Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Contrary to his hopes, the fight between Simplicity and Caleb was a clean battle. Although Chat went crazy calling for their muscle mommy, the Dragon Knight ultimately managed to defeat her, once again without calling out his Wyvern.

Why did the man have to be such a gentleman? He didn't even damage her bikini armor in the battle, making the people of Urth look even worse in the blacksmith's eyes. His victory had also earned Caleb the ire of the muscle mommy faction.

Since Simplicity had a bye for the first round and lost quite quickly to Caleb, she never had the chance to shine and display her skills. he felt a little bad for her, but this was how the competition went.

It was a good thing, Caleb probably wouldn't care about the bad publicity. Seth was confident to know, why the dragon knight had become so serious about progressing in the tournament. He probably aimed to be the one to kick Dumm Ting out of the competition. Whether he had what it took to do so, Seth didn't know.

The next fight was a welcome distraction. The fight between the otherworldly assassin and the man calling himself the priest of corruption promised to be interesting, as both had yet to display much of their abilities.

...

Umi fled to the skies as the arena was suddenly covered in a corrupted dome of green light, Shocked, she looked back down at the tiled square where the two combatants were currently fighting.

So far it had been a constant back and forth of unexpected turns. Perl Woul, the mysterious assassin had vanished the moment she announced the start of the fight. Despite her level being in the 120s, she was unable to sense the assassin, until things were too late.

Suddenly, a golden light lit up around the hooded priest's neck, cutting the hood and cleanly beheading him. The cut hood fluttered away, but the head only slowly slid from its neck, revealing that the priest of corruption was a handsome young man with short dark hair.

The rusty saber in his hand clattered on the floor, leaving trails of sand, wherever it decomposed the special marble of the arena. The lifeless body fell to its knees, the head tilted forward, falling. Everyone thought it was over, but the falling head was suddenly caught by the hands of the headless body.

No blood flowed from the neck, but bright green flames sprouted from the cut surfaces and reconnected them back together. The first surprise was that the Priest of corruption was virtually immortal. Afterward, his body was covered in glowing runes and he managed to lock the assassin into high-speed combat.

The priest used the fearsome saber he had picked up again to block all kinds of hidden weapons and strings the assassin used to attack from mid-range. Although the priest couldn't sense Perl Woul, the decomposing saber decimated the hidden weapons his opponents used to attack.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Yet it didn't seem like there was any limit to the string the cultivator was able to use. While the priest was able to block the flying dagger and cut some strings, he was also in a constant state of having to regenerate his own wounds, as the golden streaks kept amputating parts of his body, or outright dismembering him at least twice.

“Buy me some time!” the priest suddenly said, a massive warrior in crude armor appeared in the arena. Swinging its massive arms, it tangled up the net of golden threads and for the first time, Perl Woul received an attack, as the backhand of the giant swatted him from the air, with a random swing of its arm.

With surprising force, the cultivator was smacked against the inside of the barrier covering the arena. Blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, he was caught by the berserking giant, who flung the man around, smacking him onto the arena floor several times, before its fingers turned into a rain of dark blood and finger segments.

The atmosphere around Perl Would have changed, now that he landed back in the arena for everyone to see. His presence grew, becoming terrifying and suppressive, like a snake looking at its prey. in the next moment, without any signs of movement, the summoned giant was covered in golden lines. Yet, before he was dismembered, he vanished, leaving the string to disintegrate in the air without causing any damage.

“Thanks, that's good enough,” the priest said. That was the moment the dome of corrupted light appeared, encompassing the arena and even the barrier covering it. Perl Woul squinted his eyes before he suddenly widened them. Belated, Umi remembered to comment.

“The priest has summoned a force field and it seems to impede Perl Woul?” she interpreted the handsome cultivator's facial expressions.

“Are you surprised? Now that I declared this the territory of my goddess, you won't be able to hide your presence from me,” the priest of corruption said with a bright smile. Now that the assassin's stealth was countered, would the priest gain the upper hand?

“...I won't make a difference.” the cultivator said emotionlessly and vanished again.

No, he didn't vanish. He just moved at an incredible speed, Umi could barely perceive. She shared her observation with the audience as Perl Woul appeared above the priest, his presence suddenly several times mightier than moments ago. A golden crescent shot from his finger, cutting the priest into six stripes before he could even react.

However, before the cut pieces fell to the ground, they were once again enveloped in weird flames and he regenerated yet again. The fight continued, but this was the last surprising turn. It was as the cultivator had said.

Despite declaring a holy territory, the priest of corruption could do nothing but dying and reviving again and again. The arena floor's marble was decimated over and over as the cultivator's attack destroyed his opponent, not losing strength at any point.

After twenty minutes of this, Umi was at a loss for words. This was a dead end. It may have been different if the quasi-immortal was able to outlast his opponent, but Perl Woul seemed able to kill him for days without tiring.

Umi was deliberating to ask management to end the fight forcefully. At this point, it was clear who had the upper hand. This was a tournament after all. Constantly evading the death match rule, just to be cut apart again was not the point of the battle. But before she could contact them-

“Fine, I give up....” the priest called out, raising his hands in defeat. He had just come back from being minced meat and hurriedly surrendered before the assassin could cut him apart again. Luckily, the person in question had also realized that continuing made no sense. Or maybe reviving was not as cheap as the person made it seem. Either way, with the priest's surrender, Umi was able to announce Perl Would victory and entry to the next round. There was only one fight remaining now. fr𝚎𝗲𝐰ebnov𝐞𝐥.𝐜o𝗺

After the arena was restored by the busy masons from Minas Mar, the last participants entered the stage. It was the match between the illusive Mud Wizard, as he was dubbed by the audience, and the cultivator Choon Long. Despite being the final battle of the second round, it was an almost embarrassingly similar repetition of the Mud Wizard's fight in the first round.

Even though Choon Long knew the Mud Wizard's stick, he was unable to overcome the powers of muck. Forced to struggle on a battlefield that drained his stamina and life force, he stood no chance. The last match of the second round didn't end with a loud bang but with the spear cultivator's regretful groan.