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”Just great, of all the opponent’s I could’ve been matched up against, it just had to be you, huh?” Sighed Shiro wryly, a nervous look on his face.
”I see no problem here. In fact, I think I’m gonna enjoy this,” I responded with a slight smirk.
Quite a while has passed since he first appeared, but I’m still holding a bit of a grudge against him. I mean, he did screw a lot of things up back then. So, yeah, this should be fun.
”We’re onto the third exhibition match, and it’s Azyl of Abyss versus Shiro of the Rustlands! Let’s see who comes out on top in this encounter!”
With his abilities and power level, he’s basically just a weaker version of Kuro at this point, with far fewer tricks up his sleeve.
And so, I’ll start off a bit slowly…no Ice Magic right away, I’ll instead use the abilities I gained from the Sea King. I really haven’t used most of those abilities in a proper fight, so now’s as good a time as any.
”Looks like both participants are raring to go, so let’s get this underway, shall we!? BEGIN!” Declared Rion enthusiastically.
I unleashed my full power, entering my Water Sage Mode, my skin turning pale and frosty, as my hair turned into a light, icy blue and my eyes turning a slightly darker icy blue, a frosty aura surrounding me as Shiro transformed as well, displaying both Vampiric and Demonic features as he entered his strongest form.
As he vanished from my sight, likely using his Teleport Cross, I swiftly extended out six tentacles from my back, the Kraken power I obtained when I gained the Sea King’s abilities.
I then rapidly whipped the tentacles all around me, feeling one of them connect before he teleported again, reappearing up in the air, before firing out a barrage of Obliteration Magic blasts down at me.
I evaded his blasts before using my Flying Stingray power to, well, fly up and nullify his height advantage, before sending my tentacles zipping towards him, combining them with my Blade Octopus power to form sharp blades at the ends of each tentacle.
He quickly formed an Absolute Defense barrier around himself before teleporting in close and charging up an Obliteration Magic blast at close range.
Guess it’s time for me to stop holding back. Right before he could fire, ice burst out and formed all around me, encasing his arms before he quickly severed his arms and teleported away, rapidly regrowing them.
He then teleported again as I sent several ice shards shooting towards him, before a pillar of ice rapidly rose straight up at him as he reappeared…I’ve already spread out my mist, so it doesn’t matter if I can’t see him, because I can sense him just fine.
He quickly fired out an Obliteration Magic blast at my pillar of ice, before hurriedly flying away as I formed a large block of ice right above him, which he narrowly evaded as it plummeted down towards him.
He used Repulsion to blast away a barrage of ice projectiles that I shot at him, grimacing as three of them got through and struck him, piercing into his left shoulder, torso and right leg.
The shards got pushed out as he healed himself, before quickly teleporting away as I formed a massive ice hammer and swung it straight down at him.
He’s reacting pretty quickly, but he’s running out of space inside this barrier…with my ice having taken up nearly half the space, I can end this anytime I want.
He then began blasting my ice with his Obliteration Magic…looks like he’s realized it too.
As I sent a large, sharp icicle shooting towards him, he used Alchemic Magic at the last second to turn it to water, before countering with combined blasts of lightning, wind and fire.
I formed a pool of water above myself to block his blasts and dissipate them, before unleashing a massive wave of ice spikes out behind me as he teleported there, ducking to evade as he fired out an Obliteration Magic blast, as I felt several of the spikes pierce through him.
He then split into two using the Quintuple Cross and teleported away, rejoining into one and rapidly healing himself, right before I sent several tall ice spikes bursting out towards him.
As they converged in on him, he swooped down in alarm to narrowly evade them, before teleporting away as they branched out in on him.
He then flew up to the top of the barrier and began charging up a massive Obliteration Magic blast in desperation, probably thinking he can defeat me if he forms one big enough so that I have no room to dodge.
Right, then, I think that’s enough messing around. Time to end this.
In the blink of an eye, I filled the entire barrier with ice, except for a small gap around him and me, and the space between us. And then, in an instant, I shot straight up towards him by rapidly raising a pillar of ice right beneath my feet, placing my hand on his chest before he could even react.
With all this ice around, he can’t use Teleport since there’s nowhere to go, and there’s not enough space to use Quintuple, it’d just make him an easy target. Of course, even if he could use those techniques…it’s already too late.
As I began to manipulate his blood and boil it into steam, the safety barrier activated and teleported him out before he could burst into a bloody explosion.
And then, with a snap of my fingers, all the ice inside the barrier vanished, and as the barrier itself faded, a cool breeze blew out and washed over the arena…
”Brr, that’s chilly! And that’s that for the third exhibition match, the winner is…Azyl of Abyss!”
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Point-of-View: Kuro Black
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”Alright, guess it’s time for the final exhibition match and end of the event,” I remarked, as I stood up and stretched my arms up.
”Yeah, I suppose we can’t put it off any longer,” Sighed Sylvar wistfully.
”We will probably lose, but we intend to make it as difficult as possible for you,” Bell informed me.
”Come on, you can be more confident than that…I mean, it’s two against one, here,” I smirked in response.
”Oh, please, like you even imagine that you might lose,” Scoffed Sylvar as he nudged me.
”I mean, it’s not impossible,” I shrugged wryly.
Actually, it kinda is…it’ll take a lot for the safety barrier to activate for me. Even dying won’t trigger it, since I can always come back using my Phoenix Resurrection.
And with how much my Healing Factor has evolved, plus with the addition of unlimited Regeneration Magic, even getting pierced through the heart or decapitation isn’t enough to finish me off anymore.
But they don’t know that, and I’m not gonna tell them. If they can actually push me far enough to find that out, though, then they deserve to know. Cuz, I mean, like Sylvar said, I can’t imagine myself losing.
”Normally, I’d call you cocky for thinking like that, but given how powerful you are now, that sounds about right,” Laughed Diablo inside me.
”Agreed, and if you somehow do lose, we won’t let you live it down,” Added Lazarus.
Yeah, yeah, I got it. Don’t worry, just because I’m confident doesn’t mean I’ll let my guard done. Not to mention that I know most of what these two are capable of, while they still haven’t seen every single trick I’ve got up my sleeve.
”By the way, any idea what that light you saw before was?” Inquired Diablo, sounding a bit concerned.
No, not a clue. Do you have any clue what it might be? And why so many others saw it too?
”Nope, no idea.”
”Me neither, I’ve been around for a long time, but I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it.”
I don’t like that at all…I’m starting to get a bad feeling about that light. Who knows, maybe this world is glitching or something, since not-God’s no longer around to regulate the reincarnation process.
”I, uh, really don’t like the sound of that,” Said Diablo warily.
”Same here, but I doubt that’s the case. That said, I don’t have any other explanations, so I can’t refute it either.”
Hm…well, whatever! For now, let’s focus on this match and wrapping up the tournament, shall we? We can try and figure out what that light was later…
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