The clash between the rapier and the sword led to a metallic crescendo of sorts. Since Noah had closed the combat range, Ye Qi knew his revolver was indisposed. Ye Qi immediately pulled out his Magic Sword to fend off Noah's close-range attacks.
Noah's rapier came fast, accurate and ruthless. Since Ye Qi's sword was shorter than Noah's rapier, defence was not a bright option for the young Demon Hunter. Therefore, he abandoned any pretext of defence and went on a full offense against Noah. Ye Qi did not hold back, his every strike was aimed at his opponent's vitals.
As the battle continued, Noah found himself in a disadvantageous situation due to his rapier. The longer blade meant that Noah had to commit further in his attack compared to Ye Qi and his short sword. Oftentimes, Noah's rapier was going to strike Ye Qi's body when the sword came at his neck. Ye Qi even threw in his bare hands to attempt to swipe the rapier away from Noah. The rapier was tapered on both ends and the pointed tip and edges of blade was sharp to the touch. If Ye Qi's hand landed on the blade's body, then his hand would definitely be sheared off. However, if Ye Qi managed to grab at the blade's handle and disarm Noah then the victory was definitely his.
Ye Qi was relentless in his assault. Noah was slowly cornered while Ye Qi was still going strong. Ye Qi's condition that day was even better than usual, the sword seemed to come alive in his grasp, lashing at Noah from all fronts like strikes of lightning! In comparison, Noah's rapier was like a defanged viper, dodging and scurrying away in defence.
The offensive now was on the defensive and the clings and clangs of the metals were reminiscent of the sound inside a blacksmith's store.
Noah who was on the defence, frowned surreptitiously as he stared at Ye Qi who came at him as ferocious as a tiger, "This is what the reports call untalented in terms of firearms and cold steel?"
To be fair, Noah's reports were not wrong, during his training days with John, Ye Qi indeed didn't show any affinity for firearms and cold steel. The only reason he could reach passable mastery with those was the result of his hard work.
However, there was a paradigm shift when Ye Qi's firearms and cold steel masteries reached 30 points. The newly acquired Firearms Proficiency and Cold Steel Proficiency had evolved Ye Qi into a well-trained gunslinger and swordsman. Increased 10 percent damage when using firearms and cold steel, this description might look simple on the system but it was more than that. Ye Qi initially thought this meant that the blows he did via firearms and cold steel would hit 10 percent harder but as time passed, Ye Qi realized that was not true.
This additional 10 percent was not a simple addition but it was done through physical modifications, like the tweaking of the sword angles and the proper slanting of the gun before firing. To put it simply, it was like a master swordsman and gunslinger was implanted into Ye Qi's consciousness. The young Demon Hunter would be reminded by his instinct the places and errors that could be improved upon in real time. Compared to the hand-to-hand training conducted by John, this type of improvement that was done through instinct manipulation was much more effective and hands' on.
After three months of self-modification, Ye Qi had completely adapted to changes brought upon by his new instinct. The result manifested perfectly in his battle with Noah. The blade was like an extension of Ye Qi's limbs. He didn't need to think twice before striking and his every attack would be the most powerful it could be. Previously, Ye Qi still needed to take many factors into consideration and that oftentimes meant that he had missed his perfect opportunity to strike.
Noah's defence finally gave and he did a mistake—he was too distracted by the slash that aimed at his head that he didn't catch Ye Qi's leg that was coming at his lower body. Ye Qi landed a fine hit on his ankle and Noah dropped to his knees. Ye Qi made use of the opportunity and turned the blade in his hand around to come for his opponent's neck. In the last minute, Noah finally made use of his Apostle power—Ye Qi felt a veil falling over his sight and his world was submerged into darkness. Ye Qi's slash faltered due to the sudden change, giving Noah the opportunity to leap a way back.
However, no matter how fast Noah was, Ye Qi still managed to draw a bloody gash from Noah's chest to his left shoulder. His clothes was soon dyed red.
"This is your power?"
Ye Qi who couldn't see anything before him, retracted his blade and moved into a defensive posture.
"Indeed, this is my power!" The sudden change of the winds of battle seemed to reintroduce arrogance back into Noah's voice. He stood a distance away and started slowly introducing his power, "My power is Control of the Five Senses or more commonly known as the power of Illusion. Even though I can only create false images to confuse enemies like how I used the power to evade your bullets initially, now I have mastered the true power of the five senses control—the Inhibition of the Five Senses! To reward you for having landed a blow on me, I shall let you experience what it feels like to have your hearing taken away as well!"
There was a cruelty that was laced through Noah's words. Even though it sounded like Noah was being kind to introduce Ye Qi to his power, the young Demon Hunter knew that this was another one of his opponent's psychological tactic to scare and empower him.
Just as Noah promised, when the last syllable was said, Ye Qi couldn't hear anything anymore.
Hmmph! Control of the Five Senses? So what if you take away my sight or hearing, let's see you try taking away my sixth sense!
Ye Qi scoffed as he pulled his character screen open. Even though his sight was taken away, the screen still appeared before his mental eye. Without hesitation, Ye Qi chose "Blind Fighter" among his choices of Specialization.