history with it, and her familiarity with its power.
Ruby could use the technique just fine, but she couldn’t survive doing it.
Until now.
Her copy of Yerin’s Diamond Veins had finally progressed far enough, her body was solid, and the spirit well had strengthened her madra.
Scarlet madra Forged in lines over Ruby’s sword, weaving itself strand by strand, growing in power and intensity.
A Striker technique from Yan Shoumei pierced Ruby’s chest, but she didn’t falter.
Yerin, however, was starting to shake. As Crusher pushed against the technique in her sword, it put more and more pressure on her spirit. Any second, she would lose control of the field.
Ruby’s technique finished Forging.
The lines snapped into the shape of a clawed hand bigger than Yan Shoumei’s entire body, and the claw swept down with an Archlord’s power.
As with all the bindings in these weapons, Netherclaw’s technique would be more powerful when Yerin was an actual Archlady, but it was still a devastating blow. The claw hit Yan Shoumei like one of Crusher’s own strikes, crashing through her diamond-shaped madra shield and landing on her skin.
Her resistance to madra was enough to prevent the strike from shredding her to ribbons.
But blood still sprayed from her body in three lines as the claws sliced through her skin. Her body tumbled back, and her Ruler technique broke.
Ruby dashed after her in an instant, and though Shoumei reacted quickly, she was pinned to the ground with Netherclaw.
Before her Remnant could rise, she dissolved into white light and vanished.
Just as Yerin gave out. She released the Frozen Blade technique, heaving for breath, holding her sword out in case Crusher could still resist.
But to her relief, the monstrous Blood Shadow disappeared at the same instant.
The Sages had speculated that the match would be over when the sacred artist was defeated, but ultimately it was up to Northstrider to determine what counted as defeat. Yerin sagged with relief as the Ninecloud Soul declared her victory.
That made one fight each. One to go.
Yerin knew better than to rely on the same opening tactic again, but now that they were certain Ruby wouldn’t be able to keep fighting after Yerin’s defeat, the Blood Shadow had to take on the riskier role.
They started in similar positions, with Ruby in front and Yerin behind, but this time Ruby attacked.
As expected, Crusher defended.
They didn’t know what Yan Shoumei’s Archlord weapon was, nor all her prizes from the previous round, but they knew she had more in store. She had played carefully the entire tournament, keeping her cards secret, but now she had no choice.
So no one was surprised when she took a weapon from her soulspace, but Yerin was somewhat surprised to see it was a bow.
Archers weren’t exactly rare, but they weren’t common either. You could use a Striker technique with any weapon, and a sword was still useful up close.
But Yerin knew better than to underestimate any Archlord weapon, especially when sword and blood aura began flowing to the bow from all over in the arena, condensing into a red-white light.
It was more complex than a simple arrow, reminding Yerin of Mercy’s bow when she layered many techniques into one, but Yerin didn’t care to find out what it did.
Ruby had already clashed with Crusher, but instead of using the time to activate her own Archlord binding, Yerin took the opening to dash right by.
Crusher tossed Ruby aside, but not quickly enough to stop Yerin from closing the gap with Yan Shoumei.
Her sword rang.
The Endless Sword technique rippled through the dense sword aura, which Shoumei had already begun gathering to herself.
Since it was under the control of her Ruler technique, the Endless Sword didn’t have as much impact as Yerin had hoped. She’d hoped it would cause the mass of aura to explode and tear Shoumei in half.
But it still opened up bleeding wounds all over Shoumei’s body, and her spirit trembled. Yerin would have finished her off, but her spirit warned her in time to spin her around and send as much madra as possible into her Steelborn Iron body.
Crusher’s fist slammed down onto her upraised sword.
Yan Shoumei had named her Blood Shadow well.
Yerin was crushed down, cracking the ground beneath her feet, and her entire body screamed under the impact.
But she only had to endure it for a moment as Ruby dashed back into the fray, red hair streaming behind her.
Her own sword rang.
Dozens of wounds cut Shoumei all over her body, cutting her more deeply this time. She cried out in pain,