Talia began creating large slabs of mud and hardened it. She then sent it towards Kuma. He sliced it, but she changed its state from solid to liquid to slow him down.
Once his momentum slowed she hardened the mud again to create an opportunity to blast him with water. “Group 2, Unrelenting slash” said Kuma as he moved forward with a burst of speed and cut through the liquid mud and water.
Talia just managed to sidestep out of the way by surfing on a small pool of water. Kuma was about to unleash another technique but Talia trapped his hands using vines and then landed a double palm strike to his chest. The impact sent him back and broke the vines but she summoned a plethora of vines to ensnare him once again.
Kuma tried to use brute force to escape the vines but everytime he broke a set of vines, another set grew in its place. He grabbed his sword with his mouth and used group 1, infinite slashes to unleash a barrage of slashes that engulfed the area. It wasn't nearly as powerful as when he used his hands but it was the best solution. It caught Talia by surprise and he managed to cut her left arm enough to disable her use of it as it was greatly injured.
“Group 3, Samba Swordplay” said Kuma with a smile. He sent his sword into the air but connected it to him using a thread of energy. When his sword came back to him he kicked it towards Talia. She raised the ground to block but the sword pierced through it went through her right thigh. He then pulled the sword back and began spinning in the air with it still connected to him using a string of energy. It had so much speed and power that she barely managed to dodge the first revolution. In the second revolution he changed the angle and he managed to slash her back and send her rolling on the ground.
“Damn, I've lost a lot of blood from your slashes. Give me a break” said Talia as she began laughing nervously.
“If you were in prime condition you would have pushed me further, don't take your performance to heart” said Kuma as he went in for the finishing blow. As he went in, he was hit with a blast of water.
Narumi had awoken! The question still remains, is she in any condition to fight?
Meanwhile, Raylon and Elijah's battle continued. Raylon was overwhelmed by his technique and fell to the ground. It appeared that he was defeated, but his demon side awakened. He got back up as his form took a more sinister appearance as horns formed on his head. He sent out a dark energy blast at Elijah but he dodged it. Raylon was unaffected by the sound as he had decided to burst his eardrums! It was all calculated as he had realised that he could regenerate in his demon form.
Raylon also held his breath to avoid inhaling Elijah's technique. He charged at Elijah and landed a kick to his ribs. Elijah went for an uppercut but Raylon did a split to go low, and then he popped up to deliver a palm strike to his jaw.
That impact sent Elijah high into the air. Raylon jumped into the air and his horns pierced Elijah. He then hit him with a bolt of lightning from the sky. It severely damaged Elijah and he went for another one but as he did, Raylon accidentally exhaled, allowing the sound of the thunder to enter his body via his breathing and severely damage him from the inside!
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
If it wasn't for his regeneration abilities that he had recently figured out then he would have lost. Raylon flung Elijah off of his horns and they both fell to the ground. Elijah clapped his hands and sent out a soundwave. Raylon held his breath to avoid inhaling the technique but the sound wave also blasted him back. This allowed Elijah to touch him and vibrate his body, rattling his bones. Thankfully Raylon was able to regenerate fast enough to pull him into a knee strike and push him away.
“You're much stronger than before. Honestly this should count as cheating” said Elijah as he analysed Raylon.
“When faced with an opponent as talented as you, it's impossible to win without using all the cards in your hand” replied Raylon.
They knew that their next exchange could end the battle so they prepared to go all in.
Raylon went in and landed a backfist but Elijah let it land on purpose so that he could get ahold of Raylon and begin vibrating his body. He used that to create an opportunity to land a kick to the side of his knee. He then scraped his leg all the way down Raylon's leg and then kicked his other leg. As Raylon fell to the ground he sent out a soundwave. Raylon sent out a blast of fire and they both got hit.
Elijah ran towards Raylon and unleashed a flurry of close range sound attacks by snapping his fingers. It didn't attack a large area like the sound wave but it was very compressed, dealing immense damage to a smaller area. Each snap of sound staggered Raylon, allowing Elijah to attempt to go for a point blank sound explosion. Raylon prevented this by sending out a dark energy orb that exploded instead of being used as a blast.
This created an opening for him to focus all his energy into a punch that ruptured Elijah's intestines and sent him flying across the battlefield.
“Looks like this is where I lose. I always wanted to be a musician instead of a warrior. It's just that I was better at fighting. Looks like I wasn't as good as I thought” said Elijah as he accepted defeat.
“No. You were strong, however if being a musician makes you happy then I'd recommend doing that. Being a warrior will only bring you closer to death faster” replied Raylon as combined the affinities of fire and electricity to create plasma. He then blasted Elijah with it, knocking him out. With Elijah eliminated, 12 participants remained.
While Raylon's battle concluded, Kael and Ragnar began their battle with Atea and Tiffany. Atea was heavily drained from her earlier encounter with Kael and Ragnar, but Tiffany was still fresh. She sent out branches towards Kael at Ragnar. With Ragnar blinded after losing his eyesight, Kael decided to block using his tails. He then spun his tails around with so much force that it uprooted all the trees in the area. He was not going to hold back.
When the dust cleared, he noticed that Atea and Tiffany were nowhere in sight. That's when Tiffany emerged from underneath him and almost landed an uppercut. Kael reacted fast enough in a split second to whack her with his tails and then hit her with a lariat that almost broke her neck. She got up and for a split second Kael was sure that he saw two of her.
He sent out a blast of fire but she walked through it and almost landed a punch on him. He grabbed her using his tails and began repeatedly slamming her into the ground but he was hit on the back of his head out of nowhere. When he turned around he saw Tiffany even though she was trapped in his tails. This wasn't a clone, it was a manifestation of her energy that she could also swap places with. She swapped places with it and almost landed a surprise kick on Kael.
He swivelled out of the way and transferred her momentum, allowing him to land a punch that broke her ribs. A second later he noticed that it was healed. This wasn't a case of healing, instead she traded the impact with the manifestation of her energy, allowing her to be unharmed.
“You have more tricks up your sleeve. I can sense that this battle is just getting started. Now I'm excited” said Kael.
“That was just a simple parlour trick. My next move will rock your world” replied Tiffany. The battle gets even more wild now!