(MC POV)
The battle between the two was becoming more and more intense.
Techniques and skills were being thrown around on the stage, each of them being more flashy than the last.
That Han Practitioner was actually pretty skilled to be honest. It's just that Luna had the cheat of being more experienced and she was most definitely above the level of a student Practitioner so pitting her against him was already quite unfair.
I mean, for her case, it's like she's on a new game plus so there's no way that was a fair fight at all.
Unfortunately for the Han Practitioner, the Practitioner from the country of Mei still seemed to be more skilled as I could tell he was simply toying with his opponent the entire time. There were several times that he had a clear shot of winning but chose to disengage instead.
It was only after it was clear the Han Practitioner was exhausted that the Mei Practitioner got under his guard and struck him in the abdomen with the pommel of his greatsword.
That left him open for an overhead slash that finished him off, causing the Han Practitioner to be teleported out of the stage.
The Mei Practitioner let out a roar of triumph as he raised his greatsword up into the air, "Hahaha! What's this weakling?! I didn't even need to use all of my skills to beat you! Where are all the strong fighters?!"
As expected of people from Mei being muscleheads I guess?
The other student Practitioners looked at one another, most of them unwilling to go up against him since he managed to beat the Han Practitioner who had beaten a number of them easily.
A young girl took the challenge and leapt onto the stage, her sword drawn to point at him.
"Student Shen here to seek guidance!"
Unexpectedly, the Mei Practitioner scowled at her, "Get off the stage girl. I have a policy not to hurt maidens so I'm not going to fight you."
What the heck.
Well, I'm not that surprised considering his interaction with Xun Guan earlier but this is more like an insult to all the female Practitioners here, you know? Do you think this makes you chivalric or something?
Amongst those who felt insulted was, of course, Student Shen herself.
Not heeding his warning, she lunged towards him and tried to stab him with her sword.
The Mei Practitioner easily sidestepped the attack, "Now, now, lady… You shouldn't do that. You may be cute but you're no match for me."
As though to prove his point, he effortlessly dodged all of the girl's attacks without fighting back.
The girl got frustrated and attempted another lunge, only for the guy to sidestep again which caused her to trip and fall out of the stage.
That caught Eris's attention, "Oh, his footwork is actually pretty good. He has some skill."
Bait nodded, "Do ya think we can get him ta' fight us?"
"Ara, ara? Wouldn't that be considered bullying?" Manami giggled.
Laverna turned to me, "Master…?"
I shook my head, "Not here. If you want to challenge him, do it after the Festival, though I don't think he'll agree to it anyway."
Eris started discussing with her other personalities just as another young man leapt onto the stage from the Han side. At least it looked like he wasn't one of the zombies.
"Initiate Hei from the Han Research Institute," he greeted with an air of boredom.
Without waiting for a response, Initiate Hei threw an air blade at the Mei Practitioner.
He raised up his greatsword to block it but the force of the air blade was enough to send him skidding back a few feet, drawing tracks on the ground.
The Mei Practitioner grinned, "Oh! You're actually pretty strong! I'll let you have the honour of knowing my name! I'm Private Bai from the Imperial Martial Sect! Let's have a good match!"
Seems like they have their own ranking system in those countries. Interesting…
Initiate Hei rolled his eyes, "I don't care. You're in my way."
"Ha! At least you're not as boring as the other one! Come on then!"
He raised his greatsword again and the blade was lit ablaze with a blue flame. The sword was then brought down in a diagonal slash, sending out a blade of fire towards his opponent.
Initiate Hei raised an arm and slashed it downwards in the same arc, creating another air blade that clashed against the blade of fire and causing an explosion that rocked the stage, throwing up a cloud of dust.
Private Bai leapt above the dust cloud and swung his sword in an arc, blowing the cloud away.
Right at that moment, Initiate Hei had also chosen to leap towards him at the same time, a ball of energy in his palm.
Private Bai barely had time to raise his sword before his opponent thrusted his palm out to shoot the energy ball at him.
The energy ball exploded against the flat of his blade, sending him higher up into the sky.
Initiate Hei then stretched his hands out to the side while still floating in the air.
At first, nothing seemed to happen but then the space in front of his palms started to crackle and crack.
The cracks then raced towards Private Bai as though chasing him, sending out sparks of lightning and what looked like shards of glass flying through the air.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!! Spatial manipulation?! Are you sure you're a new Practitioner?!!
I thought Private Bai would be done for but he has slashed his sword in an arc again, causing the cracks to stop and also cutting apart a section of air.
Are you serious?! This guy has spatial manipulation too?!! Who the heck are these people to use Techniques like these?! Did the standards of new Practitioners change while I wasn't looking or something?!
"Impressive control! But I'm still better than you in raw power!" Private Bai roared, slashing his greatsword again.
The space around Initiate Hei split and he was blasted back towards the ground, barely managing to flip himself on his feet in time to land.
He looked up only to see Private Bai hurtling towards him with the tip of his sword pointed at him, the space around him cracking and restoring itself constantly.
Initiate Hei raised his palm and stopped his descent, creating a ripple in the space between them that slowly spread out from the stage towards the audience.
Before anyone could react, the space shattered and I found myself falling into the void alongside everyone else.
Did these two really crack open the space between realities?! Who the heck are these people?!!
When did we start having such Practitioners?!
