Chapter 338: Chapter 338 - Semi-Finals(Part 1)

"It’s time for the first semi-final of the Arcadia Championship Clash, it’s Larrk Stryker vs Ilex Sarralot!" Announced Phyurio, as Ilex and I stepped onto the arena.

"Don’t take this the wrong way, but I have to say, I wasn’t expecting you to make it this far in the competition. You’ve gotten a lot stronger," I remarked with a smile.

"U-uh, thanks...I could do without all this attention on me though," He muttered with a look of discomfort on his face, as the crowd cheered in anticipation.

"I just hopw that doesn’t affect you once the fight begins, give me everything you’ve got," I replied, as the barrier formed around us.

"Well, I’ve made it this far...might as well try and win the whole thing," He sighed in response.

"Here’s the countdown! Ten! Nine! Eight!"

There’s no taking it easy from this point on...assuming I defeat Ilex here, which’ll be far from easy, I’ll have to fight either Satan or Frielektra next. Yeah, I’ve really got my work cut out for me...

"THREE! TWO!! ONE!!! ZEROOOO!!!!"

The two of us were quick to manifest our Soul Weapons, Ilex firing out several Mana bullets at me, before I cracked my whip across while extending it out, slicing through the incoming projectiles and dissipating them, before he swiftly pointed his Mana Armament at the floor and unleashed an intense burst of Mana to launch himself up into the air as my whip closed in on him, evading it.

"Soul Weapon Ascension: Level 5 - Arsenal!" He chanted rapidly.

"Soul Weapon Ascension: Belt of Dragon Whiskers. Contract: Azazel. Contract: Plasmuk," I swiftly chanted in response.

My skin turned blue as horns extended out of either side of my head, wings sprouting out over my shoulders blades as a tail extended out of my lower back, as my whip rapidly retracted and changed shape, forming a belt around my waist with two whips at the back and daggers in both my hands, as Ilex’s full-body armor manifested.

He fired out a massive beam of Mana from his chest cannon, which I zipped across to evade, before he formed a Mana blade out of one of his Mana Amplifiers and shot towards me.

I turned my body across as he slashed at me as he closed in, before I flung the dagger in my right hand up and clenched my fist, charging it with Azazel’s Exploding Fists ability and driving it towards Ilex’s stomach, my fist slamming onto the armor over that spot, a powerful explosion erupting upon impact and sending him flying back, crashing onto the wall of the barrier before he collapsed onto the floor of the arena, right as my right arm fell off, from around the elbow.

I see, he must have slashed his Mana blade at my arm in the instant that my fist collided against his armor.

He coughed out blood with a grimace as he got back onto his feet, before firing off a barrage of Mana projectiles at me from his Amplifiers as he regained his bearings, flying up as he spat out some blood.

As my severed arm turned to slime and shot back up, reconnecting to my arm before catching the blade I’d tossed up as it came plummeting back down, I swiftly sent my whips zipping out in front of me and thrashed them around with immense speed, blocking the incoming projectiles...I can’t let this fight drag on for too long, I don’t want to reveal the time limits of the various elements that make up my full power.

After I took in Plasmuk, some changes were made to my Contract with Azazel...most significantly, I can no longer give him control of my body, not even for an instant.

When I activate the Contract and take on this Demon-like form, I can maintain it for about ten minutes per day. And I’ll definitely need it against my next opponent, provided I defeat Ilex here, of course.

As for my Contract with Plasmuk, I can shift my body into a Slime-like state even in my normal form...however, I need to continously burn through my Mana to maintain that, otherwise I’ll shift back into my normal, flesh and blood state.

And when I activate the Contract, I can change the properties of my Slime body...I can turn it poisonous or acidic, I can make it burning hot or ice cold, I can make it glow, and so on. And like with Azazel’s Contract, I can only use it for about ten minutes per day.

And while normal injuries can’t hurt me while I’m in my slime-state-...even decapitation won’t kill me...-I do have a weakness, a small core. It’s pretty durable, but not unbreakable, a Soul Weapon could definitely destroy it.

To sum it up...it’s in my best interest to end this fight as quickly as possible. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

I unleashed a burst of wind and flames from the soles of my feet to launch myself up into the air, before I shot towards him, continued to swing my whips out in front of me to block his Mana projectiles, before I swooped down as he unleashed another massive blast of Mana from his chest cannon, narrowly evading it before flying up towards him.

As I began to close in, he aimed the tail-like tendrils on the back of his armor at me, firing out several piercing beams at me. The beams sliced across the sides of my arms and my left hip, before I quickly opened my mouth and fired out a deafening sonic screech at him while simultaneously and briefly manifesting a black hole behind him as he began to take aim at me with his Amplifiers.

The black hole pulled him back as a dazed look appeared in his eyes as my sonic screech engulfed him, his arms shifting as he fired out massive, charged up blasts of Mana out of his Amplifiers, narrowly missing me before slamming onto the floor of the arena, destroying it entirely in the blink of an eye...yikes, if that had hit me, I’d have been screwed.

As I shot up towards him, closing in, he gritted his teeth as he formed Mana blades out of both Amplifiers, before I grabbed his wrists with my whips and stretched them out while tightly constricting, immobilizing his arms before I began to slash at his head with my left blade.

As my blade closed in on him, he fired out his chest cannon, which struck my chest and burst out my back, as he simultaneously fired out piercing beams at my head from the tendrils extending out of the back of his armor, the beams drilling through my head right as my blade made contact with his left cheek and began to slice in, triggering the barrier and teleporting him out.

"Well, that didn’t last very long, but it sure was intense! The winner of the first semi-final, and therefore our first finalist, is...Larrk Stryker!"

"No fair...," Frowned Ilex, as I flew down towards him and reverted to my normal state, "The barrier is programmed to teleport out the Demons if they’re about to sustain damage to their heads or chest even though it wouldn’t be fatal to them, I assumed it’d be the same with you."

"Yeah, I kinda overlooked that, my bad...I probably would’ve been teleported out if I’d only unleashed my Demon Contract, but I guess I forgot to account for my Slime King Contract when formulating the barrier," I replied sheepishly.

Guess that’s something I’ll need to fix...while it wasn’t intentional, it did give me an unfair advantage in this fight. I may well have ended up losing if it wasn’t for that...

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