Chapter 223: Means of Deceiving the Enemy

On the court.

Borg looked at Takahashi deeply.

He also discovered that something was wrong with himself, as his shots were clearly out of his control.

The direction of his shots was worlds apart from what he had in mind!

"Did you use a mental attack on me?"

Borg asked with some hesitation.

He could hardly believe that such a thing could happen in the world, because he was quite confident in the strength of his own Spirit Power.

In fact, from the very beginning of the match, he had felt that Takahashi was using mental-type techniques against him, so he had also retaliated, using his gaze to counter the opponent.

He understood the deterrent power of his gaze; even on the professional circuit, many players had been intimidated by it.

And Borg also felt that once his gaze, filled with mental deterrence, was unleashed, Takahashi's mental ultimate move lost its threat.

So, when exactly did he fall for the opponent's mental-type move?

On the other side of the court, a relaxed and cheerful voice rang out.

"Isn't it a bit too late to realize it now!"

Takahashi looked at Borg's gradually darkening expression, the corners of his mouth curling into an arc.

Takahashi had long since discovered the terrifying Spirit Power conveyed in Borg's gaze and the Spirit Power contained in the move, Baptism of the Vortex.

Unlike the mental moves of ordinary people, Borg's move superimposed Spirit Power onto his gaze and the tennis ball, creating a stronger sense of oppression and making it easier for others to fall into his mental trap.

Therefore, Takahashi was very wary of the Baptism of the Vortex move at the time.

When he was hesitating whether to avoid Borg's attack and make plans later, the Idle Character in his mind clearly raised an objection.

They told Takahashi through their thoughts: the two of them could now independently neutralize Borg's mental ultimate move—Time Loop—without affecting Takahashi's continued play in the match.

Since Takahashi himself also had a time-related mental ultimate move, the Idle Character had a full understanding of time-related Spirit Power.

Although Borg's "Time Loop" move was slightly higher in level than Takahashi's "Time Distortion."

But the efforts of the two Idle Characters in grinding tennis techniques during this period were also reflected here.

They had increased Takahashi's Spirit Power, which was the reason why Q. P and others could not feel the Spirit Power contained in the Baptism of the Vortex, while Takahashi felt threatened the first time he faced it.

Besides that, because the Idle Character was also closely related to Takahashi's second dimension.

Now they could open the Asura Divine Path themselves and use their own dimension to amplify the host's Spirit Power, just like Takahashi's clones, without affecting him.

And after this period of effort, the Idle Character's all-around amplification of Takahashi's five dimensions reached 10, meaning the maximum amplification for a single dimension could reach 2!

After all, the time the Idle Character had been Takahashi's second dimension was too short; in the future, as time passed and Takahashi's own strength grew, the amplification brought by the characters would be even more terrifying.

But for now, a 2-point increase in Spirit Power was enough to neutralize Borg's Time Loop move.

Hearing the Idle Character's words, Takahashi decided to face Borg's Baptism of the Vortex move head-on.

However, even if the Idle Character could neutralize Borg's Spirit Power, how to break through Borg's mental barrier and make him fall into his own mental move was a difficult problem.

Otherwise, Takahashi could only rely on the Spiral Ball to hold his own Serve games.

When it came to Borg's Serve games, he kept using the Baptism of the Vortex move; although the Idle Character could neutralize the Spirit Power contained in this move, the consumption for the characters themselves was not small.

If this continued, Takahashi's energy consumption would be greater than Borg's.

Because although the Idle Character could independently neutralize Borg's move without affecting Takahashi's match, this phantom, after all, belonged to Takahashi's Asura Divine Path, which was a drain on him personally.

However, a turning point appeared.

Through his conversation with the Idle Character, Takahashi also learned that they had now evolved to the point where they could independently amplify a certain dimension without forming a dimension phantom.

That is to say, everyone outside the court could not see that while Takahashi was using the Asura Divine Path, the Idle Character had already begun to amplify the host, using Spirit Power to neutralize Borg's move.

Thus, Takahashi had a bold idea.

That was to use Taotie to absorb everything on the tennis ball, including the Spirit Power, and then pretend that he had fallen into Borg's "Time Vortex" move.

Because no matter who it is, as long as they think they have gained a certain advantage on the court, their Spirit Power will inevitably relax to varying degrees.

The moment victory is in sight is the easiest time to fall into the abyss of defeat.

And that moment is the best time to sound the horn of counterattack.

Sometimes, appropriately feigning weakness is also a good strategy.

Just as it is said in the Dragon Kingdom's classic "Sun Tzu's Art of War": "War is a matter of deception. Therefore, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive;... when far away, we must make the enemy believe we are near."

And once Borg felt that Takahashi had fallen into his Time Loop and that his own victory was within reach, his vigilance would also drop significantly.

Sure enough, as Takahashi expected, Borg no longer looked at him with the eyes of a predator, and the mental pressure on him was greatly reduced.

He also stopped using the Baptism of the Vortex, and Takahashi could no longer feel the pressure of Spirit Power.

After all, who would continue to use Spirit Power against an opponent who had already fallen for their mental ultimate move?

So, taking advantage of that moment, Takahashi pretended that he had fallen into the third point of the first game, because for that point, the two of them had rallied for nearly 6 minutes.

Sufficient rally time, combined with Takahashi's total concentration and singleness of purpose, was what allowed the Time Distortion move to successfully take effect on Borg.

Based on Takahashi's previous judgment of Borg, he had originally thought that it might take 2 to 3 games to make his own mental ultimate move work on Borg.

Because the Idle Character's dimension phantom was busy dealing with the Spirit Power that had entered his body, and while Takahashi was pretending to be caught in the Time Loop, he dared not use his other dimension—Taotie.

Without any blessing from the Asura Divine Path, it was still somewhat difficult to make his mental ultimate move take effect on Borg.

But the reality was even smoother than Takahashi had imagined.

Because Borg's mental relaxation was greater than Takahashi had estimated, and when Takahashi used Taotie to absorb all the Spirit Power attached to the tennis ball, he could roughly perceive from which brain region Borg's Spirit Power was mainly being released.

So, when he applied his own Spirit Power to the opponent's brain, he deliberately avoided that area and entered without anyone noticing.

Thus, in just a little over one game, Takahashi successfully made Borg fall for his mental ultimate move.

And to ensure 100% success, Takahashi increased the amount of his own Spirit Power entering Borg's brain.

This meant that the degree to which Borg was caught in Time Distortion was even deeper than Q. P's before, so deep that even with his super-strong Spirit Power, he could not break free.

"Bang!"

……

"Bang!"

……

"3-2!"

"Point for Japan Team!"

……

"Bang!"

……

"4-2!"

……

"5-2!"

……

"6-2!"

"Point for Japan Team!"

"First set over! 120-second break!"

……

Germany Team rest area.

Borg walked to the bench with a gloomy expression and picked up a bottle of water.

Returu, who was to the side, asked, "Borg, even for you, after taking so long, you still can't break free from Takahashi's mental special move?"

Hearing this, Borg remained silent and did not speak.

In the final few games of the first set, he had tried various methods, but he still could not regain his accurate sense of direction and space, and could only watch helplessly as he kept losing points.

How exactly did the opponent break free from his time loop, and how did he himself fall for the opponent's mental special move?

Borg still had not figured it out.

He never expected that he would actually stumble so badly over a 12-year-old middle school student.

His current mood was extremely complicated!