" Protect yourselves at all times
Respect the rules of the tournament at all times and listen to my command at all times.
The Match ends if a student dies/ surrenders or becomes incapable of continuing.
The use of all potions is prohibited.
You can shake hands now if you wish to "
The referee read over the rules as Max extended his rubber latex glove covered hand towards Elyon to shake.
Elyon was reluctant but he gave back the handshake much to the joy of the crowd.
" Do you know why I wear these gloves, senior Elyon? " Max asked in an innocent voice
" Why? " Elyon asked curiously
" Because I hate touching ugly men like you ". Max replied with his red eyes shining as Elyon visibly fumed over the comment
" Why you- ".
Elyon wanted to punch Max right in his mask at the moment, however the referee stopped him and said " Fighters take your positions ".
Max began hopping to his spot, as he infuriated Elyon even more with his tactics as the latter shouted " YOU ARE TOAST RAVAN, YOU WILL BURN TO DEATH TODAY "
The audience erupted in a big ' OOOO ' over this threat but Max only innocently replied " Good luck with that ".
Elyon clenched his fists in anger, as he could not understand what the other party's problem was at all. This was an honourable fight between two fighters, why did he have to sully it with such a dirty tongue?
Elyon was angry and he wanted to make Max pay for it as soon as the fight started.
The moment Max reached his spot and turned to face Elyon, the referee signalled the start of the fight as immediately from the get-go Elyon blasted a Twin Headed Flamethrower towards Max.
Max dodged the attack easily as he rolled through sideways, standing up unharmed as he dusted his robes off.
The audience erupted upon seeing such a big move being used straight from the opening bell, however only the wise understood that Max had successfully taunted the enemy into wasting a chunk of his mana pool.
" Nicely done ... " Rudra said with a smile as he watched the battle with interest now.
Max unsheathed the Bloodsucker sword and charged towards Elyon, but just as Grandpa Drax warned, he was only a tad bit faster than his opponent who managed to maintain the gap as he began running parallelly away from Max.
" Bind "
" Bind "
" Bind "
Elyon spammed bind spells every five seconds as he tried to capture Max into his trapping spell, however, Max managed to evade the attack successfully.
" Sword Intent, Wind Slash ''.
Max coated his sword with his special skill ' sword intent ' as the blade began shining with a thin layer of aura that boosted its attacks, before slashing out with a Wind Slash towards the opponent.
" Wind Wall "
Elyon, forced to defend, had to stop in his tracks as he erected a windwall to stop Max's attack.
The momentary pause allowed Max to close in on Elyon as he pretended to launch a wind-slash once more.
" Wind Wall ". Elyon tried to protect himself, as in premeditation of Max's strike he erected a wind wall once again.
Max smiled, as he did not attack, but instead counted to 4 seconds in his head before jumping as high as possible while clutching his sword with both hands.
" Overhead Slash "
The duration of Wind Wall was only 5 seconds and Max perfectly timed his strike in a way that the moment the protection of the barrier ended he came crashing down on his enemy with an overhead slash.
*Crash!*
Max's sword hit the ground hard as it seemingly missed its target.
Looking around quickly, Max saw Elyon teleported 20 metres away as his opponent had apparently used a short range teleport spell, either via his own ability or with the help of an artefact.
Max took a deep breath, and faced him once more as Grandpa Drax alarmed him in his head ' He is trying a mental manipulation spell.
The level is too weak and you are immune, but the spell he is using intends on making you see three opponents instead of one '.
The primordial vampire race had an racial advantage of being hard to manipulate mentally as Max had gained a basic mental manipulation protection when he became one.
While he was not affected, Max understood that this was an opportunity for him, as he pretended to be affected as he said " What the hell, why are there three of him now? ".
Elyon smiled, thinking his spell was a success as he began charging towards Max off his own volition.
Max turned slightly right off where Elyon was charging, pretending to face his clone which wasn't there as Elyon stopped only 5 metres away from Max and used the twin headed flamethrower once again.
' Go, NOW'.
Max jumped with all his might at the perfect instance, taking Elyon by surprise as the twin headed flamethrower missed its mark and Max turned perfectly midair to land an overhead slash towards Elyon.
-3070 Critical Hit!
The overhead slash connected perfectly as Max chopped off nearly 50% off his enemies HP.
" How? ". Elyon was shocked as he quickly recovered by using a wind wall to block Max's follow up attack as he activated his artefact to teleport him away once more.
The crowd erupted in cheers over Max's move as Elyon bled profusely from his head. The 50% HP shaved off, rocking his confidence as he became more cautious.
From the spectator stands, Rudra smiled stroking his chin as he witnessed the match progress as he lowkey felt proud of his brother's scheming.
Although he could point a hundred mistakes in his fight up to now, his overall score for Max's tactics was a solid 6/10 while execution of those tactics was at an even better 8/10.
His brother was showing actual talent in his fight against a stronger opponent, he had improved from his fight on earth a few months back, and for Rudra watching him progress like this was extremely satisfying.
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/// A/N - bonus chapter for hitting the PS target, good job everyone!
We have also hit the 100 chapter milestone before the novel became even 2 months old.
So I guess celebrations are in order!
Cheers to many more chapters to come ///