Since he knew that the dark-skinned man was not exactly a great one on one fighter, Julian chose to take the initiative from the start. The moment their match began, he immediately used his [Immortal Gate] and launched an aggressive assault that incorporated shield bash and shield throw in the mix to catch his opponent and suppress him.
It was certainly a high-risk plan that could backfire badly, but it was something that Julian was willing to take considering his current state.
Abrafo, however, proved to be more difficult of an opponent than Julian initially thought.
The dark-skinned acolyte was unexpectedly as elusive as his Asian friend. He could hide from his perception by blending into the ground and staying hidden.
"Is that all you can do, Abrafo! Come out and fight!"
Fortunately, with Julian's own proficiency in earth element, he was still able to predict the acolyte's movements whether they were evasion or attack.
While dodging and escaping from Julian's pursuit, Abrafo created rune formation to call for his summon to fight for him.
"You can play with my little minions instead"
Within several minutes he managed to bring about half a dozen Earth golem summons, each three meters tall and possessing the strength of a saint warrior, which should be more than enough to match Julian's current strength.
At this point, the situation was reversed with the tip of the scale in the favor of Abrafo.
Julian was forced into defense by the latter's golems, and if that wasn't bad enough, the Roman could feel his [Immortal Gate] was already at its limit.
Still, even though the situation looked bleak to him, the determination in Julian's eyes didn't waver. In fact, it became even stronger.
"If that's how you're going to play!!"
Knowing that he didn't have the strength to break through the stone golems forcefully, Julian decided to abandon his initial plan and use a new tactic. After backing away to recollect himself for a moment, he made his move while his opponent ordered the golems to advance.
He started by using his shield battle art [Fire Aegis] first, creating a wall of fire in front of him. This gave him some space to maneuver, and with that, he brought out the newest item in his possession – a metal box filled with small figurines.
[Praetorian Guards]
Julian quickly grabbed the figurines and threw one hundred of them, the limit he knew he could control with his current situation.
Under Julian's commanding chant, the small figurines began to gradually enlarge, transforming into a humanoid figure made out of clay.
To the audience's surprise, these figures were equipped with metallic armor and weapons that Julian had based on his homeland's soldiers – a large tower shield that covered the entire body and a short sword as accompaniment.
Within seconds, he split the 100 Praetorians into four groups and arranged them in formation. Three groups of twenty units went ahead and created a shield wall, while the remaining forty Praetorians gathered in his surroundings to form a unique defensive line that protected him.
"Testudo!"
It was a shield form that followed the divine tortoise formation. Turning into a square that covered front and top, with Julian staying hiding in the center.
The three shield wall and the Tetsuda move swiftly as Julian commands, separating the stone golems and pushing them away from their commander.
The tactic that Julian deployed at the moment made Abrafo slightly amused. After all, although they looked formidable, in reality each Praetorian only possessed a fifth of his golems' strength.
However, when he thought that his golems would be able to easily overwhelm his opponent's summons, the dark-skinned acolyte was quickly proven wrong. In fact, even after the tenth golem was summoned and joined the fray, Abrafo still couldn't break through Julian's formation.
"Wedge formation!"
Julian keeps changing the formation, this time with some sent to do the offensive, further confusing both the stone golems and their masters.
"What kind of formation is this!!"
Unfortunately for Abrafo, Even though he called himself as a formation expert, he knew little about battle formation.
While Julian was busy giving commands to his summons to deal with the rush of Abrafo's golems, the audience was surprised to see that such ordinary soldier summons managed to stop the 10 seemingly unstoppable stone golems.
No matter what and how hard he tried, Abrafo continued to find his golems unsuccessful in their attacks against Julian's army of Praetorians, and the fact he couldn't accomplish such a simple thing in his eyes made him extremely exasperated.
"Huh! Smash them all!" shouted Abrafo in irritation.
Abrafo started to summon more stone golems and this time instead of being lured by the clay soldiers, he commanded the golems to slowly destroy them one by one.
70 Praetorians
60 Praetorians
50 Praetorians
Julian can only hold down patiently seeing his precious soldiers destroyed without being able to fight back, however he keeps his calm.
This was because in his eyes all these Praetorians existed not to counterattack, but simply to buy him time. They were there to allow him to gather his own breath and prepare for the moment where he could use his [Immortal Gate] once again.
As he continued to control the Praetorian to stop the golems trying to reach him, Julian noticed that Abrefo was occupied with his hand gestures and incantations, forming another formation spell. It was at this moment that he knew this was the best chance for him to launch his counterattack.
"Break formation!"
Upon Julian's roder, what was left of the Praetorians soldiers swiftly broke their formation and charged forward in a hurry for a decisive clash with no regard for casualties. Mayhem graced the arena as the Praetorians embroiled in messy struggle with the golems, and in the midst of such chaos, Julian sneaked his way through while using his [Immortal Gate] once more.
As the buff kicked in and the sensation of power coursed through his body, Julian used [Shield Bash] as he dashed forth with his [Titan Shield], crashing into one of the golems.
While the golem fell to the ground, the Roman quickly swung the hammer in his other hand, smashing and destroying the summon before he headed for its creator.
Overwhelmed by the sudden chaos, Abrafo didn't have enough time to retreat when Julian's figure appeared in front of him.
"Don't you dare to run from me again!!" Julian shouted
Taking out the short sword hidden within his shield, Julian delivered the critical blow and stabbed Abrafo when he was surprised to see the person he attacked was crumbled apart like a soft clay.
"It's a trapped!!"
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