“And a mad rush! Ghorush dashes forth on four legs, holding his massive axe in his maw! The lion strikes forth, aiming for the horned lizard!” the announcer described the battle as he always did — as descriptive and hype-inducing as possible. “But the black-purple-haired girl isn’t flinching! She’s standing her ground to— OH! IMPACT”
Protected by her scales in a gauntlet form, Neill readied herself into a stance before a right hook at Ghorush as he used his momentum to land a powerful downward slash with his axe! Despite the weapon’s blade being literally larger than her entire arm, she blocked the attack with her fist alone, stopping it from crushing her with Ghorush’s weight!
But, that was when I noticed blue lines spreading on the leonid’s crescent axe. They were her dragon paths! She was aiming to break the weapon using her mana!
“Grroh!” Whether he noticed that part or not, the beastmen swung his weapon around, throwing his two-handed weapon’s long handle at my sister, only for her to use it as a stepping stone. In the air, I saw mana focusing around the scales on her scaled-sabatons before she kicked that energy forward, sending those scales forth to hit Ghorush right in his jaw!
“Grrrk!” The impact caused him to slide along the rocky ground. He almost hit the canyon’s wall — the arena’s theme for this match was a mountainous path — but stopped himself in time by digging his weapon into the ground.
“W-Woah, I apologize everybody, but that was too fast for me to actually see! Ghorush tried to cleave the girl into two, only for his attack to be stopped by his thin arms! He tried to reply by hitting her with his shaft, only for her to, uuh, use a wind ability to knock him away!”
Mana-covered scales. Not wind ability or anything. Then again, you could call it a mana blast in a way. It’s far less powerful than the pure mana blasts she used when she was in [Battle Frenzy] mode.
“Hiehie, don’t look like that, dear,” Mother caressed my shoulders out of nowhere, giggling as if she saw something funny. “You might not have noticed it during your previous match, but the announcer has been trying to keep up with everything going there, too. You can’t fault him for having trouble keeping up with the action.”
“… Chahayat swam like crazy and shot out a ton of spells without pausing. Here, those two only ‘greeted’ each other.” I looked at her, unimpressed. “Hmm, I guess noticing the mana around her legs would be hard. It was quite subtle.
“Mhmm, of cou—” But before Mother could say anything, the leonid suddenly bellowed out a laugh.
“Ghuhahahahahahahah! That’s it! Power and challenge! Taking you down will be a delight!” Showing no signs of being hurt, the berserker bumped his chest like a gorilla, smiling so radiantly, I was surprised his teeth would be so clean for someone like… well, for, yeah, him.
Yikes, stigmatizing berserkers for being unhygienic. Bad, Hestia, bad!
“Ha! I’ve seen worthier prey in my lifetime! If that hit was supposed to impress me, then you better do better, cat! Haaa!” Neill stomped the ground, sending out dragon paths through the ground which Ghorush noticed immediately. Although he probably didn’t know what it actually did, he was cautious and tried to evade it.
Sadly for him, dragon paths were also appearing around Neill’s legs, spraying small purple lightning before she [Gale Steps] right in front of the lion, sending a powerful kick. However, that was when Ghorush smirked and used his weapon to tank the attack. The lightning attack struck true and sent the 2m tall (6.5 feet) humanoid lion flying up.
But, surprisingly, with the deftness of a jaguar, the hulking lion rammed his axe right into the canyon’s walls and began spinning on it like a gymnast. He then dug his claws into the rocky wall and used his axe to throw a chunk of it at Neill. Sis clapped her hands together and used them to tear the boulder into two clear-cut parts.
“The time has come, blood enjoyers! That leonid’s epitaph ‘Mountain Lion’ isn’t for show! Despite how steep the canyon is, he is moving around it like an expert climber, slinging large rocks at her without rest!” the announcer described the next few moments, causing the crowd to be astonished by how well Ghorush was moving. Like a mountain goat, he was scaling the cliff, no sweat.
I could tell Neill was getting annoyed at it as she was showing off her power after destroying the sixth boulder. Instead, she used her levitating scales to simply move them out of her way. This gave her the time to spread her dragon paths on the wall, literally blowing up sections of it to potentially trap or even throw the leonid off.
However, Ghorush once again surprised all of us. Rocks were the only projectiles he had, he also had his roar.
“War Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!” Similar to a [Draconic Roar], Ghorush let out an ear-rupturing roar blast. It crashed right in front of Neill, creating a massive dust cloud to impair her vision.
Even more surprisingly, when Ghorush jumped off the wall, he didn’t let out a war cry or anything, hiding his angle of attack from Neill, even with her [Detection Sensor]. Holding his axe in two arms and over his head, he momentarily defied physics as he levitated in the air as mana concentrated around his blade's head. Once it turned black and grew larger, he slashed downwards like an executioner.
Due to the height from where he jumped from, Neill had enough time to blow the air away by punching the ground, creating wind pressure. Grimacing when she saw Ghorush’s attack, she kicked the ground, and literally sent a perfectly cut-out rectangular slab twirling into the air. It was her ability to make weapons by using her dragon paths!
Nevertheless, that flying object couldn’t stop the leonid. Like butter, it was cleaved apart and smashed right into the ground. Neill barely managed to dodge it by sacrificing some of her scales to protect her. Then again, to us dragons, we had scales aplenty.
Thrown onto the ground, Sis recovered just in time to duck under Ghorush’s following swipe. After dodging another hit, Neill released more scales and finally took back some initiative as her scales helped her like a third arm.
[“That is no brute. He fights well,”] Shay suddenly praised the leonid.
[“Mhm, calling him a berserker or barbarian sounds like we ridiculed him, brother. Her Highness is having more trouble than we thought,”] Beth agreed with the analysis, looking pensive.
They were right. Unlike Cernust, Neill was less an arcane brawler who combined spells with her martial arts, but relied heavily on her scales and dragon paths. I knew she could use [Inferno Magic], but she had preferences for certain abilities. Similar to how I neglect using certain spells over other attacks.
But, even then, this Ghorush was keeping up with Neill’s movement. Neill immediately got out of being on the defensive, but instead of turning the tide, it almost seemed like they were in a draw. The destruction of their clash was so fast that the announcer was having trouble keeping up.
“Dashing around in the air with [Air Steps] and those floating scales of hers, Stampeding Lighting is bringing down her fists upon the lion! But, with that huge smile of his, Ghorush keeps blocking, blocking, blocking, before throwing out an attack to dissuade his smaller enemy! Lighting burst from the impact of their attacks befo— AND S-SHE TOOK OUT A CHUNK FROM HIS AXE! It’s chipped! And those blue paths struck lighting again before the ground explo— GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Exploded!”
The poor guy was speaking so fast, that it almost made him sound like a rap god. He was trying his best to describe everything, but the fight was going so fast that he couldn’t even throw in his flavorful images to excite the crowd. They didn’t need it. The fight was so intense, the crowd turned dead silent from the action!
Honestly, the announcer was trying his best, but even he needed air! He was like a play-by-play caster who didn’t have a color caster to help him out. It showed, as his eyes missed crucial moments! He missed out on the finer details like Ghorush leading Neill around with his guard and fast attacks, before slashing down with his axe to destroy more of Neill’s floating scales!
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Although we had plenty of scales, there was a limit to how much we could shed per day. It was like hair. The moment she couldn’t shed anymore, she would lose her ability to manipulate her scales!
“Lady Hestia, Lady Fargryneill uses her dragon paths to power up her body similar to how normal people use their mana to strengthen themselves with [Mana Control]. However, that leonid is keeping up with her in speed and power!” Tasianna explained how the fight was proceeding. “Either he is of a high level, or he has more mana than a normal warrior should have. He shouldn’t be able to keep up like this.”
“Not only that, but like Shay and Beth said, he’s skilled and smart with his attacks,” I frowned as I admitted that. “Never judge a book by its cover, huh? Seeing him fight like this reminded me of Larent or Yorshka. A veteran warrior. Fighting intelligently with precision.”
However, he was described as a berserker by the announcer, right? How come he doesn’t even fight like one? Where are the berserker moments? That high ogre I fought back in Firwood was far more of a berserker than this guy.
It made my leg shake. My instincts on this guy were correct, after all. He really was one of the people I had to be aware of. While Chahayat was strong, his battle style revolved around that sticky water of his. If you got trapped in it, any normal person would just lose.
However, Ghorush didn’t seem to have a gimmick. He was just strong, similar to people like Farron or Master. And that caused my survival instincts to kick in, wanting me to appraise him and see how strong he really was. However — gah, ethics — it was the wrong thing to do. He wasn’t an enemy nor a lowlife. I would lose all my right to complain if someone were to use [Identify] on me if I did it myself. Allowing people some privacy was a line I didn’t want to cross after I rejoined society, and was one of the reasons why I haven’t appraised Mother or Neill yet, despite how much I wanted to.
Even asking them was embarrassing. Pretty sure they would allow me, especially Mother, but it just seemed creepy.
However, I can do this. Mana Eyes.
Averting directly looking at him, I took a glance at his mana levels without opening his status board.
What the—? That’s quite a lot of mana.
To compare, Mother had the most mana inside this arena without a doubt. Although she was compressing it, simply taking a look at her with [Mana Eyes] active would cause a painful feedback. Now, excluding myself, the next one would be Neill herself, which made sense. Following them would be Tasianna and the twins in that order.
Now, outside of the obvious candidates, the next person with the highest mana would be, surprisingly, Rita. It made sense since she was a faefolk before she became a dryad, but she was a non-combatant, which was the surprising part. After her, I could see some mages and the nobles of this country taking the next position, but the ones I noticed were actually Naemon and Joek, who were sitting far away from us.
And this was where it became surprising, just under those master mages was Ghorush himself. He had that much mana, to the point he could beat out trained mages and even nobles. I hadn’t checked out Larent’s total mana, but considering the mana slashes he could produce, he probably was around this ranking, too. Renee, on the other hand, had enough mana as a normal knight — enough to cast spells, but not for an extended battle.
Beastman, mostly a warrior, and he still has that much mana? Where did he train to cultivate that much?
“Aren’t you underestimating her a bit too much, Lady Priestess?” Renee suddenly spoke up, interrupting my thought. “She lives for battle, and no matter whom she goes up against, she always fights with an underdog attitude. Meaning, she never underestimates her opponents even with all her confidence. But she will crush them the moment they show even an inkling of weakness”
“Yup, that’s right!” Rita nodded, palms clenched into fists. “Nothing can stand in Fargryneill’s way once she gets fired up! Every tournament she’s ever entered has ended in her win!”
“Hiehiehie!” And in support, Mother began to giggle. “After all, she is my husband’s daughter~”
“AND DOWN!”
My head snapped back to the match, only to see Ghorush on the ground with black flames burning his fur armor.
“She slipped through his defenses and landed the first clear attack on him! A black fire punch, right under his blind spot!” the announcer cheered, jumping up like an excited fan from where he commentated. Similarly, the crowd also erupted, letting out all the pent-up excitement from their clash.
Breathing out some black flames, her scaled gauntlets and leggings fell off, turning back into scales. Mana paths then covered her four limbs like tattoos, streaming through the gaps between her scales. They showed some lightning sparks but eventually began covering her hands in black flames.
“Dodge this. Huuuuuu!” Breathing in deeply, I knew exactly what she was preparing — a dragon breath!
Ghorush noticed this, too and began scaling the cliff again, but he reacted too late as Neill unleashed a massive black fire blast. Scorching not only the earth, it destroyed a large section of the wall, causing the leonid to be flung into the air.
[Gale Steps]ing to the wall, Neill grabbed a section of it and spread her dragon paths through it, before peeling off a perfectly-cut rectangular slab from it! Only this time, it was as large as a billboard. And with it, she literally flipped the thing like a table, trying to crush Ghorush with it!
“That’s insane!” I blurted out by the extreme nature of her attack, to the point I was really wondering if this was reality or some fantasy story!
“Lady Hestia, you also like destroying cliffs. I mean, you even caused a cave-in, causing a whole cliffside to be demolished when we first met,” Tasianna reminded me of my first few months in the Belzac forest.
“That was Saori’s idea! Besides, look!” I pointed back at the fight, drawing her attention to how Ghorush somehow was scaling this disorientating situation.
Noticing this, Neill literally began running along the wall with her dragon paths, showing off how versatile it was. And with [Gale Steps] once again, she immediately closed the distance between her and Ghorush. With her hand aflame, she landed another searing punch on the leonid, but this time, he managed to block it.
And this was where the mountainous terrain of this simulated arena came into play. No longer were they fighting only in the canyon, but they even used the treacherous paths and platforms of this place to their advantage. Ghorush masterful climbing and Neill’s dragon paths made this whole place seem so much smaller than it should be.
The darting dungeon camera to keep up with the fight was fidgeting around, desperately trying to track how the two were fighting. The audience, although confused at times, was fully engrossed as whenever they stopped moving around, they would fight each other like in an MMA fight.
“Dashing around like lightning, the lass is giving Ghorush no time to breathe! Zigzagging around while using her scales like footsteps, she is outmaneuvering the larger leonid! Ghorush has finally been pushed to the defensive, unable to do anything but react!” the announcer exclaimed. “All those black flames and the constant explosions from those blue lines aren’t allowing Ghorush a chance to counter! What is this leonid to do to get out of this preca— WHAT?!”
This match surely could be called a cliffhanger, but not in the general sense. More like, both Sis and Ghorush had such a love for cliffs, they were hanging off them any time they had to. Literally cliffhangers!
And it all started when Sis punched right through Ghorush’s axe, continuing my tradition of destroying my opponent’s equipment. However, her arm was stuck in the large weapon, and Ghorush didn’t take so kindly to it as he literally took this chance to slam her to the ground with it. Although she freed himself, the leonid smirked before he dug his destroyed weapon into the ground…
… causing the whole cliff to break apart.
“Wraaaaaaaaah?!” Sis shrieked as she lost solid ground under her, falling headfast from the landslide.
“Ghuhahahahahaha! Let us die together in a blaze of fire! Ghraaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Ancestors, watch me fight! Elemental Kings, watch me DIE!” Finally, when the tension reached its peak, Ghorush showed his berserker tendency. With a loud proclamation of his faith towards the elemental kings — the old gods, or “primarchs,” as Mother called them — he charged his mana into his axe, preparing himself for the match-ending attack.
Due to all the rocks falling down with her, Neill fell onto one of them and immediately recovered. Seeing Ghorush planning something, Neill kept jumping deep towards the ground, trying to evade the rubble and Ghorush.
The leonid, on the other hand, kept his axe raised as he fell onto one of the falling rocks. The black blade grew further in size as its master kept following Sis, trying to reach her before the landslide fell onto the ground. It would only take seconds for that to happen, but from how fast those two were moving, it felt like even time stopped for them.
“Ghuhahahahahahaha!” Ghorush laughed maniacally as the blade reached the size of a boulder. He tensed his legs and jumped forth, holding his weapon to cleave her apart!
“Neill!” I shot up, realizing the trajectory and speed of his descent were enough for him to reach Neill with his enlarged weapon. She had dodged, now! “Dodge!”
“Ghuhahahahah! Let us dine in Marsven’s oblivion! Bravery’s Doom!”
A chill ran down my spine as I watched Neill turn her head around to the sky…
… with a smirk formed on her blue face.
“Freikugel!”
The blue disappeared from her face, showing off how they were just dragon paths, accumulating all that energy into her kirin horn, causing it to shoot out purple lightning. And in the next moment, that horn of hers shot out a laser from pure mana, piercing right through Ghorush’s arms, leaving large holes in both of them.
“Huh?” The leonid’s eyes widened as he glanced at his arms, letting go of his weapon due to a loss of important muscles.
“Good match!” Neill shouted as she began gathering mana around her hands, forming it into a ball. “Pulse Arcana!”
Throwing the ball out like a baseball, Ghorush could only laugh as the attack consumed him whole, unable to dodge without [Air Walk]. In the next moment, a brilliant light shot out, retreating from the arena.
“AND WE HAVE A WINNER! IN THE MOST CATACLYSMIC WAY POSSIBLE!”
“Remember my freaking name, HUMANS! FARGRYNEILL!”
“YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! NEILL!”
And I couldn’t help but be the first to cheer for her victory.