Holy shit, this guy has changed his fighting style completely. He wields his dual katana with proficiency that even I can learn a thing or two from him. He is no longer charging towards me like some fumbling buffoon but walks calmly towards me while emitting a deathly aura behind him. I doubt using Fear spell will have any effect on him now. I can no longer fight this person unarmed as any of my attacks would just go through him as he dodges or rolls out of the way with precise timing. Now is no longer a battle of attrition but a battle of combat experience and skills.

  I summoned Inazuma along with my trusty Hand of the Lightning God gauntlets with a flick of my wrist. The crowds went wild as two people capable of using Sunder were duking it out, which is a rare occurrence. What I can think of right now is to parry him at the right time. Using Lightning Strike on him is useless as I felt that he’s capable of dodging it at the last second. Seeing that I was only wielding one weapon, he slotted his normal-looking katana and wielded his blood-red katana two-handed.

  I must avoid getting any injuries from that deadly serrated blade. One slice alone is definitely going to cause me to bleed profusely. I cannot afford to get badly injured when I have not fought Peter’s new pupil yet. I need to be at my peak to fight whoever it is.

  The two of us were wary of each other. Neither made the first move. I could only strike when he let his guard down. But there was no point in stalling any longer, or the crowds would start getting bored. I dashed closer to him, closing the gap. He crouched low and started swinging his blade from a distance. At first, I thought he was losing it until I noticed streaks of blood flying through the air towards me. It started with a cross double slash, followed by a triple, and finally a heavy overhead slash.

  I won’t lie, the moment I saw those blood flying towards me, I panicked and immediately used Rend to summon my semi-transparent purple cloak and quickly hid underneath it. I’m glad I followed my cowardice instinct as the arena was riddled with slice marks all around me. I would have been sliced apart if it weren’t for my indestructible cloak. I peeked out from my cloak to get a good look at my opponent. He was standing tall and proud while gripping his bloody katana. Such intimidation from a half-naked man.

  I knew that I had to take things even more seriously now. One wrong move and I would be sliced cheese. That bloody slash is strong enough to slice through the tiles of the arena, but I had a hunch that Tengu-kaze’s wind pressure should be able to neutralise it. I’m guessing I will need to dual-wield should I wish to stand a chance at beating him.

  I stood up and summoned Tengu-kaze with a flick of my left wrist. Things are about to get rough. I’m certain I won’t be able to get out of this fight unscathed. Seemingly reading my mind, he dashed forward and attempted to use his bloody technique again. I charged up Tengu-kaze and countered his technique with my own. All of his five slashes were blown apart by the wind pressure from Tengu-kaze. Having found a way to counter his rather scary attack, I grinned.

  He nodded lightly, or what seemed like a nod when his jar helmet moved up and down. Is he in agreement to take this fight seriously now? He unsheathed his other katana, and both of us were dual-wielding our weapons now. May the best wielder win.

  I must not hold back. This person can resurrect himself, so it doesn’t matter if I accidentally killed him, I hope. Now that I have destroyed his statue, he should still be able to resurrect himself, right? No point thinking about it. I might have to consider using my full strength to beat this guy. Is this fight planned out by Peter to see how much I’ve grown? Why do I get the feeling of being dragged along like a puppet in this tournament?

  I took a deep breath and activated Concentration. Now that he’s serious, I’m not taking any chances. I still don’t know what his other katana is capable of doing, and I’ll be damned if I’ll get caught off guard by it. Who knows what that second katana of his can do? Flying ice or water, perhaps, judging by the blue hue I saw earlier.

  Both of us rushed in closer to deal the first blow but ended up blocking each other’s attack. From here on out, I don’t know whether the spectators could even see anything. I started moving at full speed, finding angles and weak points to hopefully put some damage on him. But he still managed to avoid or dodge all of my attacks skilfully. All of his attacks, on the other hand, were either blocked by my weapons or by my cloak. Neither of us was giving any quarter to the other and started attacking relentlessly.

  I was counting on Inazuma’s passive ability to perhaps immobilise him, stunning my opponent every time I blocked his attack. But when would that finally take effect? Will I be able to last until then? I’ll admit, his dual-wielding is way better than mine. But due to Inazuma being light as a feather, I was able to block his attacks quicker than he can strike.

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  I started panting as we continued to trade blows continuously for maybe about ten minutes now. How is he even breathing through that jar helmet of his? And is it just me, or is the temperature getting colder by the second? It didn’t start snowing all of a sudden again, did it?

  My opponent lifted his feet and stomped on the floor, which caused ice spikes to erupt from the floor towards me. Shit, I need to jump right now! I thought I would be vulnerable in the air, but… he’s running away? Huh? What’s going on? Then he came running back towards my direction and started rolling around afterwards. I stared at him, looking all confused until my feet were back on the ground. It was not until he noticed that I was staring at him that he realised what he was doing. I won’t lie, it was certainly funny to see him doing weird things instead of pushing his advantage on me.

  So… blood and ice. What an odd combination. I got no way of countering his ice stomp since I don’t know any fire spell, jumping will be my only option. Very well then, seems like we are going to see who tires out first. I summoned lightning using my left gauntlet and coated Inazuma with Lightning Charge. Let’s go!

  ***

  I’m definitely tiring him out and was able to inflict some wounds on him. But in return, he managed to do the same as well. I am shivering and bleeding in several parts of my body. That normal-looking katana of his is so ridiculously cold to the touch that getting even a small cut from it is no joke. His other katana, on the other hand, no pun intended, makes me bleed profusely from even the slightest touch. But there is nothing I can do now but tough it out. There’s no way I’m going to distract myself by patching my wounds. Although, honestly speaking, I can’t drag this fight much longer or I’m gonna bleed to death.

  He should be feeling the shocking effects of Inazuma right now. It might be the reason why he started moving more sluggishly now. In terms of injuries, I’ve only inflicted minor wounds on him with Inazuma’s Lightning Charge. He seems to be wary of Tengu-kaze for some reason despite not having any passive effects. The only reason I can think of is that Tengu-kaze hits hard due to its heavy weight in nature. I guess he would rather receive some flesh wounds over having his bones broken.

  I can see the ending now. We had been fighting for more than 30 minutes now, and my beloved cloak had returned to the other reality. There was no reason for me to resummon it, as I felt that I could take him head-on now. I had learned a lot from his dual-wielding technique and countering him back. What a way to improve my skillset in the midst of battle. This must be Peter's way of teaching me dual-wielding more effectively. No wonder he asked me to fight first.

  He charged at me once again. This time I was ready for him. He used his ice stomp, which made me jump again, and he immediately started using his bloody slashes towards me. But I countered his bloody slashes with Tengu-kaze's wind pressure; he could no longer damage me with that blood technique of his when I had this awesome legendary with me. It was back to fighting in close combat when he seemed to be running out of options. The two of us blocked or dodged each other’s attacks continuously. I’m beginning to feel exhausted from this prolonged battle. How’s he not feeling it?

  It was then that I noticed that he was stuttering with his movement. Is he… lagging? I took my opportunity and got closer to him. He swung his bloody katana towards me, but his movement was certainly slowing down. Now’s my chance. I held both my weapons in a reverse grip and swung Inazuma to parry his bloody katana. Then I spun my body and pushed Tengu-kaze through his torso. I quickly released my grip on Tengu-kaze and spun my body once again to face him directly while gripping my blade with a forward grip.

  The Wretched felt to his knees and dropped both of his katana. He reached out his hands in an attempt to grip my left hand, but I quickly released my grip and leaped backwards as I gripped Inazuma tightly. But I was mistaken; he gripped onto Tengu-kaze and ripped it out from his body. Talk about a chad.

  I assumed he would be tossing my katana aside, but he held it up towards me with both hands. It was as though he wanted me to retrieve my katana. I approached him slowly while being cautious. After retrieving my katana, he bowed to me like a knight, which triggered me to quickly reply to him with a polite bow when I noticed his body was dissipating. He gave me a thumbs up before his entire body vanished into thin air. Even his katana and helmet disappeared along with him.

  I glanced around the arena and after a couple of seconds of making sure that the coast was clear, I rested on my butt on the ground when he no longer resurrected himself. My goodness, that was one of the most exhausting battles I ever fought in and definitely one of the important ones. Thank you, half-naked jar man for teaching me how to dual-wield more effectively in combat. I hope you did not die from the wounds that I had inflicted on you.

  I realised that the entire Colosseum was completely quiet despite me being victorious. Where is the announcer anyway? Did he not realise that the fight had ended?

  “W… w… we have a winner! Oh my gosh, I had never seen such a fight before! It was so exhilarating that we couldn’t believe our eyes. Everyone, put your hands together to the contestant who will be heading to the finals… Zen Hawthorn!!” he announced.

  Geez, what’s the point of me using my undercover name when you’re announcing my real name to everyone? Guess there’s no point in me wearing my mask now, innit’? I’m sure people is familiar with my name here as I am known to be one of Peter’s strongest students when I was training here.

  The audience went wild upon hearing my name, and all of them started cheering to no end. I removed my mask and waved towards the crowds, which made them cheer even louder upon seeing my face.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, consider yourselves extremely lucky to be able to watch a fight from one of the four great powers. Count yourselves lucky that you had bought the tickets for today. But sadly, we will have to postpone the finals till tomorrow as the arena had been damaged badly. Your ticket will still be valid, but should you wish to upgrade your seats, you’ll be able to do so. And I do so encourage you all to upgrade because tomorrow, you’ll be able to see the Dark Caped Crusader versus the Elemental Ice Queen in action!!” he shouted into his loudspeaker.

  The crowds continued cheering, but I got up and proceeded to the arena’s exit. Elemental Ice Queen? Who in the world is that? It can’t be Lily as she was known as the Silver Head-Smasher. I’m certainly curious to see who I’ll be facing tomorrow. Rose met with me at the entrance exit along with Daisy. Both of them leaped into my arms, which made me shout in pain as I had not patched my wounds yet. Daisy was screaming all excited and jumping around, saying that the fight was so exciting and that she was rooting for me and such. All my wife said was “You did well, Zen” and smiled at me with a kiss on the cheek. Ah, she knows me so well.

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