Point-of-View: Argent Stryker

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"Oh, come on. Aren’t there any other Diamond ranked Adventurers here besides you?" I sighed in exasperation, as my last opponent during my first ranking exam, Severa Sauveron, showed up with the receptionist.

I mean, I did want a rematch against her at some point, but not this soon!

"Good to see you again, how are you? Hm, if I remember right, your name is Argent, wasn’t it? Congratulations on ranking up to Platinum," She replied with a warm smile.

Damn, that’s unsettling...after seeing what she’s like when she’s fighting, this calm, docile demeanor of hers feels seriously creepy.

"Uh, thanks, I appreciate it...," I muttered warily...I was really hoping that I’d get to fight someone different this time.

She’s a bad match up for me, I only landed a hit on her last time because she let me. And after that, I was hopelessly outclassed and overwhelmed in no time.

Her nullifying Skill is possibly the biggest threat to me, it’ll block both my Magic and Skills, leaving me with just my hand to hand combat capabilities and my Soul Weapon. The silver lining is that she’ll be under the same restrictions.

The only difference is that, if she needs to use another Skill or a Spell, she can deactivate her nullifying Skill any time she wants to. I’ll have to force her to do so by inflicting some serious damage, and then use the opening to try and finish her.

"Well, good luck to you," She remarked as she walked past me, heading for the waterfall.

"Oh, uh...right, thanks. Same to you," I replied awkwardly...I can’t get a read on her at all.

Also, she absolutely doesn’t need any luck here, I’m the one with the uphill task. Once she was out of sight, I headed in too, making my way towards a rock formation, one that hadn’t been destroyed during the previous duel.

I chanted to bring out my Soul Weapon and waited for the barrier to start to form, peering out from behind my hiding place in the direction my opponent had headed towards.

Last time, she just strolled out into the open and waited for me to attack. Looks like she’s being more cautious this time around. She isn’t using that nullifying Skill yet, might as well make full use of that.

"Let’s start with...Initiate Skill: Radar. There you are, gotcha...and now, Elemental Flame: Jet Soles!" I exclaimed, shooting straight up into the air and hovering in place once I reached an adequate height, before taking aim at the spot I was sensing her from, "Elemental Flame: Double Mega Fire Blast! Again...Elemental Flame: Double Mega Fire Blast! One more time...Elemental Flame: DOUBLE MEGA FIRE BLAST!"

I fired six powerful bursts of flames down in her direction, sensing her moving around to evade as they crashed down onto the ground by a row of bushes.

The shrubbery sparked ablaze and rapidly spread out across the grass with a roar, right before she sprang out from the flames, covered in severe burns...before they rapidly healed and faded, her skin returning to normal.

I quickly swooped down towards the ground as I sensed her mouth moving through my Radar, having been focused on it to alert myself the instant she starts to chant.

Her Soul Weapon manifested as I landed, her mouth continuing to move before a barrier formed, spreading out around us and even engulfing the safety barrier...crap, there’s no gaps in her range for me to exploit, since it’s overlapping the bounds of the duel area.

Alright, then, I guess this is gonna come down to who’s more skilled when it comes to hand to hand combat and Soul Weapon utilization. I’ve been deliberately avoiding being over-reliant on Intangibility, specifically because of opponents like her, who can nullify it.

I braced myself as she shot towards me rapidly, closing in before too long and driving an uppercut towards my chin, the knuckle spikes of her Soul Weapon shooting up at my jaw.

I quickly tilted my head back, one of the spikes nicking the tip of my nose before I slashed at her neck with my left blade. She deflected my slash with the spikes on her right glove, before driving her left fist towards my head.

I swiftly got low and jabbed her stomach with the bottom of my right blade handle, before flicking my wrist to spin the blade and slash at that spot as she took a step back after I struck her with the handle.

She quickly sprang back to avoid my slash and backed away, a smirk on her face with a look of enjoyment on her face. I stiffened slightly as I felt something trickling down my forehead...huh?

Wh...why’s my forehead bleeding? What happened? I touched at the cuts as I stood up, feeling four shallow, parallel cuts going vertically down my forehead. Did she slash at me right as she sprang back? When? How? I didn’t even notice till I felt the blood running down my face.

My vision then blurred as a bit of blood trickled into my eyes, right before I took a step back in alarm as Severa suddenly shot towards me and closed in the instant my eyes got blurry.

She swung a rapid backhand across to my chest with her right fist, which I blocked with the flat of my left blade, before raising my right blade defensively to my side as she slashed at my hip.

I then slid my right blade along the spikes on her glove, aiming to slice through her hand...and right as my blade closed in on her fingers, she opened her hand up...and grabbed the blade between her fingers. What!? No way, she stopped the swing of my blade that easily!?

No time to dwell on it, damn it...I then quickly spun across as she drove her other fist towards my face, grazing across the bridge of my nose as I just barely avoided it.

I tried to back away, straining against the grip she had on my blade...when she suddenly let go of it, causing me to lose my balance and stumble back before I could regain my bearings.

I raised my blades defensively in alarm as she arched back her arms, when she suddenly changed form and slammed a kick onto my stomach, eliciting a sharp gasp of pain from me as I got sent flying back and skidded along the ground painfully.

I let out a slight groan, before rolling out of the way in a hurry as she leapt towards me and drove her knuckle spikes down at me, piercing them into the ground as I narrowly got out of the way.

I swiftly flung one of my blades at her with a rapid spin, and as it closed in on her, she quickly got back onto her feet and deflected my blade off to the side with a perfectly timed swing of her arm, striking it with her Soul Weapon and knocking it away.

Oh, crap, maybe that wasn’t the smartest move...she rapidly sprinted towards me and sprang forward, swinging both arms inwards and slashing in at me from two directions.

Right as her slashes closed in on me, I took a couple of quick steps back and braced myself, and as both sets of four prongs cut across my chest painfully, I immediately drove my blade straight towards her throat with a rapid twist.

She quickly tilted her head across, my blade slicing through the right side of the base of her neck, right by her shoulder. I began to try and slash it across towards her neck, before hurriedly drawing my arm back as she drove one of her fists up towards it.

Looks like she has no intention of taking down this nullifying barrier to heal that injury...fine, I’ll just have to inflict a lot more damage, even if that means having to sustain damage in order to inflict it back!

I then tried to zip around her and head towards my other blade, ducking as she swung her arm towards my head, before slashing my blade out as she swung her other arm at me, blocking her blades.

She’s not letting me pick up my other blade, damn it, it’s hard to defend against her attacks with just one blade! Yeah, inflicting more damage on her is a lot easier said than done. I really don’t want to do this, but I can’t think of any other options...

I sprang back as she slashed at me, before she swiftly chased after me and swung her right arm in towards my shoulder, which I blocked...right before she drove her left arm towards me, the spikes piercing into the right side of my chest, just below my shoulder.

I grimaced in pain, before swiftly reaching up and grabbing her forearm before she could draw her arm back out, tightening my grip as I felt her starting to resist.

And in the next instant, I swung my blade up and across with my free hand as fast as I could, deeply slicing through her right hip and cutting up and across her torso, slashing up to her left shoulder, as I felt the tip of my blade grazing her ribs along the way.

She then wrenched her arm free of my grasp, breaking her own forearm in the process, quickly backing away and getting some distance as blood poured down her torso.

"Okay, then...I don’t need this barrier anymore," She smirked, the nullifying barrier disappearing as she then chanted, "Initiate Skill: Ultra High Speed Regeneration. Now, we can fight for real!"

She began laughing gleefully, a slightly flushed look on her face as she gave me a malevolent smile, a terrifying gleam in her eyes.

...maybe this was a mistake. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

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