Looking at the brackets, Grim's next match was actually meant to be him up against the captain of the Azure Deer Rill. Giving up that chance to fight him, he left that fight up to Yuno while he took on Langris instead. Even though he gave up a fight with a captain he couldn't stop himself from buzzing with excitement.
Standing on his side of the battlefield, Grim closed his eyes and felt every inch of his body burning with overflowing battle intent. It was bad to the point that his entire being was trembling from the excitement he was feeling.
2 enemies with nothing but hatred for him were about to come at him with everything they had-
'This feeling... its so fucking orgasmic!'
"MATCH START!!"
*BOOM!!*
As soon as he was given the go ahead, Grim used [Grim Style - Breath of Blue Flames: Unknowing Fire] to surpass every other level of speed he had ever used to cross the battlefield within seconds and arrive before Langris, Fragil and World Ender Sekke.
With Grim in this state he managed to find the trio by subconsciously using ki, mana sensing and the Transparent World all at once.
"He's gone again..." Selena said seeing the crater Grim had left behind and the cracks etched onto their team's crystal.
While she was sighing over the fact that they were leaving the fighting up to Grim again, part of her was happy over the fact that all she had to do was protect the crystal. While she was completely capable of fighting herself, leaving it to Grim seemed like a better option.
---
[Avalanche]
Unleashing her snow magic, Fragil was the first of her teammates to make a move as her grudge with Grim was deeper than Langris's.
"NOT ENOUGH!!"
*BOOM!!*
Raising the heat even higher, Grim used his magic to create an explosion between the soles of his feet and the ground to shoot straight towards the Avalanche covered in a burning blue fiery aura.
"What the!!"
Watching his aura grow, Fragil and the rest were hit with an intense wave of heat as they saw the Avalanche melt before it even had a chance to come into contact with Grim.
'He stopped my strongest spell!'
[Spatial Magic: Archangel Shootdown]
Seeing Fragil's attempt of attacking fail, Langris finally got involved.
With his grimoire fully open and a spell in mind, spheres of Spatial Magic surrounded his figure as more and more sinister feeling mana rippled out of his body.
"Die." Speaking with a dark tone, he launched all his spatial magic orbs at the approaching Grim.
*FWOOSH!!*
*FWOOSH!!*
*FWOOSH!!*
*FWOOSH!!*
"Whoa... THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!!"
Seeing the uncountable number of spatial orbs falling towards him, the fiery aura that Grim was exuding vanished as a savage beastly one took over as he switched from [Breath of Blue Flames] to [Breath of the Beast] in order to use [Crazy Cutting].
*SWISH!!*
*SWISH!!*
*SWISH!!*
*SWISH!!*
Manifesting his two beast swords, a grey glow coated his figure as grey aura blades revolved around his body.
Charging forward while wildly swinging his swords, every spatial orb that came from him was instantly cut to pieces. As for the ones that managed to pass through his attack, his aura blades stopped them from touching his body.
Still managing to charge forward despite Langris's best attempts to stop him, Grim couldn't hold back his urge to laugh.
"Is that all you got you bitch ass pansy?!! At this rate you might as well cut your balls off cause you're about to be made into bitch!"
"You dare!!"
Hearing Grim's words, the sinister mana emanating out of Langris started going out of control as a large purple aura started rising out of his body. Eyes turning red from becoming bloodshot, Langris lost himself in his rage and started to wildly swipe his hands at Grim while also keeping [Archangel Shootdown]. While these wild swipes of his might have looked like random swinging from an audience's point of view, Grim's instincts, ki and transparent world ability made him take more notice of these swipes compared to the spatial orbs.
*SWOOSH!!*
*SWOOSH!!*
*SWOOSH!!*
Moving out the way of the Langris's swings, Grim found the area that he was previously at was split in two.
'He's cutting space...'
Feeling his senses go into overdrive, Grim became more conscious of those swings as his speed started slowing down.
Seeing this, a dark smile emerged on Langris's face as he spread his arms out wide like the messiah and increased the number of spatial orbs.
"Hahahahahahahahahahahaha."
"GRIM!!" Asta and the others screamed from the viewing platform.
Even the wizard king who was initially excited to see this match frowned slightly.
*SWISH!!*
*SWISH!!*
*SWISH!!*
Pushing his beast instincts, ki and the Transparent World to the limit, Grim cut through countless spatial orbs while evading Langris's spatial cuts. capable of defending against this magic, beads of sweat could be seen rolling down the side of Grim's face as he felt his stamina rapidly depleting.
'Fuck! The increase of spatial orbs are starting to push me back! Not to mention dodging these spatial cuts are really starting to have a negative effect on my stamina.'
"Hahahahahaha!! DIE YOU TRASH!!"
Dodging more spatial cuts, the ground beneath Grim's feet started looking horrible as it was filled with holes and long gashes from the spatial cuts.
Feeling his sweat drop, the pressure on Grim continued to increase as Langris wasn't giving him a moment to catch his breath.
'This... could be bad. Fuck! I don't even have time to use that!'
Seeing Grim struggling, a feeling of unrest started welling up in Fragil's chest. After all the effort she had put into her training and getting stronger, Langris was the one who looked like he would be the one to defeat Grim.
Gritting her teeth, her grimoire flipped to a different page as she prepared to add her own attacks into the mix.
'I'll defeat him before Langris gets the chance!'
Just as she was about to launch her spell, a suffocating presence stopped her in her tracks.
Feeling a shiver run down her side, she slowly turned her head to the side and saw the bloodshot eyed Langris staring at her.
"L-Langri-
"Don't you dare interfere." He spoke with a chilling presence that caused her legs to tremble out of fear.
Facing off against Langris's barrage of attacks, Grim barely managed to evade a spatial cut as he felt blood seep out from a cut on the side of his cheek.
'Shit! My movements are starting to become rigid. I won't be able to dodge any longer if this continues.'
*SWOOSH!!*
*SWOOSH!!*
*SWOOSH!!*
Realizing that his movements were starting to dull, Grim made a quick decision to switch styles.
[Breath of Water - 3rd Form: Flowing Dance]
Switching to a style that enhanced mobility, Grim's aura lost its savage nature as it became calmer. Due to his decreased stamina, he couldn't take full advantage of his [Breath of the Beast] base power making his current movements a lot tamer compared to its usual violent form.
Mimicing the movements of waves on the surface of water, an ethereal stream of blue water followed behind him as a calming blue aura clung to his body.
*BANG!!*
*BANG!!*
*BANG!!*
Swerving past the spatial orbs and spatial cuts, Grim was finally able to breathe a little.
"Hmm?" Noticing this, a frown crawled its way onto Langris's face as he upped the ante by swinging his arms even faster.
While she was scared of Langris's current state, Fragil couldn't accept not being part of Grim's downfall. Using her magic to make it snow, the temperature around Grim grew colder causing his movement speed to be affected again.
Doing his best to evade the increased spatial cuts and orbs, he saw his breath become visible in front of his face and realized that his stamina had reached its absolute limits and that he was moments away from falling.
'Is this it?'
*BANG!!*
He barely managed to dodge a spatial cut and received a sharp cut on his shoulder.
'Am I really gonna have to hold this L?'
*BANG!!*
'Shit... I don't mind losing, but to lose to a guy that I had stepped on... how fucking embarrassing is that?!!'
*BANG!!*
Receiving another cut but on his leg this time, Grim's consciousness had finally given way as the Water sword in his hand de-materialized and the aura around his body vanished.
"GRIMMMMM!!!!" His friends on the viewing platform screamed.
---
-Rebecca's workplace-
"No... NOOOOO!!!" Rebecca and her friends from the mixer screamed in union when they saw Grim's bloodied figure.
"You-YOU CAN'T LOSE HERE!!" A random commoner sobbed when he saw Grim fall.
"H-He was supposed to be our hope... Be even he lost at the hands of a noble."
All around the kingdoms, cries of frustration and despair rang out as they watched their shining star fade.
---
-Theresa's Orphanage-
"Grim!!" Marie and the orphans cried.
"Grim..." Theresa whispered.
---
"You're a real lucky son of a bitch y'know."
Standing inside Grim's mindscape, the distorted figure of King smiled at the falling Grim.
"Choosing [Breath of the Beast] as your base... I bet you didn't even think that it would have this kind of effect huh."
Watching Grim fall in slow motion, King felt the mind scape tremble a little.
"Ha. You really are one lucky son of a bitch."
---
Watching Grim fall, Langris burst out into a fit of hysterical laughter.
"I did it... I...HA... I DID IT!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT YOUR FILTHY PIECE OF TRASH!! LOWLY COMMONERS LIKE YOU SHOULD REMEMBER YOUR PLAC-
*BOOM!!*
"Eh?" Pausing mid sentence, the sudden fluctuation of mana and the bright blue light bursting out of Grim's body caught him and Fragil off guard.
"What in the-
*RAWR!!*
Interrupting him again, the sound of a bestial roar snapped him out of his feeling of victory as a surge of wild mana hit his senses. The sound embodied rage, anger and a promise of a messy death.
"W-WHAT IS THAT!!"
Feeling a shockwave that shook the entire battlefield, everyone including Asta felt a wild flow of power emerging from Grim's body.
"What is that?" Asta's voice shook.
"You can sense that?" Noelle looked shocked as she glanced at the magic less Asta.
"If you can sense it too, then what he's releasing isn't just mana, its-
"His presence." Julius abruptly said.
Looking at the blue pillar of light rising out of Grim's body, the entire kingdom fell silent when they saw the pillar of light separate from Grim's body and escape into the air.
"What's going on?"
Confused by what was happening, the blue light started to shimmer and began to descend back down to Grim's figure. As it nosedived the blue light's form started to become more defined and detailed as it took on appearance of a blue water dragon.
*BOOM!!*
Raising the newly materialized Water sword high into the air, the dragon opened its mouth to unleash a ferocious roar before being absorbed into the sword.
While all of this was going on, no one realized that the pupils in Grim's eyes were completely gone as the thing standing before them wasn't Grim. Boosted by his [Breath of the Beast] instincts, his body had entered a state of fight or flight.
And floating silently by his side, his grimoire glowed a bright blue as words began to emerge on a new page.
[Breath of Water - 10th Form: Constant Flux]