Yushin vs. Skysword

Yushin vs. Skysword
Arc	Era of Nera
Event	Before the Start of the Story
Place	Yerim
Outcome	The Skysword defeats Yushin but spares his life. Yushin survives the duel but is rendered crippled from his wounds. The Skysword becomes incredibly famous and is crowned a member of the Elders.
Combatants
Yushin
Skysword
Powers and Abilities
Shadowless Blade
Skysword
Casualties
Alive (Heavily Injured/Crippled)
Alive (Heavily Injured)
Duration
Manhwa	Episode 167 - Episode 169
Battles & Events

Yushin vs. Skysword was a fight between the Elder, Yushin and Han, a traveling swordsman known as the Skysword.

Prologue

After crushing numerous District Lords in his Crown Hunt, the Skysword travels to Yerim and attacks Yushin in order to issue a formal challenge. Yushin accepts as Gundar, his attendant and the Skysword's Disciple spectate the duel.

Battle

Yushin opts not to use his elder symbol and draws his dual straight swords to start the duel. After clashing and exchanging many blows, Yushin regards the young challenger’s swordsmanship to be outdated, but he starts feeling a sense of unease as the Skysword is able to counter his techniques. Continuing the fight, the Skysword is able to destroy Yushin's dual swords with five distinct techniques.

Upon seeing the techniques, Yushin realizes that the Skysword learned the blade for the purpose of defeating him, which the Skysword confirms by explaining that he was raised by five powerful sword masters that Yushin defeated in the past and was taught to counter his techniques all for the sake of defeating him. He states that while his sword is unable to reach the other Elders, his sword is able to reach Yushin.

Yushin deciding to fight seriously.

Yushin states that he remembers all of the Skyswords' masters as powerful opponents, yet none of them made him go all out. He declares that the Skysword will have to rely on his swordsmanship instead of his master's teachings, as he prepares to go all out by drawing his elder symbol.

He seriously injures the Skysword through his guard multiple times with his Shadowless Blade - Phantasm technique and asks if the Skysword thinks he can win, to which the young swordsman responds "Certainly". As the duel continued for seven days, Yushin proved superior, as he was completely uninjured to the point where even his clothes had not suffered any damage, while the Skysword had suffered multiple serious injuries.

But he was able to survive through his tenacity, which allowed him to grow stronger and steadily get closer to the level of the Elders.

As Yushin prepares to end the duel with a killing blow, the Skysword can turn the tide, as he has been taught since birth that the Elder has a habit of going for his opponents' throats when trying to deliver a killing blow. By exploiting this habit, the Skysword was able to severely injure Yushin's right leg, rendering him defenseless for his second strike, which injured Yushin's other leg and right arm.

Aftermath

Skysword decides to spare Yushin, as he once showed mercy towards his masters, which led to Skysword learning the sword in the first place. Right after sparing Yushin, the Skysword collapses from the injuries he sustained from the duel.

Gundar tries in vain to finish him off but is stopped by Yushin while the Skysword's Disciple holds her sword beneath his neck. Yushin then accepts his defeat.