The lower tournament today was concluded. The winners of the matches would enter the finals tomorrow. The contestants showed their martial prowess and it entertained a lot of audiences.
Actually, the audience enjoyed the lower tournament more than the upper tournament. After all, the level of the experts at the upper tournament was out of their league. The speed of the experts at peak S-rank and Shackled Realm wasn't something that they could follow with their eyes. Only people at S-rank and above could watch the battle.
Soon, Meina announced the start of the upper after a thirty-minute break. The first match was between Eilish and Leef.
A lot of people knew who the winner was even before the battle started. After all, Eilish was an expert standing at the top of One Shackle Realm while Leef was only at Solidifying Realm. The difference in strength was huge and there was no thrill at all.
Even Souta couldn't even defeat a One Shackle Realm alone before he evolved.
Meina gave Leef a chance to surrender before the start of the battle. Although Leef had no chance to win, she didn't give up and wanted to test her strength against an expert above her. This was her chance to fight One Shackle Realm.
In regard to her determination, Eilish didn't attack at the start. She just defends herself and lets Leef use everything that she got. She only finished the battle after letting Leef realize the power of a One Shackle Realm.
This was a good thing for Leef. If she met a One Shackle Realm in the future, she would subconsciously compare her strength to Eilish. If her strength hasn't surpassed Eilish, she would simply avoid fighting. So she wouldn't carelessly fight someone at that level of strength even if she grew stronger in the future.
Eilish won the battle.
Everyone expected this outcome.
Right now was the start of the second match.
"Let's welcome the fighters of the second match!! The Clan Leader of the Witch Clan, Lady Amanda, who defeated Arfi, the son of the Chief Enforcer!! And her opponent is someone from the Witch Clan too!! Hanso, a genius of the Witch Clan, who defeated Lady Isabella yesterday in the third match!!" Meina announced enthusiastically.
A lot of people were waiting for this. Both experts were top contenders and the gap in their strength wasn't that large so it would be an intense battle.
It was different from Eilish and Leef's battle in which the outcome was already decided from the beginning.
Amanda stepped inside the arena with a calm look. Hanso also stepped inside as he faced Amanda, the Clan Leader of the Witch Clan.
The crowd cheered loudly for the two of them. No matter the outcome, both contestants were from Witch Clan so they proudly raised their chests.
Ohm!
The layers of barriers around the arena were activated.
"Let the battle begin!!"
At Meina's signal, the battle had started. This was a highly anticipated battle.
Amanda raised her hands and a vortex of energy formed in the mid-air. A pair of crimson-colored daggers came out of the vortex. It was her soul weapon, [Crimson Severing Dagger].
Hanso also materialized his soul weapon. It was a plain-looking sword called [Flexible Swift Blade].
Both of them stared at each other for a while. They simply circulated their energy around their bodies.
"Don't ever hold back," Amanda said before she dashed forward. Her aura flared up as the daggers in her hands emitted a dim red glow.
Swoosh!
Hanso narrowed his eyes. He jumped away before thrusting the sword in his hand. His sword stretched forward as it moved like a whip. It was as flexible as rubber and paired with his energy, it was also tough at the same time.
Bang! Bang!
Amanda moved swiftly as she jumped side to side while blocking the attacks with her dagger. She knew what her opponent's soul weapon could do.
[Flexible Swift Blade] was a sword that could stretch several hundreds of meters away. It was also flexible as rubber just like its name suggested. It was swift as it could attack in any direction using its elasticity.
She had information but facing it personally gives her some sort of pressure.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
She turned around and blocked the attack behind her, then she quickly turned to the left as another attack was coming.
Clang!!
Amanda stepped forward and lightning burst out of her pivot foot.
[Lightning Wave]!!
The lightning spread out like a net as it violently rushed toward Hanso.
Seeing this, Hanso infused his energy into his soul weapon. In an instant, cold energy covered his sword and he swung it down with all of his might.
[Freezing Blade]!!
The two attacks collided causing violent sparks of energy to spread out like a shockwave.
Boom!
"I can see Amanda's improvement. She's several times stronger right now compared to the time when you introduced her to me." Souta said with his chin resting on his hand.
"Yeah, after recovering her memories, she spends most of her time training to improve herself. She wanted to get her revenge on the people that killed her parents and the one that manipulated Clan Leader Rowan." Alice nodded at his words.
Souta recalled something and said, "I wonder if she trained her elements. If I'm not wrong, she ate the High Phaseless Fruit, giving her another elemental affinity."
"You have given her a legendary grade mana fruit?! I thought that she had three elemental affinities from the beginning but it seems that I got the wrong idea." Alice said as she slightly raised her voice. She was a little bit surprised at Souta's revelation.
"You want one? If I find another one I'll give it to you." Souta waved his hand as if this matter was no big deal.
Among the mana fruits that he got from the living labyrinth, there were only four legendary grade fruits. High Phaseless was the first one as for the remaining three, he consumed two of them leaving only one legendary fruit in his storage.
The three legendary were Poisonous Bubble, Demon Eggplant, and Cocofire.
As for the lower grade fruits, Souta consumed most of them. The fruits that wouldn't affect him, he gave those to his comrades. After all, he could only eat a limited amount of the same fruit, and if he passed that limit, he wouldn't feel the fruit's effect.
"As if finding one is easy," Alice said with a sigh.
"Just trust me," Souta said to her. Soon, the mythical grade would appear along with hundreds of legendary so it's impossible for all those legendary to not have a single High Phaseless.
"Sure," Alice said before she focused her attention on the match.
Clang! Clang!
Three ice pillars rose from the ground. Amanda was in the center of the three pillars. She jumped in the air but she bumped into an invisible barrier.
"Huh?! A barrier...?" Amanda charged her energy in her soul weapon. She was about to attack when cold air seeped out of the three ice pillars.
[Ice Enclosure]!!
The cold air had some sort of energy as it repelled her body away from the pillars. She threw a powerful lightning wave but the cold energy grew stronger and suppressed the lightning.
Bang!!
At this moment, Hanso jumped in the air and pointed his sword at Amanda. The aura around his body grew stronger as it reached its limit.
[Element Drive: Ice Force]!!
Blueish light glowed as he infused his energy into his weapon. Then, he thrust it downward with unbelievable speed. The cold energy swept out and the arena was frozen instantly.
[Icy Flash]!
"You leave me no choice..." Amanda gritted her teeth as lightning and dark energy oozed out of her body. When the sword was in front of her face, a white light burst out of her body.
Boom!!
The blinding light erupted and it was followed by darkness. The next moment, lightning crackled as it spread everywhere like a tsunami.
In an instant, the three pillars of ice were shattered along with the barrier.
Bang!
Hanso was blown away and his body crashed into the barrier. He opened his eyes widely as he stared at the center of the arena.
"This...?! I failed in my attack..."
His skills were shattered by a powerful force so he realized that his opponent was going all-out.
Amanda standing at the center of the arena with a frown on her face. Lightning, light, and darkness were oozing out of her body. The three different elements were spreading out, affecting the entire surrounding.
[Triple Element Drive: Trinity Force]!!
She spat blood on the floor before she raised her hand and wiped the streak of blood on the corner of her mouth.
"Don't let your guard down, Hanso."
Amanda slightly bent her knees. With a loud bang, she flew straight toward her opponent with insane speed.
She quickly covered the distance in the blink of an eye. She raised the daggers in her hand and swiftly swung them down.
Swoosh!
"Huh?" Hanso couldn't even follow her movement. He was still staring at the center of the arena. He just saw her disappear and the three elements swirled violently.
