“Ready…” the referee exclaimed as Jake and Mckade got into combat stances. “Fight!” he signaled, using a teleportation device to immediately disappear from the ring.
Neither Jake nor Mckade moved for a couple of seconds. They were both trying to analyze each other’s combat style and strength based on their combat stances.
“Such a vulgar style, there’s no elegance whatsoever. It’s like I’m looking at a wild beast holding a weapon,” Mckade scoffed.
‘His stance is incredibly refined and… delicate? It seems almost theatrical. Still, he doesn’t leave any visible openings,’ Jake thought at the same time.
Then they dashed at each other at full speed.
Clang!
The sound of their weapons colliding resonated throughout the hall, drawing the attention of the recruiters to the match.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Jake took the offensive and started pushing back Mckade. However, Mckade didn’t break a sweat as he easily blocked all of Jake’s attacks.
Activating his ability, Jake created a fire on his foot and used it to swing his foot at incredible speed. Yet, Mckade swiftly ducked, dodging it with ease.
Whoooosh!
He looked, unamused, at the fire kick passing over him. But Jake wasn’t over yet as he used the momentum to follow up with a spinning back kick, shooting a beam of fire out of his foot in the last moment.
Booooom!
Mckade easily sidestepped and swiftly took advantage of the situation, delivering a powerful blow to Jake’s stomach.
Bang!
“Halt!” the referee exclaimed, stopping the exchange. “One point to Mckade.”
At the same time, the score displayed in the hologram on top of the ring changed.
[WEYER VS. MCKADE
0 - 1
Next Match: Pryde vs. Tilden]
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Jake held his stomach with his right arm as the referee separated both of them before starting the match again. Just that one exchange was enough for Jake to realize the gap in their power. Mckade hadn’t even used his weapon for other than blocking Jake’s attacks.
Jake was by no means weak, in fact, he was probably able to make a one-step jump, which was already remarkable for someone his age. But, his current opponent was two steps higher than him and had a more refined fighting style than his. He was probably able to make a one-step jump himself too, maybe even getting close to a two-step jump.
‘Still, his technique isn’t as refined as his,’ Jake thought, remembering his spars against Seht. ‘I just gotta find a weakness and use it to my advantage.’
However, three more times Mckade handled Jake with ease, and soon, the match was about to end. The recruiters and participants whose attention had been picked after the first clash had quickly grown uninterested and shifted their attention to other matches.
[WEYER VS. MCKADE
0 - 4
Next Match: Pryde vs. Tilden]
“I don’t want to humiliate you so much, so this time I will actually put in a bit of effort. Be grateful,” Mckade said as they took combat stances.
“Ready… Begin!” the referee exclaimed
This time, Mckade dashed toward Jake twice as fast as the last time, taking him by surprise. Jake quickly tried to adapt to the new speed however even though he had two weapons he still had problems keeping up with the amount and speed of Mckade’s rapier attacks.
In a desperate attempt to create some distance between the two of them, he willed for a fire pillar to rise from his foot.
The fire roared between the two of them and Jake thought his plan had worked. However, before he could regain his footing, a fast blade cut through the fire.
Clang!
Jake barely had time to block the attack, still, its power sent him flying a couple of meters back.
‘What the hell was that? How did he cut through my fire so easily?’
As he stood up he looked back, and his eyes widened with surprise. Walking through the wall of fire he saw Mckade. His body and sword were engulfed in flames. However, for Jake, a detail quickly stood out, the flames around Mckade’s body were different than his.
“It’s really a shame that you had the same ability as I, otherwise you might have been able to fight back,” Mckade said.
For any onlooker, the flames would look the same, however, when two espers shared the same ability, it was easy to distinguish their observations from the ones done by another esper.
Since Jake and Mckade shared the same ability, their calculations would often be the same. In such cases, since Mckade possessed a higher dark energy synchronicity, his observations would overrule Jake’s, which is what just happened after Jake tried to block him with a wall of fire.
The only way for Jake to close that gap and prevent Mckade from overruling his observations was with raw power.
Jake stood and put up his guard, taking a defensive stance. At the same time, he reached for the energy circulating in his body. He willed for it to be transformed, to be stored, to build up. He willed for his entire being to be set ablaze.
Jake’s surroundings started heating up as small trails of smoke rose from the ground and himself.
‘I’ll run out of energy once I use this, and it’s not going to make me win, but I’m not willing to go down without scoring a single pitiful point,’ Jake thought, full of determination. ‘I’m going to strike that smug face of yours even if it’s only once!’
Mckade looked unbothered at Jake.
‘What is he doing? Why would he waste so much energy just to heat the air around him?’ he thought.
Luckily for Jake, Mckade’s slight curiosity as well as his overconfidence in his own strength stopped him from attacking Jake while he activated his pseudo-state.
A couple of seconds later, the heat around Jake suddenly disappeared as small fire flames started dancing all over his body.
Mckade’s eyes widened in realization.
“So Hyperion has some competent espers after all,” he scoffed, taking a battle stance.
At that moment, in the eyes of all the onlookers, Jake seemingly vanished from the spot where he was standing. Almost immediately after, Mckade vanished too.
CLAAANG! BOOOOOOM!
The sound of a clash in the middle of the ring resonated throughout the entire hall, followed by a big fire explosion.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
Several clashes quickly followed one after the other as the sound of the fire explosions filled the hall.