(Seymour's POV):
I went out alone to various cave entrances in the mountain and collected up a decent amount of experience points. I had enough to level up a few times I used some points to upgrade up my utility abilities and control. After I finished leveling up to 50, I finally reached a powerful passive ability.
"Territory control..."
This ability allows me to do anything within my territory. I can ensnare any target and make them unable to do anything until their death. I can generate a black cloud that will poison and suffocate players indiscriminately. And I can erupt stalagmites from the ground and joust targets.
There are more abilities that I could use aside from that but it just means I have absolute control in my territory. I won't be using for the upcoming spar later but, I'll experiment with this while the others haven't returned yet.
I went out to the open plains and simply thought of the move I wanted to make.
The first one that crossed my mind is erupting lava from the ground manually. Multiple spots within the ground have erupted a little bit of lava with a minor explosion towards the open space.
"Ok, this is way too overpowered..."
If I use this ability against them, they probably won't be able to hold out for too long. Maybe around an hour at best. So I won't be using this broken ability unless it's completely necessary.
When I noticed, it sucked up quite a bit of mana too so I shouldn't utilize it too much.
After a while of waiting, I noticed a lot of members watching over me. This normally means that everyone has returned and will be watching over the battle that will unfold in a few seconds.
I stayed in a meditation stance while waiting. So my range of focus is pretty wide.
Three ice spikes were flying in towards my spot silently. That would be Denzel's move...
I cancelled my concentration and dashed to the side as soon as I could. I then protected myself with a small layer of void magic to nullify any other surprise attacks.
The first that came in was immediately right after I opened my eyes. A large ball of light was shining brightly which means that it's Robin's blinding light. I then moved around to avoid a possible laser aimed towards my spot. The first one to come close was Michael with his scythe.
I blocked his scythe with a poleaxe and got it stuck nicely to avoid any pushes.
"Impressive opening... Who thought it up?"
"We'll tell after all this..." - Michael
Michael let go of his scythe and launched multiple low kicks aimed towards my knee.
I dashed back and generated a magic shield behind me. I pulled back the poleaxe and switched to a more suitable weapon. A staff...
Denzel was the second one to show up. He was dashing towards me from the side with gauntlets equipped.
"I see now..."
Michael seems to be preparing to release some fire magic which could be dangerous if I try to dodge Denzel. So I might as well stay in the spot and block him completely.
I faced Denzel and swiped out one of his hands before striking his stomach with the staff.
"Gufuu-!" - Denzel
When I noticed, I completely forgot about Robin's searing light. A large searing light was shot down from the sky aimed towards my spot.
Michael seems to have completed his preparations so I'll dodge to the side since he aims to fire behind me.
I turned my back towards them to avoid any sneaky spells behind my back. The shield will protect me unless it's Robin dashing forward, which is very unlikely since he aimed a laser at me...
After distancing myself from them, I turned around and noticed Michael and Denzel at the very first second.
Denzel twists his body to give out momentum to his attacks. He then launches a powerful straight jab with his gauntlet. I dodged the attack and twisted my staff to parry Michael's scythe that's about to hit me.
"Beautiful..."
I muttered on instinct as I notice Robin dashing in from behind. I then struck Michael on the gut which made him writhe in pain.
"Guhaa!" - Michael
Denzel launched a high kick as a follow up and changed his weapons into a pair of swords mid attack...
I lowered myself to avoid the leg and twisted my body around to use the staff on parrying Robin's rune blade.
I then raised myself and dashed backwards as the three stood in front of me.
Michael, Robin, and Denzel... They're undoubtedly my three strongest members here. Just too bad they can't hold a candle to me...
"Impressive you three... But at this point, it's game over now..."
Denzel dashed in first while Robin followed up behind him. Michael took out his tarot card and is seemingly going to use it.
"Tarot Card XV! Devil! Activate!" - Michael
Michael starts emitting and gushing out various types of fire element magic and became completely dangerous. He grows a pair of wings and a pair of horns that makes him look completely devilish.
Denzel swings one sword and follows up with a rotation of his body. I blocked the first and dodged the follow up. Robin then takes his turn by precisely slashing down at my position which I dodged by hairsbreadth by moving closer to Denzel which got him surprised.
I then used my left elbow to strike Denzel in the face in which knocked him down. After him, I struck Robin by chopping his solar plexus with my hand.
Both of them groveled down on the ground as I shift my focus to Michael and charged at him.
He flew up which is really a problematic ability to fight against early game. Michael then dropped various magic attacks down as an airstrike on me.
"Artillery huh? I wonder what you had planned there Michael..."
Michael flinched in reaction and increased the bombardment. I took minor scrapes here and there but it was a dodge fest nonetheless.
In our combat practice, it's a one against three in taking down the team. I can confirm winning if I take all three of them down but, if they managed to get me down... It's gonna be their win.
Well, they're seemingly having trouble with it so it's all good.
Michael's barrage seems to have started thinning out. Each element of his fire barrage has a special effect. It can range to growing plants and blasting dirt everywhere, to freezing a part of your body and receiving irreparable burns.
"Guess it's time huh... Area lock!"
I set a small area and target locked it. I will bring Michael to that spot and get all of his mana lost, passing him out in an instant. The marked area is invisible to him which makes it difficult for him to keep an eye for surprise attacks.
I threw him off some void magic that is pretty harmful to force him to dodge. He does cancel out some of my void attacks but it wasn't enough to just stay in one spot and dodge endlessly.
After the single split second of hovering over the marked area. I activated the target locked ability.
"Area Drain!"
"Fuuhaaaa!" - Michael
I have instantly drained out Michael's mana pool and have recovered my mana back to full.
"Activate!" - Denzel and Robin
I heard the two activate their abilities. The issue was Denzel arrived instantly in my face after the activation of an ability.
"!!!"
I blocked the gauntlet Denzel used to nearly strike my face. He's instantly stronger and faster... Is this the power of the strength card?
What Denzel activated with his tarot card. The one he got during the tournament was XI - Strength... It boosts his physical prowess by a high multitude and made the hand I used to block him bleed and crack a bit.
"Damn, this guy really knows how to get pumped up."
The speed is also multiplied by a similar amount, along with his other stats. It makes him as tanky as me but still a lot weaker.
I struck up him with an uppercut in which wasn't as effective as before. That gave me enough proof that he could survive a full power strike from me.
"Frozen!" - Denzel
Oops! That's bad news!
I took out a coin and tossed it in front of Denzel before he finishes a dangerous spellcast which is hard to avoid normally.
"Coffin!" - Denzel
The coin which I flicked up in between me and Denzel's eyes was frozen instead of myself. The frozen coin then hit Denzel's head which got him distracted.
I was about to strike him with an enchanted fist but I noticed Robin dashing in close by.
I committed to striking Denzel into the gut which made him cough out blood and became pale.
"That's two down..."
I enchanted my fist with Void Drain which sucks out mana that I can absorb or discard at will. It sucked out a huge chunk of Denzel's mana which makes it easier for a person to pass out.
There is a mechanic where the lesser mana percentage you have, the higher chances of you passing out after every strike. I sucked out at least 15% of Denzel's mana which increased his chance of passing out to pain.
As a result, Denzel fell down to the ground and stopped moving for a while.
Robin is left which he made a few strikes.
When I noticed, there are stars falling down within my area.
"Hoo... I wonder about the effect of your card..."
From the looks of it, multiple glitched figures appeared around him... Each took a different form of a sword which gives various effects... Or not...
"Power Balancing! We'll be completely equal!" - Robin
Criminy... A troublesome effect... The only difference between us is experience anyway so...
Robin launches a few standard and tricky strikes. In which I had parried and deflected with my staff finely. I then finished up the fight by simply stepping on his foot as he moves forward and trips down...
For insurance, I struck the back of his neck with the staff by poking it, making him pass out.
They grew quite well to inflict damage on me now by quite a bit. So I think I'll let them commemorate it.