Damn that woman is strong! She was able to dodge my rush and still made an impressive display of strength and control with that freakishly huge weapon. I am sure that this is not even her full strength. How about we kick things up a nudge.
"Hey," I looked up and saw that her name was Lori. "Lori…How about we stop testing the waters and we go at it for real?"
She smirked and said
"I thought you would never ask. As you remember I did promise a true dance of blades. You seem to be using spiritual buffs to power yourself I will give you time so you can use them before we go at it for real."
I answered
"That won't be necessary. WARRIOR ARTS FULL BUFF"
An explosion of smoke and a shockwave erupted from whiting my body followed by a glowing light. An ever-changing aura was closely sticking to my body while steam was rising from my almost red colored flesh.
She smiled once again then said
"Berserker's rage"
As if mimicking me, another shockwave erupted from within her body with a green glowing sheen almost sticking to her.
I noticed that her presence became denser, the ground beneath her foot crumbled as if she weighed a hundred time more while her muscles tensed up and grew a bit. Nothing to make her look less appealing but rather made her look to be a true warrior.
In a single breath both our bodies disappeared to make three distinctive sounds of metal hitting metal.
I used Shunpo three times, every time I tried to strike at her with my blade only to find her waiting for the strike.
Another breath was followed by four more hits that uselessly met with her glaive.
I used Shunpo one more time to feint an attack from her front. She struck at me but her glaive only managed to hit an afterimage as I already used Shunpo one more time to appear behind her.
An earth-shattering smash was what I used to try and finish the fight, only to be surprised by her rapid reaction as she made a 180 turn while pulling the glowing aura that surrounded her body onto her left arm.
The aura grew into a round shield of pure energy that had mesmerizing symbols and rune-like writings on it. The shield was almost a meter in diameter.
My hand struck it in the middle while a burst of compressed air erupted as I fused my fist with some wind energy. The damage should be significant as the sound of the hit almost sounded like an explosion.
I have used a lot of my Mana while I vowed not to use the eye to absorb natural Mana, I had to win this using my strength.
I have enough to use Shunpo a couple more times and probably I can squeeze enough for another wind spell. She should have taken considerable damage by now even with that weird shield of hers.
However, I still felt uncomfortable with that shield of hers, normally it should have broken into a thousand pieces but I still felt pressure on my extended fist.
As if on cue, my hyper recognition activated and an image of an enraged warrior appeared in-front of me.
She appeared from the smoke swinging her glaive with her right arm, the blade coming dangerously close to me as she capitalized on my hesitation.
One more use of Shunpo to appear behind her and I was met with a well-timed kick to the chest that sent me rolling to the ground barely stopping before hitting the edge of the ring.
I think she held back there a little, quite depressing.
The commentator then said
"AMAZING!! In less than ten seconds a rapid exchange of blows at the level of master warriors just happened…I am tempted to take these kids into my service…Although Asura was quite impressive in the earlier fight it seems that he is being pushed back a bit here, did he meet his match? Let's continue to watch…as for those who have missed what happened a replay of the game will be broadcasted after this in wait for the other game to begin"
Groggily standing up on my feet I dusted my knees off. Then looked at her menacingly. I couldn't quite keep the scary look as a small grin appeared on my face, she was strong, strong enough to give me trouble, for a warrior she is the first one at my age to have managed to push me this much.
Damn I am very low on Mana right now I should focus on using spiritual energy more I might need to use the two Shunpo I have left for close calls, wasting them to land a hit or two will prove to be useless against her, I must first weaken her down with constant harassment and damage and finish her off as soon as I see an opening.
Dashing toward her, not using any speed enhancing abilities I must have looked like a turtle compared to our earlier exchange but I heeded it no mind.
She seemed perplexed at my approach and took a defensive stance.
I propelled myself forward making a diagonal cutting motion which was sidestepped easily by the warrior princess.
She still had a confused look on her face probably thinking, why is he not using his Shunpo?
I used my elbow to strike at her exposed abdomen from when she sidestepped but again, she dodged it easily, and sent her glaive with one hand horizontally trying to cut me in half.
I jerked my body backward and made a swiping motion with my right foot trying to take her down with me which she easily jumped above and sent her glaive in a downward cutting motion.
I rolled to the side dodging the first strike that was followed by another then another. Each time I rolled the glaive would make a deep gash on the floor. I am doubting the ability of the barrier to negate this mush damage as every strike rocked the arena.
Having enough rolling on stones I jumped up and sent my sword in an almost impossible angle cutting toward her
This time she blocked it with the pole of her glaive. I didn't put a lot of strength behind the attack but that must have made her hands a bit numb as sparks flew from the contact of metal.
She then said
"Why are you holding back?"
I answered almost mechanically.
"I am not, it's complicated but don't worry I am by no means underestimating you"
"Is that so," she said.
Then another shockwave of power rocked the arena once more it was coming from her. The green sheen that was engulfing her earlier seemed calm but now it turned into a ravaging flame-like aspect. Her eyes shone for a moment white then turned back to their normal emerald color.
She conjured her shield once more and the blade of her glaive was covered with the same green sheen only it was shaped as a scorching aura blade almost like the flame from a magical welding torch.
Hyper recognition activated the second she stepped forward. I still was unable to dodge the oncoming assault as she charged at me with her shield held forward only her helmet was above it and her glaive was protruding like a spike from a small bend in the shield.
Barely dodging the tip of the glaive, I felt the heat coming from it yet I was unable to fully bypass the round shield.
I tried to use Shunpo to appear behind her but even in hyper recognition mode, I was still slow. How fast is she damn it?
The impact sent me flying well above the arena grounds smashing into the barrier.
My sword dropped from my hand and I was falling to the ground on the outer ring.
This is probably it.
LIKE HELL IT IS
"BLAST"
Before I was in contact with the dirt I used the wind spell blast that made me propel backward into the air and barely landing on the arena once again.
Damn, that was close. I must have looked cool back there though.
However, I am now unarmed and my blade is all the way in the outer ring and stepping down from the platform will disqualify me.
"OH, what great reaction from Asura as he used the blast spell to return to the arena. That was close, too close for comfort. But the odds seem grim for Asura right now as he is now weapon-less."
The girl spoke. In a stern and obviously annoyed tone.
"I thought you were different. You were indeed able to evade being disqualified but it seems that I have misjudged you. You are not worth the effort. Surrender now and spare yourself a humiliating defeat."
I answered.
"I had my doubts at first, but now I am certain of it. Weakling, I may be but I can assure you I will not lose to you." I might have trouble fighting master level mages but warriors and the like are not that threatening especially now that I know who she is.
She said
"What do you mean, you are losing this trade. Now without a weapon, what sort of miracle will save you from my hands."
"Miracles I need not. I have all the strength I need to beat you, now that I know what you are a Verda tribeswoman."
She flinched a bit after she heard that then said.
"What do you know about my tribe…?"
I answered shrugging
"Nothing much, just that they were supposed to have perished years ago yet here you are. My master told me that he has met and fought with them. He even told me an interesting thing about your tribe, strong in fights you may be and the more damage you take the stronger you become your entire tribe earned the title of the berserker god's descendants but the sole problem with your power if it is used for a prolonged period of time it will corrode your brains and make you savagely brutal not even recognizing friends from foe."
"What does that have to do with our fight here? I can still maintain this form for a few more hours you think you can withstand my might for that long."
Damn, that is a lot of time but it is still irrelevant.
"No, I will defeat you, way before that."
Hyper recognition activated again as she instantly appeared in front of me.
I grinned like an idiot. While I dodged her incoming charge, this time using Shunpo fast enough to appear on the other side.
I closed my right eye and activated Mana flux this way the eye should not attract much attention even if I can hide the golden glow now but its better safe than sorry.
However, I noticed the judge on the side of the arena jerk his head toward me the second the Mana flux activated. Did he suspect something? Damn, I have already broken my promise to myself not to use the eye here and don't want to break the promise for Osfor sensei to not reveal it.
"MANA CLAD" a shockwave erupted from within my body and pushed the dust away. While a dense purple aura covered my body.
It was time to reveal some of my strength.