Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 881: Red Flag [GT Ranking Bonus Chapter]

Lior, hearing Asher’s words, simply smiled. He had no issues with Asher’s words. He was someone who teased people a lot, so he had no issue being teased in return.

His knees dipped forward ever so slightly, his muscles tightening as the ground beneath his feet trembled. Like a cannon blast, he shot forward in a green blur. The moment he arrived before Asher, his katana cut through the air, straight for Asher’s neck in a horizontal slash.

Asher’s eyes remained calm like an ocean. He simply leaned backward, skillfully dodging with ease. The moment he dodged, Lior followed up with another attack, his katana thrusting toward Asher’s waist with unrelenting precision.

Asher simply sidestepped this time. The moment he dodged, Lior’s katana met nothing but thin air as a spiraling vortex of wind tore outward, erasing the canyon where Asher had been standing only an instant earlier.

Lior adjusted his footing as he recalibrated. Although he hadn’t created his own Sword Technique, it didn’t mean he was useless without one. His katana stabbed toward Asher’s forehead once more, but Asher simply snapped his head to the side at the very last possible moment, moving with absolutely zero wasted motion.

As Asher dodged, Lior seamlessly transitioned from a stab into a downward cleaving motion as though that had been his plan all along, as though the earlier thrust had merely been a feint.

Seeing the incoming point-blank attack, Asher’s body simply turned blurry as he increased his speed and dodged, afterimages trailing in his wake. But the moment he moved, Lior followed, matching Asher’s speed perfectly.

Arriving in a blur, his katana disappeared as he unleashed a storm of attacks from every conceivable angle. The wind screamed as it collapsed around Asher, as though informing him that he had no choice but to draw his rapier this time.

But it seemed people continued to underestimate Asher’s speed. He possessed more speed than strength. His body literally vanished from where he stood as he dodged every attack with flawless ease. He appeared a hundred meters away, his feet kissing the earth as Lior’s katana carved through the grand canyon before him.

Lior shot forward from the swirling dust, his katana singing toward Asher’s chest. But the next moment, he changed the direction of his attack, aiming for Asher’s Achilles tendon as his earlier strike had merely been another feint.

But Asher was someone who had never once fallen for feints. His ridiculous talent and Omni Perception allowed him to read through such things as though they were an open book.

He simply raised his leg, the katana tearing through the space where his ankle had been a moment earlier. The moment Asher dodged, Lior’s katana was about to blur upward in a follow-up slash, but before he could even move, Asher’s foot came crashing down on the hand holding the katana.

Lior didn’t even bother contending for it. With his body already lowered, he simply unleashed a kick toward Asher’s jaw with effortless speed. Asher’s purple eyes snapped toward the incoming attack, his body streaking backward as he dodged with equal ease.

The moment he dodged, Lior regained control over his katana once more. His veins seemed to bulge as he tapped into even greater physical strength and speed. In a burst of explosive motion, he appeared before Asher in less than a second. But the moment he moved, Asher moved as well.

The two of them turned into green and purple blurs as the game of cat and mouse began. Lior attacked endlessly while Asher evaded every single strike at the final possible moment, as though he could already see the future unfolding before it happened.

Both of them appeared upon the surface of a mountain-like canyon, but Lior’s sword flashed as endless crescent-shaped sword attacks rampaged through the landscape while both he and Asher vanished once again.

Lior wore a frown. He had been going at this for a whole hour, yet Asher did nothing but evade and evade with his hands clasped behind his back like a Murim martial master.

‘He is reading me,’ Lior thought to himself.

The next moment, he copied Asher’s own technique as he immediately threw sand toward Asher’s face at point-blank range. Seeing this, Asher was a bit stunned as he couldn’t help but wonder if someone had actually used his own methods against him.

He simply smiled and closed his eyes, the sand bouncing harmlessly off his face. As he closed his eyes, Lior closed the distance and slashed toward Asher’s waist as though he wanted to bisect him in half at the torso.

But it was futile. Even with his eyes closed, Omni Perception allowed Asher to see as clearly as day. And with that, he simply took a single step backward as though he were riding the wind itself.

The moment Asher’s feet kissed the earth, Lior moved again, but just as Asher was about to move, his entire body froze for some unknown reason.

Lior was already there, his katana thrusting toward Asher’s internal organs. Asher immediately tapped into his Astra energy in order to phase through the attack since he couldn’t move. But to his shock, even his Astra energy had been frozen within his Astra veins.

Like a knife through butter, Lior’s katana tore through Asher’s gut, blood splattering into the air as the blade burst out through Asher’s back.

Asher’s eyes finally opened as he regained control over his body, his purple gaze shifting toward the Flag Lior had tied within his haori, which was now dissipating into motes of light.

Finch stood stunned. He couldn’t believe what he had just seen. He had… won?

His Flag’s function was to cancel all of his enemy’s movement for a single second. Even Astra energy flowing through the Astra veins would be paused, making dodging impossible. This was the reason Finch had hidden the function of his Flag. A single second was enough to rewrite any battlefield, and although he had feared that Asher might somehow adapt despite the Flag’s function, that fear now seemed unfounded.

Even the spectators were stunned. They were speechless. A Wargrave had been eliminated earlier through the White Flag, and now another was being eliminated through the Red Flag.

Before the crowd or anyone else could even speak, a voice rang out. It was indifferent, calm, and almost amused.

“Truly a dangerous Flag.”

Eyes widened as they recognized the voice. Heads snapped toward its source. Finch was the most shocked because standing less than a meter beside him was Asher, casually leaning against the barrier with his arms folded across his chest.

What Lior had stabbed was a Photon Clone.

Although Asher had been wary of the unknown Flag, at the end of the day, using a Flag required channelling Astra energy. And throughout the entire fight, Lior had never used his Astra energy. But toward the end, he began subtly channelling it as he waited for the perfect opportunity to activate the Flag. With Asher’s Perfect Astra Control ability, deceiving him when it came to fluctuations in Astra energy was almost impossible.

At the moment when both Asher and Lior were concealed within the dust clouds, Asher created a Photon Clone and vanished. Barely three seconds later, Lior activated the Flag exactly as Asher had anticipated.

Before Lior could even blink, the crisp clacking sound of a weapon being sheathed echoed across the battlefield as a vertical slash tore through his body. It carved through his forehead, then down his nose, chest, stomach, and waist. Blood splattered onto the earth below as Asher inflicted a critical injury with a speed no one had perceived. They hadn’t even seen him draw his rapier, let alone swing it.

Asher’s eyes rose toward the sky once more, his arms still folded across his chest, his back still resting against the barrier as he spoke, completely ignoring Finch.

“Next.”

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AUTHOR’S NOTE: For each month we remain in the top ten, I will release 60 chapters the next month. Also, Super Gifts now come with bonus chapters. Happy new month.