Chapter 453 452   - World Tournament(Part 11)　　Point-of-View: Rain, The Water Dragon

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　　"Time for the second quarter-final, and it's Rain of Abyss versus Esta of Liberty!"

　　This should be fun, my opponent's an Elf with Demonic powers, and is clearly the strongest competitor from either Liberty or Idyll. The fact that she's made it this far into the competition is proof of that.

　　But she's not gonna get any further. Now that we're at the business end of the tournament, I can't afford to play around anymore...time to take this seriously, there aren't any weak opponents left.

　　"Alrighty, then, let's...BEGIN!"

　　The Elf immediately shot towards me while firing a barrage of wind blasts at me, which I canceled out by countering with pressurized water blasts, before swiftly flying up as she fired out an Obliteration Magic blast at me.

　　She responded by flying up after me, charging up an intense-looking wind blast in her hands as she approached me...when suddenly, she teleported out of sight, before reappearing behind me.

　　Crap, not good, I won't be able to dodge in time!

　　With no way to evade, I braced my back while simultaneously whipping out my tail as hard as I could. Right as I felt my tail connect with her midsection, an immense force struck my back, sending me rapidly plunging towards the ground at a breakneck speed, as I simultaneously sent her flying back and slamming onto the wall of the safety barrier with a loud thud.

　　Before I could crash onto the ground, I manifested a large sphere of water below me, splashing onto and through it before my shoulder slammed onto the ground painfully. I grimaced slightly as I felt a twinge, before shaking it off and getting back on my feet.

　　It's a bit sore, but I didn't break anything, at least...I definitely would have if I didn't form that ball of water to lessen the momentum. Okay, maybe I underestimated her a bit...big mistake on my part. Let's fix it.

　　I then rapidly shot towards her, as she shakily got back onto her feet, bracing herself with a frown as she saw me coming. She swiftly flew up as I fired out rapid steam blasts at her, before swooping down at me and slashing with one of her daggers.

　　I deflected her slash with my right claws, and then drove my left claws straight at her face, leaving a cut on her cheek as she quickly tilted her head out of the way and fired out a small Obliteration Magic blast out of her mouth at me.

　　I swiftly formed a block of ice in front of myself to buy myself a split second of time, and as my ice fractionally slowed down her blast, I spun across with a shuffle of my feet, repositioning myself to her right side and narrowing evading it.magic

　　She thrust her right dagger at me as I dodged the blast, which I evaded and countered with a swift kick aimed at her side. She leapt over my kick and fired out a wind blast from her mouth, which I just barely managed to counter by simultaneously firing out a steam blast from my mouth, our attacks canceling out.　　Suddenly, she flung both her daggers at either side of my head, which narrowly whizzed past my head, each dagger slightly grazing me as they flew past me. She then teleported behind me again, my eyes widening as I saw the chain connected the two daggers in front of my neck.

　　Before I could react, she grabbed the daggers and pulled with a violent tug as she swung her arms across each other, the chain wrapping around my neck and rapidly jerking me down to the ground, my back hitting the ground with a thud as I let out a slight gasp.

　　I then gritted my teeth and fired out an intense steam blast from my mouth at her, she quickly put up her left arm defensively, before letting out a cry of pain as my blast struck her and broke her forearm with a loud crunch, burning her skin as the force of the blast sent her flying up several meters, before she used a burst of wind to cancel out the momentum.

　　As she flew back and got some distance, she gritted her teeth and fired out an Obliteration Magic blast from her right hand at me, which I narrowly evaded by quickly getting back on my feet and leaping out of the way.

　　She then let out a determined yell as she fired intense wind blasts from her feet to send herself rapidly shooting back down towards me, forming a wind blade around her right palm and swinging her arm at me as she closed in on me at a blinding speed.

　　I quickly sprang away to avoid it, letting out a stifled hiss of pain as it gashed my right shoulder, my arm slumping as she sliced through my scales.

　　She swiftly formed another wind blade along her palm as she locked her gaze onto me, and as I instinctively flew up, a slight smile appeared on her face, right before I hit something above me...and got sent plummeting back down to the ground.

　　What the-...? A barrier ceiling with a repulsion effect upon contact?

　　I then sprang back in alarm as she shot towards me with her wind blade poised to strike...when suddenly, I felt something hit my heel, upsetting my balance and causing me to fall backwards. She formed a narrow horizontal barrier by the ground to trip me up...damn, well played.

　　She leapt up above me right as I hit the ground, and I resigned myself as she drove her wind blade straight down at my chest...there's no way I can dodge or counter that in time, she got the better of me. Guess my fun's over, huh...

　　"And the winner of the second quarter-final is...Esta of Liberty!"

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　　Point-of-View: Prato Cichudde

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　　I've got my work cut out for me in this match, this isn't going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination...

　　"It's time for the third quarter-final! It's a clash between two competitors from Abyss, Prato versus Jhin!"

　　It was always a given that I would be mostly facing opponents with higher power levels in this tournament, but this is the first match where it's a significantly drastic difference.　　Oh, well, no point in giving up without even trying, I suppose. I'll need to hit him hard and fast with my strongest attacks right off the bat...

　　"Good luck to you," Remarked Jhin, as we prepared to begin.

　　"Oh, uh...thank you. And good luck to you too."

　　He really doesn't need any luck though, while I need all the luck I can get.

　　"Looks like both competitors are ready to get started, so let's get right into it...BEGIN!"

　　I immediately fired several heat beams at Jhin, focusing and concentrating as I did, each beam growing narrower, more intense and sharper than the last, as I unleashed a relentless barrage at him.

　　But he blocked my beams with the flat of his sword, my attacks deflecting off of it. I continued firing at him with my left hand, as I clutched my short spear in my right, coating the blade with intense purple flames, before arching back my arm and taking aim.

　　I then flung it with all my might at a slightly upward angle as I simultaneously fired out a highly intense heat beam, aiming to have the trajectory of the spear's arc land right on Jhin's head.

　　He noticed the incoming spear at the last minute and quickly sprang back as he swung his sword across, deflecting my spear and shattering the blade, before hissing in pain as one of my heat beams grazed his left side with a slight sizzle.

　　No longer content with staying on the defensive, he rapidly shot towards me, narrowly avoiding most of my beams while some of them nicked him as he failed to fully evade them. He's fast!

　　I was forced to end my barrage and duck backwards as he closed in on me and slashed at my head, the blade cutting off a few strands of hair as it whizzed over my face, before I used the backward momentum to back flip and swung my feet up as hard as I could.

　　He dodged my kick and swung his sword straight down at me, which I sprang back to avoid and countered with another heat beam, which grazed the top of his left ear as he swiftly tilted his head out of the way.

　　I then placed a hand on the ground and swung myself up feet first, with my right foot aimed at his throat. Before I could connect, he caught my foot with his hand and pulled me up, the tip of his sword pointed at my chest as he began to drive it towards me.

　　He quickly turned his head as I fired out another heat beam, which struck and pierced a hole across the bridge of his nose, but his grip on my foot didn't weaken, as he drove the blade towards me undeterred.

　　Damn it...I'm out of moves. I then found myself outside the barrier, as I got teleported out right before his blade could strike me. How frustrating...though, well, I suppose ending at the top eight in the tournament isn't that bad...

　　"And the winner is...Jhin of Abyss!"

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