Chapter 109: The Battle Begins
Very quickly, the day of the battle arrived. The morning air was very fresh, cool, and pleasant. The sun slowly rose, pale yellow sunlight spreading everywhere. Night dew still lingered on leaves, sparkling like jewels.
The whole group had woken up very early to prepare for this important day. Kazuka wore a neat black outfit easy for fighting, just a black short-sleeved shirt and black shorts; the sword sat on the table as if waiting a long time for the battle.
Kazuka, with confidence and determination, stepped down to the bottom of the inn. The table was packed with food; everyone was fully present and only waiting for Kazuka to come down.
Kazuka smiled.
"Greetings everyone."
Airi's voice was serious:
"Come in here and eat; today is not that happy."
Takeshi pointed a chopstick at Airi, his voice annoyed:
"Can you just be normal?"
Airi tossed her head away.
"It is already like this; I am only reminding so you know and do not be subjective."
After finishing the meal, outside there were many people walking. Kazuka's group also walked with the crowd.
Aoto: "These must be the people going to the arena."
Ayaka: "Certainly, we are fighting at the city's arena so surely everyone knows."
Elyssia turned to Kazuka and instructed:
"You should remember she also said she would kill us, so this is a life-and-death battle; you must be even more careful."
Airi said calmly:
"What is there to worry? Do you think the five of us would let him die?"
Takeshi spoke right behind with excitement and confidence:
"Of course not."
Ayaka: "But I asked a few people and they said the arena has a barrier."
Aoto nodded.
"Of course there is a barrier; otherwise, those fighting below would cause danger to the viewers above immediately."
Airi spoke right behind:
"Arenas are mostly made of several types of very hard stone, many times harder than iron. And the barrier, I guess, is only at the top part."
"Meaning if you go down to the nearest spectator seats and throw a random blow, it breaks immediately. Not to mention there is Aoto who is Earth Elemental, what to worry."
Kazuka laughed happily; he felt extremely secure.
"Thank you, guys."
Takeshi spoke loudly: "Why thank us? Airi does not like thank-you sentences, especially from me and you, forgot already?"
Airi glanced at Takeshi with a threatening gaze, making Takeshi turn off his smile.
Arriving at the arena…
A giant, colossal arena appeared. The arena stood tall like a pillar holding the whole city, grey stone walls curving like an ancient fortress. Four black steel gates carved with fierce beasts opened heavily like a roar. Inside, the stands were arranged in towering tiers, enough space for ten thousand people; when crowded, the cheering rolled like waves. In the center was a circular fighting floor, the ground hardened, mottled with burn marks, cracks, and small pits left over from countless battles. Surrounding it were giant pillars with glowing jade attached to illuminate. High above were noble chambers, where power looked down like watching a pastime. The air was thick with the smell of dried blood, metal, and dust, making anyone who entered feel the weight of hundreds of deaths that had occurred in this place.
The group went early so they had seats quite close. Kazuka stood at the stairs to go up to other rows, he stood silently looking down at the middle of the large arena like a giant empty field.
Mythyr stood in the middle of the floor and met gazes with Kazuka looking down.
Kazuka held the sword in his hand, lowering his eyes with a small thought:
"Should I bring the scabbard in?"
He imagined if at a loss he would throw the scabbard toward Mythyr to cause interference. Kazuka gripped tight and decided to bring it in.
Lin in Kazuka's head spoke loudly:
"Alright, ready yet?"
Kazuka nodded; he jumped from above down and landed on the floor. Drawing the sword from the scabbard, the sound of metal friction rang out; he threw the scabbard far away, seemingly hoping there would be a time it was needed.
Mythyr curled her lip in a smile; she also drew her sword, the friction sound ringing piercingly as she knew how to draw very slowly, swung her arm hard and threw the scabbard to the corner of the floor. The black scabbard seemed to absorb the sunlight, extremely deep.
Mythyr backed up, because she was standing in the middle of the floor. A mocking voice:
"I did not expect you would come there, making me gather soldiers outside the city already."
Kazuka replied without head or tail, as if having no meaning:
"Is there a problem?"
Mythyr curled her lip; she did not bother to care about those nonsense words.
"Advance near the center of the floor."
Kazuka stepped up slowly, hand gripping the sword tight as if already prepared.
The stands above were very noisy, some cheering: "Fight!", some becoming like they were going mad: "Kill each other!"
All five people in the group were sitting around the tenth row, a position to observe quite reasonably to cover the range of the floor in sight. Everyone was silent, looking down at Kazuka with great worry, as if they were praying for a victory.
Mythyr with an excited voice:
"Prepare, kid, I will peel your bones."
Kazuka still kept calm; he knew he must be calm and there was no reason to be angry.
High above was the place where nobles and the wealthy sat. Cavensyl along with eight other nobles were sitting enjoying wine and food, everyone having maids serving. Selena sat right next to her father, but she was very focused and wanted to watch this battle; her eyes clearly showed anticipation.
Mythyr turned back and nodded to someone.
At this moment, two ends of the stands lit up with white light, one end below and one end way up above. A layer of barrier appeared like a slope; it was a distance from the heads of the viewers, enough for them to jump up and cheer.
Kazuka also observed. But Mythyr called back:
"Do not lose focus, or you will die."
Kazuka turned back, face still very calm. Lin inside also said:
"Ignore those words of hers."
Kazuka spoke softly: "Do not worry, those things do not need to remind me."
-"So I will bet my life here?"
Kazuka only thought; he remembered he also once almost died, his emotions seemed better.
From high above, a man with a rather good voice, dressed very beautifully and smartly, shouted loudly:
"Ladies and gentlemen, I feel our two contestants are very tense already, very stingy with words, but I feel that heat is extremely terrifying."
"It seems they are ready."
"So I beg permission to announce to everyone."
"START THE BATTLE."
A horrific noise from the stands screamed loudly through the whole space, some standing and yelling in excitement, some interestedly curling their lips and watching.
Just as the words finished, Kazuka and Mythyr spilled energy outside ceaselessly and surrounded their bodies thickly.
Takeshi with excitement, and laughed.
"Guys, I want to see the scene of him crushing that woman so much."
Elyssia stroked her chin thinking:
-"The strongest in the city is not mediocre either; likely this match will have many hardships."
Mythyr surrounded her red energy onto even her sword, a smug face full of contempt.
"If while fighting you feel you cannot fight, feel free to kneel and admit defeat. I will still be lenient."
Kazuka widened his legs and entered a fighting stance. The sword was still bare, not covered in energy.
"The roles must be swapped."
Mythyr curled her lip in a smile at Kazuka's retort.
Kazuka thought in his head about the encounter with Kuralak.
-"At that time I misunderstood about energy separating from the body and vice-versa. If it still surrounds the body it cannot explode; luckily Elyssia found it out, otherwise I would still be stupid, thank you."
-"Truly without someone to point out and find errors, one does wrong immediately."
Mythyr swung out an energy slash horizontally with an extremely large range toward Kazuka to open the battle.
Kazuka jumped up and avoided it; he landed and replied with an energy slash vertically toward Mythyr. The floor with its hard stone layer and Kazuka's slash only made that stone surface have a tiny groove.
Mythyr dodged to one side and strongly lunged with extremely fast speed.
Kazuka also lunged along.
Two swords were swung and collided into each other and jerked back. Continuously were slashes to probe the opponent; both sides kept waiting and counter-attacking.
Suddenly, Mythyr with excitement and madness, she radiated energy even thicker. Immediately increased speed and pressed close to Kazuka right on his left. The sword swung hard across Kazuka's neck area and flew from the direction of his back.
Kazuka sensed it; he crouched down and dodged. Simultaneously his right leg swung out a scorpion hook kick aimed straight at Mythyr's face.
Mythyr opened her eyes wide; she was surprised by the flexibility and the release of this surprising kick.
But her left hand had reached out wanting to block and catch Kazuka's leg.
But Kazuka had adjusted the direction slightly in the split second before his foot reached Mythyr's hand. Kazuka simply adjusted the kick out a little bit and kicked harder.
But just adjusting a little bit was effective; the kick was a bit far out of the palm and kicked straight into her two fingers, making a "crack... crack" sound ring out from only the middle and index fingers. She grimaced to one side when feeling pain.
Taking advantage of the small gap, Kazuka stood straight and spun his body, swinging out a sweeping horizontal slash while spinning fast. The sword in that interval also covered itself in energy.
Kazuka's fighting style is when swinging a blow, he then pours energy into the sword and then retracts it and continues like that. Therefore now when you see Kazuka swing his sword to attack, it means he has poured energy in while swinging the sword. Remember.
Mythyr immediately leaned her body back and dodged successfully. She pressed her hand to the ground and threw out a kick aimed straight at Kazuka's hip.
But at the same time he turned his body back, he put his foot out and blocked that kick; although he was a bit pushed back because Mythyr was the attacker, he was still fine.
Mythyr flipped backward and kept distance. She laughed a bit loudly with joy and excitement:
"Hahaha, truly interesting."
Then she changed her expression, voice dropping and growling:
"I will kill you."
She bared a mad smile. The eyes of that woman were already a strange red with patterns weirder than a snake, now they switched to green.
That was her small power; though small, it was the greatest useful thing in combat; if stronger people possessed it, they would surely be overlords.
That was the Apocalypse power, a natural talent that gave Mythyr superhuman combat intuition. Almost never deceived by feints or traps; her reflexes were like seeing one second ahead compared to reality.
The sword in her hand lit up a black color.
Kazuka had seen Mythyr's eyes change; he became even more alert.
Lin reminded: "Be careful, eyes changing like that means it is possible she possesses some power, maybe observation."
Lin inside thought with annoyance:
-"Not good, facing someone with power is too difficult although not yet clear what it is, but currently cannot face it early."
Kazuka spoke softly: "So she will be very strong then."
Lin: "Need you ask? Power is something one is born with."
Elyssia high above also opened her eyes wide when seeing Mythyr's eyes change. She spoke loudly toward Aoto and everyone:
"Not good, her eye color changed, everyone. Likely she possesses a power."
Aoto bit his lower lip worriedly:
"Pray it is a simple power; otherwise, it is over."
Ayaka turned over curiously asking: "..."
But at this moment, Mythyr lunged with extremely fast speed. She pressed close to Kazuka and swung out an extremely fast horizontal sweep, her eyes flashing.
Kazuka immediately crouched, but that was when Mythyr's knee lunged up from below.
Kazuka did not react in time; he was hit by a knee strike straight to the face. She was not done, threw a strong kick making Kazuka fly backward, but he regained balance and braked in time.
Eyes still stared intently at Mythyr who was standing there curling her lip smugly after giving Kazuka a knee strike. He touched his hand to his nose and rubbed gently; it seemed to hurt.
Mythyr opened both arms and was smug:
"How about it? Is it in time to want to surrender now?"
Lin seemed to realize and said:
"She strikes very accurately; that horizontal slash, how did she know you would crouch or retreat, or even jump? So her power can only be seeing the future or more simply reading others' movements. And surely it is a short duration."
Lin continued with annoyance and frustration:
"Not good at all, Kazuka; if it is like that, fighting using simple traps is very difficult when she reads your movements beforehand."
Kazuka with tension, he swallowed spit inside.
"Do not be so smug."
-"If so then I must always maintain a high battle speed and definitely must not let her catch me in her sight."
Lin: "There is a way."
Kazuka radiated more energy. He held the sword in his mouth, two hands spread wide and a series of energy spheres were created.
Mythyr curled her lip in contempt.
The energy spheres flew around Kazuka and close to him while inside the energy layer covering the body. Kazuka continued to create more.
Mythyr at this time was no longer laughing; she knew Kazuka had an intention. Immediately lunged and wanted to strike first.
Aoto was also quite surprised with Kazuka controlling more than twenty energy spheres at the same time.
-"He can maintain that? Great."
When Mythyr pressed close, Kazuka still held the sword in his mouth. He controlled one sphere.
BOOM!!!
The energy sphere exploded, smoke and dust flying densely.
Kazuka on the outside created an energy spear and launched it into the black smoke.
Mythyr stood in the smoke layer with an annoyed face; she was alert and had sensed a blow was lunging over. Leaned her body and dodged the spear flying past her face.
She opened her eyes wide when feeling something was wrong.
In front, a series of spears lunged over; Mythyr leaned her body to avoid, along with that slashed away other spears lunging over.
But those spears had chaotic energy.
BOOM!!... BOOM!!!!
Many spears exploded. Mythyr wanted to jump backward and avoid them, then immediately she sensed something was falling.
Those were Kazuka's energy spheres lunging into the black smoke from above down.
Mythyr gritted her teeth in anger; she covered herself in more energy, using keen intuition. She continuously avoided the spears lunging over, and jumped out of the range of the explosions caused by the spears with disturbed energy and the energy spheres. Although blinded by the smoke, Mythyr could still hold on.
On the outside, black smoke covered half the floor. The whole stands were holding their breath observing. Selena above ignored the loud laughter of those noble men; she fixed her eyes on the smoke.
Selena: -"Is Mythyr meeting difficulty?"
Kazuka at this time was standing on the outside of the smoke and a bit far to keep a safe distance.
His right hand was creating a spear and launching it into the smoke according to the position he sensed.
His left hand opened wide and created many energy spheres. At his fingertips were five very small energy threads connected to five energy spheres above and currently falling.
His eyes darted continuously in their sockets.
-"She is this way."
He let the energy spheres fly hovering close to his body and inside the energy layer surrounding the body. His left hand pulled across to the right and the spheres he had thrown up that were falling then switched direction to the right and fell where Kazuka sensed Mythyr in the smoke.
His right hand again continued to create an energy spear. His left hand controlled five energy spheres and threw them very high above the smoke.
Lin: "Keep going, she cannot see us so do not fear her seeing the action beforehand."
Inside the smoke, Mythyr was very annoyed. She swung slashes in all directions wanting to tear apart this annoying black smoke. But Kazuka's spears and energy spheres kept exploding continuously making the black smoke even thicker.
-"Damn it, I will not be defeated by these cat tricks."
The gold ring mixed with purple on her hand shone strongly with a purple color.
-"Do not hope to play it safe with me."
From inside the ring, five of something black flew out. They were like a ghost, also not quite, they were more like black smoke layers. But the bizarre point was they had a large mouth in front and large, sharp teeth; just imagining them sinking into flesh was enough to feel chilled.
Five black smoke layers flew toward the back and pierced through the smoke.
Kazuka just threw a spear into the smoke, suddenly felt five strange energy sources and glanced his eyes to the left. Those were three smoke layers lunging over, making him open his eyes wide in confusion not understanding what was happening. On the right side there were also two smoke layers lunging over; they opened their mouths ready as if just waiting to feast on Kazuka's flesh.
Kazuka picked up the sword from the ground. He was alert and glanced both ways.
-"Not good, like this I will lose the advantage."
Kazuka launched five energy spheres toward the three smoke layers coming, then launched five more toward the right where two smoke layers were lunging.
BOOM!!!!
Kazuka swallowed spit and confusedly waited for the result.
Lin: "Certainly she has some item."
But those smoke layers were fine and they even flew faster, pressing close to Kazuka.
-"They are fine?"
Kazuka swung two energy slashes toward both sides, but they both went through the smoke in an incomprehensible way. He was confused and stood rooted; at this time the only plan was if they pressed close and he could not attack, he would run around here.
But inside the smoke which was thinning, a large energy source radiated, making Kazuka turn his eyes to it. It seemed that was a lunge powered by a lot of energy; Mythyr lunged over in a flash, making Kazuka unable to react in time.
Lin shouted loudly in his head warning Kazuka, but not in time: "Careful in front."
Stab!!!
The black sword pierced through Kazuka's stomach. He opened wide in horror, pupils dilating. Blood sprayed from his mouth. Kazuka, following the force of the thrust, arched his body and flew backward along with Mythyr; her face was like she was mad, full of excitement.
The whole stands yelled loudly in excitement; the cheering noise was ear-piercing. But contrary to that atmosphere were the five friends sitting above, eyes horrified, not expecting Kazuka had been hit.
While his body was flying with Mythyr, Kazuka gritted his teeth and endured, gripping Mythyr's blade tight; energy covered his hand so it did not bleed. Kazuka swung his sword toward Mythyr's neck.
But suddenly, she was even stronger. The sword shone black. She opened her mouth and bit down hard on Kazuka's blade and lifted her body, kicking straight into Kazuka's stomach; his body slid off the blade.
Kazuka gritted his teeth tight; his body slammed into the wall of the floor.
Mythyr stood back and laughed smugly; she licked Kazuka's blood remaining on the sword. This was a sword capable of eating others' blood to help its master become stronger.
Kazuka stood up with discomfort from the pain; the wound in his stomach had been restored perfectly, but the feeling of soreness and shock still remained.
Mythyr: "Truly delicious blood."
Kazuka with his whole face relaxed without reacting. He had sensed Mythyr's energy was a bit different.
Lin with worry: "Stabilize yourself, not done yet. Her stopping the strike is the opportunity."
Five smoke layers lunged down from above his head. When lunging close down, those sharp and bright teeth opened hungrily.
Kazuka jumped to one side; the smoke layers still continued to lunge after. Suddenly one smoke layer lunged ahead; when it reached near it opened its mouth wanting to bite him, but Kazuka swung his sword out of habit, but he had also retreated further and avoided it.
Unexpectedly, that slash grazed through the smoke and made one side of its teeth crack slightly. He opened his eyes wide in surprise.
Lin also realized but had to warn Kazuka:
"Just focus and dodge, push those things aside."
Mythyr lunged over; she was stronger than before. Swung the sword horizontally with great power.
Kazuka hurriedly put his sword vertically in front to block, but her strength was too great, making Kazuka immediately be blown away in bewilderment.
-"Too strong."
Slid long on the ground. The smoke layers lunged ahead and Mythyr lunged right after.
Right at this moment, Lin spoke with an urgent voice after analyzing:
"Ka, those smoke crowds, when they open their mouths they are physical, but when they do not open their mouths they cannot be touched. It seems she cannot control them well but can only let them lunge together."
Kazuka threw out an energy slash toward Mythyr and the smoke layers lunging from afar. Then he lunged right behind.
The energy slash pierced through the five smoke layers; Mythyr dodged slightly and avoided it. She curled her lip:
"Fight me head-on and see."