Now, let's see how he deals with my Shadow Gauntlets. I rushed toward him and pushed my gauntlet toward Qin's face. He was already in the process of dodging.
However...
"Ghnn..."
I got a clean hit. Now's my chance!
There was the sound of, something similar to, steam escaping kettle as I repeatedly struck Qin with a relentless barrage. I hit him with a heavy hit to the gut and kicked his face, sending him flying back slightly.
Qin regained his balance and glared at me.
"Y-you can use Shadow Magic?!"
His voice sounded slightly muffled since, in that barrage, I hit his face the most times. It looked a bit contorted and twisted but not like Kuro's or that grey-haired guy's.
Shadow Gauntlet is a Shadow Magic spell that, of course, equips me with gauntlets made of shadows. It's a spell I made myself. With these mechanical gauntlets, if I pour more mana into them, the gauntlet parts move slightly and a sort of jet booster is activated, accelerating my punches. Whenever that happens, my gauntlets don't go back to normal for a while, which is why I call this mode, Zenith.
Well, there is a downside. Since my gauntlets are mechanical, despite being shadows, they need to cool down over a short period. The steam escaping from my gauntlets is its way of cooling down.
Anyway, while Shadow Gauntlet is active, I can only use one more additional Shadow Magic spell. May it be Shadow Whip or something else.
Instead of a spell like Shadow Whip, I do this.
I put out my gauntlets and the parts moved, revealing muzzles.
From them, shadow needles fired themselves at Qin. He dodged some of them but the others, due to their small size, hit him.
The boy was done on his knees.
My chance!
I ran toward him and, once again, prepped one of my gauntlets. Once I reached him, I shot my hand at him.
Or so, that was what I planned for, anyway.
Surprised, I stopped halfway. Qin didn't seem to get up. He was unconscious.
I thought that until his hand touched the centre of my chest.
A chill overcame me as he spoke his next words.
"Seal."
The feeling of mana running through my body suddenly stopped and my Shadow Gauntlets disappeared, as well as, the mana coating my body.
A smile appeared on Qin's face.
Seal?
Qin just... sealed my mana nexus?
"Oh, I'm surprised."
The boy got up and hit me directly in the face. It hurt. And I mean, it fucking hurt. Somehow, he sealed my mana nexus. If mana doesn't come out from the mana nexus, it can't travel through to the mana channels around my body. That's what we learned in Magic Theory.
"Most people faint when I seal their mana nexus."
Another hit.
It felt like a brick was smashing my face. My head began bleeding, nonstop. When I got the opportunity, I backed away and put some distance between us, though, my movements were slower than usual. Much more HUMAN than usual, if I must say. I felt like I went back to being the me I've lived as most of my life.
Maybe that's why I haven't fainted. Because my body is used to functioning without mana.
I tried to summon forth my mana but only a tinge came out. As I did so, my chest began burning, it felt like my nexus was being squeezed mercilessly.
"It's useless."
Qin said.
"I've sealed your nexus. For the next 10 minutes, you won't be able to use mana."
"10 minutes..."
If I don't do anything about it, then I'll lose.
"What did you do?"
The boy laughed a little.
"Since it's my win, I'll tell you."
Qin sure is acting cocky now that my nexus is sealed.
"It's the work of my Singularity."
Figures.
"The name of my Singularity is Autonomous Sealing. As long as I supply an adequate amount of mana, I can seal anything."
It reminds me of Yumeko's Lock Singularity but, with her, it didn't seem like she had to use a different amount of mana on different things. For her, she could lock anything for the same amount of mana each time.
"It was when I was 9 years old that I found out that sealing a mana nexus uses some mana but less than if I wanted to seal someone's windpipe. Since I locked your mana nexus, if you try and channel mana, it will hurt like absolute shit. If you try too hard to use a spell, then you may end up crippling yourself."
I really don't have a choice, do I?
I mean, now that I know it's a Singularity, I know that I can undo it, for sure, with Black Exodia. I'm not too worried about the audience. There's no way that they could understand what's going on. Even people who are good at sensing mana shouldn't be able to sense ours down here.
The only thing I'm worried about is the pain.
Just letting out a little bit of mana caused me tremendous pain. I'm lucky that Black Exodia needs only a little more than what I released to work but, I'll only be able to undo half of the Singularity meaning that I still will experience some pain.
I breathed in and out, glaring at Qin.
"Ready to give up?"
He taunted.
And so, I began screaming horrendously, in pain, as I pulled out as much mana as I could and poured it into Black Exodia.
It was fucking hell. No, hell didn't even begin to describe the pain that I was feeling. I could feel my heart pump as fast as it could and I could hear its beat in my head as my chest burned. I felt my nexus distinctly in my chest and Qin's Singularity effects were being erased by mine. I don't even think dying could compare to this pain.
And so, with more screaming and pain--it hurt so fucking much that I wanted to die, I'm surprised that I didn't become mental--I cancelled his Singularity.
"Given up yet?"
He asked, looking at me.
God.
My head is pounding, I'm drooling, my nexus feels like it's another heart and it's about to burst out of my chest. It feels torn and worn.
At least now, I can channel mana. Though, seems like Qin doesn't know that yet.
I slowly walked toward him. My body felt slightly weak and, if I wasn't careful, then I'd fall over at any moment and faint. If I want to faint, then it has to be after my win has been announced.
Stopping short of Qin, I stared him in the eye.
"What? Want a beatdow--"
Before he finished his sentence, I had already shot my fist, shrouded by a Shadow Gauntlet, into his face. The gauntlet boosted, adding more power, and blasting Qin into the ground.
I staggered slightly, still experiencing the residual pain from using Black Exodia.
[... Woah, w-well, wasn't that a way of knocking someone out?]
Ravi said.
Oh, shut the fuck up with your commentary and announce the results before I fucking faint.
I'm barely hanging on. God, my fucking head feels like it's been stabbed several times over.
['Shoya Sasaki wins the match via knockout. With a score of 3 to 2, excluding the tie, the Japanese Branch win the match!']
So fucking noisy. At least... now...
I can finally rest.