Finally, tomorrow had come, and it was time to face the fabled Luke Virac, the brother of Isabel. All is silent as we approach the stage, an eerie sensation as the crowd and even Isabel herself is deadly silent.

“Welcome to the third Quarter Final match against two Summoners who share the same blood!” The announcer begins, “In the red half, we’ve got Isabel Virac, the rookie who was the second Summoner to have cleared their group stage without dropping a single match!”

Usually, the crowd would’ve cheered loudly or even given polite applause, but the wind was the only audible noise in the entire stadium.

“Now entering the blue half is the defending Summoner Champion, Luke ‘The Human Spirit’ Virac!”

Somehow, I felt the noise levels drop even more as if the wind had decided to keep silent as well. At first, I had thought I was just imagining it, but as soon as Luke Virac took his first step onto the stage, the entire atmosphere seemed to grow denser and heavier.

Luke Virac, was a tall and muscular man who wore no armor but a metal plating on each of his arms. I would have probably never considered that Luke and Isabel were siblings, but after knowing the truth, I started to see the resemblance to one another. Luke had eyes and short brown hair the same color as Isabel’s.

However, contrary to Isabel who uses magic, swinging around in Luke’s hand was a long silver polearm that shone brightly and loudly against the silent sky. At first, I had trouble recalling the name of the spear because of its odd blade shape, but it didn’t take long for me to finally recognize that the polearm in Luke’s hands was a Spetum Spear, a spear that has two smaller blades protruding out on opposite ends of the main blade.

Seriously though, what’s with this aura?

I look at my party members and realize that I wasn’t the only one feeling the tense atmosphere and aura coming from the barely armored man in front of us.

“The highly anticipated match between the defending Summoner champion against his rookie younger sister will now…”

I ready my shield and shake off my nerves.

No time to hesitate under his aura now.

“Begin!”

With inhuman blinding speed, Luke dashes straight for Isabel.

Knowing I had hesitated a bit from the shock of the pure speed of Luke, I wouldn’t make it in time to jump directly in front of Isabel. Instead, I decided to jump as close as possible to Isabel and swing my shield towards Luke to cover more area.

My Coffin Shield and Luke’s Spetum Spear collide, and although I was able to block his attack, the pure force generated from his attack was enough to give me a massive knockback as my arms almost feel like they were about to pop backward out of my body.

What power…

Hilde reacts after me and throws his bear traps at Luke, but instead of dodging the traps like a regular person would, Luke holds out his spear horizontally with both arms and allow the traps to cling onto his spear. He immediately pulls on his spear, and Hilde is sent hurling through the air straight for Luke. Completely helpless in the air, Hilde is given a hard knee to the stomach and crumples to the floor.

“Liz, get him!” Isabel finally commands.

Liz quickly dashes straight for Luke, and the pair of them engage in a duel of different polearm styles. While Liz was constantly thrusting and stabbing at Luke, he was simply focused on parrying all her attacks with both his spear and the metal plating on his arms.

Liz thrusts her spear towards Luke’s stomach once again, but this time, Luke closes the distance after parrying her spear. Luke maneuvers behind Liz, brings his arms around her waist, and in an instant, he performs a German Supplex on Liz with so much force that the ground explodes in a massive concrete dust cloud.

Although I was utterly taken aback by witnessing an actual German Supplex for myself, I knew I had no time to be amazed. Roy gives me a nod and we use the dust cloud to execute a surprise attack on Luke.

Roy and I appear out of the dust cloud on either side of Luke and strike our weapons at him simultaneously.

Luke blocks Roy’s sword with the body of his Spetum Spear and uses his pure strength to stop my shield with his arm.

For the first time in the battle, a smile crawls across Luke’s face.

“Nice combination, an interesting combination indeed.” Luke compliments.

To our surprise, Luke lunges straight for Roy and wraps his arms around Roy’s arms and head. Luke brings Roy’s upper body downwards and performs an excellent Gator Roll move, bringing Roy down onto the ground.

Stuffing the amazement down my throat, I manage to regain my senses and bring my shield down onto Luke, and although Luke was tangled on the floor with Roy, he somehow managed to read my move and intercept my shield with his foot.

Luke jumps up from the ground, steadies his stance, and kicks my shield the same way someone would kick open a locked door, sending me to come crashing only a couple of meters away from Isabel.

“Isabel!” Luke calls out as he slowly walks towards us, “I must say, when you ran away from the castle to train and raise your party on your own, I thought you would be a helpless Summoner who would only focus on the attack.”

“I’m pleasantly surprised to see you with a Shielder Spirit, perhaps it's proof that you’re growing.” Luke swings his spear around, “However, I will now show you, just how much you’re lacking in skill!”

Luke turns to his two Spirits, who I’ve completely forgotten were there in the first place.

“My Spirits, now it’s time to boost me,” Luke commands.

His male Spirit shoots a green aura around Luke while the female Spirit emits a purple aura around the male Spirit, almost forming a chain of magic.

“You mean to tell me he wasn’t boosted already?” I ask, not sure of who I’m asking.

Luke chuckles, “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not getting boosted much. Alex over there just heals me by 50%, while Melody boosts Alex by reducing his skill cooldown.”

Realization of what Luke was getting at sets goosebumps across my entire body.

“Don’t tell me…” I mutter.

“Correct, Shielder,” Luke spreads his arms, “I’m now getting constantly healed.”

“Isabel, y-your brother…” I stutter, “H-he’s human, right?”

Isabel stands still with fear clearly on her face, “I honestly don’t know.”

My 3 other party members slowly get back onto their feet and take turns looking at each other. Noticing that we all appeared to be on the same page, I ready my shield and concentrate on the man in front of me.

“Everyone!” Roy raises his sword and takes a deep breath, “Charge together!”

Together, with Hilde and Liz from his back, Roy from his left, and me charging him straight on, we raise our weapons at Luke for one heavy all-out attack.

The attack was perfect, there was nowhere for Luke to turn to.

Or so I thought…

With a single slash of his spear, my vision goes completely dark, and I feel my body tumble onto the floor. There was a stinging pain in my chest, and my breathing felt ragged. I was in a lot of pain at that exact moment, but I was still conscious.

I slowly open my eyes to see my party members… all out cold on the floor of the stadium.

What the hell…was that?

I struggle to my feet with the air completely blown out of my lungs. I took a deep breath to try and assess the situation, but as soon as I got to my feet, Luke appears in front of me with incredible speed and swings his spear across me. I quickly raise my shield to block his spear, but the power of his swing was enough to send me flying across to the other side of the stage. I crash into the stadium walls creating a Rin-sized crater in the wall. I wanted to scream out in pain, but my lungs wouldn’t let me.

Did Luke… do all of that with one swing?

I helplessly watch as Luke slowly advances toward the wide-eyed Isabel. Fear crawls over Isabel’s face as she stumbles to her knees. I close my eyes in shame as I wait for Isabel to surrender.

I’m sorry, Isabel, but he’s way too strong.

“…”

I open my eyes with shock over the silence.

I watch with dread as Luke’s spear begins to glow with flames similar to my shield. He comes to a stop directly in front of Isabel and raises his spear. I don’t know if it was out of stubbornness, or being frozen with fear, but Isabel wasn’t surrendering.

It’s over… he’s too strong…

…

Still! My shield isn’t broken yet!

Adrenaline courses through my body as I manage the strength and stamina to begin sprinting toward Isabel.

Luke brings his spear down…

and I manage to intercept it with my shield in the nick of time.

“You’re still conscious…” Luke says in a slightly surprised tone.

I summon flames of my own and force Luke to take a step back away from Isabel. I turn my head to the girl frozen still behind me.

“What are you doing!? Get a grip of yourself!” I demand.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a presence materialize in front of me. I turn in complete shock as Luke teleports in front of me.

No… he can’t teleport…that was his speed.

He swipes his spear and sends me flying across the stage again like it was nothing. I prepare myself for another rough landing against the stadium wall, but with a devilish grin, Luke materializes in front of my trajectory and swings the end of his spear against my chest like a baseball bat.

I’m sent soaring the opposite way, and as I was about to crash onto the floor, Luke appears once again and delivers a knee straight to my stomach. My body fails to respond to my mind as I crumple to the floor.

This is… torture.

My entire state of being begins fighting with one another.

My mind wants to continue fighting, but my body can’t.

My soul tells me to give up and pass out, but my mind doesn’t want to.

I feel my lungs begging for more air, but my mouth doesn’t want to open.

Is this where our run ends?

Darkness slowly crawls around my vision once again, and I feel my consciousness begin to fade away.