BXBX NOVEL Chapter 80 - 79 - Tournament And Vengeance(Part 3)
Chapter 80 - 79 - Tournament And Vengeance(Part 3)
It was the next day, and I was heading to the stadium with Persia, Rai, Key and Mika. Az had been asleep and said he\'d teleport there after he woke up, telling us to go on ahead without him and going back to sleep.
Mika had been watching yesterday from the audience with her parents, and afterwards, asked me about Gela. Given how brutally merciless she\'d been to her round one opponent, I suppose I couldn\'t blame Mika for being curious. I told her...
"She\'s, uh...someone you should definitely stay away from, got it? Seriously, that girl is not right in the head."
I had also gotten the headmaster to set up a trap for the person targeting me, by a simple reshuffle of the Academy staff\'s duties for today. Assuming my hunch was correct, you\'ll see what I mean eventually.
But let\'s set that aside for now. The tournament had some pretty interesting match ups for today.
The first fight of round three would be me vs Key, and the third one would be Rai vs Persia.
"You two are totally going down...today we shall once and for all prove which Group D couple is the best-!" I quipped in a sports announcer\'s tone and a grin, before Persia lightly smacked the back of my head.
"Stop being a dork," She sighed with a look of embarrassment.
She had been pretty worried about the whole poisoning thing, so I wanted to try and get her mind off of it, at least for a bit.
It wasn\'t long before they called us out for the first match of the third round.
"Good luck, babe-!"
"Y-you\'re too loud, Rai!" She cut him off with a flustered frown, "But...thanks."
"Good luck to...both of you," Persia added indecisively, with a sheepish grin.
"Ouch," I responded with mock hurt.
Key and I stepped out to the arena and took our places as the headmaster activated the barrier around us.
"Not gonna lie...I\'m not really sure how to go about fighting you seriously...no hard feelings if I injure you?" I inquired with a grin.
"I know full well how unbelievably strong you are...but you should know better than to underestimate me," She replied, drawing out her sword and unleashing her Retractable Anima after kicking off her boots and pulling off her elbow-length gloves.
I drew out my short-sword and activated Lightning Boost at x3, waiting for the headmaster to signal the start of the fight.
As he did, Key immediately shot towards me, springing forward as she neared me and slashed her flaming sword straight down at me. I blocked her strike with my short-sword, and the instant I did, she let go of her sword and twisted her body in mid-air, flipping over me and landing behind me.
She pulled off that maneuver so quickly that her sword was still in the same position in mid-air, only beginning to fall as she landed. Jesus Christ, she was a lot more agile and flexible than the last time I sparred with her! I had advised her to work on that since they were arguably her biggest strength, but I didn\'t think she had improved this much.
She then unfurled a swift sweep-kick at my feet, I quickly jumped over her foot to avoid being tripped and simultaneously swung my left leg out backwards towards her head. She moved her head to the side to just barely avoid my kick, before grabbing onto my leg and flipping me over her shoulder, my back slamming onto the ground and the wind knocked out of me, as my sword slid away a few meters.
Crap, she got me- or she would have, if she had any powerful attacks without her sword. She sprang back to pick up her sword and then shot towards me again, but the second she took to retrieve her blade was all I needed to get back on my feet.
I extracted all my Karma and dodged the thrust of her sword and grabbed onto her wrists, running a weak stream of black electricity through her to semi-paralyze her, drawing out my dagger as I did.
"You almost had me there...maybe you should get yourself a secondary weapon in case you lose your sword like you just did here."
"...maybe I should," She sighed with a defeated smile, before I swung the dagger towards her neck, the barrier teleporting her out.
That had been way too careless of me...I had definitely underestimated her.
I kinda overlooked it since I hadn\'t sparred with her in a while, but I should have figured that her flexibility, speed and reaction time had all improved. Her reactions had been a lot more instinctive than they used to be too, she had been able to keep up with my movements at x3 Lightning Boost, and was insanely quick to adapt during the fight.
She headed off to find a spot in the audience while I headed back to the waiting room.
"Kuro...you need to stop holding back, you\'re cutting it way too close with every match. Congrats on the win, but maybe you should start taking your fights a bit more seriously," Sighed Persia as I came back, a slightly stressed look on her face.
"Yeah, my bad...I definitely messed up a bit in this last fight," I grinned sheepishly.
"Hey, dude...sorry, I can\'t congratulate you-."
"That...really makes no difference to me either way," I cut him off with a shrug.
The second match of round three was Gela vs Tuck. That girl may be a bit crazy, but she wasn\'t a total idiot...she seemed to understand that swooping down on someone who could raise a column of earth in an instant was probably not a good idea. I really hoped Tuck would win this...I\'d rather not fight her again.
Unfortunately, she won.
She didn\'t look too pleased though, with her swooping attacks too risky, she was forced to bombard him with slashes of wind blades from above, eventually breaking through his rocky defenses and teleporting him out.
As a result, she had a look of dissatisfaction on her face after the fight.
Attacking with those wind blades from a distance was one of her most effective techniques, but she clearly preferred to take a more direct and hands-on approach when it came to fighting.
Then came the third match, Persia vs Rai.
"Hey, don\'t lose to this idiot, Cat Girl," I called after them as they headed out the waiting room.
"Hey!" Rai exclaimed in protest, while Persia just stifled a laugh and gave me a confident look.
The fight began with the two of them charging forward at each other, Rai with x3.5 Lightning Boost and Persia using half the full extent of her Retractable Anima.
He swung his scythe at her torso as they neared each other, she swiftly jumped over and unfurled a rapid airborne spin-kick, which he just barely ducked under. Since her attack missed and she was vulnerable, she quickly used Propulsion to blast herself a few meters higher, before forming a Spiral Sphere in her hand and blasting herself back down towards him.
He managed to get out of the way just in time, as her attack slammed into the ground. He fired a bolt of lightning from his mouth as he sprang back, she flattened herself on the ground to avoid it, and then rolled forward and sprang at him in a single fluid motion, swiping her claws at him.
He blocked her swing with the handle of his scythe, but she grabbed hold of it and planted her feet, stopping him from going any further back. She began to form another Spiral Sphere, he reacted by letting go of his weapon and springing back, the instant he did, she shot forward at him and slashed at his chest with his scythe, teleporting him out before he could react. She had faked him out by pretending to create another Spiral Sphere, but in actuality had been counting on him letting go of him weapon, and then used it against him.
As the headmaster took down the barrier and announced her as the victor, she tossed the scythe back to him with a smug grin before heading back to the waiting area, I greeted her with a high five as she returned. We had both made it to the semi-finals.
And I had noticed this as soon as they announced the tournament match ups, but had avoided bringing it up till now...if both of us won our next matches, we\'d face each other in the final.
That aside for now, the last match of the third round was Vi vs Lusk. Lusk had done well to make it this far in the tournament, and he genuinely had a chance of winning this fight as well. If he could evade Vi\'s kicks and grab onto her with his tentacles, he\'d win.
Unfortunately for him, Vi had figured that out too, and kept her distance. She slammed her foot at a forward angle into the ground to send shockwaves at him, and also kicked large chunks of earth at him. Her fights almost always end with some pretty serious damage to the arena...
He dodged her for a while, but with each shockwave and kicked bit of earth, more and more dust rose up in the arena, making it harder for him to breathe and see, and it wasn\'t long before his stamina began to wear out. Meanwhile, she looked good to keep going for quite a while longer, relentlessly sending rocks and shocks his way.
His abilities make for some pretty handy offensive options, but when it comes to defense, especially against an opponent like her, he was a bit lacking. Though, to be fair...most people\'s defenses would prove to be inadequate against Vi.
It wasn\'t long before he failed to avoid one of the rocks she kicked at him, and got teleported out before it could crush a chunk of his torso. And for once, Vi won without shattering the barrier. The arena was in pieces though.
That brought the third round to an end, and it would only be a short break before the semi-final round was to begin.
The first semi was me vs Gela...can I get a sarcastic \'hurray\'? The second one would be Persia vs Vi.
At the start of the tournament, I had been pretty certain that myself, Persia and Vi would definitely make it to the semi-finals, but the fourth person was a bit of a doubt. If we just go by the participants\' strengths, then I\'d have guessed the fourth would have been either Rai or Key, but thanks to where they had been placed in the tournament bracket, either of them making it to the semi-finals would mean that either Persia or I would have to lose. That\'s the nature of a knock-out format though.
This year\'s participants were of overall higher quality than last year...there had been so many one-sided fights last year, especially in the first three rounds. There had been a lot more competitive fights this year, even in the fights where the victor was obvious, the other participant managed to put up a decent fight more often than not.
So far, no sign of whoever was targeting me...that further solidified my theory of who the suspect was.
Persia and I met up with the rest of Group D during the break.
"Congrats on winning, you two," Az greeted us with a yawn.
"Thanks, man!" I grinned at his brief response.
"I guess we\'ll concede it this time...you two are the stronger Group D couple...but, we\'ll win next year-!"
"Stop being an idiot, Rai," Groaned Key, pinching his cheek.
"That was fun though, we\'ve never fought each other seriously before," Said Persia with a grin.
"Yeah, maybe fun for you...since you won," Grumbled Rai.
We chatted with them for a while longer before returning to the waiting area with about five minutes left for the semi-final round to begin.
As we sat and waited for it to start, Vi walked over to us.
"Hey, you guys! I\'m really forward to our fight, Persia, we\'ve never fought each other before," She grinned.
"Yeah, I\'m looking forward to it too, and I plan to win," She responded with a smirk.
While the two of them exchanged playful banter, my next opponent also approached me, with her usual sadistic grin.
"It\'s been about a year since we last fought...this time, I\'m going to make you bleed so much!"
...I\'m so going to use Bloodlust Mode in this fight. Maybe even Vampire Mode.
Before much longer, we were called on for the start of the semi-final round. I tossed a scroll to Persia before I left.
"That\'s my Extract scroll, I used to Store to hold some food and water...use it if you get hungry or thirsty, don\'t eat or drink anything else, \'kay?"
"I think you\'re being a bit overprotective and paranoid...but okay," She replied with a smile.
With that, I headed to the arena, where Gela had also rushed out to. She had a really excited look on her face...as in turned-on excited.
The headmaster activated the barrier around us as we took our places, I maxed out Lightning Boost and extracted forty percent Karma, which I could use for about two and a half minutes now. My total speed boost was x4.5 right now. I then immersed my mind in Bloodlust Mode.
"The first semi-final, second year Kuro Black vs second year Gela Sorr...begin!"
She immediately flew up as I fired bolts of black lightning at her, dodging them.
She then swooped down at me, slashing her talon at my shoulder, I stepped off to the side to avoid it and then slammed my knee into her abdomen, sending her shooting up into their air and coughing up blood, which rained down on me. I felt a twinge of sadistic pleasure as she regained her bearings and stabilized herself in mid-air using Flight. Looks like she wasn\'t aware of exactly how much my Karma boosts my abilities.
I then activated Lightning Web, spreading out a net of black lightning above me, forcing her to ascend as high as possible to avoid getting zapped.
If she got more height before swooping down, she may have more momentum, but it also meant that I could telegraph the line of her attack a lot earlier.
She wrapped wind around her talon and rapidly descended towards me as I deactivated my Lightning Web.
As she neared me and thrust her talon at my chest, I drew out my sword and swung it at her claws to block the strike, I began to grab her with my left hand, but that\'s when she swiftly stretched out the fingers on her right hand, wrapped them with wind in the shape of a blade and plunged it into my left shoulder, making me unable to move my left hand. She then quickly drew her hand back and flew back before I could use my right hand. I slashed at her as she ascended, nicking her ankle, but nothing major.
That was new, she rarely ever used her right hand during fights in the past. She really is an annoying opponent to fight.
"Hahaha, I made you bleed, and this is just the start!" She exclaimed as she licked her fingers stained with my blood, her face red and her breathing heavy.
"Don\'t get ahead of yourself, you perverted sadomasochistic bird," I replied as I healed my shoulder.
She ascended and fired a couple of wind blades at me, before swooping down rapidly as I dodged her wind slashes. Crap, I had jumped away to avoid the last wind blade, and she would definitely reach me before my feet would touch the ground again. Well, if I can\'t dodge...
I put away my sword and let her plunge her talon into my abdomen, before I grabbed her left wrist, and as she began to thrust her right hand at the middle of my chest, I caught it with my left hand, the wind blade went through my palm but didn\'t pierce my chest.
"I\'ve got you now..."
I transferred the Karma back into the Mana Orb and deactivated Lightning Boost, before extending my canines and activating Soul-Eater Mode.
A look of terror appeared on her face as she struggled to break free of my grip, as I extended my claws a bit and dug them into her forearms.
"Wh-what are you- agh!"
I plunged my teeth into her right shoulder and began to drain her life force. But right before I could start, she desperately struggled and managed to break free of my grip, flying up quickly in petrified terror. Oh, I forgot...I lost my strength boost when I deactivated Karma, I should have tightened my grip a bit more.
Oh, well...
In her desperate pull away to break free, she had broken her right wrist, and both her forearms were bleeding profusely, since I had my claws dug into them when she pulled away. Also...I had a small chunk of her flesh in my mouth, my teeth had sunk in pretty deep into her shoulder, and ended up ripping off a bit of her skin and flesh as she pulled away and flew up.
It was bleeding pretty badly...she\'d be getting pretty faint soon with all that blood loss. She was hesitantly hovering above me, her body was shaking in fear as I pondered what to do. This form has its perks, but since I can\'t use Lightning Boost or Karma while I\'m in it...it probably won\'t be effective anymore in this fight now that the element of surprise was gone. I returned to my normal state and activated Lightning Boost at my current maximum of x3.
Given how long I had already used Karma...I can probably last with a hundred percent of it for about...five seconds.
I spat out the chunk of her shoulder, wiped away her blood that was on my mouth, and smirked as I drew out my Counter Barrier scroll and sprang up into the air as I extracted all hundred percent of my Karma, activating the barrier under me and using it as a foothold to spring up towards her in the blink of an eye.
She began to move in panic as I reached her, but in her terrified state, she was too slow to react.
As I took in the helpless fear on her face, I let out an ecstatic chuckle as my mouth spread out into a wide sadistic smile, before I grabbed onto her left forearm so hard that the bone cracked and snapped like a twig, before driving my dagger into her right shoulder and violently twisting it, inciting a shriek of excruciating pain from her.
I then swung her across towards the wall of the barrier as hard as I could, feet first. Her legs slammed into the barrier wall with some serious force, her left leg took most of the impact, breaking and the bone poking out through her calf, while her right knee got dislocated. She screamed in pure agony, though still had the presence of mind to maintain Flight and go all the way upto the top of the barrier.
I used Counter Barrier as steps to descend while transferring the Karma back into the orb.
Drops of blood were drizzling down, from the severe injuries all over her body. It was impressive that she was still conscious after all that blood loss. She gritted her teeth and swung her broken left arm, sending a wind blade down at me, shrieking in pain as her body shuddered. Her aim was a bit off, but it looks like she could still attack.
She had completely forgotten about her sadomasochism in her sheer terror, and it looked like she had absolutely no intention of coming anywhere near me. In that case...
I closed my eyes and focused...
Black wings sprouted from the back of my shoulders, along with the black tail, as my eyes turned red while the whites turned black, red streaks appearing in my hair as my canines extended and my fingernails grew into claws. I can now use Vampire Mode for ten seconds, though I won\'t even need half of that to finish this. Also, I had cut slits in the back of my outfit by the shoulder blades and lower back for my wings and tail, so that I wouldn\'t have to take my top off every time I transform.
I exhaled slowly before turning my attention up to her, ignoring the shocked gasps and whispers from the crowd. With a couple of flaps of my wings, I reached her in the blink of an eye, in less than a couple of seconds, grabbing onto her throat as I appeared in front of her.
She opened her mouth but no sound came out, her eyes were filled with terror as her entire body trembled.
"So, tell me...who\'s going to make who bleed again?" I inquired as I let out a malicious laugh, before rapidly throwing her down at the ground as hard as I could.
She got teleported out before she was even halfway down to the ground, probably because the whiplash must have been about to break her neck, I descended and returned to my normal state as the barrier deactivated.
The crowd was in stunned silence, as was the headmaster, before snapping out of it and announcing my victory with a slight stutter.
Gela was passed out in a puddle of her blood, as a couple of staff members rushed over to take her away to the infirmary. The headmaster gave me a look that said he wanted an explanation regarding my new form...I hate explaining something over and over, but I guess I couldn\'t avoid it.
As I returned to the waiting room, I bumped into Professor Payse.
"Oh, Mr Black. You look injured, are you not heading to the infirmary?"
Guess she hadn\'t seen the fight.
"Hey, professor. I will during the break before the final, after I watch the second semi-final," I responded.
"I see. Congratulations on making it to the final, and good luck."
"Thanks, professor," I replied, before continuing to head for the waiting room.
Persia and Vi headed out for the second semi-final after I arrived, I wished Persia good luck and then watched the arena, waiting for them to enter. The crowd was whispering like crazy, probably about my Vampire Mode. Well...it\'s not like I could have kept it hidden forever, so now was a good time as any to reveal it.
Also, this was kinda nice...I had the entire waiting room to myself right now.
"The second semi-final, second year Persia Gerit vs third year Vi Loubder...begin!"
Persia unleashed half of the full extent of her Retractable Anima, black fur sprouting on her hands and feet as her fingers and limbs grew stronger and more flexible, her claws growing out while her teeth grew sharp.
Vi bent her knees and shot forward with all her strength, the ground where she sprang from cracking and breaking apart. In the blink of an eye, she was nearing Persia, her right leg swinging towards her rapidly.
Persia watched her closely and ducked under the arc of the kick as late as she could, the swing of the kick creating a sort of mini-sonic boom above Persia, before she thrusted her claws towards Vi\'s chest. Vi twisted the upper half of her body to the left to avoid a fatal blow and teleport out, but as she flew past Persia, her claws left a deep gash on her left shoulder.
Vi landed a few meters away and sprang back, wincing at her bleeding shoulder and regaining her footing.
Based on the confused whispers around, the crowd didn\'t seem to have seen what just happened, all that had transpired in less than a second.
Persia had counted on Vi using her usual opening move of a full strength flying kick, dodging it and then using her momentum against her by getting her claws in position to pierce her chest. Vi actually did well to react in time and twist her body to change where the claws would strike, otherwise Persia would have won right then and there.
Persia crouched on all fours and shot forward rapidly, Vi looked alarmed at her speed and sprang across as hard as she could to get some more distance, but Persia fluidly adjusted her line and swiftly sprinted towards her opponent on all fours. To give you an idea of just how fast she is right now...it\'s just slightly slower than I am with x3 Lightning Boost and forty percent Karma combined, so close to my speed at x4.5.
In other words...very, very fast.
Vi stomped forward on the ground to send a shockwave at Persia who canceled it out by blasting out a powerful, concentrated gust of wind from her mouth. Vi sprang away again, but at the rate Persia was closing the distance between the two of them, she wasn\'t going to be able to keep getting away for much longer.
She kicked a chunk of earth at Persia to try and slow her down before springing away again, Persia slowed down as she changed from running on all fours to just her legs, before jumping forward at the rock flying towards her and destroying it with a Spiral Sphere.
Vi noticed that had slightly slowed her down, and was now kicking those earth chunks at her every time before springing away again.
Persia was able to deflect, dodge or destroy them with no problem, but they were slowing her down bit by bit. This fight had reached a stalemate, but if it came down to stamina, Persia wouldn\'t lose.
Persia stopped giving chase and sprang back to get some distance, looking like she was trying to figure out a way to change things up.
Vi stopped and caught her breath, looks like those full-strength jumps across the arena take their toll, especially in such quick succession...not to mention that she had also been swinging her feet to kick those rocks at Persia, it had only been a few minutes, but her legs had to be at least a little bit worn out.
She then gritted her teeth and ran towards Persia, bending her knees as she cut the distance between them in half and then sprang forward, unfurling a flying kick in Persia\'s direction.
Instead of looking to evade, Persia braced herself, before stepping forward and across the outstretched kick, grabbing onto Vi\'s leg with her right hand above her calf and her left hand under her thigh. Using all her strength and her opponent\'s momentum, she drove her left hand up and forward, flipping Vi in front of her shoulder and slamming into the ground on her front.
The force dislocated Persia\'s left shoulder, but she bit her lower lip and ignored it, plunging her right claws towards Vi, who rolled away just in time and got back on her feet, quickly springing backwards to get some distance.
Persia also sprang back, towards the edge of the barrier, and slammed her left shoulder into it, to push the dislocated joint back in place. She then began to sprint towards Vi, who had moved to the center of the arena. Vi then jumped up as high as she could, raising her foot. Looks like she was going for that destructive dropkick. Big mistake.
Persia watched her calmly as she rapidly dropped back down to the ground with her raised right foot, and as she neared the ground and began to swing her foot down...Persia blasted straight up using Propulsion. The ground broke apart like a pane of glass hit with a hammer, as Vi shattered the barrier for the third time this tournament.
The headmaster quickly reactivated the barrier as Persia blasted herself back down towards her opponent with a Spiral Sphere in each hand, Vi didn\'t even have time to react, as Persia reached her and drove the rapidly rotating wind spheres at her head. Vi got teleported out right before her brain was turned into mincemeat, and Persia further damaged the arena as her attacks slammed onto the ground.
"The winner is...second year Persia Gerit!"
She let out a sigh of relief with a slight triumphant smile, as she walked over to Vi and helped her up on her feet.
With that, it was official...my opponent in the final of this year\'s Brawl of Glory was going to be my girlfriend.
She returned to the waiting room with a grin, I picked her up and hugged her as she walked over to me.
"Way to go, Kitty Cat! You were awesome out there! Do you have any injuries or anything? How\'s your shoulder? Do you need healin-?"
"Slow down, Kuro! I\'m perfect fine," She assured me, kissing me.
There was an hour long break before the final, which meant that...
"So...now do you have to...?" She asked, trailing off as I nodded.
"Yeah, it\'s time to put my plan into action. Stay put, \'kay...I\'ll be back soon."
"Alright...be careful, Kuro."
I headed to the infirmary, just as I had planned yesterday.
In a nutshell, the person I suspected was a member of the staff, I had asked the headmaster to reshuffle the roles of the staff so that the suspect would be stationed at the infirmary.
I had figured that I\'d sustain at least a little damage during my fight with Gela, giving me the perfect excuse to head to the infirmary and give the suspect the ideal opportunity to try and kill me.
As I arrived there, I opened the door to the infirmary, and...it was empty, except for an unconscious and slightly pale Gela on one of the beds.
Well, it looks like the suspect isn\'t here right now, should I wait, or- that\'s when I got that feeling of being watched again, just like the other day...and just like the other day, it felt like paranoia because I couldn\'t see or hear anything or anyone.
Was someone here, or was it just my imagination?
I\'ll just act normal and carry out the plan, in case someone really is watching me right now. I walked over to the shelf and picked out one of those stamina recovery scrolls. These recover your stamina drastically, but first puts you to sleep for about forty-five minutes or so.
I went over to one of the empty beds and lay down, pretending to activate the scroll before setting it aside, letting out a fake yawn while drooping my eyelids to make it appear like I was getting tired due to the effect of the scroll. I closed my eyes with a sigh and slowed down my breathing to simulate that I was sleeping.
Okay, now it\'s just a matter of tim- my thoughts were cut off as I felt some intense bloodlust approaching me,getting closer and closer. I couldn\'t hear a thing, and as I slightly cracked one eye open...I couldn\'t see anyone either.
But there was no mistaking it, there was some seriously heavy bloodlust in this room being directed at me, and now...it was coming from the seemingly empty space right next to me...
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