"My hero, taking most of the attention away from me. That's not the type of attention i desire. Hey, did you know that's what he's always like? He takes on most of the demons just like he's taking on most of you guys all the time." Fade turned facing Float, the girl who was Purple Coat's apprentice and ocassional hunting partner. He started wondering what she was like seeing as she had a monstrous master like him, what would she be capable of?
"Really, he takes on multiple demons all the time?" She continued to watch his fight with the others not even seeming to be the slightest bit cautious: "Sure does, you're lucky you got company over there or you would have been the first man down instead." He didn't doubt her claim one bit, especially since Fade himself didn't have a strategy to deal with the battle fiend yet. Purple Coat was currently going toe to toe with and holding his own against 4 opponents with various abilities at the same time.
Speed wasn't getting the better of him and neither was an invisible attack, his best attack was invisible and poisonous and he could become intangible as well. However the mages who were currently fighting him covered his abilities while even having more lethality to boot, yet Purple Coat didn't even seem to be having serious issues handling any of them.
As he was contemplating what his chances were if he were to defeat some of the other contestants, a small black bubble appeared infront of him and popped smearing his shirt. "So what do you say, since everyone else is so caught up with my dear old mentor why don't you come show a girl a good time huh?"
He had learned his lesson, she might use bubbles and have a seemingly playful and carefree personality but this was the Elite Force tournament afterall. So this time around he wouldn't get right up in her face as fast and recklessly as he had done when interacting with her mentor. She might be just as dangerous. Fade looked at her similarly translucent mask and finally gave her a reply: "Okay be my guest."
He immediately made himself intangible as a precautionary measure, just in case her first attack came and was not as harmless as the black bubble she had used earlier was. She let out a very cheerful giggle and paused before attacking him: "hey what's that for? Men are normally very physical and like to get handsy." Fade formed a look of surprise beneath his mask. Something wasn't right here, how did she know that he's intangible without attacking him in some way? She shouldn't be able to tell what ability he was using by sensing the mana fluctuation alone. Just then she pointd towards his chest: "look down dummy, you didn't think i sent that bubble toward you earlier for no reason did you?" She inquired sincerely.
When he looked down where the palm sized bubble had burst earlier, there were now several tiny bubbles floating inside his currently intangible body. This girl was devious, she had tricked him into thinking the harmless bubble had no purpose. "I saw what you pulled with my mentor you know, so invisibility, the ability to become intangible and what else?"
She had obviously realized he was probably capable of more than just invisibility or had done that move to counter his invisibility if he attempted to use it against her, how troublesome. An opponent with superb battle IQ was just as dangerous as an opponent with average intelligence and a deadly ability.
"Oh, so that little ruse of yours was to facilitate your investigation into my abilities huh?" Fade replied while moving backwards to get the bubbles out of his body. "Yep, be careful around me, i have tricks up my sleeves too." That was obvious. As he was coming to a halt Fade noticed a rather large round shadow appear around his body on the arena floor, he immediately made himself intangible in anticipation.
Not even a second later, there was a loud pop and the floor was covered in lava and he was overwhelmed by a scorching heat, then his nose was stung with the scent of burning concrete.
"Hey that's not fair you know, you don't intend to carry on like this letting a girls warm personality go to waste do you?"
'Warm personality, warm personality she says. This girl is down right sinister.' He thought, then dashed away before she did something even crazier. 'Lava bubbles, what other substances can she use to make bubbles?' She had tricks up her sleeve indeed. "Warm personality my ass, he retorted. Alright lets get serious then."
Earlier before attacking Purple Coat Fade had setup a trap for the famous mage, his permaclone was already in a secluded area of the arena away from all the contestants waiting for his cue. Fade's attack was meant to distract Purple Coat while his permaclone came in with a sneak attack, simultaneously restraining and poisoning him with it's deadly venom. The kingdoms top healers could heal that up real quick afterall, besides everyone had heard the rumors of how powerful Purple Coat was.
However once the reclusive mage had siphoned mana directly out of his body, as well as all of the mana being used to reinforce his body outside to the point where his ability was temporarily deactivated, Fade had immediately terminated his initial plan of attack and let his permaclone stay back.
Now however, he instructed it to get closer with it's mana still constrained to the point that it's presence was almost completely undetectable. Activating invisibility and deactivating the previous ability he fished some throwing stars out of his clothes, then applied blue ringed octopus poison to them and started bombarding his opponent with attacks.
Despite the fact that his projectiles were invisible the mana fluctuations he gave off at the moment he released them gave away the possible approach of an incoming attack. Float was dodging his attacks nimbly and the few that did land passed through her harmlessly, the point of impact morphing into countless tiny bubbles before reforming again. Something was off even if she avoided most of the throwing stars some still connected, those that did should poison and immediately cause some kind of allergic reaction but there was none.
Something was off. 'Must be one of those tricks she has up her sleeve which she was referring to, unless she's immune to poison somehow.' No matter, all this time he had been slowly guiding her towards his permaclone. Once she got close enough to be unable to escape both of them, all he needed was one well placed attack and this fight would be over.
Just then one of his throwing stars hit her but this time there was no shifting mini bubbles. 'Score, he thought. That should slow her down.' Instead there was a sizzling sound as the throwing star fell to the ground melting. Where the throwing star had made impact there was a closing hole, her entire body was now a mass of floating bright orange lava bubbles.
"So you think i don't know you're attempting to pull off that same plan you intended to use on mr famous over there huh?" Fade froze in place like a prey trying to camouflage itself from a deadly predator: 'She knew, all along she had known?' He felt a chill run down his spine. This girl and her mentor were something else, sure he could sense inanimate objects and most living beings when he focused a little but she could track his permaclone while distracted in battle.
"I can see that you're surprised, i accept your compliment but i knew about your permaclone before you even used it against my mentor." Fade was stumped by this revelation, she had sensed his permaclone from all the way at the edge of the arena. From before any fighting had taken place, the sheer calculation and cunning she and her master must have.
He turned his head slightly in Purple Coat's direction. 'I had no chance of sneak attacking him did i?' He quickly turned back to face his current opponent. "Yeah your plan was never gonna work on him, he's better than i am at mana sensing and manipulation. Much, much better."
She glanced behind her looking directly where his permaclone was and several bubbles which seemed to be made up of different substances appeared around it, then there was a huge explosion. She then turned back towards him her head coming around like that of an owl, bent over in a fit of maniacal laughter, pointed towards him and said: "What kind of permaclone shape is that, has someone been secretly watching tentacle hentai?" Before fade could retort she suddenly straightened, got serious and said: "Don't breathe!"