Soul Fusion Online-Chapter 8: Practice Battle

"Alright! Since there are no more questions, we will now begin the last part of the tutorial. And that is a practice battle." Mi announced excitedly.

Yuki watched as the world around her suddenly changed. She found herself in an arena like those from ancient times. It was a large flat dirt area with high seating surrounding it. The seats were empty, of course, but Yuki could see the banners fluttering in the wind. "Okay, for this first battle, you will be fighting, mister strawman! "

Mi's voice filled the arena, but when Yuki looked around, she did not see her. However, she did see a strange straw man wearing metal armor standing in front of her. Yuki drew her wooden sword and got into a sword like stance, and readied herself for combat. "In this first practice battle, you can not die. So go ahead and get used to dodging, parrying, and attacking. There will be no specific instructions since everyone's combat style is different, so feel free to use whatever style suits you best. With that said, let the battle of the handsome young man versus the strawman begin!"

As soon as Mi's voice finished, the straw man drew the sword at its side and charged at Yuki, startling her greatly. The strawman's sword came thrusting towards her head, causing her to jump back and swing her sword in front of her. A clunking sound was heard as the two wooden swords clashed. "Ouch..." Yuki grimaced as the vibration of the contact shook her arm, almost making her lose her grip on her sword.

"Seems I will need to learn more about weapons..." Yuki muttered to herself. This time she went on the offensive and struck out at the strawman who easily blocked her attack. Using her flexibility and the self taught martial arts that she has always practiced, Yuki bent her body forward, throwing her leg up from behind her, and kicked the strawman in the face with the bottom of her foot, sending it tumbling backwards. She quickly flipped back upright and stabbed out at the strawman with her sword stabbing it in the chest. The strawman stopped moving and slumped down to the ground.

"Dumm dee dumm! Amazing! Very well done! Now for the real thing. The next match will be against a prisoner from the Fathhomed Depths. It is a prison built at the bottom of a gorge full of powerful monsters. This man is named the crimson hammer. He is a man who has killed many. For this tutorial, his level has been reduced to level 0, and his cultivation stripped. Now do not get too happy just yet. This man has years of experience and is still just as good at combat, even at his current level. Now ready yourself! Let the battle start!" Mi's voice echoed throughout the arena.

The man standing across from Yuki was a tall, burly man with an ear to ear beard and a bald head with a large scar across it. "Haha! They say I only need to survive fighting against you, and I will be set free. I can't wait to go on a murdering spree again. So little pretty boy, you best die quickly, you hear?"

Yuki frowned. She readied her sword and this time carefully watched the man in front of her. The man had a small dagger and was passing it back and forth between his left and right hand. She watched as he disgustingly licked his lips and then made his move. Yuki frowned at how much faster this man was. It was like she suddenly went from fighting a slime to the end game boss after a single battle. Although big, the man was very nimble on his feet. He did not move in a straight line but side to side. But what Yuki was mainly staring at was not his feet nor the dagger in his hand but the movement of his muscles in his arms.

One thing she learned while watching martial arts training videos was to watch the muscles in the shoulders and hips because they can tell the general direction and kind of an attack that was coming at her. As soon as she saw some movement in the waist and a twitch of the muscles in the right shoulder, even if the dagger was not in the man's right hand, she quickly moved to her right, spinning her body towards the man and lifted her foot up high into the air. The sword in her hand swept out in front of her all at the same time.

Everything happened so fast that Mi, who was overseeing the battle, mouth fell open when she saw what happened. Even the man who thought that Yuki was going to be easy to kill was struck dumb at what was going on. The sound of wood hitting the ground could be heard as the man looked down at his stomach at the hand which was holding the dagger that was originally in his hand now stabbed deep into his abdomen. "How?"

"Your shoulder twitched." Yuki said as she brought her leg down, slamming it right on top of the man's head. The man slumped to the floor face first.

Rewinding the clock a bit. As Yuki spun, she lifted her foot high into the air bringing her leg straight to her chest. The wooden sword in her hand was tossed at the man causing him to dodge to Yuki's left, and during that time, he tried to pass his dagger to his other hand to stab out at Yuki, Yuki who was close enough, reached out and grabbed the blade in the middle of the pass over, flipped it, and sunk it into the man's abdomen, before twisting it to get maximum damage. Only after answering the man's question did she bring down her raised foot. But everything happened so fast that it seemed like it all happened in an instant.

Mi suddenly appeared at Yuki's side, bent over, and checked the man's pulse. "He is dead... I must say, although you are handsome, you are very deadly…" Mi paused and looked at Yuki, blinking her big beautiful eyes, grabbed Yuki's hands, and coyly asked: "Soo…. How about you and me go have a bite to eat after you select your starting point? I can teleport right to you. What do you say?"

Seeing this sudden change of attitude and the cringy way Mi was asking her out, Yuki quickly pulled her hands back, bowed her head, and said: "Sorry, I have plans as soon as I get in game."

"Wha!? Fine… Well… If you change your mind, let Mi know, okay? I will surely show you a good time, handsome!"Mi winked at Yuki before changing the subject. "Now, as you have defeated your opponent, It is now time for you to pick your starting area. I wish you good luck on your adventures. I took the liberty to add my name to the friends' list, which is not covered in this tutorial. Just use the keyword social, and it will bring up the menu. Don't forget to contact me, handsome! Bye bye!"