"Are you scared? Are you scared?" Vince taunted further, his voice dripping with confidence. "My skill is called 'Berserk.' It enhances all my senses, and I will gain temporary increased in power as I keep on fighting until it reaches one realm higher. You're fighting a chosen with a D rank initial stage power, you know?" he added with a sly smile, but Sidius remained composed.
Vince's frustration became evident as his veins bulged with annoyance. He dashed swiftly towards the evading Sidius.
The berserker was fast, but Sidius matched his speed with the practiced 'Tam step,' which heightened his movement.
As Vince relentlessly attacked, Sidius expertly dodged each strike, gracefully evading his opponent's wild swings.
Soon, the berserker shouted with frustration, "ARE YOU GONNA KEEP RUNNING, COWARD!?" and charged towards Sidius once more.
The onlooking students burst into laughter, entertained by Vince's inability to provoke a reaction from Sidius.
Meanwhile, Sidius remained focused on observing Vince's movements. His mental power was gradually depleting as he calculated every move of his opponent.
He analyzed the direction of Vince's muscles and the rampant flow of mana around his body, allowing him to predict the berserker's actions with increasing precision.
The rate of his prediction and accuracy improved rapidly with every passing moment.
While Sidius kept his watchful eye on Vince, the berserker suddenly stopped. Sidius sensed the gathering mana in his hand and realized he was about to unleash a skill.
However, the mana kept increasing beyond what he expected. 'Sh*t, is it a wide area skill?' Sidius worried.
Vince, on the other hand, grinned and taunted, "The only solution to a running rat is to burn the house down!"
Wile shouting, he positioned his left arm forward with the great axe resting on his back, slightly lowering himself in preparation.
"Great Axe Stomp!"
It was then, when Vince slammed the axe forward into the ground, a powerful shockwave equivalent to a 5.0 magnitude earthquake rippled through the arena, covering a range of 20 meters.
Sidius, in motion, stumbled and suffered from the impact of Vince's devastating attack.
Meanwhile, Vince was already in hot pursuit, determined to seize the opportunity.
Faced with critical situation, Sidius's mind raced as he deduced all possible moves that could lead him to victory, depleting his mind power at an alarming rate.
Suddenly, a notification from the system interrupted his thoughts.
[Skill awakening!]
[Ding! You've learned the skill 'Unknown']
[Unkown- Boost your concentration in exchange of your mind power.]
[Please name your created skill.]
Upon seeing the notification, Sidius couldn't help but to smile. He had been calculating his opponent's every move since he awakened. He did not expect to create a skill from it.
'Alright, let's call this skill Absolute Concentration,' he thought as he immediately activated the skill.
In a matter of seconds, Sidius found a solution.
He channeled a 'Fire Missile' aimed directly at Vince.
"So you're a mage after all! But this spell is nothing," Vince grinned as he deflected the spell with his axe while running. "Weak spell!"
Seeing this, Sidius' lips formed a wide smile. Because the next second, a dagger hurtled towards Vince's face with astonishing speed.
With no option to defend against the hidden weapon, the berserker came to a halt to dodge the dagger. But to his surprise, another dagger pierced through his thigh with remarkable accuracy, causing him to wince in pain.
Within that moment, a voice resounded through the arena with authority.
"The winner is Sidius Ashcroft of Section C!"
The students who were witnessing the duel gasped. They did not expect that Sidius excels in using daggers. One might recall that he had previously failed when throwing a dagger in front of Michael Dylarz.
Regaining his composure, Vince pulled out the dagger lodged in his thigh while glaring at Sidius. "Kukh.. I didn't expect that you will resort to such underhanded method. Very well, then I'll do the same!" he declared before letting out a thunderous roar.
- AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
His voice resounded through the walls of the grand stadium, and his mana surged even more intensely than before.
"Hey hey, isn't the battle already over?" Sidius muttered, his brow furrowing in concern.
Amidst the big pressure and tension, a student suddenly exclaimed. "Is he going to breakthough?"
"Not going, he's already doing it," another student remarked.
"But... why is his breakthrough different from other chosen?"
"The mana around him seems... corrupted?" another student commented.
Fast to react, Sidius closed the distance and delivered a swift punch to Vince's abdomen, attempting to interrupt his breakthrough. However, Vince remained unaffected as his rampant mana absorbed the impact.
Sidius cleverly leaped away, creating space between them.
The alarms honked, and the grand stadium was bathed in a flickering red light. The students panicked and they scrambled for the exits.
"Hey! The duel is already over!" Sidius shouted but Vince seem to not heard his words as the berserker lunged towards Sidius at a rapid speed.
"F*ck," Sidius grimaced as he sprinted toward the exit. He had no intention of continuing the fight; he had already won.
But Vince refused to let him go, obstructing his path once again. Sidius narrowly evaded the berserker's attack by a hair's length.
"That was dangerous!"
'If I were still at F rank, that strike would've sent me to hell,' Sidius thought through gritted teeth. Determined to escape, he ran again with infused with mana, but Vince relentlessly followed him.
"Hey! Wake up, dude! You're treating this duel too seriously!" Sidius shouted, but Vince appeared to be in a trance.
Sidius continued to run in the opposite direction and he swiftly retrieved his daggers along the way.
As he approached the closed exit, he didn't bother opening it; instead, he used it as leverage to leap upwards and performed a backflip.
In mid-air, he hurled two of his daggers towards Vince's nape, aiming to render him unconscious. However, Vince's mana shield protected him, causing the dagger to only leave a cut.
Vince crashed through the entrance but he quickly regained his composure, seemingly unfazed by his injuries.
"Tch. Is it like my Outburst?" Sidius pondered as he ran again.
He activated his other awakened skill, 'Absolute Concentration', but the only solution he could find was to locate a shadow to camouflage himself and enhance his movement speed using the Tam step to escape. He needed to avoid direct combat.
Unfortunately, due to the intense stadium lighting, there were no shadows to be found.