NOVPUBShye was by no means unaware of such tactics.
However, it was also inevitable that he would have to momentarily shift his attention to the black goo to assess its trajectory and dodge it, but with someone of Shye's caliber doing it, the inattention window was only a few millisnds.
Yet, Maia perfectly captured the small opening.
By the time Shye returned his gaze to his little sister, who was supposed to be falling in front of him, Maia was already gone.
He then sensed danger to his left; a wooden dagger was fast approaching his neck as Maia spun to increase her attack's speed.
Unfortunately, despite the masterful use of her clone, her attack was still blocked by Shye's other greatsword, which he had purposely left unused for this very moment.
"Haha, nice try, lil sis, but not enough!" Shye joked as his left wooden greatsword suddenly disappeared, freeing his hand to grab his little sister's wrist before delivering a ruthless kick to her gut.
Maia didn't want him to hold back?
Well, he still would—just a little less!"
Naturally, Maia winced in pain, her facentorting, as she was struck with half of her big brother's strength—after all, she was just a fragile ut.
To Shye's surprise, however, Maia suddenly turned into gray smoke, billowing forcefully andvering most of the area where they were sparring.
"Another clone?" he muttered, grinning with pride. "Not bad. Fully acknowledging your weakness and resorting to chaos—an ally to the weakermbatant in this case."
While praising Maia, a kick came his way, which Shye easily sensed and blocked.
Grabbing the body parts of an agile ut was ammon warrior tactic, one that had been ingrained deep into Shye's bones through years of experience dealing with that class.
Hence, he instinctively grabbed the foot that almost struck his neck, sensing something was wrong right after.
With a frown, he spun and tried to throw "Maia" away, realizing it was another damned clone with explosive properties.
Unfortunately, it seemed to be stuck to his hands like glue.
"Tch, well done." he generously praised despite being annoyed.
Shye planned to not move from where he stood to show Maia the disparity between them, but instead, it was his little sister who managed to prove to him that she wasn't who she used to be and that she now at least deserved to be treated a little more seriously.
Nonetheless, pride swelled in his heart as he reappeared a few meters from his original position.
It was then he finally realized how troublesome it was to fight Maia.
If the two of them had equal physical attributes and arsenal of skills, he would undoubtedly lose to her ten times out of ten.
The moment his figure reappeared after the short yet chaotic exchange inside the gray smokescreen, Maia strategically used the mostmmon ut skill, [Blink Strike], to reappear behind Shye.
Since he was still a bit invested in the previous exchange, Shye failed to predict that she would reappear behind him.
Ofurse, this didn't mean she was guaranteed a clean hit.
Rather, the skill only allowed her to close the gap and gain another chance to attack without being swatted away like a fly due to the predictable reappearance, which was the limit of [Blink Strike].
No matter how a few ut innovators tried to harness their stamina and mana to alter the reappearance location, none succeeded.
In the end, uts had to be creative when using the skill.
Using [Blink Strike] as an opening attack, as student uts did, was definitely foolish in a high-level battle and would probably get one killed.
The recent battle sequence only served to highlight Maia's exceptional battle IQ.
She lured Shye into briefly shifting his focus, seized the small vulnerability window with terrifying precision, introduced further chaos into her attacks with extraordinary patience, and skillfully exploited the slight lapse in hisncentration to reappear behind him using ammon and predictable skill—a flawless execution.
Shye knew, without a doubt, that heuld never replicate the way his little sister attacked.
Turning around to deal with the wooden daggerming his way, Shye slightly stepped back and raised his right arm to block the blow.
It was then that a shadow suddenly wrapped around his arms, immobilizing him for but a mere split snd—a fleeting delay that he was able to destroy rather easily using his raw strength.
This brief opening, however, was more than enough for Maia.
Her dagger surged forward, accelerating at an alarming speed while glowing purple and emitting an eerie screech.
"Hahaha, seriously?" Shyeuldn't help but laugh.
The split snd of restraintmpletely thwarted his ability to defend against the attack, as he hadn't anticipated the sudden burst of speed.
It was then that Shye realized something shocking.
Judging from the vicious and crazed look on Maia's face, his little sister was trying to kill him!
For a moment, doubt crept into his mind.
Had Sanada's treatment failed? His eyes grewld as he shouted, "Stoic!"
In the next moment, a thin, translucent golden layer enveloped Shye's body, diminishing the force of Maia's by an astounding seventy percent.
The dagger came to an abrupt halt, its momentummpletely stopped after merely piercing through his skin.
A thin stream of blood trickled down his neck as Shye's expression turned asld and unyielding as ice, but the frost in his gaze didn't last long.
In front of him, Maia's face was stricken with horror, dropping her wooden dagger as she cried out in apology:
"B-Big Brother! I-I'm sorry! I thought you crushed a peak-tier mana simulation talisman like Big Bro Ian did when we fought! I-I didn't mean to be so ruthless!"
It was then that Shye finally understood why she emitted killing intent at the last snd.
"Hah! Aren't you underestimating your big brother too much?" he teased, gesturing to his neck. "See? Your attack barely scratched me—it's just a superficial wound."
Despite his joking tone, he felt a wave of relief wash over him, grateful that she was no longer under the soul poison's influence.
"Come, let's go again. This time, I'll be more serious!" he added, unwilling to end things like this.
After all, with how relentless Maia's attacks were, it appeared as though he was the one losing—though none of the onlookers believed that for a snd.
They all noticed that he wasn't fighting Maia too seriously and was instead only assessing her skills from a superior's viewpoint.
Unexpectedly, Maia refused.
"Sigh, my last attack was already my trump card, and you defended against it so easily. If wentinue, my performance will only decline. I've already used almost every skill in my arsenal," she explained. "The gap between us is too large. I'll improve faster if I spar with Big Sis Seira and the others."
Shye merely shrugged his shoulders in response.
"Fine, suit yourself. Anyway, with your skills and the ruthlessness you've shown—willing to kill your own brother without hesitation—I believe you're ready. I'll allow you to join my unit."
