***Compress Punch: Normal Variant is now changed into Compress Punch: Air Bullet***

***Compress Punch: Normal Variant is now changed into Compress Punch: Air Bullet***

A Man Among Men

I arrived at the venue for my match. The location was an arena, much like the one I was in during my Monster Tamer class, but this one was a bit smaller in comparison. It also had several rows of elevated stone seats surrounding the open circle that acted as the fighting ground.

In all honesty, it resembled an ancient roman coliseum. Complete with the vintage chipped stone blocks and poorly maintained blood stained walls.

Nostalgic in a sense.

As I entered the arena, I saw that the seats were rather empty, well save for the few stranger students who somehow heard of my match and what looks like a group of teachers who sat near the front.

I inspected the almost non-existent audience and was surprised to see a few familiar faces.

Waving in my direction were two high school girls accompanied by a blue child who was currently riding on top of one of their heads. The girls were of course, Nanami and Avril followed by a lively Quinn who hid between the strands and lockes of Avril’s hair.

They scampered down the seats and ran towards my direction. They greeted me as they approached. The first to speak was Avril.

“Heyoooooo Kelp! My oh my, you sure are a busy fellow.” She commented while laughing heartily.

On the other end of the spectrum was Nanami, who didn’t find the situation funny in any aspect.

“Onii chan! W-what are you doing?! Why are you fighting?!” She scolded while removing a boisterous Quinn from ontop of Avril’s head. Quinn was currently struggling as she tried to free herself and jump towards me.

Nanami handed me Quinn, who I recieved in open arms. Quinn quickly calmed down as she scampered out of my hands and climbed my face where he nestled on top of my head, like a boisterous blue monkey.

In an attempt to divert Nanami’s concern, I asked her a question.

“Why do you know about this fight in the first place?” I directed towards both the girls. “I mean, it hasn’t even been an hour since I myself found out about it.”

At this Nanami’s concerned face remained the same while Avril merely laughed in delight.

“I’ve got quite the connections Kelp. Being rich and high ranking does have some advantages you know.” Avril stated simply.

I nodded at this. It made sense. Position and power always went hand in hand with specialized privilege.

I then turned my attention towards Nanami. “What about you? I was pretty sure you were waiting at the Courtyard. Plus.” I pointed above my head. “Why is Quinn here?”

Nanami fidgeted. “Actually, I found out Onii chan was fighting after I saw Miss Jumblee walking down the Courtyard towards the direction of the Arenas. She was carrying Quinn.”

“The old hag? You’re telling me she knows?”

Nanami nodded in response. “It seems like news of professor Kiryat’s participation in a match has spread throughout the faculty.”

I thought about this for a second before I nodded in understanding.

It’s understandable. I’m sure it’s not all that common for teachers to be fighting, much less for teachers to be fighting students. I guess it would be quite a spectacle to watch.

At this thought, I turned my attention towards the group of teachers and faculty who had already congregated along the upper seats. The numbers had already grown from when I entered the coliseum.

Squinting, I could even make out Miss Jumblee as she excitedly buttered her pre prepared popcorn and sipped on a cup of soda she happened to bring along.

I sighed at this sight.

I turned back towards Nanami, as she continued explaining.

“...So I questioned her about it, and although she didn’t want to tell me at first, she finally spilled everything after I, um… asked her nicely.”

Nanami smiled awkwardly.

“Anyways, why are you getting into a fight Onii Chan?!”

Trying to calm the angry Nanami, I patted her head. She cooed at the slight contact of palm to hair.

“Well… it’s a bit of a long story, but it’s something I’ve forced myself to do.” I stated.

“Muuuuuuu….” She moaned as she struggled between giving up to the sweet embraces of my head rubs or between arguing more about my fight.

“B-but, Onii chan, I heard the one you’re fighting is Professor Kiryat…” She showed slight resistance as she asked her question.

“Kiryat? The muscular old man in a jersey right? What about him?”

At my lack of knowledge, Nanami looked worriedly at me before she turned towards Avril.

not

“Hahaha, It’s just that, Professor Kiryat’s the type hold back.” Avril answered, “If you’re going to fight him, you’ll be fighting an experienced veteran at his full strength.”

I thought of this for a moment. Just hearing the word “veteran” rang warning signs in my head.

After some more pondering, I ultimately shrugged and quelled my own worry.

“Well, don’t worry too much about it.” I spoke to the Nanami who was currently knitting her eyebrows in concern. “I’m sure everything will work themselves out in the end.”

From my peripheral vision, I caught sight of something that interested me.

I stopped rubbing Nanami’s head and handed Quinn back. I motioned towards the stands while looking at a new group of students who just entered.

The new group of students stood out. Whether it was the fact that the other students willingly gave them 10 meters of separation or whether it was by how they presented themselves, one wouldn’t miss this particular trio in any crowd.

They were of course, the Student Council. The president, Scleri, followed by her two underlings.

As we met eyes, Scleri gave me a bitter smile, which I returned kindly with my own before I saw them disappear towards their seats. The male student stayed behind to glare at me some more before he walked over to in the direction of the arena.

Turning back, I addressed Nanami and Avril. “You two better get going. I’m sure the match is about to start pretty soon.” I told the girls.

They nodded before making their way to some open seats near the front of the coliseum. Once I saw that they were properly seated, I cracked my knuckles and faced the entrance to the fighting grounds.

“Let’s at least hope this will be somewhat entertaining.” I sardonically spoke as I walked into the arena.

****

“That hateful man’s expression never changes.” Scleri spat through gritted teeth.

She hated him.

It was a weird type of hatred. She didn’t know what about the man she hated, nor did she know why she bared such animosity towards him, the only thing she could grasp about her own emotions, was that she hated Kelp Kusanagi.

In Scleri’s eyes, Kelp was someone who had nothing. Someone who should have never even considered attending this school, yet somehow or the other the man was here. Somehow or another, he walked along the same hallways as her, took the same classes as her and breathed the same air as her. Something about this irked the Scleri who had always been isolated and raised as a person who shouldn’t bother with anyone below her.

And to her, Kelp was obviously someone below her.

“Trash of society, the barnacle attached to the mast of a ship.” As her mother would have so aptly put. “Someone a member of the prestigious Roe family clan would never associate with.”

Someone of that caliber shouldn’t have the nerve to walk around with so much… so much confidence. Such a relaxed and lazy attitude, she hated that.

Such an attitude was reserved for the people who stood at the top of the world.

The rest of the scum should be putting their earnest efforts in order to even scrape the barrel in which Scleri stood on.

“Ah, that’s probably why I hate him so much.” Scleri realized.

Since a long time ago, Scleri has always hated people with confidence they couldn’t back up. She hated shams, frauds, weaklings, liars, and to her, Kusanagi was the biggest liar she had ever met.

A man who seemingly didn’t give a single care to the world.

She reflexively scowled before she turned her attention towards the blond haired young man who was currently ogling the hateful man’s sister from afar.

“Aleksey, I take it you’re going too…”

The young man, Aleksy turned his attention away from Nanami and onto Scleri. He nodded furiously before stating,

“Yes Miss President.” Aleksey fixed his impeccably neat uniform. “Then I shall be on my way.”

He turned and walked away towards the fighting grounds..

Scleri sighed before she turned her attention towards Ami.

“Then Ami, I guess it’s time.”

She moved towards the reserved space she had previously prepared in order to watch the match.

Scleri then smirked.

“Although it’s not like it’s going to be much of a match.”

*****

I entered the arena and saw my opponent. Mr. Kiryat stood on the opposite end of the field, which was a dirt covered floor with several weeds ingrown along the borders of the walls. His imposing aura maximized as he unmovingly stood broad shouldered with a stern look on his face.

I made the accidental mistake of making eye contact with the man, which made me feel compelled to strike up a conversation.

“S-so Professor Kiryat… who would have known we’d meet each other so soon?” I weakly stated.

Kiryat replied with a solemn grunt.

He reached for the scabbard slung across his back and pulled it away from his shoulder. He moved his sword and scabbard in an Iaido (fast draw) position. His eyes gleamed with what I could only guess was excitement.

Or maybe it was anticipation.

“Heh” I laughed pitifully.

Fighting people with drive is usually the hardest thing to do. They usually never give up no matter how many times you knock them down. Really, they’re the real monsters of this world.

Before the match started, the blonde haired student from earlier made his way to the center of the space.

He mumbled a few indecipherable words, although in this case, it would have been more accurate to say he mumbled spells. He waved his hand in the air and as he did so, he began to levitate off the ground. His elevation was reaching higher and higher as his hand movement gradually slowed until it came to a complete stop while he continued to rise.

Once he reached a good 20 meters or so, he waved his hand once more, putting up the end to his rise. He then conjured up what resembled a red microphone with a snap of his fingers.

He tapped the widescreen (top part) of the microphone, which subsequently caused an annoying reverberating noise to fill the coliseum.

“Testing, testing, 1,2...Oh! It seems to be working properly!”

The blonde student floated in a circle excitedly.

He put his hand onto his forehead, imitating a wide brimmed cap and began surveying the crowd that had gathered. By now, the once empty seats were, well they were still relatively sparse, but about one fourth of them were now occupied by various groups of faculty, students, and general passersby.

“Oho~” The floating student exclaimed. “It seems like quite a crowd has gathered.” He continued to survey the students until his eyes landed on a particular spot where Avril and Nanami were currently seating.

He frantically waved over and screamed. “Hey~ Nanami~! How are you?! Did you miss me, my honey~?!” He screeched like a monkey.

Nanami, in response showed a disgusted expression on her face before she moved to hide behind Avril’s back.

The boy seemingly unfazed by Nanami’s apprehension, continued to excitedly holler.

Irritated, I finally had enough. “Oi! Dude in the sky! Stop bothering my sister and get on with it already!”

The man turned in my direction. He made a scoffing sound before he once again addressed the crowd.

He coughed twice before he straightened up and spoke once more.

"Ahem- As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted. "

He sent an accusatory glare towards me.

"This little event sure has gathered quite a crowd. Despite being so hastily put together, the news had already leaked out to this degree...truly amazing.

Now I’m sure you all know what's about to happen next, after all, I doubt any of you here would be present otherwise."

He made a grandiose display of pointing down towards the ring.

“These two gentlemen down below will be commencing in a… battle of sorts.” He smirked knowingly.

“Now as your host, allow me to introduce this afternoon’s competitors.”

He pointed flaccidly in my direction.

“This young man over here is Kelp Kusanagi. A relatively new student with not many feats to hold to his name. Oh, a little bit of tidbit folks, he is apparently a monster tamer!” He performed a mocking gesture.

The crowd roared in laughter in response.

“Now, I wonder how this student who is still wet between the ears will handle facing his opponent and our next contender-”

He twirled around excitedly in mid air, raising the tension of the crowd.

“Professor Kiryat!!!!!!!!”

At the mention of his name, the crowd’s intensity raised an octave higher.

“A man who goes by the simple name of Kiryat, a once outrageously successful adventurer who has now retired into a quiet life as a teacher at one of Setohanda’s biggest and most prestigious schools, Newgrounds Imperial!”

As the blonde haired student continued to shower praise upon praise onto Professor Kiryat, the man in question responded with a solemn grunt.

After the tension and excitement had gone down, the floating boy continued onwards.

“And last but not least, you’re host and announcer for this evening battle- ME!!!”

He made an even bigger ordeal upon announcing himself than he did announcing the actual fighters.

I sighed. I kinda understood now that this floating pretty boy was very, very self-centered.

Despite my thoughts, the floating boy’s introductions continued nonetheless.

“As many of you may know, I am Aleksey Michioval, acting Public Relations Director and Historian of our school’s Student Council. Today I will be overseeing the match.

Oh, and the president herself will also be spectating today. After all, it’s such an exciting thing, that is, a match between a student and teacher doesn’t happen very often.”

He motioned towards the front rows, where the president sat. Scleri politely nodded, as Aleksey continued.

“Anyways, although this match might end prematurely, considering who our competitors are, let’s all still try and have a good time, okay?!”

At this the crowd roared to life. They were hungry and eager, like a pack of starved wolves. A prime example of what a group of people raised in a society that highly valued and prided martial merit would be like.

Seeing the crowd’s frenzy, Aleksey smiled to himself as he darted towards professor Kiryat. He stopped short of 3 meters from the man, and like a true ringside announcer, he asked, “Professor, are you ready?!”

Kiryat silently nodded in response.

Seeing this confirmation, Aleksey once again darted to the center of the ring. Unlike with professor Kiryat, he merely stayed where he stood and yelled in my direction.

“And you? Are you ready? Or rather, don’t you need your monster to fight?”

I smiled in Aleksey’s direction while throwing a sideways glance towards the president.

“I won’t need Timmy. I’m plenty strong as is.”

Aleksey scowled in response.

“Suit yourself. But let me just warn you, there’s nothing entertaining about watching a fight end too quickly.”

His grim expression immediately returned back into his normal bubbly demeanor as he once again turned towards the crowd.

“Then Fighters! Get ready! Get set! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!”

With the oncoming shrieks that followed, my match with professor Kiryat began.

I could see Kiryat mouth out spells as a visible red glow surrounded him.

“Looks like a physical enhancement spell.” I noted. “ But to glow that menacingly, how strong is trying to make himself?”

Immediately after the light show had settled, dust gathered where Kiryat stood.

A ring rang out as Professor Kiryat blasted off from his initial position. He darted forward with a tremendous speed.

He was fast, rather he was a bit too fast!

I could tell I didn't have enough time to dodge, so I opted to limit the damage by taking a step back. In a quick motion, he slashed out with his sword. Although He aimed with the back of the blade, I could tell that the sword's sharpness didn't matter in my situation. Either way if I seriously got hit by that, the damage and the pain would be great, regardless of whether my body was sliced in two or not.

Grimacing, I activated [compress punch].

As I took another step back, I created two bubbles of compressed air, one at my feet to provide a boost of air and increase my retreating speed and another in front of me to impede Kiryat’s slash.

[Compress Punch] down to its core was an ability that created pockets of compressed air. Although I named and created 3 variants so that it would be easier to use, the abilities uses were wide ranging. Using it as a speed boost and as an impromptu air shield were just a few of its several functions.

Kiryat slashed through the pocket of compressed air with slight resistance. The blade connected and I was lifted off the ground. Luckily, I managed to avoid sustaining any damage from the initial blow.

Using the blades momentum and my own speed, I jumped back. The impact carried me across the field and I came crashing against an arena wall.

Debris and sediment came down as dust gathered at where I slumped over.

I could hear the crowd frenzy as they observed that the first attack of the match had landed successfully.

As if to quell the crowd's fervor, or maybe it's more accurate to say to excite, Aleksey chimed in with what I presumed was his first of many commentaries for this match.

"Oooh!!!! There you have it folks, a typical example of Professor Kiryat's unmatched speed and power. I guess it wasn't just fabrication that the man knew not how to hold back!

Is the new student out and done for already? Well, it's not like it's surprising, considering- W-what's this?!"

As if to shut that bastard up, I blew his expectations out of the roof and steadily rose to my feet with a sigh.

"He's still alive?! H-how???" Flabbergastedly, The shitty commenter exclaimed.

I groaned and stretched out my back. Luckily, I was able to create several pockets of compressed air at my back and lowered the damage greatly.

Damn it, I'm still sore from yesterday.

I glanced over at Kiryat, who was wordlessly staring at his sword as if something was wrong with it.

As if to confirm something, he swung it several times with practiced proficiency. Doing so only brought more confusion to his stoic face.

He looked over at me with scrutinizing eyes.

I, on the other hand wasn't quite fond being this old man's center of curiosity, and instead decided to voice out a complaint of my own.

“Oi! You crazy bastard! I’m a student for pete’s sake, show some restraint damn it!”

Ignoring my misplaced anger, in a gruff voice, the man asked a question of his own.

“You...Did you dodge?”

“Eh? Uh...yeah. What’s it to you?” I answered dumbly.

He nodded and grunted in confirmation.

He then planted a foot forward. He twisted his sword to reveal the sharp edge in all its glory.

“H-hey, what are you planning old man?” I asked wearily.

Silently, he raised the blade high up in the air while he motioned into a stance.

“Oi oi oi, you’re seriously not trying to kill me, right? Stop pointing the sharp part in this direction.” I complained as I warily took a step back.

He ignored my outbursts and bent his knees down while keeping the blade aloft above his head.

Kiryat took a deep breathe as he prepared to rush forward.

“Damn it old man, quite making this hard for me.” I groaned, and took another step back.

I compressed several air bubbles at my feet as I jumped of using the stored up air and lifted myself upwards. I planted my feet on the side of the wall.

An instant later, A rather scary looking Kiryat with unhinged killing intent had stabbed his sword to where I previously stood.

I saw Kiryat’s eyes turn and focus towards me, as he continued his attack in fluid motion. He swooped the sword down and lunged the blade in my direction.

I hastily avoided by sending yet another bubble of compress air under my feet and dove down to the floor.

Kiryat’s embedded his sword deep into the wall as I rolled to a stop several feet away from him.

As he yanked the sword free, in a scholarly voice, he commented, “...You have fast reflexes.”

“Shut up! I don’t need your damn praise! Tone the pressure down a bit!” I outwardly complained.

There were at least two killing blows in his last attack. I noted.

The man seriously had no concept of restraint.

I sighed while preparing another bubble of air directly underneath me. The man in front of me had no intention of kindly complying with my requests.

As he once again bursted forward, I anticipated his actions, and immediately decompressed the air below. A roaring gust of wind soared upward lifting me up several meters high.

At one point I was higher than Aleksey himself, who could only stare wide eyed as he saw my silhouette soar further up in to the sky.

The roar of the crowd was muffled by the roar my winds produced.

Kiryat stopped directly below me.

He looked up, wide eyed, as I began my own counter attack.

“ORAAAAAAAAA!!!!!”

Like a certain anime, I desperately began throwing a barrage of fists directly towards him. If they were ordinary punches, they would have simply looked silly, but as luck may have it, mine were imbedded with [compressed air].

[Compress Punch: Air Bullet]!

A torrent of pressurized air rained down on Kiryat. The first few rounds bounced harmlessly off his body, simply due to how thick his Physical Enhance Armament was, but after several rounds, the hits began to accumulate.

He grimaced. Ignoring the numerous hits that he sustained and was still sustaining, He pulled his sword back, twisted his waist and looked up towards me.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!”

With a mighty roar, he slashed at the pressurized air, dispersing the restless winds I had stirred up.

He glowered at me, as I used a burst of air to move back from a safe distance.

The crowd roared before us. Their juvenated energy now at an even higher level.

At some point during our brief exchange, the crowd had swelled up to fit half of the stadium’s capacity. They’re excitement was ferocious as Kiryat’s name was chanted repeatedly. My name was also called out a few times in the mix, but it was greatly out shadowed by the volumes of noise Kiryat’s chants produced.

Through this thick miasma of noise and fevered excitement, I faced my opponent.

We were now twice the distance apart since the start of the battle, and unknowingly, we had entered a moment of quiet peace.

I observed and collected my thoughts, as my opponent did the same.

His wisdom showed as his scrutinizing gaze analyzed my potential ability while I attempted to do the same.

“First of all, Kiryat’s definitely strong.” I muttered.

Professor Kiryat’s strength was on a whole ‘nother level from what Avril had displayed earlier in the day. His strength when coupled with equally as great speed was quite formidable. When you factor all that in with his obvious years of experience and training he acquired, Kiryat was truly a ferocious opponent.

Since I already decided that I wouldn’t be using [Monochrome] and [Physical Enhance] due to my hatred for their side effects, this put Kiryat at a severe advantage towards me, both in terms of reflex and strength.

Also, going by what I could gather, either Kiryat specialized purely on physical enhance spells, or he had another type of magic he still hasn’t shown. Hopefully, my situation was the prior.

It made things easier than that.

Utilizing this time, I secretly charged up compressed air at the tip of my finger. Forming a gun shaped gesture, I quietly prepared [Variant Sniper].

From this distance, I could get a pretty strong blast going on.

Although unfortunately, I was quickly revealed by my opponent. He warily looked over at me before he started a mad dash towards my direction.

He couldn’t have possibly known the very nature of my ability so I theorized that he was aiming for a preemptive strike.

Frantically, I fired of the premature [Sniper], which sent a wind tunnel blasting in his direction.

Although it neither had the proper charge time nor the distance to accumulate the winds, it still sent quite a punch. It did not have the same destructive effect as the wind I used to finish off Snapper head, but the compressed air was great enough to send Kiryat’s unsuspecting self high up into the air.

Caught of guard, Kiryat widened his eyes in amazement. His body soared through the sky as he plummeted straight into a wall.

The impact was more than I expected as a crater larger than the one I made formed along the Arena wall.

The crowd all joined in collected silence upon seeing this site. Even the annoying Aleksey, who was throwing kindle at the flames was silent.

Kiryat stared blankly at the ground for a second before he casually got up.

Dusting some debris off his jersey (which had received a tear), he glared over at me.

“...Wind magic?”

I smiled crookedly before shrugging and nonchalantly replying, “Meh, something like that.”

He nodded while he once again entered another stance.

This time he drew his sword up in the air and pulled it back to the point where I could only see the hilt of the sword from my angle.

He lowered his upper body while stating, “Now… it’s my turn.”

“Oi oi.” I chided. “You’ve had plenty of turns already you crazy old-!”

My rant was cut short by the pressuring feeling of sharpened killing intent.

It wasn’t like I had never felt such a feeling, but it came as quite the surprise to feel it in this type of arena. What’s more, Mages and the like had a way of solidifying emotions like killing intent using their magic, so in a way, this was my first time feeling this type of specialized Killing intent.

My body moved automatically as I took a leap backward.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough, as a slicing Kiryat appeared to strike out a second ahead of me.

The blade nicked my chest, cutting up the new uniform I wore while drawing blood from my body.

I grimaced in pain. I hadn’t received a slicing injury like this in a long time.

“Oi, you know how long a wound like this takes to heal?!” I angrily bursted out.

Although it may be true that the wound was skin deep at best, I still ardently complained.

Once again ignoring this, Kiryat straightened himself as he examined the blood on his blade.

“...Your physical enhancement spell could use some work…”

He swung out his sword, spraying the freshly drawn blood off his blade.

“...It is very weak.” He stated.

That’s because I’m not using one you idiot!

I shrugged. Feigning ignorance, I stated, “Well, I guess that’s just something I’m weak at.”

He looked over me once, seemingly unconvinced before he shrugged as well. As if forgetting his previous concerns, he once again took up the blade, and rushed towards my direction.

He through out a mass of swings as I dodged each one to the best of my abilities.

“You...sure...are…. Damn persistent!” I exclaimed.

I took a stance of my own before I fired up several air bullets at the mass of muscle that was currently making a beeline towards me.

The bullets provided a slight resistance to Kiryat’s charge, but he easily shrugged them off and quickly narrowed our gap.

“Tch!” I clicked while taking one step back.

he was currently overpowering me.

It’s time for a change of pace.

I entered a different stance, knees slightly bent and arms up towards my chest. I activated [Variant: Gale] just as Kiryat’s first strike came down towards me. I improvised with this variant form. Instead of sending out the winds, I proceeded to surround myself in a layer of razor sharp winds. In a sense, it acted sort of like an impromptu wind armor.

As Kiryat’s strike came down, I desperately parried it with a wind encrusted fist.

Kiryat’s eyes glowed in surprise once more, as the contact between metal and wind created a sparking effect.

He regained his composure and launched a downward strike towards my left flank.

Sparks flew again as his blade met the outer layer of wind I had layered on me.

Taking a risk, I ignored the strike, and aimed a right uppercut towards his exposed abdomen. As the blow made contact, the sharpened winds lifted Kiryat off the ground by a couple of centimeters while his Jersey now sported a torn hole at its center.

My attack took Kiryat by surprise as his own attack crumbled.

I didn’t give him time to recover though. Using this new opportunity, I aimed a left hook towards his temple.

The contact between sharp winds and face sent the man spinning several meters in air, until he eventually smacked down on the ground with a loud thump sound.

I panted, and ironically tried to catch my breath. Doing so, I noticed a throbbing sensation on my right arm.

In my euphoria and adrenalized state, I hadn’t realized that during my exchange, Kiryat had also delivered quite the damaging blow onto me.

I looked down at my right arm and saw that it was starting to swell. Tentatively moving it, I grimaced in pain.

“Heh,” I laughed coldly. “The old man broke my damn arm.”

I replayed the brief exchange of actions in my mind. When I had struck out with my left fist, Kiryat had used the brief amount of time to twist his sword onto its blunt edge, and strike at the bone on my right arm. His sword had soared upwards as it cut through my winds and broke the ulna of my right arm.

I grimaced at Kiryat as he casually brushed himself free from the dust he had gathered. Aside from a slight bruise on his right cheek and some holes in his jersey, the man was seemingly undamaged.

“Tough old man…” I groaned.

The crowd had an opposite reaction to my dissatisfaction.

Seeing this, they went into a frenzy of excitement.

The racket they produced was blurred out as the man in front of me nonchalantly swung his sword.

Unlike before, he did not get into another stance, but simply stood their and chanted a silent spell.

Frowning, I sighed.

The crazy bastard was about to bring more to the table while I stood over here with a broken right arm.

I sighed and looked down at the injury.

The swelling had increased and it started throbbing.

Damn it, how long does it take for a broken bone to heal?

I pondered this useless thought as I mentally decided my next course of actions.

“Well, on the bright side, the conditions have been met.” I muttered to myself

I stretched out my broken arm. Ignoring the pain, I raised the injured arm towards Kiryat.

“Fine then. If you’re gonna do something then I’m gonna do something too.” I muttered.

“It’s time to activate my next ability.”

I took a deep breath and focused my attention on the man in front of me. I braced myself for what was about to come next.

Closing my eyes, I announced,

“[Heckaton]!”

Chapter 11

Chapter 13