Chapter 189 :

Episode 37 : Quarterfinals (2)

Chattering!!!

Five minutes passed until it hit eventually ten minutes, during that short time frame, Alaine and Louis were battling it out to see who would be victorious.

Clones after clones, and javelins after javelins, they both were going all out while expressing their thrill and pressure from their weapon and expression.

The only one on the disadvantage side was none other than Louis who couldn't bear hitting the clones in the form of Mya.

"Alaine.. This isn't funny!" Louis exclaimed as he swung his trident into the water to splash it into his opponent.

Somewhere within the hundreds of clones, Alaine uttered after tossing her dagger toward the back of Louis. "It is to me! But y'know, Louis. I'm doing this because I'm gonna win against you!"

"But using Mya against me?"

Grunting after hitting Alaine's dagger to the ground, Louis looked toward the crowd of clones as he turned and quickly dodged again when Alaine's dagger suddenly flew past his neck.

A small wound was soon inflicted on his neck after barely evading it, which in turn caused Louis to shoot his gaze at where the dagger was flying to.

[Player ‘414’ has activated the Skill, ‘Marine Javelin’ Lv. 4 (+3).]

In a blink of an eye, Louis opened fire a whole bunch of javelins toward whoever the dagger was going to, indicating it to possibly be the real Alaine.

[Player ‘414’ has activated the Hidden Skill, ‘Extraordinary Multitasking’ Lv. 5.]

Just like how Alaine bombarded Louis with her clones, Louis was doing the same with his javelins, maneuvering each one of them to shoot Alaine from every direction.

"You really leave me no choice!" Alaine said as she caught the flying dagger into her hand.

[Player ‘999’ has activated the Hidden Skill, ‘Bodyjack’ Lv. 3.]

Alaine, being both player ‘998’ and ‘999’, used skills that should have been her deceased brother's and hers to take over Louis' body entirely.

By doing that, Louis' javelins stopped in mid air before it could ever pierce Alaine, while she was using Louis' body, she took this opportunity to allow her clones to jump in to strike him hard.

..It's a shame that she couldn't take full control and attack Louis' defenseless body while she was at it.

SLASH!!

"Ackkk!!"

Groans leaving Louis' mouth, he became bewildered when he found himself in a situation where all he saw was injuries.

‘What is this?! Did I faint for a few seconds?!’ He wondered.

Either it was shocking to notice the clones slicing and dicing him, or his javelins that should have hit Alaine, had paused, it left no room for Louis to figure out how and why.

CLINK!

"Take this, Louis!"

As stunned as Louis should be, Alaine had appeared out of nowhere to slam down her two daggers onto Louis' trident, inescapably causing him to have openings for the clones to strike his defenseless body.

"Urk!" Louis moaned, gripping his trident tightly.

When it seemed as if it was going to be Alaine's victory, Louis didn't surrender and continued holding himself from falling to the water by the sheer strength Alaine put on her daggers.

"Alaine, you're so much stronger than before." Louis mentioned, staring right at Alaine as though his flustering conveniently stopped.

Alaine, not expecting him to talk, chuckled with a smile. "This is the result of my training! Heheh!"

"Then this is my result."

SPLASH!!

At that moment, his sentence ended with the second wave of water coming to submerge the unexpected Alaine, pushing back the clones in the process which led Louis to have come advantage and a bit to catch his breath.

"Huf.." Louis panted heavily.

As he was trying to gaze at Alaine, panting and sweating profusely, Raiden's shout resounded behind.

"Even after such a fight, these two are back to staying apart from each other! It's the beginning of the round all over again!"

He continued. "But this time, each of them are losing ground to keep on fighting! Who will be able to withstand the exhaustion and depletion after this and win this match?! Alaine or Louis?! Let's watch closely everybody!"

"Sensei is really into the commentator role." Alaine commented, wiping her sweat off her face.

"He's the only one who's the most talkative of the bunch." Louis said, glancing at where the judges were.

"Yeah, I can't imagine JoonChul shouting in excitement or Frostina yelling for the commentary."

"Or meow meow meow as a commentary."

"Haha, Blackie being a commentator would motivate me because I wouldn't want to lose in front of such a cute kitty~!"

"Pfft! Fufufu!" The unforeseen giggle of someone which wasn't Louis and Alaine, caused them to look at one of the judges, spotting Mirai chuckling.

To be frank, Mirai was laughing at Behemoth being called a cute kitty, and not the performance of Louis' and Alaine's battle, but they wouldn't know that.

"Mirai is laughing?? Ehhh?" Alaine said.

With a window of opportunity, Louis with his trident ready to penetrate into Alaine's right waist rushed toward Alaine after getting past the horde of clones.

"You should keep your eyes on me, Alaine."

POW!

"…?"

The words that Louis once thought in the past about Alaine's arm, came true as Alaine's right arm grabbed hold of Louis' trident.

Her arm that once was a flesh human arm, has switched to a silk one in the past. And because of the silk's toughness, it didn't move an inch nor sustain any damage by grasping a trident.

Louis bawled as he sent his javelins out. "I have been meaning to ask.. Why didn't you restore your arm back to normal?"

[Player ‘414’ has activated the Skill, ‘Marine Javelin’ Lv. 4 (+3).]

Alaine, parrying against Louis' javelins, falls back to allow her clones to take over while her expression was showing how tired she was getting.

"This arm is great! You don't know how hard it was when I accidentally drank HP potions and got my arm back." Alaine spoke.

"...Alaine." Louis listened until he came to realize what Alaine meant. "Did you cut off your human arm just to replace it with this silk arm?!!!"

"Yeah? It was painful, but I'm starting to get used to the pain! I might get a pain nullification from doing that!"

"Alaine! Stop hurting yourself!! Cutting your arm just to get a better one is just plain stupid!!"

"I only want to be strong, that's all!"

"But does getting strong mean denying part of your body?! You shouldn't be harming your body like that!"

"It's my body, so I can do whatever I want!"

"Not self-harm though!"

Cling! Cling!!!

Trident swayed toward the Mya clones, Louis seemed to have no concerns for hitting those clones now..

No, it was as though he was too furious with Alaine that he unknowingly demolished the clones with ease.

"Huh?! Aren't you supposed to not attack them?!" Gasped as stunned as she was, Alaine retreated toward the sky.

Upon dealing with the clones, Louis' gaze was focused on the retreating Alaine, and as he looked, he narrowed his eyes when he added strength to his arm before letting it loose by throwing his trident toward Alaine.

[Player ‘414’ has activated the Skill, ‘Marine Javelin’ Lv. 4 (+3).]

Without his weapon, Louis used his javelins to shield himself from the clones' attacks, and just as Alaine walked in the air, Louis immediately followed suit.

Thud.

Up he goes standing on his javelin, riding it like a surfboard in the air to close in on Alaine.

Even Alaine was baffled by Louis that she stumbled on her step after knocking away Louis' trident and fell from where she should have stood.

"Jesus Christ..! How much did you improve, Louis?!" Alaine gasped, not at all frightened by the fall.

[Player ‘998’ has activated the Skill, ‘Acceleration’ Lv. 4.]

"But I'm sorry, Louis. I really want to win against you.. So!" Alaine exclaimed as her grips were firm on her daggers.

[The ‘Sonic Boots’'s Skill, ‘Sonic Boom’ has been activated!]

SWOOSSSH!!!

"Wha?!"

After retrieving his trident, Louis' eyes widened when Alaine disappeared from his sight, it was as if the speed she was running before wasn't actually her top speed.

Where could she have gone?

…

..

"I'm here."

Her words were delayed, only having her face creeped up in front of Louis who was clearly unable to react to the rapid speed and watched as Alaine slashed him.

BANG!

What Louis could see behind Alaine was a boom, an explosion-like scene he was witnessing as if Alaine caused that to happen from her pace.

But that's not important…

The question is how will Louis be able to defend against Alaine's sudden attack? In fact, he couldn't…

Not with Alaine's unbelievable speed..

..Louis was cornered by Alaine just like that, a loss was flashing before him as if losing was a natural thing in this situation..

"Non!" Louis refused.

* ( "non" French → English "no" )

[The ‘Tide Breaker’'s Skill, ‘Water Nymphs’ has been activated!]

A chance that is hard to achieve, emerges before Louis with their graces in protecting him from Alaine's dire attack.

"..This is?" In a daze, Louis glanced at his water nymphs or more accurately, naiads.

Despite the lack of details, these beautiful maidens had water as their bodies, blessing Louis' innocent eyes as his face became red.

The bodies weren't covered since they were just water, not flesh. So it was..

..Obvious that Louis as a man blushed by the sight he usually wouldn't see in his life.

"..You perv." Alaine felt disappointed by Louis when she was stepping back and was staring at this scene.

"This isn't what it looks like, Alaine!"

"Uh huh.. But I can see those bodies oh so.. transparently."

In spite of her speaking like this with her weirded out expression, Alaine used this moment to attack before Louis could regain his composure.

Clashing!!!

Trident clashes with a thrown dagger, knocking them back as they return to the hands of their wielders who had ascended to the sky with their target in their sight.

"Come at me! Perv!"

Alaine crossed her daggers as she exclaimed with an exhausted smile, stepping on thin air before boosting off toward Louis.

"I'm not a pervert, Alaine..!"

On a javelin, Louis easily flew toward Alaine with his trident pointing straight at her, accompanied by his water nymphs.

BANG!!!!

[Player ‘998’ has activated the Skill, ‘Flurry Strike’ Lv. 5.]

Colliding with a bang, a small hurricane-like burst unleashed between the clashes of a trident and daggers.

At the moment, a storm-like collision forced the surroundings to go out of control with wind currents swaying randomly yet violently.

Aside from the wind, there were the water nymphs who were supporting Louis to the best of their abilities.

Alongside javelins pointed at the head and body of Alaine, piercing through the clones Alaine used to block Louis' attacks, Louis wasn't going to give in, and began to direct his power in one spot which was his trident that was clashing into Alaine's empowered daggers.

BANG!! CRACKLE!!!

In that final moment, the clashes last for only several seconds, but the damages were done with Louis and Alaine pushing all their might into showing how much they have grown from their training.

Fueled by their might, their power of wind and water were crepitating against each other and conflicting until it reached the point of massive obliteration to the vicinity.

Crackling!!!

Although not much, it would be too devastating if a random stranger gets close to these two.

"Alright, you two."

..Of course, there is an exception.

ZAP!

In between the two colliding forces of wind and water, Louis' and Alaine's eyes went wide by the electrical interruption as their glances locked on not their opponent, but Raiden who had stopped the trident and daggers from causing further ruination.

"Time's up!" Raiden exclaimed without a shred of fear from the fueled stares of Louis and Alaine.

"Time's up? Sensei, you didn't mention a timer!" Alaine bellowed as if she wanted to keep going.

Indeed, Louis as well. "Can you leave us alone?"

"Souka. Who knew that you two are passionate to resume battle." Raiden commented with shock and excitement.

"Ha?!" Alaine's and Louis' stares intensified.

Watching these two, Raiden sneaked a peek at JoonChul. ‘They were in the zone, and I disturbed them. I do feel bad, but I can't disobey Sensei's order.’

"Louis Kun and Alaine Kun, it was wise to put a timer, if not, you two would be fighting non-stop."

As Raiden spoke, he pulled the trident and daggers that were sparkling with penalty because he was holding something he shouldn't have, and spun himself around to prompt the two contestants to rotate as well.

Whoosh!!

Not even a second passed that Louis and Alaine didn't understand why Raiden was spiraling out of control, getting themselves launched into two different ice cages to separate them completely.

"Urghhh! Sensei! That wasn't cool!!" Alaine grumbled.

Louis was also inflamed. "Isn't this supposed to be a match? We haven't decided on a winner yet."

"A winner?" Raiden's eyebrow raised as he looked at the furious contestants. "We already picked the winner for this match."

Puzzled and dumbfounded, Louis and Alaine asked. "Who?!"

"First off, Alaine, could you come out of your hiding spot, please?" Raiden asked casually which surprised Alaine.

"How did you know I am a clone?!"

"I'm your sensei, of course I would know."

Alaine groaned. "..Damnit, I can't even fool you. Well, you did train me, so I guess it makes sense you would know."

At that moment, Raiden smiled at Alaine as he turned around toward the hill where the cave was, discovering the real Alaine to be on that hill hiding behind a tree.

..Thud!

Devastated his eyes looked, Louis gritted his teeth. ‘So I have been fighting only a clone…?’

In the end, the real Alaine walked out from her hiding spot and took a leap off the hill to land on the sandy ground, causing Louis to be at a loss for words by the unanticipated sight.

Speechless but forced to speak, Louis uttered. "Tell me that it's not true..that I fought a clone.."

"Yup! I fooled you at least, Louis!" Alaine chuckled with a satisfied grin as she unexpectedly collapsed to the ground.

Speechless turned to concern as Louis exclaimed. "Alaine! Are you okay?!"

"Yeah.. I'm fine! Just very exhausted by the sheer numbers of clones I had to control. Merde! I even have a headache! A bad one at that!"

"Well, at least, you're safe for now.. I guess I'm not the winner."

A second didn't pass after Louis' words when Raiden spoke something shocking to the two contestants.

"Louis, you are the winner."

"WHAT?!"

Without a doubt, Louis and Alaine were shell-shocked to the point of not being able to minimize their voice's volume in the process.

Truly shocking, isn't it?