While currently pinning down Zero and was hitting him, as Jose is about to strike to his face one more time, the resilient Zero then spoke, prompting him to halt his arm mid-swing.

"You know… I've always trained… I've always trained hard, for over nine years since I last met my father…! I've always given my best every single day to improve… It's hard, but I am improving, no matter how slow…." Hurriedly activating his eye powers, Jose jumped away as Zero's lightning activated once more, but this time, it is extremely bright and intense, turning white even.

Zero rose back up on his feet, after being carried up by his lightning, as if an ungodly force lifted him up.

"I'm giving my best, you know!!!" He shouted in great anger, then aimed his hand towards Jose and a blast of Null Bolt quickly flew forward,

It's fast…! Jose exclaimed in his mind, quickly absorbing it with his right palm. But this only made Zero smirk.

"What!?" Jose's nose began bleeding after absorbing it, feeling as if hundreds of needles were being stabbed all over his body.

"Go ahead! Absorb these lightning, hahaha!" Zero then began laughing hysterically with his arms open.

"He completely lost it…" The Moderator exclaimed while giggling as he picked up a handful of grapes.

Jose wiped the blood from his nose as he though to himself, "Just that blast, already caused internal damage to this degree…" He then activated the horizontal line on his nose, healing his internal damage in an instant.

He then readied himself to dash towards Zero but as he does so, he suddenly felt something tightly choking him. "No…!" He was stopped right then and there, trying to gasp for air.

"Hahahaha!" Zero looked at him, still smiling crazily. He extended his right palm to the front and began concentrating his lightning into one very small point.

"Witness the fruits of my hard work! My father will definitely get proud of me, after I kill you that is..."

Getting scared this time, Jose hurriedly grabbed the thing that is choking him, "My necklace…!" He exclaimed internally. He tried to rip it off quite forcefully but still not that strong to break it since it's one of the only things his grandfather had given him, he wouldn't want to do that. But then, all the metals he had hurled earlier are then controlled by Zero using his left arm, binding Jose in an instant, wrapping around his body while those being imbued by Null Bolt, damaging his body all around too, although the pain was excruciating, he never dare showed it. He is doing his best to keep his emotions in.

He is then lifted a few centimeters up the ground and began going closer towards Zero, who by this point, had already gathered large amounts of mana and electricity to a single point that it is now reacting violently and could explode at any given moment.

"This is bad…" The Moderator said calmly, waving his hand later, three additional barriers formed inside the existing outer barrier, since if this large amounts of energy exploded, it will quite easily break the first barrier and most likely harm or worse, kill most of the other climbers outside it.

Jose desperately tried escaping as he hovered above ground, no matter how much he resist, he really can't do anything, Zero's control on these metals are just too strong, he tried absorbing his mana but ever since he activated that white lightning, all of his absorption attempts led to him sustaining significant internal damage, while yes he can absorb it and absorb most of its energies to recover his stamina, him healing the internal damage just burns through those recovered stamina and this process is very inefficient.

Trying his best to remain calm even though his thoughts are dissipating by getting choked, he began thinking before that singularity explodes. What… can I do…?!"

The singularity of mana and electricity now began showing signs of exploding, Zero then remarked as he switched into a more serious expression, "Burn away... Supernova."

The singularity then exploded. When this attack is finally released, it's going to cause internal damage to any living creature to the immense shockwave courtesy of the surrounding mana and air being blown away violently from a single point due to the large amounts of force this explosion made, however, the farther you are, the more this effect lose power. Secondly, it will burn away anything that the resulting energy wave comes into contact with, just as what happened to Jose right now, his entire front just melted, such as most of his skin and until his muscles were charred into crisp right after it exploded.

As soon as this explosion took place, it immediately broken two of the barriers that the Moderator made. The light basically blinded for a few seconds the surrounding people, however, it never made any serious damage to them instead of this temporary blindness due to the sudden flash of insanely bright light.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"No way, did I became blind?!"

"H-hey! I can't see!"

"Help me!!! I can't see anything!"

The trio, Yuuki, Yohan and Rumi are all actually there since earlier into the fight, although they didn't managed to witness why the fight was initiated and why it was heated into this degree, they arrived when the two combatants are already destroying one another.

"Gosh, that was insanely bright…! Lucky that the game filters that out." Rumi said with her hand almost into her face since she was preparing to cover her eyes earlier in case simply closing them won't work.

Yuuki then replied, "Yeah, right, lucky to have that filter, we're not blinded at all."

"But an attack directed towards us will still blind us, that thing simply is just not an attack, it's a cutscene, so of course the brightness was toned down," Yohan also replied.

As soon as the bright light is gone, Zero was panting, he truly is in his limits now, but he was relieved and feeling good that he's finally killed that annoying bastard, despite never knowing Jose's name since they never introduced themselves to each other.

"This is really exciting…!" The smiling moderator whispered while eating, although it is said that killing is prohibited, he don't really mind someone dying during a fight, he's the one making the rules anyway. He just added the rule so that he won't be punished if too many climbers died way too early in the tower, because if there is no such rule, everyone will choose to kill to be efficient during the trial.

Jose's burnt body is just hovering there because of the metals he was bound with still being controlled by Zero. Due to exhaustion, Zero immediately relinquished control of it and Jose's corpse fell, feet first and remained standing steadfast, causing him to widen his eyes in shock. But then, he noticed something on the man's body, since he is mostly naked due to most of his clothes being instantly burnt away.

"No… fucking way…" he slowly whispered under his breath.

Two small dots the size of coins on the left side of his chest is glowing, they are quite spread apart but they are both on Jose's chest, glowing.

"What the fuck are you…?!" He exclaimed in dread.

The horizontal line on Jose's nose appeared, and he then started healing rapidly starting from his back where he's least damaged towards the most heavily damaged parts of his body at the front.

"You're a monster…" Zero didn't waste any time and quickly gathered lightning to blast him. But then, his nose suddenly started bleeding and he gets dizzy.

"Fuck..." He though to himself.

After healing, Jose immediately dashed forward with a determined expression, out of panic, Zero punched forward which the former easily parried to the side and tackled him down. As soon as they hit the ground, Jose immediately went in with a punch directed at Zero's face, activating two dashes on his shoulder, making him significantly stronger. As soon as that punch towards the face hit, it is over. Zero no longer have any strength to fight. Jose stood up, with the green glow of the two dots on his chest dissipating.

He immediately recalled a new set of clothes in his Inventory and they were instantly dressed on his ragged, battered up body as soon as they appeared. He then walked away as the Moderator announced the winner.

Amidst the cheering for the winner, since there is very little chance to win against a God-Kin, so people are of course cheering for the very rare occasion. Zero who was beaten up, lying on the ground then called out to the leaving Jose. "Hey…!" He called out without moving a muscle since his body is aching all over.

Jose heard this and slowly retraced his steps back to Zero. "D-do you need something…?" He said as he squat down nearer to Zero.

"Yeah… Answer me… How did you not die? Is my attack really that weak?"

"Uh… no, it is not, it's very strong... I would have died if I didn't know how to defend against it."

"But how did you even know how to defend against it…? This is our first time meeting..."

"Well… I can see the future."

"What bullshit are you saying now?"

"It is true… That's how I learned what defences I can use against it." He bent down for Zero to see his face clearly and a horizontal line appeared on his left eye, with his pupil glowing blue ethereally after. "This is how I did it."

"Fuck… I'll believe you then... But what are the dots on your chest earlier?" Zero responded in defeat.

"Those… are my defences. It's.. hard to explain… but that's what it is."

"Dammit! You have so many abilities."

"Yeah… Um… I'm really sorry for hitting your face so much… I had no choice…" Guilt and sympathy is clearly visible on Jose's face.

Zero then replied in an angered tone. "You really thinking 'bout that?! You're a joke… You're the winner, you don't have anything to say sorry about, I'm the one who made an unfair move in this trial... and yet I still lost. As they said, 'The strong lives, the weak dies,' right?"

"My grandfather used to say that too... A-Anyway, we never gotten to know each other's names... I am Jose by the way, and you?" Jose reaches his hand forward for a handshake, but the latter didn't reciprocated .

"Did you never heard people cheering my name earlier when I challenged you…? It's Zero."

"Oh, I see... I was too focused earlier..." Jose laughed briefly as he pulled back his hand.

"Tell me, are you a God-Kin? What family are you from? I don't wanna know that I lost to someone who's not even from a somewhat prestigious family."

"Um… No—" He was cut short as Zero cursed loudly.

"Fuck! I got bodied by someone who's not even a God-Kin, I'm such a fucking loser!" He's feeling very sour right now, he felt very useless and weak. As of the moment, a feeling of self-loathing began lingering within him.

"T-That's not true! You're… powerful… It just so happens that… I am better."

Zero looked at Jose dead serious as he gestured for the latter to go away. "All right, that's all I want to hear from you, I fucking hate this feeling right now, so go."

Jose stood up and as he walks away, he remarked. "You should learn some martial arts you know? You are quite bad at close range. You rely too much on just speed and strength."

This statement hurt and angered Zero once more. "That fucking bastard…" Although he didn't want to admit it, Zero really do feels he's quite lacking in martial arts training, although he's improving slowly in his training to stabilize and control his Null Bolt, he never really put much time at all at developing his martial arts, which made him rely simply on just his speed and overwhelming might against his opponents, but now. He had someone who really embarrassed him and showed him that he is indeed a bad fighter for simply just relying on these inherited powers of his.