Day 2 of the Semi-Finals, Marcel Mistmer vs Ava Edenheart
Both the participants were already in their positions awaiting the horn.
Ava Edenheart was wearing a dark green suit with a large hood and her face was also covered with a mask. Only her clear blue eyes and some strands of light brown hair were exposed along with half of her pale face.
To be honest, I didn't make much of a change to my original plan. I only thought of getting close to her and disrupting her with Lightning Wave.
But all these are useless if I die in a single shot. I don't even know how destructive her archery is.
But it wasn't like I didn't follow Isabelle's advice. I tried to make my Mana Barrier sturdier as much as I could and now it was comparatively thicker than before.
'I can only hope her arrows fail to break through this barrier'.
Hoooonk!
Just as the match started, Ava jumped backwards and tried to increase the distance. She loaded her arrow and took the aim in almost no time.
Of course, I couldn't let her to that.
I immediately ran towards her holding the 'Star of Lightning' in my hands and just as I was about to disrupt her shooting with Lightning Wave I suddenly stopped.
'No way...'
Twaang!!
My sudden hesitation allowed Ava to shoot her arrow but just as the arrow was about to hit me, my spear deflected it. With perfect timing and precision, my spear cut the arrow in two parts.
Swish!
All the people present there had their eyes wide open. And it was the same for Ava and me.
Of course, the reasons were different for all for them and for me.
Ava and the audience were surprised to see how someone was able to deflect the arrow which even the fastest contestants couldn't touch.
And I, on the other hand, was surprised to see the archery she was using. I realised it the moment she took that stance as there's no way I would forget the stance I use every time while using a bow.
'How does she know Memories of Silence?'
'Didn't Rowan tell me only the princess and the Queen knows about it? He did tell me two other guys also know that technique but I won't meet them. And there's no way she's the princess Rowan mentioned.'
Rowan said he was nineteen before war and his daughter was one year old. Based on that the princess should be at least more than forty years.
'One option is that she is related directly to his brother and the other option is that she is Rowan's granddaughter.'
I couldn't come to any conclusion and that was not that important now. Because a bigger problem is right in front of my eyes.
My opponent knows how to use Memories of Silence and it was much better and also much more lethal than what I know of.
'Is it the 2nd Path of Memories of Silence?'
Although there's no doubt her archery was superior, it wasn't at a level where I can't block them. Especially when I already know this technique.
Ava looked really angry for some reason and I could feel her constantly studying my every move.
I began running towards her again and she shot another arrow towards me. As I predicted, I succeeded in deflecting the arrow once more without much difficulty but it was followed by another two arrows at the same time.
'Oh boy... '
'Thrust! '
I was able to stop one more at the last second but the other one hit me on my shoulder.
'Arghh! That hurts! Does the barrier even work? '
I could only imagine what would have happened to me without the barrier if it's already this bad now. She jumped back again and tried to take the stance while she was still in the air but she failed this time.
{Lightning Wave}
Waves of lightning scattered through the arena and Ava had no choice but to stop her action. She fell down to the ground as I attacked her the moment she didn't have any proper footing.
I dashed near and tried to hit her but she stopped my spear with her bow. No, it wasn't just a bow.
'What in the bloody hell is that thing? '
Her bow changed into two daggers and they stopped my spear together right in front of her head.
{Lightning Wave}
Sudden lightning emerged again and spread through her body from this close. Biting her lips she tried to endure that numbing pain and continued to hold back my spear.
But before the lightning completely dispersed, my spear suddenly vanished and a sword appeared in my hands.
Fluid of Despair
The enormous weight was crushed down on her by my sword and she started bending her body slowly. But still she defended against it.
'Is that weapon really Grade B? No, maybe I should report this scam to the authorities here.'
The maximum level of a weapon allowed in this competition was Grade B to ensure some fairness. Although my sword was Grade C, it's highest weight was not a joke. It even crushed Darcy's dagger to pieces.
But not only can her weapon change from a bow into two daggers, it also stopped my attack at full force without a single crack.
I retracted my sword and struck her again from the side. I already knew she'd defend against it so I immediately followed another attack from above. She had great difficulty following me but she still succeeded in parrying it off somehow.
My sword strikes soon took the shape of a dance and turned even deadlier with each second.
'There's no way she's still holding on. She must have a skill related to see through these moves. '
{Mana Borrow}
I added more mana to make the sword even more stronger and also released my barrier to pour that mana into the sword.
Her face looked beyond troubled now and her daggers that tried to defend my sword were pushed back every time.
{Fireball}
Bringing my other hand close to her face I shot a fireball from such a distance that she had no chance of avoiding it.
But she even stopped that using one of her daggers.
Although my initial plan failed, it surely bought me another chance. I swung my sword again with full weight from the other side of the fireball.
She had no choice but to stop my sword with only the dagger available on her left hand. But no matter how strong she was, that was not possible.
And just like I thought, the dagger offered a resistance but in no way it could stop that heavy sword brimming with enormous mana I swung with such force.
The sword passed through the dagger and hit her right below her chest causing a deep wound.
She let out a pained cry and immediately tried to back off but just then a short knife appeared in my hand and wrapping it with mana, I stabbed her stomach.
She got into her knees and looked at me with deep rage in her eyes for a second. But she soon sighed and dropped her dagger.
"I surrender"
She raised her hand above as she said that and walked herself limping and staggering towards the healers with one hand holding the side of her stomach where the deep wound was.
"We got the other finalists for the 8th Blood Legacy Competition and it is of course the 'Grey Mist' Marcel Mistmer. "
'No way... How did the words travel this far!? I really want to die now. I was definitely not in my right mind when I chose this name.'
"So ladies and gentlemen, don't forget to attend the finale of this tournament after two days."
"You... How did you stop my arrows?" The elf asked a little restlessly.
There's no way I could mention Memories of Silence or Rowan here. I didn't want to get wrapped in an elven trial.
Smiling slightly I just pointed towards my back, indicating it was a skill of my Stigmata.
She didn't prick further into it, and left with the healers.
***
I finally made it up to here and there was no need to buy a catalogue now because everybody knew what the find holds.
Marcel Mistmer vs Sylas Zyair
But right now, I need to rest. Ava Rosewood was by no means an easy opponent and from what I heard she must be fifteen years old.
She was even younger than me by a year but has already managed to reach such a level. Of course, I realised how she was able to withstand every one of my attacks.
Stigmata of Faith
The seven star stigmata which exists solely for fighting. This stigmata includes several incredible skills like 'Fighting Spirit', 'Faith of War Goddess', which can predict an opponent's attack. It also includes skills that strengthen the user's attack and defence greatly along with enhancing their weapons.
That was the reason why her dagger didn't break even with all my strength and she was able to predict the moves of Dance of Dragon that I copied from Morgan to some extent.
'She even stopped the fireball at the last second. What a monster.'
The only reason I succeeded in beating her was because she wasn't trained that well in close combat. And as I already countered her main attack source, the bow, she was already in a bind.
I returned to the inn after having lunch with Sylas in one of the restaurants near the stadium. I didn't even look towards the restaurant I had lunch the day before.
But just as I was about to throw myself into the bed, I noticed there was a piece of paper on the bed-table. And also some words written with a beautiful, neat handwriting.
"๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ค๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง '๐๐ช๐ข๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ', ๐ต๐ฐ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข ๐๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ, ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐จ."