"Urrggghh!"

The poison smoke made him dizzy and out of breath very quickly. Not only that, but the smoke also caused his spirit force to turn chaotic.

Emery swiftly rose to his feet and jumped a few meters backward, just as his consciousness was about to begin to fade from his grasp.

His gaze was fixed on his opponent, while his arm was already in the process of activating the [Nature Blessing] to remove whatever it was his opponent had done to him.

The man, on the other hand, strangely decided to not chase after and end him while he was vulnerable.

Instead, Vizla took a few steps back and slowly, a smirk Emery knew too well etched on his lips.

"Haha... I have to confess that poison is not exactly my innate ability, but I am sure the referee understands" The man looked at the magus referee in glee and the man nodded letting his act come to pass.

"That attack of yours was amazing. For that, I will give you 5 minutes to recover or of course, you can always give up."

Emery was annoyed by these damn snake clans and their poison.

His spirit force might have been in a very chaotic and erratic condition, but giving up would not be an option for him.

Unfortunately for Emery, the magic resistance his shaman form provided could not help him with poison, and therefore made things worse. Through the activation of his [Nature Blessing], he could tell this particular poison was similar to the black pill they had given and he had consumed before.

The amount circulating in his body wasn't as much of a dose as the black pill, because he just inhaled a small amount of the smoke, but Emery could still feel its detrimental effects on his spirit force.

With the poison affecting his spirit force, plus given the fact that his 5 minutes time limit of transformation was also coming to an end, Emery decided to deactivate his [Shaman Transformation] and go back to his first transformation.

"Hahaha, are you giving up!?" His opponent tried to tease him, evidently to see if he would falter or not.

Emery turned his back on him. He did not really pay attention to whatever the man had to say to him. He casually walked toward the one sword he had plunged deep to the ground and pulled it.

"Hahhaha still want to fight? Amazing!"

At the moment, Emery had to refrain from casting his spells lest it further intensify the chaos his spirit force experienced, hence he could only depend on his battle power to survive this situation.

Closing and opening his eyes, Emery took a deep breath and prepared to fight. He believed at the very least the previous consecutive [Shadow Edge] attack he had sent should have wounded his opponent and had some effect on him somehow.

However, before he could finish his thought, Vizla smiled and once again trembled before the green scale once again appeared on his body and his armor to be reformed once more. Emery was startled before grim returned to his face.

"Don't worry, you should be happy that you managed to hurt me... and now I am gonna hurt you."

Despite the fact Vizla had no other swords in his possession, he calmly raised his arm and slowly a large bone-like blade emerged from the inside of each of his arms. The large bone coming out from his arm reminded one of a snake fang, but much bigger. It became his new weapon to fight against Emery.

"I never like using this... but you tell me if you like it!"

Wossshhh!!

Vizla charged toward Emery at breakneck speed and swung his arms down, while the latter did everything in his power to fight back. These two powerful men were fighting against each other fiercely, with neither showing any signs of retreating or backing down.

Clankk!! Clankk!!

It wasn't that Emery was weak, but rather because his opponent had exceeded the usual standard of what a rank 9 capable of. Due to the fact that Vizla was not just royalty, but also part of a snake clan, he must have been injected with various different kinds of booster to help him reach his peak physical fitness and strength.

For the time being, Emery could only depend on the battle skills in his repertoire, which included [Weeping Phantom], [Heroic Smash], [Hidden Blade] and [Chain Strike].

Even though he was currently engaging in a battle with an opponent whose toughness and endurance was far superior to the average, Emery was determined to fight him till the end to see the limit of his ability.

Clank! Clank!! Splatt!

Every third strike that landed on his body would make a cut to his [Jade Skin], while all of the ones he managed to parry would just cause waves of numbness surge in his palm.

Emery knew he needed to dodge even faster and to hit with even greater force, as what he had done apparently did not cause enough damage to Vizla.

Out of desperation, Emery returned back to his [Dao Divine Technique]. Now that he had gained a new understanding of Dao on the island, he might as well now try to push his sword technique past its boundary during this duel.

Clankkk!!

After a while, as the duel continued on, Emery's movement gradually changed. Instead of blocking, he began to welcome the hard strike with a soft parry, and when the enemy dashed, he started to use the enemy's strength to bounce himself like a feather.

"Hahaha, what are you doing there now?! Interesting!"

Emery started to take advantage of this chance to once again restructure the sword technique he used, while also gradually gaining a new understanding of the Dao.

Previously he had learned that what he needed to do was about achieving balance, but now it was also about gradually changing.

Day into night and returning back to day.

Emery quickly grasped the concept into the sword technique, as he continued to fight Vizla.

He was able to dodge Vizla's attacks more effectively as a result of the sublimation of this concept. Unfortunately, he just did not have the necessary strength nor speed to match his opponent.

"Urrghhhh!"

Vizla's elbow managed to hit his face and Emery spit out blood.

Even though he continued to improve, Emery still got constantly hit once every few attacks. Wounds started to pile up on his body as blood began covering every inch of his body, causing him to become gradually weaker.

Vizla raised both of his arms and surprisingly he could even perform a battle art with it.

[Whirlwind Strike]

Splatt! Splatt!

Emery couldn't dodge the powerful battle art Vizla did even with the help of Dao. The attack went through the [Jade Skin's] defense, and as a result of it, he received multiple cuts at once.

"Hahaha, still not good enough!" Just give up now!" Vizla mocked him, after seeing how much effort he put into fighting him.

Emery, on the other hand, ignored him. The truth was Emery had already forgotten about why he was fighting or whether giving up would do anything for him or other people around him at that point.

He had gone too deep in his understanding of Dao. At the same time, the urge inside had been knocking for each hit he received.

He was really tempted to unleash the urge and just make chaos.

At the moment, he just followed his body as if Dao had taught him another level of balancing his spirit core, he felt that instead of releasing the Khaos Energy to the urge like before, he manage to flow it at a much slower rate

He had fallen to the urge many times - this time it could be the way to control it.

With it, Emery gradually changed. The current silver hair first stage fey transformation was continuously changed into the black fur

[Night Wolf Transformation]