Unexpected

"Tenth Battle"

"BattleToad versus Jumpy"

Hearing his name called, Kael rose up from his seat and walked to the centre of the arena quietly. His gaze was blank since his mind is still preoccupied with the information he absorbed half an hour ago. Especially the last move that the man executed. It was so damn cool! Moreover, the crimson-colored flame gives the impression of that skill being at least on the level of being capable of world destruction.

When he reaches his destination, Kael looks up and sees a big blurry figure in front of him.

Despite his opponent's fatness, Kael didn't dare to underestimate the man as he knows there are a lot of unique abilities within the world and perhaps, among them, there is a particular ability that can counter his own.

"The battle will begin in sixty seconds."

"If the player wants to surrender, shout "I yield" loudly to instantly stop the battle."

"Pain absorber set to 50%"

"The battle will last for five minutes."

"The countdown starts now!"

As soon as the number started to count down, he heard the fat man in front of him say, "I've watched your match."

"Oh? What do you think?" Kael responded with a faint smile.

"It was…" Kael watches as the man pointed his thumbs-up before gradually turning it 180 degrees, "Bad."

Kael raised his eyebrows in amusement and taunted back, "At least this bad man hadn't suffered an obesity."

Jumpy irritatedly barked, "My fatness originated from my parents' genetics!!"

Because Kael didn't want to waste another of his precious saliva, and also because he isn't good at cursing someone, so he chooses to remain silent after all action talks better than words!

Nevertheless, Jumpy carries on his attempt to disrupt Kael's mind by repeatedly insulting him. To answer those insults Jumpy threw to him, Kael simply plugs both his ears with his fingers. Instantly, he felt the surrounding turned quiet and was finally able to inhale a fresh breath.

As he observed the countdown reaching number three, Kael unplugged his ears and remarked helplessly, "You talk too much for a guy."

Although the entire time he couldn't hear what Jumpy saying. His eyes still catches the sight of his lips that persistently moving.

"And you talk too little for a guy, oh! I forget that you're just a cowardly little girl that couldn't even talk back."

Kael stayed at his resolve and didn't bother to retort his affront.

"Zero"

In truth, Kael wants to confront his adversary immediately, considering his corpulence which would certainly prevent him from moving rapidly. But, seeing his name, Kael wavered a little. Some people choose to write their nickname according to their abilities, such as Flame Emperor or Atomic Hand. In Kael's case, he didn't want his nickname to be slightly related to his ability, in case his opponents used that opportunity to figure out his ability and make an epic comeback from it. That's the main reason he picked the name "BattleToad" as his nickname. "Battle" could mean Warrior, whereas Toad might imply ShapeShifter or a frog-related ability.

As for his opponent's nickname "Jumpy", it could refer to an ability able to jump from one place to another, but, who knows?

Noticing that Kael looks like he doesn't have any plan to move any time soon, Jumpy simply smirked, "What? Are you scared?"

Despite knowing his action would go unnoticed, Kael couldn't help but roll his eyes at Jumpy's sneer. Furthermore, he still isn't accustomed to the fact that they shared the same voice. It's kind of weird hearing someone cursing at him using the same voice he just used to counter his insult back previously.

"Alright, don't blame this handsome gentleman for your loss, because I've given you a chance to win earlier!" After saying that, Jumpy straight away approaches Kael by running.

His stomach was jiggling up and down as he ran towards Kael.

Since Kael is still unsure about Jumpy's ability, he decided to just stay still, and wait for an opportunity to arrive at his doorstep.

When their distance narrowed to a mere 3 meters, Kael watched Jumpy stomping his foot strongly on the ground below, producing a loud bang that sounded like a bomb being dropped at the same time.

*Bang*

To Kael's horror, the ground beneath him shook and exploded into pieces like a volcanic eruption. The pieces turned into fatal weapons that snap upward toward Kael, like a barrage of arrows.

Regardless of the cautious he set up earlier, Kael still ended up being caught off guard and his balance was screwed up facing the shock wave and the barrage of rocks. While losing his balance, Kael also required to defend himself from the sharp pieces of rocks that were attacking him.

His legs automatically stretched to each side respectively to regain balance, and his hands are reflectively crossed over his chest, in order to protect his body from the sharp pieces of rock. It was pointless for him to use his fire ability on this occasion, knowing that its temperature was not enough to reduce those sharp spikes to dust in a flash.

However, Jumpy had no plan to let Kael catch his breath. As soon as he succeeded in launching his first attack, he stretched out his chubby hand and threw a slap to Kael's crossed arms.

Kael couldn't perceive or see anything ahead of him since his head was ducked behind his arms. Then, suddenly out of the blue, he felt something soft graze his arms. Kael was very surprised by this attack, but then, he sensed that something was wrong. It was naive of him to assume that the strike was a mere slap.

In a fraction of a second after that contact, Kael found out that his hands were trembling frantically. It was hard for him to maintain his crossed-arm posture. It's like a chain of bombs was repeatedly exploding within his arms, causing a tremor to swim inside-out his arms.

Then, as if one slap was not enough, Jumpy sends out continuous slaps on both of his arms.

"Pa"

"Pa"

"Pa"

Confronted by Jumpy's consecutive assault, Kael's stance was slowly weakening and not long after that, Kael no longer had the strength to maintain his posture and was forced to withdraw his stance.

"Gotcha" Jumpy grinned evilly.

Aware that Jumpy was about to strike a decisive blow to him to finish the match. Kael took a deep breath and tapped the ground below him with his feet while chanting in a low voice, "Ice Path."

Bluish white lights crept out from his feet and extended from one side to another, freezing the ground at a flash rate as they passed by.

The 1st skill of Ice Element, Ice Path.