Chapter 78 - 25 - Tournament part 4

"[Continuous instant movement] [Light barrier] [Light rain] [Bright fist] [Muscle rejuvenation] [Multi-barrier] [High strength enhancement] [High speed enhancement] [Herculean strength]!!!"(James)

Bursting forth with shiny muscles enveloped in mana, for a second James triggered a hallucination of the first orc king I defeated. Tch, I'll overcome you like I did before. With roughly 30 barriers, a storm of light and lastly James teleporting around, it looked like a complete nightmare. Sending energy into my legs, I shot at James with all my momentum. *BANG*, He predicted and block my fist?!

Due to his strange mana absorbing 10 metre barrier, I couldn't activate [Acrobatics] or [Shadow step] if they weren't directly touching my feet, so i had to conpletely rely on my physical capabilities. This school mainly taught about mana-control, so most people would forget physical based fighters exist. This certainly worked to James' advantage as he could pretty much nullify all the magic that low-leveled people like the students produce.

Looking closely now, his fist was shivering a bit, it seemed that my punch wasn't that weak after all. Due to the effect of 'wrath', it was roughly 200 times of what it's suppose to be, James was so more impressive to block that punch.

***

'What was that punch?! How did it match [Herculean strength] ?! No... It didn't match strength, that girl's raw power itself surpassed mine. Has she been stacking buffs since her fight with Zaltria? No choice, I need to end this now or I'll lose' (James)

***

Continuing to teleport around, James rained a fury of hits before taking a distance. My vitality is kinda low at only 10 points, I'm basically a one hit, so I had to dodge every punch. Not like it was hard with my [mana detection] telling me where he was coming from. Now~ now~ you shouldn't run~ Going into a lower battle stance, I shot forward once more before James teleported away. I found it, I just have to hit you before you could perceive it. Due to teleporting away, the strange barrier was no longer there. Planting [Shadow step] into the air, I used the gravity effect to pull me to the side as if I stood in the air horizontally with my right foot.

Pulling my left foot up, I pressed both legs against the [Shadow step] before shooting forward like a rail gun. Twisting every muscle, now that I was in the air, I could placed [Acrobatics] right under my left leg, albeit my mana drains extremely quick. Using that step I created in the air, I twisted my torso and shot my right leg at James' head, breaking most of his barriers. Using the gravity effect of [Shadow step], I regained my balance and planted my knuckles through the remaining barriers barriers.

At this point, James had almost no more mana and couldn't sustain another barrier unless he got rid of the [Sustenance barrier]. Tch, all that twisting cracked a rib and my forearm. Ugh, hurgh *cough**cough*. A familiar red liquid drips down my lips as I smile at my competitor with a ferocious smile. This isn't over yet, I have to defeat James fast!

Unfortunately, I'm going to continue abuse my right arm. Using [illusion] and [Stealth], I faked lunging at James with all my strength. The problem was that, James couldnvt tell which one was the real Emil. He could get turned into cheese at any moment if he wasn't careful. In the distance, Fez was staring intently at my actual location. Ah, I didn't account that fellow users of [illusion] can see through each other with enough practice.

James noticed it, estimated my location and aimed really close to my head. Tch! Give it a rest will you! Ducking under the punch, I launched my fist with my whole body. James predicted it and tried to kick with his leg. Too bad, my fist obliterated his leg and sent him flying a distance away, before the barrier sent him out of the sparring grounds.

Ugh! My consciousness is barely holding on, I need to stand! I easily dodged all of James' attacks, but due to my fatique some of the shockwaves hit me as well. I really couldn't let my guard down, this guys could match me even though I had a higher level along with 'wrath'. Did they get some broken class that could match 'wrath'?! The only skill that stood out was [herculean strength], if I could guess, it amplified James' strength by a few hundred times. That guy could become a future general, damn.

Just as my vision finally cleared from the haziness of almost falling unconsious, I could see that Fez was three quarters of the way, slowly walking towards me. Tch, standing up, I glared at Fez as I got into my battle stance. I was physically disadvantaged while Fez was almost out of mana. I wonder who would win in a fight?

"Fuuuuu~", steadying my breath, I resisted the pain that coursed through my body and got prepared for battle. "Hah! What can you do in that half-dead state!" (Fez)

"What about you? I could tell that last spell reduced your mana pool to nothing and you depended on James to buy you time to charge."

"As tencious as always huh~ You kept your promise well of defeating 2 participants while I only defeated one. Maybe I'll allow you to change one of your work conditions due to my kindness." (Fez)

"Peh! Don't joke with me, both scenarios make me work under you, so the work conditions will be decided by the winner. What are you, scared? CAUSE I WILL CRUSH YOU!"

"LET'S SEE IF YOU CAN."(Fez)

Fueled by each other's sonorous warcry, the battle immediately went into a frenzy. Both activating [Stealth] and [Illusion], it was extremely difficult to pinpoint each other's position if we don't stand still. Constantly moving and waiting for an opening, it was the basic move of an assassin.The only thing we could confirm was that we were both inside the boundary where [illusion] was casted. Tentacles of shadows swept the ground and destroyed the terrain everywhere. For the audience, almost everyone who weren't acquainted with the dark element could only see random marks of destruction spreading everywhere outside the boundary of illusion.

For me and Fez, we could vividly see the colour of the destructive force everywhere and dodge them. [mana detection] didn't work either as illusion spreaded small amounts of mana everywhere and our locations were constantly changing. It was basically a stamina race to see which of us would stop moving first and get defeated. My mana pool had a higher percentage of being full than Fez's due to her draining everything earlier, but due to her class amplifying her intelligence stat, it may not even matter as she could still have a decent amount of mana even though she only rested for the duration of my fight with James.

Unlike me, Fez's intelligence stat allowed her to offset the mana cost of [illusion] and [stealth], after a while Fez stopped moving. Using [mana detection], an unusually large amount of mana is being clustered at a point in the field. Unlike usual, this cluster of mana was incredibly dense as if it was a magical attack... "[Abyss fall]!! " "Tch!! Agh!!". Being fatiqued didn't help my brain think fast, or maybe Fez was just extremely talented, she knew using a large spell will distract me so that she could pinpoint my location. Before I could completely dodge it, the beam of destruction struck a bit of my left waist. A crimson blood spreaded throughout my white dress, along with a sizable hole at my waist area.

Taking advantage, Fez rained down spears of darkness.