Chapter 334: Chapter 334 - Quarter-Finals(Part 1)

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, this is it, we’re at the business end of the tournament now! It’s time for the quarter-final round to begin, and the first match is Larrk Stryker vs Izzozon!" Exclaimed Phyurio, amping up the crowd as Izzy and I stepped onto the arena.

"It’s about time I get I good opponent, and I’m going to get to fight two more times today," Grinned Izzy with a gleam in her eyes.

"Hey, now...that’s only if you defeat me," I pointed out with a wry smile.

"Oh, right. Well, then, I guess I’ll have to win," She declared with a smirk.

"Let’s kick off the countdown! Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! THREE! TWO! ONE!!! ZEROOO!!!"

I swiftly manifested my whip and fired out a piercing beam of water towards Izzy before rapidly cracking and extending my whip out in her direction as my beam closed in on her.

She ducked to evade the beam before leaping up as my whip zipped in towards her left side, narrowly avoiding it before firing out a blast of Negative Energy at me.

I flew up to evade it as I contracted my whip, before stiffening it and rapidly extending it straight towards her as I gained some altitude.

She quickly turned her body across, my whip grazing the side of her left arm before she unleashed a wave of flames up at me from her mouth.

I countered with a blast of water, a cloud of steam exploding around the middle of the space within the barrier as our attacks canceled each other out, before Izzy spread out her wings and took off, zipping through the cloud of steam and charging up towards me with immense speed.

She then abruptly halted as I created a Black Hole in front of her, the dark mass pulling her in as she flapped her wings ceaselessly to resist the force pulling her, before unlocking a layer of her seal, unleashing twenty percent of her full power and gaining enough strength to fly away from the Black Hole, before her eyes widened in alarm as my whip came zipping in at her right.

I dissipated the Black Hole as she narrowly evaded the swing of my whip, severing a couple of strands of her hair as she swooped down to dodge it, before I fired out a deafening sonic screech towards her.

She quickly flew away, just barely avoiding my attack before firing out a crackling bolt of lightning up towards me.

As I evaded her attack, she flew up towards me, suddenly unleashing an immense burst of speed as she unlocked another layer of her seal and unleashing forty percent of her full power, swinging her claws at me as she closed in.

I quickly raised the blade on the other end of the handle of my whip defensively, partially blocking her slash as her claws cut across my right side and inflicted shallow gashes across that spot, before I closed my eyes and unleashed a blinding flash of light from my fingertip.

She quickly flew away with coating her body in intense swirling flames, as I also backed away and got some distance, healing my injury before unleashing a slashing wave of wind towards her, right as she strained her eyes open and swerved her body across as my Spell closed in on her, a shallow cut appearing across the side of her right arm as my wind slash grazed her, drawing out a trickle of blood before the cut swiftly healed.

She’s significantly faster and stronger than me with forty percent of her power unleashed, I just barely managed to block her slash, and if I hadn’t caught her off-guard with that flash of light, she might have landed a winning blow. And I can’t match her in the air with just Wind Magic, I need my wings.

I then unleashed my Contract, my physical abilities and senses sharply heightening as Izzy flew up towards me, coating her claws in flames and slashing at my chest with her right as she closed in.

I evaded the swing of her claws and grabbed her forearm, before she drove the claws on her left hand towards my throat. I quickly reached out and grabbed her wrist before her claws could reach me, before I quickly chanted to unleash my Soul Weapon Ascension, as Izzy unlocked the next layer of her seal and unleashed sixty percent of her power, wrenching her arms free of my grasp and rapidly flying down as I slashed at her with my daggers while sending the two whips extending out over my lower back shooting out towards her.

I continued extending them out and chasing after her as she flew across the space with immense speed, before firing out intensely pressurized blasts of water ahead of her.

She quickly zipped upwards as I pincered her with my whips and Water Spells, my whips shooting up after her before she unleashed a fierce wave of blue flames towards me.

I swiftly extended out my Magic Eater Skill, swallowing up her flames and using it to replenish my own Mana, before retracting my whips as she shot towards me rapidly.

She drove her claws towards me as she closed in, I swung my blades across to deflect her slashes, knocking her hands away and cutting off a few of her claws which quickly grew back, as she coated her right foot in blue flames and swung it up towards my head.

I quickly flew back in response, narrowly evading her kick before she sent her tail shooting forward and wrapping around my left ankle, holding me in place before driving her claws towards my stomach, which I managed to partially deflect with one of my blades, grimacing in pain as her claws deeply gashed across my left side.

She then tightened the grip of her tail around my ankle and swung me across, abruptly loosening her grip and sending me hurtling across the air as she chased after me with immense speed.

I sharply spread out my wings to halt myself, before quickly twisting my body across as she closed in and drove her claws forward, cutting across the front of my chest as I turned my body across right in the nick of time.

She then quickly pulled her arm back as I tried to grab her wrist with one of my whips, before she flew back and unleashed a blast of blue flames at me from her mouth.

I just barely managed to swallow it up with Magic Eater again, before letting myself plummet as she unleashed a slashing wave of Negative Energy towards me, the attack too fast to intercept with Magic Eater as I narrowly evaded it and spread out my wings, flapping them and zipping across as she unleashed several streaky blasts of lightning down at me, my body sharply stiffening up as one of the streaks grazed my left calf and electrocuted me.

She was quick to swoop down towards me as I momentarily slowed down, balling her fists together and swinging them down, slamming against my middle back and sending my plunging down towards the floor of the arena.

I hurriedly fired out a blast of water below myself to break my fall, the front of my body hitting the floor with a painful thud, as Izzy swooped down towards me rapidly, coating her fists in blue flames.

I quickly dropped down into my shadow as fast as I could, disappearing into the shadows right as she closed in on me and swung her right fist down, which struck the ground as I fully sunk down without so much as a split second to spare.

I let out a strained sigh of relief before I began healing myself, while Izzy flew up and waited for me to emerge. Smart, I’ll have an advantage on the ground with my ability to enter the shadows, but there’s not much I can do down here against an opponent who can fly.

What’s more, Plasma, Fire and Lightning Magic aren’t effective against her, and those elements are my go-to when it comes to Attack Spells. There’s also the fact that she’s not going all out yet.

Yes, sixty percent is the most amount of her full power than she can use without losing control, but she’s using her strongest weapon, Dragon Fire, pretty sparingly so far.

Knowing what she’s like, she deliberately holding back and gradually taking the fight more and more seriously in order to savor it as much as possible...otherwise, she might already have beaten me by now.

This is the first time I’m fighting her with this much of her power unleashed...well, not counting the time she lost control in Plasmuk’s Labyrinth, of course.

Looking at her now from down her, I’m getting the impression that she’s ready to try and bring this fight to an end. I’m at my full power right now, but she’s still more powerful than I am, not by a huge amount but still fairly significant.

I shouldn’t stay down her too long, that wouldn’t be good for the tournament...I just need a moment to come up with a strategy. I’ve got a lot of tricks up my sleeve, so much so that I’ve recently noticed that I’ve underused and overlooked some of the options in my arsenal lately.

My Spells, my Skills, the abilities I’ve gained through eating Monsters, the powers I gained from my Contracts with Azazel and Plasmuk...come on, think.

Hm, I haven’t used that in a while, it’s not something I’d usually consider using in a fight, but she is one of the few opponents that this would work on. And knowing her, she’s probably forgotten that I even have this ability...alright, then, let’s give it a try.

"It’s about time!" Grinned Izzy, as I finally emerged from the shadows, before flying up and across as fast as I could as she unleashed a massive wave of blue flames down towards me.

Yup, she’s definitely moving in to end this fight.

I narrowly evaded the flames and fired off a slashing wave of water up at her, which evaporated into a cloud of steam as she unleashed a blast of blue flames in response, before chasing after me rapidly, closing the gap as she began firing off a barrage of blue flames at me.

I managed to swallow up the ones coming straight at me with Magic Eater, as well as creating Black Holes for a few seconds each to try and swallow up more of her flames, but there were too many to get them all, the flames spreading out across the floor of the arena with alarming speed.

Yeah, I won’t be able to drop down into the shadows again, but if my plan works, I won’t need to.

As she began to close in on me, I swiftly spun around and shot towards her, her eyes widening in surprise before I swiftly activated my Monster Thought Communication Skill and telepathically yelled as loudly as I could straight into her head, a stunned, startled look appearing on her face as I caught her off guard and dazed her slightly, before quickly firing out several sticky spider webs at her, which wrapped around her body before she could react.

"Wha...? This won’t hold me for long!" She exclaimed as she unleashed blue flames all around her body as I began to close in on her, burning my webs up in a matter of seconds, before grimacing as I quickly grabbed her wrists with my whips and stretched them out.

I didn’t slow down or stop as I restrained her arms, sending my Magic Eater shooting out towards her and swallowing up the flames over her chest, while I charged up Azazel’s Exploding Fists ability into my right hand and drove it forward with all the speed and force I could muster, right as she managed to wrench her right hand free of the grasp of one of my whips, swiping at my face in a rush.

Her claws dug into my left cheek and began to pierce in as my fist began to connect against the middle of her chest, triggering the explosion I’d charged into in as I felt her claws painfully piercing into my gums as they cut through my cheeks, right as she suddenly vanished from my sight, a powerful shockwave erupting from my fist and slamming onto the barrier wall several meters ahead, violent ripples bursting out from the point of impact.

"And after an intense battle, the winner of the first quarter-final is...Larrk Stryker!" Announced Phyurio, cheers erupting across the crowd as I let out a weary sigh and healed myself.

I then swallowed up the blue flames spreading out across the arena using Magic Eater, before turning my gaze to Izzy and flying down towards her, a shell-shocked look on her face.

"Huh? Wait, no...I lost? I totally had the advantage, I could’ve won...how did I lose?" She remarked in disbelief, struggling to process what just happened.

"Yeah, my full power falls short of your power at sixty percent. But I’ve got a wider arsenal, and that made the difference in the end," I replied as I reached down and helped her back up onto her feet.

"What was that thing you did? How did you shout into my mind like that?" She inquired with a confused frown.

"You know I’ve used that on you before, right? Granted, it was to communicate and not as a battle tactic, but still," I reminded her with a wry smile.

"Huh...yeah, I don’t remember that. Ugh, this sucks, I’m not gonna get to fight anymore in the tournament. Talk about disappointing, what a letdown..."

_____________________________________________

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this Chapter! Don’t forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!

Also, check out my Insta account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.

Join the Discord server, I plan to tease upcoming Chapters and future story arcs here, and you can also discuss or ask me any questions about the story and characters. Use the invite link to join:

https://discord.gg/sRbx9VbTVP