'What… what the fuck has happened to her in these days?'
Ketsu asked himself. He then thought that Katalina was putting up a front and decided to call her bluff. He pointed his flintlocks at her and fired a series of bullets made out of incomplete spell castings in her direction.
The effects of these dummy sound bullets weren't anywhere near the real deal. But these bullets were easy to cast. Ketsu would always mix them with his real ones to deter his opponent from charging at him.
He was a ranger after all. He liked to keep his opponents at a distance from him.
Katalina saw the bullets and changed her direction midway. It was her logical side that caused her not to charge at her enemy. In the end, she couldn't keep the switch of sanity turned off for long. Some habits die hard, after all. It is not that her decision was not the right one for her in her situation. The wind-element ranker had managed to keep her safe from immediate harm while preventing herself from getting beaten by her opponent.
Katalina retreated to a safe distance before staring at her opponent. They were both bloody and in an almost identical situation. There was a short stalemate before the decisive battle would soon begin.
***********************
"Tuan, I have been itching to fight with you for a long time. Hahahaha! I'm sorry for laughing at your misery, but what happened to you was really funny."
Wayne Wilder said while pounding his fists against one another and adjusting his gauntlets against one another. Then he poured his mana into them and spiky protrusions formed over the knuckles.
It meant that Wilder's attacks were not limited to blunt force damage. He could also inflict puncture wounds on his opponents with the help of his wearable artifacts.
Wayne scratched his beard with his artifact-wearing hand and commented once again.
"I say let the bitch leave if she wants to. A guy like you can surely find another one."
While smirking, Wilder finished what he wanted to say to Tuan.
"In any case, you'd have to go out and explore the world to find your next true love. Why wait till the competition is over? Let me help you embark on your soulmate searching journey by eliminating you right here and now. Hahahaha!"
Boom!
A meteor-like fire-element spell crashed onto Wilder's position as soon as he finished saying what he had to say. The image of Tuan that he was seen talking to turned out to be an afterimage.
Tuan had decided not to engage in a verbal spat with the barbarian. From his understanding, the bald muscle maniac only understood the language of fists. So that's how he was planning to communicate with him.
When the dust settled, Tuan could see that there was a giant, semi-transparent tortoiseshell covering Wilder's body within it. Slowly, that shape expanded and grew limbs. The last to be formed was the tortoise head that stretched and looked at Tuan with a menace in its eyes. It released a series of guttural sounds to intimidate him as well.
'A barbarian with a tortoise-type contract beast. How odd!'
Tuan commented to himself and created a distance between the tortoise and Wilder. The latter stepped out of his contract beast's semi-transparent body and poured more mana into his spell. As a result, the tortoise's semi-transparent body solidified and looked like the real deal.
Wilder jumped on his contract beast's back and stood on it with his hands locked behind his back. Wilder continued to speak casually as if Tuan's earlier attack didn't mean anything to him.
"Boy, I tried having a few words with you before our duel. But it seems you are in a hurry to receive a beating. If that's what you want, then be my guest. Luko Shanko, have at him."
'Who names their contract beast with such a weird name? This guy is the definition of weird.'
Tuan had this thought when he heard Wilder's words. But his expression changed in the next moment when he saw the tortoise running at him at an unbelievable speed.
'What the… tortoises were supposed to be slow.'
Stunning Speed
Sedated Perception
Fire Steps
Fire Wings
Tuan executed all the spells that would allow him to dodge a mini hill-like contract beast with ease. He dodged to the side and jumped before using his Fire Wings to glide out of the troubled position.
While in the air, he pulled up the military database entry on the mana beast he had just dodged. According to the database, the mana beast was called Gopher Earth Tortoise.
Just like he had seen just now, the species had a parakeet-like beak serving as its mouth. It was an earth-element mana beast that was known for its resilient shell and various earth-element-based attacks.
The tortoise species wasn't known for its speed. But there were always variants induced by the inclusion of mana. Kind of like an exception to every rule.
The Gopher Earth Tortoise species would sometimes produce a deviant mana beast that was capable of overcoming its inherent slow speed by unlocking an innate spell. It would generate an anti-gravity field below its hooves and use it to speed up its steps. As a result, the mana beast had an excellent speed without its steps making any sort of noise or impact on the ground.
Tuan read all the information the military database had on the mana beast while he was in his Sedated Perception. Then he closed his spectral screen and observed his next landing.
To his surprise, he found out that the mana beast had almost caught up to his diversion. It wouldn't be long before it reached the same place he was about to land. At the same time, he could see that the mana beast had used its earth-element spell. There was a circle of spikes forming with Tuan's supposed landing spot as the center.
The mana beast was trying to box Tuan in. Tuan was about to change directions by controlling his Fire Wings in the air. But then he realized Wilder was not sitting atop the tortoise's shell anymore. He knew something was wrong and turned around.
Wilder laughed when he saw Tuan around just before he was about to hit him with his spiked punch. He didn't hesitate and coated his hands in earth-element mana. The spikes in his hands grew about 15 inches as a result.
The attack started looking less like a punch and more like a bunch of spike-like protrusions stacked together to impale somebody. Wilder served as the prime example of how wild the barbarians could get in their attacks and their battle style.
"See you outside, boy. Don't let anyone take your next woman ever again. Hahaha!"
