Bang!
The magic-enchanted rune staff slammed heavily into Blue Ghost’s face, knocking her to the ground and completely shattering her mask in the process.
“Two more hits to break your ‘Soul of Action’,” Samimi said with a mischievous, cutesy grin, pointing a little finger. “Also, girls shouldn’t swear. You need to be punished.”
Blue Ghost’s earlier Quick-draw Strike had already been blocked once by the Light Shield on Niubao. Now, her ultimate move, “Bullet Draw Strike,” had been completely neutralized by Samimi’s Light Shield. She lay sprawled on the ground, utterly defeated, unable to get up for a long time.
But don’t laugh—anyone would have cracked in her place.
Samimi had been saving the Light Shield specifically for this moment. Before this, she had been using the Magic Shield to deal with Blue Ghost. Even without the Light Shield, she still had the Substitution Technique—layer upon layer of survival methods, perfectly countering the One-Sword Style Tachi Swordsman.
Yet, she deliberately chose to tank the opponent’s ultimate with the Light Shield. Because such a scene of “blocking at the absolute limit” was rare to begin with. She wanted to use it to completely shatter Blue Ghost’s mentality, to make her submit wholeheartedly.
“Two shields to extinguish your ‘Soul of Action’.”
“I’ll just stand here and let you hit me, watch you show off your footwork and skills—one Magic Shield blocks all your basic attacks, one Light Shield devours your super move.”
“Do you really think a broken sword can cut through everything?”
As she spoke, Samimi even raised a hand to cast a Light Shield Technique on the beautiful referee nearby, pouring on the mockery.
It should be noted that the Light Shield Technique is a Divine Official skill with an independent cooldown. After Niubao used it, she needed to wait several minutes, but this did not prevent Samimi from casting it on herself or others.
The Magic Shield, on the other hand, is magic and can only be activated by the caster themselves. However, with the help of the “Thorn Crown,” Samimi could also grant her teammates a double-layered magic shield.
Overall, the Magic Shield was stronger, a “divine skill among divine skills”; while the Light Shield specialized in countering single-instance burst physical attacks. Each had its own role—this was the so-called “Dual Shield System.”
Blue Ghost had completely lost her will to fight. After her mask shattered, she kept her hands over her face, unwilling to show her true appearance.
But Samimi had already seen it clearly—she wasn’t hiding her face because she was ugly, but because she was far too young and adorable.
It was an extremely cute little face that was completely at odds with her murderous aura and brutal personality.
In an environment like the South, such an appearance would instead lead to being looked down upon or even harassed.
At that moment, Samimi reached into her robes and pulled out a spare nun headscarf, one with a veil. She walked over to Blue Ghost, knelt on one knee, and personally placed it on her, covering her face for her.
“……”
Blue Ghost finally moved her hands away from her face.
“Join us. Follow in the footsteps of the Hongyi Grand Archbishop, Lady Samimi.” Samimi’s tone was gentle, carrying a sincere invitation.
“Hmph! Don’t get the wrong idea! There was never any agreement that I’d join you if I lost. I was born a member of the Sorrow Squad, and I’ll die a ghost of the Sorrow Squad!” Blue Ghost shook off her hand, abruptly stood up, her tone still stubborn, with a touch of tsundere pride.
Having said that, she turned and left, darting into the player tunnel in a flash.
However, she did not take off that nun headscarf.
Samimi watched her retreating back, not in a hurry. She knew the other’s heart had already been swayed.
Blue Ghost would return sooner or later, to become her companion.
And Blue Ghost’s early exit was equivalent to conceding defeat—just in a somewhat狼狈 manner.
On the other side, Red Ghost was still locked in combat with Niubao. Twin blades against twin swords, fighting inextricably, as if it would never end.
Red Ghost’s blood blades couldn’t pierce Niubao’s Deep Red Shield, and Niubao also lacked a finishing move powerful enough to defeat Red Ghost. Add to that the fact that both were warriors with extremely high endurance, they could only clash blades repeatedly.
However, when Red Ghost saw her sister’s failure to break through the backline, she understood the outcome.
“… Enough. Cow, we’ve lost.”
She suddenly sheathed her blades.
Niubao reluctantly stopped, finally putting away her swords with a sigh, adhering to Martial Virtue—another day of “stopping at the appropriate point.”
Two consecutive duels without a clear victory or defeat left her quite displeased.
“Let’s have a rematch another time. By the way, I still don’t know your name,” Red Ghost asked.
Actually, she wanted to say the full name, but she had forgotten the three characters after the name—”Taurus.”
“My name is Niubao,” Niubao replied.
“It’s not easy to meet an opponent who can exchange more than nine moves. I have a feeling we’ll meet again soon.” Red Ghost waved her hand with flair and also turned to leave.
The real shock was still to come—
The Twin Heroes had actually been defeated.
“I declare the winners of this match are…” the beautiful referee asked quietly, “What are your names?”
“I’m Shalum, she’s Niubao,” Samimi replied.
“I declare the final winners of this match are—Pastoralist Shalum and Beastman Nun Niubao!”
As the referee announced the result, the atmosphere in the arena instantly erupted.
“They really won!”
“Charge! Charge!”
“So amazing! Hooray!”
Members of the Second Guild immediately cheered—only they were cheering.
Most of the other adventurers remained silent. Even the people from the First Guild had nothing to say, only able to collectively sweat.
This battle wasn’t a crushing victory, but it was absolutely a victory of “mechanic suppression.”
Under normal circumstances, they might have raised objections. But everyone could see clearly—those two Saint-class individuals hadn’t gone all out.
And the people from the First Guild also understood that the Twin Heroes hadn’t fully revealed their trump cards either. Their Blood Qi Ghost Humanization had hidden techniques, but they likely judged that even fighting to the end would be difficult to win, so they chose to concede.
Between martial artists, often a few exchanged moves are enough to roughly judge victory or defeat.
But magic users are different—they always keep their trump cards hidden. Without fighting to the end, it’s hard to see their limits.
Those two Saint-class individuals seemed to have already seen through all of the Twin Heroes’ methods.
That was the most terrifying part.
However, the adventurers weren’t without gains.
At the very least, they understood one thing—
The strongest wasn’t that Beastman Nun, but that seemingly cute blonde Pastoralist.
After the match ended, Samimi and Niubao didn’t leave the arena. Instead, they walked to the center of the dueling ground, scanned the spectator stands, and finally fixed their gaze on the Third Guild’s camp.
“Regional Poetry Guild, I said I would unite all adventurer guilds.”
Samimi raised a hand and pointed, her tone calm yet carrying extreme arrogance:
“You’re next. Let’s set a time.”