Volume 2 Episode 30

Lin was staring at the television screen, looking at his opponent that he was going to face today.

Daniel Kang.

He was Lin Hamill's opponent in the quarterfinals. 

Lin had done his research on him before. He also knew that he had completely crushed Luke when he fought him during the battle royale. Luke was also a level ten like Lin, and although Lin can be considered stronger than an average level ten user, he wasn't strong enough to beat Daniel in a head to head match, at least not directly.

'Guess I got to find another method to win this round.'

Lin had just advanced to level ten. He wasn't comfortable with his current level yet, but he had to make do. In a normal matchup like this, there is almost no possible way for Lin to win, especially against stronger and more calculative enemies.

He walked through the tunnel and reached the arena, where the match was supposed to be conducted. People started cheering loudly as they saw the contestants arrive. They were waiting for some action to satisfy them.

Lin looked at the roaring crowd, and moved his eyes to his opponent, Daniel Kang who was on the other side of the field and their gazes met.

Daniel smiled at Lin, however to Lin, that smile looked awfully sadistic for some reason.

They walked to the centre of the arena, where the referee once again started to shout the rules to both of them. When he finished telling about the rules, he looked at the participants for approval, and they both nodded.

Lin reached for a handshake, and Daniel received it, as he whispered to him slowly.

"I beat your cousin, and I'm going to beat you as well."

Lin, who was surprised at first at the sudden bluntness of Daniel, quickly regained his composure, and answered.

"No you won't."

Without listening to Daniel's reply, he then moved to his side, getting ready for the fight.

A wave of coldness enveloped the stage as Lin focused on his opponent.

Daniel's expression changed instantly, his smiling face transformed into a stern one.

Lin's icy stare seemed to pierce through his body, making him feel threatened. He felt pressured.

'This might be an interesting fight after all.'

Daniel had heard of Lin defeating the top student of the academy in the battle royale, but he believed that it was because of Christian being tired and drained, and Lin making use of that opportunity. 

'Looking back at it now, even if Christian had been extremely tired, he would still be able to realize an incoming attack of a level nine user.'

Daniel finally decided to take the match seriously, and focused his attention on his opponent.

As both of the participants got ready for the fight, the referee began the countdown.

Three.. 

Two..

One..

START!

As soon as the referee gave the green light, both players rushed forward, with Lin throwing out flame balls continuously at his opponent.

Daniel dashed towards Lin, evading the flame balls thrown in his direction and kicked at him.

Lin, who saw the incoming attack, moved fast, avoiding the kick and replied with a punch to Daniel's gut.

Daniel tried blocking the attack, but had underestimated how powerful Lin's body was, and was surprised when his defense was broken.

The punch connected with Daniel's body, and he was pushed back a few meters, while holding his stomach.

Lin wanted to make use of the opportunity and dashed towards Daniel once again, shootings out fire beams towards him.

Daniel, who quickly recovered, suddenly motioned his hands, causing the ground to shake heavily. A giant piece of the field rose out of the ground as if it was being pulled out, and shot towards Lin.

He tried evading, but as he was about to, the ground beneath him also started shaking, causing him to lose his balance. This resulted in him not being able to avoid the attack, and slammed him on the ground.

Daniel didn't wait for him to get back up and used his magic to control the land around Lin to hold him down.

Lin saw what was happening, and quickly made his flames explode from his hands, causing the earth to break into pieces. He quickly got up and moved towards Daniel once again. He fired flame balls once again towards his direction, and Daniel once again avoided them.

Daniel was about to use his magic when the flame balls he avoided suddenly turned directions back to him once again, hitting him on his back. Daniel who was caught off guard by this attack had no way of resisting it, and the attack had pushed him towards Lin, who grabbed his face and slammed it on the ground.

Right before his head hit the terrain, the land warped around them, and caught Daniel right before his head smashed on the ground. But Lin quickly used his fire explosion once again, this time while grabbing Daniel's face. Daniel, who figured out what was going on, forced the earth to cover his body, protecting everything except his face from the explosion.

As the flame exploded, both Lin and Daniel had been knocked back.

Daniel, who had burnt his face, got really angry, causing the whole field to warp and morph.

'Dammit, is the ground not safe anymore?'

Lin quickly pointed his hands to the ground, and shot his fire beams down, sending him flying upwards. He used the beams once again to balance himself in the air, before finally being stable.

He was in fact, flying.

'This is using up a lot of energy.'

Lin, who despite being in the air and above Daniel couldn't help but consider going back down. The process of staying in the air was arduous, and he was burning through his energy at an extremely fast pace. Plus, the stadium is also closed at the top, so he can't exactly fly really high either.

Daniel looked at the sky where Lin was, and pulled out the earth from beneath his feet, forcing them to break into tiny blocks, and launched them all into the air.

Lin, who couldn't move his arms due to the continuous beams he was shooting out, was faced with countless blocks of dirt moving at an extremely terrifying speed. 

'Well, i guess I have no choice but to go down.'

Lin stopped shooting beams, causing him to fall down towards the blocks of dirt, but before they could hit him, Lin quickly formed a large fireball around him, enveloping him within, and destroying the dirt blocks that hit the falling fireball.

The giant fireball was rapidly approaching Daniel who was down on the ground. He quickly motioned his hand and formed an earth barrier in front of him to block the incoming attack from the sky.

The fireball hit the barrier and exploded, causing dirt and smoke to fill the whole area. Lin, who had gotten out of the fireball, jumped towards the broken barrier.

'Here we go, I hope this works.'

Despite being a lower level opponent, Lin still had a trump card: the flame sword. 

He had used the flame sword before while fighting Christian, but that was because he masked the tusk of the doran and used it as a host.

He couldn't use anything in this match however, to substitute as a host object. It was strictly forbidden to use any weapons from the outside, and the arena was a simple grass field which had nothing noteworthy to be of use. 

Lin had thought about it long and hard before. He wanted to know if there was a way if he could utilise the flame sword without having the need to carry a host object. And after searching for a long time, he had finally found an answer to it.

As he stood on top of the broken earth barrier, he swung his hand upwards, and flames burst out from it. The flames took shape around his hands, eventually forming the shape of a sword.

Lin knew that his body was very different from normal human beings. He was a hybrid, an evolved human with a body as strong as steel. Which is why he had the idea of using his own hands as a host for the flame sword. 

He knew that previous users might have already tried this out before and failed, which is why nobody uses it. But Lin wasn't a normal user. His body was stronger. And he knew that, coupled with his insane healing ability, he could most likely implement the move.

As he swung his hands downwards, it broke through the barrier, finding a surprising Daniel underneath it. Lin didn't waste his time, and swung his hands once again before the distracted Daniel could snap out of his shock.

The attack had connected, causing a large explosion and leaving the crowd speechless.

Who had won? Was it Daniel? Or was it Lin?

The dust settled, and as the spectators looked towards the arena, they saw Lin Hamill, standing victorious with Daniel Kang lying unconscious at his feet.

The crowd was silent for a moment before exploding in a loud commotion.