Having unsheathed both the blades, Akuma stood, breathing deeply and waiting for Leo's signal to begin the match.
The opponents this time were a vampire and a jackal-headed beastman.
The vampire had a dull gray skin tone; with eyes sewn shut; wearing nothing but a long black cloak, with a white cotton shirt within, and a pair of black leather pants and black boots.
And ofcourse, a wide grin that revealed his two exceptionally long and sharp canines jutting from the top.
Just as the match began he tapped his cane on the ground, and within a blink of an eye moved a 100 metres forward, thereby avoiding Akuma's first slash of Yang.
'Among the things Yang represents, one was light, so this should be his weakness. Let's try again.'
And so came the second slash, and the third, each time the vampire dodged it by a tap of his cane. Just as he was preparing for the fourth slash, the beastman pounced upon Akuma with a silver axe in hand.
Axe met sword, and Akuma stumbled back. Sweat dripped down his brow as he blocked the next swipe of his axe with both his swords.
"In a bit of a pickle, are we?" The vampire said lazily as he walked towards Akuma. His eyes still sewn shut.
In the next moment, he clapped his hands together and the lower half of his body transformed into a horde of bats and flew straight at Akuma. With both his hands tied up in trying to defend against the beastman's attacks, he could do nothing but be scratched away by the bats. They kept away from the beastman, but dug their claws into Akuma's back and yanked away at his flesh.
Why did he have to be faced with an opponent with claws before he could buy a better armour? In hindsight, perhaps he should have said no to Ursa, left the Arena and should have bought the armour at the marketplace first.
Surely he would have been back before his own match. But being a shy otaku all his life, "No" was a thing he still had a hard time saying. And that combined with believing too much in the blades was his big mistake.
'Activate both skills. Now!'
The beastman was flung back, and two arcs of energy, one black, one white flew in the shape of X and cut through the axe, then went on without slowing down and engraved the beastman's body with a terrible wound which had smoke wafting out of it.
'Well, that should keep him down for a whi-'
The vampire stood infront of Akuma. A vicious grin on his face, "So that's all there is to it, aye? Do you have anything except those slashes?"
Alarmed, Akuma swept the Yang sword through the vampire, but his body simply dispersed into a small horde of bats and rejoined again.
"A pretty little thing you've got there. Hurts like a papercut," saying so, he snapped his fingers. A cloud of black smoke rose from the feet of the vampire, and soon both of them were enveloped in it.
It probably even spread out to the rest of the fighting area because no matter where Akuma went, the smoke was there. Soon it grew pitch-black and he could no longer see his own hands.
A chilling voice resounded through the smoke, "Ah, now I can see." It was the vampire. "This is why I dislike the morning matches. Plus they had to have the Arena be open to the sky and have no roof," he grumbled.
Akuma tried to recall all the possible ways one could fight an enemy they couldn't see from the shows he'd watched back on Earth. But he couldn't, and the environment was starting to grow colder.
Typically, the opponent would be standing right behind yo-
A hand fell upon his shoulder, "Have you ever had your blood drained by a vampire, little one?"
'Move!' He said to himself, but his body wouldn't listen, 'Move, you idiot!'
Fear gripped him like a vice, and death was perhaps only seconds away.
'No, no, it can't end this way. I can't die before return back home, dammit!'
And so Akuma bit his lip. Harder than he intended to. Blood trickled down from it and fell off his chin. He felt the energy in his limbs return and just then fangs bit into his neck.
Drowsiness hit him like a smack to the face.
'I won't...'
He gripped the Yang sword harder and willed it to give him strength. He begged it to provide him with the strength to protect himself from this foe. But nothing happened.
Instead, the Yin sword responded. It hummed in his hand, like the vibrations across a gong after it's hit. He could feel ribbons of energy from the sword enter his hand.
But he felt no new strength in him, and so, impatient, he pulled hard on the ribbons. The ribbons shot up from his hand and headed straight for his neck.
"Hmm... Wha..argh!"
The fangs of the vampire sunk in deep, and it seemed like he was stuck. For he tried to pull them out but couldn't.
Akuma could feel a strange energy entering his body. It began from the side of his neck and as slowly as a gentle wave it moved throughout his body, filling it with power. He felt the almost non-existent muscles in his body grow stronger.
< Congratulations! The User has learnt the skill 'Yin Absorption' >
< Yin Absorption: As long as a source of extreme Yin energy is touching the user's body, the user is able to absorb it into his body until he can no longer take it. >
< For learning a Beginner skill without the help of the System, the User is awarded a scroll >
< "Body Cultivation Techniques" received. >
'Damn, that sounds good.'
It was only when the pitch-black colour of the smoke began dimming when Akuma took notice of the weakened state of the vampire.
Because the fangs were still stuck on his neck he couldn't really turn and see it for himself, but he felt the vampire's hand on his back as he leaned on Akuma for support.
The vampire tried to speak, perhaps to ask to let him go, but he could barely move his jaw.
Not soon after his hands fell limp, the smoke cleared and the body fell down to the ground, having been sucked dry.
Akuma kicked at the vampire's face. No reaction. He was dead.
"We don't know what went on within the smoke, but do you see that ladies and gentlemen? The vampire's body is completely shrivelled! Just how?!"
The otaku walked out of the Arena as Leo continued to comment on the match and made wild theories on what might have happened within the smoke.
He was alive. The air felt sweeter now that he'd returned from being so close to death. He felt the side of his neck with two fingers and immediately flinched and pulled them back. The pain would probably take a while to subside and so he decided to head to the marketplace in case they scheduled a match for him tomorrow as well.
The people who would be participating in the day's matches received a notice on their door before breakfast, but they wouldn't know who their opponents would be, nor what number would be their match until they entered the Arena.
_____________
An hour later, Akuma arrived at the marketplace, and Ursa had offered to be his guide as it was her second time being chosen for the battle royale, and that being the case, she knew the marketplace very well.
"Why doesn't anyone protest being suddenly summoned to a kill-or-die contest?" Akuma asked.
The question had been on his mind since this morning.
"Ah, I completely left that part out while explaining everything didn't I?" Ursa said.
"It's no big deal," Lyra said, "basically, every species in the universe used to wage intergalactic wars that went on for centuries just to boost their own ego and prove which the strongest species is.
Ofcourse except for humans and Spirits. I don't know why they never attacked your galaxy, but the Spirits always took a neutral stance in wars, so no one messed with them. Also, only an idiot would invade their galaxy. Basically as long as you're within their galaxy, you can't escape the Spirit Lord's eyes. And the outside of the galaxy is covered with probably the most powerful magical formation there is.
Nothing and no one can enter without the Spirit Lord's permission."
Akuma looked at her wide-eyed.
"What?" she said indignantly.
"You've never talked for so long before," he replied.
She simply shrugged her shoulders to that and walked on and the other two followed behind.
"It usually takes her a while to get used to new people. But this is pretty fast for her. Perhaps what you did to the vampire impressed her," Ursa whispered in his ear.
Akuma hadn't told them how he killed the vampire, but apparently, it was an impressive sight to see a shrivelled vampire, to them, it may have looked as though Akuma had fed on its blood instead.
Which was probably true to some degree.
Speaking of the fight...
'System, open the reward.'
< Reward: Body Cultivation Techniques >
< Body Cultivation Techniques:
1. The Jade Body Technique
2. The Dragon Breath Technique
3. The Immortal Soul Technique >
< You may only choose one. >
'Show me the details on all three.'
< 1. The Jade Body Technique:
The practising of this technique slowly upgrades your body until nothing physical can harm it.
2. The Dragon Breath Technique:
With this technique, your agility slowly increases until it can rival that of a dragon. Also, you develop retractable wings that can help you temporarily fly.
3. The Immortal Soul Technique
A second chance at life. Use this technique to build a secondary body for yourself. When your real body dies, the soul will possess the secondary body instead of dispersing. >