Chapter 380 - Final duel (Patreon)

We stay a bit longer and the entire time I keep my eye on Tacita and the knife she is hiding behind her back.

She is like a wounded animal, growling, and showing teeth, but knowing she is getting help and not biting because of that. It's interesting to see her expression as Lily fully heals her, Tacita is now most likely in a better state than even before the duels.

As we are leaving, she doesn’t draw any emote in the dirt or with mana in the air. She just watches us, just us standing so close making her nervous.

Giving her a last glance, I teleport us away and let Lily deal with the questions our group throws at us immediately. I, meanwhile, stretch and sit back on the spot I used before. There is still some time left until my final duel with Savant, so I decide to work on Flamebearer.

In my mind, I also replay the scene from the 1st event when Savant used the arcane glove he found there. Back then I didn’t take it too seriously, but arcane weapons are probably difficult to control. Very difficult.

Flamebearer is like that even in its damaged state and with a set of temporary inscriptions. It's hard to say how much more difficult it is to control a fully powered arcane weapon.

Savant said even back then that the glove uses a lot of mana, yet even though his reserves aren’t that big, he could use it quite skillfully. He did it even with the restriction placed.

He showed something similar during the duel against Tess where he could force her primordial lightning under his control. I think what happened is that he can manipulate the attacks he absorbed quite easily.

That explains why he couldn’t control her lightning before absorbing it. Even so, the fact he could as much as he did says a lot.

Then there is his duel against Tacita. I'm not worried about his domain or poisoning as I can counter it with mine. Actually, it should be him worried about my domain. No, the interesting thing is that he has a bone capable of stopping Tacita's attack.

Tacita showed a rare expression of surprise when he did that. Connecting it with the mana stone he gave to Lily and the knowledge it contains, it's possible he did some messing around.

The question is if it’s all of his bones or only some. If I had to guess, I would say the latter.

(Would you mind if I ask something?) Sophie connects to my mind.

(Go ahead.)

(While you played with your ax, Lily explained what happened with Tacita and all. She tried to not show it, but she was disappointed and surprised as well.)

(Makes sense. So what’s the question?)

(I'm surprised by your reaction. I think it’s out of character,) she says.

(Is it?)

(Yes, I would have thought you would try to help just to get her on your good side as it wouldn’t even cost you much. You already have some weak connection with her and she seems to respect you.)

(Didn’t you want to kill her not that long ago?)

(A bit, but that was in duels only. I don’t think I truly wanted to kill her if you know what I mean. So will you answer?) Sophie pushes.

(I'm an asshole, simple as that.)

(Did you wait so it came from Lily instead of you? But why would you do that? Why…)

(Anything else?) I interrupt her.

(Just one more. I noticed that weird feeling a few times during our conversation, but did you die?)

(Yup, a few times.)

Sophie cuts off for a long moment and when she continues, her voice is more careful, (Nat, others are coming to me to weaken their memories so they can keep dying while training. Yet you died at least two times during our conversation and who knows how many times before. Are you sure…)

(It’s fine. A bit of training didn’t kill anyon… well, you know what I mean.) Having had enough, I just cut off the connection.

Two times? It was twice as much.

I'm using this opportunity to examine my heart as much as possible, even cutting it apart inside of my chest to examine its pieces. So of course, there are some risks.

It would probably be safer if I didn’t work on Flamebearer at the same time, but it’s fine.

As for Savant, I'm curious how he will heal. At the start of the tournament, he appeared without an arm that Lily restored, but I do wonder if it was maybe on purpose so he could examine her healing. Maybe he even absorbed some? What an annoying guy.

Still, I think he either has some items or will do it on his own or with the help of someone else and heal the wounds caused by Tacita. The weird effect of that dagger probably can be removed with a nice chunk of his mana and domain.

As for me, I don’t think the duel will be that long. I plan to go all out fairly quickly and even use the last remaining use of my Titan's Backbone. Its efficiency proved itself during the fight against my duplicate.

Once again, I feel myself getting giddy.

Soon.

***

POV Brainiac

I poke Gary and gesture at the screen. The old man finally stops talking and focuses his attention there.

After he got his ass kicked by Noname, he seems even more interested in this fight. He is trying to hide it, but I can see that he is deeply dissatisfied with being so one-sidedly beaten.

Well, it’s not his fault. Noname—that guy is bonkers, something even the twins and Kim confirmed over and over again.

On the screen, inside of the last Arena, both of them stand.

The arena is Earth’s city.

There are skyscrapers all over and the sun is high in the sky. Down on the streets, cars, bicycles, and other vehicles stand parked. But not a single human is around.

Without millions of people crawling around, the city feels eerie.

“Hey, Adam, know what city it could be?” I ask.

“No idea, but it seems North American.”

“Lazy system could make it New York, Paris, or San Francisco. That’s where the catastrophic movies often happen, right?” Mari giggles.

“Well, the two of them will make sure a catastrophe will happen.”

I watch as with a few jumps, Savant gets on top of the skyscraper. Each of his jumps breaks the side and glass of the building, and on top of it, Noname already waits. As always, he has that punchable expression. The one that makes it seem like he is looking beyond you and you are just a bug in his way.

Knowing him for a bit, it’s probably not that and it’s unintentional, but damn, I would love to punch that face. If he at least wasn’t so good looking… if he smiled a bit, I bet all the girls would be all over him. Even so, I don’t know how big a chance they would have with that mana maniac.

The fight doesn’t start immediately. For a moment, they face each other, neither of them using their skills. They are measuring each other.

A few seconds pass and not a single word is exchanged. Then the fight starts.

Noname takes a step ahead and mana roars from around him as that pale blue crown appears floating over his head and golden circles form in his eyes. He stomps and the entire skyscraper cracks and starts falling down.

Orange light from Savant crashes against the mana Noname is radiating and for a moment they pressure each other, the blue mana soon taking over as Savant jumps to another skyscraper.

Like a predator pouncing on its prey, Noname charges him, and holding that ax of his with both hands, he swings it.

The golden flames devour the entire area, burning between the buildings, cracking the glass, and turning cars into melted pools of metal down below.

Another swing and more golden flames explode.

And then a third evaporates the building Savant stands on, the man surrounded by his orange light and holding that broken sword in front of him.

Slowly the flames die off, leaving the burning streets, destroyed buildings, and melted metal in their wake.

“Well, I hoped it would do more damage to you, but at least it made you use a lot of your mana,” Noname says as he floats in the air. Without any hesitation, he throws the axe to the side where it buries itself into one of the buildings.

“The output of that axe was unexpectedly high.” Savant nods.

Both of them are so weirdly calm.

This time it is Savant who makes another move and the orange light he was radiating increases. There is more and more of it. A huge amount that even lights up the sky, making it look like dawn. It pushes against the light Noname radiates and is even about to reach it, touch him, and poison him in the same way it did to Tacita.

“Sword of Aeons was the best mana battery of Eladore, wasn’t it? I wonder how much mana you stored to push me like that.” Noname doesn’t seem to be that worried even as that orange light touches him.

Blisters start appearing on his skin but he seems to be examining them instead of trying to fight back. More and more orange light pressures him, surrounding his body like it’s about to devour him, drown him. It forces him to shrink the mana he is releasing.

“Well, not like it matters.” The calmness of his voice makes me shiver.

It’s like he doesn’t even worry he can die now. He acts no different from when it was impossible to die. No, he is even more daring.

Noname lifts his arm up to the sky and over his palm, that scary black orb forms. It grows more and more until it’s as big as an orange and then it elongates into the simple shape of a sword.

Immediately, all the orange light around gets pulled inside of it. It doesn’t even touch Noname anymore, it just flows inside the black sword like water down a sinkhole.

Noname floats into the air again, holding the black sword that absorbs any mana about to reach him. His blue crown slowly spins over his head.

Then he starts releasing his own mana that doesn’t seem to be sucked in by that scary black sword.

Every time I think it might be all, he pushes more and more mana releases from him.

And then more.

And more.

“Fuck… just how much…” Mari sighs.

And more.

Gareth keeps his eyes glued to the screen and I think calling Noname mana maniac was an understatement. Just how is he not dead? Did… did he invest all… of course… of course he did. He was always like that in the Community, it’s just us who thought he might be joking.

What a monster.

***

Everything is fine and running smoother than expected.

Savant’s [Dawn] can’t do shit against me. The black sword just absorbs any of his mana that reaches me. It sucks it in like a black hole. Sure I could make it easier to upkeep and keep black mana as an orb, but the sword looks cooler.

My training also paid off and with help of my eyes and [Resonance] I can change the frequency of black and normal mana so they do not affect each other. It’s extremely difficult and I'm sure the aftereffects will be severe even with Titan's Backbone. The problem is also I can’t keep it up for long, but so far it’s fine. No, it’s more than fine.

Most of my primordial energies are gone but I use all of my mana around and pressure Savant, his domain is already nearly gone and he turns it into that orange sword that seems to fight against it. So far he endures pretty well even under all of that mana I radiate, an attempt at mimicking his domain and mana radiation.

Seeing he doesn’t try to poison me anymore, I split the sword into three parts and elongate each, shooting them as javelins towards him.

Each of them crashes to his sides, pulling on his mana and devouring it hungrily.

I reach towards all the mana within my [Mana Domain] and shape it, shooting it at him. Tricolored orbs, javelins, thin threads, mana orbs. The attacks pierce through the skyscrapers as Savant jumps from one to another and I make the black javelins follow him.

The city so similar to the one I was born in gets destroyed, trashed. The choice of this Arena is a clear message from the system.

Look and see what you could do to your planet and cities.

Buildings crash. Roads get torn apart, cars fling over. I shoot flames that melt the concrete and kinetic energy turns large statues and poles into nothing.

Savant dodges, his orange sword made of his domain flickering under constant pressure of my orbs and mana. Yet he still absorbs some attacks. Some fire disappears, and some kinetic energy doesn’t hit him as strongly as it could. Tricolored orbs do not explode.

His heart beats. At this point, I'm sure it’s not his original one. Neither is his right arm, one of his legs, and one of his eyes. All of these parts are of different beings, all of them more powerful than his own and absorbed by that man.

So I'm not surprised when all the attacks he absorbed get released, compressed into a single orb, not dissimilar to mine. His poisonous domain, my fire and kinetic energy, my tricolored orbs and javelins, all of it into a single orb he shoots at me with perfect timing.

Even before exploding, the orb releases immense heat, setting buildings nearby on fire and the road under it crumbling.

I move one of three black javelins and shoot it through the orb, the black weapon sucking in all that mana, only primordial energies remaining that I absorb back into my Vortex Core.

The attack disappears as if it never existed.

I move my arm and the three black constructs fly back to me, all of them within my domain. In my hand, they connect and turn back into the shape of the sword. Moving them now is much more difficult, but they are also so much more effective.

Boosting my body, I reach Savant who meets me, his orange sword clashing with mine.

I watch as his sword tries to poison me, to take over black mana. The domain is extremely concentrated in that weapon. But it can’t do anything. The black sword just absorbs it all with ease and it doesn’t even seem to have enough.

“You won’t be able to keep it up for much longer so that’s why you are pushing me,” he says as if it’s a fact.

“Yup, soon it will start wrecking my body. How much more mana do you have stored in that sword?” I gesture at the Sword of Aeons.

“For ten to twenty more seconds of resisting your domain.”

Kinetic energy I shoot at his head is absorbed, and shot back at me immediately. He does the same with my fire, javelins, and tricolored orbs I form over our heads. All of it taxes him, I can see that.

In the last attempt, he finally pulls out his trump card. He absorbs his left arm, the one Lily restored at the start of the tournament.

His sword made of domain disappears with it. The wounds on his body heal, the arm most likely containing some of Lily’s healing powers and his strength and speed increase probably caused by biomass redistributed from the absorbed arm.

The orange light ignites again. From the broken blade, a light shines, extending it and ending like a normal sword would look. Just instead of metal, there is his domain.

Savant then powers that sword by what remains in his body and in the Sword of Aeons itself.

It’s a scary amount and some of that mana poisoning even pushes through the black sword I made, for a moment escaping its reach and affecting my body. That damage reaches my heart even through my domain and my defenses. It pierces through my mantle and spreads through my circuits.

Even then, it’s not enough.

It’s far from enough.

My heart thumps and I compress the mana that flows through my body. I throw the black sword far away and I grab hold of Savant´s hand holding his sword. Then I push further, I compress more and more until all the mana currently flowing through me turns into tricolored one and then into that mysterious black mana.

In a blink, it devours all mana poisoning, threatening to tear me from inside until I push it out. Ignoring the damage it causes I form a big nail out of it, the same kind I made during the 1st event that I lost.

I stab that black nail into Savant’s chest, making sure he understands the message.

He tries to absorb it, he tries to work around it, but he can’t. Not currently. With his body in tatters because of our clashes and the amounts of mana we were channeling and powerful skills, he looks at me.

I'm ready for anything. My mind is sharp, my heart is beating wildly, and the world feels so colorful, so alive.

Show me what you can do when pushed to the brink.

“I forfeit,” Savant says simply and disappears.

For a moment I just stare into the air and at the destroyed parts of the city all around.

What?

I appear outside in the common area to the people shouting my nickname down below.

What just happened?

Some members of my group rush closer and congratulate me but I don’t hear that.

Did he give up just like that? Only because I had an overwhelming advantage?

I feel myself clench my teeth and my now restored mana starts seeping from my body.

Is he messing with me?!

I send my senses through the common area in one strong pulse and fail to locate him. I can't sense him at all.

As my mana starts to build up I glance at Lily and Izzy who are smiling. Izzy is even holding my hand and I'm sure she can feel my emotions right now. I once again look at the crowd down in the common area, plenty of them shouting my nickname, happy and celebrating the end of the event.

When I glance at Izzy again, she smiles at me and taps my hand.

Feeling extremely frustrated I sigh and grab control of my mana. I start circling it again before it starts leaking and before it reaches people down below.

This doesn't feel satisfying at all.

***

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