Just like that the tournament was down to four combatants. One had decided to drop out due to a very grave injury, two were rendered unconscious by Purple Coat himself and the other had experienced undeniable defeat at the hands of his disciple. Float was gearing up to be just as fascinating and terrifying as her mentor, based on the conversation that had taken place between her and Fade there were definitely many more revelations left to come.
Both Float and Purple Coat were capable of very refined mana manipulation and mana sensing. It was nigh impossible to catch either of the two off guard with any sneak attacks and they both knew about the presence of their opponents hidden Permaclones. The revelations in this tournament so far were beyond fascinating, throughout the entire tournament Purple Coat had only fought using refined mana manipulation and what Tamashi assumed to be a beast bond ability which presumably amplified his speed.
There had been no usage of his innate ability as far as Tamashi could tell and he had only used his permaclone twice, both times against Genie. Earlier before deciding to take out two of the remaining contestants the reclusive mage had mentioned the fact that Stream and Death Web were holding back but the fact of the matter was they were all holding back. Especially Purple Coat.
Tamashi knew his daughter could go faster and amplify her attacks to be much faster and more deadly as well among other things. While Stream had been limiting herself to using her diamond sword and lava based attacks in unison with mana reinforcement to amplify her speed, as well as sensory abilities to achieve feats which were akin to precognition.
However her opponent was probably doing the same passively, based on how smoothly he countered their attacks without much reaction. Even though Tamashi hadn't witnessed a similar display from the young man's apprentice yet, he surmised that she was capable of doing the same to some degree at the very least, based on her earlier statement during her face off with Fade. Well that was her clone to be precise, was it capable of utilizing everything which it's master could? He couldn't wait to witness the remainder of the contestants going all out, especially with their permaclones in tow.
Purple Coat had finished up his business with Splinter, absorbed the mana used to create the cage back into his body and made his way back to where Stream and Death Web had been waiting. The former had her Permaclone now summoned out into the open, which Float was scrutinizing with barely contained curiosity. Death Web's Permaclone was also summoned and had momentarily deactivated it's invisibility, then returned to it's previous state. Purple Coat turned his head in the general direction of both in turn, likely for the sake of the others, to show his acknowledgement of the sentient beings.
Coming to a halt in the vicinity of his opponents he addressed them: "Stream, Death Web i believe you've met my apprentice Float, I trust there's no need for any further introductions." Death Web looked him directly in the face and replied in a matter of fact manner: "No, there is no need... but as it relates to that innate ability of yours, i believe an introduction is in order." He chuckled in response to her statement, then simply replied: "I don't think that will be strictly necessary, i have other abilities with destructiveness akin to that of your previous attacks." His voice then grew intense and sinister: "My innate ability is strictly reserved, for demons."
Tamashi felt an involuntary chill run down his spine at the utterance of that statement. Purple Coat brought a hand before his lower abdomen, lowered his head and breathed: "Ladies, shall we?"
The time for the exchange of words and pleasantries was over, in the seconds that followed the Permaclones of each mage immediately raced towards their marks. It was Permaclone vs Permaclone. A spider web shaped hole immediately appeared on the arena floor to the left of Purple Coat's Permaclone that had dodged to the side mere seconds earlier. Some distance away from them, a whirlpool like projectile composed of volcanic ash was spiralling towards Floats Permaclone, as Stream's counterpart morphed into lava and dashed towards it.
The humans meanwhile were also facing off against each other, Float was being pursued by Stream who was now wielding red hot lava which swirled around her like the belt around Saturn. Meanwhile, Purple Coat and Death Web were exchanging blows with such speed and force that there were shockwaves rippling outwards from the point of impact. It was to such a degree that even space seemed to be getting distorted. They were beginning to move with such speed that anyone lacking refined levels of mana manipulation would have been unable to follow.
She intended to push him to use his innate ability but the mysterious mage was not having it. "Show me that innate ability of yours, you pompous ass. You think you'll be able to overpower me or make me forfeit this match while holding back, huh?" She yelled at him absolutely furious. "Okay, have it your way then. We'll see how long you can keep this up once i kick it up a notch or two."
There was a gigantic build up of mana unleashed in the vicinity of their duel as she prepared to launch a devastating attack. In the next few seconds a massive amount of mana was dispelled from her body in all directions, this mana then coalesced forming a spherical spider web like structure around Purple Coat. This structure was tightly woven together, leaving no space large enough for anything larger than an insect to pass through. As it started rapidly enclosing on him, Markus hissed: "That damned lunatic daughter of yours!" Which made Tamashi chuckle.
Markus seemed really tense, despite not being on the receiving end of that attack. Meanwhile, Purple Coat himself simply floated there seeming to almost welcome the incoming attack. He seemed to relax as he outstretched both of his arms, his body forming a t, as Tamashi watched every part of the young man's body from his neck downward started peeling of like individual strips of tape. There was one massive surge and an impact which reverberated throughout the entire arena as the rapidly enclosing sphere was blown apart.
Immediately afterwards the thin white strips were swiftly drawn back towards Purple Coat and reattached themselves to his body. He then slowly descended to stand facing towards Death Web, not a shred of wariness or caution apparent in his demeanour: "You were saying?"
He had limited the radius to which his counter attack could spread, stopping it before it could reach the other two contestants as well as their Permaclones. Tamashi was pleasantly surprised, Purple Coat had a layer of protection like a second skin like many mages chose to but he could use it as an offensive attack as well. Not only that but the truly surprising part of what he had just witnessed, was that this attack was powerful enough to trump his daughters attack which was similar in nature.
If Tamashi's assumption was correct, it was composed of spider silk just like his daughters most recent attack. This meant that he had at least two different beast bonds, Tamashi was certain of this. Seeing as earlier he had told Death Web that he wouldn't use his innate ability, if he wasn't lying and the amplified speed he had been using the entire time was indeed a beast bond related ability like he surmised, then the young mage was bonded to some type of spider and at least one other beast capable of very impressive speed.
The only major underlying difference in their attacks was that Death Web's spider silk was reinforced with mana in the moment before it was launched, while Purple Coat's was most likely reinforced with mana continuously whether he was in or out of battle. As a matter of fact once he put some more thought into it, this process could be done by Purple Coat himself or his Permaclone. This young man was an absolute genius. It was an attack which never dissipated wasting your mana in the process but returned to you and could be reinforced indefinitely.
In hindsight an attack of that nature had the potential to overpower any and every type of attack, the only circumstances where it wouldn't work was if it came up against an ability which was innately more powerful, regardless of mana usage or had the ability to bypass durability altogether.
Luckily, Death Web's arsenal consisted of a few attacks which could do just that. The only major factor was the daunting task of getting them to land on the intended target. Seeing as Purple Coat had such refined mana manipulation that he could sense attacks coming, which gave him time to enact pre-emptive measures the moment his opponent started gathering mana. This gave him an advantage which was akin to precognition. So despite the possible speeds which Death Web's attacks could reach, it was going to be difficult to best him.
As they stood facing each other the tension in the air almost palpable, both got into an offensive stance. Despite their stance, Tamashi knew they were not going to fist fight.