THE shadows on the ground spread upwards and surrounded the two like a cage. As it did, the hurricane whirling around them started to dissipate little by little until it completely disappeared. 

Luo Yan actually didn't plan to be stuck inside the [Shadow Cage] himself. But with the distance between him and Winged Tassel, it would be hard to just let the other be imprisoned. 

Well, whatever. This was fine as well. With them inside the cage, Winged Tassel couldn't use any wind attacks. The same could be said for him though. But it wouldn't affect him that much. After all, he's used to fighting without any skills. Inside this cage, the two of them would be like MMA fighters fighting inside the octagon. Except that he had daggers and his opponent had his katana.

"Let's fight to our heart's content, shall we?" he said with a smile before attacking the other.

Winged Tassel, of course, blocked it. He frowned. The space of this cage was too narrow. There was barely any space for movement. Fighting inside such an enclosure, not only was their movement very limited, the range of their attack would also suffer. 

But Noctis seemed to not care about that. The other was attacking with that irritating smile on his face, obviously not having any problems with this kind of set-up.

He had seen this cage during Noctis' fight with Razor. Although it's only for a little while, he had already surmised what kind of effect it had. It could most likely negate any skills, passive or active otherwise. 

But Winged Tassel was not worried about that. Such a skill would definitely not last that long. Besides, this situation wasn't too bad at all for him. 

That's right, [Shadow Cage] originally could only last for five seconds. But in the week before the tournament round began, Luo Yan managed to extend it to 30 seconds. Of course, it was not such an easy feat. He had to put a lot of work into it. At the end, he succeeded. 

The reason why he put that much effort into increasing the duration of its effect was because he thought this skill would help him a lot during the tournament round. Although Razor managed to escape from it during their match, this cage ultimately forced the other to reveal one of his more powerful skill. Which was not a bad bargain in Luo Yan's opinion.

Now, he just had to make use of this 30 seconds as best he could and to get the most out of it. With that in mind, he continued on with his attack.

He thrusted his right dagger forward. Winged Tassel quickly moved his head to the left. Already expecting that to happen, Luo Yan flipped his hold of the dagger and slashed it towards the other's neck. 

Winged Tassel simply slashed his sword forward. But Luo Yan didn't dodge as one would normally do in that situation. Instead, he blocked the incoming slash with his other dagger and didn't stop his attack of trying to pierce his opponent's neck.

The other must have realized that if he didn't completely dodge, the dagger would definitely put a hole on his neck. So, Winged Tassel's next move was also as expected. He jumped back, hitting the cage. He didn't stay long there. He put his katana back to its scabbard and rushed towards Luo Yan.

Luo Yan narrowed his eyes. He knew that stance. He had seen the other used it during his past two matches. It's like some kind of iai. He would draw his sword at a lightning speed and his opponent would end up wounded without even knowing how or why.

Instead of just staying there and wait for the other's attack, he began to move around the cage at a fast speed. Even using the surface of the cage as a foothold to increase his range of movement. This made him look like a fast ball bouncing around inside the cage.

Of course, he didn't do that just to move around and confuse the other. He did that to prevent Winged Tassel from using his iai technique. After all, how could he use it when he's being attack from all sides?

Just as Luo Yan thought, the other had to stop on his tracks and raise his sword that was still in its scabbard to block his attacks. But seeing as Winged Tassel didn't draw his sword, he might still be planning to use his iai technique and was just looking for the perfect time to use it. 

Could Luo Yan give him this chance? Definitely not! He increased his speed as he did, slashing all the way. But as he was doing that, he noticed something. The other's defense seemed to be getting poorer and poorer. It's not that the other was being sloppy. He was simply leaving a spot 'unattended'. It's like the other was inviting him, 'look, you can attack here!'. 

Luo Yan understood then that Winged Tassel was planning something. So, he pretended not to notice it and continued with his attacks. He waited and counted the seconds until when the cage disappeared. And just like what the other wanted, he attacked that spot that was defenseless. 

Feeling the slash on his arm, Winged Tassel knew that he succeeded in luring the other. At that moment, the item he bought earlier took effect and negated the debuff of Noctis' dagger. But still, he pretended like he couldn't move at all.

He saw that Noctis slowed down and might be feeling smug thinking that his attack finally hit him. The other probably already had his guard down. When Noctis was just a few steps away from him, he finally made his move and used his iai technique. 

But the moment he drew his sword, the cage made of shadows suddenly vanished. Its sudden disappearance affected his concentration. But he was sure that he still managed to go passed by Noctis, slashing the other.

When he was about to relax his stance, he immediately noticed that something was wrong. 

He couldn't move at all!

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