“Get ready to fight. I’m challenging you!” Michael said, his eyes trained on Jirah Loar.
Jirah Loar didn’t say anything at first. It took him a few seconds to register what happened.
“Are you perhaps drunk, or maybe even suicidal?” He asked upon realizing that Michael was talking to him, and that he was foolish enough to challenge him.
“Suicidal or not, get ready. We will fight in the Colosseum arena in ten minutes,” Michael responded, “Or you can just give up without fighting and hand over the Flag War Token. That would be even better.”
Jirah’s eyes narrowed upon hearing that. However, it was not until he noticed that Maria and the rest of her loyal fan club were waiting for his reaction that he reacted.
“You are a fool to dream that you can win against me. Don’t even think about getting off lightly. I will beat the shit out of you!” Jirah bellowed, but Michael merely shrugged.
“In ten minutes be in the arena. Don’t be late.”
Michael left right after his words reached the Saintess fan club. Jirah grit his teeth but didn’t say anything else. He merely glanced over to Maria, whose eyes trailed Michael for a moment. After a moment, her attention moved back to the arena as if nothing happened.
Jirah was perplexed with his childhood friend’s reaction – or the lack of reaction, to be precise. Were they actually friends? Did she ever see him as a friend, or was he just one of her many marionettes, an easy-to-control servant?
Jirah didn’t know. All he knew was that he had to teach a lesson to Michael, and that he could release the stress and anger that had built up deep inside him.
Ten minutes passed in the blink of an eye. Michael was already waiting in the Colosseum arena, stretching his body to prepare for what lay ahead.
Jirah Loar was a little late, but he showed up. That was all that mattered.
“Let’s get over this quickly,” He said, his eyes filled with fury.
The corner of Michael’s lip tilted upward right before he nodded his head. The two combatants then moved to the opposite ends of the arena and manifested their weapons.
While Michael manifested his Spirit Armor Set, the Wyverntooth Spear, and the Legendary Ring Artifact, Jirah manifested a leather armor, a sapphire-blue rapier and a set of boots.
Both combatants changed into their combat stance and awaited the starting signal from the referee. The referee glanced left and right to see if the combatants were ready to fight and raised his left hand.
“3…2…1…Fight!!”
As the referee’s words resounded in the Colosseum, Jirah kicked the ground. He moved quickly and crossed a large distance in the blink of an eye. Michael was just about to move as well when Jirah’s body turned into a flash. He disappeared from the spectator’s sight and appeared right beside Michael, the tip of the sapphire-blue rapier eerily close to his neck.
The rapier was thrust forward with terrific velocity, but Michael was already on the move to evade the attack. The moment the battle began, Michael utilized both Spirit Gaze and Eagle Eyes. He applied a few layers of Enhancement on his eyes as well. Therefore, only Michael and the referee had been able to follow Jirah’s movements. Michael even predicted how Jirah would move, creating an opportunity for him to evade the rapier thrust.
But Jirah was too fast. The rapier shot past Michael and scratched his neck a little. A drop of blood trickled to the ground, but that was already it. Michael’s counterattack was simple. He twisted the Wyverntooth Spear the moment he noticed the direction from which Jirah was going to attack. Therefore, the Wyverntooth Spear lunged forward threateningly right after the rapier was thrust toward Michael’s neck.
Jirah’s eyes narrowed when he noticed that his rapier didn’t pierce through Michael’s neck. A wave of confusion followed right after as Michael’s spear blade threatened to cut off one of his arms. Jirah changed his trajectory with one of his movement techniques and increased his distance to his enemy once again.
He then canceled the use of his Soultrait [Speedster] to save some energy and observe Michael. His initial plan to defeat Michael in an dominant manner had failed. However, Jirah was not too sure why. He researched only bits and pieces about Michael Fang before, but none of the pieces of information he collected could be the cause for Michael’s blindingly fast reaction.
Meanwhile, Michael smiled lightly. Jirah Loar’s Soultrait was related to his Agility. Using his Soultrait enhanced his Agility drastically. It was a tremendous enhancement. The Speed Soultrait was also one of the few reasons why only a handful of people dared to face him since it was too dangerous to fight an enemy whom you could not even follow with your eyes.
But Michael had long since analyzed Jirah Loar’s Soultrait, including its downside. First of all, the Soultrait would put a heavy burden on the body. Using it for a long duration would damage Jirah’s legs and lower body. Furthermore, it drained lots of energy. But the worst was that Jirah had to wield a weapon that could utilize the tremendous agility the best. He had to wield a weapon that didn’t slow down his movements speed and attacks due to the increased air resistance upon activating his Soultrait. At least that was what Michael guessed.
There was also something else that made Michael feel like Jirah was forcing himself to wield the rapier instead of other weapons that may suit him better, but it was not like Michael was a professional when it came to weapon masteries.
He never fought an enemy like Jirah, a Tier-3 Descendant with a Speed-type Soultrait.
But that was exactly what made it interesting.
Even with Eagle Eyes, Spirit Gaze, and Enhancement utilized to reinforce his eyesight as much as possible, Michael could barely make out Jirah’s movements after he reached top speed. Being able to see Jirah’s movements meant that Michael could predict his movement path and where he wanted to attack. Once all of that was known, reacting in time to face Jirah with all of his Soultraits would be an easy task.
But Michael wanted to know something else first.
After training without the use of Soultraits for so long, Michael wanted to know if he was strong enough to fight Jirah with Eagle Eyes, Spirit Gaze, and Enhancement to strengthen his eyes and body. He didn’t want to use Spirit Disturbance or any other unique attack, or Soultrait to gain a huge advantage against Jirah. All Michael desired was to see and predict Jirah’s movements and to be able to respond fast enough to them.
Therefore, Michael ended up applying four layers of Enhancement to his entire body – not just his eyes.
Jirah noticed the silverish-golden shine in Michael’s eyes and the white hue that shrouded Michael’s body and activated Speedster again. He kicked the ground, turned into a flash, and appeared in front of Michael a quarter of a second later. Michael’s eyes followed Jirah’s movements with ease and his body responded to the attack. Michael lifted his Wyverntooth Spear and thrust it right where Jirah was heading.
Jirah noticed that Michael’s movements accelerated. However, Michael was still way too slow to even think about catching up to him. All Michael did was react to the movements he saw in front of him. But what if Michael couldn’t see his attack?
Jirah changed his movement path at once. His feet kicked the ground to push his body to the left and change his trajectory. Thereafter, Jirah appeared behind Michael, his rapier lunging forward even faster than before.
Michael was already in motion to turn around when he noticed what Jirah was going to do. Being slower than his enemy had many disadvantages, and it was easy to tell that Jirah was adept at making use of his exceptional speed. He quickly adjusted his fighting style when he noticed that Michael could see his movements and react to them just in time.
‘Should I use the Energy Imprints within the Legendary Ring?’ Michael asked himself for a moment. Since Opars and the others had returned from the Forest Elven Tribe’s home, Michael had been requesting Opars to fill the Legendary Ring Artifact with the Power of Energy Imprint.
Michael could use an Energy Imprint to apply eight layers of Enhancement to his body for nearly two minutes. That would certainly be enough to move fast enough to deal with Jirah’s speed. But Michael was unwilling to use Opars’ power just now. He hadn’t even used his other Soultraits, so why would he resort to someone else’s power now?
Wanting to stick to his earlier decision, Michael applied another layer of Enhancement to his body. The increase in his physical strength and agility was notable. It was enough to take Jirah by surprise. He didn’t expect Michael to move faster all of a sudden. Michael’s response was now fast enough to twist his body and push the Wyverntooth Spear against the rapier, narrowly escaping getting poked by the flappy stick.
Michael then pushed forward. He knew that Jirah couldn’t change his movement trajectory too easily. Jirah had to generate enough momentum to change his movement path, or forcefully change it. However, by forcefully changing his movement path, he put a heavy toll on his ankles. That was why his family customized Boots Artifacts. After all, everyone in the Loar family had similar issues with their ankles.
Jirah was just about to kick the ground and retreat when something pulled his attention to Michael’s eyes. The silverish-golden shimmer intensified. It seemed to turn into a swirl that sucked him inside. In the following instance, Michael used Spirit Disturbance at full power.
“Are you done already? Is that all you can do? Come on, that’s boring. Show me the Inheritance technique you and your family are so proud of!”