38 Duel (1)

The Arena was a popular building in Helios. It was a way for acolytes to prove their superiority, to solve conflicts and to familiarize themselves with real-life combat without much risks of dying.

In case someone died, the consequences would be extremely severe, unless you were related to one of the twelve Magus either in a family relationship or in a master and disciple relationship, in which case the rules could be bent.

The two body refinement acolytes were facing each other, in the centre of the arena, feeling the pressure of the stakes. Furthermore, there were hundreds of spectators watching them with interest.

Some of them were sentinels who were curious about the newly promoted Sentinel Captain, others were acolytes with a lot of interest in the famous Body Refinement Franklin, since the latter had quite the reputation among rank 1 acolytes, while the rest was mostly visitors and merchants who came for the show.

Franklin and Drake might both walk the path of body refinement but they were very different. Franklin was a typical strongman, who spent years focusing on increasing his strength and constitution solely, taking toxins and potions which ultimately harmed his control over emotions. The results were visible to the naked eyes: Franklin was a giant mass of muscles, over two meters-tall and wielded a two-handed war hammer with ease despite the weapon weighing over forty kilograms, twice the usual weight.

On the other hand, Drake looked like a noble and elegant ancient knight depicted in the Great War. Wearing his enchanted heavy armour set, a sword in his right hand and a shield in his left, he exuded a terrifying pressure. His techniques seemed deep and his footwork unfathomable.

However, people were still betting on Franklin. Since both were body refinement acolytes, it was unknown as to who would emerge victor of the fight. Franklin obviously had more fame and many had witnessed his performance in the arena. He was quite the bully, it seemed.

Nevertheless, it wasn't as if Drake was a nobody anymore. He had been recruited by the Sentinels, something that hadn't happened over the past years, and he also returned to Helios with two magical beasts, a considerable harvest, considering that he was only accompanied by knights.

Feeling the terrifying tension of the two challengers, the crowd cheered in excitement.

The Arena Master was a middle-aged woman wearing gold robes. She was obviously a rank 3 acolyte, and before announcing the start of the fight, she made sure to remind both challengers of the rules: no killing, no cheating.

After seeing both Drake and Franklin nod, she struck the Gong.

As soon as the duel started, Franklin charged towards Drake.

It was a frightening charge and for a moment, Drake felt like he was being charged at by a bull.

However, Drake didn't think he would be losing in melee. Hence, Drake focused on dodging Franklin's wild swing, and rolled behind him, while slashing his sword on Franklin's unclothed torso. Unfortunately, he surprisingly missed Franklin moved sideways.

He was in awe with Franklin's powers. The war hammer he was wielding was by no means ordinary, as it created a two-meters crater on the ground after missing Drake.

[Beep! Estimated Damage of the War hammer strike: 16 degrees of damage]

It was a simple attack, yet it had dealt twice as much damage as Drake's basic sword moves, and Drake had reached the peak of advanced proficiency in his lunar elven sword art.

'I guess blocking these strikes are not an option', Drake muttered.

However, before he could think of an actual plan, Franklin charged at him once again, rotating his body and swinging his war hammer once again. Dodging as well as he could, Drake felt extremely pressured.

If he could just cast his Wind Bindings spell, he would gain the advantage. However, Franklin's unceasing attacks made it impossible to cast the spell which demanded 2 to 3 seconds to properly create a mental image of the spell matrix and thus cast the spell without suffering from a backlash. If he suddenly stopped dodging to cast the spell, then his head would become brain paste.

However, the same went for Franklin, who couldn't cast [Stone Skin] either.

At some point, Franklin's eighth swing landed, and although Drake managed to rise his shield at the moment, he was sent flying to other side of the arena.

[Beep! Three degrees of damage received! Left Arm is numb but still functionable.]

It was indeed a clean hit. However, before he could catch his breath, Franklin was already next to him, readying his weapon again to strike him. This time, however, Drake grinned. Over the minute of fighting with Franklin, Drake found countless openings in his fighting style. It was wild, and unrefined. It was certainly efficient and dangerous, since Franklin possessed more than 8 points of strength.

However, Drake's biochip could find many holes in his guard, making him vulnerable whenever he swung his war hammer. By doing so, he exposed his liver, and the liver was a vital organ to the human being.

Without any mercy, Drake thrust his sword in Franklin's liver with all 6.8 points of strength he had. It was a massive, bloodthirsty attack.

And yet, his sword didn't manage to pierce Franklin's skin. Only the sound of metal striking a giant boulder could be heard.

*CLANG*

What followed was Drake feeling the weight of Franklin's war hammer on his body, once again sent flying in the air.

"I cast [Stone Skin] before the fight, dumbass", he said in a mocking voice.

Drake felt completely frustrated.

It was unfair to cast a spell before the fight actually begins, especially a defensive spell like [Stone skin] which lasted for dozens of minutes! Furthermore, Drake felt like an elephant had crashed onto his body. This strike had hit him pretty good. If not for the enchanted heavy armour set, he would have most likely died.

Furthermore, with the armour Franklin was wearing, there was simply no way for his biochip to discover it. Drake sighed, and feeling the threat of being defeated rise, he felt like he had no choice but to reveal his first trump card: Arclight chop.

His sword suddenly shined in a blue light. It was a knight killing technique obviously, yet Franklin showed no fear. He once again swung his war hammer, but Drake nimbly took advantage of his 4 points of dexterity to move around Franklin and slash his back.

[Beep! Arclight Chop has landed! 16 points of damage have been absorbed by an unknown skin structure…2 physical damage hits the target; 3 degrees of internal damage pierce the target's defence and deregulates blood slow. Target is expected to feel nausea and a blurred vision for the next 6 seconds.]

Blood splashed and Franklin was forced to kneel out of surprise of the pain he was experiencing. It was the first time he felt so pressured against a rank 1 acolyte! Even magical beasts would not be able to pierce his defence, yet Drake managed to do it with ease!

Taking advantage of his weakened state, Drake began to cast Wind Bindings. It was a smart move because he could not hurt Franklin with regular attacks, and though his knight killing technique was efficient, it still had a 12-seconds-cooldown to stabilize his internal energy. Furthermore, if he truly wanted to win, he had to save as much internal energy as after a dozen seconds of rest he could, and each Arclight chop cost him 2 points of internal energy.

After a second, Franklin stood up and was shocked once again upon seeing Drake casting a spell. It was yet another shocking and demoralizing discovery! Since when did spells become so common?

'Didn't he join Helios three months ago?', Franklin thought with frustration.

As he was about to charge once again at Drake, shackles made of air suddenly enveloped his four limbs, sucking his energy and preventing him to move! Everyone in the arena gasped. They knew how rare and difficult to learn control-type spells were.

Furthermore, Drake's spell was powerful enough to restrain a strong body-refinement monster like Franklin without much difficulty! If they knew that the spell also dealt damage…they would probably go mad from jealousy.

It was quite shocking. Drake didn't really have the time to test his spells besides using it on Lewis, since the duel was forcefully advanced. However, the gap between Lewis and Franklin was like the gap between heaven and earth! Nevertheless, it's not like he could find magical beasts for his experiments.

[Beep! Wind Bindings have reached the target. Expected time of immobilization: 5.6 seconds left before the chains break considering target's 8.2 points of strength. 5 degrees of Damage nullified due to enemy's skin structure, 1 degree of damage dealt due to host's previous attack which breached his defence.]

Drake made an interesting discovery. It seemed like if he could pierce Franklin's body, then it would create a hole in his defences! With the biochip's help, the longer the fight went on, the more data he would have and the more efficient his attacks would be.

Engaging in a war of attrition with Drake was nothing short of a foolish decision.