Sometime later...
Almost everyone in the camp was seen gathered around a massive dusty arena, somewhat far from the camp... the arena was a massive circle of dried-up yellow land, but cleaned up better.
On the right side, the top three conference teams stood next to each other, but separated by their teams. Levi and his teammates were on the opposite side, waiting patiently for the start of the Gauntlet.
The rest of the camp staff were spread out across the arena, acting as a safety net in case anyone was harmed and needed to be rescued fast.
As for Dominic and Feng Ling? They were hovering in the sky above the arena... one was standing on his saber, and the other seemed to levitate using nothing; his hands were in his pockets.
"I always wanted to be a commentator like the Gamemasters." Dominic grinned as his rumbling voice thundered across the arena, "Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to have your hearts explode out of excitement?! Are you ready to witness the strongest of our youngest generation of Daywalkers fight it out in a series of battles that kno..."
"Enough, no one wants to hear your ear-piercing voice under the scolding heat."
Feng Ling silenced him by trapping his voice in an air bubble around his head. Then, he looked both ways and said indifferently, "Listen up, no artifacts and no totems allowed... don’t go for the kill, or you won’t have a pleasant time after... First Daywalkers step up."
Hearing this, Guo Feng clasped his hands together in the direction of the arena and then jumped a couple of meters in the air before landing with a loud thud, his fist smashing the ground into pieces.
"Guo Shi Shan... Imperial Sun Agency." He introduced, his tone as harsh as stone.
When Levi saw him, he merely smiled in the direction of Jasmine while signing with his hands.
-Show them why we are here.-
-Oki.-
Jasmine gave him an okay sign with a soft smile, resembling an undead queen smiling before going on a feeding session. The moment she stepped inside the arena, she summoned her brush and waited silently for the start of the fight.
Meanwhile, the others were somewhat intrigued by her weapon choice as this was the second time they had seen anyone using a brush as a weapon... the first time was also her when she first arrived at the camp.
Since Jasmine didn’t fight in the raid and the international missions she went along with her father were mostly related to rescue missions in regions in turmoil, none of them had any news about her way of fighting.
Still, Guo Shi didn’t show an ounce of worry... his eyes drifted behind her to Levi and the others as he thought, ’If I were to defeat them all, I would have enough coins to invest in another researching attempt for a remarkable evolutionary formula.’
Once he stood in the arena, he had no plans on getting off.
"Fight."
When Feng Ling’s voice resounded across the arena, Guo Shi’s ankle’s rocky brown bracelets started shimmering faintly. Then, he started walking in the direction of Jasmine, each step causing the dried-up ground to melt off into mud and encase his body.
The mud kept on rising from the ground, stacking up over and over again until his body was no longer to be seen... in its place, a giant five-meter muddy golem took the spotlight.
Then, the mud hardened with Guo Shi still inside... once the transformation was completed, Guo Shi’s face emerged from the golem’s chest and uttered, "This is the first and last warning I give to all of you... surrender or you won’t walk out of the arena without a broken limb."
Jasmine looked at him for a moment in confusion, then she turned to glance in Levi’s direction with her head slightly tilted... seemingly asking him what he said.
’He said he wants to break our legs.’ Levi snitched immediately.
-Oki...-
This time, Jasmine’s okay sign didn’t look as sweet... in fact, the soft smile she always had near her friends disappeared at once.
’He wants to break my friend’s limbs?’ She thought coldly.
’Don’t go overboard, Jas.’ N’ibby said depressively, ’Overuse of our powers will bring nothing but unwanted attention...’
’Don’t worry... I am just going to use what everyone already knows.’ Jasmine replied while drawing a wide circle around her with white ink.
Then, uttered in her mind, ’Midnight Calligraphy Art: Erasure Shield.’
A milky white liquid dome manifested around Jasmine, hiding her completely from anyone’s gaze... then, she erased the ground in front of her, making an empty scroll of it.
"You chose to ignore my warning... take responsibility for what happens next."
Seeing this sight, Guo Shi made his move and rushed in the direction of Jasmine’s Erasure Shield... his giant size and weight made his steps send seismic shocks everywhere.
Yet, Levi and his friends didn’t seem worried in the slightest... instead, when they saw him lift his leg and try to kick Jasmine’s white barrier, they couldn’t help but show sympathetic expressions.
Whoosh!
As the leg smashed against the barrier, its anticipated destruction was nowhere to be found... instead, the golem’s leg was erased out of existence, leaving it swinging into the air with its remaining thigh up in the air.
The erasure was so smooth, so natural... it was like an artist used an eraser tool to get rid of a bad drawing.
Guo Shi was left dazed, feeling like his golem’s leg was never there in the first place. Swiftly, he regained balance and pulled away from the shield... then, he rebuilt another leg and remained gazing at the white barrier in silence with the rest of the watchers.
Tyrese, Yanhuan, Evangeline, and the others left staring at this sight with a stunned expression...
"Am I tripping on the weed? Where did his leg go..."
Tyrese wondered while rubbing his bloodshot eyes... appearing as high as a kite. But when he saw everyone’s expressions, he knew that was not the case.
Meanwhile, Guo Shi didn’t give anyone the time to question what happened before he rushed back in, but this time, his golem’s arm turned into a gigantic hammer.
"Stonemountain Arts: Colossal Hammer!"
As he shouted out loud, the Golem was already swinging the hammer from above on the white barrier, appearing like he was trying to flatten her on the ground... Yet, Feng Ling and Dominic didn’t make a move, watching with a hint of interest buried in their eyes as the hammer went through the white dome yet again.
No loud noises, no spilled white ink, nothing... just a rocky hammer getting erased, leaving it armless.
"It can’t be..."
Guo Shi murmured in disbelief, this time forced to accept the reality before him. His melee attacks weren’t getting through the white dome... Still, he wasn’t out of options yet.
’Underground it is.’
He detached from the golem’s form and jumped, akin to a diver, straight to the ground, but instead of smacking his face, the ground turned muddy again, and he sank into it in no time.
"I don’t know what kind of mystical powers she is wielding, but Guo Shi has yet to show his true prowess..." Yanhuan uttered with a faint, confident smile, "His nightcrawler used to be a Tier 5 of the Gravemole Nightcrawler species... underground is his home."
As he was saying this, Guo Shi was currently piercing through the underground in the direction of Jasmine, while his body was covered in a skin-tight rocky armor.
Once he got under her, he brought his palms together and murmured inwardly, ’Underground Drill!’
A giant rocky drill was released from his palms, pushing through the ground while spinning rapidly until it pierced... nothing.
The drill was devoured by the erasure barrier, which didn’t encase just the surface of the ground, but also underneath it, creating an unbreakable sphere!
’What the hell is that shield made of...’
Guo Shi was left at his wits’ end in under three attacks, realizing that his arsenal of techniques and abilities might all share a similar outcome.
He was an Earthbender... an exclusive Elemental Specialist with a signature weapon that amplified his Earth-based elemental attacks... His weapon was the ankle stone bracelets, which were still shimmering faintly.
He always took pride in his earthbending abilities, but as he watched his attacks getting erased with no explanation, he couldn’t help but feel a tint of dread rise up within him.
In his mind, if this were a single defensive ability of Jasmine, how would her attacks be? As this question resounded in his mind, Jasmine was finally done painting on the scroll.
She signed it at the bottom and removed the Erasure Barrier at last... only Dominic, Feng Ling, Levi, and a few others with great observational skills saw what she had drawn on the ground.
’Shit... I might have gone overboard in charging her...’
Levi smiled wryly at the sight of three colossal inked warriors emerging from the underground in the painting.
Rumble! Rumble...
Mirroring the painting, the three gigantic inked warriors erupted from the ground with a loud rumble, shattering half of the arena into pieces, and hurling Guo Shi into the sky from wherever he was hiding.
As he flew in the air uncontrollably, his stunned eyes landed on the three warriors, each one standing ten meters tall, towering over the entire arena and anyone in it.
Tyrese and the rest of the watchers were also forced to fix their posture, their expressions turning solemn... it finally started to hit them, Levi’s team had a secret weapon in their pocket.
As for Jasmine? One of the warriors lifted her with a finger and placed her on top of its shoulder gently.
’Strike.’
With a single order, the three warriors lifted their giant weapons into the sky... one was holding a spear, another a sword with a shield, and the last a double-handed axe.
Then, they split the air as they brought them down in the direction of Guo Shi, who had just landed on the ground.
"Crap, Mountain Chain!"
Guo Shi somersaulted away while manifesting a giant tough granite mountainous chain in his trail; each flip resulted in a miniature mountain to emerge, until he seemed to have a separating wall between him and the upcoming attacks.
This was his ultimate ability, one of his proudest defensive abilities in his possession.
Everyone believed that the inked constructed weapons would never destroy a mountainous chain crafted out of tough granite, one of the hardest stones in the universe.
And they were right.
Snap.
With a single snap of a finger from Jasmine, the weapons turned instantly into liquid ink again, drowning the mountainous chain and the shocked Guo Shi behind it, who got caught in its wake before he could do anything!
The black ink tsunami rushed in the direction of Yanhuan, Tyrese, and the others... The captains swiftly stood in front with their weapons summoned and grim expressions, ready to stop it.
Yet, before they could do anything, Guo Shi was hurled next to their feet while the tsunami of ink retracted backward until it got attached to the warriors as hardened weapons again.
Cough! Cough!
As Guo Shi was coughing his lungs out while covered in black ink, making him resemble a coal miner, everyone else was focused on Jasmine, who was sitting on the inked warrior’s shoulder with her legs dangling below.
From there, she extended her arm in their direction and bent her fingers twice, making a familiar gesture; everyone knew what it meant.
-Next.-