Her instincts told her, that she should close in to the knight as soon as possible, rather than waiting for the other side to release his external attack. Because of this plan, before the duel even started, Ashes thrust her sword into the ground, taking a pose that gave off no threat, but this was actually the most effective way for her to deal with an opponent using a crossbow.
At this moment, the crisp sound of a bell ringing could be heard coming from the direction of the wall.
Almost at the same time, Ashes firmly grasped the sword handle, putting all of her power into moving it forward. Throwing soil, grass, and even gravel into the sky with the wide side of her blade, letting it splash in the direction of the knight and forming a wall of sand between them.
The Chief Knight’s reaction was also very fast, releasing a burst of flame from the arms in his hands, accompanied by a huge roar. But Ashes didn’t see any arrows flying out of them, which means that he had either forgotten to install them or that they were coming too fast for her to see. Compared with the first option that would be considered an idiot mistake, Ashes thought that the latter option was much more likely.
Under the cover of the sand screen, Ashes started her sprint. Within the blink of an eye, the distance between the two of them was narrowed to half while the sand screen had still not yet completely landed on the ground. Most people would subconsciously try to avoid being covered by the flying dirt, so as long as she could interrupt the other side from continuing to shoot, Ashes has most likely already won.
But Carter did not move from his position, he completely disregarded the sand hitting his face, squinting his eyes together while constantly following the movement of the extraordinary with his weapons, once again pulling the triggers of his weapons and sending out another burst of flames and a roar. On a conditional reflex Ashes stepped to the side, but until now she had still not seen any arrows or any other projectiles coming at her, while the knight also didn’t show any movement of pulling any strings or having to prepare the next arrow.
Closing the last ten steps in the blink of an eye, she had already appeared in front of the knight, holding her sword vertical, pressing her feet against the ground preparing to directly smash into the knight. Normally being hit by such an impact, her opponent would not die instantly, but it should still be enough to cause him to faint. Even if he were able to hold on with his strong battle will, the crushed bones in his chest would still make him completely lose the ability to fight.
In last breath before the moment of impact, Ashes could hear, for the third time, the bursting sound coming from the other side. Then a moment later, she felt as her sword was hit, followed by a crisp breaking sound and her right abdomen then suddenly becoming numb, it felt as if it had been severely grabbed by someone.
Almost at the same time, her whole body smashed into Carter’s chest, directly sending him into the air, making him draw an arc and then sliding over the ground.
Until now, she had such a strong battle-will that she was able to totally disregard her waist injury. But just then, as if she had gotten a hit to her head, a strong sense of dizziness suddenly came over her mind. She staggered two steps forward, nearly falling to the ground as if her extraordinary magic had directly poured out of her body like water from a broken flask, causing her limbs to become unbearable heavy.
Ashes had to use her sword to hold up her body, and the previous numb wound then started to turn into a searing pain, it felt as if a part of her waist was now missing. Looking down she could even see her own viscera spilling out. Biting her tongue, she kept herself from falling.
…
In Roland’s eyes, the whole process of the duel didn’t last much longer than four or five seconds. He saw how the extraordinary witch threw dirt towards Carter, while he started to launch his own assault. During the middle, Ashes once changed her direction but by then she had already severely collided with the Knight’s body. But within this short moment of time, Carter was still able to shot three rounds of bullets, which was beyond what Roland had thought would be possible.
