Point-of-View: Ilex Sarralot
———————————————————————————
"Hm...is it just , or is the crowd less hyped for this match? I guess a fight between two asly humans is boring compared to a fight with Demons and Dragons," Sighed Gior dryly, as he and I walked onto the arena.
He’s right, the crowd is definitely less amped up. Izzy put on quite a show in the last match, that probably contributed to lowering expectations for this match.
"W-well, I don’t mind, the less p-people paying attention to , the better...a-and besides, there are still a lot of cheers, it’s not l-like the entire audience is totally disinterested or sothing," I replied, as the barrier ford around the arena.
"Yes, I suppose you make a good point. Either way, it doesn’t matter, let’s subvert those low expectations and put on a display they won’t soon forget," He suggested as he began loosening up.
"Here we go, it’s ti for the third match of round two, it’s Ilex Sarralot vs Gior King Ohph! Let’s hear so noise!"
"That loudmouth usually gets on my nerves with his constant chatter, but I suppose it’s welco chatter in this scenario," Mused Gior wryly, as the crowd grew louder.
Not for , I don’t want everyone watching ...
"Let’s get to the countdown! Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! THREE! TWO! ONE! ZEROOO!!!"
"Manifest Soul Weapon: Mana Armant," I chanted, manifesting my Soul Weapon and taking aim at Gior, before firing out a beam of Mana at him.
"Manifest Soul Weapon: Bowblade!" He swiftly chanted in response, raising his blade in front of himself as it manifested and using the flat of the blade to deflect the trajectory of my beam off to his left, diverting it towards the wall of the barrier.
He then zipped across the arena as I stopped firing the beam and unleashed a barrage of Mana bullets at him, evading my attacks before switching his Soul Weapon into its bow form and forming an arrow of lightning.
I swiftly ford a shield of Mana in front of myself as he fired the lightning arrow at , my eyes widening in surprise as the arrow missed my shield and shot past to the right...his aim is way off, what is he-...?
Oh, crap!
I spun across and sprang back as he suddenly swapped places with the arrow, glancing to my left as I spotted the arrow shooting towards from that direction...I see, he intentionally fired his arrow away from so that it wouldn’t get canceled out by my Mana shield, while he simultaneously positioned himself so that when he used his Switch Skill, the arrow would co straight at .
The arrow’s starting to close in on my left arm, and he’s charging in from up ahead...if I deflect or block the arrow, I won’t be able to react in ti to his attack from the front. And if I block his attack, the arrow will hit . Okay, then...
"Soul Weapon Ascension: Mana Armant Level 2 - Double Armant!" I chanted as quickly as I could, forming a Mana blade in my right hand while raising my left arm off to the side and forming a Mana shield in that direction.
The arrow struck the shield and petered out, before I rapidly whipped the Mana blade up and across as Gior swung his blade down at , hitting the side of his blade and deflecting it across. If it swung straight up and hit the sharp part of the blade, it would’ve cut right through my Mana blade, I had to hit the side of it to deflect it.
I swung my left arm in front of myself as he fired a blast of flas at , blocking it before he swiftly backed away and got so distance, before suddenly firing out several small rocks, scattering them all over the arena.
Huh? What’s he doing? Why is he-...oh, shit.
The realization hit too late, as he swapped places with one of the rocks, reappearing to my left and unleashing a rapid arrow of flas at .
I slashed at it with my Mana blade as it closed in on , dispersing the flas and canceling out the attack, before he used Switch to swap places with another rock, reappearing behind this ti.
I spun around and fired out a blast of Mana at him, but he was quick to use Switch again, once again reappearing behind . I quickly surrounded myself in a defensive do of Mana, right in the nick of ti as he fired a wind arrow at my back, which hit the Mana do before it could reach .
That was too close...he’s good at using that Switch Skill, and having scattered all those rocks all over the arena, he can teleport anywhere he wants at any given ti. If I keep letting him dictate the pace of this fight, I’ll only play right into his hands.
He’s also being wary of my Shadow Bind Skill, he only gets close when I’m facing a direction in which our shadows won’t overlap with each other. If I’m facing a direction in which I’ll be able to use Shadow Bind if he gets too close, he maintains so distance to avoid that.
In my current state, I don’t have the speed or power to force him to do sothing different, though...in which case, I’ll need to turn things up a notch. Alright, then, ti to go all out...
"Mana Armant Level 5 - Arsenal!" I chanted, a burst of energy erupting from as I took down the do of Mana I’d surrounded myself with.
Armor enveloped my whole body as my two Mana Armants tranford into Mana Amplifiers, before I swiftly unleashed a massive beam of Mana from the cannon in the middle of the chest area of my armor, Gior quickly teleporting away to evade it before I fired out a couple of piercing beams of Mana at him from two of the three tail-like tendrils on my lower back.
My reaction ti and kinetic vision are much sharper in this form, so I can react a lot faster each ti he teleports.
As my beams closed in on him, he twisted his body across and raised his blade, just barely managing to block one of the beams before the other one grazed the side of his right arm, a grimace appearing on his face as my attack drew out a trickle of blood.
I then manifested wings of Mana from my shoulders blades and took off into the air as he used Switch again, forming a Mana blade from of the Mana Amplifiers and swinging it across as he fired out an intense, crackling arrow of lightning at , dissipating it as my blade slashed through it.
I flew up higher and took aim down at the arena with both my Mana Amplifiers, before unleashing a barrage of rapid, intense Mana projectiles, raining down towards Gior with imnse speed.
He raced across and teleported, repeatedly swapping places with the rocks he’d scattered as he narrowly evaded my projectiles...he’s skilled with chants, not only can he do so inaudibly like Larrk can, but he’s also really fast at chanting.
However, no matter how fast, it isn’t instant, which ans there’s a brief delay before he can use his Switch Skill consecutively. In other words, each ti he uses Switch to evade my barrage, he has to be ready to imdiately block, dodge or deflect my attacks while he chants to use Switch again.
And he can’t keep that up forever, it’s only a matter of ti before the fatigue from constantly moving around under so much pressure causes his concentration to waver...even if it’s just a slight fluctuation, that’s all I need.
I continued unleashing my projectiles as he teleported, evaded and blocked to the best of his ability while also scattering more rocks around the arena as my projectiles destroyed several of the ones that he’d initially scattered. And while he’s managing to avoid any direct hits, more and more of my attacks were starting to graze him, gradually weakening him.
Since he has both Attributes, he can heal himself, but with my constant barrage and his focus on using Switch, he doesn’t have an opening to stop and use a healing Spell.
He can also fly using his Wind Magic, but flying up with all these projectiles shooting down would be too difficult...and it’s unlikely that he’ll use Switch to swap places with either.
Mana projectiles are fairly bright, and with so many raining down on him, I’m at least partially obscured from his vision, so he can’t lock on to in order target for his Skill.
This might be a bit of a boring way for this fight to end, but he’s strong, so I can’t afford to play around. Hm...but I suppose I can try to end this with a bang...
As I continued pelting the arena with a ceaseless barrage of Mana projectiles, I began charging up the cannon over the middle of my chest, channeling an imnse amount of Mana into it...I haven’t poured this much Mana into it before, it hasn’t been very long since I fully mastered the full extent of my Soul Weapon Ascension, and I haven’t been in any real fights, so I haven’t needed to unleash any especially powerful attacks.
But I’ll charge this up as much as possible, the cannon doesn’t have an Amplifier function but that’s fine...because it’s so wide, it’s easier to control a larger output.
My Mana Amplifiers beco difficult to aim when I go for an especially large attack, but it feels like this chest cannon is stable and under control even with the imnse amount of Mana I’ve channeled into it.
Okay, this should be enough, I’ve channeled about half my entire Mana capacity into it, I bet this amount of Mana could do so serious damage if I fired it from one of my Amplifiers.
The arena is large, so I doubt this blast can cover the entire space, but hopefully it should be wide enough that he won’t be able to evade in ti and-...huh?
I stared in bewildernt as I fired the cannon, a massive, MASSIVE beam of Mana bursting out and barreling down as it spread out across the space imnsely, the barrier shaking violently as the beam continued to grow and widen until it filled the entire width of the space, before I spotted Gior outside the arena as my beam slamd onto the arena floor, drilling down powerfully.
The entire stadium shook and rumbled as my beam tunneled through the ground, cracks spreading out outside the barrier before the beam finally started to peter out, my eyes widening as it faded to reveal a deep, massive crater where the arena used to be, a thick cloud of dust rising up before spreading out as the barrier faded, the crowd stunned silent.
U-uh...maybe I put too much Mana into that attack...
"Wha-...holy shit, what an attack! Let’s hear a big cheer for the winner of match three of round two, everyone, it’s Ilex Sarralot! That was aweso!" Exclaid Phyurio, the crowd erupting into raucous, deafening cheers.
O-oh, no, everyone’s looking at ...e-even the Demons are looking at with intrigue and wariness, th-this is...this is way too much attention...!
_____________________________________________
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this Chapter! Don’t forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comnt, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!
Also, check out my Insta account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.
Join the Discord server, I plan to tease upcoming Chapters and future story arcs here, and you can also discuss or ask any questions about the story and characters. Use the invite link to join:
sdiscord.gg/sRbx9VbTVP
User Comments
0 comments from readers