Cecil scowled as he noticed something odd. Only one fight in the B block managed to occur; all of the other fights had either one or both participants missing.
“Volain, Midas, Nicole, and Ander.” Cecil muttered as he watched Damian dance through his opponent's guard and land a kick on Sinbad’s chest.
Sinbad snarled and he vanished from sight for a brief moment. His body moving too fast for a human to see without overclocking their perception.
Damian smirked as he too became a blur. Despite the fact that many fights were missed this was by far one of the best fights they had seen.
Sinbad fired a ball of mana toward Damian from his mouth.
Damian whirled as he spun through the attack, cutting the ball into two halves that landed on the ground. Each half-erased the portion of the ground where it landed as he closed the distance and swept his legs.
Sinbad hadn’t fully armored up as he wanted to save that for the actual tournament. He also needed a faster reaction speed to deal with this opponent. As it was now he was barely keeping up, even with his power to slow time to a degree and accelerate his perception. This opponent was still moving at a level past his.
The longer they fought, the more Sinbad realized his moves were being anticipated. He was moving at a set rhythm. Changing now would be dangerous as that instant would leave him open to a finishing strike. He knew that but it didn’t stop him from trying.
Sinbad hunkered down and entered a guard as a wave of blue force meant to slow him down had been cut in half by the swordsman. Both halves fell to the ground as Damian passed by Sinbad and used his momentum to throw his opponent off the edge of the ring.
Damian was exhausted as wounds covered his body. He won his fight, yet no one was speaking about his fight. No, the audience, referee, and even Sinbad himself had their eyes trained on an Azure tornado made of fire piercing the clouds above. Big enough to be seen from a distance but clearly out of the city proper.
The fire was followed by a blood-curdling scream so loud that it chilled many spectators to the bone.
Bastion clutched his chest and stumbled out of his seat as his heart began to ache and his blood began to flow from his eyes before he passed out.
Lin was a coordinator, her position on the team she picked was essentially like a sponsorship. She was not supposed to get involved with the participants in any way shape or form. The situation as it stood was quite surprising.
Lin sat across from Nicole, both were in a tea shop. Lin was surprised by the invitation as she observed the spirit master.
“Why do you smell like him?” Nicole stirred her tea as she asked this her expression blank, her eyes, wild and sleep-deprived.
“Like who?” Lin felt insulted for a brief moment before it passed and she realized that there was a flower laced into her sleeve. She would remove it after this encounter.
“His mana is on you. I won’t say his name here.”
“Oh mana…What are you going on about?” Lin sighed.
Nicole’s left eye twitched as some of the hair on her head began to try standing up.
Lin seemed to understand why Rion avoided her like the plague. This girl was more than a few bricks short of a wall.
“Red hair, green eyes, mole next to his eye. He’s also quite tall.”
“How tall is quite?”
“Around six-eight.”
“I do not know anyone with that height.” Lin stated as she waved a hand over her tea, cooling it with mana.
“What about the eyes and hair color?”
“I have met miss Asela before. But she doesn’t fit your height requirements.” Lin stated as she took a sip of her tea.
“Is that so?” Nicole closed her eyes.
“It is. I was informed that there was a red-haired member of Team Drisil but the closest to that it Rion, and he has orange hair and is quite rude. I was told that the previous captain died in your country.” Lin shook her head.
A figure flew through the tea shop passing through walls as they soon exited out of the other end. Their body broken and shattered, was followed by a warrior cloaked in flame flying through the shop and retrieving their baggage before flying out of the city while carrying them. Silver ichor burned the ground where the figure passed.
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When Kyrion decided that he needed to die one more time to set things back on the right path. He hadn’t thought that someone else would initiate the attack by jumping him while he was on a walk. It wasn’t just one assassin, and it wasn’t Everest. A third party had been recruited, and much more quickly than he had expected.
Two students from the Sunburst monastery had engaged him in the opening. Their bodies took on strange forms as horns grew from their heads, and their bodies grew deformed while fur grew from their skin which had taken on a red tinge where fur didn’t cover.
“You will die demon slayer!” The one on the left started.
“Yesss, we wont be bessted in physical sstrength or by fire. You will die for your inssolance.” The one on the right hissed.
“Who sent you?” The young man asked.
“We sent ourselves.” The one on the left answered.
“No. You didn’t.” Kyrion swiped his right hand down with a chop powered by wind and fire mana, the white flames passing through the demon, and killing it quickly and without much effort. Much to their surprise. He hadn’t tried to purify it.
“Who sent you?” Kyrion asked the second.
“The one called…!” A long rod of gold passed into the demon’s chest going through its heart and killing it.
Kyrion turned around to see three figures standing on the rooftop. Lisa along with her captain Milo, and a semi-conscious Midas. Lisa’s hands were draped over his skull.
“So! Your finishing the job by killing innocent students from team Sunburst! How cruel. Disgusting to think that someone like you us picking on the weak! Wasn’t their headmaster enough for you?!” Milo stated with a smirk.
Rion’s eyes became suns as he looked down at the two students. They were both demon-possessed. Why is he trying to discredit me? No. Distraction.
Kyrion rolled to the side as Edwin appeared behind Kyrion. Having gained another foot and a half in height along with quite a few muscles since our fight a few loops back.
The hawk-faced man had attempted to rip his spine out with those claws of his.
“Ok… Now this isn’t remotely fair.” Kyrion said as he looked about, and finally understood something. Milo was his enemy, not an ally. While it may not be news to anyone else, for him that was quite big. It put things in perspective.
“Fights are hardly fair endeavors. We know you're hiding your real captain somewhere. And we’re going to use you to bring him out.”
Instead of drawing things out, Kyrion drove his elbow into Edwin’s neck with a spin, propelling him further with a burst of flame. And he didn’t stop pushing until I should have heard a crack.
Sadly Edwin was only sent flying backward from the blow, his body unmarred.
“An expert’s body.” Kyrion said, mock dumbfounded.
He clearly didn’t have the talent, strength, or skill to overcome Kyrion’s natural endurance. But he did have an expert's endurance. Something Kyrion knew already but pretended he didn't.
This wasn’t a tournament fight so Kyrion didn’t have to worry about rules but depending on how much they remembered, certain techniques were off the table.
Kyrion then shrouded himself in an aura of fire hot enough to melt stone.
Edwin ran towards Kyrion with his black-taloned gauntlet and plunged it forward.
It was a simple counter as Kyrion moved into the attack grabbed his head and jumped. His prepped knee propelled further by fire slammed into his jaw. Despite Kyrion’s ability to kill or permanently injure him through raw power. He could shake his brain enough to give him a concussion and rattle his brain for a moment. What Kyrion did to him would have smashed the skull of an average practitioner. Which is why He didn’t intend on using such moves during a tournament.
Edwin tried to stumble but Kyrion held his head in a vice which rattled it even more as the young man squeezed.
Flying up with wings made of flame Kyrion flung Edwin out of the city proper. Which would slow him down briefly. The best way to deal with an expert is to procrastinate if you can’t overcome their defenses.
Kyrion then flew forwards toward Milo to take him out early.
Milo briefly took a step back at the casual raw power just displayed. He was clearly surprised. Must have bought in that I was a braggart they picked up at the last minute.
Lisa intercepted his approach as she launched herself forward. Stabbing him through the gut with her black blade.
That's where Lisa messed up, with her power she’d have to trick his brain into believing that the sword was real. Usually through disrupting Kyrion’s pain receptors. Sadly those were already under his control and her brief attempt to alter his sensations in that area only lowered them. Pain, was something Kyrion grew used to long ago after all.
Kyrion slammed an elbow into Lisa's head and then threw her body off the edge of the wooden ledges.
Midas shot two golden rods into Kyrion’s chest both of which clattered to the ground and shattered after landing. His body proved too strong to be pierced by such a messy attack.
“Wait your turn ant. I’ll roast you after I take care of this lizard.” Kyrion said as heat waves shot from my body and he punched Milo with enough force to send him flying out of the city with a brief surprise appended to the end of the strike. The surprised young man was rocketed off by delayed trailing explosions.
Midas turned to run. So Kyrion reached out and grabbed his shoulder, noticing that the bones hadn’t fused properly. So he snapped it again.
“This is strike three Midas.Got anything to say?”
“You're the one who killed me first. Yesterday, I remember. You have no right to be on a high horse. The time before that as well. You can't hide your shape changing ways I just want it to…ahh!”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Kyrion may have squeezed the wound and pierced his flesh letting his mana work through his nervous system killing the mana that had been used to alter his memories. “Who killed you last time?”
“A figure, with red hair and green eyes stabbed a blade through his heart. You did you heartless…” Midas said confused.
“And my hair is.” Kyrion scowled as he recognized the effect. Midas could see the disguise due to Kyrion’s connection to his core increasing in strength.
“Orange. What the hell is going on, it was red moments ago?” Midas’ eyes shot open as he looked about. “You couldn’t be the one who killed me. But something is telling me that you have the same features.”
Midas couldn’t lie and while unaware of it himself. He was internally panicking.
Kyrion scowled as well because outside of Asela very few meet those requirements. As Kyrion focused he noticed that he felt a presence behind himself and moved out of the way. As Milo returned. His hair had become the color of blood while his eyes an odd green that did not match his own. His body was covered in black armor as he stabbed a lance through his chest. Kyrion pushed Midas as far away as he could to avoid the strike. Luckily for me, he missed the heart completely.
“Nice try but its over.“ Milo said.
"You just tried to save me. Why…!” Midas asked as he landed with a roll.
“Because we needed you to find someone for us, and now you’ve outlived your usefulness.”
“How many times have you killed him?” Kyrion asked.
“At least twice. Why?” Milo asked unaware Kyrion was manipulating him.
“At least. Now that's interesting. Because it isn’t an exact number. Is that your final answer?” Kyrion tilted his head to the right side. The young man placed a hand around the lance in his chest. With an exertion of mana, he snapped the magical weapon in half before jumping into a doorway through space that caused him to reappear thirty feet away. From there he pulled the rest of the lance out of his chest and proceeded to drink a vial of pomegranate juice as he used it to hide his natural regeneration under the guise of a healing potion.
Milo snapped his fingers and the roof Edwin had been behind readying himself to strike was silent.
Milo snapped multiple times and nothing happened.
“There's no music playing so why are you snapping off beat?” Kyrion asked with a smug look as he flew towards Milo his burning wings getting hotter and brighter.
“You couldn’t have done anything, you were standing right here the whole time! Wipe that smug look off your face.”
“Is that so?” Kyrion then tilted his head to the left.
“You bastard!” Midas yelled as someone caught him in mid-air and transferred him across the gap.
Said someone was Volain, who moved with a resigned expression. His eyes sized up Milo as he passed.
“What are you planning?” Milo asked as he began to circle me.
“To end this cycle.”
“Your a cryptic one aren’t you.”
“From your spark, all life is born,
With your rage, life ends.
A primordial aspect of a world now torn
Flames of the abyss come forth and rend.”
Kyrion chanted a spell for a partial manifestation and drew his greatsword. Limiting his power to mostly fire had an odd look. His antlers sprouted from his head but their color was black instead of brown while a circle of fire rotated behind his back.
“Why are you entering your manifestation now? Shouldn’t you save it for the tournament?” Milo mocked.
“Bah, what's the point in having power when I can’t use is?” Kyroin said as he withdrew a vial of power and appeared to plunge it into his arm. What he was doing was depositing the liquid through a hole in his domain. The flames around him hid the opening.
“You fool! I just need to last five minuets and you’re dead!” Milo took a defensive stance.
Milo expected to be much stronger and while Kyrion hadn’t been holding back much when fighting Edwin. Milo only experienced a sixteenth of Kyrion’s limited strength. And so when he moved forward now he did so with a full one-fourth of his power. Each step propelled him forward ten feet as Kyrion closed the distanced in an instant and passed by him with a lariat.
Milo shocked by the speed barely ducked under the blow and countered with a punch to Rion’s ribs meant to knock him off balance.
Kyrion slammed his elbow into the top of his head surprised by his durability and followed it up with a kick aimed at his midsection.
Milo let himself get kicked and countered by stabbing a blade of mana into Rion’s gut.
The kick however sent Milo flying through a tea shop on top of breaking quite a few bones on impact.
Kyrion looked down and noticed that the wound inflicted on his stomach wasn’t closing as fast as it should the nature of the strike slowing regeneration. It didn’t stop his healing completely. Within ten seconds the hole in his organs closed up and he gave chase. Flying through the tea shop and hefting the battered doppelganger in front of Nicole and Lin as he wanted them to see him toss them out of the city and give chase.
Milo shrieked as suddenly appeared above him and landed a fire-powered heavy drop kick on his head which caused him to land in the grass below.
Kyrion was very much surprised when he got up after that. While the least trained affinity fire was his most naturally offensive, and at the moment he was fighting at a level far above that of a normal practitioner. And despite the broken bones, he seemed perfectly fine.
“Your holding back.” Kyrion said with a rather irritated expression.
“My power has a large splash zone. I must thank you for the ride.” Black-scale armor covered Milo from head to toe as blue energy formed in his mouth which was soon covered by a dragon-like helmet. His red hair flowed out of the back.
Milo then vanished from his sight moving at a level I hadn’t been ready for as he landed a flurry of punches to Kyrion’s midsection and fired off a blast of light blue mana that sent Kyrion flying into a tree. His regeneration was halted by the effects of the magic as though it was fighting off a continuous attack.
“What is this?” Kyrion said as he watched his skin regenerate wrong before flaking off.
“Mother calls it venom fire. Because what it burns stays burned no matter what. There is no flame hotter than what I'm throwing at you. You will die Rion, and then I’ll eat your body and absorb its potential.”
“And here I thought you wanted me alive to tell you where Kyrion is.” Kyrion popped his shoulder and smirked as he re-engaged Milo.
As it turned out, Milo had let Kyrion hit him to get a solid gauge of his technique and abilities. Something he expected would happen if he participated in the tournament. Unluckily for him, Kyrion still had more power in the tank and was fighting like a brawler previously.
Taking his sword into both hands he moved forward and opened up with a flurry of sword strikes aimed to do minimal damage on hit as an attempt to gauge the limits of his speed.
Milo evaded nine of ten strikes the last one landing on his shoulder and skidding to the ground as the scales deflected most of its power.
With that hit, Milo conjured a blade of blue mana which was used to cut off Kyrion’s left hand. As it fell to the ground it was immediately covered in azure flames and disintegrated.
“Now thats not very nice.” Kyrion said in mock surprise. Regrowing a new hand would take a long time and a lot of concentration, especially with the wounds Milo’s weapon caused to his body. It was a perfect counter.
“Gamodren trained you to beat our captain, didn’t he?” Kyrion said with a mock dumbfounded expression.
“A useless agent but a decent instructor, that useless half brother of mine is. Venom fire isn’t easy to heal and the best way to beat him is to not give him a chance to set me up. But you aren’t him”
“I see.” Kyrion nodded while increasing his capabilities by overclocking his brain. In his current state, he could move fast enough to leave shockwaves behind after each step. Kyrion moved forward his sword leaving a pattern of mana behind as he let loose a flurry of sword strikes powered by mana. Where he cut the wind screamed, the earth groaned, the fire roared, and his blood boiled. The force of his swings caused Milo to retreat, as each seemed to be capable of severing flesh from bone.
Before Milo could land on his feet, Kyrion swung his blade across with the rage of an angry volcano and cut off both of his legs leaving the young man a torso and head as he swiftly took his arms next.
“You! Will die!” Milo yelled as Kyrion approached him from above and wrapped his good hand around Milo’s neck. With some focus, Kyrion increased keratin production in his nails and sharpened them to the point where they broke through Milo’s skin. From there he sent his mana into Milo’s brain and began to extract memories and information for later examination. When he finished tracing all changes in the memory cortex, Kyrion began to overload the organ as he began to purge all information gained within the last twenty-four hours. It was quick and as Milo began to bleed out Kyrion sealed the wounds, prolonging his life slightly while he finished his grizzly work.
Before Kyrion could kill him however a hand poked him on the back twice and Kyrion noticed his heart stop beating. At this point in his training, it was a minor inconvenience. So long as Kyrion stayed conscious he could repair it through regeneration while manually keeping it going. The main issue involved was that until he got it going his focus would be shot. The secondary issue was that he couldn’t fix it quickly due to Milo’s weird magic lingering.
A bestial thought process slowly began to surface as Kyrion hurridly threw what remained of Milo into a tree and turned to his next opponent.
“Did you just stop my heart?” Kyrion grunted as he turned to face a woman around his height with a familiar face, red hair, and green eyes. Only the body was female and for some reason, Kyrion felt nauseous and tired.
“How are you still alive?” The figure asked as they leaped back in confusion.
“Ah. That should have killed me then. Interesting.” Kyrion noticed the movement, and in that instant, he sent a jolt through his heart to start it back up before protecting it with a layer of mana.
“What have you? You can’t just start your heart back up after a heart attack.”
“There is a diffrence between a Heart Attack and a heart attack.” Kyrion squinted as spots in his vision began to fade. He had been closer to death than he had thought and got the feeling that if he died here, he wouldn’t come back when time reversed.
“Thats impossibe.” The figure stated.
“No my dear sister. Your just bad at this. Who are you anyways?” Kyrion spat blood on the grass as the radiation in his body began to fade.
“You’re insane.” She said.
“No I’m Rion, You’re Insane, is your name? How sad.” Kyrion quipped back, people really should know not to give him this much time to heal. All he needed to be perfect was another sandwich. Man did he need a sandwich. Maybe he could work a last meal into this fight.
His opponent saw that he wasn’t paying attention before closing the distance, and aiming five attacks at him in a strange yet familiar style, each attack capable of stopping Kyrion’s ability to use mana, or send mana to a limb by creating a blocker. A technique he learned from Exac but wasn’t able to reproduce at his teacher's level. He did however learn how to counter it.
As a casual flex, he took each attack head-on as he pulled a loaf of bread out of his domain and tossed it up in the air.
A slice aimed to block the signals in Kyrion’s brain, instead sliced the bread in half as Kyrion let out a wave of flame that pushed his opponent back and perfectly toasted the bread which Kyrion caught before withdrawing Mayo, one of Cecil's greatest contributions to sandwiches, and the world. He tossed the jar into the air with the toasted bread as he moved forward to attack his opponent in a mimicked series of pokes that made them widen their eyes as their left arm went numb and their body sluggish.
A kick aimed at Kyrion’s head missed. Hitting the jar of mayo, and shattering it as his bread was then covered perfectly on both ends. Catching the bread through the flurry of glass Kyrion then tossed the bread into the air again and tossed up various cuts of meat, a package of seasoning, and some cheese as his opponent took to the air to land a flying kick.
That was a mistake, taking in a deep breath Kyrion let loose a blast of fire that singed everything it touched and cooked his meat and cheese together as they then landed perfectly on the bread. From there He took out some pre-cut vegetables and placed them on the sandwich.
“Bone appetite.” Kyrion stated in the magic words he heard Cecil use once.
“You used me to make a sandwich.” Kyrion’s nameless opponent stated in shock as her eyebrows fell from her face having been stealthfully and perfectly burned off without harming the skin.
“And you enabled me to do it by stalling so that your comrade could get healing. Saddly it wont work.” Kyrion snapped his fingers and a vine shot from the ground to entangle a surprised Lisa.
When his opponent noticed the vines Kyrion took the chance to wolf down the hoagie before drinking a cup of water.
“Alright now I’m ready. Although I forgot the pickles. Any chance you’ll let me make a second sandwich?” Kyrion pulled out a jar of pickles threateningly.
“You’ll regret playing with me.”
“Nah. By now my allies should be arriving.” Kyrion said as he leaned back and hurled the pickle jar at the bound Lisa the glass hitting hard enough to shatter as cuts and pickle juice coated her body. The strange woman let out a blood-curdling scream before turning into amorphous black flames and engulfing Milo.
Kyrion’s opponent stabbed a hand through his chest, as he watched the scene. From there she tried to pull out Kyrion’s heart only to find resistance.
“What have you done?”
Kyrion grabbed his opponent’s shoulder, plunged his fist into her gut, and shattered her ribs, the blow sending them into a tree. Unable to get back to their feet fast enough to stop him.
“Become ash.” Kyrion whispered as his right hand was shrouded in a torrent of fire and wind. He swiped it downward as a pillar of flame engulfed Lisa and Milo.
Kyrion watched as a tornado of blue flame enveloped his pillar, one up from the ground as Lisa disintegrated and his opponent retreated from the radius of the strange magic. Then he felt all his plants die or begin to die as something on the ground began to change.
“Whats going on?” Kyrion asked nobody in particular.
Nobody answered, which was reassuring yet concerning as usually, his spirits would say something snarky. If they hadn’t then things were getting dangerous.
“Why isn’t anyone interfering? Should be the question.” Kyrion turned his head and sighed as he watched a bird enter the city and stop moving as though frozen in its position.