Chapter 610: Sword vs. Shield (3 in 1)

Translator: Radiant Translations Editor: Radiant Translations

Nevertheless, there was no visible change to Carolyn’s expression. Of course, she knew about the matters her family had made, though she made no reactions to Mo Xingchen’s probing. It would be extremely beneficial for Stuart if she was able to obtain Wang Zhong as her subordinate, especially as a method to counter Mo Wen with.

Her personal emotions were there for the sake of the family. Naturally, that didn’t mean that absolutely nothing had gone on between Wang Zhong and Carolyn. It was already a big favour from her to allow Wang Zhong this opportunity to join her.

With a faint smile, Carolyn replied, “There’s a possibility for him to send anyone. Both captains Wang Zhong or Vladimir are extremely intelligent experts in strategic planning. Be it traps of counter traps, it was extremely hard to fully predict another’s tactics. Therefore, it will most likely result in their luck.”

Mo Xingchen responded with a faint smile of her own. As of now, the Mo Family still had a somewhat amicable relationship with the Stuart Family. In fact, both families have identical views on certain aspects for the future, and would collaborate to ensure the stability of the Federation. Conflicts were there for unity, which wouldn’t happen in the absence of the former.

The preparatory work for the stage had already been completed. After reading out the names of the participants, the head referee Long Mei’er proceeded to step down from the podium. With the signal given by the panel of referees, no hesitation was shown by Wang Zhong and Vladimir as they send out their vanguards.

The stadium instantly turned much quieter as everyone opened their eyes wide to see the 2 participants stepping forward.

“Grai VS Pomo!”

A flurry of astonishing cries rang out upon the announcement of the 2 vanguards, as a large number of people had believed that Tianjing would give up the first duel. After all, Grai and Wang Zhong were the only 2 people from Tianjing that were able to stand toe-to-toe with the mainstays of Grozny. Before the start of this match, a great deal of people believed that they had already understood Wang Zhong’s character to be extremely unorthodox and rule-bending. The word “everchanging” was the most apt word to describe Tianjing.

Perhaps, this was the “one size fits all” strategy.

On the other side, Vasilyevich had clearly gone with the more orthodox choice by sending out Pomo and keeping their other 2 trump cards, Vladimir and Noriba, to deal with Wang Zhong and Grai. After all, being the most stable mainstay within their ranks, having Pomo snatch the vanguard duel victory was clearly the most reasonable choice.

However, Tianjing appeared to have gained an advantage with this selection. Unlike Vladimir and Noriba, Grai clearly has a slight combat advantage over Pomo, who was a defensive-type heavy soldier. A soldier like him excels the most in group battles, though they would appear slightly lacklustre in solo duels.

However, there was no a single shade of surprise present on Vladimir’s face. The Ice Prince was always brimming with confidence. Regardless of how Wang Zhong or Vladimir felt with each other’s vanguard choice, the Tianjing fans were rather happy with the former’s choice, showing it in the form of excited shouts and roars upon the announcement of Grai’s name. As the latter walked up onto the stage, his elegance and grace caused a berserk atmosphere to descend upon the stadium once again, as shouts and roars rose into a crescendo.

“The most handsome male in the universe has graced the stage!”

“There’s nothing out there that our Grai’s cannon can’t solve! If not, 2 cannon shots will do!”

“A single shot’s enough to take down a dumb elephant!”

“No! Do waste our Grai’s shots! Why not fire it towards me! I beg you! Please fire towards me!”

The shrieking coming from Grai’s fangirls caused the entire stadium to descend into chaos.

AHHH…

A sneer appeared on Pomo’s face, before unleashing a fierce stamp.

BOOM!

Red light sparkled as a giant shadow descended from the sky, landing heavily before Grai. Dust and rock chips flew out as cracks extended out from the spot he had landed on in all directions!

The massive figure before Grai appeared just like a small hill of muscles. Having just landed, Pomo still maintained a lowered stance. Although he was muscular as any ordinary top-class heavy soldier out there, his muscles were incomparably sturdy, appearing to be literally carved out of stone! Put together, he appeared to be carved out from a slab of granite!

WA…

Standing up slowly, he raised the massive, slightly-oversized shield in his hand. Despite looking extremely heavy and unwieldy, the shield was hefted around by Pomo as though it was as light as a toy. The flames appeared to burn within his eyes as he sent a deep and intense gaze towards Grai, so much so that it appeared to spew out from his eyes. In the next instant,?a ferocious wave of suffocating intent shot out, causing people to feel an intense feeling of threat!

Standing before him unarmed was Grai. Clearly, using his bare hands was the most awkward choice he could make against a heavy soldier. Even sharp weapons would stand an extremely low chance of breaking Pomo’s terrifying defences, what more so being unarmed?

However, none of the audience, and Ruo Zhi seemed to have any desire to ridicule Grai’s choice. This was Tianjing! This was Grai! He was one of the 2 strongest members of the most miraculous squadron in this CHF! Without talking about going up empty-handed, people wouldn’t have any issues if he were to wield an embroidery needle into combat!

“It appears that Grai has chosen to go bare handed to focus on speed. As for the issue of offence, the Hundred-Fold Palms he used to break Zhao Tianlong’s defence doesn’t seem to be lacking in that aspect.” Ruo Zhi started to rapidly commentate about the happenings for this duel between vanguards. “However, he is up against Pomo, a heavy soldier on the same level as Zhao Tianlong, a super defensive-type heavy soldier and his heavy shield! Of course, he is physically stronger, as well as possessing a defence above that of Zhao Tianlong’s Indestructible Body. Therefore, I feel that Pomo’s stronger in both offence and defence as opposed to Grai. Furthermore, strength will be useless if the attacks don’t connect! Clearly, Grai possesses an absolute advantage in speed!”

“That’s right! Tianjing are relying precisely on Grai’s miraculous performance to defeat Martial Ghost Divine Emperor in the quarterfinals! One can just imagine how incredible Grai’s speed is to be able to keep up with a top-class assassin like Gui Wulie! I believe that this will be the most troubling aspect that Pomo will have to deal with.”

Shrieks filled the stadium and Skylink while the 2 people on stage instantly entered into their combat state.

Pomo could feel a gaze coming from Grai that penetrated right into his bones. Vladimir had said that Tianjing was the most miraculous place he had ever known, and that appeared 2 people that hailed from there of whom he was unable to see through. Wang Zhong naturally was one of them, while the other was now standing right before him. Many people felt that Pomo had the capability to counter Grai. However, both Pomo and Vladimir were exceedingly clear that Noriba wasn’t quite stable in combat. His fighting style was extremely offence-orientated, extremely unforgiving towards mistakes, and was extremely influenced by his emotions. Admittedly, he had created some miracles due to his hot-bloodedness, a small mistake in a duel against an expert like Grai would cause him to lose the entire fight.

A sliver of red energy started to sparkle across Pomo’s granite-like muscles, causing his already formidable aura to continue to rise. If one were to close their eyes to get a feel of the stage, one would not be able to sense Pomo’s presence! Instead, one would just feel as though a massive piece of rock had appeared on the stage!

Rock-transformation?

Grai’s eyes sparkled with interest. Earth attribute special ability? That doesn’t seem like it? Compared to the dense earth that would appear when that ability was activated, Pomo’s Rock-transformation was more akin towards the rock-solid ice created from an ice attribute special ability. This also could be from a fusion between ice and earth attribute special abilities! Despite him not blasting his aura out, Grai was about to feel the convergence of a high level of power within Pomo.

His opponent definitely was an expert. Furthermore, that rock-transformation wasn’t something as simple as raising his defence. With a slight bow, Grai placed his left hand behind his back and his right before him.

“Please.”

A gentle wave of Soul Power instantly rippled out from Grai. As soft as a gentle breeze, it blew out right towards Pomo.

“Hu.”

A rock-like pair of eyes suddenly narrowed, before Pomo took a left step forward.

Bang!

As though the signal to start fighting has been given, a terrifying burst of pure power surged out from his foot. Instantly shattered the rock-hard ground beneath him, the wave of invisible power rapidly expanded out from the cracks formed.

Whoosh…

Grai instantly disappeared from his standing position as the competition bell rang. The speed of an assassin, coupled with the physical strength and spiritual soul of a soldier! Despite his slender and delicate looks, Grai’s body appeared to possessed inconceivable power, taking him only an instant before appearing right before Pomo!

What speed was that??

Despite taking the speed Grai had displayed in the earlier matches into consideration, Pomo seemed to be shocked by what he had just witnessed!

As shown the various large screens, Pomo appeared to be utterly shocked by Grai’s speed, to the point that he had not even mustered any defences up! The audience stared dumbfoundedly as Grai sent a punch rumbling towards Pomo’s chest! The latter did not even care about raising his heavy shield to defend himself!

As his punch landed, he could feel the tyrannical sturdiness of his opponent’s body. Despite that, Grai did not give up this opportunity, instantly sending 13 strikes from his fair, yet powerful palms, each one able to rip wild beasts apart, right into Pomo’s body! After the final strike, Pomo was sent flying over ten metres back, before rolling on the ground with his large shield still fastened to his hand.

The entire stadium was dumbfounded by what they saw. Was Pomo joking around?

Did he really think that Grai was faking his speed?

This duel had come to an end like that?

Silence hung over all of the viewing galleries, while the muscular men in the northern viewing gallery that were here to support Vasilyevich were utterly incapable of believing what they had just seen.

Despite all of the stunned reactions, Grai responded with a mere faint smile. His opponent appeared to be extremely confident with his defence, and was rather skilled in dealing with his punch. The strange rock-like texture over his muscles had negated at least 60% of the incoming force, ending up with a punch that wasn’t even able to harm his skin.

Rumble…

Without waiting for the audience to let their jaws hang lower, Pomo had already stood up. Flicking away the dust on his body, he sending a smile towards Grai while saying, “Interesting. However, this attack is useless against a northerner soldier.”

This fucker…

“That’s right! That’s a real man!”

“Hey, sissy! Use some strength! That’s not painful at all!”

A large number of bald-headed Grozny fans in the northern viewing gallery started to jump up and down, banging against the metal railings before them as they roared crazily in reply.

“Fuck, did that fellow learn from brother King?”

“The fighting clan of the northern regions really are terrifying.” The brother King fans were all in shock by what they saw. This was the CHF semifinals, and he was up against the prince of Tianjing! Yet, Pomo still dared to treat this duel like a game! Before talking about his strength, his guts alone was, without a doubt, formidable!

With a smile hanging on his face, Grai proceeded to clench his left hand, while Soul Power rippled out from his body. In the next instant, Grai took action!

Despite being dozens of metres away, the people in the viewing gallery were already capable of feeling the terrifying pressure coming from Grai’s fist. This time, Pomo no longer decided to take this fist with his body, as he waved his 2-metre tall heavy shield nimbly before him.

BANG!

Grai’s fist collided with Pomo’s heavy shield! Everyone could clearly see that Grai’s punch was multiple times stronger than his earlier punch! The frightening eruption and clash of power from both sides shoved both of them backwards.

Thump.

Grai appeared to be sent flying back, while Pomo only took a heavy step backwards, despite both of them enduring the same rebounding force. If he didn’t use a move similar to the Hundred-Fold Palms, it would be extremely unlikely for Grai’s barehanded attacks to break through Pomo’s Rock-transformation-enforced defences.

Choosing not to wield any weapons showed the absolute confidence Pomo had in his close combat abilities. Looks like Grai had underestimated his defences! However, before Pomo could think about this, he felt a dangerous attack about to slam down towards his head.

A terrifying drop kick was incoming, akin to Mount Tai collapsing onto him!

So quick?

Pomo was slightly shocked by the incoming dropkick, though he was unaware that Grai did not actually get sent flying backwards. Relying on the rebounding force, he did 3 to 4 backflips in the air. As he did so, he had miraculously managed to rechannel this force and converged it into his feet!

BANG!

Pomo raised his giant shield once again to block the incoming attack. However, this time, it wasn’t as easy as the previous attack. This kick possessed astonishing power, far, far above that of Grai’s earlier punch, causing Pomo’s shield-wielding hand to shake slightly.

What a powerful power-redirection attack!

An uncontrollable surge of radiance flashed out from Pomo’s eyes as a result. He originally assumed Grai to be a weakling that could only rely on his speed to stay in combat with him. However, never did he expect for the latter to possess that much power! He had really underestimated him.

Despite being repelled once again, Grai continued the trend of relying on the rebounding force. A surge of light burst forth from Pomo’s eyes as he shoved his giant shield forwards, turning his defence into offence. However, before his giant shield could rumble out and smash towards Grai, the latter’s force-redirection attack was already on its way!

BANG!

The second kick was stronger than the first! Way, way stronger!

This time, Pomo was prepared, raising his giant shield once again the block the incoming attack. BANG! The heavy bang reverberated across the stadium, followed up by a rain of successive blows from Grai.

Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang!

Punches and kicks flew out, smashing against the giant shield. As Grai danced around like a swallow darting between trees, Pomo and his heavy shield stayed as stable as an iron wall anchored firmly to the ground. One was a specialist in offence, while the other was a specialist in defence. Clean, decisive and without hesitation. Those were the best words to describe their actions on stage. Grai’s strength had far exceeded everyone’s expectations, as it had way surpassed that of a technique-inclined soldier. Terrifying booms rang out as each of his heavy strikes rumbled out, reverberating throughout the stadium.

On the other hand, the heavy soldier Pomo was definitely trailing behind in speed. However, not only was he displaying the super-powerful defence that Mo’s List heavy soldiers were renowned for, he frighteningly able to completely keep track of Grai and his speed! How exactly was this fellow a heavy soldier? Furthermore, that heavy shield appeared to weigh approximately 3 to 400 pounds! Yet, he was waving it around as though it was weightless, while blocking Grai’s attacks as if he were weilding a nimble dagger!

“He he he he he he! Destroy that sissy!”

“What an irksome barbarian! How dare you take action when our Grai wants to beat you up!”

“Go go Tianjing! Go go Grai!”

After the momentary bout of silence, the stadium rapidly erupted into a hotpot of shouts and roars, as fans of both sides shouted and cheer for their respective squadrons.

Vladimir’s eyes shone like burning torches as he watched the fight. Being all too clear about Pomo, he knew that this was more or less the latter’s upper limit in terms of speed. However, his opponent, Grai, was still able to ramp it up a notch. Grai was clearly attempting to provoke Pomo while putting up a false image of wanting to engage in a head on contest of strength.

“Ah, the retaliation’s gonna be quite strong…” said Vladimir with a faint smile. “It’s about to start.”

Purposefully lowering his speed while his opponent was scouting in order for his opponent to adapt to it. This truly was a commendable tactic, and a clear indication of Grai’s strength. He had just popped out in Tianjing like the monkey king from a rock! This kind of comprehensive understanding of combat truly was heaven-defying! Furthermore, he was even more perfect in terms of character and personality! No wonder there was a rumour going on about whether Grai had other … tendencies… If not, with Grai’s level of strength, there was truly no reason for him to slug it out in Tianjing and risk his life.

The changing of momentum during combat is generally one of the most life-threatening aspects of combat. Clearly, Pomo had already noticed Grai’s goal. Nevertheless, despite having identified it, Grai managed to catch that very instant when Pomo had noticed it. Narrowing his eyes, Grai suddenly increased his speed!

It’s here!

Pomo had already raised his guard in preparation for this. However, the sudden increase of speed was still completely different from the speed had adapted to! Without talking about him being unable to match Grai’s speed, the subconscious memories he had formed after watching Grai caused him to be utterly incapable of pulling off a miraculous counter attack!

In the time it took for one to blink a black shadow had already shoved his way before Pomo could fully raise his giant shield up.

Eyes sparkling with a burning white brilliance, Grai had already formed multiple afterimages with his hands! In an instant, tens of thousand palm shades appeared to smash into Pomo’s body!

Pomo’s expression finally changed.

He knew that his opponent was deliberately controlling the rhythm of this fight, and trying to get him to adapt to a level of speed. He clearly knew that his opponent would suddenly accelerate and launch an attack. He even judged the situation and made preemptive preparations to deal with the instant Grai increased his speed. He had seemingly done a perfect counter towards Grai’s tactic. However, he was still unable to defend against Grai’s attack! Alas, knowing and reacting were still 2 separate matters.

In a flash, all of the strength behind those palm strikes converged together. Being utterly unable to react in time, Pomo was blasted by layers upon layers of palm strikes right into his chest!

Bang bang bang bang bang!

Pomo was blasted back like a cannonball, shooting out fiercely over a dozen metres before sending rock chips and granite chumps flying as he smashed and created a pit in the rock-hard ground.

The stadium instantly turned silent once again. Had Pomo… been destroyed?

After all, Grai’s Hundred-Fold Palms were able to shatter Zhao Tianlong’s indestructible body! One could only imagine how much power Pomo had eaten right into his chest! How could anyone possibly endure such an attack!

However, Grai doesn’t appear to have such thoughts! Instead of coming to a halt, Grai continued to dash forwards in pursuit of Pomo, while palm imprints started to congeal before his hands.

Whoosh!

Grai’s rush was quick, but so was Pomo’s counter-attack! A massive black shadow rushed out from the pit in the ground, shooting right towards Grai!

The black shadow shot out with an incomparable speed that far surpassed the limits of Pomo! Shocked by this change, Grai subconsciously raised his hand to block.

BANG!!!

That was Pomo’s giant shield! Despite raising his palms in time to block its impact, the massive force behind it sent Grai shooting back a dozen metres before completely negating it. At this instant, Pomo had already exploded out from the pit in the ground.

Pomo took a step forward.

Rumble…

With an expression of absolute calm on his face, Pomo appeared before the audience. Other than his torn and tattered clothes, which had resulted from Grai’s Hundred-Fold Palms, the earlier attack appeared to have left not one scratch on his body! Sweeping away the dust and rock chips on his body, he proceeded to rip the remaining pieces of cloth from his body.

“ROAR!”

A vicious light blossomed from Pomo’s eyes as he gave a ferocious roar, revealing his muscular upper torso! At this moment, his rock-like muscles started to vibrate intensely, causing ripples of energy to surge out!

BANG!

Hu…

Pomo a deep breathe, before exhaling what seemed to be steam from his mouth. As the steam turned into fog, it enveloped his entire body. Seeing this, Grai’s eyes narrowed, only to see the turbid fog gradually dissipate to reveal a half-naked Pomo.

This seemed different from his earlier ability…

His origin earthen-grey coloured, rock-like hard muscles suddenly become much more transparent and softer looking! The granite-like hard texture of his muscles had turned soft looking, yet still maintained its toughness! The rippling of his sinewy muscles were akin to steel fibres twined together and covered by a layer of skin, giving him a unique look of toughness unlike other muscular people!

Furthermore, numerous scars of various lengths present on his body was a shocking sight to behold for many. There was not even a single stretch of skin on his body that was untouched by scars! It was hard to imagine exactly what kind of torturous training this scar-laden man had endured!

He was unexpectedly fine after eating Grai’s Hundred-Fold Palms right into his chest! Pomo’s defence far, far surpassed that of Zhao Tianlong! The fame of the northern region’s heavy soldiers truly were reliable!

Many of the brother King fans were dumbfounded by what they saw. That’s how the true men of the northern regions were brought up! All of them were forged from iron and blood! The trainings held in the northern regions were extremely similar to the empires, where every single training involved skirting on the edge of death. Every single soldier needed to endure tough and torturous tests for the training, with many of them containing traces of the cruel training held in the dark era. This was especially present in the number academy of the northern regions, Grozny Academy. The majority of the squadrons participating in this CHF were weak, immature and naive compared to them! Although it wasn’t always visible, the effects of the intense life-or-death training were extremely massive in crucial moments and fights.

In the end, a heavy soldier needed to be able to take hits. If not, what was the point of being labelled as “heavy” soldiers?

The half-naked Grozny fans seated in the northern viewing gallery went batshit crazy with their roars and cheers as they clapped and pounded their chests in excitement. The surrounding railings rumbled and rang with their pounded, causing people to feel that the entire viewing gallery would be destroyed by them if this continued!

A serious expression started to appear on Wang Zhong’s face. Obviously, he wasn’t focused on the scars that littered Pomo’s body, but the transformation that had happened to the latter’s muscles. Although he wasn’t able to tell really happened, it had instantly given him a peculiar feeling upon seeing them.

Soul Power started to flow towards Grai’s arms, as he too was able to feel something amidst from the transformation of his opponent’s muscles. Despite the strange feeling, he could not sense any growth of strength or power other than that.

Nevertheless, there was no change to Grai’s expression. Since his first attack didn’t work, it was time to try again! Positioning his left left slightly back, Grai entered into an attacking stance.

Faced against Grai, who had managed to obtain some slight superiority in his last strike, Pomo’s only response was to give a faint smile. Placing his heavy shield down onto the ground, he stretched his hands out, before proceeding to curl a finger towards Grai.

Was that a provocation? A heavy soldier that doesn’t want to use his heavy shield?

An uproar instantly filled the entire stadium. Grai’s fans watching via Skylink far surpassed that of Pomo’s. However, they were being suppressed with a single action from him.

What an act! Didn’t he just get sent flying? What’s fueling him?”

“I’m furious! Please go and slap him a few more times, Grai! I wanna see if he vomits blood!”

“Your mind’s been corrupted…”

……

Whoosh!

Before the audience in the viewing galleries could complete their shouts and roars, Grai had already shot forwards like a fired arrow!

Hundreds of palm shades spun around in a circular fashion, while Grai’s fluttering bodily movements grew quicker than before.

The flurry of palm shades came together in an instant to form the most perfect convergence!

Hundred-Fold Palms!

There was utterly no way that Pomo could evade the incoming palm strikes with his speed! However, he had not the slightest plan of defending!

Bang bang bang bang!

The massively loud bangs give people the impression of the sounds made by gigantic battering rams smashing into city walls in the ancient era! Despite that, Grai’s expression suddenly changed! He had felt the sensation of a rock sinking into an ocean the instant his Hundred-Fold Palms struck Pomo! Instead of firm hits, the latter’s transformed muscles had unexpectedly eaten up all of the power behind his Hundred-Fold Palms with complete perfection! Those layer upon layer of muscle fibres appeared to possess a life of their own as they did so! What kind of defence was this?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep