There was not much time between Greg's fight and Jason's and only two matches later, Jason and a feeble-looking girl with thick glasses entered the arena.
However, instead of underestimating her, he was sure that she was one of the strongest out of the remaining students because her mana core size already reached the average of a 5th Expert rank even though her mana core was barely at the 2nd Expert rank.
Jason didn't know her name, but that didn't really matter because he didn't want to waste too much thinking about unnecessary things, as he only glanced at her mana core in order to figure out her affinity and her soulbonds rank.
'Mid-Unblemished….Wood or vine affinity?' He began to wonder because the transmutation he perceived from the girl was somewhat similar to Lin's who he went into the four-star rift with.
Jason knew that Lin was probably dead and lamenting about this youth's choice to shoot at him in order to save himself was also not something he would do because it was a waste of time in which he could to other more important things.
As such, he saw everything rather rational, and comparing the two transmuted mana flows with each other, Jason could tell that the girl had a similar, yet different affinity than Lin.
But rather than being scared because she had most likely an unblemished beast as her soulbond, Jason felt a little bit bad about it.
This had multiple reasons and the simplest was, that her physique should be at the 2nd Expert without receiving a high amplification from her soul world which was the most common for nature, wood, and other similar affinities.
As such, the only small issue should be her affinity, but after thinking for a short moment, he concluded that it was unfortunate for the female student to be matched against him right now.
When they stood opposite each other, Jason smiled at her lightly, but the girl in front of him looked extremely serious which caused him to lift his right eyebrow.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})With the AI initiating the start of their match, the girl immediately manifested several tight thick vines that grew out of her hands, only to pierce into the ground where they dug themselves through.
Seeing this, Jason nodded his head as he manifested several icicles in front of him which he shot at the girl, who immediately manifested a thick vine wall in front of her.
Shattering on the vine wall, the icicles froze a few vines, only to be replaced by another batch of vines.
Perceiving what she was doing, Jason's smiled widened before he summoned multiple black fireballs around him.
Throwing them one after another at the exact same spot, they burned through the vine wall, only to arrive in front of his opponent, where he allowed them to explode.
Thinking that it might be over in a short moment, he let his guard down for a quarter of a second when his mana eyes perceived something below him as he instinctively exerted the weightless steps technique to his highest capabilities, only to jump to the side.
At the spot he was previously on, several thorny vines pierced out of the ground, only to lash out in every direction until they received new instructions.
Without further ado, the vines suddenly stiffened as they pierced into Jason's direction, where he retreated to.
'Huh? My fireballs didn't work?' Jason asked himself before he unsheathed his Viridi-Starstream daggers in order to sever the vines that lashed out at him.
Even if his opponent's ability was at the unblemished rank, manifesting several tight thick, and several dozen meter long veins at that rank would waste too much mana, which was also the reason for Jason to be able to cut the veins rather easily.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})After the vines were finally severed, Jason averted his attention back to the girl who was suddenly enveloped in a thick red flower bud, which caused him to widen his eyes.
'Did she just summon her soulbond or is that an ability?!' He asked himself astonished, but after thinking about it for a moment, it couldn't have been a soulbond because the AI didn't say anything about it which would have been the case otherwise.
As such, the girl in front of him used her soulbonds ability which seemed to counter his fire ability.
'This ability is extremely useful and suitable with such an affinity!' Jason praised inwardly, but his smile didn't leave his lips for a single second.
With the weightless steps technique still exerted, Jason charged towards his opponent, as he manifested multiple icicles around him which he shot all at the vine wall and the flower enveloping and at the same time protecting the young girl.
Smiling brightly, his opponent could almost immediately tell that something was wrong, as she looked at the icicles that shattered without much effort once they came in touch with anything.
There was not even the need to protect herself against these icicles, but what came after shocked her extremely as green fog permeated the air where the icicles exploded
Once the poison that permeated the air came in contact with the vines, they almost immediately began to corrode, with their life force diminishing at a visible pace as they shrunk in size.
The female student's eyes widened and she started to supply more mana into her vines, only to see that her mana consumption was higher than the benefits she obtained.
Severing her contact with the vines, she summoned new ones with the use of her ability which used up more mana but made them more resistant to fire and other elemental affinities.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})However, what she didn't notice was that not only did Jason throw out several dozen poisonous icicles at his opponent and the surrounding, but he himself already released a thick green mist, which was one of his newest achievements.
His poisonous fog was extremely corrosive with a paralyzing trait added, allowing him to incapacitate opponents without killing them.
At most, he would hurt them a lot and injure them by corroding their skin, but instead of killing them, it would only paralyze others which was exactly what he wanted to achieve for several reasons.
Not only was it extremely useful for his current fight, where he was not allowed to kill someone, but also for other things.
Jason also wanted to figure out ways to capture beasts with high potential to either tame them before contracting or even to sell them, if he was extremely short on money.
It was not like he loved this way to make profits, and it was only something he would do if he could find no other way to earn funds for something he desperately needed without enough time to slowly accumulate the required money by other means.
However, other than that, Jason could also change the composition of his poison affinity with Scorpio's help who always tried to comprehend more about its affinity.
In the end, he could only look at his opponent in pity because the female student he was fighting wouldn't have it easy for the next few minutes.
This was partially his fault as it was extremely difficult to control Scorpio's poison affinity with the poison's complex composition, while at the same time releasing his ice affinity with a feeble ice layer around the fog in order to throw poisonous icicles at his opponent, without shattering them before.
Almost the whole combat ground was filled with green poisonous fog and only a thin barrier, the AI erected prevented it from leaking outside as the monitoring youths, teachers, and even several honorable citizens who were allowed to watch the fight heard the young girl shrieking out in pain, filling the whole arena with terror.
[Victory, Jason Stella]
