The distant howling sound of the wind coupled with the thunderclaps gave off an ominous feeling. The violent wind made waving the signs and flags difficult yet the win couldn't completely stop them. Michael's long black coat fluttered in the wind behind revealing the black turtleneck and the lines of his chest and abs.
After asking Andrew, Michael looked up at the coordinators,
"Guys, can we start the battle now? I have a barony to look"
Except for a very few, of them thought of him as arrogant.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
"Let the battle begin"
As though the coordinators were working for him, they started the battle. Andrew stared at him with his two daggers in his hands. He was expecting Ghost to cast a spell. After watching all of Ghost's fight and strategizing with Lailah and Sabrina, Andrew was somewhat prepared.
"Andrew" Instead of unsheathing his swords, Michael smiled at Andrew.
"Dude you can come up with new ways to get what you want instead of this"
Regardless of what Noah did to the Silent Reaper, Michael didn't want to hurt Noah's family. They were nothing but good to him. He knew Lailah was kinda using Andrew to prove to him that nothing stronger and purer than love. He couldn't understand Lailah's logic completely.
"This is the only way Ghost," Andrew said as Michaeel sighed,
"So be it" Michael began to walk forward towards Andrew. He didn't cast lightning dash or any spell, he just walked towards Andrew without even taking out his swords.
"Gates of Valhalla" Andrew didn't waste any time. He immediately cast one of the strongest spells he has in his arsenal. The whole arena was silent as only the thunderclaps and the howling sound of the wind could be heard.
They were staring at Michael and Andrew without batting an eye. The commentators were going about but Michael or Andrew didn't hear what they were saying. Claire was looking at Andrew with pity.
"Reflective shield" Michael just uttered the word while walking towards Andrew. When Andrew cast Gates of Valhalla on Paul Oswen, he was crushed by immense pressure. However, when Andrew cast the spell on Ghost, nothing happened.
Ghost was just a few meters away from Andrew,
"Emerald thorns!" After competing in a couple of life or death battles, Andrew's thinking and reflexes became quicker. Hence, instead of being stunned by the uselessness of the Gates of Valhalla, Andrew cast another spell immediately. From the two daggers in Andrew's hands, Michael saw emerald green spikes coming towards him like arrows.
There were numerous spikes the size of an arrow pierced through the air to impale him. Andrew was shooting like he was holding two machine guns that fired spikes rapidly. Standing among the crowd, Lailah's eyes began to water up. She spent months creating runes that could change her energy patterns so she would not be defenseless against Ghost. She used those runes to give Andrew the ability to fight against Ghost hoping it would hurt him. Yet, neither the Gates of Valhalla nor the Emerald thorns couldn't even graze him.
Emelda's heart was pounding against her chest as Ghost got closer to Andrew. Ethan was rubbing his temples hoping Ghost would go easy on Andrew.
"Oh no, he's in trouble," Norvin said with a grimaced face.
"Ice Shield" Andrew cast another spell to slow Ghost in his path,
Michael saw a seven-feel wall made of ice erupt a few meters before him. The wall seemed to be at least a meter wide and looked sturdy. Everyone including Andrew expected Michael to destroy the wall using a spell or his fist. Unexpectedly, they saw Ghost deviate from the straight line he was walking on and walked around the wall instead of destroying the wall.
Andrew, who placed an explosive rune that would bounce the attack power back to the attacker had a troubled look on his face. All the opponents Andrew faced got defeated by either of the three spells he just cast. The spell had Lailah's Fusion stage power behind it, hence, a Core Formation cultivator couldn't take the attack of Andrew.
However, Michael was immune to Lailah's attacks. Therefore, Andrew, who had Lailah's power, couldn't even touch him.
"Without Lailah, he's as weak as a blind sick puppy" Michael sighed inside. He actually felt pity for Andrew. After realizing long-ranged attacks were not working, Andrew changed his tactic. He activated the runes on his dagger as several golden symbols began to glow on the daggers.
"Don't do it Andrew" Diana mumbled under her breath looking at her nephew leaping higher into the air to attack Ghost with his daggers.
Since Andrew would not be able to learn swordsmanship in a few weeks, Noah taught Andrew how to fight with daggers. It had been a big help to Andrew in the tournament against other opponents. But Diana knew against a swordsman like Ghost who seemed to have mastered the swords, Andrew was like a child.
Seeing Andrew descending upon him, Michael just shook his head disappointedly. The people were on the edge of their seats. Just when Andrew was a couple of inches away from him, Michael grabbed Andrew by his wrists in the mid-air. Andrew lost his momentum and control when Ghost grabbed him. His movement was extremely fast as Andrew didn't even see Ghost move his hands.
Andrew's feet touched the ground. He looked Ghost in the eyes while struggling to get out of his hold.
"If there's a next time, don't depend on others to fight your battles" Andrew felt his heart skip a beat hearing his words. His words sounded as though Ghost knew he was cheating in the tournament.
Chuk!
The very next moment, Andrew felt immense pain in his head. The crowd saw Ghost head butt Andrew so hard that the sound of their head clashing reverberated through the silent arena.
Michael slowly trusted Andrew's wrists as Andrew's face muscles began to twitch in pain. He head-butted Andrew again without giving him much time to let out a cry of pain. A sound of bone cracking could be heard when Ghost head-butted Andrew. In the giant mirrors, they all saw Andrew's nose bent weirdly sideways as blood poured out of his nostrils.
If it wasn't for the excruciating pain in his wrists, Andrew would have fainted. The world around him started to spin. Most people expected Michael to break Andrew's wrists but he proved them wrong by slamming Andrew on the Ice Shield Andrew erupted.
Boom!
The booming noise sounded across the arena while pebbles of ice crumbled down due to the force of Andrew hitting the wall.
The force and pain immediately made Andrew cough up blood. Ghost slammed him again on the ice shield like Andrew was a rag doll. When he slammed Andrew the second time, the rune Andrew placed on the wall glowed as the Ice Shield exploded with immense force.
"Andrew!" Emelda shouted from her pavilion. The ice vaper prevented the crowd from seeing what happened to Andrew and Ghost for a few moments. When the fog created by the ice vapor faded away, they saw Ghost was standing beside Andrew who was lying on the ground, coughing up blood.
"Give up Andrew," Michael said, looking at Andrew at his feet. He didn't even use a fraction of his power. Nonetheless Andrew was almost at death's door.
To Michael's surprise, Andrew pulled himself up after failing to stand up a couple of times. Seeing Andrew really surprised Michael. Andrew was indeed resilient.
Still, Michael just shook his head before grabbing Andrew by his neck. Half of Andrew's face was covered in blood and swollen.
"Taking a beating doesn't solve your problems Andrew" Despite Andrew being his opponent, Michael advised him. For some reason, Michael felt bad for beating up Andrew. Perhaps, it was because the Winstons were good to him, perhaps, it was because he pitied Andrew.
Nevertheless, he punched Andrew in the face. He didn't use much power as he didn't want to mess up Andrew's brain. As long as he could, he wanted Noah and Winstons not to be his enemies.
"I…will…never…surrender…" These words barely escaped Andrew's mouth when Michael stopped punching him.
"You're not helping yourself Andrew" The crowd saw Michael clench his fist as veins popped up on his fist. The crowd gasped. They could guess the next punch would be several times more powerful than the previous ones.
If this was a movie or a drama, Andrew would have gotten a sudden power boost thinking about his love and escaping Michael's hold. Since it was not the case and Andrew had no powerful being inside his ring, Andrew couldn't even move a muscle. He could just hope he wouldn't lose consciousness.
"Space Warp!"
Suddenly Michael heard a shout. In a blink of an eye, his hair neck stood up sensing a threat. He immediately let go of Andrew to leap into the air. In the mid air, he bent his back and landed on the battle stage comfortably.
When he landed on the battle stage, he saw Princess Katherine standing in the place where he was a moment ago. She held Andrew in her hand. Tears kept rolling out of her eyes.
"Andrew, Andrew please wake up. It's Kathy" the entire arena was stunned by the act of the princess. Even the commenters or the coordinators expected Princess to suddenly appear. Not even the arrays could stop her interference because the short teleportation spell she just used was a Legendary Spell.
Michael saw a silver dagger in Katherine's place. His killing intent rose up realizing she would have killed him if it wasn't for his reflexes and instincts.
"Katherine!" Finally, the king realized what just happened. He stood up from his throne along with all the VIPs beside him.
No one remained in the seats anymore. The princess caught everyone off guard.
"I… am… going… to kill you" Michael along with the entire arena heard the princess let out a murderous grumble.
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Hi my wonderful readers,
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