After being deprived of mana and the purest form of primordial energy and spirit force, the interior of the arena felt extremely weird.
It was almost as if something was missing, which made everyone shudder for a moment. They turned in the direction of the suctioning force that had drained the surrounding of energies.
Looking directly at Jason, they instinctively knew that he was the one who had absorbed everything, and when he took his first step, he suddenly vanished from the sight of Liun's Elite.
Only Elder Ben could keep up with his speed, but even he couldn't help but swallow nervously as he turned his head towards Jennifer.
Jason was suddenly standing beside her, and leaned down to the young halfling before his moonlight mana and replenished divine energy were utilized to heal her.
By using his moonlight affinity this was possible, even if the affinity's main property was not healing.
Jason slowly relieved her of the pain she felt which made it possible for Jennifer to turn around. Her eyes met his and she saw Jason's expression that was filled with anger and worry.
This caused her to feel like grinning foolishly as she remarked,
"Looks like I have a long way to grow…heheh-..ouch." Jennifer attempted to laugh, but a sudden pain shot up from her abdomen and spread through her entire body.
Only Jason's healing gave her a little respite.
Fortunately, the medics arrived just moments after him, as they started to tend to her outer and inner wounds.
This allowed Jason to focus on Jennifer, who was just looking at him with a gentle smile on her face as she mumbled.
"Beat him…but don't kill him, alright?"
Sensing Jason's anger was not exactly difficult as one look at his face could tell anyone about the same.
And, if Jennifer were to be honest, she had never seen Jason like this.
As such, she felt moved, but also slightly worried about what kind of irrational things he would do.
Yet, seeing his expression and his crystal clear eyes, whose color was slowly changing to get a touch of darkish-red outlines, she sensed that he couldn't hear her words.
Thus, she grit her teeth before moving her upper body, lifting it in order to reach out for Jason.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Grasping his arm, she felt odd, almost as if a monstrum of unparalleled strength was resting within him.
'He really is a Celestia, I guess?' She suddenly thought, only to repeat her words again.
"Don't kill him!"
In the end, Jason's strength was not supposed to be even close to that of Lars.
After all, his combat prowess wouldn't shoot up by more than ten times, just because he would initiate a soul fusion with Artemis.
Despite that, Jennifer didn't doubt for even a single second that Jason would win against Lars.
Because of that, she was relieved when he heard her the second time she said something.
Perceiving that Jennifer was fine and that nothing serious had happened to her made him calm down a bit.
However, simultaneously, he clearly understood that Lars had tricked and played with Jennifer, giving her too many injuries that could have been avoided.
Thus, his mind had gone blank for a moment, only for him to regain some of his senses as he nodded his head.
"Don't worry, I won't kill him. A broken arm or two are definitely fine though!"
With that being said, he gently removed Jennifer's hand from his own before he got up.
"Rest a little bit. I will be back soon!" Jason told her before turning towards Lars.
The youth was still standing in the combat ring, fully aware of what was about to happen.
However, this was what he had planned from the start.
His plan had been to provoke Jason in order to fight and win against him in his strongest form.
What he hadn't expected was for Jason to react the way he was doing.
But, that was certainly something advantageous, indicating that the newcomer was not to be taken lightly.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Not accepting that his girl was injured showed how much he cared about her, but that could also be used against him as it had happened just now.
This told Jason that he had to pay more attention to what he was doing and how much of his thoughts or emotions he revealed.
He also realized that his strength was still not enough, even if he could obviously not do something about what had just happened.
It irked Jason, and he was blaming himself more than the youth in front of him.
Nevertheless, hurting himself for what happened was stupid, and the perpetrator was right in front of him.
As such, taking care of the little youth would ease his anger, to some extent.
Thus, he didn't hesitate as he entered the combat ring before he announced,
"I want to fight you!"
Without using a single second to replenish his mana or divine energy, Jason challenged him.
He was oblivious to the fact that this had already happened in the short period between the end of his spar against Lex, and now.
Using the purest portion of the three cultivation energies, his divine energy was quickly replenished, while his entire body was overflowing with mana.
In no time, every cell of his body was filled to the brim, enhancing his strength to the peak.
It was only obvious what Jason was about to do.
Because of that, Lars just had to nod his head before they went into their respective defensive stance before Elder Ben started the countdown.
Three seconds later their fight started, and Jason quickly fused with Artemis.
A fraction of a second later, his appearance changed as Artemis' wings, horns and feathers started to grow out of Jason.
The second stigma manifested above Jason's eye, and it was not even a second later that he expanded the Artic aura which he enhanced by fully unleashing the two Stigmas to their limit.
Enveloping almost the entire arena, Jason started to compress his aura, focusing on the battle ring that began to freeze.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})After being compressed, the Arctic aura became much more powerful, causing the ground to crack open owing to the freezing cold.
Just a moment later, thousands of icicles manifested in the entire arena, shooting towards Lars.
While Jason had fused, Lars didn't remain idle either.
He allowed the wandering soul of the Hellfire Werebear he had bound to his soul to emerge partially.
It enveloped him in a tightly put-on armor, which doubled Lars' physical strength.
Showing his supremacy, he allowed the icicles to crash onto him without moving a single inch.
This was a clear means to show-off and provoke Jason.
However, provoking Jason hadn't been necessary.
After all, he was ready to break a few bones of Lars, which was clearly visible on his face as Lars felt a sudden decrease in his strength.
The Hellfire Werebear armor around him grew unstable, and it was almost as if his connection to the wandering soul was weakening.
This shocked him for a moment, averting his focus from the icicles that had been shot towards him.
As such, he didn't even realize how his armor began to show signs of freezing.
Only when he regained control of the wandering soul's connection did he notice that something was off.
Yet, just by looking into the depth of Jason's eyes, it was clear what was going on, causing him to halt in his tracks.
'Fuck, he played me!'
Glowing in a bright sky blue color, Jason's eyes were a clear indicator that he was up to something.
Jason used the petrification curse the moment Lars looked him into the eyes, paralyzing him for a mere moment.
However, that was already more than enough after he had used the race specific weakening curse on Lars first.
Thus, even without moving, Jason was instantaneously gaining the upper hand in the fight against Lars, who was struggling to gain control over himself.
Not just himself but he lost control over the armor and removing the freezing on it was easier said than done. And, it was just a moment later that Jason had already appeared in front of him.
This caused Lars to groan in frustration.
Yet, instead of giving up, he released his fire affinity, enveloping his wandering soul armor in brightly lit flames that removed the ice on the armor and the surrounding.
Despite being hot enough to achieve this, it was not even close to be strong enough to affect, let alone burn Jason.
He possessed the fire resistance of Solaris, after all.
And his seemingly little origin flame was powerful enough to endure a searing hot temperature.
Thus, instead of bothering about being scorched like tinder, Jason attacked with Byakur, attempting to break through the armor.
It had been weakened by the race specific weakening curse, and he could hear the distinct sound of something breaking that reverberated through the entire arena.
Faint cracks had appeared on the armor of the wandering soul, astonishing Elder Ben and the others.
"Not yet!!!" Lars suddenly shouted. He did not accept to lose just like that.
In an attempt to save himself, he released the Hellfire Werebear wandering soul to a higher extent, strengthening the armor, and preventing it from breaking apart.
This was extremely dangerous because Lars could barely control the wandering soul to that extent.
However, while looking into Jason's eyes, Lars hoped to see a trace of desperation.
Yet, what he saw was nothing but an eerily calm expression as if everything was as per Jason's calculations.
This astonished Lars a little bit, but he was neither flabbergasted, nor affected by Jason's calm.
Instead, Lars smiled brightly as if he had received the world's best present he could ever get.
"Finally!"
