My sword was closing in on his neck, but I noticed that sparks began dancing across his body, so I decisively teleported away, and I did so just in time. I reappeared 30 meters away from my initial position and saw Niko discharging huge amounts of electricity in all directions.
He kept that up for 3 seconds, and he only stopped after he regained his equilibrium. I tried throwing some senbons at him, but the discharge stopped them before they could reach him.
Still, it was obvious that the plasma tornado and the previous discharge had taken a lot out of him. The signs of exhaustion were apparent but I could see the determination on Niko's face.
He was not planning to give up, and I was not going to underestimate him. Only after the result was declared would I relax, until then I had to stay 100% serious.
I did not plan to give him time to recover to any extent, so I began throwing my senbons at him once more, and instead of stopping them with fire or electricity, he dodged them all.
He began running towards me, boosting his speed with his electric manipulation. He managed to dodge all my senbons and the moment he made it within 8 meters of me I teleported behind him.
I used my psychic energy to create a shield in front of my skin to block any fire or electric attacks. Then I swung my sword at his back, but he turned around in time to block my sword with his armguard. He released electricity at me during the contact, but my gloves and shield saved me from any harm.
We began exchanging hits at close range, with him relying on his boosted speed and reaction speed to block my swords, while occasionally trying to counter-attack. I either blocked those with my shield or dodged them in case the attack threatened to overwhelm my shield.
Then during our latest clash, I let go of my sword while he was blocking it with his arm guard and punched at him from the other side. He managed to tilt his body enough to dodge my punch, but I used my second thought stream to telekinetically control my sword to attack him with it from his back while I attacked him physically from the front, forcing him to focus on two directions at once.
I clad my body in aura while I was attacking and chose to ignore any energy attacks below a certain standard, trusting my two shields to keep me safe from the attacks I chose to tank. What was impressive was that Niko managed to defend against attacks from two fronts for close to a minute before he started to get overwhelmed.
It was moments later that I noticed an opening, so I took it after deciding that it did not look like a trap. I punched at his abdomen and even added aura spikes to my knuckles to finally decide the fight, but he moved his arm at the last second, causing my spiked punch to hit the unprotected side of his arm.
The moment my punch hit him, the spikes pierced his arm, and my hand came in contact with his skin. Niko released a huge electric attack from the contact point, showing that he had chosen to exchange injury with injury.
The opening had been a trap after all, but one that did not look like one since he was willing to sacrifice something in return for the success of the trap.
Regardless of my belief, I had not reduced my vigilance while I was attacking, so the moment the electric discharge reached me, and met the resistance of my shields, I initiated my teleportation.
The electricity pierced through my psionic shield and was about to pierce my aura shield as well, but I succeed with my teleportation at that moment. I felt my arm tingle a bit, but I managed to safely dodge the trap.
I re-established control of my sword and attacked him with it while running at him. He tried to attack me while I was approaching, even when he was defending against the sword, but I dodged them without a problem and kept heading toward him.
When I was a few meters away from him, I threw my other sword at him while he was busy blocking one of my telekinetic sword strikes, and he had to do some body acrobatics to dodge the throw as well. I was upon him while his body was out of balance and began wailing at him on top of attacking with sword no.1.
He did some impressive distortions and maneuvers to block my attacks. We kept that exchange going for nearly two minutes, with him occasionally releasing a gout of fire or a bolt of electricity to force me away. Unsuccessfully, might I add.
Anyway, the moment I felt that he had gotten used to our exchange I abruptly switched to a full telekinetic attack to immobilize him. The suddenness of my switch took him by surprise and I managed to immobilize him.
He began to struggle against my hold, but my hold held, thanks to his exhaustion. I moved my sword toward his throat and I felt the struggle fade away.
It seemed like he accepted his defeat at the last moment. A moment later my sword rested at his throat and I only had to wait a second for the referee to declare me the winner.
All I knew the next moment was that I saw white and heard a buzzing. When my sight cleared/returned and the buzzing became faint I started to hear the referee declaring the battle over.
I looked at the referee and Niko, who did not look happy, so I assumed that I had won despite whatever he had done at the end, but the referee's next words delivered a swift death to that thought.
"I repeat, the battle ended in a tactical draw. Both fighters delivered a technically fatal blow to their opponent. Since this is a final battle and a winner has to be declared, I will convene with the other referees in the conference room and we will go over the final moment to discuss who shall be declared the winner and therefore the champion."
The crowd was murmuring and due to the number of people in the audience, they made quite some noise even though no one was shouting. I was a bit flabbergasted and looked at Niko who just shrugged.
"I released a desperate electric attack at your head after I stopped struggling against your hold, but most of the attack got stopped by someone else. At the same time, your sword was taken away from my throat as well" he explained, and I understood why the referee called it a technical draw.
I already had my sword at his throat and had to wait for the ruling, but his desperate attack would have probably fried my head. Yet, my twitching would have slashed open his throat and since I was pressing the sword against his throat, the cut would have been fatal as well, resulting in a mutual kill.
I gave Niko a thankful nod before we began to silently wait for the return of the referee and the verdict of our battle. It took more than 5 minutes for the referee to return, as the moment he was back in his position he shared the ruling they had come to.
"Both the electric attack of Niko, as well as the sword of Mikail would have delivered a fatal blow to their respective opponents. After going over the footage multiple times and having extensive discussions with my colleagues, we have decided that Mikail is the one that had the upper hand in that exchange, so he is considered the winner," he declared, but Niko did not stay silent.
"But would my attack not have been fatal first? Even if he would have slashed open my throat due to twitching or at the last moment in retaliation, he would still have been dead or down first," he argued, but the referee shook his head.
"While that is true, if not for him having to wait for a second for my ruling, Mikail should have been able to slash open your neck the moment it touched your throat. So, if this had been a battle to the death, he would have been able to kill you and teleport away before you had any chance to retaliate.
We have decided that he can be considered to have killed you the moment his sword touched your throat. The on-second wait rule is there for individuals capable of defending/protecting themselves with elements such as rock or ice. You don't have such capabilities, which was the decisive factor in our decision," the referee explained before he declared me the winner of the personal combat final and thus the champion.
The crowd began to cheer the moment homemade the declaration, and they began to shout my name. Some began to shout dual champion and I gave them all a wave, before turning to Niko.
"That was a great fight, and that last attack was unexpected. While I was ready to bolt at any moment, I assumed you had given up when you stopped struggling," I praised him and he shrugged with a smile.
"I simply decided to take you down with me if I could not win. It somewhat worked, even if you won in the end," he said and I had to agree with him that.
If I could go back, I would have simply slashed at his throat and let the staff stop the attack instead. That way he would have automatically afloat, and I would have been the undisputed winner.
Well, I have still been declared the champion in the end, but that was riskier than it had to be just because I did not act decisively enough after I had him immobilized. I heard the referee speak up and turned to him. The crowd quieted down as well.
"The award ceremony will be held in 30 minutes, so please vacate the field while the staff constructs the stage," he told us and we did as he said.
I made my way to my group, and mom pulled me into a tight hug the moment I made it there. She did not let me go even after a minute, excitedly congratulating as well as praising me instead. She only let go of me when dad told her to do so to give others a chance to congratulate me as well.
He was the first to do so by pulling me into a hug as well. After him, my friends took turns congratulating me as well, and Yu was the most enthusiastic among them. Not only did he hug me, but he also lifted me into the air and swung me around a bit.
The people besides our seats also shouted out their congratulations and I gave them a general thank you before our group began discussing the fight and my possible reward, now that I was officially the global dual champion. A lot of options were thrown around but a super precious material or Pokemon was the most prevalent opinion.
Around 5 minutes before the 30 minutes were up an announcement came, that asked all participants that made it to the Top 16 in any category to make their way to the field for the award ceremony, so I made my way down under the well-wishes of my group and the crowd around us.
Once I arrived backstage, I along with the other participants was informed about how the reward ceremony was going to go down. The staff only stopped after they were sure that everyone had understood their explanation.
We could hear the host starting the award ceremony and we also saw the front of the stage from a big screen they had set up for us and the staff backstage. Everyone quietened down and focused on the screen when the host gave the word to Ransei's Champion Hiro Shujinko for his speech.
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