Logan shook with anticipation for the upcoming match. Was he to face his blood brother in combat, or someone even stronger that broke that bond in two to face him instead?

Exiting to the arena grounds of Gauntlet’s Yestar Tournament, Logan gripped tightly onto his destiny, just as the landmass did to the sea. The rallying cheers of the crowds pulled Logan onto the stage of the final battle.

Placing a hand over his forehead to block the harsher sun, Logan squinted as he gazed at the far side of the Coliseum. Approaching opposite him was a strong sight. Marcus. Gone was the timid and somewhat scared adventurer of four months ago, replaced with a sturdy man. Both confident in power and personality, Marcus smiled as he spotted Logan.

Their unseen auras had been quite opposed. Logan was a Spellthief, adept at taking control of others’ powers to utilize for his own. Subterfuge and stealthy kills. Marcus was a Devout, trained in healing arts to keep all those around him alive, always giving. Encouraging and granting a helping hand.

The sun beaded down harsh rays from the azure sky, Logan was always impressed by how the tournament’s sandstone floor was repaired for every match, even more so with the bright light of the sun reflecting off of morning rain. That same light did wonders to show off Marcus’s new equipment.

No longer sporting the recluse, and back-formation style of magi, Marcus looked primed for the frontlines. Metallic gauntlets covered his hands, while metal-plated boots adorned his feet, making him look a veritable wartime pugilist. His coat had been exchanged for one of white hues that was opened to a red tunic underneath that matched his headband under his fringe.

Marcus’s yellow eyes met the rays of the sun and glinted as if he were holy and divine, his coat bringing sensations of hospice to some while drudging up some painful memories for Logan.

Marcus barely hid a fist bump into his side as his smile widened.

“I see you’ve changed since the tournament began!” Logan shouted as he continued to walk toward Marcus.

Marcus patted the sides of his coat away in a flourish, “I’ve gotta keep up with the new fashion”, he laughed.

“So, this was no divination?”

Marcus looked to the side as if deflecting a teasing blow, tutting, “The last blessing I received was your arrival, Logan”, he replied as he held up a fist.

Logan bumped the fist with his own, “Please. You just needed a hand to pat your back, push you forward.”

“More like pushed off a cliff, this journey has been so fast-paced I’m surprised our hair stayed flat”, Marcus laughed.

Rebrin, one of the commentators, voice then rang over the pair, “It looks like the Guildmaster and Sub-Leader of Vip are quite close. Once they’ve returned to the starting positions we’ll start what will be quite the climatic final match of the 21 through 25 division.”

Marcus took a step back and made the similar gesture of three fingers close together, and the other hand’s fingers held horizontally over them.

Logan smiled and dipped his head a bit before making the same motion.

“A call of rule removal!” Strolbem shouted, his gashriek ridged skin almost electric with excitement. “This ‘will’ be a match to remember folks.”

“Unburdened magic and unrivalled fury are sure to await us”, Rebrin added.

Logan and Marcus then moved a hundred feet apart.

“Friends, today you compete not just as rivals on the battleground, but as heads of your guild. Show us just how strong your leadership is, as well as the ties that bind your guild together within Gauntlet”, Bref narrated.

Getting into readied positions, the pair stared each other down. Logan took out his frozen lord edge and formed shadows in his off-hand, his vaskt eyes appearing in anticipation. Marcus took up a stance where one hand was out, his pointer and middle fingers together while his others were closed, they were rotated horizontally, with the other hand doing the same but closer to his chest.

LotS - Chapter 178 - Tournament LOW RES 5MB [https://i.postimg.cc/MqXCf83Y/Lot-S-Chapter-178-Tournament-LOW-RES-5-MB.jpg]

Instead of the usual call to start the combat, the commentators let loose a bolt of lightning that hit the centre of the sky above the sandstone arena. Rumbling around, the lightning dissipated as it let off a sound reminiscent of a gong combined with static.

At the same time, Logan activated his oni’s mask, granting himself 11 reduction and 22% resistance to light damage, the type that the Blest spell dealt.

Both opponents darted at one another. Almost in sync, they both warped to their centres and blasted into existence where the other was. Closing more distance, the pair teleported simultaneously again, now only a few steps away from one another.

Logan made a piercing lunge with his dagger, while Marcus moved inward and hit the outside of his forearm into Logan’s inner forearm to deflect the strike. Bringing an uppercut at Logan, Marcus’s fist was grappled by a shadowy claw from the Spellthief. Before the claws could dig deep, the pair apparated in the other’s shoes once again.

Marcus appeared in the air as he made a forward kick at Logan. The Spellthief bent backwards as he brought up his dagger again to stab at the Devout’s calve.

With an open palm, Marcus chanted, “Gaia Branch”, causing a smooth pole of rock to erupt from his hand and crash into the floor, but it kept on going. The creation of minerals pushed Marcus to his side, as if he were creating terrain to shove him where he ordered. As his body rotated, Marcus swung his leg away and brought down a diving kick at Logan with the opposing leg.

Logan opened his off-hand and chanted, “Air Blast”, projecting himself backwards, away from the kick of his foe.

Marcus’s spell continued in his palm, creating a weird spiral of rock from the ground to his palm, only snapping off as Marcus landed upright on the ground.

“Now that’s new”, Logan spoke.

“Old, actually. It’s a dead alteration of Devouts past”, Marcus informed with a smirk.

Marcus then jumped twenty feet into the air, his body glowing grey as he Enhanced himself. With a massive jab into the ground, Marcus created a massive crater where Logan just was, the Spellthief blasting away from the havoc wrought by his ally.

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“Now this”, Marcus began as he dug his fist from the ground, “‘is’ new. I dubbed it Spell Fist, combining Branch with the melee arts of similarly Strength-gifted Devouts.”

Logan felt both honoured and saddened by the obvious naming after his class. Marcus had made something his own but still held too close to the Spellthief for his comfort.

“No other names on offer then?”

Marcus cracked bone and metal in his gauntlets, “An antithesis makes a great gap filler, wouldn’t you say? It may be developed to take you down, but it’ll help you just as well”, Marcus informed.

It wasn’t far from the truth. This new Branch alteration was harder for Logan to absorb, as he needed to touch it to do so. But since it was more used to create difficult terrain or as a means to propel his foe, Logan had little counter to it besides normal means.

With a swift movement, Logan snapped his fingers and let loose a blast of silentcast Flame Shot at Marcus. The Devout easily punched through the fires, but further flames came at his back as Logan momentarily dropped his dagger to make a Skystrike from the rear.

“C’mon. Harsher!” Marcus taunted. Aiming two hands at the ground, Marcus produced two more tall pillars of stone from his palms. They weren’t overly thick, but as they were magically crafted they were dense. Utilizing his earthen elevator, Marcus let go of the Branches as they reached the top part of the arena’s barrier, creating a tall obstruction for the battleground.

Grabbing the pillars, Marcus spun through them and created two more that attached to the previous and shot him towards Logan at a steady speed.

“Haste”, Logan chanted.

“Same!” Marcus yelled, not chanting.

The pair’s speed increased horrendously as Marcus landed with a massive fist on the ground again, causing Logan to stumble back.

Driving his fist through the floor, Marcus uppercut at Logan again with rocks coming with him. “Gaia Branch”, he chanted twice, two pillars forming at the soles of his feet, pushing his momentum forward again.

Logan backstepped to dodge the blows but had to start jumping here and there to keep ahead of his foe. While his Agility may have been higher, Marcus was able to match it with enhancing magic and the use of Branch.

“When did he get so fierce?” Logan thought to himself.

“Let’s take this up a notch!” Marcus demanded as he span with a diagonal downward kick at Logan, creating another dangerous hole in the ground. Returning to a tall stance, Marcus opened his palms, clenched them and drew them close to his sides, the grey aura around himself bulging out and intensifying its energies.

Kicking off the ground, the whole arena shook, Marcus aimed a straight jab at Logan’s face which the Spellthief avoided with another teleport to the other side of the battlefield. The force of Marcus’s strike caused a line of destruction to erupt all the way to the wall where Logan once was, causing the barrier to shine white as it defended against his might.

“Look at that folks! What an amazing attack from Marcus”, Rebrin narrated.

“Where is this power coming from?” Strolbem asked.

“Enhancing Burst. It is a powerful skill open to Devouts of incredible faith. It reduces the duration of their Enhance spells but in return, it amplifies their effects twofold”, Bref explained.

The crowd began to cheer louder, “Go Blessed One!” “Blessed Fist!” “Blessed Devout”.

Logan’s form dissipated to all but those in the stands, while invisible he made his way towards Marcus.

“You looking to run out the timer? No chance. Gaia Branch”, Marcus retorted, waving his hands quickly as he created long poles of rock that snaked across the arena and into the opposite wall, placing his hands on the floor he connected the other end.

Jumping atop the branches, Marcus ran across them and moved his head around the arena.

“He’s stopping me from moving into the smoother parts of the floor”, Logan realised as he eyed the numerous winding pillars of rock that only allowed the rubbled areas to be passed.

Logan quickly jumped to one of the branches Marcus had formed and clung onto it, its stony exterior making little noise as the man dangled there. He only needed to buy time for Marcus’s improvements to dissipate. But it wouldn’t be so easy.

Sliding to a stop atop his winding horizontal pillars, Marcus brought both hands together and aimed them at the sky, “Rain, Rain”, he chanted, causing the minor clouds in the sky to rumble before producing a downpour on the arena.

As droplets ran across the battlefield, Marcus’s eyes scanned over it. While Logan was invisible, his body still existed. Blocking a portion of the rain would mark where he stood, or rather, hung. However, Marcus lacked the vaskt eyes that Logan did, making it a harder task than it would be for the Spellthief.

Logan quickly used his previous tactic, utilizing two silentcast Wind Skystrikes, to emulate a fake teleport at Marcus’s back. Marcus quickly made a spinning downward punch at where the air blasted at his back, the might of his strike parted the windy rain and smashed into the far wall and barrier of the arena.

Leaping high, Logan then let loose a stream of water hitting fires, producing a mass of fog that enveloped Marcus. While Logan’s form appeared again with this technique, he was hard to spot amongst the translucent haze. It was a good thing that the rains created by Marcus acted similar to normal rain, hardly putting a damper on the fog.

Drawing up twin Bowen daggers, Logan was primed to cut out at his vision-impaired foe. Thankfully, his intuition pulled him back as Marcus clapped his palms together with incredible intensity. The fog all around was brushed aside as if a typhoon just hit the damp arena.

The grey aura hugging Marcus dimmed somewhat, before exploding outwards into nothing. The Devout quickly reignited the grey aura, however, it was weaker than when Marcus had buffered it with his skill.

A flurry of punches flew towards Logan, the Spellthief deflecting the fists to his sides as his steel slid across the metallic gauntlets of his foe. Bringing up a knee, Marcus aimed to wind Logan with a gut hit, but Logan blocked it with his own knee, a blast of air erupting from both their forms as they collided.

Another set of strikes were sent to the side with slashes, Marcus then drew back both fists to his hips and thrust them outward to pound Logan’s chest. Logan struck downwards with his blades, directing Marcus’s fists to the floor as the daggers shattered.

“That’s the way!” Marcus called out, sweat across the sides of his face and anticipation flowing through his veins.

Excavating his arms from the floor, Marcus brought up two uppercuts to Logan. Logan sidestepped and grappled Marcus’s right arm, moving to drive his frozen lord edge into his foe’s chest with a reverse grip.

Before the blade reached Marcus, the Devout warped to his centre and appeared behind Logan. The Spellthief eyed his foe at the edge of his vaskt eyes, passed his off-hand behind himself, and chanted, “Frost Grasp”, a mist coating his hand as a fist met his palm.

Marcus’s fist was coated in ice as he failed to pull away in time, Logan turning to face his foe with a following slash of his artefact blade.

The Devout flexed his frozen hand and broke apart the ice with his gauntleted fingers. Making a fist again, he continued his torrent of punches at Logan.

Drawing up Amalia’s blade, Logan chanted, “Infuse Frost”, coating both blades in icicles to increase their damage, the frozen lord edge doubly so as it multiplied the damage from this type of infusement twofold.

As the fight continued, they exchanged fists and blades like a pair of dogs fighting for their terrain. Bludgeoning blows met diving daggers, flicks of ice flying into the air as the rain continued to fall from Marcus’s previous spells. Errant spouts of laughter and jests between the two combatants were overpowered by the cheers and awe of the astonished crowd.

These two weren’t just fighting for their entertainment or even the prize money on offer. This was their way of speaking the words they couldn’t find in conversation. Marcus wanted to know where they stood, while Logan wanted to appease his blood brother who had proven the will to see the other safe and sound was reciprocated.

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