At that moment, Trex also realized he couldn't just entirely rely on the old memories. These have no consciousness and completely rigid.
["Dodge and retreat, slow and steady wins the race"] Viden urged him in his head.
Yet he kept going. Out of the twenty-three shards, eight had hit him while fourteen had missed. Visually, three cuts had already cauterized, and four others which pierce directly at his body.
It was gruesome, to say the least, yet he kept going. It wasn't because of pride and courage and all the valor. Instead, this was the thrill of making a play.
The last shard had been aimed at his head. Still, he reached the edge of the 'air line' at the border of the 'heat wave.'
A red glow spread through his body. At the same time, his right hand also glowed grey.
With a quick swipe up, his hand traveled through space which aimed towards the shard headed for his glabella. Trex managed to hit the shard squarely. He didn't even feel the heat due to the Leidenfrost effect.
At the same time, the voices in his head changed once again.
["Now is your chance, cast impale and stab her."]
*
This time, Trex slowed down. Honestly, from what it currently appears, that really is an excellent way to end the fight, but the thing is, the 'heat wave' is still active. Impale is a hex of the metal. With the heat that could melt metal, wouldn't he directly shot himself as his hands that turned metal due to magic gets heated?
Zoe immediately noticed the slow down in his movements. The hidden spell circle in her hand diminished.
She was already prepared to fight Trex at close combat. While she did try to kill Trex with the shards, that was only for the optimal results.
A seven-runic spell circle appeared behind her at the time when she threw the 15th shard. The moment Trex reached the end of his' air line', wings made of fire appeared on her back.
The six pairs of wings separated into six spines and gradually turned blue. Its temperature was rapidly increasing, and so did the 'heat wave's' effect. If she were to cast metal shards now, they'd immediately melt to a puddle and disperse.
Rings of fire emerged at the roots of the wings, seemingly ready to burst out.
Her two runic orbs flew back towards her hands. Each of the runic orbs appeared another two spell circles. As the casting ended, the two orbs fused together, forming an elegant swirl of silver and gold.
Zoe's eyes also began to shimmer the same way as the runic orbs. The now fused runic orb immediately flew above her head.
Trex, who had just figured something out, squinted his eyes.
This is what guidance really is, it's not always right. Just because someone pointed you in a direction doesn't necessarily mean that it was in the right direction. Because for the first time, none of the nine mercenaries in his head had anything to say.
Even Trex began to doubt whether the ten magic he picked were the right decision.
Once the runic orb settled on Zoe's head, space began to distort, and so did light.
Light is the electromagnetic radiation that the human eye could perceive. It's not as fantastical like those holy light people were told. It was just radiation that is visible.
At that moment, the 'heat wave' around the area broke up. It was abstract as the mere reflection of colors in the area shifted and twisted around as it began to move towards the runic orb.
Before it was all absorbed, the 'heat wave,' now dyed by the color of the arena, stopped as if it were frozen in time. It began to slowly flail around as if it were tentacles that seemed to rip the very fabric of reality.
Trex gulped.
The entire thing took a good 17 seconds. But the moment space began to move by itself, Trex had been helpless the whole time.
With a bitter look on his face, Trex felt like kicking the cabinet for giving him a terrible match-up.
'How on Earth is bronze level even graded,' he whimpered.
At last, space ripped as the tentacles that seemed to come from a Bob Ross painting flew towards him.
*ZHICK*
*ZHICK*
*ZHICK*
Trex was struck on the left shoulder, right leg, left feet, below the heart, and lastly, the head.
There were no misses, and every attack was taken by Trex helplessly.
Trex had his eyes closed, waiting for the pain to come. Visually, it was highly visceral as blood was splattered in a very distorted manner as if after popping a blood balloon, some waved their hands on it for it to splash all around the arena.
After waiting for a considerable amount of time, Trex opened one eye only to see that he's okay. The arcade game couldn't perfectly simulate pain, especially for elements like spacetime.
Standing idly in his side of the arena, Trex heaved a sigh of relief. Virtual Reality from his last world had better and more realistic graphics than what he's currently seeing, but the thing is, he's not in a virtual world.
[Time Remaining: 89 seconds]
[Ghost Zoe Jenza wins!]
[0-1]
[Time Remaining: 150s]
[Round 2]
[Cross fighters ready?]
[3]
[2]
[1]
[Fight!]
——
A few moments earlier…
[Welcome player Illana Fleichter, do you want to challenge the current player: TSunn?]
"Nope," Illana mumble as she navigated the holographic display in front of her.
[Please select the character you desire to use.]
One card appeared in front of her. It was a woman using two runic orbs and long scarves. Below the image was the name written as "Zoe Jenza."
With a quick tap, the card disappeared.
[Anomaly detected, the power level of the character reaches silver standards. The current rank of the character is only bronze. This character can only be used as a ghost.]
"That is fine, please match the ghost against the current player," Illana requested, only wanting to see how long Trex could last against a tier 2 spell caster.
[Matching against a current player as a ghost would cost twice the tokens, and even though your character defeats the player, the player could continue, and the loss wouldn't count. Continue?]
This is called a smurf match in the Cross Fighters community and is considered a feature rather than a bug.
"Continue." She answered, a grin on her face gleaming with mischief.