Jumanah swung her shield to the side, spreading her arms outward not fearing what the flames could do. This should have allowed the flames reach her but they retracted toward Tian’s mouth as a wave of energy that made time reverse spread from Jumanah, pushing them back to their source.

Tian’s energy zone resisted the time manipulating properties of the wave causing the pillar of flames to only reach the edge of his energy zone. Jumanah stretched the hand that was holding her shield out as her body blurred due to the afterimages she was creating and amassing.

She pulled her shield hand back and an afterimage of Tian flew from his body and approached Jumanah. Tian thought ‘Fuck, Time-Reality manipulation!’. Jumanah activated the function of her weapon and a table turning phenomenon occurred. At the spots where Jumanah’s spears had touched him black aura explosions happened on both Tian’s real body and the afterimage’s.

The black aura repelled the energy around them breaking apart the layer of Mirror like energy from the inside. The other spells Tian had prepared were also destabilized as a result and Jumanah executed her final move.

She stabbed her spear towards the afterimage of Tian, channeling all the power of her afterimages into the strike. The spear went through one of the openings created by the explosion on Tian’s neck and pierced through his scales. Blood that looked like liquid rubies flowed from the wound on both the real and illusionary body of Tian.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Jumanah shouted as she released the energy she had channeled, resulting in a force explosion that created a vacuum and created spatial cracks. Tian flew backwards as a result of the explosion along with his afterimage. He hit the ground but his afterimage continued to fly until it entered back into his body.

Jumanah panted in exhaustion as the bubbles disintegrated. Tian was still in the game though. His dragon body was not so easy to wear out and he could even use his soul ability to create the same amount of damage in Jumanah to level the playing field or even beat her. But he felt it wasn’t necessary.

The best prizes were given in the team competition. He didn’t want to reveal his trump card just to win this one fight. Even without using the ability he could still fight but he decided to forfeit since the battle would certainly go downhill from here.

The woman had pierced him with the same spear that could embed aura in his scales. This kind of weapon could only be created by Avatari since she had experience working with dragon scales. And also the cost of making casting Karma was extremely high; even if he would ignore the black aura that could break it he couldn’t afford to cast it again since it required him to sacrifice his memories.

Tian sent a psychic message indicating his defeat to the host who announced his decision “Tian has forfeited; the winner of this match is… JUMANAH!!!!!!” Tian groaned as he imagined how Mira would tease him for forfeiting.

…

In a waiting room, Mira who was watching Tian’s fight with her Holoring was far from teasing Tian. She thought ‘Her equipment is specialized to help her deal with anyone she faces. She has such an advantage. Her sponsor finds out the ability of anyone who is participating and equips her with the right weapons for the job’.

A few minutes passed before it was time for Daisuke’s match. The confidence that Mira had in her team members winning had weakened at this point. She thought ‘Since the woman could beat Tian who is a Celestial Grade it’s not impossible for Daisuke to beat his own Celestial Grade opponent’.

Mira’s heart raced as Daisuke and Hilda, the Frost Giant, arrived on the stage.

…

The host of Daisuke and Hilda’s fight started introducing the two contestants “The previous fight was quite exhilarating and I have high hopes for this one. In this fight we have two amazing contestants. I’m quite sad that one of them will have to leave so early but I don’t make the rules.

“On the right we have Hilda who defeated her opponent without lifting a finger… literally. She summoned a wolf and beat her previous opponent like small fry. She’s the Ice Queen! The giant that freezes your heart before breaking it! Shiver in terror and welcome! Hildaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The audience cheered loudly as Hilda walked out of one of the two entrances to the stage.

The host continued “For her opponent. There really is not much to say about him since I don’t know what he did. But that proves just how amazing he is! Give it up for Daisukeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The crowd cheered but it was noticeably weaker than when Hilda was announced. Daisuke walked out of his own entrance and thought ‘What else could I expect? There’s literally no knowledge on what I can do’.

Hilda held her sword with the tip just above the ground and stared at Daisuke with an aloof expression. When the host saw that the both of them were not going to do any other preparation, he said “Start!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Daisuke’s first impulse was to flash towards Hilda and take control of the momentum of the fight by getting first blood with an all out attack, but his instincts told him that was not a good idea. She was wearing a earring with an eye engraved on it. Daisuke didn’t know what it did but his instincts were pointing toward them.

Without any plan Daisuke simply stood and watched Hilda with a confused. He thought ‘Did she buy my information? That has to be it’. He said “Did you buy my information?”

“…”

Hilda silently stared at him for a while before saying “Yes”. Although her sponsor didn’t buy his information from Chao Feng he still got some information about him from a soothsayer. It was not easy to glean into the future, present or past of a Mythical or Celestial even though most didn’t know how to protect such information. But it wasn’t impossible either.

The information her sponsor had gotten from the soothsayer was ‘speed’. Hilda was one of the best counters for speedsters but she went even further to procure a piece of equipment that would reduce Daisuke’s speed advantage. She took her stance and waited for Daisuke to make his move. His question had proven to her that the warning was correct.

The wolf that fought in her previous match came out of her shadow and growled at Daisuke. Daisuke said “Just great! All that effort to hide my capabilities down the drain, Aren’t you going to at least say sorry?” The wolf growled again and dashed toward Daisuke.