Self-Mutilating Honores Sect's Dominance
While Valeria was suddenly facing this toughest opponent, Fu Lan was meeting her opponent who was a core disciple of the Eagerburning Flames Sect and was basically best of best from there, but not to the level of Kalek, much less of herself or even Enaro who has the lowest cultivation base between the 3 of them from the sect.
At this moment, Ciemnosc and anyone else with eyes could see an intense build-up becoming more and more powerful, as Enaro’s opponent was also someone like Fu Lan’s opponent. The rarest thing here, however, was that there was a battle just as intense as Valeria and Kale’s; and that was Preferential Light Justice Sect’s disciple Helala, the Sect Master’s disciple of that sect and Niloi, the one and only most powerful talented disciple of the Eagerburning Flames Sect, also at the same level as Kalek.
Meanwhile, Helala was also at the 9th stage. But her stance when standing in front of Niloi was completely null as she ignored him and looked at the stages where the other 2 girls of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect were.
Niloi had orange hair, clear brown eyes and was not shy of using his handsomeness to pick up girls. While he was being ignored, instead of anything else, he began flirting with this ice woman in front of him. And she ignored him even more, but that did not infuriate and much less dampen this young man.
On the other hand, Helala had tidy crystal blue hair of medium length and yellow eyes. She was rumored to be the next sect master and not just the disciple of the current one. With her crystal blue hair, she was of course, eligible according to their ‘traditions’, but her eyes were detrimental to her reputation and status, which she had to always fight hard to keep.
“Hey, blue-haired beauty, what’s with you hiding for so long? After this much time, I barely found you. Were you planning to keep yourself away from me my whole life? Don’t you know that it is cruel to hide your destined lover’s destiny from each other?!”
“Look, Hely, I know there are rules of only copulating within your own sect, but listen to me, we could, I don’t know, talk about some actual marriage alliance? All for mah baby dear.”
“Helly, dear. Don’t give me that look, you’re not supposed to do this public. Even if you’re this kinky, I’ll treat you how you deserve to, not like a skank out here in the public for all to see! I swear, you should only be for my eyes and only for them!”
Helala was quite…baffled as she heard this young man in front of her speak, and speak more and more. Her chest was empty despite his words, but she couldn’t help feeling as if her body was breathing among all of the coldness and purity that she is always pursuing.
As everyone faced their own, the most obviously attractive were those of Valeria and Helala, facing another major organization’s very best, but not as if they weren’t the very best of their major organization; only perhaps.
In Valeria’s arena, with the announcer having already shouted at the beginning of the fight for the last 8 people to be capable enough of advancing through the playoffs with their own capabilities, and with the crowd having already thunderously cheering as loud and much as they could, Ciemnosc was gazing at both bodies standing still facing each other and their flowing Power Energy.
“...Heard that… Enaro and you are an item? Will you be married to each other in the future? There are always at least a couple of such marriages in every generation of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect, but do you really want to?” Kalek, at this very time, chose to converse more than anything else, his words traveled among the silent crowd.
“...” - “...!” Fu Lan looked towards Valeria’s arena, and so did Enaro. But it was only the latter who seemed to become so pumped up with the desire to fight that he immediately began rushing his Power Energy flow inside his body as much as he could before jumping at his opponent!
Enaro took a sword out and swung it at his opponent, his Spirit Gathering realm 8th stage cultivation base showing its worth as it clashed against the same one from his opponent. A wide smile on his face as he made his opponent retreat 3 steps with every hit and then 4, then 5 as he subsequently heard the crowd cheer for his love story, not even going through it right.
“But stories like that have always been around your sect. How about trying with me instead? There have been many situations like that, too.” Kalek narrowed his eyes and smiled, which to his belief and the eyes of the crowd, he looked handsome and was seducing alright, he then added. “Of people from your own sect that realized about its self-rottenness mechanism.”
Swing~.
Valeria swung her sword right out of her Cover Space bag, ending with its tip facing the floor of the arena and her ruler dagger already in her left hand as well, flaming orange chains already out as well as they were hand between her arms, she needed not to say a single word as she gazed with her black eyes at her opponent. Murderous thoughts going through her head.
“Wooaaah…!” - “GAASP!...” - “...?” - “...” Just as they were gazing at each other and seemingly about to burst against each other, Valeria and Kalek looked towards Fu Lan’s arena only to see her entire arena, which had grown up to 30 square meters for the second day and hence needed an entire arena per battle in this fight for the 8th places.
There was a large cocoon of flames coming from the arena. But a figure had already been shot away from within it at a bursting speed so unmatched that it alarmed even Conflagrate realm from how powerful this mere movement of the corpse, the charred and lifeless body had been thrown out of the cocoon.
Gazing at the arena, Kalek was curious and suspicious as well. She couldn’t have died this easily, right? Even if she did, it must’ve been with a hidden Mortal weapon or more, not just like this, which seemed to not even use a weapon but tools to elaborate flames from one’s Power Energy and skills or techniques.
Yet, while the charred corpse was unrecognizable and not even Obsidiafying realm cultivators would be able to scan it from the bleachers, Valeria simply looked on, and even relaxed the raging breaths of her chest just now. It was also at this moment after a few seconds that Kalek saw the already smallish fire cocoon to begin with become smaller and dissipate that he remembered something.
Step- crrrr, crack crack. Zzzziiff~.
From the few flames remaining, a figure was overshadowed as she walked out of it, her outlining beauty hiding not her excellent proportionate body as she faced Valeria’s arena and walked with her bracelets emitting slight sparkles, while her estoc sword still had tongues of fiery flames dance around it, and it was a nice Mortal grade weapon indeed.
“Hmm,” Kalek looked back at Valeria and saw her already looking at him with calmness. Eating up his words of not imagining what the Eagerburning Flames Sect would pay or do for getting that Mortal estoc sword into their hands, he readjusted himself, and faced Valeria, this time seriously with his hands’ fingers beginning to move in the air as if having a life of their own.
Thud, thud.
A couple of corpses appeared, followed by puppets of smallish sizes that stood at the shoulders, head, thighs, and back of the corpses. The corpses themselves were yellow, and were larger than 2 meters tall, with bulging, overly large muscles on their arms but less ‘overly’ at the torso, legs, head, and feet.
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These corpses were enormous, and they had no hair at the top of their heads but had a lot of braids at their sides, yet, it was at the top sections of the sides of their heads that had hair and not their entire sides. Looking quite strange and unseemly Valeria frowned for a few seconds before readjusting herself this time and seriously treating this new threat.
On the other hand, the corpses’ eyes, mouths, and noses were smallish, almost as if sunken in either because of the muscle or any other reason for that matter. They were the infamous arts of the Moribund Yearning Cult anyway.
The small puppets around them, not even the size of a fully grown child, latched onto the corpses with one limb while their other limbs were all made out of blades, needles, and daggers. Some could be used for quick attacks all at the same time in coordination with the other puppets, while some others were for throwing them out; additionally.
Step!
Valeria didn’t care though, she stepped strongly towards the corpses, her arms taking a bird taking an off-like stance, and her ruler dagger wasn’t thrown out as she instead charged towards the corpses and puppets without fear in her eyes nor anxiety.
Fu Lan looked on as she ignored her arena’s referee and already kept her tools and Mortal estoc sword to herself. While Enaro was still in his fight against his opponent without there being a clear outcome yet.
Swish- crrt crrt crrt crrt~.
The Mortal sword’s blade passed through, and all that it touched became broken. Every blade it went through was obstructed by the sword by nothing, and Valeria only felt her hand tingle with each blade it broke. Her right hand was on the offensive, but her left hand was fully defensive; her ruler dagger deflected more than 5, to even 7, attacks for every 4 blades that her sword broke off.
Yet, the puppets would get more and more out of their bodies and send them towards her yet again. While she could only deflect them with her ruler dagger she broke a few puppets every now and then, taking some time in doing so though.
‘Hmm, why is Valy not capable of breaking other top-quality weapons?’ Ciemnosc thought, watching the battle go on after giving a mere glare to Fu Lan’s flash battle. Though he couldn’t be wrong on this occasion, the fact that Valeria couldn’t wasn’t using her dagger to also break through the puppets’ blades and flying small projectiles showed that she, at the very best, would have to spend her Power Energy to be able to do that.
While on the other hand, Ciemnosc wasn’t an actual swordsman or bladesman for that matter of sorts, yet he could do that and it was without even using his full raw strength as raw strength being added more and more to a sharp weapon is hopeless if the weapon itself isn’t up to par with its user.
On the other hand, Ciemnosc didn’t know that to break a top-quality blade with another weapon of the same caliber, as long as it didn’t become a scene of a blunt weapon hammering the sides of a blade the breaking through such equally powerful weapons was impossible without a clear overpowering from one’s Power Energy to the other.
As for doing so without it, in case both parties refused to use their Power Energy, it would take several hundreds of attacks for one to show a crack, let alone breaking or snapping all at once in one single hit. That was also the incredibility of a Mortal grade weapon’s prowess!
That was on equal terms, and generally speaking, as different situations and a game of probability were all it would take for such ‘duels’ to suddenly change.
But for now, Ciemnosc only knew what he had experienced and read in books. Yet he trusted his findings more and, hence, he didn’t really care about other people talking about how hard, durable, and even elastic a top-notch weapon can be…
“WOOOH! They’ve started fighting, fire vs ice?! It looks so pure!” The crowd suddenly divided their glares and attention towards another arena other than Valeria’s, as Enaro’s was too boring. Helala had begun facing off against the Eagerburning Flames Sect's greatest disciple, Niloi.
Her ice was crystal blue like her hair but looked whiter from its outer perimeter whenever her gloves emitted a bit of pure Power Energy glow that was processed from her own Power Energy being poured into them, granting her entire surroundings a drop of temperature.
On the other hand, a couple of thin warhammers with smallish pikes projecting from both sides of said smallish warhammers appeared in Niloi’s hands, bursting a few flames as they were even a bit larger than his own arms. He remained on his spot while Helala rushed at him. A hand-sized spike of whitish blue ice appeared in her hands as she stabbed towards him - but suddenly made a feint and crouched, dodging 1 warhammer while already dodging the next one.
The next moment, with her back vulnerable towards him as she crouched and bent over, Niloi’s eyes flashed as he did his utmost to raise his arms and then hammer them down towards her!
Yet, Helala was already piercing her spike into Niloi’s left foot while beginning to create another one with both her hands, larger and thicker than the one before that was half her arm’s length. She blocked the downcoming warhammers with it and, surprisingly, managed to stop them with her 9th stage cultivation base bursting upwards at the unprepared Niloi!
On the other hand, Valeria’s clothes had cuts around her arms and wrists, her training clothes still making her ‘humble’ body look terribly vulnerable and weak; tantalizing. Though not by much at all, it still served as a distraction for anyone who saw her, as they could then not help but be glad they weren’t facing her, or this alone would’ve been their demise.
As for Kalek, he seemed to be doing fine as his hands held a smallish wand, thick and almost holding it like a short staff, as he closed his eyes while his corpses dutifully protected him.
“AAAAAHH! WOAAAH!!” - “WOAA WOA WOA!” - “HO NO RES SECT, HO NO RES SECT!!”
At this moment, being capable of affording himself such notions, even Kalek opened his eyes to see what was going on and looked into Enaro’s arena direction. A severed head was grabbed by the hair by his right hand. Facing his way after giving Valeria’s fighting back a gentle. Dominant-greedy glare.
“SHE. IS. MINE!!” Enaro yelled, throwing the severed head towards Valeria’s arena, causing it to not even make a sound as it rebounded a tiny bit and then fell off to another unoccupied arena. From the bleachers, Ciemnosc snorted with a chuckle softly before receding his serene, indifferent eyes and expression on his face.
“...” On the other hand, Kalek’s eyebrows were lowered slightly, his eyes becoming serious; deadly serious this time. His hands holding the wooden, dull-powerful brown wand began to emit Power Energy as it was transmitted to the tool itself. Finally, semi-black, gloomy energy came out of it. And Valeria instantly lifted her head to see this happening as her training kicked in.
‘Elemental attack?!’, she thought as she quickly severed the remaining arm of one corpse to her right and kicked the other away with her Power Energy-augmented left leg. Her left-handed ruler dagger could then be seen flying diagonally into the air before abruptly leveling itself off and aiming at Kalek. But his corpses suddenly began moving backwards with each piece of flesh she had severed from their bodies moving like magnets attracting each other.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…
As the severed flesh and limbs of the corpses formed a fleshy wall in front of Kalek, the ruler dagger deviated to the left; a lot. While Valeria on the other hand quickly and forcefully stepped towards the fleshy wall of a yellowish color right in front of her.
She had spent so much time trying to maim those corpses and breaking off every puppet, she wasn’t any new to killing Moribund Yearning Cult believers before, and she was even less so unused to the corpses of Kalek. She was looking for the kill!
Step, step, step step… …SWUUUNG~.
Kalek was holding his wand up in the air, the semi-black energy encompassing his arms and forearms as a dangerous energy undulation was now being felt even by the weakest ones at the bleachers of even the Spiritual Ligament realm, or even those who watched this happening through the monitors outside of this floor or around these arenas.
Even the heated arena of Helala’s fight was becoming distracted by it. The dangerousness of Kalek’s doings was obvious that if this wasn’t an assassination attempt, then it was at least a great merit-gain attempt of this young man to his cult.
After having been ‘flirty’ just now, there was barely any work spoken between them, unlike with Helala and Niloi, who despite having his torso riddled with wounds and thin spikes of ice, could still blatantly flirt, tease and even make Helala blush from time to time.
But just then. While Kalek was opening his and lifting his eyes once more after cracking buckets of sweat down his forehead and back, he could see his wall of flesh covering the whole space before him for at least 2 x 2 square meters. He couldn’t help but smile as he was about to send his hands to his sides and let the wand pick up the target without ‘protection’.
Yet, at that moment that he was celebrating victory ahead of time, his smile becoming pure and shiny, his teeth showing in such charm that even he himself was unknown to himself…Valeria’s tip of her Mortal sword appeared at the topmost of the wall of flesh…crossing through from the other side!
Without there being any sound akin to actual flesh being torn, pierced, or torn apart even, Valeria’s Mortal sword was quickly swung down from the top to the bottom right of the wall of flesh. Her face became visible as it was mainly aimed at the ground. Her eyebrows and forehead were clearly seen…while her black eyes were shadowed over her body and back facing the sun!
As she looked up, her eyes made Kalek shay for just a few seconds, and that was all that she needed right after cutting through the wall of flesh. She flicked her left arm, her fingers wrapping around the orange flaming chains and her body already shooting off towards the right and backwards, all while her Mortal sword was thrown backwards still grasped by her hand like a weight moving her body around in a free fall.
Her eyes. Never. Left. Her target!
…