an instant.
BANG!
The sound of a loud collision reverberated throughout the battlefield.
Star Shatter had hit Susan's Mana Shield!
When Susan felt 15% of her Mana vanish, she frowned and looked at the Long Sword touching her Mana Shield.
Then, her fingers moved with imperceptible speeds, and she pointed at Sword with two fingers.
When Shang saw that, his face whitened.
BANG!
A concentrated needle of Darkness and Metal Mana shot out of Susan's fingers and hit the side of Sword's blade.
CRACK!
Shang's expression turned to horror.
Sword broke into pieces!
Time seemed to stop as Shang saw Sword being thrown into the distance, only its hilt and a bit of its blade left.
However, Shang knew that Sword wasn't dead yet.
If this had happened in the past, Sword would have died without a doubt.
Luckily, while creating Silence, Shang and Sword had made it possible for Sword to survive as long as it still had enough of its blade left to rival a dagger.
Shang knew that Sword was still alive, but it was probably in immense pain, and it also wouldn't be able to help in the fight anymore.
SHING!
Shang used Shock to grab Sword out of the air.
"Are you ok?"
"Can't… help. Nearly… dead," Sword answered with difficulty.
Shang couldn't answer since he had to use Shock again.
SHING!
The terrifying black streak shot past the spot where Shang had just been.
SHING!
Shang immediately used Shock again, and a small needle of Darkness and Metal Mana shot past him.
Susan's speed and offensive powers were absolutely terrifying!
Shang had only managed to hit her once with Star Shatter.
All the other times, Shang had been busy with barely surviving.
As Shang fought against Susan, his opinion of Jerald's power reached new heights.
'Jerald managed to fight Susan and four other Late High Mages at once for nearly 20 seconds.'
'Meanwhile, I'm barely staying alive after only one second.'
