Martial Online.

Chapter 13: Dual Wielding

The two wooden swords moved across the air. They weren't synchronized perfectly, but the attack was stronger than an ordinary attack. It also made defending the attack harder as the swords were moving in different directions.

Anthon frowned and took a powerful step forward. He switched the grip on the steel broadsword and swung it around to block the two wooden swords. He managed to deflect the first wooden sword, but the second wooden sword struck him in the shoulder.

A small blue holographic notification bar appeared in Anthon's vision. He saw that he had lost a little bit of health.

Cauldron raised his leg and slammed it into Ambrose's gut, sending him flying across a small distance.

Ambrose tumbled to the ground but quickly rose back to his feet with his messy, long hair covering his face.

[You lost 8 HP!]

[HP: 3/30]

"Hahaha, Anthon, you got hit!" Ignite laughed loudly while casually swinging the steel sword around him.

"Yeah, my Dexterity isn't high enough to have been able to block both swords." Anthon quickly analyzed his own mistake and what he should have done.

"Here." Cauldron tossed Anthon a small piece of bread.

Anthon caught it and ate it. His health bar immediately became full once again.

Tip, tip... a small blue-eyed squirrel appeared on one of the tree branches. It was curiously looking at the battle happening before its eyes.

Ambrose glanced sideways and then returned his gaze to the front. He tightened his grip on both swords, took a deep breath, and raised them above his head once again.

"Basic Slash!"

Ignite stepped forward and put his steel broadsword in front of him. His playful gaze disappeared, and he now looked like a veteran warrior who had visited thousands of battlegrounds.

Ambrose moved across the ground, and once he was at attacking range, he bent his knees and swung both swords down.

Ignite grabbed the sword with both hands and swung it up into the air. The steel blade appeared in the path of both swords.

The three swords clashed mid-air, causing resounding clangs that echoed across a small distance.

[Dual Basic Slash - Completion Rate - 21%]

Ignite's muscles bulged, and he took another powerful step forward, then swung the steel broadsword powerfully, pushing the two wooden swords away from him.

Ambrose's feet slid across the ground as he couldn't stop Ignite's powerful slash. Beads of sweat dropped to the ground as he was being pushed back constantly.

"Hah!" Ignite shouted and sent Ambrose flying backwards with the powerful slash.

Ambrose flew past trees and barely managed to contact the ground with his feet before he fell down or crashed into something that would have made his HP nonexistent.

Anthon, Cauldron, and Ignite walked past the tree and appeared in front of Ambrose. Their presence was suffocating and despair inducing.

"Basic Slash." Anthon raised the sword above his head. He slowly bent his knees and took another glance at Ambrose's dull blue eyes before swinging his sword down.

Ambrose looked at the approaching sword. He imagined his body being split in two by that strike. He wanted to move out of the way but knew it would just prolong his inevitable death.

'Please land...' He lifted the right sword above his head. However, he didn't slash it down, but hurled it across the sky.

Ignite and Cauldron followed the flying sword with their eyes. It missed them by a great margin, it wasn't even close.

Anthon frowned and slashed through Ambrose's face. The sword went through the face as if it were a hot knife cutting through butter. Light blue pixels appeared in the air before disappearing like a faint echo.

Ambrose saw the world spinning around as his head flew across the air. He saw the whole world flip upside down and then saw the brilliant crimson moon.

At last, everything turned dark, but before that, he heard a small dinging echo in his ear before he disappeared from the forest.

"Hmm, he dropped a wooden spear. I thought he was a swordsman." Ignite crouched on the ground and took the wooden spear.

"It must've been inside his inventory, stolen from another player." Anthon said and saw a pouch appear on the ground. He opened it and raised his eyebrow. "13 silvers."

Cauldron saw the thrown wooden sword on the ground and went to pick it up. However, he then noticed something strange. There was animal blood on the blade.

"Hmm?" He turned to the side and saw light blue pixels seeping into the ground. At the place of the pixels, perfectly intact squirrel skin appeared out of nowhere.

'A squirrel? He happened to kill a squirrel accidentally with that throw?' Cauldron picked it up and tossed it and the sword into his inventory.

...

[You are dead!]

[Do you want to revive?]

[Yes/No]

Ambrose hovered in the empty black space and saw the two options. He slowly pressed the "Yes" option and once again disappeared from the place.

When he opened his eyes the next time, he saw the night city of Amaterasu. The streets weren't as bustling anymore; mostly players were walking in the streets. The NPCs had closed their stores and returned home.

'Now, what did I lose?' He first checked his inventory and noticed that he was missing one wooden spear. 'A wooden spear, not bad. And since I threw the wooden sword, I only have two remaining.'

After closing the inventory, he wanted to check something else. His heart was beating nervously.

"Interface..."

***

[Name: Ambrose]

[Level: 2]

[Class: Swordsman]

[Title: ]

[XP: 0/125]

[HP: 35/35]

[SP: 10]

[Silver: 0]

[STR: 10]

[CHA: 0]

[INT: 3]

[LUC: 1]

[AGI: 1]

[VIT: 20]

[DEX: 5]

[STA: 10]

***

'Yes, I reached level 2!' Ambrose felt like a huge boulder had been lifted off his shoulder. He found a bench to sit on and then caught his breath. He felt that his stamina was quite low, as he only managed to fight this far because of adrenaline.

'As expected, you can't lose your level. Thank god.'

'I lost all my silver...' Ambrose sighed, as this caused pain in his chest. However, he considered himself lucky that he didn't lose much more.

'10 stat points, which stat do I need?' He remembered the fights he'd been in, but his thoughts always went in the direction of the previous fight. He began thinking of ways that would have helped him fight.

'Strength? No, it isn't wise to try a battle of strength against three opponents; it would leave too many openings.

'Charm? Hah, nope.

'Intelligence? Maybe with higher intelligence, I could have learned Dual Basic Slash quicker. If I had it 100% completed, maybe I could have killed one of them. That is a big maybe. Intelligence is definitely useful, but I do not have a big need for it yet.

'Luck? From what I heard from RedBand, luck doesn't affect other players. It only affects my luck if I get better drops from animals and treasure chests. I will increase this occasionally, but not now.

'Vitality? It is one of the most important stats, but I already received 5 HP from leveling up. I can keep my HP relatively high with food, so I don't need to increase it much.

'Dexterity? Hmm... That guy spoke about dexterity. If he had more dexterity, he could have blocked my Dual Basic Slash. Dexterity helps players ability to perform skills using their hands, which is the most important stat for dual wielding...

'However, should I really go for dual wielding? It was very difficult, and I would need to practice it a lot. I might not even be necessarily stronger with it than with just one sword. Should I really spend time on this? It will put me behind other players.

'However. Those three guys blocked my one sword attacks pathetically easily, but when I used two swords, they were having a difficult time. From what I understand, no one goes for dual wielding since it is unnecessarily difficult.

'That could mean no one has learned to fight against dual-wielding swordsman... It could be my trump card.

'Yeah, that sounds good enough.

'Now, stamina. I need it. I will split the stat points between Dexterity and Stamina.'

Ambrose turned his gaze to the hovering interface and started assigning the stats.

***

[Name: Ambrose]

[Level: 2]

[Class: Swordsman]

[Title: ]

[XP: 0/125]

[HP: 35/35]

[SP: 0]

[Silver: 0]

[STR: 10]

[CHA: 0]

[INT: 3]

[LUC: 1]

[AGI: 1]

[VIT: 20]

[DEX: 10]

[STA: 15]