BXBX NOVEL Chapter 156: Failed Riposte
It seems that his opponent took a liking to his weapon.
He knew that the value of his tachi was exorbitant for a student and regular people wouldn\'t be willing to risk losing it in a bet.
However, Siegfried wasn\'t someone who would shrink back from a challenge. In addition to this, he liked bets, especially bets on who would win in a fight.
Thus, after seemingly pondering for a bit, Siegfried smiled before replying:
"Alright then, let\'s bet. If I win, then give me all of your equipment including your sword. If you win, you can have my low-grade void relic."
"Hahahaha! You must be dreaming. You dare eye all of my equipment? Even if your sword is a low-grade void relic, the total cost of my equipment still surpasses the price of your relic."
"Heh, after all that tough talk you\'re gonna wuss out? Fine then, we don\'t have to bet if you\'re too scared of losing."
Veins popped on the sides of Ryden\'s head, feeling utterly infuriated after being insulted by someone he deemed a lowlife.
Although Ryden knew that his opponent was just riling him up to trick him into a disadvantageous bet, he wasn\'t willing to take insults from this Colzen Academy mongrel.
Thus, fully aware that he was at a disadvantage, Ryden decided to go through with the bet.
"Hah, delusional people like you are becoming way too arrogant. Fine then, I shall bet all of my current equipment in exchange for your tachi. There\'s no way a little countryside mongrel like you could defeat me anyway."
After saying his piece, Ryden immediately assumed his battle stance with a sneer on his face.
As for Siegfried, he was quite happy.
He wasn\'t worried that Ryden would renege on the bet since there were lots of eyes on them right now.
If he still had the gall to do so, then Siegfried didn\'t mind forcefully taking the items from him.
Seeing that the two representatives were done talking, the referee extended his hands forward before jerking them upwards, signaling the start of the match.
"Begin!"
Ryden immediately charged at Siegfried, not respecting him in the slightest as he raised his sword and chopped it downwards in one swift motion.
\'Hoh? This guy is pretty skilled…\' Siegfried smilingly thought as he slightly stepped back and raised his sword, angling it perfectly to gracefully parry Ryden\'s downward chop.
Not expecting Siegfried to easily receive his blow, Ryden\'s chopping motion continued until his sword almost hit the ground, giving Siegfried a huge opening to counterattack.
Siegfried decisively stepped his right foot forward before pivoting to face Ryden, viciously slashing diagonally downwards as he aimed to separate Ryden\'s head from his body.
Unfortunately, Ryden wasn\'t one to be defeated so easily.
Although done awkwardly, Ryden managed to retreat on time but he was not able to escape unscathed as a shallow cut scarred his slightly handsome face.
Feeling warm blood dripping down his cheeks, Ryden was infuriated. He couldn\'t believe that the lowly mongrel managed to wound him first.
"You…Little…Shit!!"
In a fit of rage, Ryden immediately activated his self-buff skills, [Enhanced Agility Lv.3], [Enhanced Dexterity Lv.3], and [Enhanced Strength Lv.3].
He then charged at Siegfried once again with a furious expression as he ferociously hacked, slashed, and stabbed at him, attempting to overwhelm Siegfried with a flurry of quick but ferocious blows.
Naturally, Siegfried realized that Ryden already used his self-buff skills so he also did the same in order to keep up.
Once his self-buff skills were active, Siegfried managed to recover.
Although he was still on the back foot due to Ryden\'s relentless onslaught, he was as cool as a cucumber.
While backpedaling, Siegfried calmly blocked, parried, and dodged Ryden\'s blows while occasionally counterattacking with slashes and stabs of his own.
"Hahaha! Stay curled up like a turtle! Let\'s see if you can win like that!" Ryden said as he smiled crazily while continuing to attack.
Siegfried simply ignored his taunts though because according to the piece of paper handed to them by Dean Privett, Ryden was a hotheaded and impatient individual so Siegfried was sure that as long as he took his time, Ryden would give him an opening to exploit.
Sure enough, after around five minutes of continuous aggression, Ryden started becoming angrier and angrier.
His swings slowly lost compactness as he unknowingly began to attack with reckless abandon.
Unbeknownst to him, the current circumstances are where Siegfried shines best.
His chilling calmness in battle forged through numerous duels allowed him to dodge Ryden\'s blows with increasingly terrifying precision.
Finally, after narrowly dodging one of Ryden\'s blows, Siegfried\'s honed instincts told him to bet it all on the next attack.
Unhesitatingly, Siegfried immediately used his trump card combination, [Power Slash Lv.3] + [Ethereal Sword Lv.3] to not only increase his attack power but also allow his sword to phase through Ryden\'s sword.
Still, Ryden was no slouch, he immediately sensed the danger and unhesitatingly used his reposition skill, [Swallow step Lv.3] to immediately recover his balance.
Subsequently, he used a defensive skill, [Riposte Lv.3] to counterattack immediately after their swords clashed.
However, who would\'ve thought that there would be no clash of swords? Ryden\'s skill was rendered useless as Siegfried\'s ghostly skill-empowered attack simply passed through Ryden\'s sword and struck him squarely in the chest.
"Puhaahk!"
Fortunately for Ryden, he was clad in a low-grade earth element enchanted breastplate or he would\'ve been slashed in half by the skill-empowered slash while the purple slash mark would have devoured small bits of his flesh.
Due to his earth element armor, Ryden managed to avoid a brutal death.
Still, he was left in terrible shape after receiving Siegfried\'s attack, spitting out blood in alarming volumes as the competitive glow in his eyes slowly dimmed.