Dark Blade's reaction was swift as well. Realizing he was gripped by fear, he immediately activated his decoupling skill, forcing himself to stop fleeing!

He quickly turned back, taking advantage of the "Dragon-Binding Rope" effect, and rushed forward again at high speed, launching a flurry of blows with his two blades, one long and one short.

So far, for the sake of close combat, Dark Blade had used an acceleration skill, a pursuit skill, a displacement skill, and even a decoupling ability!

However, Dark Blade felt it was worth it.

What could just an archer possibly do once engaged in close combat?

Bai Pu shook his head.

If Dark Blade knew what Blood Spider was before changing professions, he wouldn't have rashly paid the price to engage at close quarters.

Once Blood Spider was engaged in close combat, he wasn't flustered at all. With a cold face, he reached out and lifted his hand, revealing snow-white thigh skin strapped with two daggers beneath his leather skirt armor.

With dual daggers in hand, two clangs echoed as Blood Spider easily deflected the twin blades and quickly sidestepped to the side of Dark Blade.

Swish!

Blood splattered as the dagger left a blood mark on Dark Blade's side ribs.

Dark Blade was bewildered as he reacted, and engaged in close combat with Blood Spider! Both were Hero Professions with agility specialties, striking like the wind. The audience could only hear the clear clashing of weapons, unable to follow the movements of the two with the naked eye!

"What's going on?"

The contestants from Jiangnan University, including the leading teacher, looked bewildered, "How does this girl have the time to train in both close combat and remote specialization? And both combat specializations seem quite advanced!"

"That's the advantage of a strong second generation." Bai Pu murmured.

The strong second generation practices combat specialization at a more efficient rate than ordinary Awakened.

They have not only professional sparring partners but also guidance from strong Spirit Realm Natives!

Guidance from strong Spirit Realm Natives is more likely to spur skill proficiency progress than from Awakened experts because even a casual pointer from a strong Spirit Realm Native might trigger a Spirit Realm Will task assessment.

For example, Bai Pu, upon receiving guidance from Beiming Jihu, immediately commenced the trial task of upgrading to Advanced Level 4 specialization.

But if it were a combat specialization expert similar in level to Beiming Jihu—like Bai He—even with daily guidance in sparring, it would be impossible for a low-level Awakened to acquire a similar trial task.

The reason can only be attributed to the favor of the Spirit Realm Will.

Thus, strong Spirit Realm Natives who accidentally come to the real world through Boundary Land are generally highly valued by various forces, being appointed as honorary guests for sustenance. They gain high returns just by guiding the excellent juniors within their family.

Ordinary Awakened need to spend a lot of time cultivating combat specialization, choosing a specific mechanical specialization according to their combat style for intensive learning, barely keeping up with their level!

Even if there is collateral mastery, it would have to be a specialization with high correlation, such as Two-Handed Swordsmanship Specialization and Two-Handed Hammer Specialization.

But Blood Spider can forcibly train both One-Handed Swordsmanship and Shooting, which are completely unrelated specializations, reaching Advanced Level 5 or even Advanced Level 6. This can't be explained merely by 'Emperor Gan's dedication. Besides being hard-working, long-term guidance from famed Spirit Realm Natives is also necessary.

Blood Spider clearly suppressed Dark Blade.

Level suppression, combat specialization suppression, and attribute suppression!

——Blood Spider's equipment is clearly much stronger than Dark Blade's.

At the start, Blood Spider utilized remote shooting to leverage the professional skills' traits, reducing Dark Blade's movement speed considerably, which also played a critical role.

Dark Blade wanted to escape but couldn't; his acceleration and displacement skills had already been used in pursuing Blood Spider for close combat.

Swish, swish, in quick succession, Blood Spider seized the opportunity, performing a series of shuffle step attacks to widen the opening, finishing with a [High-Frequency Spin Stab], defeating Dark Blade!

In such matches, there's a Spirit Realm sparring contract in place. When an attack is about to cause a significant injury or even death to the opposing Awakened, the damage from that attack becomes null, and the opposing Awakened is deemed the loser.

If it were an official league, the battles would take place on Boundary Land with better protection measures, rendering the signing of a sparring contract unnecessary as the 'killed' Awakened would automatically be ejected from the Boundary Land battlefield.

Such matches are closer to reality, allowing injured Awakened to persist in fighting till the last moment.

But there's a downside too. In competitions held on Boundary Land, spectators can only watch live broadcasts of battles through spiritual recording devices, without experiencing the Awakened battles' intensity firsthand.

"Hooray!"

The Xili Institute of Technology's teammates cheered loudly.

Blood Spider left the field expressionlessly, ignoring two teammates' attempts to high-five, instantly dousing their spirits like a bucket of cold water.

"Why does winning feel like losing..."

Someone murmured softly.

Bai Pu wasn't affected, smiling as he spoke to Teacher Cai Cai: "Isn't the second match arranged for me?"

"Uh... that's how it's reported on the list." Teacher Cai Cai waved her fist, "Go for it."

Actually, Teacher Cai Cai wasn't sure if Bai Pu's strength was strong or weak, given that killing the wanted criminal Hidden Snake was internal news of the Special Service Bureau and wouldn't be widely disseminated.

By right, a Level 5 Enhanced Leader couldn't be weak, but she also knew that assessing an Awakened's strength heavily relies on combat specialization and skill level, and Bai Pu had just changed professions, barely stepping into the Mid-level Awakened threshold.

Facing opponents who had been at the Mid-level Awakened tier for several years, the outcome was unpredictable.

Bai Pu walked into the arena.

His hearing was excellent. He heard whispers near the arena, in the nearest rows, discussing his background and evaluating his combat power.

Some girls intending to applaud Bai Pu out of humanitarianism refrained, embarrassed by the defeat in the first battle.

"Where's the opponent, why aren't they on the field yet?" Bai Pu was a bit puzzled.

The host started urging as well.

At the Jiangnan University contestants' seat, there was a slight commotion, yet the person who was supposed to fight still hadn't appeared.

"Received a message..."

A look of confusion crossed the host's face, but she still announced loudly: "Jiangnan University's team, second match forfeited. Congratulations to Xicheng University of Technology, winning another round effortlessly..."

The scoreboard showed that Xili Institute of Technology's score had climbed to 28 points.

Bai Pu thoughtfully looked towards the Jiangnan University contenders' seat.

There, Bai Pu saw several familiar faces.

Longxiang, Fengxiang, and Qilin...

"Turns out they are also Jiangnan University's team members." Bai Pu realized, silently amused, "It must be these three who prevented the contestant from appearing, opting to forfeit... In truth, I didn't plan on using Genetic Fusion or Pure Blood boosts for this match, so my strength isn't as high as during the battle in Linköping."

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