I watched as Shawn Franklin dashed toward me, thrusting his glowing sword at my heart. The bloodthirsty blade sang eerily as it surged forward, pulsing with luminous green mana. It was completely different from all of Franklin's other attacks.
I had no intention of allowing myself to get stabbed by that.
Jumping back, I dismissed my broken Aquarius and summoned Orion. Not wanting Leo to get stabbed by whatever disturbing technique that Franklin was now unleashing, I dismissed him as well. I had a feeling that the so-called noble would simply slice through Regulus even if I had Leo fire it upon him, so I decided to hold him back and try out other summoning spells. For now, I thought it wisest to keep my distance and fight from range.
The black and brown bow materialized in my left hand, even as I was already fitting three arrows into it and taking aim.
"Orion's Belt!" I yelled, releasing the bowstring. Franklin's sudden speed and ferocity left me little time to cast Betelgeuse or Rigel, so Orion's Belt was the only spell I could conjure at the moment. The three glowing arrows streaked toward Franklin with deadly precision.
"Franklin's Royal Defense: Nine Division Fence!" Franklin shouted, aborting his attack and raising his katana in a defensive stance. He could have sliced through one arrow, maybe two, but with three swerving toward him from different directions, he didn't want to risk getting hit by even one. Nine massive white shields of light materialized out of thin air and landed around him. The triple Orion's Belt struck the shields and exploded but other than leaving smoke and black soot, it had little effect.
Personally, I was amused that he conjured such a massive defensive spell to protect himself from one of my weaker ranged spells. Perhaps I should have just used Leo's Regulus after all.
"You know, I've been wondering about this for a while," I admitted. "But who names your techniques? Those are some of the lamest names I've ever heard."
"I could say the same to you!" Franklin retorted.
I just stared at him. "I'm just summoning Constellation spirits and weapons. Their techniques are all named after the stars found in their constellations."
"Just shut up and die already!" Franklin hollered at me. Gnashing his teeth in frustration, he withdrew to prepare for another attack. "I'm going all out now!" he yelled out a warning. "Final Franklin Style: Dividing the Heavens!"
He struck the ground, causing a massive tremor that shook even the boxes and the spectators seated within them. A fissure split open the marble floor even as hot steam rose out from it and consolidated into a tsunami of white mana.
"Betelgeuse!"
Taking a deep breath, I unleashed a hail of luminous arrows from my bow, thousands of them manifesting in reality. Taking aim, I bombarded the approaching tsunami of mana with a relentless barrage of blue arrows, the magical projectiles clashing ferociously with Franklin's Dividing the Heavens and blowing up.
Boom!
The resulting explosion rocked the building.
"Whoa." I stumbled around the violently shaking building, struggling to regain my balance. Dismissing Orion, I summoned Aquarius again and thrust the broadsword into the ground, leaning on it to prevent myself from falling.
However, it appeared that Franklin was not suffering from the same problem.
"Final Franklin Style: Vanquishing thy Foe with Thyself!" he shouted, rushing toward me. His katana was radiating dangerously dark waves of mana as it began singing a dreadful Perish Song.
What a cheesy name.
That was the first thought that came to my mind as I watched him approach. However, I snapped out of my stupor when I realized what Franklin intended to do.
He was planning to take me down with him!
"Are you out of your freaking mind?!" I hollered as I yanked Aquarius out of the ground and deflected the currently black sword away from me. Smoke began hissing from my blue blade as the black mana rapidly spread over it, causing it to rot away. Even worse, the corruption was spreading throughout the entire Constellation weapon, forcing me to toss it aside before dismissing it.
What the hell was this technique?! I had never seen anything like it before!
Twisting around, Franklin made a motion to stab himself. However, I could tell that his move wasn't as simple as suicide.
He was planning to stab me together with him. By spinning around, he had blocked his weapon from prying eyes and obscured my view of where his sword would come from, but he planned on piercing his demonic katana through his body and stabbing me from an unexpected direction.
"Have you gone fucking nuts?" I snapped at Franklin. Summoning Gemini in an instant, I slashed his left arm, almost severing it at the elbow. Franklin recoiled from the pain and instinctively stepped back. I sighed at relief at being able to force him to stop.
"I…I can't go back now!" Franklin gasped desperately as he turned to face me. "I'll take you down with me!"
In a sick, twisted way, I could understand why he was resorting to this. He had everything to lose. He couldn't afford to lose this match, or everything that he had worked so hard for would go to waste. Being humiliated in front of his future father-in-law like this, Lionel Stuart might annul the engagement after such a pathetic display. After bragging and boldly requesting for 55% of the corporation shares and being named successor, his name would be driven into the mud after losing so spectacularly. Nobody would ever be able to take him seriously again in the future.
Too bad. I honestly couldn't give a fuck about his predicament.
You can go die by yourself, I thought coldly. I would have let you win if you didn't insult me. If you didn't look down on me and mocked me and my dad. Too bad. Now I'll make you pay by taking everything away from you.
I was going to savor the feeling and triumph of utterly destroying his reputation. And if his engagement got annulled? Well, serve him right.
Despite his left arm now bleeding profusely and dangling uselessly by his side, and the agony he must be feeling from the numerous wounds all over his body, Franklin never relaxed his grip on Ye Mo. His face pale and sweaty, he raised his remaining arm for one final attack.
"Final Franklin Style: The King's Ultimate and Royal Requeim," he whispered, his voice filled with both determination and pain.
I recognized similar traces from the move he had used earlier. However, this time, his Royal Requeim was on a completely different scale and level.
The black, vicious tongues of mana danced wildly, licking up everything unfortunate to get in their paths. I quickly jumped away, but was forced to defend myself from a stray tongue of energy, blocking it with my twin swords.
I managed to withdraw to a relatively safe distance, but Gemini had been corrupted. Shrinking back in horror, I was forced to discard them. Looking back at Franklin, I watched in horror as a nearby carpet was corrupted. Its rich, red color instantly turned black and its lush material rotted away into nothingness.
It was the same end for everything else, whether it was concrete rubble, paintings, marble, or furniture.
At the back of it all, Franklin was barely standing upright. The agony was visible on his face, the attack draining his vitality. It was no wonder. An attack of this magnitude was sure to have a backlash on its user.
And even though he wasn't affected yet, it was only a matter of time before the tongues turn on him and devour their owner.
I had to prevent that from happening. Honestly, while I wasn't obligated to save his life, if the controller of this spell died, there wouldn't be anyone capable of controlling and stopping it. This was the sort of spell that would continue to rampage and grow even long after its caster was dead. At least, if I incapacitated Franklin at this early stage, I might still have a chance of halting the devastating spell in its tracks.
"This has gone too far," I declared. "Is victory really that important to you?"
"Shut up!" Franklin snapped, but his voice was strained. "What could a commoner like you possibly know about victory and honor?"
"You shut up!" I retorted, losing my patience. "Look around you and the effects of your fucking spell! Does this look like victory to you? Honor?! Have you ever considered what would happen if your spell goes out of control and attacks the spectators?"
"Lord Stuart and Sir Yuan Dao will step in to intervene before that happens," Franklin replied confidently. "And you're in no position to worry about others. You'll die before anyone else is affected."
Sure enough, neither Stuart nor Yuan Dao Yue Guang was making any move. If the security chief, whose job was to protect Stuart, didn't think there was any danger, then there most likely wasn't. He probably had his own form of countermeasures against a spell of this magnitude, though I couldn't imagine what it was.
As for the rest…well, Franklin had a point. I would die before the spell reached the others. Glancing at Alicia and Adrian, I saw that they were near the exit. At least they would be able to quickly escape if the Royal Requiem grew out of control.
"Oh, thanks for the consideration."
Glaring at Franklin, I forced myself to stay calm. The only option I had left was to defeat him before his ultimate technique went out of control. But using any of my Constellation magic, especially the long-ranged ones, would undoubtedly kill him.
Perhaps I should consider just killing him, after all, but I knew that wasn't practical. Murdering someone in front of so many eyewitnesses would ruin my future. I would rather spend my adult years exploring the world and participating in missions to exterminate monsters than serving a life sentence in prison for manslaughter. Sure, I could claim that it was self-defense, but with Franklin's background, his lawyers would surely accuse me of using excessive force and all that bullshit.
Looked like I really didn't have a choice.
Glancing around, I desperately searched for an alternative, but I couldn't see anything except for the flicking black tongues. The tongues were creeping toward me now, seeking me out as if I were some helpless prey to be devoured. Pretty soon, they would be able to engulf the whole room, including the boxes of spectators and Stuart himself, before eventually turning on their owner and consuming him. Again, Stuart and the spectators didn't look troubled, and the security chief was still on standby, so it appeared they thought they had everything under control.
Not that it was going to help me much.
Just when I thought all hope was lost and I was resigning myself to killing Franklin after all, his family lawyers be damned, I spotted my cracked and ruined ornamental sword lying a few meters away from me. The one Stuart originally gave me at the start of my duel with Franklin.
A sudden idea flared in my head. If I could grab that sword, then there was this technique that I could try. I had just barely managed to learn it in the last couple of days before this engagement party, but I was confident that I would be able to pull it off.
"Green Dragon!"
While summoning my fourth Celestial Guardian, I dove toward the sword. Weaving in and out of the whipping black tongues, I carefully made my way toward the sword. Grasping the heavily decorated hilt, I snatched it up and turned to face Franklin.
"Green Dragon," I repeated, and the chibi Celestial Guardian drifted over my shoulder with a nod. He transformed into a wisp of green mana and shrouded my blade as I raised it and prepared for my ultimate wood technique. "Blossom, Hundred-Colored Flowers."
The broken blade glowed green before exploding.
Dozens of vines burst from where the blade used to be, snaking around and shooting across gaps between the black tongues. Surrounding Franklin, they lashed out and curled around him, coiling and binding his entire body and all four of his limbs.
Shocked, Franklin tried to struggle out of their intense grip, but his attempts were all ultimately futile.
"What…" he gasped, perspiring profusely. "…is this?"
"It's no use," I replied turning away.
"Huh?" he desperately looked toward the direction I was facing, befuddled when he saw there was nothing there.
I jerked my head toward the vines. "Look," I told him.
What appeared to be thorns on the vines were beginning to grow, enlarging to a familiar bulbous shape.
"That's your mana in there," I explained, averting my gaze in an attempt to annoy and frustrate him further. "Those flowers bloom as they steal your mana. Any mana you use will go straight to them."
The black tongues were fading away, being sucked and drawn into the blossoming flowers on my vines. Hundreds of different flowers, each and every one having a different color were beginning to open up and bloom, their soft petals tasting the delicious air. The space across the room was filled with so many vibrant colors, the huge variety of shades making the scene appear surreal.
Hence, its name Hundred-Colored.
"Do you get it?" I asked as I raised my head to finally meet Franklin's gaze, only to see his incredulous expression. The self-proclaimed noble still didn't believe what was happening to him. "When those flowers bloom…it'll all be over for you, Shawn Franklin."
"D…" Franklin spluttered as he continued to struggle with even more frustration and frenzy than before, but to no avail. "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!"
I could only turn away again as the myriad of so many different flowers on my vines, each sporting a different color, bloomed completely.