Chapter 37: Battle of the Swordmaster Hero!
Tom was thinking that the person in front of him was shorter than the first person he had defeated before, so he was certain that he could win this time.
Soji drew his sword and instantly transformed into a jet warrior using the rocket thrusters installed at his back. He launched a super high-speed charge towards Tom, and just as his sword was about to strike Tom, he finally snapped out of his delusion that he could defeat her.
Realizing that he was about to be hit, Tom quickly ducked his head down, narrowly avoiding the sword strike by a hair's breadth!
"Swish~~~ !"
The blade, shining with a faint blue light, barely grazed Tom's scalp. If Tom had reacted even a fraction of a second later, his head would have been separated from his body.
After the strike, the rocket thrusters slowly stopped their work, and now Soji was standing about ten meters behind Tom.
"Did it work?" Soji turned around after the strike and looked towards Tom's position. She could see that Tom's head was completely gone, cleanly and neatly vanished.
Soji let out a sigh of relief. The heavy stone in her heart finally dropped. She had initially thought that if she couldn't inflict any damage, she would use the momentum from the charge to accelerate and fly into the sky, giving herself a chance to escape.
But now, it seemed like there was no need for that anymore.
Soji was certainly confident in her own strength, but... she witnessed it with her own eyes last night. Tom casually knocked out someone with a stick, then picked up a rotten branch, threw it into the sky, and shot down another person. Who wouldn't be confused?
So when Soji realized that she had been discovered, she was momentarily frightened.
Being defeated wasn't scary... well, maybe not that scary. But being defeated in such a bizarre and maddening way, that was truly terrifying!
Tom touched the top of his head and noticed that it felt different than usual, rather prickly. Instantly panicking upon realizing something was wrong with his head, Tom quickly took out a mirror from behind and examined his scalp. To his astonishment, he found that all the hair on his head was gone, leaving it completely bald!
At that moment, Tom's face turned extremely sad, despite knowing that his hair would magically reappear in just a few seconds in a way that no one would notice. Jerry, who had just landed nearby, couldn't help but want to mock Tom immediately. However, he reconsidered, as they were in Bai Song's presence. What if mocking Tom ruined his own chances?
Helplessly, Jerry swallowed his laughter and kept the amusement to himself. After a brief moment of absentmindedness, Tom's gaze turned furious towards Soji. The grudge of being bald had to be settled!
Tom looked around, trying to find an item that would serve as a suitable weapon. Finally, by the wall, he spotted a broken umbrella leaning against it. Immediately, a wicked smile appeared on Tom's face, with the corners of his mouth almost reaching his eyes, accompanied by a few raised eyebrows.
Equipped with the battered umbrella, Tom focused his eyes on Soji, the one responsible for his baldness. With the necessary equipment in hand, there was only one thing left to do... seek revenge!
Tom then rolled up the hair on his hands as if they were sleeves, held the broken umbrella in his right hand, and walked towards Soji's direction!
"Huh?!" Soji, upon witnessing Tom popping his head out from his stomach, was immediately startled, even emitting a slight sound. However, when compared to last night when it was crushed into powder but managed to resurrect, Soji's state of mind quickly recovered. It even began brainwashing itself.
"It's... it's alright. Although it dodged my attack, it only proves that my attack needs to be avoided. In other words, I am stronger than this cat!"
"Yes, that's right!" After successfully brainwashing itself into believing it had become stronger, Soji regained courage in the face of this indescribable enemy!
Soji took a deep breath and took steps towards Tom's direction. Finally, both parties stood only 10 meters apart, ready for a battle that could erupt at any moment!
Standing on the sidelines, Bai Song and Jerry, who inexplicably sneaked back instead of joining the battle, were fully absorbed in watching the two combatants. Just as the tension reached its peak, a gust of wind swept through. In that moment, Bai Song, as if seeing a Western town covered in sand and wind, felt like he was witnessing a cowboy duel between Soji and Tom.
"Wait... This doesn't seem like an illusion," Bai Song realized suddenly, snapping out of it. This was no illusion; they were indeed in a Western town! He even saw fresh piles of horse dung on the nearby ground. Bai Song squatted down and picked up a handful of yellow sand, feeling the gritty texture of the sand in his hand, even feeling the heat from the scorching sun. It was definitely not an illusion!
However, for some reason, perhaps due to being too focused on the moment, Soji and Tom completely failed to notice the change.
"Come on!" Soji uttered these words, and the scenery of the Western town instantly vanished. Everyone found themselves back in the alleyway, as if the previous Western town scene was merely a transitional animation to enhance the atmosphere of the duel.
But Bai Song knew that the scene he just witnessed was real because the yellow sand he grabbed was still in his hand.
Upon hearing Soji's words, Tom didn't move. Instead, he extended his left hand without the umbrella and beckoned Soji with a curl of his fingers, as if saying, "You should go first."
Seeing Tom's gesture, Soji didn't hesitate. She gripped her katana with both hands, and immediately, the rocket thrusters on her back erupted with a pale blue flame, propelling her towards Tom in an instant.
"Clang!" In an instant, Soji's katana collided with the tattered umbrella in Tom's hand, producing the sound of metal clashing.
Due to the added thrust from Soji's rocket thrusters, she gained the upper hand in their struggle, forcing Tom to continuously retreat. However, there was no hint of satisfaction on her face. Instead, she became even more restrained.
Why? How could this cat, wielding a shabby umbrella, block her full-force strike? Could it be that this tattered thing was some kind of treasure? Was that even possible? Was it logical?!
Continuing the push for a few more seconds, Soji's durability and mana attributes were so extremely low that she lost any advantage in the struggle. What was once a one-sided push against Tom turned into a stalemate, with no movement whatsoever.
Soji knew this wouldn't work. If she continued like this, she would definitely lose to this strange cat!
Seeing the situation, Soji abruptly pulled her katana backward, causing Tom, who was fully focused on pushing forward, to lose his support and topple forward.
"Now is the time, Shine (die)!" Seizing this crucial moment, Soji raised her sword with both hands and delivered a downward strike towards Tom.
On the side, Jerry, frightened by Tom's predicament, covered his cheeks with both hands and took off about ten centimeters from the ground. After landing, without looking back, he rushed towards the wall, running up the uneven surface to a height of one meter.
Then, Jerry used the wall to propel himself and leaped towards Soji. At the same time, a fencing épée appeared in his hand, directly slashing upwards towards Soji's sword!
"Clang!" With a slight sound, Soji's katana was deflected back, returning to an upward position. Her body even started tilting backward. When she focused her gaze, she realized that a mouse in mid-air was flicking her sword with a toothpick?!
Seeing this mouse deflect her with a toothpick, Soji's pupils contracted in disbelief. "How is this possible?!"
Before she could snap out of her extreme confusion, Tom had already recovered from the imbalance and thrust the tattered umbrella into Soji's soft abdomen.
Feeling the touch on her abdomen, Soji looked down and saw Tom poking her stomach with the umbrella's tip. However, it didn't cause any harm, not even any pain. Just as Soji was thinking, "Is this the extent of his attack power?"
Tom pressed his thumb against the button to open the umbrella.