[Duel Preparation Phase ending in 5…]
[4…]
Daru finished warming up with a smile, his eyes sparkling as they desperately tried to peer through the translucent purple barrier blocking him from crossing the bridge leading to the abyssal arena at the center.
Across it was another bridge like the one before him, leading to another barrier.
He wanted to see the appearance of a Vyrrkan in the flesh.
Unfortunately, the other barrier was blocking his vision, and he could only wait for the timer to end.
[3…]
[2…]
[1…]
And then finally, as it hit zero, the barrier dissolved, revealing a figure on the other side.
A faint grin emerged on Daru's face as he walked towards the abyssal arena, matching the Vyrrkan's pace.
As his opponent got closer, Daru was finally able to clearly see the so-called humanoid crocodile-lizard's appearance.
The descriptions were somewhat accurate, as the overall appearance of the Vyrrkan in front of him was like a strange, humanoid crocodile, though there were a few features that weren't mentioned in the descriptions.
Its face was slightly elongated like a reptile's, but the mouth tapered into a hard, beak-like curve rather than the flat jaws of a crocodile.
From his opponent's nose sprouted a V-shaped pair of metallic antennae, colored a deep moss-green, stretching almost a foot and a half above its head and lining the inner side of its eyes.
Aside from those, it looked exactly as what was described in the articles.
Daru was decently tall, standing five-foot-nine inches at eighteen years old, yet the Vyrrkan still towered over him, perhaps around six-foot-four inches at the same age.
Its scale-protected muscles were bulging, but it didn't look slow at all.
The physical attribute differences were already glaring.
Even so, if what the articles said was true, these guys' rather crude swordsmanship should be their weak point.
Daru wasn't thinking much about such stuff, though.
He simply appreciated the daunting appearance of his enemy.
'Nice, he looks strong...' he mused.
He hadn't noticed he was already smiling as he scanned his opponent from head to toe.
The Vyrrkan, too, was quite surprised and fascinated at the human's rather calm and confident bearing.
"Hoh…Onimaru Kunitsuna of the human race, you dare smile in such a carefree manner despite your impending defeat? Commendable. Only, I don't understand how a mere S-ranker pipsqueak like you managed to become the representative of your race…"
Only then did Daru remember to look at his opponent's Trial Name.
The rather difficult-to-pronounce word, Barkhalkhu, was written in half-silver, half-azure colors, which meant that the Vyrrkan in front of him was an SSS-ranker.
"Oh! You're an SSS-ranker?" Daru asked in enthusiasm, arriving at the ancient stone arena surrounded by an endless abyss.
The two representatives stood a fair distance away from each other, pulling their swords out.
"Well, shouldn't that always be the case in this event? Two SSS-rankers duking it out to secure a victory for their race?" Barkhalkhu responded questioningly as he gripped the silver handle of his huge, azure cleaver with both hands.
The Vyrrkan then slashed his weapon once without much difficulty.
It was a display that was meant to intimidate the opponent, even if only slightly.
"Tch, no effect, huh?" Barkhalkhu clicked his tongue, finding it difficult to believe that the smile of the pipsqueak in front of him only widened.
"Fine, you should at least be this courageous if you're chosen as your race's representative."
"Yeah, so let's stop talking and start fighting. Look, time is ticking down." Daru suddenly responded, motioning with his head for the Vyrrkan to look up.
Indeed.
A huge timer was counting down above them:
[4:43]
[4:42]
Barkhalkhu felt a bit disrespected that the human wasn't showing even a hint of nervousness.
Was it all an act, or was the S-ranker pipsqueak in front of him truly fearless?
"Fine then, since you're in such a hurry to be sent back to your continent, I shall. But the price for my service is one life of every human in your batch and two of yours! Die!!"
In the next moment, Barkhalkhu turned into an azure ray of light, reappearing high in the air.
The Vyrrkan then turned into a manifestation of a massive azure sword, descending like a comet.
Daru's eyes widened, barely able to jump back on time to successfully dodge the impact.
This was his first time encountering such a destructive and horrifying sword skill.
To his surprise, it hadn't ended yet, and Barkhalkhu turned into an azure blur once more, this time rushing straight towards him.
Then, the Vyrrkan representative suddenly halted, slashing his cleaver horizontally and sending out an azure, crescent-moon slash that tore through the air.
But Daru's focus had never wavered.
He was ready to react.
Shabby as his somersault was compared to his opponent's attack, it was enough to allow him to dodge the azure, crescent-moon slash.
A pitiful red slash mark then shot towards Barkhalkhu, hidden through all the flashiness.
It was already too late when the Vyrrkan representative noticed the sword skill.
He didn't even expect Daru to survive the SS-Tier sword skill given to him by the higher-ups of his race, so how could he have the presence of mind to dodge?
Barkhalkhu was struck cleanly in the chest, a damage value floating up:
[-120]
With a Vyrrkan's overwhelming physical prowess advantage, the damage done by Somersault Slash wasn't a cause for concern.
But it was a blow to Barkhalkhu's mental clarity.
"I…was struck first?"
Vyrrkans were far from being the smartest race in the Sword Trials, after all.
The thread of their patience was naturally thin.