Chapter 329: Chapter 329 - Arcadia Championship Clash(Part 19)

Point-of-View: Argent Stryker

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"We’re halfway through round two of the Arcadia Championship Clash, it’s time for match number five of the second round! It’s the Demon Lord Satan vs Argent Stryker!" Announced Phyurio enthusiastically, cheers erupting across the stadium as Satan and I stepped onto the arena.

"I’ve quite been looking forward to this particularly fight, I shall spare no effort," Smiled Satan, a dark gleam in his eyes.

"Yeah, you’ve made that pretty clear," I sighed warily in response, before taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling.

I’ve been seriously dreading this since yesterday, but it’s weird, I feel strangely calm right now. The Demons are immensely powerful, and Satan is the most powerful of them all...but they’re not invincible, this tournament has proven that.

Defeating him may well be beyond what I’m capable of, but at the very least, I’m not going to let him have his way in this fight...

"Let’s kick off the countdown! Ten! Nine!"

Looking at his stance and expression, he intends to attack as soon as the countdown ends, I’ll need to keep my guard up here.

"THREE! TWO! ONEEE!!! ZEROOOOO!!!!"

The instant the countdown ended, I quickly chanted to manifest my Soul Weapon, as Satan spread out his wings and shot towards me rapidly, firing out a blast of Negative Energy at me.

I swiftly activated my Intangibility Skill, his attack phasing right through me before he closed in on me and slashed at my throat with his claws, which passed through me before I tried to back away and get some distance, but he relentlessly chased after me, launching a barrage of attacks to keep me continuously using my Intangibility Skill.

"So slow, if it weren’t for that Skill, this fight would already be over...how boring, all I need to do is keep attacking you for five minutes, and then, you’ll be completely and utterly defenseless!" He scoffed, as he continued chasing after me and attacking ceaselessly.

"I’ve still got a couple of tricks up my sleeve, I wouldn’t take me so lightly if I were you!" I shot back, as I extended out an earth spike from the ground, shooting up towards his head.

He swiftly unleashed a burst of his Obliteration ability, destroying all traces of the spike before it could reach him, before tilting his head across as I fired out a blast of lightning at his face from my mouth, evading it before continuing to attack me, his strikes passing through me as I maintained the Intangibility Skill.

That’s right, keep looking down on me, keep thinking that this is the best that I’m capable of...

"Initiate Skill: Limit Breaker!" I exclaimed, before swiftly sidestepping to evade the slash of his claws and then swinging my right blade across at his head.

He was quick to raise his hand up to grab my forearm as my blade closed in on the side of his head, his eyes widening in surprise as my arm and the blade phased through him, before a startled gasp rang out as I swiftly plunged my left blade into his side, giving it a sharp twist before pulling it out and backing away, trickles of blood running down his hip before the injury healed up.

"Ah, right, you possess that Limit Breaker Skill...I’d assumed you’d already used it at the start of the fight. Yes, I suppose I did underestimate you a bit too much...but no matter, your increase in speed was enough to catch me off-guard, but now that you’ve lost the element of surprise, you will not land another hit," He stated, as he began charging up a beam of Obliteration and started to take aim at me.

This is my chance!

"Soul Weapon Ascension: Dragon Fang Armor," I chanted swiftly and quietly as I shot towards him, turning my head intangible as he fired the beam at me, which phased through my head before jet black armor manifested all around my body.

The handles of my blades morphed into gauntlets and engulfed my hands and forearms, making it look like I had blades for hands. A pair of sharp, bladed wings manifested as the armor enveloped my body, rows of curved blades forming over the armor covering my forearms forearms, with curved spikes extending out over my elbows, knees, heels, the fronts of my feet and the tops of shoulders, as a segmented metal tail with rows of spikes and a curved blade at the end of it extended out over my lower back, the transformation significantly enhancing my physical capabilities as I put on a sharp burst of speed, Satan’s eyes widening in alarm as I closed in on him in an instant.

He began to swing his claws up, but he was too slow to react, as I grabbed his face and drove his head down, the back of his head slamming onto the floor of the arena with immense force, deep cracks spreading out across the tiles upon impact as blood poured out of the back of his head.

He gritted his teeth and whipped his right arm across, firing out a slashing wave of Negative Energy, which phased through my armor and body as I turned myself intangible, before slashing at his throat with my right blade.

He quickly rolled across the ground and sprang back onto his feet as his head healed up, before spreading out his wings and flying up into the air with a grimace. Looks like he’s finally treating me as a real threat...

I spread out the wings of my armor and chased up after him, zipping through the air and sending my tail shooting up towards him as I began to close in on him, whipping it across to slash at his chest with the blade at the end of the tail.

He flew back to evade it, before unleashing a massive sphere of Obliteration down at me, which I phased through and swung both my blades out across at him as I closed in.

The tips of my blades grazed his chest as he flew back to evade my attack, before I unleashed a wave of flames at him from my mouth. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

He swooped down to evade it before firing out an Obliteration beam at me, which I turned intangible to evade before chasing after him.

Since my Soul Weapon Ascension is an armor type, it’s the ultimate defense, the only way to hurt me is to hit my armor with more force than it can absorb...but it hasn’t been long since I achieved Soul Weapon Ascension, so I shouldn’t be too careless.

I’ve only used up about half my time limit with Intangibility, and I have a little over half the time limit of my Limit Breaker left. His Obliteration attacks could probably still hurt me if I don’t use Intangibility, a wide enough attack would be able to partially slip through the gaps in my armor, so I need to be careful.

I can freely use my Intangibility Skill for five minutes upon activation, and after that, I can’t use it again for ten minutes...I’ve seen how frustrating it gets for my opponents when I use it to nullify their attacks, I should try and wrap this up before I reach my time limit.

As I chased after Satan and closed in on him, I slashed at his back with one of my blades, he quickly zipped down to just barely evade it, landing on the arena before racing across as I fired out several streaks of lightning at him.

He unleashed bursts of Negative Energy to cancel out my lightning, while trying to get some distance away from me...I see, he’s trying to run down the clock on my time limits, most of my opponents do tend to do that in response to my Intangibility Skill.

I continued to chase after him at top speed, slowly closing the gap before he suddenly halted, sharply spun around and shot straight towards me.

I quickly stopped and whipped my tail out towards him, which he ducked under before leaping at me with his right fist drawn back, driving it towards my stomach. I turned myself intangible right in the nick of time, a powerful shockwave erupting from his fist as he thrust it forward, the force exerting slamming onto the wall of the barrier behind me, which was several meters away...he must have used his Magnify Impact ability, that probably would’ve done some damage if I hadn’t turned intangible, I don’t think my armor could’ve absorbed that much force.

But it’s over now, he leapt at me with full force, and having landed behind me, he’s in a vulnerable position, this is my chance to-...

As I spun around and began to slash one of my blades at his neck, my body suddenly stiffened up sharply, a gasp escaping my lips as my vision blurred severely...I could feel my grasp over my Soul Weapon Ascension slipping, before a familiar pain erupted across my body.

My Soul Weapon Ascension faded as I collapsed onto my hands and knees, unable to get back up. Th-this is...this feels like the backlash from my Limit Breaker Skill. B-but...already? N-no, I...I should still have some time left...

"I see...I gather it has not been long since you attained this Soul Weapon Ascension, yes? It looks like using it in tandem with Limit Breaker was too much for your body to handle in its current state. I suppose that makes sense...it shouldn’t even be possible, for a human to reach the level of Demonic Grade without a Contract.

Even without that Intangibility Skill, I’d estimate that you’d still be a match for me, or at least close to it. And with the Intangibility Skill...brief though it was, you surpassed me," Remarked Satan quietly, as he loomed over me grimly, adding, "I cannot deny, had you maintained that form for even a second longer, I would almost certainly have been defeated."

"Y-yeah, I...I figured as much. It’s only been about a month since I achieved Soul Weapon Ascension, and I haven’t trained with it all that much because I wanted to keep it under wraps for this tournament. And this was the first time that I combined it with Limit Breaker, I didn’t think this would happen...damn it. Heh, I suppose this is the part where you beat the shit out of me, huh?" I responded with a grimacing, wry smile.

"Yes, that had been my intention...but you’ve impressed me. And if you do discover a way to maintain that level of power for a longer period of time, you could become one of the most powerful beings in the world. You’ve earned my respect, Argent Stryker...I can entrust you with protecting my daughter, you had better not betray that trust. Now, then...while this does not feel earned on my part, I shall claim victory in this battle," He stated, before firing out a beam of Obliteration towards my head, triggering the barrier and teleporting me out before it could hit me.

"Wow, what an intense match that was, short but sweet! The winner is...the Demon Lord Satan!"

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