"Welcome back, everyone! Wasn’t yesterday a whole lot of fun? Well, brace yourselves, because the intensity is sure to ramp up today! Round two of the Arcadia Championship Clash is moments away from kicking off, the first match is Larrk Stryker vs Rosary Farndrey!" Phyurio’s voice echoed out across the stadium enthusiastically, hyping up the crowd.

Much better, he’s a definite upgrade from the sorry commentary that Mysst had provided yesterday. Well, not that that’s saying much, I suppose.

"It feels like just yesterday that you were assessing me during the Guild entrance exam...a hell of a lot sure has happened since then," I remarked as I stepped onto the arena.

"Yeah, it’s been a while since then. You were already strong back then, but now you’re just impossibly strong...I doubt I stand a chance against you at your current level, but I certainly have no intention of making it easy for you," She responded with a smile.

"Without any further ado, let’s get this first match started! Here’s the countdown...ten, nine, eight seven...!" Phyurio began counting down as the barrier formed around the arena, Rosary and I putting our guards up and getting ready to attack.

I may be more powerful than she is, but she is very skilled, so I can’t take this fight too lightly. Between the Demons and Frielektra, I have my doubts over whether I can actually win this tournament, but at the very least, I’m aiming to reach the semi-final round, let’s see how far I can go from that point onwards. But for now, I shouldn’t get too far ahead of myself, I’ll focus on the fight in front of me and worry about what comes after once it’s over...

"...three, two, one, ZERO!"

"Manifest Soul Weapon: Venom Claws, Soul Weapon Ascension: Venom Armor!" Chanted Rosary, unleashing her Soul Weapon Ascension, armor forming around her entire body before she shot towards me, as I swiftly chanted to manifest my whip.

I swung it at her as she began to close in on me, which she narrowly evaded by getting low and leaping towards me, swiping her claws at my legs. I unleashed a burst of wind from the soles of my feet to shoot myself up into the air, before firing out an intense sonic screech down at her from my mouth.

She quickly burst out flames from her feet to launch herself back, just barely avoiding my attack before she fired a rapid bolt of lightning at me. I swiftly activated my Magic Eater Skill, swallowing up her lightning before I flew across as she unleashed her Bind Skill, several six golden chains chasing after me as I zipped through the air, ducking and weaving around to avoid the chains.

I then combined flames and water to create a burst of steam, forming a thick cloud of steam around myself, my eyes widening in surprise as her chains continued to chase after me, before I zipped out of the steam cloud and continued evading the chains...oh, right, she has the Area Detect Skill, I forgot about that.

What were her other Skills, again? There’s Bind and Area Detect, of course...oh, also Stealth, I should avoid letting her get out of my line of sight. Ah, she’s also got that Skill that can detect whether a person is lying or not, I don’t need to worry about that one...and her last Skill is Intoxicate, that one’s not a concern either.

Alright, time to turn things around.

I fired out a large spiderweb net down at her, forcing her to zip away to evade it, before I rapidly chased after her, closing in on her as her chains began to converge in on me from multiple directions, before I slammed my right palm onto the armor over her face and fired out a concentrated, intense blast of wind, sending her flying back at a breakneck speed before she slammed onto the wall of the barrier.

She collapsed onto her knees with a gasp of pain, her shoulders trembling as she tried to get back onto her feet.

Since her armor is her Soul Weapon, I can’t break through it, but I don’t need to. All I need to do is inflict more damage than it can absorb...and it looks like that last attack worked.

There’s a trickle of blood dripping down her armor, that attack probably broke her nose, I’m guessing.

The easiest ways to finish this without using my Contracts would be a poison mist or a black hole. Hm, Dragon Fire would work well too...

I then created poison in my mouth before combining it with a Wind Spell and fired out a thick cloud of poison mist, as Rosary got back onto her feet and quickly unleashed a wave of flames from her hands, burning the mist and evaporating it before she shot towards me as her flames extinguished the poison mist.

She abruptly halted and sprang back as I then formed a black hole in front on her, digging her claws into the floor of the arena to avoid getting pulled into the dark mass.

I then flew up and dissipated the black hole, the sudden disappearance of the force it was exerting upsetting Rosary’s balance before she hurriedly scrambled onto her feet and leapt away as I came rapidly swooping down towards her, narrowly evading as my feet slammed onto the floor of the arena with immense force, deep cracks spreading out from the point of impact before I swung my whip at her while rapidly extending it out.

She tried to twist her body out of the way, but she was too slow to react, my whip hitting her right forearm and wrapping around it before I retracted my whip, constricting it around her arm before she came flying towards me rapidly.

I grabbed the armor around her neck as she got within my reach, before driving her down towards the floor of the arena as she began to swipe the claws on her left hand towards my face, a sharp gasp ringing our as her back slammed onto the floor, before I planted my foot on her chest to keep her pinned down and unleashed a burst of Dragon Fire down at her head, engulfing the armor surrounding her head as the air around shimmered violently, the floor starting to melt.

She dug her claws into my leg and tried to pry it off, but it was no use...my Total Immunity Skill renders the paralyzing venom that her Soul Weapon produces ineffective. It does hurt though...

The barrier then triggered and teleported her out before my flames could cook her head inside the helmet of her armor, and as she appeared outside the arena, she was quick to undo her Soul Weapon Ascension, her face dripping with sweat and a dazed look in her eyes as she pushed her head back from her forehead, matted to her head from the sweat.

"That’s the first match of round two done! And the winner is...Larrk Stryker!"

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