?Alice was aware that Michael had done something to pull Frederik out of his misery. However, she didn’t expect that Frederik would grow so much stronger within a few days.
Her little brother might have been able to defeat Frederik rather easily, but that didn’t mean Frederik was weak. It was the exact opposite. Being able to block some of Kaleb’s attacks and reach top speed nearly instantaneously was incredible. If Frederik improved his mastery of Aeroan, he shouldn’t have an issue dealing with most peers rather easily.
‘He was only with Michael for how long? Ten days?’ Alice calculated, her eyes narrowing as her eyes landed on Michael.
Michael and Kaleb were standing on the opposite edges of the arena. They faced each other and were about to clash.
However, Alice’s mind was not with them. She was still bothered about the fact that Michael could transform an ordinary student of the Saphirelake Military Academy into a genius capable of facing the Descendants…in less than two weeks.
It was a known fact that the ordinary students of the Saphirelake Military Academy could be considered talented. They were the cream of the crop among all Awakened. Nonetheless, there was still a huge cap in talent between the talented students and the prodigies of the human race. At least, that was how it had been for the last few centuries.
‘I hope he will be okay.’
Alice dispelled the dark thoughts that formed in her mind and focused on the match ahead.
Oliver Zeus stood outside the arena and cleared his throat.
“Ready?”
Michael and Kaleb nodded simultaneously.
“Set.” .
The youthful Awakened’s bodies tensed up.
“Go!!”
Kaleb kicked the ground and burst forward while coating his body in the Nova Armor. He manifested the Legendary Arktica Staff Artifact from his War Rune and conjured tens of highly compressed Ice Bullets in a swift motion. The Ice Bullets propelled forward as Kaleb released them the moment, he finished conjuring them.
Michael raised an eyebrow as Spirit Eyes picked up some interesting pieces of information.
‘He worked really hard to study the Ice Bullet Soul Technique. What a talented little rascal.’ He chuckled in his mind right before disappearing from the spot.
Using spatial-attributed origin energy from the Sphere of Space to utilize Cosmic Stride lowered his energy consumption to a new low. Michael appeared next to Kaleb, whose eyes widened in surprise. He lifted his arms instinctively and it was not even a full second later that a fierce kick impacted. .𝒎
The Nova Armor coating his arms cracked and shattered from the kick’s force, but that was it. Kaleb wasn’t flung through the air, and he didn’t sustain any injuries either. Kaleb didn’t prevent the Nova Armor from shattering even if he could, allowing Frozen Nova’s terrifying cold to spread out and infest Michael’s body.
Michael jumped back, the corner of his eyes discovering that his pants were half-frozen. His leg was not unaffected either. Frozen Nova’s terrifying cold invaded his left leg.
Ordinary Awakened would be at a huge disadvantage in such a situation, but Michael just smiled. He coated his left leg in the power of Extraction and channeled some of Extraction into his leg as well. He extracted Frozen Nova’s cold and inserted the energy that had fused with the cold in one of the Elemental Spheres. The Sphere of Ice absorbed Frozen Nova’s energy and annexed it swiftly for Michael to use.
He used the Sphere of Ice, which possessed Glacicle’s freezing property, to create a few compressed Soul Ice Bullets. The distance to Kaleb was not that big. His Ice Bullets hit the target, but they shattered upon impact. Kaleb’s Nova Armor blocked the Ice Bullets and distributed their force alongside the entire armor to minimize the damage.
‘Interesting. Unfortunately, you keep repeating the same mistake.’
Michael could tell that Kaleb was very confident in the Nova Armor. That was not wrong because the Nova Armor provided Kaleb with great defensive measurements. Even the few Awakened who were strong enough to damage the Nova Armor would be infested by the properties of a 7-Star Soultrait. Their bodies would be infested by origin energy that had been infused with Frozen Nova’s cold. It would freeze their limbs within seconds if they didn’t do something against Frozen Nova’s power.
Usually, the Nova Armor and Frozen Nova’s casual use was enough to defeat his peers. Most enemies in the Origin Expanse weren’t that troublesome either. All Kaleb had to do was to utilize his environment with Frozen Nova and his enemies would crumble.
But Kaleb seems to have forgotten that Michael wasn’t an ordinary foe. It had been a while since Michael and Kaleb fought each other seriously.
All Kaleb remembered was Michael’s great prowess in the Interdimensional Flag War. He did a great job overwhelming the Tekur. Yet, at the same time, Kaleb hadn’t seen everything in the Interdimensional Flag War, and he hadn’t spared with Michael since then.
Michael didn’t attack Kaleb with an ordinary Soul Ice Bullet. He used Insert to infuse a trace of Extraction into the Ice Bullets. Following that, the Ice Bullets shattered upon impact, whereas the traces of Extraction found their way into the Nova Armor via Insert.
Kaleb observed something, but he didn’t have enough time to pay attention to the changes that occurred to the Nova Armor. Michael used Cosmic Stride to appear above Kaleb where he released a barrage of fireballs. Kaleb’s eyes widened in surprise, and he instinctively erected a shield of ice to block the flames.
‘Is that the Tier suppression?’ Michael wondered, trying to figure out why today’s fight against Kaleb was so much different than before. Michael was already a Tier-3 Lord, whereas Kaleb had yet to advance to Tier-3. He was about to advance to Tier-3 in the next week or two, but he was not yet a Tier-3 Lord. That was quite notable. At least, Michael could tell clearly that he had a vast advantage in terms of physical strength.
But that was not all. There were a few more advantages Michael possessed. Advantages he never really noticed when he spared with Kaleb.
‘Weird.’
Kaleb retreated to the edge of the arena. He closed his eyes and produced a few traces of Soul Energy.
He didn’t own a Soul Technique for Frozen Nova yet, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t use Soul Energy to empower Frozen Nova. The traces of Soul Energy were devoured instantaneously alongside the vast majority of Soul Power accumulated within the Soultrait Symbol.
The temperature in the arena dropped to sub-zero as a glacial-blue mass conjured behind Kaleb. The floor around Kaleb froze on the spot and the arena tiles cracked open. Alice Zenovia and Oliver Zeus had to use their defensive Artifacts to prevent the biting cold from freezing the spectators.
Kaleb’s chest panted up and down heavily and the energy reserves in his body were dangerously low. However, the young Descendant of the Zenovia family grinned brightly.
“I got you!” He roared with the last bits of power in his body.
Huge walls barred Michael’s path to the left and the right. He could either move forward or escape by surrendering.
But Michael planned to do neither. There was no need to surrender or charge straight at the incoming Frozen Nova replica.
“Having a unique technique that allows you to put everything on one card is great. It is,” Michael said, scratching the back of his head with a wry smile, “But you should fix your timing.”
Michael observed the incoming Frozen Nova with Spirit Eyes and chuckled lightly. He was fairly certain that he could crush the Frozen Nova by applying a Soul Tear onto Extraction, while also adding 10 layers of Enhancement. Maybe, he would have to trigger one Cursed Seal as well. However, Michael was confident at crushing the Frozen Nova with brute force, nonetheless.
He wouldn’t even make a big loss as long as he inserted the extracted frozen energy into the Sphere of Ice to annex and reuse the energy.
But that was not what Michael wanted to show Kaleb. He didn’t want to show his supremacy to Kaleb.
No. It was far more important that Kaleb understood why it was stupid to use his finishing blow right now, or against an opponent like Michael.
Until now, Michael had openly used Cosmic Stride, and two elements of the Spheres of Elements. He secretly used Insert and Extraction, but Michael quickly figured that it wasn’t necessary to go this far. Once he pinpointed Kaleb’s biggest mistake, it was only a matter of seconds before everything was over.
Michael didn’t even use Prognosis or Spiritual Domination of his Spirit Eyes to overpower Kaleb.
But Cosmic Stride, as a Space-type Soultrait, was more than enough reason Kaleb shouldn’t have unleashed his finishing blow.
Kaleb Zenovia barred his paths left and right as well as his view, but Michael had intentionally shown some of Cosmic Stride’s unique properties earlier. The hints should have been more than enough for someone like Kaleb to pick up.
It was a little bit disappointing that he didn’t notice the clues.
Michael permitted the Frozen Nova replica to burst forth. It reached his position in no time and crushed the entire arena.
However, there was no sight of Michael.
“Why would you leave your back wide open for me to attack?” A voice appeared behind Kaleb.
Goosebumps run down his spine as he rotated his head slowly, just to see Michael’s devilish smile.
Michael flicked Kaleb’s forehead, his devilish smile widening.
“Dead!” He whispered.
In the next moment, everything around Kaleb rotated black.
**
[A/N: Only one chapter today because I’m busy playing nanny for an adult today. Sounds weird, but that’s how it is. #Shrug]
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