Chapter 750 - Fighting when fate is against them
750 Fighting when fate is against them
Lupa did not have the speed to win, yet she had a way of contending with the very fast gladiator. She had the experience ingrained in her body, enough to last a minute or two against someone who was much faster than her.
Speedy relentlessly attacked with wide swings. It became obvious he needed time to become accustomed to the newly gained strength, speed, and perception.
Lupa took this opportunity to swing her claws sometimes. She managed to scratch his arms, but no matter how deep the wound was, barely any blood oozed out.
Time was Speedy’s enemy and Lupa’s savior.
Lupa completely focused on deflecting the attacks while using Primial Insight as much as she could. From her eyes and her ears, a tiny bead of blood appeared. She could not keep overexerting her senses for a long time.
The one who suggested about wasting time was stuck fighting two mighty opponents at the same time. Her feet moved swiftly, and her body sidestepped like a crab walking sideways.
Mimi was slashed, impaled, and killed many times, yet her body always vanishes. Mimi did not stay on the defensive side this time. Instead, she countered when she deemed it was possible.
Mimi sidestepped Slaveone’s attack. She swung her buckler with blood on its edges. The sharp edges made by her blood manipulation became sharp enough to cut the large swole gladiator’s chest.
Mimi could win at this rate was the thought many had, but what happened next shocked all of the audience and made Vald clench his fist hard enough for the veins on his hand to bulge.
.....
Slaveone took a step back and let Meaty relentlessly attack Mimi in his stead. The blood stopped flowing during these couple of seconds, and the muscles strangely shifted.
Everyone could see the wound forced itself to close. It was a method much different than healing. Additionally, Slaveone didn’t appear to have felt much pain.
Mimi sidestepped and stabbed Meaty multiple times in his shoulder. A frown appeared on her face when she noticed her opponent’s muscles closed each and every injury in the blink of an eye. Furthermore, she was perplexed by how much force she had to put in her arms to pierce his skin.
Mimi was in a pickle. She fought with a sharp rapier, but the blade was thin. No matter how much she swung her rapier, the wound she inflicted was gradually becoming her downfall.
Vincent and Punchingbag exchanged strikes. Every time the fist covered in hardened mutated blood crashed against the shield used as a boxing glove, a loud ringing sound was produced alongside a couple of sparks.
Vincent could barely keep up with Punchingbag. If it wasn’t for Kazumi predicting most of his attacks based on his movement, Vincent would be on the ground with a deep bruise on his body.
Fortunately for Vincent, he could not feel his fingers, hands, and forearms. He could keep trying to brute force a win, or as he was trying to make it seem.
Vincent knew what he was doing was futile. He knew the gladiator in front of him could recover from an injury. Furthermore, he heard from Kazumi that Lupa and Mimi’s opponents were moving their muscles to close all of their wounds.
Behind the four fighters were Awa and Night. Awa had just landed on the bear’s stomach with a devastating dive kick. She shouted “Quake” before the sound of rocks breaking loudly sounded.
Awa extended her hand to her left, and a shadow line was attached to it. Awa was swiftly pulled. She managed to evade being impaled by a graveyard of earth spikes by the nick of time. Or so everyone believed.
Awa and Night could share the same vision. More accurately, the two of them could perceive Awa’s field of view, Night’s field of view, and the dark ball up in the sky field of view. It meant they knew each other’s location at all times.
Awa rode Night and circled around the huge bear with a stomach covered in earth spikes. The longer the fight dragged on, the more the bear looked like a porcupine.
Night stopped running. Awa jumped down. She patted Night’s head and said, “Let’s use the technique Kazumi named. Let’s use Mirror’s Shadow.”
Night nodded before its mare’s body inflated. After exploding into a dark cloud, the darkness stopped spreading. It started to quickly collect in the same place. As the dark cloud becomes smaller and smaller, a new body being condensed could be seen.
Everyone could soon see Night standing beside Awa. The dark knight Awa had become at the start of the fight stood beside her.
It was an incredible sight to behold. It also caused a lot of people to wonder if the armor was empty inside.
“Ladies and gentlemen! The fight has been split into five, yet all of them are too interesting to stay focused on one fight. This makes me and many wonders if the judgment by combat should have been one on one fights.”
“Regardless, we have the blade dance fight, the nonstop moving of blades and claws fight, the brawlers’ fight, the two men trying hitting on one woman fight, and the towering beast against two dark ants fight.”
“Egidio Faulkner, how about you tell me what are your top three fights?” Darwin asked before adding, “I bet the ones where the gladiators are acting strangely overly aggressive as if they do not know how to strategize anymore.”
The representative of the five noble families frowned at what Darwin was insinuating. He did not like how Darwin mentioned something was wrong with them.
“Hmm. Third place is Mimi Lionheart against Meaty and Slaveone. Second is Awa Lionheart, her horse now wearing bipedal armor, the plant familiar, and the now huge grizzly bear familiar. The first is Ester Lionheart and Bloody’s fight.”
Ester became astonished she was capturing the commentator’s attention more than the others. On the other hand, Lupa would’ve complained if it wasn’t for Primial Insight making her expressionless.
“However, I have noticed the gladiators are indeed acting strange...”
“Nonsense!” The representative exclaimed, interrupting the commentator. “I heard they have never used their skill because it drains their life. Not to mention watching a berserker use their class-specific skill is a rare sight.”
*Boom* Two loud sounds occurred at the same time. It caused the audience to look at the center of the field.
Awa and a lot of hardened earth were falling on the left of the bear, while Night and a lot of hardened earth were falling on the right side of the bear. The two of them looked the same up to the point of landing simultaneously. They were like mirrors or doppelgangers.
Awa and Night raised their leg one eighty degrees as if they had no bones in their bodies in their current shadow silhouette form. Two shadow lines swiftly attached to the bear’s chin.
The bear moved its large arms on instinct. It swung its paws down to cut the shadow line, but it was too late to try. The moment Awa and Night swung their legs down at the same time, their bodies shot like a bullet.
*Boom* Awa and Night landed a powerful kick at the center of the bear’s paws.
Awa and Night lost their momentum and began falling. On the other hand, the bear’s arms were pushed upwards.
Awa and Night did not let this opportunity pass by. They kicked backward and shot their bodies at the bear’s chin. Soon, both attacks landed at the same time.
However, an unexpected thing occurred. What happened next caused the audience to gasp and Awa’s parents to almost faint from worry.
Dozens upon dozens of earth spikes, mostly covered with yellow blood, extended from the bear’s chin, up to the point of wondering if the bear had a lower jaw anymore.
Under the bear’s chin was a cloud of dust. There was falling debris. Soon appeared Awa and Night falling. Their bodies were in a bad state. Their bodies had a lot of holes, making the audience believe Awa and Night were dead.
Tendrils rose from the ground. They caught Awa and Night before forming a defensive dome to protect them. Other tendrils started wrapping around the bear’s feet to buy time.
[Vincent. Awa is in danger. She might die if the bear attacks the floating dark ball.]
Vincent frowned. He clenched his fist charged with a lot of condensed mana and threw a punch at Punchingbag. Although it looked like one of his previous punches, this one was different. It was packed with a surprise the receiver did not expect to receive.
*Clang!* The moment the force entered the shield, it bent around the gladiator’s fist. The force fractured each and every finger. The force kept moving further inside the hand, causing the bones to also fracture.
Punchingbag was pushed a couple of steps back. His shoulder was tilted backward, and his arm had taken a lot of damage.
However, Punchingbag did not show any expression other than keeping his angered frown at all times.
Punchingbag casually moved his body and moved his shoulder back into position. He moved his arm as if it was not injured or as if he could only feel some of the pain.
Vincent moved his head to look at the center of the field. He could see Zero trying its best to move the tendrils it had available to by Awa and Night time to recover their shadow bodies. He also noticed the dark ball gradually moving away from the huge bear.
[I think you are fine for now. But we better hurry, or it might be different next time.]