Lawrence and the clone charged forward as the clone led the charge with a gray glow appearing in his black spear. The clone will be in charge of the defense and will mainly use reflect and absorb to remove any attacks that Zeke might throw while Lawrence will use the dagger of misery which increases the pain dealt by an injury to neutralize Zeke and force him to surrender.
On the other hand, Zeke waved both swords in an alternating pattern as a lighting wave and snow wave crashed toward the clone. To everyone's surprise, the clone used reflect as both of the attacks returned to Zeke. This created a perfect opportunity as Lawrence chucks the dagger toward Zeke's leg only for it to get parried to the side. Zeke seems to be unaffected by the reflected attacks.
Lawrence noticed a floating blue spiritual hand that is almost transparent behind Zeke that appears to be holding a flaming blade. Lawrence finally found out what Zeke's body art is. It's the elemental sword body art, a body art capable of using magical swords that usually consumes mana and uses it to its full potential.
This means that as long as the weapon is in his hands, he can continuously use the spells inside it as long as it's elemental-based. This also includes creating spiritual arms that can wield elemental swords to be used. Elemental swords or magical swords are swords used by magicians and dwarfs for battle. It either contains mana-encrypted spells inside swords so the magician can use it with a simple mana control or rune inscribed inside a weapon that can do multiple things from exploding upon hitting or freezing the enemy.
It's barely used by magicians since wands are more mana efficient and don't require great strength and swordsmanship to properly use. Though, this doesn't stop some magicians that wanted to fight like a warrior, just more destructive and reckless compared to their peers.
The clone decided to use absorb instead as he raised his arms up as he used the spell light weapons as spears made of light floated atop of his head before pointing at Zeke who saw the light weapons flying towards him at a speed that gave him a few seconds to barely react to it. It didn't carry any weight so it isn't that dangerous to parry and block as a smirk appeared on Zeke's face. Raising three of the weapons in the air, he slams them to the floor as three elemental waves darted forward before combining into a single violet wave that is chaotic in nature. If it hit anything, the explosion resulting from it will kill even a low 4-star warrior.
Combining elements isn't recommended for those that don't have great control over the four elements since it will result in the creation of the chaos element that is currently the most volatile and destructive element out of all. A mage can't control it and it will always likely create an explosion that will kill the caster. This is why the spectators and the VIPs started to get concerned about the wave of chaos elements charging toward the clone. The guardian who is supposed to stop the match merely looked at the arena calmly as if they didn't have anything to do with it.
Meanwhile, the third prince can't help but show a maniacal smile from the spectacle in front of him. If Lawrence dies in an 'accident' during the match, it would be simply because of the guardian's miscalculation and has nothing to do with him. Behind the scenes, he went to the lanky sword saint to convince him that killing Lawrence would be beneficial. Even though he promised him a high-grade protection artifact, it would be still worth it. Added by the fact that he already bribed the guardians and gave Zeke an artifact that would protect him from an attack that would usually kill him. Lawrence's death would be guaranteed unless the elf representative stopped the match but by looking at her. She remained uncaring and detached.
Zeke is assured that he won once the wave crashes towards the clone or Lawrence. Only to realize that the other Lawrence is nowhere to be found. He turned around but it was too late, he was already floating a couple of inches from the floor before a fist barreled straight to his stomach. A splatter of blood gushes out of his mouth as Lawrence stared at him coldly before Zeke flew toward the chaos wave that he created. The lanky sword saint immediately appears before grabbing Zeke by the back and slashing the chaos wave as it vanishes into nothingness.
The sword saint looked down on his son to find out that Zeke's ribs has broken into shards and had punctured almost all of the organs in his body which resulted in heavy internal bleeding. The sword saint throws an intense glare at Lawrence but someone appeared in front of him. It was Duke Leonard with a stone-cold expression.
"What are you doing Kanae? It's your son that endangered this alchemist yet you have the nerve to use your sword gaze?" Leonard releases his aura as the wind around the coliseum started to rage as the clothes and banners swing violently and in the middle, a faint tornado is manifesting around his body.
"Shut your mouth! That alchemist of yours nearly killed my son! He could've just knocked out my son! Now, his ribs have shattered and the majority of his organs were punctured. I swear if my son dies. You will never see the sunrise!." Kanae glared at Leonard for protecting the one who nearly killed his son.
If his son hits the chaos wave, his body would be ripped into pieces. The crown princess walked down the coliseum in hopes to calm down both of the sword saints. She already feels like this problem would result in a headache as the best she can do is appease both of them. Though almost nothing can appease a sword saint that nearly lost his son. The medical team hurriedly arrived and brought some sort of stretcher to let Zeke lay down. As they already started healing his chest and casting blessing spells to hasten his recovery for first aid. It seems that a presence of a high priest is needed to heal Zeke but it's the best they can. One of the heads of the medical team approached the crown princess to tell her that Zeke would need to drop out of the tournament or else it might result in him, losing the ability to cultivate forever.
The crown princess convinced both of the sword saints to discuss this in a private room since it might sour the atmosphere of the tournament and lower their reputation while hiding from the eyes of the representatives.
The third prince merely shrugged as sometimes, even his plans would fail. Though his next wouldn't but for now. He can allow Lawrence to participate in this tournament since he has already done what was possible to get him killed. Still, it was astonishing what Lawrence can do but it's a shame that he stole something from his empire. No one gets away from his palm once he has chosen a target.
On the stage, Lawrence stands straight and is waiting for the announcement as the announcer panics momentarily before proceeding with the result of the match.
"What a mind-blowing fight! Zeke has shown us something that might never be seen before but Lawrence won without even an injury. Dear spectators, don't turn your head away from the next match as it will be as exciting as this one. Winning the challenge, Lawrence remained in the number one spot. Will, he remained on his throne, or will it be taken?" the announcer smiled as some of the spectators cheered while some remained apathetic or openly curses Lawrence as the majority put their bet on Zeke winning.
Lawrence walked down the stage to find Cain smiling at him, a smile that can only mean one thing. That Cain can't wait to fight him. As a fighter junkie like Catalinna, Cain liked challenging strong enemies but unlike Catalinna who tends to charge in and throw fire everywhere. His fight consists of proper planning and quick decisive attacks to end the match in a single attack. The only way a battle lasts a long time is if the enemy is stronger than Cain which he grows significantly faster every minute that passes during the battle.
Though Lawrence doesn't know if Cain has his plot armor now that this novel has become the reality because when Cain is enraged, the system would pump his stats sky high until he overwhelmed his enemy. The only way he can find out is if he can anger Cain to the point that his system would aid him is only through battle and a show of arrogance. Seeing how the guardians didn't act despite the dangerous and deadly situation Lawrence was in. He can only put it in the back of his mind and ignore Cain's stare.
After that match between Zeke and Lawrence, the people sitting in the wooden chair were more hesitant to challenge the strength of those sitting in the golden chair just based on what Lawrence was able to do. The final attack from Zeke's was enough to disintegrate them into ashes yet Lawrence walked out of it, completely safe and without a sign of fatigue on his face.
Still, the announcer waited for any volunteer and surprisingly, someone raised their hands up. It was Luke who previously surrendered for a lame and unconvincing excuse. The announcer can't help but get excited about this.
"Mr. Lenard, who are you challenging? Remember, if you win. You will temporarily sit in the golden chair." the announcer smiled as Luke pointed at Jagnar who was a barbarian that has the ability to use illusions. Jagnar turned around and gave Luke a devious smile before heading up to the stage with a large double-sided axe in his back. Luke simply shrugged and unsheathed the Carnwennan before walking up to the stage with a relaxed posture and demeanor.
"You're the fool who got scared by that beast. Though you picked the wrong enemy to pick. Since i'm a beast as well!" Jagnar shouted loudly to intimidate Luke but it only fell on deaf ears. Luke just remained smiling with a carefree expression on his face. He can only use his relic since the wolf fang's dagger may catch the interest of the beast representative. Since it was someone his father worked with before, the head of the jaguar beast tribe. The most loyal tribe to the emperor beast chimera. Though he wonders if the man still recognizes him, it was better to be more careful.
"Seeing that both fighters are ready. I wouldn't waste much time. Fight!" the announcer shouted as he immediately dashes away from the stage. Jagnar winds his weapon until it bends his back before throwing it toward Luke. The axe that is barreling forward with extreme force and speed took only a second to reach Luke. Still, Luke didn't move as the axe vanishes into a cloud of smoke as he jumped before a large axe sweeps below his feet.
Jagnar was surprised that his illusion didn't work but he raises his axe high up in the air before slamming it down and creating ten illusions of axes as it inched closer and closer to Luke who merely move forward. The illusions vanished and the real axe missed Luke by a couple of inches. Jagnar decided to throw away his strategy of using illusion since it didn't work for Luke. He was about to swing to the side to hit Luke by the stomach but he saw another copy of Luke jumping to the side with a dagger in his hand. In a swift motion, the dagger punctured Jagnar in the throat as he immediately jumped back with his hand pressing the wound. He felt that he was safe as he saw Luke standing there smiling at him, though it still pisses him off. He was about to use the lion's roar but he felt a burning sensation in his back. He touched his back to find blood covering his hands followed by a cold tone.
"Surrender or else I'll plunge this dagger straight into your heart." Luke whispered as Jagnar can only drop his weapon and raise both of his hands. It was a common gesture of surrender as the guardian immediately separated both of them as the Luke or illusion standing far away vanished in thin air.
What Luke did was simple enough that took advantage of his enemy's ignorance and reliance on his eyes. When Jagnar throws the axe, Luke briefly opened his eye, and upon knowing that it was an illusion and Jagnar was already charging to his side. His illusion created a smoke which he used to create a clone to take his place as he lay on the floor to avoid getting caught by Jagnar. What followed next was simple, the clone jumped and walked forward to avoid his strikes and the real Luke jumped from his cover before stabbing Jagnar by the neck. If it was a real fight, he would've used mirage to stab Jagnar in all of his vital places around the neck and his temple but he only stabbed him in the lower neck where fewer veins are exposed to avoid killing him.
He thought it was enough but Jagnar was more tenacious than he perceived. So he simply used teleporting strike to appear behind him and stab him from the back and in the direction of his heart. A couple of pushes and Jagnar's heart would be pierced.
"Wow….Amazing! Who would've thought that the participant who surrendered had these impressive skills! He's like an assassin that you can never know where he'll be until it's too late. A terrifying thought to say the less! Mr. Lenard, you might now sit at Jagnar's previous chair. Though, it still depends on tomorrow if you can remain seated upon a golden throne. Oh! It seems that a couple of our participants have an eye on you." the announcer gave a cheerful smile as Luke returned his gesture with a smile and a thumbs up before sitting in the empty golden chair. Both Lazarus and Azure gazed at him like he was prey as Luke remained smiling under their gaze.
A couple of VIPs were interested in Luke but Jagnar only lost because he has no idea what Luke was capable of. Except for Luke's impressive perception against the illusions and the teleportation that he did. Nothing else was that eye-catching, to say the least. Added by his cowardice, the abbot can't help but gaze at him with disgust. Still, it didn't matter what they thought of Luke as long as he doesn't catch the interest of that damned beast sitting there overlooking everything.