However, after the first clash although Yale didn't change his face he was cursing internally; he had already thought highly of Selenia's strength, but it surpassed his expectations.
"This strike of her was just a warming up one, and without Auto-regeneration, I fear that I would just endure three or four exchanges before being defeated and that is only if I use that casual sword style from my past life. With my own battle style even with Auto-regeneration I fear that I would be lucky to endure three exchanges, our difference is too much."
That was the usual outcome when someone challenged across ranks. Moreover, those who did it were usually at the peak of the rank, but Yale was just at the 3-star Apprentice, so the difference was even higher.
Selenia had challenged the governor Ralen before, but Ralen wasn't at the peak of the Expert Rank, he was just at the 4-star Expert while Selenia was at the peak of the Practitioner Rank, their difference wasn't even of a whole rank. Sword City started to have little appeal for those who reached the Expert Rank, and most of those who remained weren't of a higher realm than Ralen.
"This won't work. I need a strong opponent like her to breakthrough, but if I am defeated that quickly, there is no way I can improve. It looks like I will need to play a little dirty to continue this battle."
Yale activated Bloodline Force. Bloodline Force changed since the Frost Winged Wolf bloodline was updated to a divine beast bloodline, the bloodline was able to double all his stats and didn't have any rank limit like before.
With Bloodline Force, Yale's stats surpassed the limits of the 3-star and 4-star, barely reaching the 5-star Apprentice. Moreover, the Intelligence and Wisdom were the most affected as they reached the peak of the 6-star Apprentice.
That kind of boost was monstrous, but it was still too little to surmount the enormous difference with his opponent.
The swords clashed again, and everyone in the Sword Arena saw that Yale was on the losing side; almost all the bets were on Yale's lose, the difference was on how much time he would need before losing. However, Yale felt that his endurance improved a lot compared to before although he was still forced to use the sword style from his past life to endure those exchanges of blows.
"The increase is good, but this is not enough! I need to increase more my strength, or this would end like a one-sided battle. There is nothing bad even if I lose, but I can't lose before having advanced to the master stage."
Yale didn't mind losing as that was a normal outcome in his situation, no one would think he was weak due to that because everyone still felt fear from his battle against the previous member of the Sword Five in the Apprentice Rank; no one dared to challenge Yale in those months due to it. However, Yale's objective was advancing to the master stage, and the true loss for him would be being defeated before even trying to make the breakthrough; the opinion of the citizens of Sword City wasn't important to him.
Yale reminded the Minor Boost skill that he had learned from Nurvey, but such skill was only useful at the Mortal Rank, in the Novice Rank it lost effect and it was even less effective in the Apprentice Rank. Yale doubted that could be of any use for his current self unless he managed to learn the improved versions.
"Bloodline Force is incredible, but I can't endure it for too long even after having improved the bloodline. Moreover, the boost isn't even enough for this battle."
The difficulty to endure the boost had been reduced dramatically after the bloodline improvement, but such huge boost was still impossible to endure for long periods of time.
There was another clash of swords; Yale was starting to feel that the challenge was just a loss of time as there was no way he could battle correctly with such a big disadvantage on strength if he used pure swordsmanship.
"I obtained Bloodline Force with the Frost Wolf bloodline, but although the bloodline had changed two times until becoming a Time Freezing Wolf Bloodline, the skill only improved. Maybe it can also work with my other bloodlines."
Immediately, Yale tried to use his Time Bloodline to boost the Bloodline Force effects; that was his desperate try to continue the fight.
"Succeeded."
Yale's guess was correct; any bloodline could be used for Bloodline Force as long one knew the skill. Furthermore, the effects of two bloodlines made his stats be the triple of his original ones instead of the double.
The pressure on Yale's body also increased a lot, that Bloodline Force with two bloodlines was more difficult to endure than the version with only one bloodline, but the effects were worthy of it.
"My stats now should be barely at the 7-star Apprentice while my intelligence and wisdom should be at the peak of the Apprentice Rank, the boost is great, but I doubt that this will be enough."
Just as Yale expected, although he managed to endure better the next clash, there was no way he could use that battle to improve his swordsmanship while he had to put all his effort in avoid being beaten by the difference on strength.
"I can just try also to add the Death Bloodline, I doubt my body would be able to endure it for long, but I can only hope to battle with my all in that span of time."
Without hesitating, Yale also added the Death Bloodline to Bloodline Force which turned his stats four times the original ones while he felt his whole body burning; that kind of boost was excessive and painful to endure, but that was within Yale's expectations.
When the swords clashed again, Yale was able to retreat without difficulties, he was still on the losing side, but although it was difficult, it wasn't impossible to battle in those conditions.
Yale smiled; at that moment he was comparable with a 9-star Apprentice in stats, the difference was still a whole rank with Selenia, but at least it wasn't more than an entire rank like before.
However, in that exchange of blows Yale had used another trick that was against the rules to reach that result; he had used his Spiritual Sense to scan Selenia's sword and hit at the weakest spot with all his strength.
That couldn't be considered pure swordsmanship, but was the way to reduce further their difference which Yale found after he turned able to utilize the Spiritual Sense of the Practitioner Rank. As the Intelligence and Wisdom surpassed the limits of the Apprentice Rank, Yale was temporally able to use the Spiritual Sense power of the next rank.
Furthermore, Selenia was someone who had only trained the Warrior Path until the peak of the Practitioner Rank, so her Spiritual Sense was extremely weak compared with Yale and there was no way she could detect it.
Due to being his originally higher stats, Intelligence and wisdom were the most benefited from Bloodline Force; if in the battle Yale could use all his skills instead of just swordsmanship, he had confidence in not losing against Selenia although he didn't know if he could win. However, he couldn't break the rules that obviously in the Sword Arena by using magic nor would that benefit his swordsmanship.
In that battle, Selenia was obviously restraining herself as she wasn't planning to bully Yale with pure strength, but until Yale utilized the four times increase of Bloodline Force and the Spiritual Sense trick, he wasn't unable to cross blows correctly with her.
Both clashes swords a few more times, and the audience was shocked by Yale's endurance, they could see that he was just at the 3-star Apprentice, so battling against someone like Selenia would be almost impossible; the favorite bet was that Yale would be beaten in the first five exchanges.
"Liye, you are better than I expected, but you wouldn't be able to beat me with such a puny power."
Yale knew it very well, but he started to use his own movements instead of those of his previous life. After all his power-ups, tricks and exchanges of blows, Yale had finally managed to get used enough to Selenia's moves and strength to being able to use his own movements against her.
"Now, let's try to use this bit of time to reach the master stage, my body won't endure this level of strength for too much time."