“The final round is extensive. The five of you will fight each other, and your ranks will be determined based on the points. Victory will give you two points, draw will give one point, and losing will result in a deduction of one point.”
“The matches have been arranged by us already this time, so let us start without further ado. Please come forward, Xavier and Ron!”
Amidst the cheers of the audience, both of them arrived at the center of the platform, standing with 20 meters of distance between them.
The countdown appeared, and both contestants became ready to clash.
Xavier with his rapier and Ron in his geo-crystal suit and gauntlets.
Their battle began with Xavier unleashing a piercing beam that Ron deflected with a crystal-round shield.
“Your beams won’t work,” Ron grinned and punched in Xavier’s direction right as a square crystal cube materialized.
“You think I only have beams?” Xavier snorted and snapped his finger, creating a triangle of light that blocked the cube, resulting in mutual destruction.
Ron tore through the smoke, his fist aimed at Xavier’s head.
Xavier dodged by moving his head while stabbing his rapier, enchanted with light elemental power and his class skill.
Ron grinned and didn’t bother dodging or blocking it. Instead, he simply continued with his other hand, throwing his punch at Xavier’s head.
Xavier’s eyes flickered as he used a movement-type skill. His feet glittered, and he jumped back while reluctantly canceling his stab attack.
But even as he jumped back, he wanted to continue his attack, so he consumed more mana and shifted his stab attack to a long-range one, trying to aim at Ron’s face, which was unprotected by the geo-crystal suit.
Ron reacted barely in time to dodge it since Xavier’s last-moment attack shift wasn’t as precise.
In the next second, both of them clashed against each other with their projectile skills before Ron closed in again.
The intense battle was exciting for the audience to watch as both went for each other’s throats.
Ron didn’t care to defend himself from Xavier’s attack and made sure that he would continue with his flurry of attacks. After all, the most vulnerable moment was when one was attacking because, during the act of attacking, one wouldn’t be able to defend properly.
Using that tactic, Ron precisely went for deadly attacks while remaining close to Xavier when Xavier attacked, forcing Xavier to alter his patterns and movement.
They managed to hit shallow attacks on each other a few times, shaving away their Fortifications’ durability, but it was up to them on how they used their remaining Mana.
Ron dominated the pace of the battle from the start and managed to continue with it as he landed a powerful punch enchanted with his class skill and knuckles glittering with crystal spikes.
The situation got bad for Xavier as he lost his Fortification completely, and he couldn’t afford to use it again due to low Mana.
Both of them were low on Mana, but Xavier only had one chance to make a comeback.
He gambled and managed to land his attack on Ron, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to clutch the victory, and Ron’s sly punch struck Xavier, who had lost his Fortification as everyone witnessed the outcome of the battle.
“And the victory goes to Ron the Geocrusher Fighter!”
Xavier cursed under his breath, frustration clearly visible in his eyes as he got up.
“I guess you focused too much on one style,” Ron laughed.
“Humph, you just had more resistance to my attacks and could deflect my main attack means because of elemental synergy,” Xavier snorted, “But even that won’t help you against me next time.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’ll see.”
Gelato told Xavier to stand at another corner while giving Ron a pill, “Here, eat this and recover fully because you will continue your matches until you finish fighting the other three and finalize your points.”
“I am ready,” Ron grinned as he smashed his fists together before taking the pill and eating it. “So, who is my next opponent?”
“Almond Crowshade, please enter the stage.”
‘Damn, this is going to be tough,’ Ron thought as he saw Almond coming to the center area.
Almond summoned only Starlight Beast this time instead of making a show of summoning four spirit wraiths.
As soon as the battle began, Ron used a class skill and made a powerful and quick dash toward Almond while his gauntlets extended with crystal spikes.
‘I can shift my attacks midway, so if his summons block me, I’ll rain my attacks on it and finish it off as fast as possible.’
Alas, it was good to think optimistically, but it also required the ability to back that up.
Starlight Beast simply used Cosmic Pulse (S), shifting the gravity within a 50-meter radius, increasing the gravity.
Ron instantly stumbled midway through his dash and rolled forward. ‘Wtf!’
“Roar!”
*Crackle! Boom!*
Before Ron could get up and stabilize himself, Starlight Beast dashed forward using Meteore Rush (A) and headbutted Ron strongly, launching him into the air while shifting Cosmic Pulse to lower the gravity instead of increasing it.
Ron was in the air, and he hurriedly tried to use a skill. His Fortification was shattered with that head-butt, so he knew if he got one more solid attack, it would be over.
Alas, he wanted to use Fortification again first to make himself safe, but before he could do that, Starlight Beast’s mouth was aimed at Ron, who was in the air, pulsing with power.
Celestial Roar (A)
It unleashed a powerful roar with ring waves crackling with lightning as a thundering sound reverberated.
Ron was struck by this shockwave-type attack, shattering his Geo-crystal suit and dealing more than enough damage that the badge absorbed everything as it rang.
“And once again, Almond wins the match without moving an inch!”
*Uproar!*
“That beast is majestic as fuck!”
“It’s based on a lion and looks so freaking cool! That roar was pure delight to hear!”
“Fuck! Bro is a one-man party with his crazy summons!”
Almond won, and he went to stand beside Xavier while Ron ate a pill and got ready for his next match.
Unfortunately, he lost against Lily.
Finally, in his last match… he lost against Kira as well.
Ron’s total points: -1.
‘Fuck, am I going to be ranked 5th?’ Ron thought as he walked towards the southwest corner.
But then came Xavier’s turn to finish his three matches.
He lost against Lily and Kira as his points reached -3.
Ron became hopeful. ‘Lose one more, and I’ll be ranked 4th. Hahaha, you have no chance against Almond.’
Xavier had a lot of pressure on himself.
‘Should I provoke him to fight himself instead of using his summons?’
‘No, I can’t do that. I don’t want to sound like a loser,’ Xavier clenched his fist as he saw Almond coming to face him.
‘I’ll fight with my all, whatever it may result in!’
Almond summoned Chimera Frank, the most terrifying and scary-looking monster among his Spirit Wraiths.
Four legs, four pairs of big crystalized thin wings with colorful patterns, three tails with blade-like tip parts, a different variety of two horns on all three heads—one lion-like head, one Beaver-like head, and the third being a mix of fairy and harpy head, leaning towards human-style face just like those two boss monsters.
“And there it is! Almond revealed his 6th summon! A hideous and terrifying-looking chimera! Holy hell!”
‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ Xavier gulped. Even he felt like losing a few points of confidence seeing that monster.
“Dayum,” Ron muttered. “It looks similar to that White King Manticore, but only scarier.”
“Without further ado, let us start the battle!”
One minute later, Xavier was lying on the ground, holding back his frustration so that he wouldn’t scream.
‘I lost all matches…’
“And we have our winner of the match, once again winning with utmost leisure as nobody has managed to get even close to him! The next one to fight the matches will be Almond, so I guess a new title is due, right?!”
The audience cheered loudly. Many shouting Fantastic Summoner, but even more, agreeing for a new badass title.
“You better give a good title this time,” Lily muttered.
“True,” Kira chuckled.
Almond turned to Gelato, blinking in little anticipation.
“Ahem,” Gelato cleared his throat, “With his summons that dominates the arena, he has established his absolute prowess here! The one-man army, the ringmaster who has never gone all out with his summons yet achieved effortless victories! Almond the Arena Overlord”
“Now, let us witness his remaining two battles and see if he lives up to the title!”
Kira moved to the stage to fight Almond, clearly excited.
“Now, what will he summon this time?!” Gelato shouted, eager to see another summon’s power, just like everyone else.
“Well, no summon this time,” Almond smiled as he stretched his hand towards Gelato, “Give me a sword…hmm, a heavy sword will do.”
“Heavy sword against my quick Katana? Strange, but…” Kira blinked, but unlike having doubts like others, she was filled with anticipation and grinned. “I guess you are going to show me something interesting. I am excited.”
“I told someone I would show my heavy sword here against another one proficient in the sword, so this is a good chance,” Almond said as he grabbed the common-rank heavy sword Gelato gave him.
Julian was among the audience and watching him, his eyes becoming absolutely focused because Almond was using the Heavy Sword for him to observe.
Lily was also excited, ‘Show them some cool moves, darling.’
“Woah, woah, woah! Almond is really going to fight Kira with a heavy sword instead of using his summons! This is a twist we didn’t expect, but I am all for it! Let us start the match!”
The countdown appeared between them while the audience quieted down, filled with anticipation, doubts, and assumptions.