'Shit, he's too fast', Lysa thought as she saw Leo leaping over dagger to dagger and closing down the gap between the two.
[ WIND CUTTER ]
Using a wind cutter she tried to force him to change direction, however, Leo acrobatically dodged the move by leaping over the attack as he spun extremely fast while in the air.
*SHUA*
*SHUA*
Sending two daggers towards her while in mid-air, Leo reversed the roles of the attacker and the attacked, as it was Lysa now who was forced to go on the defensive.
[ Protection Barrier ]
Using a protection barrier, Lysa blocked the two daggers coming her way, however, because of the urgent need to defend, she lost sight of Leo for a moment.
"Fuck, where is he?" She wondered as by the time she refocused on the battlefield in front of her, Leo was nowhere to be found.
Panicking, she looked behind her and just as she feared, somehow Leo had reached behind her and had jumped close to 7 meters off the ground as the moment Lysa turned, she was met with a tight punch to her jaw.
*BAM*
-20.
[ System Notification - Your opponent has been dazed and will be immobilized for 2 seconds ]
Instantly losing control over her levitation spell, Lysa fell to the ground below as her mouth began bleeding because of the punch she had just received.
*Crash*
Crashing onto the icy stage, Lysa laid down flat on the ice as she tried to regain her muscle control after the shocking impact she had just received.
"Ahahaha, that's my boy….. the blind side punch. That's my move-" Ben said cheerfully, looking on from the crowd as he was a very proud master at this moment.
*CHEERS*
The crowd, showing their barbaric nature on full display, cheered wildly for Leo to have punched a lady hard in her face as his supporters went wild with celebrations.
"Did you see that? Did you see that? Oh my god, he put the bitch back in her place-"
"DarkSky guild?, more like DarkJoke, The Boss pockets them all"
"Once you get close enough to a mage, it's game over. Well done Boss for closing down the gap on this icy terrain-"
"What was that vertical leap? Who the hell jumps that high?"
The crowd was impressed by Leo's performance as they excitedly talked amongst each other, while Leo stood patiently on one leg on top of one of his dagger supports as he waited for Lysa to get back to her feet.
Struggling to find grip on the icy terrain, Lysa struggled to get back to her feet as she had to rely on one of Leo's implanted daggers for support to get back to her feet.
The speed at which this battle progressed dumbfounded Lysa as she had not expected to be facing such a scenario.
Yesterday, ever since she got to know about the terrain she had made plans about how to fight Leo, however, from the moment the referee signaled the start of the fight, nothing seemed to be going her way.
As she got back up, she found The Boss staring down on her with eyes devoid of any emotion as just like the start of the fight, those eyes seemed to deny her very existence.
While she was fighting tooth and nail to beat him, her opponent did not even seem to view her as a serious opponent which made Lysa feel unreasonably angry.
"Who the hell are you to look down on me? I'm not some charity case, I'm a damn talented mage-" Lysa snapped, as she conjured her strongest spell and tried blasting Leo with it.
1….2….3…..4….
Leo patiently waited for her to complete her chant and gather enough mana to use her best move, as he simply observed it all indifferently without trying to stop her.
"Let's see you take this-" Lysa said, completing her best spell as she launched a powerful Fire Spell towards Leo.
[ Amber Tide ]
Launching a wall of fire that looked like an ocean wave, Lysa tried taking down Leo who observed the attack coming towards him and shook his head in disappointment.
"What a brainless idiot-" Leo said in disappointment as he simply evaded the attack coming towards him by jumping over it and landed right behind Lysa by planting a new dagger at his desired landing spot.
"This field is ice covered by oil…. The same oil that is flammable, the same oil that you have all over your clothes from falling down and trying to get up-" Leo said as only then did Lysa notice that while Leo dodged the attack easily, the fire spell she cast was igniting the oil on the surface and spreading extremely quickly.
[ Levitation ]
Trying to cast levitation, Lysa tried to escape the fate of being cooked alive, however, she found herself out of necessary mana to cast the spell.
The previous attack had depleted her mana reserves significantly and she no longer had the necessary mana to cast a levitation spell which required a lot of mana to maintain.
'Shit-' she thought as she saw the flames approaching her, the hear from the flames already making her extremely uncomfortable.
"KYAAA-" She screamed in panic as she closed her eyes and tried to move away, however, failing to get any grip on the slippery surface she simply fell into Leo's arms.
"Alright, we'll do it princess style" Leo said as he carried Lysa in his arms and jump over the sea of fire using the planted daggers as jumping points as he carried Lysa right to the edge of the arena.
"You… Why are you saving my life?" Lysa asked emotionally, as in her head she thought this was her moment with her unlikely prince charming, as for a moment she forgot that they were still in an ongoing fight.
"Save you? Girl wake up, I'm dumping you-" Leo said as he dumped Lysa over the edge to knock her out of bounds.
*THUD*
Falling flat on her back outside the arena, Lysa immediately felt winded as her dreams of a charming prince were shattered.
"The Boss you asshole-" she cursed, clutching her back as Leo landed right beside her and raised his hand in victory, as the flames engulfed every inch of the arena.
"THE WINNER OF THIS MATCH…..
DEFEATING THE MAGE FROM THE ROYAL ACADEMY.
THE TOP SEED OF THE OPEN ROUND…..THE BOSS-" The match official announced as Leo was greeted by mad cheers from the crowd.
"Boss! Boss! Boss!"
"He is too cool! Too cool!"
"So domineering, not only with words but with actions! He actually saved his opponent mid-fight, but dumped her still like he did not care.
The perfect hero!"
"The gap was too wide for the mage to even stand a chance, however, she completely lost it when she used the fire attack, even elementary school students understand that fire and oil don't mix"
"What a wild fight….what a great finish"
"HAHAHA, I BET 10 GOLD COINS ON THE BOSS WINNING, I'M RICH, I'M RICH"
The crowd had mostly positive reactions to Leo's win as he raised his hand and acknowledged their cheers.
Even after winning, he did not check for his opponent's reaction, as from start to finish his attitude towards her remained consistent.
He did not ignore her to be rude or conceited, he ignored her because she could truly not enter his eyes.
Although she felt humiliated by this defeat, she also understood the gap between him and his opponent.
If the match conditions were not as favorable to her as they had been, she would have probably lost even faster in a traditional duel, as at least this way the fight went on for over a minute and a half.
"Good win…. You were the better fighter today" Lysa murmured to herself, not expecting Leo to pick up on it, but he did.
Turning towards her, he nodded his head as he said "Good fight, you definitely have the talent to become a great mage.
It seems like all the fighters from the DarkSky guild are formidable"
Lysa was shocked to hear these words and so was the crowd.
They did not expect Leo to offer any words of solace to his fallen opponent, but he did.
Despite his perception, Leo wasn't a bully and did not like kicking people when they were down.
His attitude as The Boss was a carefully crafted persona so that his real identity would not be revealed. However, he wasn't arrogant at heart.
Hence, once the fight was over and he no longer needed to put up a front, Leo let some of his real kindness project outwards as he comforted his fallen opponent.
"Thank you, I'll definitely be stronger the next time we meet" Lysa said as Leo showed her a thumbs up sign.
"I'll look forward to it then…" he said, before walking off as he collected his winning money and the token to advance on to the round of 128.
**************
"Good win-" Ben said to Leo after the fight as Leo grinned under his mask.
"Good strategy-" Leo said back as Ben grinned widely now.
It was Ben who had came up with the strategy to plant daggers as footholds on the ice field and Leo had executed his plan to perfection.
"Hahahaha, you're a crowd favorite! Just like your master was back in the day" Ben said with pride as he wrapped his hand around Leo's shoulder and began talking about how things used to be back in his day.