Chapter – 156 - End of the Glockial Conquest

It took a few moments for the Arrayists of the organizing team to bring the Illusory Screen back online. Not because it was damaged, but because there was no light inside the arena to clearly portray what was happening.

They could not possibly arrange for any lighting system inside the arena, as that would hamper with the attack techniques of the Challengers. Thus they had to depend on the dim light emanating from the Purple Flame stream to enhance the image on the Illusory Screen.

The images were still quite dark, and the Challengers and their attacks were barely visible to the spectators. Moreover, the extreme speed of their attacks often caused confusion. Still....something was better than nothing!

Rihanna had increased all her sensory perceptions of sight and sound to focus on the arena. She could see the dark blue metal-feathers flying around the space, colliding with the flame-balls spinning around. Multiple small and big explosions further distorted the visuals, as a reddish-purple glow spread out around the area of explosions. This glow stayed for a long while, taking time to slowly dissipate and merge into the darkness all around.

Though unable to see, the first Challenger could sense the direction from which danger was approaching. She increased her speed and intensity of attack. The feathers spun around in the air, then shot out towards the second Challenger. The Challenger kept dodging, simultaneously trying to merge his aura with the darkness all around them. For a long while, the metal-feathers kept changing directions, continuously chasing the second Challenger without a single break in its momentum.

That is....until the feathers all stopped suddenly in mid-air.

The second Challenger had vanished....or rather, his aura had completely disappeared. The first Challenger paused for a moment, trying to sense the aura of the second Challenger, but he seemed to have completely disappeared from the arena.

Sensing the threat of this sudden movement of her opponent, the first Challenger changed her tactics. The wings behind her back started expanding rapidly, this time spreading out in two wide arcs. The arcs joined at the front and back of the woman, and then started rapidly compressing back.

All the feathers of the lower level of the wing jammed themselves inside the ground, while the pointed tips of the wings closed in over her head.

Within moments, the woman disappeared inside a huge shell made of metal-feathers. The feathers on the outside slowly moved upwards and outwards, then spun around in their position to face the outside. Rihanna felt like the Challenger was inside a shell-like tank, with the rest of the feathers acting as the long-range weapons on the outside of the tank.

The outer feather slowly started curving, then shot out in the air like boomerangs. Hundreds of metal-boomerangs were now flying around, slicing the air and everything which touched it. The speed was so high, that even the purple-flame balls could not cause them much damage.

"The feather-boomerangs are all moving towards the top of the boundary!...Is she trying to break open the light-absorbing array?"

"Probably. This sudden movement of the second Challenger is actually scary. Not being able to trace the other's aura and not able to see him either....it definitely puts a lot of pressure on the opponent."

The metal-boomerangs had indeed moved to the top of the barrier array. They targeted a single point at the top of the array, and then one after the other they kept hitting the same point again and again. Each feather would hit, then spin outwards like a boomerang, and another feather would take its place.

And the first feather would spin around in the space and return back to hit the same spot again. The continuous attack on the same spot was necessarily trying to break down the power of the barrier at one point and then causing it to crack and disintegrate.

For a short while this series of constant attacks on that single point continued.....till all of a sudden the feathers all paused in the air, unmoving.

And then, all the feathers fell down on the ground.

The spectators were all very surprised, and stared at the arena with wide open eyes. As Rihanna observed, even the first Challenger seemed shocked. For a while there was silence. Then the shell cracked from the front, and the first Challenger peeked out, trying to sense what was happening. Rihanna could see the deep frown etched on the Challenger's face. It seemed like she had lost control of her feather, and she couldn't understand why!

Rihanna glanced around the arena, trying to sense out the second Challenger. After a while of thorough scrutiny, she finally stopped on a thin wisp of dark gray line, barely visible in the black background.

Perhaps it was her enhanced sight, but she could still make out the difference in the shades of the thin line and the surrounding darkness. As she watched closely, the line slowly moved, further proving her idea.

This thin wisp of line was actually the edges of the clothes on the second Challenger. Though he had absorbed all the light reflecting on his clothes, still, the purple flame gave off a dim light, and that reflected on his clothes in a different shade.

"Ah!...I know!"

This loud exclamation came from the back, and all three turned with startled faces. Uncle Yaoi saw their shocked faces and smiled awkwardly. He didn't want to scare them. He was just overawed by the use of this overpowering technique.....especially since he had not thought someone in Sprouting Stage could possibly have such deep comprehension of Space.

By now Rihanna and the two boys had gotten over their shock, and stared at Uncle Yaoi with burning gazes. In fact, their shining eyes made Yaoi far more embarrassed than their shocked faces!

"Ummm....it's a Space-Time-Lock. If I am not wrong, then the second Challenger is also a Space cultivator, and has the comprehension of a Space-Time-Lock. And he must have increased the gravity inside his locked area, causing all the feathers to fall on the floor. And due to the increased gravity, the metal-user is unable to control her feathers."

"But all the feathers inside the arena have fallen down. I doubt a cultivator in the Sprouting stage could be this strong to lock down the entire arena! It not only needs a humongous amount of spiritual power, but also a large amount of mental power! Even someone in Sea-of-Consciousness level might not be able to control such a large space at once."

"But I have read that it is possible to increase the effect of a Space-Time-Lock with a set of inscriptions. Though it not effective for long, but it gives a short time benefit to the user."

"Are you saying he is trying to go for the fatal blow? But isn't he staking too much in one attack? We still do not know what is the hidden move of the Metal Challenger! She might have something more effective, which could completely turn the game!"

"This is the final fight. Even if he loses, he still has a lot to gain. Of course he is going to stake it all out on this last fight."

"Hmmm....true. He is already one of the Gavarnum's anyways."

Trapped inside this large space-lock, the girl was also facing difficulties. Though her power was at par with the opponent, and thus she could somehow force herself to move, her movements were rather stiff and slow, requiring a large amount of strength and spirit power.

She only took a look at the fallen feathers outside, then closed the narrow crack on the shell as quickly as she could. No one could guess what she had noticed in the arena, and what she was going to do next.

But just as almost everyone could predict, the purple-fire of the stream suddenly surged, then flowed out of the stream, and onto the metal ground. Everywhere it touched, the metal dissolved with high-pitched sizzling sounds. And the fire kept crawling closer and closer to the large metal-wing shell, inside which the first Challenger was hiding.

The second Challenger was still alert. He too knew that the girl had yet to show her hidden move. Moreover, he wouldn't be able to maintain this space-lock for much longer. So he needed to destroy as much of the metal elements and the metal wing he could within the given time.

As Rihanna had enhanced her vision, and she was watching the fight with complete focus, she felt she saw a greyish energy stream flow out of the shell. However, it disappeared before she could be certain, making her wonder if she had seen wrong.

While the second Challenger was concentrating on the large metal shell slowly melting under the extreme heat of the purple-flame, suddenly a dark form materialized behind him. He sensed it instantly, and even tried to move away. But he was too late.

The woman had finally used her hidden card. She had used both Teleportation and Aura-Invisibility. Thus the second Challenger had failed in sensing her movements as she used up a lot of her powers and instantly teleported from inside the shell.

When she had glanced outside, she had traced out the faint wisp-like shadow, and knew the position of the opponent. So she used her powers to teleport right behind the man, while hiding her aura completely.

It was only when she attacked, that she had to let go of her aura-invisibility technique, and the man was able to sense her out. However, she was prepared. More than a hundred metal needles shot out from her metal armor. These needles were as fine as hair, and instantly sank inside his body, blocking every acupuncture point, rending him completely immobile.

Since the second Challenger was now immobile, he lost control of the space-lock, and the space within the arena soon returned to normal. Fearing that the man might use mental power to control the purple-flame, the woman directly blocked his senses, making his unconscious.

However, she was unable to break the light-absorption array even after the man had fainted. It took her a long time and a large amount of energy, after which she finally managed to create a crack on the array lining. And then the light from the outside slowly poured in, burning the rest of the array lining.

After almost a month, the Glockial Conquest finally came to an end.

The Female Challenger from Ye was now the Gavarnum of Policies. And the male Challenger from Kshugenu was the Gavarnum of Trade. Rihanna breathed in heavily. Now they needed to stay for another two days, after which the Coronation of the Gavarnum would take place. And then.....they would head for Falanderie City.