Although he was a little disappointed for not having a chance to explore the artificial world a little more. Getting the first turn to try the battle wasn't a bad idea either.
As he stood up, Kael's eyes subconsciously averted to the person who just stood up at the same time as him. Other than his/her slender figure, he couldn't tell much about his/her aspects. As they descended the stairs, Kael muttered under his breath, "Appraisal."
However, he found out that his skill isn't working.
"Appraisal!"
"Appraisal!"
No matter how much he utters the magical word, nothing special happens.
Kael's face went pale while his palm was starting to get sweaty under his nervousness. Sh*t! How come it doesn't work now? Don't tell me that it can't break through the Aldebaran system? It couldn't be, right?
Feigning his calmness, Kael suppressed the build-up of negative emotions within his heart and took a deep breath before chanting, "Incinerate."
Much to Kael's relief, a scorching flame flared up from the middle of his palm, gnashing the ground below, and dismissed a little amount of sand.
Patting his chest mildly, Kael's thought diverted directly to the reason behind his failures earlier.
Could it be that because "Appraisal" was a skill that summoned an item from the otherworld and because this was only a game, or rather inside my head, the glasses couldn't pass through?
He shook that thought off upon reaching the centre of the arena where you can see a number that is floating above. As he gazed at his opponent across from him, he heard an emotionless voice, "The battle will begin in sixty seconds."
"If the player wants to surrender, shout "I yield" loudly to instantly stop the battle."
"Pain absorber set to 50%"
"The battle will last for five minutes."
"The countdown starts now!"
Then, the floating number starts to count down.
Because Kael wasn't interested in exchanging talks, he didn't waste his saliva and merely stared at the man opposite of him. His opponent also seems to have the same idea as him and didn't bother to open his mouth.
They stood at each other for around 100 meters, even so, people could sense tensions slowly building at the centre of the arena. They bulge their eyes out, interested in finding who might emerge as the winner.
3
2
1
As soon as the countdown number reached zero, Kael trotted his way toward his opponent. Unfortunately, with his present fire ability, he feared that his fire couldn't extend to above 2 meters. That being said, it was still a lot better than his past fire that can only be used to light up a cigarette. He has conducted a lot of experiments regarding his ability, and he was sure that, every time he used his skill, all aspects related to it, such as the effective range, firepower, etc, will increase.
Seeing that LazyGargoyle also had an intention to engage in close combat, Kael's forehead knit deeper.
'Either he has the same problem as me or his ability is a natural warrior. Either way, I couldn't afford myself to be careless now.'
With that thought, Kael's mind went tranquilly and calm as the sea.
As their distance narrowed to approximately 3 meters, Kael did an unexpected action. Flinging both his arms backwards, he let out the fire on both his palm and used it as a sort of booster.
*Whoosh*
With a flash, he appeared directly in front of LG. Their breaths mingled, and their eyes stared at each other. However, both eyes express a different type of emotion. While LG had some kind of shock and unprepared look. Kael had solemn eyes and decisive like a hawk.
LazyGargoyle didn't expect this and was caught off guard. He couldn't come up with a proper guard in time. When LG realized Kael's move, Kael already swung his right arm toward his stomach.
*Bang*
LG groaned in pain as his mouth opened, about to spurt out saliva. But Kael didn't let him do so because his previously clenched fist is now already spread out, and ready to launch a fire.
"Incinerate!"
With only a word, lights of fire burst out from his palm, crashing promptly against LG's torso, forcing him to back down as Kael maintained his skill.
But, LG wasn't a pushover either. He dragged his own feet to stop his backward advance and managed to shift his body sideways, freeing himself of Kael's dominating fire ability.
Kael stopped his skill and was about to assert his dominance further when his action abruptly halted as he stared at the pair of crimson eyes across him. Despite being obstructed by a blurry fog, Kael could see LG's eyes flickering dangerously.
Using the chance of Kael's focus being distracted, LG slightly lowered his head, then immediately stalked his way at Kael briskly like a predator hunting its prey. His menacing crimson eyes were flicking dangerously behind the blurry fog.
Just as LG was about to claw Kael's face. He noticed that Kael's hands trembled a little bit before shooting a flame straight to his front. As a result, Kael succeeds in dodging LG's claw to his face by a slight margin. Even so, his chest still got gnawed by LG's claw. It hurt a lot, but not so much to the extent that he wants to faint to surrender to ease the pain. Kael was glad that the pain absorber was set to 50%. If it was 100%, he could only roll back and forth on the ground in pain right now.
Suppressing the painful feeling that he is currently under, Kael propped his hand upward and fired his flame from both his palms.
Because LG hasn't got enough time to move, he could only helplessly face the incoming fire. His torso was burned extremely just a minute ago. Now, both his hands experienced the same case as his torso. Although he finally escaped from Kael's fire suppression at the last moment. His condition wasn't in better shape than Kael, he felt stinging pains coming from both his hands and torso, while at the same time, smells of charred meat kept drifting into his nostril.
Separated by a thin burned trail, LG and Kael stared at each other intensely as their minds worked at a rapid pace, constructing a plan to defeat each other.
Then, as if knowing each other's minds, they run simultaneously in the same direction. Kael has his hands straightened and ready to unleash more fire to burn LG, whereas LG has his claw raised upward, ready to scratch Kael at any time.
However, at the moment that they were about to clash at each other, an emotionless voice suddenly resounded, rendering their movements to a complete stop, "Five minutes duration has been exceeded."
"Battle ended."
"Result draw."