Three days of tournament passed rather quickly, nothing strange about that, it was quite a festival where people enjoyed themselves to their heart content, and as every joyful period, it was meant to reach its conclusion.

The great finale.

Mike somehow managed to keep on winning till the final battle, so did Amelia Scarlet… Thought he noticed something that both confused and greatly angered young hero.

Many times he was allowed to win. It looked as if his most powerful opponents were bribed. They were making mistakes that shouldn’t be possible – not by warriors such as themselves, not so frequently during a single battle and no on these many fights in the row! He, himself won maybe twice, maybe thrice – while dealing with weakest opponents.

He was furious. He hated losing, yes, but despite his somewhat corrupted personality, he had yet another trait. He hated when the victory was handed to him – when he did not deserve it in his own opinion.

He had to be the very best, but he hated being a puppet! Winning a battle? Yes! But only because he outsmarted his enemy, not because he was aided! Being the best in his class during the test? Only because he spends weeks without sleeping, studying each and every night.

He was a perfectionist, nothing less was acceptable.

He kept on telling himself that if he would win with Amelia, these lesser fights would be insignificant, without meaning – still, the bad aftertaste remained in his mouth.

“Ladies and gentlemen It’s a pleasure to meet you on the final day of the grand tournament! It was a pleasure to entertain you in these past few days! Finally! We are here! The great finale. Today, two greatest warriors of our kingdom shall clash! Paladin Amelia Scarlet, the great champion of our kingdom! Successfully holding the title for six years straight! Will she be able to once again prevail and defend her title from… Hero Michael Angellicus, our beloved hero summoned just a year ago by her majesty Prophetess Alice! Two magnificent, gifted and talented virtuosos of the blade! Leader of the Crimson Flame Order vs vanquisher of the Beast from Horrowing Village!”

Tha. Beast of Horrowing Village – the Behemoth. A child’s play for every actually skilled in fight. He even heard that Amelia killed a Behemoth with a single strike.

Believable. More than that. Mike had an appraisal skill, called [The Judgment’s Gaze]; not only showed stats of the enemy, but also one of nine personality types (using lawful-true-chaotic and good-neutral-chaotic matrix) as well as their feelings toward him – whenever they were neutral to him, hostile, or if they were happy to see him.

An extremely useful skill, especially during all kinds of negotiations.

This time, what he saw while appraising Amelia truly scared him, not only her status, which looked like this:

Name Amelia Vanessa Scarlet Level [49/50] Attributes ??? Skills ???

But also her weapon

[Blazing Avenger] Relic used by most powerful Paladins of the Kingdom, this blade remained in Family Scarlet for generations as a proof of their power Damage

120 - 370 [cutting]

500 - 9999 [Piercing]

Additional Effect

[Permament unresistable 50 [burn damage]]

[Grant [Holy Fervor] skill - if not present]

[Raises effectiveness of [Holy Fervor] - if present]

[Deals 150% unblockable damage to undead [Spectes included]

[Deals 125% to [Demon], [Devil-spawn], [Beast] and creatures with [Chaotic Affinity]

[May interfere with portals]

And he - he had nothing like this, just slightly enchanted armor and blade – in the end, he tried using mostly his own money as he feared that one day he would be asked to return the favor of infinite founds.

It was the right decision, still, it had an unpleasant side-effect which he was about to face right now.

The announcer kept on yelling, building up the mood, filling the crowd with excitement, all this time, they were standing in front of one another glaring in silence, tasting the water.

And that disgust in her eyes was still present.

Mike tightened the grip on the hilt of his sword located on his waist, still hidden in a sheath. He was equipped with a short sword and shield – Amelia with a magical bastard sword, normally, that would mean he had an advantage… if their strength was equal, that is, Mike knew it wasn’t.

He had to win with her!... but this time, it will be nearly impossible. Instead, he will try learning as much as he could about her.

“You are nervous…” she noticed with a dead cold tone “Of course I am. I have been waiting to cross blades with you for over a year.” “Is that anger that leads you?” “No. Admiration. I have heard a lot of things about you. The youngest graduate of knight’s academy, youngest paladin, strongest human in the entire world and the youngest person that seized that title too. All this time I wanted to learn from you, to be honest, this is the only reason I agreed to participate in this tournament. I can respect your refusal in training my humble persona, but I am still going to try and force myself on you, as much as it is only possible… I apologize for my selfishness, but I regret nothing!” “Empty words. I can see human’s nature. You act kind and heroic, but I see your desires, it looks as if your spirit is rotting in front of my very eyes.”

So that’s the reason.

“… because I am. I come from the world which is… ha, no point in explaining myself to you, still I really am trying to act the right way, tell me, Amelia, are my attempts in overcoming my evil behaviors not worthy of admiration? That’s what I am constantly wondering – if the truth about my past become well-known, would I be judged by what I did here, or there? I was given a second chance, and I will abuse it to erase the sins of my previous life! This one, I promise!” of course, he lied.

He unsheathed the sword, strike his shield twice and picked a stance. Standing with his left side toward Amelia, with a shield on his shoulder level, hiding his blade behind his body, right now, the tip of his sword was facing the ground.

The announcer was yet to proclaim the start of the battle, the crowd cheered seeing Mike’s enthusiasm.

“Look at this, my beloved! The tension in the air! The hero is hungry for action! Can you sense it? The two equals about to…”

Shut up already, you mindless puppet, and start!

“… It will be cruel for me to make them wait any longer! Ladies and gentlemen! I hereby announce the start of the grand finale! Let the battle… BEGIN!”

A gong was hit, it's deafening sound resonated across the arena.

Mike bolted onward using the warrior's domain leap-technique [Heroic Assault] while charging [Powerful Strike] with the blade. The skills power overlapped as he swung from above his head.

A powerful cracking sound could be heard as the ground was split apart, still, at the place he aimed Amelia stood no longer, she moved to his left with a minimal number of moves and piercing from her waist level in brute response.

Mike barely managed to lower his shield blocking the hit, still, the sheer power pushed him back making him stumble.

Still, thanks to his [Centurion’s pose] he regained his balanced almost immediately – just in time, for Amelia unleashed a tempest of blows, from all directions.

Her strength was something that couldn’t be treated lightly. Each strike send a vibration across his body, each hit made a dull numbness spread across his arm. Mike knew, that soon either his shield would shatter or his arm would be crushed.

She was carrying a sword, still, he felt as if he was blocking a mace or a war-hammer!

She had a pattern in her attacks. A simple one, but because of her agility, he couldn’t effectively use it against her – wide swing, thrust, short swing, uppercut, returning strike. Five attacks in two-three seconds, every normal person would collapse exhausted after a minute after performing such furious attacks, but Amelia looked as if she didn’t even warm herself up.

He thought shield would somewhat reduce her brute strength, but at this point, it was only slowing him down.

This is why he decided to perform slightly desperate action. As she was ending her attacks cycle, he loosened straps keeping his shield attached to his forearm. Then, when she performed a wide swing, he threw shield at her, she quickly strike the projectile off her path, but it broke her moves patter. Mike bolted onward thrusting barely aiming, just to use this opportunity…

But Amelia vanished.

He had no idea how, but she was standing to his side hitting his nape with a hilt of her sword. The dull pain bloomed in his body – she hit his nerves as if he was tazed – the electricity spread across his neural system, cutting his legs and making him fall on his knees.

In a normal situation, his opponent would use this situation to cut off his head, this is why he forced his whole body to fell on the ground and then roll to the safety.

Yet the cut-down never came.

Of course, Amelia didn’t want to kill him either. She even patiently waited till he raised from the ground.

“Are you done with testing waters?” she asked in her usual, cold voice “… you stand no chance in terms of swordsmanship, no speed nor strength. If you want to win or make it anywhere close to an equal fight, you have to use your powers of the hero, off-worlder.”

She was right.

“I am not here to win, I want to…” “Cut the crap. When you unsheathe your weapon, victory is your only option. No matter if you duel with the demon lord or just train with your comrade, going all out is the only right decision.” “Well, I can’t see you being serious either, Madame-advisor.” “Quite the opposite. Seeing you restricting your skills I chose to do the same, keeping strength for every possible turn in the battle. Right now, I am deadly serious and focused, Hero.”

She was right. Even though she wasn’t using her mana, even though she used no magic nor sword or body technique, she had no opening, even the aura she was emitting was that of the deadly beast.

Mike exhaled air, emptied his head, then he changed the stance.

“Oh, mother in the sky, protector of mankind…”

Almost as if the weather changed, the wind started blowing creating some kind of cocoon around Mike.

“…grant me thy strength, of spirit body and mind,

So I can remain your soldier and vanguard,

Defender of light, and in your name, your will shall be done…”

Power spread across his body, his muscles thickened and senses sharpened, those who were able to sense the magic could see Mike’s body starting to emit a light afterglow.

[Avatar of Light]

“I am not done yet!” he hissed

[Aura Strength of Holy Lion]

[Aura Dexterity of Holy Panther]

[Aura Reflex of Holy Falcon]

[Aura Vitality of Holy Ox]

[Aura Constitution of Holy Turtle]

Auras. Boosting spells that unlike magician’s boost can’t be cast on teammates and require being constantly being charged with mana, still, these are much more powerful in effects than priests or warlock’s blessings.

Mike didn’t put a lot of his attribute points into neither intelligence nor wisdom – in the end he was a vanguard fighter, if not his Hero title that reduced mana consumption of light-based spells, he wouldn’t last even a minute in this state.

Five minutes. That’s how long he can last right now with all blessing on – and even that only if he wouldn’t use any other mana-consuming skills, the thing is, he was going to.

“Here I come!”

Normally, he would never state his attack, but, that would once again picture him in front of the crowd as a noble protector.

He rushed in with such a speed that his whole body looked like a blur. The time slowed for him, he watched as dust from the arena is being raised from the ground each time he made a step and then just hover for a moment or two before it would start falling down.

He raised the blade over his head trying to cut from above

“Arts of the sword, Falcon’s position, third move – Hunt down!”

And just like a falcon, he swung down. With the power of the holy beast.

Yet even though he was several times stronger and faster Amelia raised her blade on her eye level horizontally grabbing the other edge of her sword with her left hand. Mike thought she was going to block it, so he charged even stronger putting his whole body mass into this single strike. It was no possibility that without aura strengthening on she could just defend herself against this kind of attack.

And she didn’t, what she did was actually using his attack against him, when Mike though that their blades were going to clash, she moved slightly to her right, instead of blocking she let his sword, almost vibrating with mana, harmlessly slide down across her blade to the ground.

The explosion of the blow shook the ground, then she hit his stomach with a hilt of her sword. He was left breathless. Mike quickly jumped back gathering distance, he was readying himself for another assault when he noticed something. His ribs were broken.

That shouldn’t have happened! His aura body should completely nullify the damage from the hilt!

“Don’t you know? Using aura-body is one thing, maintaining it completely different. Aura body is a spiritual armor, your looks more like rags. When you attack you focus all your power on the blade and mess mana flow in your body when you attack you are leaving yourself defenseless.

How could she react?! How could she be so fast!? Without blessings!? Without equipment boosting her speed!?

He gave up on Auras of Vitality and Strength, putting saved power into Dexterity and Constitution. The first one – so he could finally land but a single attack on her, the other one to forget about the pain in his chest.

“If you will move now your condition will worsen. It’s an admirable trait during a real fight, but no? A foolish one.” “No matter what… I will land an attack on you! I may crumble, I may fall, I may spit my lungs… But I will land this one attack!”

He gave up on Reflex. He doesn’t need a perception of seeing his own moves, as long as he would be fast enough to deliver it!

He doubled the power he was sent to his Auras. The counter showing him how much time of using his auras he had gone from 4 minutes to 15 seconds.

His skin started cracking from excessive power that his body couldn’t contain. Even with a high constitution, it hurt! It was like a molten metal was poured all over his body!

It doesn’t matter! As long as it's only these few seconds, he will manage to bear with it!

He bolted onward, and when he was in the middle of the path, he noticed it – Amelia used aura body herself. Much weaker than his, yet so much more beautiful.

It was just as she said, it looked like a radiant armor, made of sunlight itself, forming a shape around her body. No excessive mana vaporized from it, comparing his aura to hers, he felt ashamed.

Without any needleless moves, she brought him down.

Because of his poor reflex that couldn’t keep up with his speed, he didn’t notice that he was already lying on the ground behind her.

He lost. Even after all he said, he didn’t manage to land but a single scratch on her!

He thought, that after all this time he became stronger! That he could rival with most powerful creatures!... how little did he know.

“Fuck…” he whispered via clenched teeth “FFFUCK! Not enough! Still not enough! I need more… More… Still so much more…”

Announcer proclaimed Amelia as a winner.

“Come on, don’t lay in the dirt like that. You are a man and a hero of this nation, none of these befits you.”

She stretched his hand toward him offering help to get up. With gratitude, he took her offer and raised from the sand.

“How did you get this strong? Your form, your aura, your swordsmanship… it’s all so beautiful! How did you manage to do it? I am so envious of your strength!”

Her eyes opened slightly more taken aback by his straightforwardness.

“I was doing it all for my sister. All this time I was just going onward so she could depend on me. I was training, I was fighting, I was pushing my limit… So I think, that what you are lacking is motivation. The right purpose. Why do you want to become stronger? To be praised? To boast about yourself? To have an easy life? That will not bring you anywhere. If hedonism is all you want, then you will keep slacking off.” “I am not slacking! I am working all the time and…” “You are training until you are sweating? Till your hands hurt? It not Enough. When you are in agony, only then the real training begins. When you face your limits keep pushing onward. You will feel as if you are dying, you will be begging for death… and then, what motivates you would either let you overcome your weakness or let your weakens overcome you… Also, you rely on your heroic powers too much. Don’t use Heroic Holy Aura, if you can’t use the basic one, otherwise it will just give you a brute strength that you won’t be able to use properly… Fight with your brain, not always by unsheathing your sword…” “Have you ever met anyone else capable of such sacrifice?” “… Once.” “Who was this man?” “He was not a man. He was a monster clad in human skin. I beat him, I chained him and took him captive… and only then he started being deadly.” “W-what is this monster?” “You already know him as an abomination – your prophetess told you to kill him.” “Do you think I can win against him?…” “ Why? Why do you want to fight with him?” “E-excuse me?” “You were told to attack someone, and you will blindly charge? What did he do to you that you wish to clash blades with him?” “W-well, he is a threat to…” “No. Prophetess is insane. He never threatened the Holy Kingdom - we did by attacking him. I was told that when he was just a few weeks old he wiped a squad of fifty inquisitors. When I kidnapped him and left him in one of the most secured prison-castles, he broke out, slaughtered guards, released prisons and used them as a decoy before vanishing in the air. He also released something from the cellars of the prison, something hidden, some secret that not even I was told what it was… And now, I started wondering, if he didn’t let me to capture him so he could get what he wanted… That’s the kind of enemy we are talking about. Think carefully before you would go after his head. He is like a viper with a gentle bite that you don’t even notice. One day you will just wake up dead… And I can never train you, because he has my sister.” “I… Have heard about it. My condolences…’ “Why? I am grateful.” “W-what?” “My sister was sick, he cured her, he… he even let me talk with her via crystal. She was so happy… I know that I will most likely never be allowed to see her again. This splits my heart… But, when I recall seeing her so weak in the bed, and now so life-full… Hurting my egoistic desires is a little price to pay for something I have been working my whole life…”

She started leaving the arena.

“… If you would ever fight this creature… I actually hope you would fail. For the sake of my sister. That’s why I am not training you. Be useful somewhere else… but if you would threaten the safety of my sister, I will end you.”

She said that with such a calm, yet cold voice, it was more than obvious she wasn’t lying.

Zariel The Abomination - what are you?