The Little Witch’s Daily Struggle – Chapter 2336

Chapter 2336 – The Experience Gap

Bailing Ding was elegant and graceful, with a gentle smile on her face. She held her sword upright in a salute, looking like a noble young lady about to duel, just as she had in the past.

“Alright, come on,” the Phantom Thief Girl gritted her teeth. If this continued, even if her opponent didn’t try to kill her and only stopped at the last moment, she would eventually be worn down. In fact, the injuries she sustained in the previous matches still ached. With such accumulating injuries, she was bound to lose eventually.

Even if her opponent didn’t kill her, she would be captured and handed over to the Corsican mercenaries for disposal, which would be worse than death. She had to find a way to escape now.

“Heh!” The Phantom Thief Girl, her ponytail cut off, charged at Bailing Ding this time, wielding two daggers. Her steps were still wobbly, as if wading through mud, her body swaying left and right, making it impossible to discern the direction of her attack.

Bagua Palm. Although she wasn’t holding the Zi Wu Yuan Yang Yue in her hands, her daggers could already unleash much of Bagua Palm’s power. However, in the next instant…

“Swish!” A sword light directly struck the daggers in the Phantom Thief Girl’s hands, forcing her back three steps. The Phantom Thief Girl’s expression was one of shock; she had never imagined that a rapier could unleash such powerful thrusts.

This was followed by a storm of continuous, rapid jabs. The sword lights, forming a rain of strikes, assaulted the Phantom Thief Girl in a dazzling array, each thrust accurate and swift.

The footwork of Bagua Palm was unable to evade these chaotic and dense sword lights. Whenever the Phantom Thief Girl maneuvered with her peculiar steps to get close to Bailing Ding, she would be preemptively covered by Bailing Ding’s rapier, which controlled every possible direction of movement, forcing the Phantom Thief Girl to retreat repeatedly.

Furthermore, Bailing Ding had excellent control over her distance. Whenever the Phantom Thief Girl retreated, Bailing Ding would advance a few steps. And whenever the Phantom Thief Girl launched a fierce attack, Bailing Ding would retreat a few steps to evade its sharpness, but she never allowed her to leave her effective attack range.

What made the Phantom Thief Girl most want to vomit blood was that Bailing Ding’s rapier could attack from a distance. Each of her sword lights could be shot out from the sword, like a laser. If not for the defensive qi barrier formed by Bagua Palm, she would have already been pierced.

The Phantom Thief Girl felt that even with dual pistols, she couldn’t match Bailing Ding’s rate of fire. The sword speed was too fast; she couldn’t even see what was happening. The pressure she felt was far greater than what Mari had exerted.

I wasn’t surprised by this development. Unlike Mari, who was initially a maid and later became a slave, Bailing Ding had grown up in a distinguished aristocratic family, receiving professional instruction in the most orthodox court swordsmanship from a young age.

And she wasn’t a flower that had only grown in a greenhouse, never experiencing hardship. Bailing Ding had genuinely been on the battlefield and experienced numerous battles.

After being captured, she had even fought in dark duels in underground Iron Cage Arenas, where defeat meant humiliation, and sometimes, even before being humiliated, one could be beaten to death on the spot.

However, Bailing Ding had never lost a single match. She had never lost to any other contestant, only failing to defeat the monsters specifically arranged by Safah. Each time, she suffered a crushing defeat against those seemingly impossible monsters.

It was easy to imagine how strong she was. Moreover, Bailing Ding had been with us for some time, with strong opponents providing her with sparring practice daily, her strength had been rapidly improving.

Even someone like Mari, who had recently joined our team, although her swordsmanship was decent, was still leagues behind Bailing Ding. Bailing Ding would deliberately hold back during their duels, yet she still won every time.

The Phantom Thief Girl could hardly withstand these incredibly swift sword attacks. Carelessly, the rapier bypassed her daggers, penetrated her Bagua Palm defensive qi, and lightly stabbed her in the abdomen.

Her Lolita dress was bulletproof and blade-resistant, withstanding the rapier’s thrust. However, Bailing Ding’s attack couldn’t be fully deflected. The Phantom Thief Girl felt like she had been hit by a heavy hammer, retreating two steps, almost spitting up.

But she didn’t stop. Seeing Bailing Ding cease her attack after hitting her, she simultaneously threw out the two daggers in her hands as she was pushed back.

“Hmm?” Bailing Ding casually knocked away both daggers. Discarding one’s weapons in combat was undoubtedly a major cause of defeat.

But the Phantom Thief Girl clearly had a plan. She pulled with both hands, causing Bailing Ding to stagger and nearly fall, her rapier almost being yanked out of her grip.

“What’s going on?” I looked closely and saw an extremely fine silver thread between the daggers. It appeared to be a piano wire, very inconspicuous, with one end tied to the tip of the dagger and the other end attached to the Phantom Thief Girl’s lace gloves.

As she had thrown out the daggers, the thin thread wrapped around Bailing Ding’s weapon, and she pulled forcefully, attempting to dislodge Bailing Ding’s rapier, but it failed, as her strength was no match for Bailing Ding’s.

Although this thin thread was very subtle, it was impossible for Bailing Ding’s sharp eyes to miss it. The only reason she ignored it was that she had cast a simple illusion on the thread, making it difficult for the naked eye to see directly.

Seeing that her sudden trick had failed to disarm Bailing Ding, the Phantom Thief Girl used the thread’s recoil to spring towards Bailing Ding, unleashing Bagua Palm again, intending to use her close-combat advantage to win.

However, this time she miscalculated. Bailing Ding decisively dropped her rapier and used a hand chop to block the Phantom Thief Girl’s palm strike. As the Phantom Thief Girl attempted to use her footwork to maneuver, Bailing Ding directly grabbed her clothes and hair, slamming her to the ground.

“Ah!” The Phantom Thief Girl cried out in pain. Her hair and dress were originally like secret weapons, but now they had become a handle for her enemy to grab.

“Did you think I couldn’t fight without a weapon? Who told you your hair was so long and your dress had so many ribbons?” Bailing Ding said. She had never received any fairness in the Iron Cage Arena; fighting without weapons was common, and she had long since gotten used to it.

As she spoke, she grabbed the golden hair and swung again. This time, she swung at empty air. The Phantom Thief Girl’s hair slipped out of her palm as if it had a life of its own. At the same time, a cold glint flashed.

Sensing danger, Bailing Ding released her grip. A playing card sliced past the edge of her hand, cutting through the ribbon that was being held.

“You little girl, you have quite a few tricks,” Bailing Ding said. She pulled the thin thread wrapped around her rapier, forcibly dragging the Phantom Thief Girl closer. Bailing Ding could drop her rapier at any time, but the Phantom Thief Girl couldn’t quickly remove the gloves connected to the thread.

So she slashed again, and the playing card in her palm cut through both steel wires, severing them. It was astonishing how sharp the card was, to be able to cut through such sturdy steel wires.

The two finally created some distance. The Phantom Thief Girl felt a lingering fear, while Bailing Ding picked up her rapier, ready to engage again. Suddenly, Reuman called out to her, “Wait a moment. In France, there is a phantom thief named Arsène Lupin. Do you have any connection to him?”