The arena wasn't as overwhelming as the first time when Sero stepped onto the dirt. The crowd cheered as both he and his opponent faced off against each other near the center of the enormous stage.
Sero inhaled slowly, feeling his Rationality activate and clearing his mind. A woman approached the pair, a whistle around her neck.
"Ground rules are the same as yesterday, but here's a refresher in case you forgot." The woman glanced at the both of them. "No killing blows, don't continue if your opponent can’t fight anymore, or they surrender, and if I blow the whistle, both of you must stop. Understand?"
Sero nodded, not bothering to check if his opponent understood as well. He focused on her body language instead. Anya seemed relaxed but slightly on guard, which was understandable considering how Sero fought against Sal. The referee looked at them one more time before she retreated to safety.
"Is it true you can copy skills from other classes?" Anya spoke for the first time, her deep voice heavily saturated with a Russian accent.
"Yeah."
Anya regarded him curiously for a moment. She was tall, a good inch or two above Sero. Her amber eyes narrowed at him before she grinned. "This should be interesting."
She turned and walked away to take her place a few paces away from Sero as he did the same. Despite the atmosphere of the situation, Sero still thought she was cute.
"Good luck, champion." Aphiel thought to him. "I understand it may not be gentleman-like, but give it your all."
"I have no problems beating up anyone regardless of gender. But thanks." Sero licked his lips, feeling confident. He took a deep breath and held it for a moment before letting it out slowly.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the first round is about to begin! The tricky Courtmancer, Anya Laskin from the Fortune’s Favored guild versus the impressive Scholar mercenary, Sero Kassel!"
The audience raised a deafening chorus of cheers as the announcer began to count down.
Sero tensed his entire body as the numbers ticked lower. Anya still seemed at ease for the most part, but her gaze was wary, and she had her hands slightly curled.
"3… 2… 1!"
Sero launched off his right foot, activating his Perfect Analysis, Iron Skin, Inspiration, and his energy and mana efficiencies. Anya followed his movement quickly, raising a hand and condensing golden mana.
Not wanting to lose the opportunity to copy her skills, Sero fired off a weak mana nuke to see if Anya would react. The Courtmancer took the bait, and conjured what looked like two playing cards in her hand.
Sero’s body buzzed with power, learning that the skill copied was ‘Spades’. He was momentarily confused on what it did, until he watched Anya throw the card. The card immediately exploded with a golden light and a white, mannequin-like faceless figure emerged from the spectacle. On what should be its face was a black spade symbol, and it carried a golden shield and lance.
As the familiar easily tanked Sero’s mana nuke with its shield, his analysis informed him that Anya’s Spades skill allowed her to choose any value from the ace to the King, with varying results that centered around defense. The numbered cards including the ace were multipliers, which would either create a defensive barrier or directly bolster the user’s defenses. The face cards were familiars, with the King being more up close and sturdy while the Queen handled the rear, guarding the user with its spells.
The familiar in front of Sero was the Jack of Spades, a mixture of close and long-range. The Jack rushed forward, meeting Sero and thrusting its golden lance forward.
In a flash, Sero conjured his sword, deflecting the thrust to the side in the nick of time as he simultaneously launched a Fire Blast. The Jack blocked the flames with its shield, but Sero had already zipped past it, gunning for Anya herself.
He only caught a glimpse of her before a golden mace suddenly swung into his view. Sero yelped and barely managed to raise his sword in time to block the attack. The weapons clanged together, and the impact sent Sero flying backwards past the Jack.
Sero immediately adjusted himself and landed on his feet. He glanced ahead, noticing a new familiar with the same black spade standing guard in front of Anya, but it wore a golden crown and wielded a golden mace and shield instead. Sero guessed it was the King of Spades.
He had to admit, Kit was right about Anya's skills being interesting. In the moment though, it was looking pretty tough. First, his Perfect Analysis determined that Revenge was a waste, since it only returned damage back to the user who dealt it; the familiars were considered separate entities from Anya. Fairness was also useless, since Anya only had a bigger mana pool than Sero, so the skill would only equalize their resource.
"Fuck," he muttered to himself as he watched Anya conjure another card. "What can I do to get to her?"
The Courtmancer threw the card, Sero watching as it exploded with a golden light. This time, a familiar with a black club symbol appeared, wielding a golden longsword. As his Perfect Copy and Analysis registered the skill as 'Clubs', Sero found himself locked in a sword fight with the newly summoned Jack.
"Fuck!" Sero exclaimed again as the Jack of Spades joined the fight, shifting the balance out of Sero's favor.
"Amazing!" The announcer shouted over the raving of the audience. "It seems that Sero is being overwhelmed this time, unlike yesterday! Will he be able to get his pacing back?"
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Ignoring the announcer, Sero gritted his teeth and littered the ground with mana knives, detonating them as he casted Shadow Sneak to slip away from the Jacks using the explosion as a smokescreen. If Spades focused on defense, then it seemed as though Clubs focused on offense. Sero couldn't help but wonder what stats Diamonds and Hearts would focus on. Well, he assumed Hearts would be recovery or support, but Diamonds was a mystery.
Sero soon found out what Diamonds focused on as he rematerialized and was met with the Jack of Diamonds, which held a palm towards him. A golden ball of mana crackled and blasted forth, causing Sero to stomp his foot and create a green hexagonal Force Field to block it.
"It focuses on magic? Really?" Sero scowled as he copied the 'Diamonds' skill. He struggled to keep the Force Field up as all three Jacks mercilessly rained their attacks on his bubble. Glancing at Anya, he noticed a new familiar that wore a tiara with a red heart symbol on its blank face. It was providing mana recovery and boosting Anya's reaction speed.
"You're fucking kidding me!" The Jacks were relentless and Sero had to disperse his sword to send more mana into his Force Field to keep it up. The King of Spades continued to guard Anya, while the Queen of Hearts kept her in peak condition.
Sero gritted his teeth, struggling to keep up with the Jacks' assault. His Force Field was starting to crack, and he knew he had to do something soon. He glanced at Anya again and saw her summoning a familiar with a red heart symbol as he copied the 'Hearts' skill; the final Jack of Hearts.
"Champion, what if you summoned forth your own familiars?" Aphiel quickly suggested as the last Jack joined the onslaught.
"I would, but," Sero glanced at Anya, who seemed to have a smirk on her face. "First, I'd rather have the person I copied the skills from push it to the limits just in case they show me something else I can do with them." He began to slowly raise his arms above his head as his Force Field grew weaker.
"And second," Sero condensed his green mana into his hands. "I'll consider it a last ditch effort."
"What? Why?"
Sero dropped his Force Field and immediately conjured the Jury axe, gripping the handle as it came crashing down.
"Because they're so fucking ugly."
As the Jury smashed into the ground, the impact forcefully blew back all the Jacks. Even the King of Spades staggered backwards, and the Queen of Hearts quickly casted a barrier over Anya and itself to absorb the shockwave.
The brief respite wasn't the only thing Sero had done as he dispersed the Jury and dropped to one knee. He had also casted Blast Zone using the Jury's impact and he quickly conjured a dark jade mana cannon for the first time, shouldering it and pointing at the sky.
"God... this is fucking heavy..." Sero groaned as he injected an enormous amount of his mana into the cannon. He was aware that the Jacks had recovered and were rapidly closing the distance, but it was too late.
With a sadistic grin, Sero fired his cannon, sending a multitude of luminous green spheres to the sky.
"Oh my... That's Sal's Starfall! Sero is using Sal's skills from yesterday's match!" The announcer sounded both shocked and in awe. The crowd roared their approval at his words. "What an incredible sight!"
"You think your copied Starfall will hurt?!" Anya shouted across the arena. "I can just summon more of the Court!" She threw more cards that exploded with a golden light, summoning the rest of the face cards from each suit. "They can take your attack head-on!"
"Here's the thing," Sero shouted back, licking his lips and sneering as he stopped firing. He stood up and stretched his arms out wide, glancing up at the sparkling emerald sky. "Sal's Starfall uses regular mana beams as ammunition."
As the Jacks and Kings reached Sero, he stomped his foot and injected most of his mana and energy into his Force Field, blocking their attacks. But, it wasn't their attacks he was worried about. Sero willed the sky to fall, watching as his sea of emerald mana came cascading down.
"But for my Starfall," Sero continued as an unhinged grin spread across his face. "I juiced up the power."
As the first green sphere crashed into the ground near the Jacks, it exploded with such ferocity that the magic barrier protecting the audience trembled. Sero could barely make out Anya's face, which had paled in fear.
"Champion, you did not."
Sero began to cackle maniacally as he watched the arena get carpet bombed. "Yeah, I fired off mana nukes instead. I'm calling it Starfall Nuke."
For a while, Sero could see nothing but green as his nukes covered the field, obscuring his view. The thundering booms began to deafen his ears, and Sero concentrated on keeping his Force Field up to block the impacts from his Starfall Nuke.
When the dust finally settled, the aftershocks continued to shake the ground, and the air was thick with the acrid smoke of burnt mana. Sero deactivated his Force Field and assumed that the face card familiars were taken care of since he saw no traces of them. However, he caught sight of something golden flickering up ahead in front.
"Damn... really?" Sero muttered as he gradually got a better view of what he was looking at.
Anya stood, unharmed as a new familiar stood beside her. This time, the familiar wore a black opera mask trimmed with gold that covered the top half of its face. It had long and flowing bronze hair and pale skin, its golden eyes staring directly at Sero. It was dressed in a form-fitting black and gold suit with frills, with a three-pronged hat that hung bells at the dangling ends atop its head.
As Sero copied the 'Joker' skill, he couldn't help but think about how the familiar was rather... attractive.
"What a destructive attack by the Scholar!" The announcer cried out as the crowd recovered from the shock of Sero's Starfall Nuke. "But the Courtmancer is just as impressive, still standing after a barrage like that!"
"You have pushed me to use my trump card," Anya declared across the arena with a hint of respect. "But, this is my victory."
Sero conjured his mana blade, preparing himself as he checked on his resources. He still had plenty of energy, but his mana reserves were running low from his Starfall Nuke. He knew that Anya was probably in the same situation, so he decided to end this quickly. He sprinted towards her, maneuvering around the debris left by their battle.
The Joker launched itself forward with incredible speed, to the point that Sero was almost unable to track it. It threw a series of playing cards to which Sero either deflected or cut in half with inhuman precision.
In the next moment, Sero found himself face-to-face with the Joker familiar, gazing into its brilliant golden eyes. He realized that it was different from the face cards Anya had summoned before, catching a glimpse of intelligence behind its eyes.
"You're beautiful." Sero blurted out without thinking, lowering his sword.
Anya opened her mouth in shock as the audience quickly grew quiet. The announcer, who had been commenting on the match up until this point, became speechless. Even the Joker familiar paused in surprise, tilting her head as she frowned.
"I'm... sorry?" The Joker spoke, a pleasant surprise to Sero. She had a soft, silky voice that he found incredibly soothing.
Sero realized his outburst that had been broadcasted to both the audience and on live television. Gripping his sword tighter, he grinned confidently and met the Joker's eyes.
"I said, I think you're beautiful."