Zongman, Rebirth of the Heaven-Defying Kirito

"You managed to dodge that last attack; your reaction speed is truly extraordinary."

Mo Xiaosanren sheathed his short sword, his tone tinged with admiration.

Kirito, however, felt no joy whatsoever.

If it weren't for the scars on his cheek, he would have thought the other person was praising him.

Sure enough, Mo Xiaosanren changed the subject and said with a hint of pride, "Your attack was incredibly swift, but fortunately I have many weapons, which allowed me to turn the tide."

This guy... he just wants to show off his weapon, right?

Kirito inwardly grumbled, but a question also arose in his mind: "What exactly is that weapon?"

Kirito naturally remembered the Thousand Manifestations Umbrella, but in the Eternal Land, weren't there only four forms: sword, spear, gun, and cannon?

The man before him, Mo Xiaosanren, held the Thousand Chance Umbrella in his left hand and the short sword that had just been thrust at Kirito in his right, which appeared to have been drawn from the umbrella handle.

Kirito had never seen such a combination of forms in the Eternal Land.

Mo Xiaosanren reinserted the short sword into the umbrella handle, and the Thousand Chance Umbrella instantly returned to its original form, as if those ever-changing forms had never appeared.

"You mean this?" he explained casually. "It's a new form that was added recently, and it's quite easy to use."

Tsk, his words are full of confidence in the weapon.

Kirito silently memorized the two new forms he had just witnessed, which he would tentatively call "Shield Form" and "Ninja Sword Form".

It must be said that the combination of these two forms has extremely high tactical value.

This involuntarily reminded him of Heathcliff, the Grand Master of the Knights of the Blood Oath in the original work.

The captain held a shield in one hand and a sword in the other. In battle, he could always defend himself with the shield, patiently wait for the enemy to make a mistake, and then launch a fatal blow.

Heathcliff is not the type with extremely strong offensive power, but defeating him is exceptionally troublesome and requires a great deal of effort to find an opportunity to break the deadlock.

Kirito never imagined that the troublesome fighting style from the original work would appear before him in this form.

Mo Xiaosanren then spoke up, "What's wrong? Are you not attacking anymore?"

That's easy for you to say. All you have to do is stay in the back, while I, who am in charge of the attack, have a lot more to consider.

Kirito quickly began to weigh the options in his mind.

Then, Kirito took a deep breath and slowly sheathed his two swords.

His actions puzzled Mo Xiaosanren, who asked, "Have you already given up? If you had used your full strength, the outcome would have been uncertain."

Indeed, defeating an enhanced version of Heathcliff requires using every trick in the book.

Even if I go all out, I will have to pay a huge price to defeat Lord Grim, who can switch between multiple forms and is good at both defense and offense.

For example, it takes a lot of time...

The target of this hunt is the [Sacred Dragon Tefnus].

If half a day is wasted on fighting Mo Xiaosanren, even if you win in the end, the effort and reward will be disproportionate, which is obviously not a wise move.

Having figured this out, Kirito slowly said, "It's not about giving up, but about remembering the outcome of this battle!"

Upon hearing this, Lord Grim raised an eyebrow but said nothing more, simply watching Kirito quietly.

Under his gaze, Kirito turned around and slowly walked away in the opposite direction.

Just as his opponent was about to disappear from sight, Kirito stopped and left behind a battle-ready statement: "Next time it won't be so easy. Just wait for your fate of defeat."

Mo Xiaosanren watched the direction he had left in and murmured to himself, "This is truly something to look forward to..."

After saying that, he turned around and turned his gaze back to the elite monster not far away.

The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella in his hand began to rotate slightly again, preparing for the upcoming battle against the elite monster.

On the other hand, Kirito has already made some progress.

He was still reviewing the battle that had just taken place.

Kirito has always followed the dual-wielding path, and since learning some essential beginner skills, he has never opened the skill page again.

This is because all the skill points gained from leveling up were carefully accumulated.

Kirito's thoughts are very clear.

Once you reach a sufficient level, use the accumulated skill points to learn more powerful and demanding advanced dual-sword skills.

With his extraordinary swordsmanship talent, he could fight monsters of higher levels with almost no pressure, so he could easily handle ordinary battles.

But this time, when facing Mo Xiaosanren, his previous methods were completely ineffective.

The other party is taking a completely opposite route to me.

Instead of accumulating skill points like I did, the other party chose to "cast a wide net" and learn various skills from multiple perspectives.

Most ordinary players in SAO will choose to specialize in one or two class skills.

After all, in the ever-changing battlefield, it is impractical to frequently switch weapons in combat. Not only will it waste precious combat time, but it will also easily expose weaknesses due to the gaps between weapon switching.

But Mo Xiao Sanren broke this convention.

That Myriad Manifestations Umbrella can freely transform into swords, spears, guns, cannons... covering almost all attack ranges in both melee and ranged combat.

Now, with the addition of shield and ninja sword forms, the combat types of attack and defense have been further expanded.

Mo Xiaosanren was actually knowledgeable about the skills corresponding to each weapon.

Looking at myself, from beginning to end, all I could rely on were the two swords on my back, and all I could use were the dual-wielding techniques that revolved around them.

Faced with Lord Grim's ever-changing weapon forms and skills, my own fighting style seems exceptionally monotonous.

It's like two chess players playing against each other. You only have one type of piece, while your opponent has multiple pieces and can arrange them flexibly on the board. In this case, you are at a disadvantage in the battle, which was actually foreshadowed long ago.

Through this battle, Kirito fully realized his shortcomings in combat.

Because no skill points were allocated, the skill pool is too limited.

Having powerful swordsmanship is certainly a good thing, but when facing an opponent like Lord Grim who breaks the rules and whose skills and weapons are highly compatible... I don't have any way to absolutely counter him!

Thinking of this, Kirito clicked on the skill panel that he hadn't opened for many years, and a large number of unlocked skills immediately came into view.

In the skill panel, the top skill is Kirito's previously pinned advanced skill.

【Starburst Stream Slash (Not yet learned) (49/50)】

Kirito raised an eyebrow upon seeing this.

The skill points I've accumulated are more than enough to learn advanced skills, but I'm just one level short of the required level.

So there's only one thing to do now.

Upgrade, upgrade, and more upgrades!