Chapter 179: Dealing with the Lazy Carsen Brother Part 2

The powerful explosion had been more than enough to rattle the entire battle arena with the crowd even struggling to stand on their feet from the force behind the attack. It was the first time Joshua had shown off such a powerful skill and everyone in the crowd was stunned from the scene in front of them. It was a scene unlike any other in the tournament up to this point and it created a moment of silence that was soon followed with loud cheers as they were excited to see what would happen next. While the smoke and dust was clearing out from the explosion Joshua made sure to keep his senses focused on his opponent. He could tell that his attack hadn't directly hit Devin, but the blow had destroyed several of the tunnels and other structures under the arena that Devin had shot his energy blast through to keep Joshua on his toes.

Before the dust finished clearing out Joshua could sense Devin coming out of a hole further away on the arena and turned his attention in that direction. The only issue Joshua had with the current situation was that he could still sense a well spring of energy underneath the arena that wasn't there before the battle started and knew that it had to be a part of some strategy that Devin was planning on using. It wasn't spread out all over the arena like some sort of land mines, but it was still a powerful energy source that could do a number of things if given the chance. It was located at the center of the arena where Joshua had attacked before, but it was a bit deeper underneath the arena so it wasn't effected by the explosion that Joshua had caused.

When the dust finished clearing out Joshua could see Devin standing across from him panting with dirt and dust covering his body. Even though Devin had made his way out of the ground it was clear that he hadn't come out completely unscathed. There was a couple dents in his armor where the powerful explosion had probably rocked him and he had a gash on his forehead that was leaking blood, but he still stood tall holding his axe at the ready to continue the fight. The only reason Joshua hadn't been hurt from the explosion he created was his powerful aura cloak. Any little injuries that Joshua would have gotten would regenerate within seconds before anyone noticed them.

Devin seemed to be ready to move on to his next strategy as the muscles that Joshua could see that weren't covered in armor started to bulge and Joshua knew from that Devin was planning on making it a contest of strength next. That made no sense to Joshua since he knew that both Dave and Dillon had far more skills that were useful in that regard and Devin didn't seem to be the type to go in that direction. Devin used another skill that Joshua didn't know of and his skin started to tan considerably in front of him as it looked like it was turning bronze. The stone of the arena floor underneath Devin started to creak showing that a heavy weight was being added in some way.

Once Devin had finished using these two skills he didn't rush over like his two brothers would have. Instead Devin stood his ground and made it a point to wait for Joshua's approach. Joshua knew that the skill that increased the size and strength of Devin's muscles would also make him much slower, so trying to chase Joshua down was pointless and they both knew this. Joshua could try to attack from afar with energy slashes, but Devin wasn't so slow that he couldn't avoid long range attacks that were easy to see. Plus he wouldn't really need to avoid them since he could easily cut them down if he needed to.

It was clear that the clash between the two was going to become more close ranged and Joshua couldn't really understand how that could possibly be beneficial to Devin even if he was currently boosting his strength with two skills. The only wild card currently was the source of energy underneath the arena that Joshua knew wasn't there for no reason at all. Devin was planning to use it in some way to give him some sort of advantage, but waiting around and letting Devin plan out things wasn't going to get Joshua anywhere. If he wanted to stand back and have Joshua come to him, then that was exactly what he was going to get.

Joshua used his aura to strengthen his legs as he shot forward across the arena at such a high speed that he looked like a blur. It was the best way to close the distance between himself and his opponent without using an ability like aura blast to kick off the ground or a skill like blink to instantly teleport. He wanted to save both of those tricks for when he faced an opponent that would be surprised by them. In this situation he wasn't hidden by smokescreens like he had been against Marcus so using a skill that he wanted to keep hidden for the last day of the tournament was foolish without a way to hide it.

Once Joshua got close to Devin he could already see Devin lifting his axe in preparation to swing it directly towards Joshua. With the tactic that Joshua had used to close the distance it was fairly obvious which direction he was coming from, so all Devin had to do was prepare to strike while looking to see which direction Joshua's scale blade would be swung from. Both of their weapons clashed with enough force to shake the arena. Neither Joshua nor Devin gave ground to the other as the boost in strength that Devin had from his muscles and hardened body was balanced out with Joshua use of aura to empower his swing. The arena floor cracked underneath them as they each shoved off each other creating a small amount of distance between them.

Now that Joshua was in close he went for another swing of his scale blade that was aimed directly for Devin's side, but once again his blade was blocked by the large axe. It became clear to Joshua that even though Devin's speed had been slowed down his reflexes were still good enough to keep up with Joshua. Even so after the first exchange of blows it was obvious that Devin was treating the situation like he was completely on the defensive. It was as if he was trying to block off a powerful beast that was trying to go through him to get to someone else. The situation made Joshua feel like he was going up against a turtle instead of a person as Devin did nothing but block his attacks.

The problem Joshua was having as the fight went on was trying to break through Devin's guard. Since Devin was doing nothing but defending it was nearly impossible to find any openings even with Joshua's speed advantage. That would have been fine if Joshua was able to knock Devin off balance with his attacks, but Devin held his stance no matter how hard Joshua hit him. The added stability in Devin's stance from the skills he was using made him like an iron wall that wouldn't budge. At this rate Joshua knew that he was going to have to use another skill if he wanted to do any real damage to Devin, but he didn't mind doing so as long as he didn't end up showing off some of his stronger trump cards.

It was while Joshua was thinking of how to get through Devin's guard and was knocked back once more that he finally felt something off with his aura sense. He could feel the energy source underground shooting something towards where he was going to land. Before Joshua could get caught up in the sneak attack he used his scale blade to stop his momentum as he stabbed the ground preventing himself from falling back in the direction of the oncoming energy. He made the right choice as a blast of energy shot out of the ground where Joshua would have landed. When he looked at Devin he could see that Devin was annoyed that Joshua was able to avoid the trap. The explosion of energy wouldn't have ended the match but it would have forced Joshua to use his aura to block against it.

At the moment Joshua knew that Devin was going for the long game with this fight, but Joshua wasn't going to sit around and allow that to happen. He still had ways to get around Devin's defenses while avoiding the random explosions of energy, but the longer he put things off the more likely that Devin would get a chance to turn the tides of battle completely in his favor. Devin seemed to realize this fact to as more burst of energy started to come out of the ground targeting Joshua in an attempt to keep him from being able to create an opportunity to go on the attack. Joshua kept on the move as he dashed around the explosion and sent an energy slash towards Devin to keep him from being able to just sit back and watch.

The energy slash didn't go directly for Devin but instead it landed on the ground in front of him and exploded like a grenade that sent rubble into the air. Joshua wasn't surprised when he could sense that Devin hadn't moved from his spot but he wasn't intending for him to. Joshua used the energy slash to break the line of sight giving him a chance to get in close before another explosion could go off. Before the dust even cleared Joshua was closing in from the side, but Devin didn't seem surprised by this. Devin simply turned his body preparing to block another one of Joshua's strikes, but at the same time Joshua could sense another surge of energy preparing to erupt beneath him once more.

This time around Joshua planned on ending the match on the next confrontation so he didn't try to avoid the energy blast coming from beneath him. Instead Joshua jumped into the air while holding his scale blade beneath him like a shield. He was far enough ahead of the explosion that the force sent him forward instead of further up into the air. His scale blade blocked most of the damage while his aura cloak was there to prevent any of the left over force from hurting him.

With the momentum gained from the explosion Joshua was sent directly towards Devin who was preparing to block another one of Joshua's strikes with his axe. This time around Joshua was having none of it, instead he aimed his scale blade directly for the axe itself instead of Devin. The strike had enough force behind it to send both weapons to the side giving Joshua the opening he was looking for. He shot straight for Devin and caught him in a strangle hold after dropping his scale blade. Joshua quickly swung around Devin's back and used his larger size and the strength gained from his aura to restrain Devin while slowly chocking him out.

Devin struggled for a time as he tried to use his strength to break free, but although Devin was a good fighter he was no martial artist. He didn't know the best way to break out of such a hold, and he didn't really have the time to as Joshua latched on and kept up the strangling effort as Devin lost his strength and soon enough vanished from the arena.