F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 298: Beating One at One’s Own Game

Everyone’s eyes widened, especially those who knew Daru. They did not expect the curveball.

Yet, they were ecstatic — some vindicated — as they immediately turned to look at the Sky Prince to see how he would react.

He was not as boring this time.

Although there were no visible changes in Skylar’s facial expression, his heavy breathing was quite noticeable...and he was not low on stamina at the moment.

Downing one last greater health potion, the Sky Prince tried moving his broken shoulder. Only after confirming that it had recovered did he speak, still hovering a safe distance away:

"You think you’re hot shit?" Skylar began, pausing for a cold moment, as if to let the weight of his words and budding fury settle, before continuing, "There’s no doubt in my mind that I can destroy you right now."

Daru, however, only blinked with furrowed brows. He was genuinely curious.

"Who asked?"

The Sky Prince froze. At that moment, the fury and hatred in his heart truly began to bloom, and Skylar stopped hesitating.

His face darkened, and he didn’t respond for a while, pulling out two items from his inventory — a red pill and a white, runic talisman.

"Don’t cry after talking tough now," the Sky Prince warned coldly. He then popped the pill in his mouth and crushed the talisman

In the next moment, a translucent scarlet aura seeped out of Skylar’s pores, and his blade was enchanted with cutting winds without him having to spend stamina for it.

Only then did he descend.

"Representative Ourion uses two more power-ups!! Could this mean defeat for Onimaru Kunitsuna? Or does the mysterious novice have a few aces up his sleeves?!"

Daru watched coldly, feeling the pressure from the aura and the screeching jikdo. Perhaps he was outmatched in physical attributes right now.

However, he shall test his foe’s empowered blade first before resorting to rather drastic measures.

Daru might not have lots of firepower in his humble bag, but he had quite a few extremely potent ones.

It was just that he felt that it was quite unfair for him to use them here, really, though he would unhesitatingly pull them out later if it turned out that he truly would not be able to handle himself against his empowered foe.

That pill and talisman were quite overboard and very shameless.

However, his own cards...they could be considered outright cheating, which was why he decided to see how far his own blade could take him first.

Daru soon got the chance.

The moment Skylar stepped off Ourion, he turned into a translucent red blur that Daru’s eyes almost couldn’t keep up with.

He had to strain them to their very limits just to be able to muster a clumsy block.

Raising his arms and angling his tachi, the winds screeched, drowning the clashing steel. Daru found himself blasted back a few meters, barely able to recover his footing after almost stumbling completely.

"What now, hotshot?" a cold voice suddenly sounded in front of him.

Daru’s instincts instantly kicked in, his sword veiled with a black aura as he slashed it forward without even looking.

He had no time to.

An ear-shattering clang sounded the next moment, and to Skylar’s disbelief, it was he who was sent skidding back a few centimeters.

But that was it.

The Sky Prince immediately went for the follow-up, his howling blade thirsty for blood.

In that small window, however, preparations were done, and Daru was able to Swallow Step to the side, barely dodging the lethal jikdo.

He then fired a Crescent Dicer, but it was casually destroyed by the windswept blade.

Skylar didn’t pursue and only watched coldly as he jumped back, the faintest of frigid smiles returning on his young face.

"All that to defend against my casual attacks? Laughable."

"Hmph." Daru snorted in response, "You’ve been doing nothing but relying on the boons your family gave you, yet you’re still so proud. You’re the laughable one, Skylar Ashwind. You’re skilled enough, but you don’t trust your blade much. I pity Ourion."

His words were cutting, and yet, the Sky Prince seemed only prouder.

"Hahaha! Ahh...finally, the cries of a pathetic commoner. Of course you’ll cry ’unfair’. After all, your entire bloodline is inferior. Why blame the competence of my family? You should blame your entire incompetent ancestral line instead, hahaha!"

Daru’s gaze turned a notch colder.

There’s got to be a limit to how garbage a young man’s character could be, yet Skylar easily surpassed what Daru believed to be the limits.

He had decided. There’s no need to hesitate in teaching the bastard a lesson in humility.

"Cry unfair?" Daru sneered. "Why would I do that? In fact, I hope you don’t."

"Hahahahahaha!" the Sky Prince laughed heartily in response, as though what his opponent said was the best joke he had heard in years. "Who are you bluffing, poor fool? What could the likes of you possibly have that I haven–"

Before Skylar could finish his words, however, a cursed coin floated in front of Daru, from which a portal opened.

The entire arena froze as malevolent black smoke crawled from it.

In the next moment, a cursed wraith donning black stone armor and wielding two stone gladiuses emerged from the dark dimension, stepping onto the main stage.

Commodus tilted his head, seemingly a bit confused.

The cursed Sword Spirit momentarily turned to look at Daru, finding no urge to attack him, before looking the other way — at the bewildered Sky Prince.

An eerie smile then appeared on its wretched face.

A moment later, a black sword mark appeared on the head of the referee, and Commodus charged at Skylar, stabbing at him with sheer malevolence.

The Sky Prince snapped awake, neatly dodging to the side and slashing down at the "Summoned Swordspawn"’s wrist.

To Skylar’s horror...the blades of his windswept sword didn’t even pierce through the cursed wraith’s pallid skin.

The cutting winds worked hard, but to no avail.

Only then was Nathalie finally able to regather her wits.

"P-P-Pardon my words, ladies and gentlemen...BUT WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?! I-Is that even allowed?! I would certainly appreciate some guidance from our organizers..."