Published at 14th of September 2026 6:33 am

Chapter 1106: Third Puppet

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Seeing the incoming attack, the puppet swiftly raised its forearm and blocked with ease, shrugging off the attack as it immediately caught Asher by the foot. It moved as it tilted to raise him up and slam him into the ground. But the moment Asher was dragged up from the ground, he acted before the puppet could carry out its plan.

His upper body rose and twisted as he caught the puppet by the head with both hands, and without a shred of hesitation, his right knee tore through the air barrier towards the puppet’s head.

With a battering impact, knee met wooden temple, the puppet’s head snapping sideways as it couldn’t block in time. Both of its hands were holding Asher, and it couldn’t lean backwards or dodge as Asher had caught its head, preventing all escape.

As the impact landed, a small crack appeared on the puppet’s head, but the puppet didn’t care. It couldn’t feel any pain. It immediately released Asher’s leg, then used the momentum from Asher’s knee attack to create distance between them.

Asher’s body rotated as he landed on all four limbs the moment the puppet let go. The moment he landed, he shot forward like an arrow as he moved to press his advantage, but there was no advantage to press as the puppet had already adapted the moment it created distance between them.

As Asher arrived before the puppet, he unleashed a palm strike. His palm tore through the wind barrier as he aimed to burst the puppet’s chest. But the puppet didn’t take a step back; it took a step forward instead as it sent out its own palm attack.

With another thunderstorm of sound waves, palm met palm, the strength behind each attack equal, neither taking a step back. They stared into each other’s eyes, then smiled at each other, then they moved, their hands turning into blurs as they unleashed one palm strike after the other.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Wind pressure spiked, sound echoed as it bounced off the walls, Asher’s hair whipped backwards, but neither of them stopped. They seemed to settle into palm strikes that aimed for different body parts. There was no defense, just attacks meeting attacks.

Asher’s palm streaked forward as usual, the puppet’s brown wooden palm moved as usual, but as palm was about to meet palm, from the puppet’s palm, a small pointed blade came out, and with sickening ease, a flesh-tearing sound echoed through the sealed room, blood spurting into the air as the puppet drew blood.

Asher didn’t hesitate to blur backwards as blood dripped to the ground. Crimson Pact was activated, but he ordered Virelass to stop, choosing to remain injured.

He and the puppet had exchanged damage.

But he knew... he had been fooled again, just like how the first puppet had fooled him. The puppet had led him into the illusion that they would settle and perform only palm attacks for a period of time, just for it to pull an underhanded tactic at such a time.

But Asher didn’t complain; this was the Combat Refinement and Attunement room, he was meant to gain experience here, and that was all. Besides, the puppet hadn’t even said anything about exchanging only palm strikes. Even if it had, in a battlefield, an opponent could easily go back on their words.

Asher didn’t care about the injury; he simply settled into another type of stance as he copied one he had seen from a movie, the crouching tiger stance.

With his talent and perfect memory, copying and perfecting these Earth martial arts he had only seen in movies performed by movie action stars who knew real Martial Arts and weren’t acting just for show was simply too easy.

As his fingers changed into a claw, he blurred forward as he closed the distance between him and the puppet in an instant, his clawed fingers tearing through the air as he aimed for its neck.

The puppet seemed to instantly adapt as it dodged to the side, then copied Asher’s move as it changed into the crouching tiger style, its clawed fingers tearing towards Asher’s sides, but before the attack could land, Asher’s other hand tore down on its fingers, cancelling the attack.

Both of them blurred as they unleashed clawed attacks at vital points. Asher’s style changed into the hidden snake style from yet another movie, each one being unleashed, adapted to, and perfected on the spot.

The puppet was disoriented for a moment as it had just adapted to the crouching tiger. It couldn’t even understand where Asher was pulling all these moves from. With a boom, Asher’s fingers thundered against its chest, it staggered backwards as a crack appeared on the its chest.

The puppet immediately shifted into the hidden snake style and closed the distance to give back the injury it had just received, but the moment it did, Asher changed his style again as he moved into the monkey Kung Fu form, his body lowering as he moved and parried the attacks, then aimed a side palm attack at the puppet’s neck.

The puppet, seeing the new attack style, instantly stopped just like the first puppet had stopped. Seeing this, Asher also stopped as he immediately understood that the puppet seemed to have given up like the first puppet.

His stance relaxed as his mind settled, but the moment he lowered his guard, the puppet moved as it unleashed a palm attack to his chin. Asher’s head snapped upwards due to the force of the attack, but before the puppet could even follow up with a second attack, Asher’s right leg moved as he unleashed a low kick at the puppet’s wooden knee.

With a boom, the knee shattered and the puppet buckled as it lowered itself onto its hands.

Asher’s eyes snapped towards the puppet that now stood lowered on the ground. He understood that he had been caught off guard. The puppet had simply been too cunning. It had copied the moment when the first puppet gave up earlier, hence fooling Asher into a false sense of finality. But thankfully, Asher’s reflexes kicked in as he traded blow for blow.

As Asher stared at the puppet’s featureless face, it stared back at him. It rose to its feet, then turned around and limped away as it only had one leg. It had accepted its loss.

Asher merely watched. He wouldn’t deny it, he was learning a lot from these spars, and he loved and enjoyed every bit of it. He had gained a lot of knowledge that he had to infuse into his Swordsmanship when he left this Combat Refinement and Attunement room.

As the second puppet returned, the third puppet rose to its feet, went to the rack, picked up a rapier that was shaped exactly like Asher’s, as though it wanted to teach Asher how to use the rapier properly.

Virelass appeared in Asher’s hands yet again as he settled into a stance. He wondered what tricks this puppet was going to play, after all, the two before it had used their own methods.

The third wooden puppet took a step and vanished, and with that, the battle of the toothed rapiers began in earnest.

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