The atmosphere in the stadium totally changed. The surprised crowd instantly emitted a vibe of excitement. I made a promise and I was ready to fulfil it. Hayate managed to win the tournament, so now it was my turn to fight him.

“Don’t expect me to go easy on you.”(Me)

I said and jumped down from the lounge.

“I wouldn’t want it, even if you were to go easy.”(Hayate)

We stood face to face and I would soon have my first real fight against another god. I felt nervous extremely nervous. My reputation was on the line. I couldn’t afford a loss.

“Do you want any restrictions?”(Me)

“Definitely not. I already told you not to go easy on me. Fighting at full strength is the best.”(Hayate)

“Just don’t come crawling up to me later.”(Me)

“I could say the same to you.”(Hayate)

“Haha.”(Me)

The referee was an experienced fighter and normally he would be on stage to watch over the match but he decided to stand back at a safe distance this time. He knew the high risk of being in the way and receiving an attack and stepped back.

“Are you ready?”(Referee)

There was no need to answer that question. Hayate gathered his mana, while I went into my black form and the fight more or less already began before the referee could start it. It was pretty even. I had more mana, while he had limitless attack potential.

It was obvious that no one of us wanted to make the first move. I was sure that aside from his strange attack, he also prepared a special defence. On the other hand, Hayate knew nothing about my fighting style or my heavy aura.

“If you don’t come at me, I’ll go first.”(Me)

I haven’t fought for real in a while and my fighting senses became a bit rusty. I knew that I couldn’t win this with sheer strength alone, because he probably had more raw strength than me. I had to use my mana advantage. My plan was to exhaust him with smaller attacks and finish everything off with one final attack.

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I leapt forward and used the easiest magic with the least mana consumption I knew of. The basic fireball. It wasn’t a strong attack, but it was fast to cast and annoying to dodge. Moreover, I didn’t only threw one, five were flying at him at once. Each of them came from another angle.

He first jumped to his right to dodge three of them, ducked to avoid the fourth and blocked the last with his arms crossed. I knew he wouldn’t show me his ace at the beginning so I choose a method that would definitely hit and deal some small damage.

“Nice attack.”(Hayate)

“This is only the beginning.”(Me)

“Right.”(Hayate)

After my fireballs, we engaged into close combat. Hayate didn’t give me any time to use magic and without the help of magic, I was at a clear disadvantage. I somehow managed to hold my ground though. Even if I was pushed back many times, I just created some distance between us and the fistfight began anew. Luckily, I only received some minor bruises out of that fight.

“This is boring.”(Hayate)

We were already sweating, but our stamina wasn’t even close to exhausted.

“Let’s get serious now.”(Hayate)

“Fine. I had the last attack so now it’s your turn.”(Me)

I have seen his attacks from afar, but this was the first time I would get to see them up close. As always, he focused his mana in his legs. I came up with a stupid idea. If I succeeded, it would give me a huge advantage in this fight, but if I failed, I would receive one of his attacks without any defence.

“You should put up a barrier or something like that to defend.”(Hayate)

“No need for something like that.”(Me)

“Are you sure? No one ever managed to block or dodge my attack, you should think about it twice.”(Hayate)

“You shouldn’t worry about your opponent.”(Me)

I readied myself. I needed to be able to react at any time. One slight hesitation and I was done for.

“Hmpf.”(Hayate)

He took a position as if he’d start running soon. Then without any signal, he disappeared. As fast as I could react, which was almost at the same time, I used my magic. Everything around me started to slow down.

It was extremely exhausting and I felt my mana draining at an astonishing rate, but all that mattered to me was that I succeeded. I was able to see his attack. It wasn’t slow motion as I hoped it to be, but I could see everything. I watched him run at me and with a lot of effort; I jumped backwards, while twisting my body.

Everything happened in an instance. Hayate disappeared and reappeared at the other end of the arena. Even though I dodged his attack, I couldn’t balance myself and fell down. The whole crowd went crazy. In that split moment, it looked like he hit me, but after I stood up, everyone knew I somehow managed to dodge his almost perfect attack.

“Haha.”(Me)

I couldn’t hold back my excitement nor my laughter.

“You…” (Hayate)

He was shocked. Well it was obvious that he would be. No one managed to even block his attack yet and it looked like I just easily dodged it.

“How did you do that?”(Hayate)

“It’s called time magic.”(Me)

“What?”(Hayate)

It was a fatal mistake to be confused in a fight of this extent. Normally I would take advantage of him letting down his guard, but I wanted to enjoy this fight, so I overlooked it.

“You shouldn’t be surprised about that.”(Me)

I became extremely confident. I just saw everything of his attack. It’s pattern, it’s strengths it’s weakness, etc. I thought, what if I try to copy it. I focused my mana in my legs. As soon as Hayate saw this, his eyes widened and he opened his mouth in disbelieve.

“Here I come.”(Me)

Without thinking about it any further, I leapt forward with all my strength. The result; I totally missed him and crashed into the wall at the other end of the arena. The impact even destroyed some parts of it.

“Ouch. That was a stupid idea.”(Me)

I more or less just blew away my advantage. While throwing some of the stones off my body, I stood up and readied myself again. I even took out a sword of my space inventory to make sure not to lose in close combat again.

“We can continue now.”(Me)

Hayate needed a few seconds to give me his answer.

“Fuck this. I give up.”(Hayate)

“Eh?!”(Me)