Five minutes into the competition, apart from me, there were two Natal Spirits left. Though they're both strong they couldn't bridge the gap between a Natal Spirit and a Fused Spirit.
Since they stuck out, they were chased and eliminated in a matter of minutes. Due to that, it leaves me alone in the stage where there are only Fused Spirits.
Being a Fused Spirit, unlike a Natal Spirit who only had their Spiritual Twin connected to the Spirit Ocean, their main body will also be connected to it. And because of that, their main bodies will also get enhanced just like how it enhanced the Spiritual Twin's stats. Due to that, they all used their own enhanced bodies that were fused with their Spiritual Twin to do battle.
With a Stream as a connection to the Spirit Ocean, they could draw out supernatural powers from it which none of the Natal Spirits could do.
And even though they're fused with their Spiritual Twins, a phantom of it will still appear behind them. By doing so, apart from relying on their fused stats, they could also draw its previous powers when it was still separated from them using Spirit Energy.
There were probably a few occasions where a Natal Spirit could defeat a Fused Spirit. There's me, but I'm using a cheat by having 30% of the Heroes' base stats and other cultivation paths. But those Natal Spirits who could do that will probably become a Noble Spirit in the future.
Soon enough, being the only Natal Spirit left on stage, one Fused Spirit saw me as a target. Thinking it will be easy for him, he threw me a not-so-special kick with hardly any power with it. Willing my Spiritual Twin to move in front of me, I raised the Potential Drawing to its maximum.
Using Potential Drawing should be taxing to the main body since it uses Spirit Energy as a fuel. But yeah, when it concerns the use of energy, mine is always unlimited.
When his foot made contact with my Spiritual Twin, he shivered and a clanging sound rang out as if he hit metal.
With a muffled groan from him, he flew back for a few paces before he started rolling to the ground holding his leg.
The crowd was silenced upon seeing that scene and the other Fused Spirits who saw that spectacle either rushed towards me or backed away.
There's a female Fused Spirit who's one of the favorites to win who saw it and decided to eliminate me by lunging at me, on her hand was a blunt weapon reminiscent of a baseball bat.
Using that weapon which somehow became covered with flames, she hit my Spiritual Twin. Thinking it was effective, she did it three more times. However, just like the first time, it only clanged before she bounced back from it at her fourth hit with her arms trembling from the pain it caused her.
She then looked at me with dreadful eyes before turning back to put a distance between us.
"Who the heck is that Natal Spirit?! Even Namira was pushed back by his Spiritual Twin!"
I heard someone exclaim from the audience.
Ah. The peanut gallery started to focus on me. There's even someone who got wind of my name and they started shouting it.
"Ember! Kyaa!"
I wonder until when will those girls be able to keep their voices like that?
After Namira, the other Fused Spirits already arrived within my reach, I threw my previous sword to my Spiritual Twin which upon catching it, it immediately hacked towards someone diving from above.
There were not only those who targeted my Spiritual Twin, but there were also those who targeted me, the main body. It's common knowledge that the main body is weaker than the Spiritual Twin, they would only catch up to it once they fused.
However, what they hit was only my Phantom Image. Triggering my 3rd Augmented Skill, Energy Phantom, I vanished from that spot and was replaced by a condensed Brute Energy of my own image while my real body became temporarily concealed from their eyes.
They had smug expressions on their faces when they felt their weapons cut into my Phantom Image like a soft cake but when they realized how that image vanished upon falling to the ground, they all felt a chill on their spine.
Circling from my original position, I punched one of them from behind. The unlucky Fused Spirit's face burrowed into the platform because of the force. With his legs still raised up high, it twitched for a bit before it fell down, unmoving.
And that feat once again garnered the gasps of surprise from the audiences. A lone Natal Spirit being ganged up by a number of Fused Spirit, that's a sight they rarely see.
When my Spiritual Twin deflected the other Fused Spirit using the sword I threw at it, it immediately turned back and slashed another Fused Spirit.
With all of that happening in a span of seconds, the silenced crowd continued which even alarmed those far away from me. Everyone was dumbfounded that a lone Natal Spirit could get out of a situation that's usually impossible.
I guess no matter what I do, I'm bound to stand out in this competition. Then, there's no point in holding back, right?
Let's see. There are still around 50 Fused Spirits battling it out and we only needed 8 to advance. I'm going to start with these guys crowding around me.
Having decided that, together with my Spiritual Twin, I started eliminating the Fused Spirits nearby. A punch, a kick or a stab from my Spiritual Twin's sword. None of it was deflected or countered. No matter what supernatural ability they could draw from the Spiritual Ocean, there's only one fate that's waiting for them. To be eliminated.
When I turned the competition into a one-man show, the crowd finally regained their senses and the cheers were now concentrated on me.
It was just a month ago when I was still too weak to even damage a normal Dark Soldier chasing me during that first battle with Yuko I had gone through. To grow to this extent of toying with opponents that were cultivating their paths for years, Yuko's vision about me becoming someone great in the future is slowly being realized.
But yeah, considering there's that main body of the Smoke Giant just waiting for their turn, this level of strength is still a far cry from him. I shouldn't be complacent and steadily grow to catch up with them.
The Orbs will probably play an important part for me. For it to always be drawn to me, it's hard to believe in fate but with it happening three times already, it's hard to call it a coincidence.
The two Orbs I first acquired both played an important role in the previous worlds.
The Orb of Concealment helped Zerina initially escape the manor which allowed us to meet and by using it, we managed to rescue Reinys and the others who were detained by the 3rd Lady. The orb also made it possible for me to draw near the surrounded Yuko who was being ganged up when her Psyche Energy was almost used up.
The Orb of Enhancement saved Avelin's life when I first saw it and it helped us defeat the Corrupted Saint Realm. Then it played a huge role during the war, minimizing the casualties taken by those under me and turned the tide from that final battle during its initial stage.
This third Orb which I will acquire if I manage to win this will probably also play an important role during our stay here.
I couldn't miss that when I didn't even know the real nature of these orbs. There's a question mark when the Orbs were appraised by the system.
During the next 10 minutes, the competition for selecting the 8 qualified participants for our group was decided.
With me as an overwhelming upset, I immediately became a crowd favorite but yeah, the other participants who were strong enough which didn't manage to face me during the group stage were already itching to thrash me in the Individual Stage.
But they didn't know that I still have a lot of cards hidden. However, I will only use those only when there's no other option. I already created a disturbance, I could even see Jayna's father laughing heartily as he pointed at me.