Hydra

Lin was in a dilemma. He couldn't think of any way to counter Jack's attack. "The best I can do now is evade. The skill is too fast to counter and too dangerous to block head-on. I need to be careful."

"Speaking of dangerous, I haven't really put the corrosive attribute of my abilities to use because of the damage they do to the surroundings, but now is the time to make them run wild once more."

Lin's power erupted, and his flames and lightning became darker. He threw several flame orbs at Jack, who cut through with ease. Lin smirked behind his mask, as that was his intention all along. As the flames latched onto the scythe and began to spread around it. The flames that touched the ground also flared up and began spreading. 

Jack retreated and used his abilities to ward off the flames from his scythe. "That was dangerous. Were his flames always like that? No, they were just normal flames moments ago. So, he was deliberately limiting the corrosiveness of his flames. It doesn't matter, provided I don't come into contact with it."

Jack swung his scythe, sending several light blades at Lin, however, within the mix, he sent in a mysterious shadow blade. Not knowing what Jack might be up to, Lin decided avoiding the skill altogether would be safer. Instead of rushing in and blasting through like he usually did, Lin flew away from the range of the skill. 

As Lin moved, he felt his back tingle and quickly dodged. The mysterious shadow blade struck the ground, cleanly cleaving it. "That was close. I should find a way to end this with that lightning skill." Lin dashed for Jack, who kept attacking without a pause. Using the first form of phantasmal flow dance, ghost, he manoeuvred between the light blades to reach Jack. 

The closer he got, the more intense the light blades became. Once he was close enough, he blasted through the attack with his flames, but a shadow blade cut through his attack. He dodged in the nick of time. He would have lost his arm otherwise. 

"Another close call." Lin gritted his teeth and kept pushing forward. His quick movements were now slow. His stamina was running out, and he was sweating beads. Jack was no different. Continuously attacking in that manner was draining his strength considerably. He was nearing his limit as well. 

"The match might end in a draw, but once you use that skill, the result will flip in my favour. I will win." Jack grinned and kept pushing Lin. "Use it, use it, use it", he screamed in his mind, eagerly waiting for Lin to exhaust his strength with a large-scale attack. Realising they were both nearing their limits, Lin hoped for an opportunity to deliver the final blow. "Just a little delay in his attack is all I need", Lin thought.

Just like Lin had expected, Jack's attack slowed down a bit and, at that moment, Lin suddenly appeared behind Jack and grabbed him in a choke, coiling his feet around him like a snake. "With the way you were attacking, I knew you were up to something, so instead of my usual finisher, it's not bad to use my body as the vessel, right?" 

"Crap! I blundered", Jack realised, but it was too late to do anything about it. Lightning exploded out of Lin like a broken dam, delivering to Jack the shock of his life. He screamed so loudly anyone around could go deaf if they heard him. Lin let go of him after he collapsed. Lightning still stuck to him like a leech, stinging him continuously. 

The flames on the ground were spreading wildly, and so was the lightning. Lin snapped, and the flames and lightning ceased. Lin laid down unmoving. With his strength exhausted, even breathing was a difficult thing for him. 

"Looks like I won" a voice sounded from behind Lin. Jack walked up to him and squatted near him. Lin rolled his eyes to look at the Jack lying down by him. He went up in a puff of smoke. "A shadow entity? He has reached a mastery where he can create clones of himself using his shadows?" Lin was shocked by that revelation. 

"I gotta say, I was lucky this time round. You read and figured out what I was up to, but your mistake was not considering the possibilities of what I could do. Ugh! I'm f@#$%^g exhausted." Jack said and put a small bead into Lin's pocket. This patch should help us communicate from wherever you are. I have things to do, so I would take my leave first." Jack stood up and walked away. 

"If I hadn't slipped into his shadow at that moment and left that shadow clone there, I would have been toast right now. The thought of being struck by that amount of lightning gives me chills." Jack shivered and disappeared from the battleground. 

Lin lay there rolling his eyes in confusion. "I really lost to that jerk? This is embarrassing. He really pulled a shadow movement on me, huh? Next time, Jack, I will definitely win." Lin vowed as he was transported out of the battleground. 

The audience was in absolute shock from what they had seen. Never had they witnessed anyone slip away in a situation such as that. The precision required to be able to create a clone while slipping through a shadow simultaneously spoke volumes about how skilled Lightning Inferno Sovereign's opponent was. They had no choice but to swallow the bitter pill, however, some grumbled about the result, but there was nothing they could do about it. It was a fair fight. 

The other matches ended quite quickly with a few notable performances. Druark came in third place in the Ace section while Lava Demon came in first place in the Hector section, as his opponent never showed up for the finals. The princess of the Azeria family came in fifteenth place in the same hector section. 

The ranking bout had finally come to a close and the rewards were to be presented to the deserved after two days. Though it was over, the buzz around it remained for the rest of the day. It was the most talked about thing across Terasphere and even on the nucleus. 

With the appearance of new and promising rankers from the ranking bout, many factions were seriously recruiting new members for themselves. Among such factions was one known for their notoriety. A faction that stood against the very concept of ruling the territories. 

They believe the ruling of the territories should not be designated to families but for everyone to have a fair chance of ruling by being chosen by the people after meeting certain requirements to stand for elections. 

They called themselves Hydra. Like the mythological beast, they have been a pain in the sides of Piora for a long time. No matter how many times Piora set out to eradicate them, they kept sprouting up stronger with larger numbers. Now, they have the strength to rival the families ruling the territories, and because of the casualties that would be caused on both sides should Piora take them on, Piora had no choice but to let them be while keeping them in check. 

They recruited anyone who shared their ideology and trained them to join their ranks. Hydra has five ranks, of which the commoners were known as Xenoder. Xenoders are new recruits who are in training and those who have just completed their training. They were required to perform certain tasks to increase their ranks in Hydra. One such task was recruiting new members while collecting information. Hence lots of Xenoders of Hydra were very active after the ranking bout.