Apotheosis

It did not matter now which shadow she descended on because she would be instantly attacked by Zen. 'Now what?' she thought to herself. In the perspective of Cheryl, this was indeed a difficult decision to ponder upon, given the limitations of her attack.

Eventually, her silhouette flickered in a moment of desperation as she finally chose the location where Zen was as her next destination.

Although Cheryl was not definite about her knowledge on the power of Zen's flying knife thus far, she could tell with a glance that even though it was broken, its aura was extremely sharp and something that could not be underestimated.

Contemplating by herself, she understood that if she had chosen another shadow, she would probably be pierced through by Zen's sword. Furthermore, it was a sacred weapon and there was absolutely no way she would have been able to block it.

With the limited options she had, she could have only selected the shadow Zen was dealing with at the moment. Since he had removed the sword in his hand by throwing it at the shadow, she seriously expected that his strength would be greatly reduced.

This was due to the fact that Cheryl believed in the notion that swordsmen relied on their swords the most. If it ever happened that a swordsman willingly threw his sword out in a battle, then it meant that the man was ultimately prepared to gamble everything he had. Zen having no sword in his hand meant that she would then have a huge chance of defeating him.

It was a common conception that a swordsman without a sword was like a tiger with its teeth pulled out.

Unbeknownst to Cheryl, she would be in for a surprise when she eventually found out that Zen was even more terrifying when he did not have his sword.

Upon the very moment Cheryl descended, she poised herself to face Zen's fist directly.

In the meantime, Zen had not bothered to activate the Stellar Body because he did not feel the need to use it to deal with the woman.

"Split the light!"

Even though Zen had already launched his punch, Cheryl did not hesitate to counterattack with a move of her own. Her long sword uncoiled and gleamed like a nimble green snake which released a faint azure light, aiming straight at him.

em as threats.

When this intense feeling of danger came over him, Zen abruptly retreated and created a reasonable distance between him and Cheryl. The woman's fingers suddenly emitted a few rays of pitch black light as her nails seemingly extended. In honesty, Zen was concerned at the sight of the black light and it made him breathe unevenly.

No matter how confident Zen was in his fairy weapon-like body, he certainly knew better than to let this woman scratch him with her dangerous looking fingernails.

At any rate, Cheryl obviously did not plan on letting him go that easily. As she fiercely rushed towards him, she vigorously waved her sharp claws. The scene discernibly looked like a howling lynx facing its prey in the wild.

Under the continuous pursuit of the outraged lady, the black claws almost scraped Zen several times but he was still able to dodge them in time. In the middle of scraping through and managing to avoid Cheryl's frontal attack by mere inches, Zen forgot that her shadows were still in the arena.

The instant Zen retreated to another corner of the arena, Cheryl's figure instantly disappeared and materialized in the shadow behind him, about to attack him by surprise.

"Crap!"

He knew that the minute he was grazed by this woman, it would be a detrimental blow to him. Even if he did not die, he would be seriously injured from the brunt of her attack. Cursing at himself, he realized just then that he had been too careless this time around.