Finally, it was time for their turn to take the stage.
Kain once against lounged against the side of the stage leisurely, he lacked any tension since he knew that the only chance of him being able to make an appearance was if they needed to proceed to the final 5-vs-5 match.
However, despite Kain’s appearance at the side of the stage, for once none of the cameras and attention was actually on him.
As Serena made her appearance, and her face was displayed on the screen. There was a brief period of stunned silence before the audience got noticeably louder and broke out into conversation.
Even her opponent, Jacob, had a stunned expression on his face as he stared at her. Despite his deep bronze skin tone, a noticeable blush crept up from his neck and managed to cover his entire face.
Thankfully, due to the hue of his skin it wasn’t too noticeable, and the slightly red undertone that was suddenly added to his skin could be played off as just nerves before the battle…
That is if he wasn’t also sporting a lovestruck expression with wide, sparkling eyes lit up with admiration, his mouth parted into a soft smile, and a slightly bashful look in his eyes…
“Ugh!” Kain couldn’t help grimacing in disgust. From Soren to now this guy, Kain was beginning to feel extremely irritated by the constant string of admirers following in her wake.
Of course, the irritation is completely because all of these men are making their gender look bad…There wasn’t any other reason. Why can’t they be as steady and completely unmoved by looks as him?
Brushing aside such irrelevant thoughts as well as suppressing the irritation that kept flaring up whenever he looked at Jacob’s stupid face, Kain refocused on their match.
The loud discussions about Serena came to an abrupt halt after the appearance of the massive Firescourge Scorpion, which appeared like a living embodiment of nightmares.
Its carapace shimmered in shades of red and black, like molten lava caught in a slow, furious boil. The heat radiating from its massive pincers shimmered in the air, creating visible distortions, as if reality itself warped around the creature.
Each step it took sent ripples through the arena floor, and many in the front row began trembling in fear, despite the knowledge about the wards in place around the stage.
The scorpion’s tail arched high above its back, poised like a deadly weapon, the stinger glistening with a menacing sheen. The predator assessed Serena who was completely dwarfed by its size, unlike its contractor it had no tender feelings towards the human girl.
In the hushed crowd, the occasional commentary from more knowledgeable viewers about the foreign creature was noticeable. Whispers of its infamous reputation spread like wildfire among the spectators—stories of its venomous sting that could corrode flesh and armor alike.
As it moved forward, the arena seemed to shrink under its presence, the atmosphere thick with the promise of danger. However, Serena didn’t seem the least bit intimidated by its appearance.
Kain had originally expected her to summon the Elemental Guardian, however during the debriefing yesterday it was concluded that the extremely tough exoskeleton of the scorpion would make it difficult for it to play a role.
Not to mention, the poor climate and environmental conditions in the far south are much harsher than within the empire, therefore most spiritual creatures native to the south of the empire have an innate passive resistance against the primary elements of fire, water, earth, and wind.
Therefore, Kain knew that she’d only be summoning one spiritual creature today, since there was no purpose in revealing a contract that couldn’t play a decisive role in this battle. freewebnσvel.cѳm
However, Kain knew that she didn’t just have 2 contracts to choose from. Kain had managed to confirm the existence of Serena’s third spiritual creature based on things he’d overheard from the staff a while ago and, interestingly, that the contract that nobody had ever seen was technically her initial contract—not the Elemental Guardian like he’d always assumed.
However, for some strange reason, Serena was resolute in her determination to never summon her initial contract. Even during the strategy meeting prior to today’s match, she’d explicitly stated that her only two spiritual creatures available for use in the competition were the two that she’d revealed during the re-ranking.
Therefore, Serena summoned the only other spiritual creature he’d seen from her—her star-attribute contract. Although he never learned its name from her, thankfully after facing Serena for the first time, the name of it appeared within the System’s Training Arena as it became selectable as a potential opponent.
He’d also fought against it many times in the Training Arena, in his preparations to finally defeat her.
The System had called it a Starweaver. And based on those simulations Kain was able to tell that during that very first match against her, it’d only revealed a fraction of its true abilities.
The variety of skills it had was also annoyingly broad and flexible in their ways of usage. Even after facing it multiple times in reality and within the simulator, Kain still wasn’t sure that he’d fully seen everything it was capable of.
The interesting thing about the Starweaver, is that the single ultimate skill that had originally turned him into a golden statue, as well as the ultimate skills he’d lost to in subsequent matches, all likely stemmed from the same skill.
The Starweaver has the unique ability to draw upon the power of various constellations to produce a variety of skills—offensive, defensive, healing and more.
Kain had never seen a skill so varied in its effects, yet so powerful, but if he had to wager a guess, the ranking of such a skill had probably long exceeded the SSS level.
Probably the only con was that Kain had noticed that certain constellations seemed difficult to draw upon depending on the time of day or year—likely due to the changes in the visibility or distance the Starweaver was from the constellation.
Another interesting point was that most, if not all, of the constellations Kain had researched to better understand his enemy seemed to have no resemblance to those seen on Earth. Therefore, Kain could confirm that he was a long long way from his old home…