Minutes after his battle was done the final contestants also finished theirs and the round came to an abrupt early end with still twenty three minutes left on the clock, the announcer laughed to himself a little seeing the state of most contestants after the round. In this state they would not be able to operate at full capacity if the next round were to begin now, apart from their grievous injuries which were easily fixable there was also their mana pools which were almost depleted bar for the select few monsters present.
With an outstretched hand the arena lit up as a grand magic circle revealed itself, in seconds the contestants could feel both their injuries and mana pool recovering to their optimal states. The announcer began speaking, riling up the crowd and as he did the mind of Emrys couldn't help but wander, what would have happened if he had allowed the wraith take his soul and destroy it, would he have regenerated from even that too confirming his status as an immortal soul or would that have been one of the only few ways to kill him for now.
If he ever had the chance to experience something like that again Emrys wasn't sure he could control himself enough not to try something that risky, but for now even if he wanted he couldn't have allowed the wraith take his soul which would have led to his elimination from this tournament and therefore hypocritical of him when remembering his principles about promises.
"Welcome to the Quarterfinals people, the stakes are now truly real".
"This shall be the round where monsters fall one by one".
"They have been untouchable this tournament for the most part".
"Now they finally get the chance to pick on someone their own size".
"Betting shall be resumed as of this moment, choose your contestants wisely".
With a snap of his fingers, golden scrolls and the necessary writing tools appeared before specific members of the audience including those in the VIP section who had already registered themselves before the tournament began. The announcer looked at the number of contestants left, barely two hundred and with more to be lost very soon, the thought brought a smile to his face.
Once the registered members were done with the scrolls they vanished and with that the announcer clapped his hands a single time-
"Alright then, shall we begin"
He summoned a big cubic box with many little thin slats of wood inside and then sent it down to the contestants.
"This time you shall be drawing a rigged ballot, don't ask why, I just made this up on the spot".
"But still if you'd like to try and see if you could pick something different than what's preset for you then be my guest".
He showed a mischievously wide grin as he moved the box row by row amongst the contestants with them grabbing onto one piece until it was empty, then he retracted the box into his space as each contestant had a look at the names written down on the pieces they held.
For some neither were familiar with the names drawn but for most and especially a few of the most the names were all too recognised, little doorways were summoned beside each contestant of which they already knew what the next step was.
"You have a time limit of an hour which can be adjusted for less".
"And are allowed a maximum of two battles".
"Now go, the stage has already been set".
The contestants stepped through the doorways one after the other to find themselves at the new area set as the stage for this round, clouds. His feet only reaching an inch into them with every step he took and looking around he found that they were in a great open space created inside the clouds.
Once done with his little site-seeing Avistro glanced towards Zirsto who sat pretty comfortably in the air with one leg hanging downwards and the other crossed inside, his hands preoccupied with playing a calming melody using the air as his instrument.
Upon raising his gaze to meet his opponent a great wave of green mana emanated off his body as he sent a strong tune whistling forward with devastating might behind it's intent of which Avistro shattered to pieces with but a thought sending little broken shards of mana falling all around them.
No words need be exchanged between them, on this stage friendship held no weight, you simply just enemies and obstacles to be cleared on eachothers path to victory. These were two individuals who rarely had the heart to drag out a battle, there shall be no further testing of waters between them after this.
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The faint outline of a three meter tall siren was made visible behind Zirsto and it sung a melody so hauntingly beautiful yet filled with such volcanic rage it nearly tore down every last of his mental barriers and threatened to shatter his very being, not even a space devoid of sound would be able to stop her but Avistro would not find himself out of options still.
Mind's mirror -: <
The melody found itself getting reflected back onto both the caster and the Siren destroying her and causing a backlash upon Zirstos body, the treant took it well and ounce again tried to counter with another spell but his opponent would not sit idly as he launched a second counterattack.
Mind's mirror -: <
Zirsto found himself immobilized and trapped inside a crystal prison looking like fractures of many glass mirrors put together, but unfortunately what had been caught was merely a puppet body which Avistro had been aware of since the beginning and used this spell with that knowledge in mind for this one thing.
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The crystal prison broke apart into thousands of needle-like shards firing off in all directions, he needed but one shard to make contact with Zirstos true form and it's effect would take hold still. But Zirsto had acted fast in his preparation and rigged the field with a timed spell-
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The spell took hold almost immediately, a melody with hypnotic powers beyond compare had hijacked his own spell and very nearly his own body, the shards were turned around and shot at Avistro after just being a millimeter away from piercing Zirsto.
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He changed, the shards immediately slowed down to a crawl as he took a step forward and doublecast another.
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Mind's mirror -: <
The shards fade away to nothing and simultaneously both Zirsto and the Siren avatar behind him shattered into a hundred mirror fragments but the next instant he was back to being whole after an auto cast of <
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The faint outline of gigantic green cocoon was manifested around him and around each of his ten fingers little circles of magic steadily rotated, his mana spiked to high ends as he then pressed hard into air, it was like for a moment the space rippled and deformed accompanied by a simple constant static noise as everything within a hundred mile radius turned white, almost as if a portion of the world had been painted over.
But in the next instant it all began fading away revealing a world tainted by a greyish hue-
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Zirsto was down on his knees slumped forward and unable to move, in his mind he was experiencing a great surprise at what spell currently held him prisoner. Negation, a most powerful spell with the power of commands which can stack for a continuous effect and something that shouldn't be possible to learn unless one is of the affinity of either Anti-magic or
Checking his body Zirsto found that his great mana pool was now practically non-existent, if Avistro so wished right now so too could his lifeforce be snuffed out thereby temporarily killing Zirsto but that would prove impossible for himself at current, one cannot negate something infinite unless possessing infinite power in return, that was one of the rules of this spell.
This was why the best option was to go for his mana pool, it mattered not even if Zirsto possessed a mana pool larger than his because he would end still negating most if not all as he wished, though as of current Avistro knew only three of his peers who could boast to possess a mana pool greater than his but if he were to exclude them then it was without a doubt that he possessed the largest pool by far out of the rest of his monstrous peers.
Yet even though he boasted of such a great pool this spell had halved that in an instant, commands also had varying levels and just casting one of the lowest one had made it drop even further and this too without accounting for the cost of keeping it going, he would have only three minutes left at this rate but that would be more than enough.
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And with that the battle was over, Zirsto fell on his back unconscious, with the field of negation in effect he had no protection against a low level spell like this which would have backfired against his opponent had he attempted it at any given moment outside of this particular situation. Avistro released the spell and stood there in silence, neither had unleashed their domains, their familiars and neither had unleashed their avatars, it seemed no matter what, these would only ever be unleashed against absolute enemies destined for permanent death and oblivion.
"You did well Zirsto".
The little announcer popped up and questioned if he was ready for a second opponent of which he immediately agreed, a list of free candidates who had ended their battle just as fast as he were shown and it was quite short, numbering a total of five but in that number were two he recognized.
"I challenge him".
He pointed to his choice and the mini announcer smiled as he sent word of his challenge through his second self staying with the opponent and after getting his answer-
"Your challenge has been accepted".
In moments he was standing face to face with his opponent, Velkos. During their time back in that other realm something which shouldn't have come anywhere close to irking him did so after all, it was a first time feeling so underestimated and dismissed though he made that being eat it's words in the end this still did not quell the little thought that had taken root in his heart.
Who was the greater between them both, Avistro found it to be a most interesting thought to wonder as Velkos was indeed a most unique of his peers. Even with Ishmael's presence the reason he had made no such speculations concerning them was due to the simple fact that with him there was a particular level of certainty which would come as no surprise if the red dragon were to end up being greater than he after all, he was already sure of it to be the case.
Avistro could not really explain why being considered weaker than Velkos peeved him so, he wasn't exactly the type to be in a terrible mood because one of his peers were greater than him, in fact he was already accepting of the fact he knew of two to be greater and with a third who possessed a certainty about him. This did not mean he would be so easily contented with being the weakest, that would never be whether he liked it or not.
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Both stood there in silence, in truth they were simply biding time for their mana pools to return to optimal capacity, Avistro could sense some of Mavion's mana lingering in the air which confirmed to him that he was the opponent Velkos had fought and defeated. Though not once spoke aloud it was still pretty much a consensus amongst them that he was the weakest of his peers, their spars in that realm had confirmed at least this much though they mean it with no malice and not to take away either from just how annoying and dangerous he was to battle.
One of the only reasons his gift failed was due to their immortality, but one thing was for sure, facing Mavion it would be quite difficult coming out without suffering at least thousand impalements and a thousand cuts, and lots and absolute lots of headaches, the splashes of blood around Velkos served as further proof of that. A small smile graced Avistro's lips remembering the little bits of hell experienced at the hands of Mavion, it was no wonder he and Mordred got along so well the best out of the groups.
In a couple of minutes he was done, Velkos had finished earlier due to not having spent as much mana as he had to but with both back to their optimal peaks the battle could begin. Without saying a word both unleashed their mana like a dam bursting, Avistro clad in a golden yellow and Velkos a crimson red.
The clash divided the area into two equal parts, one entirely gold and other of crimson but the latter was eating into the formers half at a frightening pace but got overwhelmed again bringing them back to equilibrium.
In Avistro's golden irises a strange inscription almost resembling that of a clock fused with a magic circle was manifested and the rings spun at a steady pace, his body grew taller becoming encased in golden scales reaching up to his neck and forming a vicious mask with two horns that revealed only his golden eyes, his poisonous fangs grew a centimeter longer and his three inch retractable black claws got incomparably sharper.
Velkos not falling behind pushed his form into a hybrid state, on his faceless mask an opening for his eyes formed and a secong pair of eyes grew under the first as his hair turned ghastly white and now reached a length below his waist looking almost ethereal like an illusion. His body grew taller and his light red skin gained a much more saturated tone, in the centre of his chest was a black circular pattern with one long stem going downwards and from his shoulders down to his fingers a fitting gauntlet made entirely of blood was manifested.
Their presence jumped to a whole new level of power as space visibly warped and distorted at the area of contact between the clash of two overbearing manas.
Steadily raising their hands each drew a slanted line on the air with their index leaving a trail of gold and red, upon completion the marks grew twenty times larger and shot forward clashing mid air causing a large explosion of intertwined colors leading to mighty strong shockwaves that could be felt for hundreds of miles on end in the sky.
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Right before Velkos the fabric of space began twisting around in a spiral and in moments it became meters wide but in the strangest turn of events the attack did not harm him as intended, in fact the distortion got infected with a blood red hue.
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In moments the distortion covered an area of twenty meters and was immediately set upon Avistro destroying and twisting his body in the most horrific of ways but in the end all it took was the hour hand in his eyes to spin a little anti-clockwise and it was back to being like nothing ever happened, the distortion wasn't present and both still stood in the midst of the dying explosion of before occurring around them.
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'How troublesome'.
The nature of Velkos was to Overtake, Corrupt and Impose. It automatically shut down nearly everything one could throw at him, even mental attacks too. But there was at least the small boon of it depending on the depth of his perception rather than a passive thing so he could not affect time yet, though Avistro acknowledged the nature of his opponent as a troublesome one it didn't change the fact that his very own acted as a great counter towards it sufficing he applies it correctly.
But he also was aware of an underlying threat which was something they all shared, the power of adaptation. In extreme situations it could kickstart an extremely fast evolution, that extreme situation here would be the fact of Velkos current powerlessness against his authority over time if used enough against him. He had no doubt the perception of Velkos would be forced to undergo a great jump in levels until he was able to perceive time magic also which would give him the ability to overtake that too.
Of course, he was speaking from the standpoint of someone not possessing the nature of
Velkos raised his hand summoning a giant red magic circle before him as he inaudibly cast–
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Immediately the clouds were dyed in a world of red and beneath them was a pool of blood reaching as little drops of blood began falling all over like a rain, Avistro took a look at his body as the rain fell on him. Little golden ripples of mana spread all over his body at each drop but even the elite class protection of his body as a golden basilisk couldn't hold out for long, he estimated a total of perhaps five minutes before it would begin failing. The blood rain, a spell more like a barrier technique than anything else due to there not being an option of flying or easily teleporting out of it due to it's nature as a locked space.
While within it's barrier everything was made to be 2x weaker while it's caster became stronger overtime, it's normal limit at the beginner level was a 3x increase in power but taking the nature of Velkos into account Avistro surmised it could easily become an extra 2 to perhaps 3 times greater which would be even far more devastating if also paired with his domain. The rain also steadily dissolved almost everything be it mana, organic or inorganic and even ghosts or spirits and also impeded upon the ability to regenerate. In the simplest of terms, this was a spell almost certainly tailor-made for an existence like Velkos.
He clapped his hands together and with a light tap of his feet the pool of blood beneath them rippled as hundreds of spirals began forming which rose up higher and higher becoming multiple tornadoes of blood accompanied by streams of red lightning which struck at every turn, Avistro instinctively flew high in the air reinforcing his defence as the pool of blood beneath him turned into giant spikes reaching many meters high but he flattened them with a thought and yet the blood persisted turning into four large eastern dragons spanning twenty meters in length with a spinning red ball in their mouths which shot at him like a powerful beam.
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Four little spirals in space occurred around him which took the brunt of the attack and sent it back at the constructs destroying it a second time yet they still reformed and this time joined together to form a much bigger body reaching a size of eighty meters and flew upwards disappearing into the clouds circling around, but then a most amazing thing happened as the giant tornadoes of blood and lightning also fused and split into eight more eighty meter dragon constructs flying into the skies above circling above and around each other
Deep low spine chilling primal growls could be heard from above and their large bodies were visible at times with each strike of lightning and finally their heads reared downwards each releasing an earth shaking roar as their mouths opened wide forming a large flaming crimson ball which they then compressed releasing a mountainous crushing pressure and then shot downwards.
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Mind's mirror -: <
Suddenly it was like a portion of the sky had become encased in a world of many uneven glass shards ever-shifting in size and shape, the power contained within that ball hit the crystal prison and the explosion was contained within in a frozen state after destroying the constructs themselves.
Avistro frowned a bit, though he had contained it for now due to the rain the prison would certainly weaken over time and using the power of nullifcation on that would take an unnecessary hit to his mana pool so he needed to use it on what truly mattered. Velkos had far less mana than he but due to the effects of this rain he could afford to spend more than usual even with his reserves tanking by the minute, soon enough they both would be at low reserves and he needed to reserve just enough and find an opening before then.
There was only one option and he could sense that Velkos knew it too as he had unclasped his hands and Avistro flew back down to the pool, they both began walking forward and in a moment both vanished. A thundering boom was heard as their fists clashed and separated for a moment as Avistro threw a quick jab to his face but Velkos dodged to the side and crouched to perform a leg sweep which Avistro dodged by jumping a little high and in moments Velkos transitioned from the leg sweep into a spin making use of his bodily rotation to perform a backheel kick to the temple of his head.
Avistro blocked with his arm but was still forcefully brought down to the ground making a huge impact and Velkos with his arm now covered a blaze of mana punched down at him but he grabbed on to his wrist using both arms and pulled Velkos down to wrap his legs around his neck and outstretched arm which he then completed by making a fast spin attempting to send him to the ground but Velkos did not budge further.
Then in a surprising turn of events Avistro felt something sharp pierce him and looked down to it, the backhand of velkos was a single long bone spike lodged into his chest, he let go of his arm and neck the moment he felt something dangerous about to occur and flew a distance away dislodging himself from the weapon.
The very fact it could bypass his defence though partially weakened at current by the rain was praiseworthy, he was no Bahu or even Ishmael by the body of a basilica especially one such as he was an elite temple of defence. The spike retracted into the hands of velkos who then rushed forward clamping his hands together to quickly shape a lengthy mana chain with a spear-like head attached to it's end which he then threw straight at Avistro who tried to grab onto it but found himself tricked as the chain snaked around his arm wrapping it as Velkos pulled Avistro towards him at blinding speed.
He stopped himself mid-air just before reaching him but Velkos was already upon him having predicted that and tried grabbing onto his head but Avistro dodged and twist his body around attempting to give a back elbow to his jaw only to be spun back around just as quickly disrupting him entirely as Velkos punched him square in the face and just before he went down was pulled up again for a second and third to the gut with the bone spikes released sending him flying upwards only to have his body used as a step for Velkos to get above him and deliver a kick to the back of his head and then still pulled up once again for a straight punch to his masked face sending him flying backwards like a bullet.
Fusion magic -: <
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In moments thousands of near transparent red arrows were created in the domain and each were launched towards the flying Avistro from all sides and paired with the aura of confusion to impair his senses which were nearly put in disarray for a moment and would have been all the time needed for the extremely fast intangible arrows to bypass his defence and impale him continuously petrifying his body and soul but he was even quicker with his counterattack.
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The arrows slowed down to a crawl and with a little flick of his hands they dispersed to nothing as he rushed forward in a flash seemingly passing through Velkos but only to be met with a mirage and with Velkos now right above him with his palms open and a magic circle spinning
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A little spark flew and nearly a moment later turned to a bright ball of an expanding explosion which Avistro could see occurring in slow motion and in one swift moment of pure ingenious madness he ate the ball and teleported higher only to open his mouth with expanding ball of explosion turning a dark grey as he shot it downwards at Velkos like a silent beam of energy rippling through space gaining instantaneous speed and splitting into five smaller widespread beams as it connected with him.
The entire space tremble as five great silent domes of grey explosions erupted reaching multiple kilometres high and wide tearing at the structure and breaking the spell entirely, upon it's collapse a mighty roar was heard as a hundred meter tall golden serpent with long curved horns at the sides of it's head bared it's vicious fangs at his opponent before him who stood at a height of eighty meters and his hair was like a beautiful mixture between fire and blood, his near featureless face bearing only four eyes burning a deep red as was it's skin and protruding from it's elbows were two long bone spikes, his feet black as tar and with nails so sharp, floating behind him were two massive red rings with the smaller rotating a spaced distance inside the larger and orbiting around his wrists were rings of blood.
In the skies and using the clouds as their footstool these two titans stared down one another, their presence crushing and devastating as one could imagine and terribly distorting the space around them even with how little mana they currently bore in their bodies. Lightning crashed all around them as the giant basilisk roared and lunged forward but the asura caught his fangs with both hands stopping it in it's tracks but the basilisks jaws was proving to be extremely difficult to restrain as a powerful venom began dripping from it's fangs onto the asuras hand who let go of it and flew back to create some distance.
His arms were being devoured by the venom bit by bit and it was slowly spreading through his spiritual body which should have been impossible, making the decision to self immolate, the asura burned in a blaze of flames and the lunged forward at blinding speeds unbefitting for a body his size. The golden basilisk spun to the side dodging the attack and latched onto him just as quickly to wrap itself around the asura constricting his movements as it prepared to sink it's fangs into him but was met with a problem as it's jaws were shut down forcefully.
From the rings floating behind the asura were two more giant hands in the form of a construct, this new development gave the asura just enough time to forcefully exert his strength and loosen the coil of the basilisk around him which he then grabbed onto by it's tail end and spun it around like a great tornado releasing it a few seconds later and going after the basilisk only to grab it by the throat and engulf him in a blaze or flames which burned in it's wide open jaws.
It roared in a frenzy of madness and then to the asuras surprise it began growing even bigger and stronger, his hands were forcefully repelled from it's throat and he tried creating a distance again but in one swift motion the basilisk wrapped around his waist holding him firmly in place and opened it's jaws wide gathering up a large burning green ball of venomous mana which it fired off like a tsunami of flames.
The attack connected fair and square with the asuras body and continued downwards for about a hundred miles before finally dying out and in it's aftermath the near whole of the asuras top half was gone and the basilisk panted with heavy breaths as a dizziness overtook him and soon enough his hold on the asura was released as they both fell down to the clouds
Their bodies were reverted back to it's humanoid form and both near absolutely devoid of mana, Avistro forced himself to sit up but couldn't help slumping forward still exhausted beyond words. With some willpower he managed to raise his head just enough to get a good look at Velkos, he lay there unmoving and missing nearly half of his upper torso but he was alive, the venom just wasn't letting him heal so he was stuck in a sort of unconscious state for the moment but once the venom was gone or his mana recovers well enough then he would be better.
But for now, the round was over and he needed rest, even after a mini announcer came over and teleported him back to Arena with those who had finished early he just lay comfortably in the air unbothered by the world around him.
EnD.