Chapter 194: Combat Unpredictability

The audience, who had finally sat down and focused on the slow-burn exchange between Talia and Moon, rose to their feet at the sudden shift in dynamics.

Moon suddenly, without warning, landed four hits; his arm moved like a spring, coiling and releasing rapidly.

"Hey Samuel, did you teach him that?" Lucen asked.

Samuel didn’t answer him; his gaze was solely fixed on the ring.

Realizing the answer he was waiting for wasn’t coming, Lucen shook his head. "It’s a waste for a kid like that to be born with a crippled Echo and no resources to enhance his strengths."

"Quit yapping, everyone knows you’re a cheapskate," Ed spat in annoyance. "Your voice is seriously starting to ruin my mood; it would be lovely to hear it less."

Lucen sighed in defeat but went silent... for now, at least.

In the ring, Moon wasn’t done with those four hits.

Like a ghost, he passed between Talia’s line of sight and her guard over her face. With every passing second, a few more hits landed.

Talia realized her mistake, but it was too late now.

Moon was already attacking her without allowing her a moment to catch her breath. Still, the damage wasn’t devastating thanks to her attributes and stats.

Yet, his hits were landing squarely without her being able to catch them.

Talia realized her only way out was to block properly and not allow herself to be toyed with. Moon’s attacks were coming to whatever opening she gave.

Face, diaphragm, shoulder... Moon was waiting for an opening to throw a new hit.

Thanks to that, Talia lowered her stance to guard better.

Instead of having Moon aim for her opening, she decided to give him the opening she was willing to bear.

Talia guarded her face and neck to near perfection and allowed her elbows to partially guard her abdomen in the centre thanks to her lowered stance.

But that wasn’t everything.

Talia proceeded with a different tactic, a wilder one than her usual orthodox movements.

Talia contracted her legs to the extreme and got on her toes.

Thud~

As soon as Moon’s hit landed, she dashed forward blindly. The difference in strength would counter Moon’s attack and would also be enough to considerably damage him.

Still, Moon managed to jump away from her sudden burst of speed.

Going after him again, Talia turned around, taking advantage of her speed to locate him before putting her guard up again.

’Fuck my days, I knew it would be a grind, but this is too much of a grind,’ Moon lamented in his mind, trying to resist the sense of urgency trying to take over.

Watching her perform the stride again, Moon felt tempted to extend a foot and get her to trip over it.

But after careful consideration, her speed and strength were not something to be messed with.

’I’d rather finish this shyt and get out on my own two feet,’ he reminded himself, considering the possibility of his legs snapping instead.

It was a valid risk he wasn’t willing to take.

’I’m becoming a cowardly guy, sigh...’ he lamented. ’It’s worrisome if girls are always that strong and on drugs.’

Moon’s mind kept getting weird thoughts thanks to the suppression he was performing on every urge he had during the long battle.

Talia marched again as he jumped away from her, getting hit with the wind pressure she left behind. ’Wild,’ he thought, and thanks to that, he suddenly got a new idea.

Moon waited for a few more exchanges, letting the pattern set.

He was relying heavily on that aspect of himself. He knew he could adapt to sudden dynamic changes in a fight better than anyone.

It was his most critical talent and ability, the one aspect that allowed him to survive and claim one victory after another on the first floor.

Thus, as always, Moon first allowed the pattern to set. He allowed Talia to feel in control, allowed her to believe her strategy was working perfectly as she intended.

He allowed her to believe that it was only a matter of time before he finally got hit.

Moon let her graze him lightly once, just for her assurance. To make her believe he would soon get hit.

He even let it happen twice, giving the pattern assurance and credibility, letting it sit perfectly as he had once before.

’You can hit me if you try hard enough,’ Moon said inwardly, jumping out of her way once again.

A few meters’ dash wasn’t a light matter, and more importantly, it was too far for him to get behind her and attack.

He was also too slow to run after her or produce the same speed burst.

Yet, his idea was far from being a functional one; it was rather desperate. He needed to break through.

To break through her defence, he needed speed and power.

Yet, Moon didn’t have enough of either; he planned on borrowing from Talia.

With his next jab thrown, Talia was in the process of attempting to bulldoze him again.

Moon dashed back, staying in line with her attack.

Once his toes left the ground, he copied her and dashed forward as well, but there was a slight difference.

Moon’s stance was lower than hers by far; his feet were nearly dragging in the sand underneath, and instead of a guard, his elbow was aimed outward, between her guards.

At her diaphragm.

Moon allowed himself to be bulldozed in exchange for thrusting his elbow into her diaphragm with the speed and strength of both their dashes combined.

"GAH!" Talia spat. Meanwhile, Moon was thrown, rolling on the sand thanks to her momentum, but he successfully managed to avoid her elbows from hitting him.

Moon stood first, dusting the sand out of his hair. "I must have gone insane," he exclaimed as a few spots on his body bled thanks to the hard roll.

"LADY TALIA!"

"WHAT IN THE TOWER!"

"What did he do?"

"How’s Lady Talia like this?"

"Wasn’t he the one who got hit?"

Lucen nodded, satisfaction written all over his face. "Driving his elbow into her diaphragm, using her speed and strength to his advantage while letting his feet off the ground to reduce the impact damage on his body."

He turned to Ed. "Edmond, I really am eager to see him use normal Echo; I want to see if his Echo can have the same resilience his mind and body have."

"Old man, you’re getting overtalkative these days; are you dying soon?" Ed asked in evident annoyance, though his eyes were smiling faintly.

He looked at Moon, examining the state of his body.

A few scratches on his back and elbows; nothing too serious could be seen, which was a good result for his wild attempt.

"Stupid brat," Ed couldn’t help whispering softly.

His eyes then fell on Talia, who was also in overall good condition, except for the fact that she was on one knee, barely supporting her body with a hand while coughing and looking ready to throw up her own intestines.

Her other hand held her stomach tightly while her eyes were tearing up in pain.

Moon ran his hands over his arms, brushing off some of the sand stuck to him.

"Bleh!" he spat out some sand that had gotten in his mouth.

He walked closer to Talia under the maddened screams in the audience. "Shouldn’t we end this here?"