The crowd exploded in loud cheers as they remembered Ambrose doing this to Nykholm and almost managing to defeat him.
“Fucking… excellent!” Adam grinned even though he was struggling to breathe and could feel his consciousness slowly slip away.
“I-Is this all, Adam Slasher?!” Ambrose screamed loudly.
“A-All right, then!” Adam headbutted backwards, slamming the back of his head agaubst Ambrose’s face, but the hold still didn’t weaken.
Instead, Ambrose squeezed even harder, even though his face was bleeding from getting headbutted.
“Raaaah!” Adam screamed loudly, his voice turning hoarse. He then slammed his elbow on Ambrose’s waist.
This time, the hold weakened for a split moment, but Adam immediately escaped the choke hold and turned around to face Ambrose with a fierce expression.
Then, he hammered his fist down and struck Ambrose’s face with a rageful blow.
The blue blood spilled across the cage.
“Cough!” Ambrose coughed up blood, and his vision narrowed as darkness started to creep in.
He was about to lose consciousness.
But then Ambrose slapped himself in the face and jumped back to his feet.
“Aaaah!” With a weak cry, Ambrose lunged at Adam and started throwing punches with all his might.
However, Adam easily deflected the fists and then uppercutted Ambrose, which immediately left him dazed, and he slowly fell to the ground like a tree falling.
His body lay motionlessly on the ground, and everyone wondered whether he was unconscious.
The announcer opened his mouth, about to announce the winner, but Adam then pointed at him and did a “shh” motion with his finger and mouth.
Ambrose looked at the ground, lying on his stomach, and felt like his desire to fight had disappeared, as had his strange form, which made him feel like he could move however he wished.
“What you were feeling is called Formlessness.” Adam said while standing near Ambrose’s collapsed body. “It is what happens when you are about to open gate and enter new level of strength.
“Formlessness is only temporary, but I heard it’s permanent if you can open the third gate, which is obviously incredibly hard because of that reason.
“With the third gate, you can command the world around you and change it however you wish. It’s a powerful and transformative experience.
“But now that your Formlessness has ended, did you open the second gate? It’s the best possible moment to open it and if you failed it, it might take you another five or six years to try again.”
‘D-did you…’ Ambrose asked weakly.
Inside his mind, in the dark expanse of space, a golden door stood mightily, shining brightly as if it were the door to the new beginning.
It was surrounded by thick, black chains that kept the door tightly stuck, but the chains were full of cracks as if it were a glass vase that was about to shatter.
In front of the door, a shining figure sat cross-legged. It looked like it was deep in thought, with its head moving like a possessed doll.
At that moment, the soul opened its eyes, shining with a golden glow.
Crack… The chains had another crack, and then they shattered into pieces.
The chains vanished amid pixels and seeped into the dark ground.
The soul stood up and walked over to the golden door. It was easily over thirty meters in height and shone brightly in the darkness.
‘I got this…’ The soul whispered and slammed its hands onto the door.
It didn’t budge even slightest, but then, the soul’s eyes shone like a golden beacon and then, the door slowly started to open.
After a short while, the soul pushed the door wide open and stepped through, entering the golden light.
At the same moment, the light-blue soul transformed, turning into a beautiful soul shining in bright golden light.
At this moment, Ambrose has officially opened the second gate!
Back in the outside world, Ambrose’s eyes opened with a slam and his dull blue eyes shone with golden light for a slight moment.
Ding, ding!
[You Have Opened the Second Gate!]
[Second Gate of the Inner Power: Your mind has unlocked its true potential, and you now have the ability to control and release your inner power]
[A new Soul Ability Unlocked!]
[Formlessness: You have unlocked the ability to transcend the limitations of your physical form and move freely in the spiritual realm. You can also make your physical body move as you wish]
“Argh…” Ambrose slowly stood up from the ground and took a deep breath.
He moved his fingers, imagining how he wanted them to move, and he did exactly that.
Adam watched in silence at Ambrose and frowned. ‘Something about him has changed.’
“You said that Formlessness is only for third gate, isn’t that correct?” Ambrose turned around to look at Adam.
“Yes, why..?” Adam asked with a frown.
“Well…” Ambrose chuckled and then moved across the cage seamlessly as if he didn’t weight anything and appeared in front of Adam.
Adam’s eyes widened in a shock as if he had witnessed the craziest thing in his whole life.
“That’s impossible!”
Ambrose slammed his open palm at Adam’s face, sending him flying across the cage.
As Adam’s back crashed against the cage’s wall, he flew straight through it and slammed into the concrete wall at the other side of the basement.
The crowd’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
In the office, Norman fell down to his buttocks with utter shock on his face.
“W-what? A-Adam is losing?”
This was a possibility he never thought of.
If Arkham or Dreadnought were fighting in the tournament, he would think there might be a distinct chance of them losing against some unexpected black horse.
However, he never thought about Adam losing a fight, ever!
Adam climbed out of the wall, shaking his head as if he had suffered a head trauma.
His vision turned dark for a moment before he again activated his soul ability to see around him. However, for just a moment, he was back to being completely blind.
“Hey, Adam!” Ambrose climbed out of the wall and pulled out his two Black Swords from the inventory. “Shall we fight for real? With swords this time!”
“Argh…” Adam groaned loudly and spat out a few teeth.
After that, he laughed and shouted. “You’re on.”
At that moment, he reached out toward the ceiling.
In the pier of Haventown, inside the Slash Pirates ship.
A sword that looked like a long katana shot out from the roof and flew across the air like a shooting star. Then, it slashed through the ground, causing one of Haventown’s streets to be cut in half, and then, appeared in Adam’s hand in the basement.
Ambrose moved across the basement with his Formlessness, it looked like he was floating across the air as if the gravity didn’t matter to him.
The crowd quickly scurried away in a panic as they realized they would be in a lot of danger if they stayed behind to watch this fight!
Ambrose lifted his swords high and slammed them against Adam’s long katana. The sparks flew like fireworks and the sound of clashing metal filled the air, echoing across the whole Haventown.