Crack… Crack…

Scrashhh!

The sword in my left hand, which was covered by ice elements had already completely frozen the water elements that my opponent had condensed, shattering the now frozen water barrier as my Sword Ki violently raged while my own raw strength supported it.

At this point, the wind fueled sword in my other hand was already close to reaching the soft armor that my opponent wore, however…

"I simply thought that you were hiding the degree of your elemental or weapon abilities, having reached the third stage like me, but it turned out that you actually had another element instead… This won't be enough if you want to beat me though."

'As expected, he does have a sharp eye…'

His senses were also extraordinary, albeit not as strong as the dual element swordswoman, but they were still strong enough to grant him an understanding of the situation the moment my ice elements touched the water elements he controlled, which allowed him to react by slipping away from my strike my using applying water on his soft shoes…

'But that's not gonna cut it either…'

"Your first assumption wasn't wrong though…"

"Huh?"

While I didn't manage to reach the level to practice and 'Elemental Control' manual yet, I did reach the minimum control to use my elements in a similar fashion to his…

'Plus my 'Elemental Domain' is quite wide…'

Thus, it was quite easy for my to freeze the water he used to run, which turned into a restricting method that might cause his death instead of his intended use to increase his mobility…

"Just give it up."

As this was only a friendly tournament that was held for the sake of picking talents and giving away prizes, it was natural that I didn't directly take away his life considering that I had no grudge against him…

However, with how strong he was, the only way to finish the match quickly was to have him surrender, as the attacks of mine that could dispatch him with his level of strength could only be killer blows that would take his life to secure the win, which was obviously not my target, neither was it my way of doing things…

"Not yet!"

Taking in mind the fact that my ice elements weren't as fragile as normal ice, especially since I covertly used my own water element to construct them while using part of his own water elements as a disguise, there was no way he would be able to remove his shoes from the ground anytime soon, which is why I planned to at least threatened his life by putting my sword to his neck while he was frozen in his place like that to get the win directly from the referee quietly, but…

"It hasn't ended just yet!"

It seemed like he had another say…

'Really…?'

Discarding his shoes by jumping up using his abnormal strength, it seemed he still wanted to vie for the win using the limited ring space which didn't allow me to use my speed advantage well enough by relying on his own physical strength…

"Sigh…"

Jumping up to him as well and moving my head a bit to dodge the halberd strike that was emitting the power of a Tier-6 Halberd Ki, I sheathed my swords as I covered my fist in ice…

"You seemed to be smart enough to realise that you can't contend with me in speed, but it seemed your thinking was still limited…"

Plunging my fist into his stomach while using quite a bit of my strength, I muttered these words to him as I simply fluttered down using my wind elements…

Crash!

On the other hand, my opponent who had overestimated his strength and got half his body almost frozen and damaged by my fist, ended up crashing to the ground as he seemed to have blacked out.

"The...The Winner is… No.2!"

'Finally done…'

Hearing the referee announce the end of the match, which was the same as announcing the end of the tournament for our Tier's ring, I could finally feel as if a weight in my heart has been lifted as I wasn't that shackled anymore…

'The last battle wasn't bad either…'

Going against one who had the same level of elemental attainment and even a higher level of weapon practice, albeit with lower body stats and only a limited mono-attribute, was actually quite the enjoyable match that allowed my to understand a bit more in the elemental aspect of the third stage…

'I should be able to receive other benefits soon as well…'

`~~`~~`~~`

Back somewhere at the high watch platform…

'I knew it, he is quite abnormal, I didn't really believe his claims at the beginning and was only being careful, but…'

"That lad is quite a gem indeed, he would be a good addition for our 'Body Strengthening Sect' but I'm sure the big three are going to snatch him…"

'His body's all-rounder strength can't be obtained through normal means, nor does his triple attribute talent seem normal either, his words should have some truth to it…'

"Hey, White, you seem to be showing that strange expression of yours once again… don't tell me you think you can snatch that lad from the big three…?"

"Haha, you don't need to worry, I'm not planning on doing anything impulsive…"

"Your face says something else though…"

`~~`~~`~~`

There was some noise coming out from the audience as the match ended as they seemed to be a bit excited that something unusual had happened such as No.2 beating No.1…

I didn't put my mind into it, but I could hear some shouts that seemed to declare 'I won!' with similar shouts that held the opposite words, indicating that there was probably some gambling that took place, which somewhat annoyed me, but I dismissed it from my mind soon enough as there wasn't much that I could do about it anyway…

"No.13 wins!"

'Oh the last ring is finally done…'