James was shocked by the sudden explosion, and quickly entered speed time. He retreated crazily, then set up a barrier using all his elements, which were Poison, Psychic, Ice, Sound, and Dark.
Darkness, Psychic, and Ice formed the main barriers as they could block both physical and magical attacks. Sound and Poison were more technical, with sound grinding down the attacks nature while poison corroded it.
The final attack only singed a bit of James' hair, but it told him never to underestimate his foe. Without his crazy speed, he would have been blown away. Even if he had a good Constitution, he would likely need some Lunar Dew to come back to life.
The arena itself was warped under the power of the explosion, most of the tiles cracked while the area where Ger Kek formerly stood was molten. Soon, maidbots and critterbots rushed over to tidy the place and up and repair the area for the next fight.
James' next challenger was sent onto the arena, and the battle continued.
..........
Out of the 4 so far, James came down in the best condition. However, his sinister expression made his compatriots speechless, until Jonathan walked over and whacked him on the back of the head.
"You scary freak, why are you smiling like that? Do you want to give us nightmares?"
James immediately switched to a bashful smile as he rubbed his head. "Err, sorry. It's part of the problem with my lineup of elements."
That did make sense. All of them were influenced by their choice of elements, and all of James' own were sinister and malicious, just like Jonathan's were fiery and confrontational.
Anyway, next up for the day was Anthony, and not only Darius and Gunner, but the other 4 Apprentices were looking forward to his performance greatly. After all, only they knew what kind of nonsensical power the half-monkey man had.
Anthony wore his usual nobleman's attire as well as a purple cape that billowed behind him. He looked like an evil dictator that was bent on ruling the world, and the aura he exuded suppressed many.
His first opponent was chosen though, regardless of that. It was a rare enemy for the day, an actual dragon from Unyris. This alone made many wary, as it meant that this boy was different from the previous 4.
[Name: Kierrvan Gaster Race: True Dragon Stage: Grandmaster Jobs: Lord of the Sky, Blazing Wood.
HP: 429,460/429,460 (397,528) MP: 95,190/95,190 (35,080) STA: 74,860/74,860 (25,160)
Level: 95 (Note: The stats in the brackets are Anthony's current stats.)
Power: 545 (632) Speed: 321 (347) Constitution: 788 (629)
Magic: 1002 (877) Will: 3450 (2340) Luck: 145 (200).
Skills: Elemental Breath (Fire and Wood), Woodfire, Fireball Barrage, Dive Bomb, Hail of Fire Swords, etc
Spells: Restore Health, Summon Treeants, Wood Barrier, Flamepillar, Fireball, Magma Ball, etc.]
"Sake Monkey brat, I didn't come here for those resources, but to have some fun. Let's fight it out!" Kierrvan Gaster stated straightforwardly, showing battle intent as he flapped his majestic wings.
Anthony heard this and nodded. He took out his bo-staff and jumped as his somersault cloud appeared beneath him.
"I am ready when you are."
The dual-element dragon grinned widely before charging Anthony, who also did the same. They met in the middle, bo-staff made of Holy metals striking dragon claw imbued with the most powerful essence.
A small shockwave occurred that ruffled the clothes of those in the stands, but they were not miffed. Rather, they opened their eyes wide, wishing they were beholders so that they could see more of this amazing battle.
Anthony and Kierrvan did not use magic nor skills, resorting to a pure brutal clash of attacks that were head-on. Neither was pushed back by the other, their strikes landing at speeds that left even the fastest blokes feeling sweaty palms.
Had any of them been in that ring, they would have died ten times over. The Dragon was expected, after all, their species were the Lords of the Sky, but for this half beastman brat to also achieve such power…
Once again, lust for Darius' resources grew, especially for the non-human races. If the previous four lads had shown how Darius' resources could break the limit for pure humans and make them stronger, Anthony was a live example of how much more exaggerated it was for non-human species!
The two combatants finally separated in the middle, watching each other warily as they had already gauged the other's strength, speed, dexterity, endurance, and skill.
The conclusion was that while their stats were not exactly equal, their various applications made it such that, physically, they were evenly matched. Naturally, it was time to test things out in a magical sense.
As for Kierrvan, he started things off with the classic elemental breath, a thick stream of green and red fire spraying out in a cone shape towards Anthony. Anthony sensed both searing heat and destructive vitality in those flames.
In other words, the fire part would burn your skin, but the wood part would burn your vitality/lifeforce. Anthony clapped his hands together and then spread them out, creating a black portal in front of his body that he expanded to cover his whole self.
The flame that was supposed to engulf him was sucked into the portal before him, the rest of it trailing to the side where it ended at the boundary of the arena. After all, Kierrvan had enough skill to not include the crowd in the crossfire.
Once the stream stooped, Anthony closed the portal and sighed with fatigue. He then refocused on his foe and clapped once more, unleashing a portal near them which soon spat out the very same elemental breath that was absorbed.
Kierrvan did not bother to dodge, bathing in the flames as they did not do damage to him. Dragons were immune to their own elements after all.
However, his rating of Anthony spiked. He had the almighty space element, one that was rare and hard to advance for most on Faust. Knowing that he still had another 4 elements, Kierrvan wondered if they were just as potent.
