Chapter 25

The Counterattack

“Your counterattack? And how exactly will you attack me when you can’t even get near me?!” Both the noble and his spirit hurls a storm of fireballs at me. I jumped down towards the stage, hopping from chair to chair to dodge the flames.

How frustrating. I know that little gremlin by his side is his weakness, but all I can do right now is focus on dodging.

“What’s the matter? You’ll never be able to attack me if you keep dodging!” The noble shouted as he bombarded the area around me.

“If you want me to attack you so bad, then why don’t you call off your spirit and fight me like a man!”

“You seriously expect me to fall for such an obvious lure? I wasn’t born yesterday.”

“You sure as hell act like it! Whoa!” I dive out of the way of flames.

It’s just like I thought. People who can attack from range are a pain in the ass to deal with. This is the reason I created my own range technique, but it’s still incomplete. Using it now will only be a detriment to me. The only thing I can do right now is keeping dodging until I can find an opening.

The moment I landed on top of the chair, I hopped to the next to preemptively dodge the noble’s next attack. However, strangely there was no more fire chasing me. The noble abruptly stopped his attack and was now quietly observing me.

“What’s the matter? Don’t tell me you’re tired already?”

“Indeed, I have grown tired of this little game, which is why I’m ending this now.”

“Oh, and how will you do that? You can’t even hit me.”

A smirk spread across his face like he was waiting for me to ask this question. “Simple, like this.”

“!” For a moment, my mind blanks out as something hot slammed into my back. “How?” That was the only thing I could utter. I strained my head and looked behind me. The noble’s spirit looking at me with a wicked grin.

“I’ll admit, you possess incredible agility. I probably never be able to hit you in a head-on fight. However, the downside to your talent is a small injury will significantly dull your movement.” Another fireball formed in the palm of his hands. “Now, try to avoid this one in your current state.”

The noble threw the fireball at me incredibly slow as if to taunt me. The searing pain preventing me from moving properly. The only thing I could do was cross my arms and prepare myself for pain.

The fireball exploded right before it touches me. The intense heat dwelling inside the ball of flame enveloped my body, burning my skin. I poured all my strength into my legs and threw myself away from flame, slamming into a nearby chair.

“Ah… ah” I escape the flames, but my body still felt like it was on fire. As much as I wanted to scream, all I could do was groan in pain.

“Hurry up and surrender so your injuries can be treated.”

“N-no. I can’t.”

“Why? Don’t tell me this stupid prize money is worth more than your life?!” Seeing the noble seething with anger and confusion made the pain a bit more tolerable.

“To you, it’s nothing more than prize money, but to me, it’s much more. Although I guess someone who was born with everything can never understand my desperation.

“Even if I could understand, I wouldn’t care.” Flame form in the palm of the noble’s hand. “Since you want to die so badly, I’ll gladly end your life.” The fire slowly flew towards me. In the corner of my eyes, I spotted what looks to be a sheathe to a sword flying towards the ball of fire, prematurely making it explode. A man ran and jumped over the explosion. It only took me a minute to identify who the guy was, Scar.

Scar throws his sword. The noble ducks left, causing the sword to plunge into the wall next to him. Scar pulled his sword and swung in one swift motion the moment he landed. The noble threw himself to the ground to avoid Scar’s slashes. Almost instantly, Scar repositions his sword and thrusts downwards. Desperate, the noble conjure another fireball in his hand.

“Fu!” The little fire spirit disappears and then suddenly burst out from the fireball in the palm of the noble. The little girl raised her hand to stop the sword. Scar’s sword easily pierces through the little girl’s hand. Rather than blood, flames gush out of her wound. Unfazed by the flames consuming his arms, Scar plunges his sword deeper into the girl’s hand until it reaches her throat.

“Like I’ll let you take her!” The noble roar as he slams his newly created fireball into the ground, creating an explosion that consumes both the noble and Scar.

They, they killed themselves. No, the noble guy doesn’t seem to be affected by any heat, including explosion, which means only Scar would’ve been injured by that attack.

I stare intensely at the smoke hoping to see Scar’s silhouette.

Scar, I never liked him, but I also never hate him. He’s the only person in The Crooked Man’s gang that doesn’t go out of his way to bothered me.

A figure jumped out of the smoke. I let out a sigh when I saw that it was Scar. Flames still covered his arms. Scar quickly tore off the burning sleeves off his shirt, revealing his burnt arms. Unfazed by the pain, Scar pointed his blade at the smoke, which quickly dissipated to reveal the noble completely unharmed and extremely piss off.

“What, what the hell is wrong with you guys?! Do none of you fear death?!” The noble shouted.

“The mission always comes first.” Scar said in his usual monotone voice.

“Mission? Are you a mercenary? Did someone hire you to take me out?”

“No, you’re not my target. My job is to keep you busy until Catherine decides to fight you seriously.”

“Fight seriously? Are you saying she’s holding back? You must have lost your mind.” The noble lets out an obnoxious laugh. As much as I can’t stand the guy, I had to agree with him.

Your first mistake is you’re not taking advantage of your talent.

Dante’s words echo in my head.

“I used everything Dante taught me these past months. What else do I have?” I looked down at my left arm. The bandage on my hand burnt off. Somehow, the flower tattoo on my hand is unharmed even though my skin has been burnt.

I’m not sure when this tattoo appears, but I’m pretty sure it was around the time I started training with Dante. At the same time, I can feel something inside me trying to break. I don’t know what the hell this something is, and to be honest, I don’t ever what to know, but if I had to choose between relying on The Crooked Man or this unknown, I would choose the latter.

“Back off, Scar. He’s my prey.” I force myself back to my feet.

“Are you sure?”

“Yea, the last thing I want is to increase my debt to The Crooked Man.”

“And what exactly are you going to do in your state?”

“Just shut up and watch.” I close my eyes and focus on the unknown inside me.

Bloom:10%

Slightly, ever so slightly, I open the gate to the unknown in the back of my mind. Almost instantly, I can feel a surge of power course through my body. Washing away all my doubts and fear.

“What, the hell?” The noble watched in amazement as the burns on my body begin to heal.

“Don’t act so surprise yet. I'm just getting started ” I dash towards the noble. In a panic, the noble backed away from me and hurled fireballs at me. In an instant, there was nothing but blazing fire.

It’s strange, I’m standing in the center of an inferno, but all I can feel is confidence swelling inside me. I push forward. My sixth sense became sharper, allowing me to tell which attacks were in actual threat to me, letting me dodge with minimal movements. In mere moments I manage to close the distance between us. I jumped and landed on the top of the stairs near Scar.

It was only for a moment, but the surprise of seeing me land near him the noble wildly throwing fire in our direction distracted Scar longed enough for me to snatch his sword from out his hand.

After stealing what I needed,d I ducked to avoid the flame before charging after him. The noble backed and threw a couple more fireballs at me. His cocky smile widened when I evaded his attacks.

Sensing something was, I abruptly stopped and turned around. The noble’s little spirit suddenly pop out one of the fireballs he threw at me. I flung Scar’s sword at the little girl before she had a chance to attack.

“Hiee!” Surprised, the little spirit let out a shrill cry before blasting the sword with fire, creating a small explosion that consumed her.

“Crap.”The firee appeared in the palm of the noble’s hand. Before it could form into a ball of fire, I closed the distance between us.

“Second round.” I struck the noble in the face with my aura-clad fist. The noble staggered backwards.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” The noble shouted as he pointed his palm at me. I grabbed my knife and slashed this hand before he had a chance to form any fire.

That punch should’ve knocked him out. Did I hold back too much? Thanks to my fight with Emma, I can only use Aura one more time. And it’ll be a waste to use it on him. I guess I have no choice but to finish him off with my knife.

“Fu!” The little spirit jumped in between the noble and me. Her body trembles with fear, and tears welled up in her eyes.

“Why the hell are you acting like you’re the victim? You started this fight!” I move my knife towards the trembling spirit’s throat.

C’mon Catherine. She’s not real. She’s just a spirit, a physical manifestation of the stupid asshole power. All I got to do kill her and finish, and I’ll easily be able to finish off the noble.

Catherine, you’re scaring me.

“M-Mom?”

It was only for an instant, but I swear, instead of the little spirit, I saw my mother standing in front of me, terrified.

I shook my head, hoping to catch a glimpse of her again. However, only the noble was standing in front of me. Tears flowed down his face as he held his bloody hand.

“I can’t, I won’t lose!” the heat around his body became so intense that I had to back away. Multiple alarms went off in my head to get as far away from him as possible. But I also can feel that I won’t be able to escape this attack.

“Move.” Scar ran past me and planted his feet into his chest, knocking him away. In the next moment, Scar turned around and swept me off my feet before jumping away. Flame erupted from the noble’s body. The flames quickly turned into a spiral of fire that consumes everything in its path.

“That bastard isn’t even trying to control his power anymore! We need to stop him.”

“No,” Scar said curtly.

“The hell you mean, ‘no?’ He’s going to burn down the whole theater if we do nothing.”

“Sit.” Scar threw me into a chair. Sitting next to me was a corpse with a sword impaled in his chest.

“Ah!” I let out a yelp and try to get up, but Scar pushes me back down.

“You had a chance to kill him, but you froze. Why?”

I thought back to when the spirit jumped in front between us. I heard before that spirits take the shape of the person soul.

“Underneath all that bravado he’s a just a kid. A terrified kid.”

No what’s bother me isn’t the kid. It’s the fact this happen before. I did something in the past. Something so bad that I even scared mother. What, what the hell did I do?

“So, what he’s a scared kid? It shouldn’t bother you at all, or perhaps you’re not as desperate to win this tournament as I thought.”

“Are you saying I should just kill everyone that stand in the way of my goal?”

“You won’t be able to achieve anything if you concern yourself with other.”

“I bet that must be easy for you?” I stood up and push him back. “Someone like you can easily kill others for your goal because you never care about anything, right?”

“….” I waited for him to say something back, but he just silently stare at me with his dead eyes.

“Listen, Scar. You clearly don’t care about this tournament, so just go home and tell Crook to fuck of-“

A wall of flame cut into between Scar and me. Almost immediately I was surrounded by flames.

“Max.”

“It’s Maximilian Phoenix!” A hole opened in the wall of flame which the noble and his spirit walk through. The bruise on his cheek have swollen to the point it force his left eye shut.

Looks like I was wrong about him. To fight me in that state, he must be just as desperate as me. That or he just really hate me. Either way, I’m going must beat him if I want to escape.

“So…” The noble back away from me when I tried to approach him. “What’s the matter you’re afraid of me now?”

“No, but I’m wary of you now.”

“I can see.” I took a glance around me. He probably did this to stop me from jumping around and now that he knows I can use aura he’ll do everything he can to make I sure I don’t close the distance. Looks like I’ll no have to use the other technique.

“Final Round.” Beads of light formed and dance around my arms before colliding and transforming into veil of light that covered my arm. “This time I’m taking your head!” I charge straight at him. As I expected, he immediately retreated and created more fire in his hands.

I abruptly stopped and punched a chair next to me with enough force that I sent flying even though it was bolted to the floor.

The noble’s eye widen at the chair I sent flying towards him. The noble easily destroy the chair with a fireball. I gather what remain of my aura to cover my fingers and a coin.

“Let’s hope this work. Slug Round!” I flick my aura infused coin at the smoke. Perhaps sensing the noble was in danger, the spirit jump in front of me. My coin easily pierce through her head and stuck the noble in the stomach. The spirit burst into flames and vanish, and the noble was sent flying backwards before slamming into ground.

The wall of fire disappeared alongside the noble’s spirit. I dropped to my knees. The last bit of my strength vanish with my aura.

“What? What happen?” The noble weakly groan while straining his head to look at me.

“I won that’s what happen!” I shouted triumphantly.

“I lost? No, that can’t be. I can’t lose!” Blood gush from his left hand as he try to force push himself back to his feet.

Are you serious he still trying to fight me? Do we really have to kill each other for our own goals?

“I think that’s enough.” Sky chop the noble on the back of his knocking him down. “Sorry but this fight over.”

“No, it’s not. I refuse to lose.”

“Don’t worry you didn’t lose. You both past the trial. Congratulation!” Sky’s bangles jingle each time she clapped her hands.

“Does that mean the second trial is over?” I guess I should be happy that I manage to survive, but its hard to do that with all the dead bodies laying everywhere and the murderous gaze coming from the noble.

I manage beat him, but barely. And now that he seen all my tricks, I doubt I’ll be able to take him down again.

“Heh, heh. You guys are going to love the next trial.” Seeing Sky cover her mouth to hide her mischievous grin only gave me a bad feeling.

“Attention, survivors!” The armored royal guard slammed his massive hammer onto the ground grabbing everyone attention. “Take a good look around you. The two people next to you will be your partners for the upcoming trials.

“Wait, what!” Everyone in the theater shouted in unison. I franticly looked around theater hoping someone else was nearby.

Do I really have to work together with that asshole? Wait, who else do I have to work with? The only other person who was near should be Scar.

“Kaaa!” I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard the beast roar. Sitting in the chair next to me, somehow escaping my notice was a woman draped in a red hood with dark scale wyvern rested on her lap.

“Hel. Low.”