Chapter 50: Yon Ace vs Safo Nur

Safo Nur grinned towards Yon Ace. “You seriously want to fight psiora with that?”

“Why not? This was my main weapon in the army, I’m pretty good with this, you will see.” Yon returned a grin.

The host commanded the start of the match with the usual pretentious tone.

‘If that spear is made of some special metal it will be sturdy so I need to expand my Flame Armor a bit. Judging by his confidence his spear is surely something extraordinary along with his usage of it, extra cautions will not harm, literally.’ Safo thought to himself and activated his Flame Armor.

Before coming to the stage he planned to play along with the results of his Soul Gauge. He needed to end the fight in less than a minute for others to underestimate him. So he wasn’t willing to save his energy, with that in mind he turned his Flame Armor skill to the max.

Waves of heat audibly spread in all directions from Safo Nur, he was covered in a thick layer of fire aura making an approach unrealistic.

Yon’s eyes widened in surprise, his grin vanished. He didn't expect Safo to have that much energy to deploy.

Safo wasn’t willing to stop there however, with a motion of his arms he sent two Mini Pillars to his opponent while the latter was in shock. Safo wasn’t sorry or afraid of burning Yon badly, he was informed that the New Tenga’s most talented healers were present on the stage to aid the combatants. They were not as good and fast as those hired by Ptech, but still, they were the next best.

Mini Pillars shot by Safo pressed their way to reach Yon but in an instant, he disappeared.

‘What the fuc* with these people today? He can teleport too? He can’t attack me in melee but how can I'm supposed to end the fight faster now?’ Safo wiggled his head to check his surroundings but could find his opponent.

Luna, as they agreed, was looking through Safo’s vision too. She sought to catch the details that Safo could miss, together they were about to find any smallest change to react in time.

“Luna…” Safo Nur couldn’t finish his speech, due to his "danger sense" creating an unknown signal when out of nowhere a sharp point of a spear materialized in front of his face. Caught off guard, he jumped back but stumbled and landed to his bottom successfully dodging the attack which disappeared again.

{“What was it? Does he control the spear remotely?”} Luna shouted from within Safo deeply concerned about the unknown assault.

“I don…” Again Safo’s sense made a funny feeling, it wasn’t as if someone tried to kill him but just hurt. Yon didn’t let Safo finish his words, a spear came swooping from the right side aiming at his head. This time, however, Safo reacted well, though without any grace. Safo dropped himself on the ground, head back, and hit it badly, yet he stretched his hands, palms out, and fired the mini pillars. How successful, he couldn’t tell. When Safo finished his attack nothing was there. He rocketed from the ground, a bit dizzy, but took his fighting stance and kept vigilance.

“I’m here.” Yon’s voice came from the place where he stood at the beginning of the match. “Good reacting time. How long do you think you can carry on like that?”

‘He is trying to waste my time. Need to attack, but the question is how to catch him? He seems like disintegrating himself or just can turn himself invisible by wish, but why then does he expose a spear?’ Safo didn’t reply to Yon’s taunts with words, instead, he threw a mini pillar which led to Yon’s disappearance once more.

‘He attacks when he thinks that I’m distracted by talking. So to lure him I should probably play along. Thanks to my sense of intentions, I can feel when he is about to attack.’ Safo looked at the time, half of the minute already passed.

“Hey y…” As expected a tip of the spear materialized from the thin air in front of Safo’s eyes. But the assault felt different. The spear didn’t move, being in a meter from him.

Safo wasn’t willing to wait for the first step from the man; he prepared himself to use another mini pillar when a jet of liquid squirted from the tip of the spear. And again Safo was caught by surprise, he stepped back without falling this time.

A stream of liquid reached his Flame Armor and vaporized sizzling in the air, but the spear kept moving forward and soon also came close to Safo’s defensive layer of fire. Once that happened the spear went back.

‘Not this time, mister.’ Safo moved after the spear in an attempt to understand the pattern behind the attacks, but soon the spear disappeared leaving no trace to follow.

“Cut it out! What’s up with these sneaky attacks, come out and fight.” Safo yelled out his frustration, his time was almost out, he really wanted to create an illusion around himself.

To everyone's disappointment, nothing happened. One minute left after the match started and Safo, with a heavy heart, decided to turn off his Flame Armor.

‘No problem, I wanted to use this trick against Kardon Gar, but Yon is also a strong opponent. I couldn’t finish him off in less than a minute so I must use a trump card now.’

Safo slowed it down and then turned it off altogether. Standing in his fishnet t-shirt and tight shorts. “I still look like a cheap stripper.”

“Haha, you're funny.” Voice came from nowhere. But the spear following after the voice came from behind, a good thing that the voice came first in a way alerting Safo.

Once more the spear moved a bit and squirted a liquid, but for Safo’s luck, his last dash caught the tip of the spear making it melt a tiny bit, enough to affect the spear tip, directing a jet to left from Safo, completely missing him. While jumping back Safo caught the glimpse of the ground that came in contact with the liquid, it was corroding by it. Making a small hole in the metal flooring that withstood a direct hit from the bull’s sharp horns.

‘This thing can dissolve my face, but why can't I feel that he is trying to do it?’

The spearman made a dash reaching Safo’s whereabouts in a split second, his spear pointed to Safo’s shoulder. Once more, leaning on his senses, Safo could predict the area of impact and turn on his Flame Armor to the max on his left shoulder. And he did it right on time, a length of thin hair was separating Safo and a sharp metal when a high degree of heat started melting it down. Literally, metal from a silver spear turned into liquid and dripped to the floor. Yon in fright jumped back several times and stopped before falling over the edge.

His metal spear turned into a stick half of a former size, it was so hot that Yon burned his hand when he tossed it away. Smoke came from his palm. He looked at Safo in disbelief, his brows frowned as if he was trying to read through his opponent.

“You had some more left. You’re more cunning than I thought.” He was about to say something more but restrained himself and moved to his stick, slowly stepping to the side, his body facing Safo Nur in case of abrupt assaults.

Safo didn’t reply, he just made himself closer with no plan in mind though.

{“You can do so many things, why don’t you not attacking with everything you have?”}

Safo didn’t reply to her either, something about Yon felt wrong.

Kutch once told him that the status that Yon possessed was a great honor in the Empire and among other nations throughout the universe. Even if it was the lowest status, achieving it wasn’t an easy deal. One should be truly “Exceptional” to earn the status. So why didn't he show his best in the fight? Safo couldn’t wrap his mind around the puzzle.

While two battled with their eyes the stick on the floor was hot no more. Yon picked it up and lashed forward. Like the last time in hand-to-hand combat, he reached Safo in one jump in an attempt to repeat his winning strategy. When Yon came close enough to hit Safo’s stomach with his stick he realized his mistake.

Flame Armor gobbled down the metal stick leaving a boiling pond on the metal surface below. Both of Yon’s hands began to scorch and caught on fire, as well as his clothes. In a second his assault turned the tables against him. The blazing aura stopped and a foot kicked him in the chest while he was about to drop before his opponent.

Safo stood tall in front of him his palm wide open, a wildfire enveloped his whole arm, he slowly shook his head. "Don't get up, please."

“I...I give up.”