Another 10 minutes of back and forth happened between Daisuke and Hilda before Daisuke stopped attacking. His has spent two-thirds of this power stat during this fight to spam attacks on Hilda hoping for her to break. But the constant failures had given him time to get a higher understanding of his Light Kendo.

Hilda represented a darkness he could not light up, a cold he could not heat up. In all his fights he had never been in a situation where he couldn’t even scratch his enemy. Increasing his strength with his power stat took a toll on his body, eating his stamina and even with all the sacrifices he was nowhere near scratching her. Given she wasn’t also playing around too and blocking his attacks required her to see glimpses into the future with the earring which cost her a lot of energy to fuel but she didn’t dare stop.

Daisuke thought ‘So there are two ways to beat her; one way is through power and another is through skill. I can’t waste my power stat since it takes a while to regain. At this point hiding my skill is a waste, people already know what to look out for’.

Daisuke’s figure glowed with golden light that would blind most on lookers but Hilda was unfazed and Chao Feng’s force field grew darker to block the excessive brightness. Daisuke’s figure was them engulfed in a golden ball of light that shined even brighter than his body did.

‘Profound State: Form Manifestation: Sol’

Even with Chao Feng’s protection the ground began to melt and steam began to rise from Hilda’s body but she stood firm. Daisuke said “You should forfeit, it’s going to be really painful when I attack you” in an ethereal voice.

But Hilda was unmoved as though her dream was to become an snow sculpture, she didn’t bother to distance herself. She thought ‘It must cost a lot to do this. He should be reaching his breaking point soo-‘

Hilda’s eyes widened when the glimpses of the future came to her mind from her earring. A katana of light formed on the left side of golden ball of light. White flames of drive formed eddy like patterns on Hilda’s body as she activated her Unique ability, Overpower.

‘One Sword Style: Full Moon’

‘Cryo-Knight Art: Stalactite’

The golden sword sailed towards Hilda at a speed beyond that of light and Hilda sacrificed a ton of Biomass to her Unique ability and Stamina to meet the speed the stack was coming at.

“TING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The ring of metal hitting metal exploded from the point of contact of both swords as Hilda’s downward swing met Daisuke’s upward swing. Hilda’s sword was made with the ice that made up her bones. It had a simple ability; it got sharper and harder the more strength she put into her swings. But the sword cracked after the clash proving that the strength in this attack was beyond what Daisuke had shown earlier.

Hilda grimaced as she thought ‘I can only block two more of those’. Daisuke on the other hand was confused. As if to clarify what had just happened he asked “Did you actually block that?” But Hilda gave no answer.

Seeing Hilda’s silence, Daisuke smiled and said “How about two attacks at the same time? No lets do three at the same time”. 6 swords formed at the left of the sphere along with one swords on the right and twelve swords on top.

Hilda thought ‘Impossible, only one form can be used at a time’. But her earring told her that the impossible was going to happen so she gritted her teeth and waited. Daisuke said “Yes, although I didn’t hit you before this really is going to sting… if it hits you”.

The swords blurred as Daisuke showed a new form. It was a combination of the one sword style: full moon, the 6 sword style: dawn, and the 12 sword style: high noon.

‘Profound Technique: Shine’

The radiance of the ball of light spiked but there was a difference in the light. Each ray was a sword thrust or a slash depending on the angle at which it hit the object. Objects were split into molecules and molecules were split into atoms and atoms were split into lighter atoms causing a cascade of nuclear reactions.

The entire battle area was covered in flames and plasma. Daisuke used an omni-directional attack because he wasn’t sure whether Chao Feng could easily block a single focus profound technique.

The fires, plasma and chaos died down revealing an unscathed Hilda who was protected by a golden translucent lotus flower made out of condensed force. After a minute of silence the host declared Daisuke the winner of the match.

Both contestants went back to the waiting room with cheers and applause from the spectators. Mira had a look of resolution as she thought ‘I should get ready for my fight’.

…

Some minutes after Daisuke’s fight, Mira’s match was up. She ascended the hole that opened above the waiting room and floated onto the battle stage. Her opponent, Demetri, the [Rank 25 Human Elementalist (Hydrogen)], also floated onto the stage. He wore a light robe, blue in color, on top of a red shirt and a black pair of trousers. He also had a silver ring with straight patterns engraved on them on his pinky finger.

The host began to announce the two combatants “Now we will be watching the battle between two contestants who easily wiped out their previous opponents. On one side we have Mira who displayed excellent judgment and a leveled head when fighting her previous opponent. Give her a round of applause!”

The crowd cheered weakly. The host continued “Facing her is Demetri who easily overpowered his previous opponent by turning his own energy against him. His fight was too quick for me to pick up on any other qualities. Give it up for Demetri!”

The crowd cheered again, it was as weak. The host understood why this was happening; some of the previous fights had been one-sided and the rest were obvious or boring fights. He was hoping for a more adrenaline inducing fight with this duo since most people were focusing on fight from other brackets that were more entertaining.

With that, he gave his final note “Most of the bets predict Mira to be the winner of this fight. I guess we’ll see whether they’re wrong at the end of this match” He thought ‘Please let them be wrong’ as he announced the start of the fight.