Chapter 189: Sibling Match Part 1

Lily and Rex were staring at each other as the countdown started for the match. Rex already had his spear at the ready and was on guard ready for whatever beast Lily was going to bring out for the match. It was obvious that Rex had spent a lot of time looking up his opponents abilities and from the way he was ready to charge in with his foot planted and his body leaning forward it was clear that he planned to get in close from the get go. Rex most likely realized that fighting against multiple powerful beast on his own in such a constricted area would be foolish. His goal was to end the match fast by taking Lily down while avoiding her beast companions for the most part.

Although Rex had a pretty good idea of how to attack the situation he was still at a massive disadvantage not knowing all of the beast companions that Lily had at her disposal or the skills and abilities that she could use at any given time. When the countdown got down to thirty seconds before the match started Lily seemed to have decided how she planned on going about the fight. She brought out Tank for everyone to see and Joshua could also see Jade appear for a brief second before disappearing into Tank's shadow. It was unlikely that anyone out of the people from the Alliance took notice of Jade since it only looked like a small pair of glowing eyes had appeared in Lily's shadow for an instant before shifting over to Tank's enormous shadow.

Lily leapt up onto Tank's shell and climbed the rest of the way with practiced ease. Tank didn't hold back on his size as he grew to his full enormous form and it got to the point where he took up the entire half of Lily's side of the arena. Everyone in the crowd were shocked by the size of Lily's beast companion including Rex who had to step back to get a good look at the massive creature. Rex had seen bigger beast while subjugating some dungeons, but not by all that much. The fact that such a creature was under control and seemed to be looking down at him with eyes full of intelligence quickly put Rex on edge. The moment the match started Rex dashed forward planning to climb up Tank's shell and go for Lily while completely ignoring the massive turtle. Tank stomped the arena floor in an attempt to create enough destruction to knock Rex off his course, but he already leapt into the air and onto a portion of Tank's shell.

This seemed to be expected by both Lily and Tank and things were going according to their plan. With Tank's massive size it would take a minute to climb all the way up to the top of his shell and both Lily and Tank weren't going to make it easy. Tank immediately started conjuring a bunch of moisture in the air as a cloud formed above the arena and rain started pouring down on top of Tank's back. The water made Tank's shell extra slippery and hard to climb up, but that wasn't the main point of the tactic. The extra moisture in the air made it easy for both Tank and Lily to control the water to attack Rex. Lily was synced to Tank and was using his ability to control water to her benefit.

Lily and Tank's combined assault on Rex was making it hard for him to even try to climb up Tank's shell let alone attack back. Tank created several bubbles that floated around the area and would drift towards Rex. Whenever they got close enough they would explode and knock him off course. There were several times where the force of the explosions nearly knocked Rex off of Tank's shell all together, but he held on until he was able to climb all the way to the top. Even though Rex was now able to see Lily standing in the distance he didn't get there without taking a ton of injuries. Since he wore light armor he wasn't able to protect himself all that well from Tank's onslaught of bubble bombs. Pieces of his armor had been blown off and his left arm was already dripping blood.

Even in bad shape most people would still think that Rex had a chance of winning the match as long as he could get to Lily. At the moment he had a clear path forward and there was no beast standing in his way. He had more than enough strength left to wield his spear and close the distance quickly, but Joshua knew that Lily wasn't a sitting duck that was unable to defend herself. He was the one that trained her after all and with Tank available for synchronization there was no way that Lily hadn't already done that. Joshua was certain that Lilly currently had similar stats to Tank and with that set up there was no way she wouldn't be able to hold out against Rex if she had to.

Rex started charging forward while dodging any of the bubbles that were forming within his path to Lily. Now that he had better footing and wasn't climbing up Tank's shell he didn't have any trouble dodging the explosions as he made his way towards Lily. Pulling out her staff Lily simply kept creating more bubbles in Rex's path slowing down his approach as she channeled another powerful surge of water in her free hand. Once Rex got close she pointed the hand that was preparing a powerful attack towards Rex who immediately leaped into the air to avoid the incoming attack with his spear ready to plunge down directly towards Lily's head. He planned to end the match in one strike and with his speed he was in the perfect position to do so.

For a moment it looked as if Lily was about to lose the match then a small lazy smile appeared on her face. Just before the spear reached Lily it suddenly stopped as if it was frozen in the air. When Joshua took his eyes off of Lily and looked towards Rex he saw several black tendrils shooting out of her shadow and connecting with Rex's own shadow. The tendrils formed tails that shot up into the air and wrapped around Rex's body. All of his limbs were restrained and he was stuck in the position of thrusting his spear forward. Joshua could see that the shadows were struggling to hold Rex in place and that they would be torn apart if he struggled enough, but they did their job well enough for Lily to end the match. She simply raised her hand that was channeling the powerful spell and a powerful concentration of water appeared in front of it. It shot out a jet of water that cut straight through Rex's armor and all sending him vanishing from the arena. The show of power had the entire audience surprised.

With the first match finished it was time for Joshua's match with his sister. It was a match he would have preferred to avoid, but not because he didn't want to fight his sister. Joshua just didn't want to be the one to end Amy's run in the tournament, especially so early on. He'd hope she'd get the chance to fight a couple more people at least, but she had already made a decent name for herself through the tournament so he wouldn't be pulling any punches for the upcoming match. By the time Joshua had finished thinking about how to handle the upcoming match he was teleported away to the arena. Standing across from him was his little sister with a smug smile on her face. She was already bouncing around before the countdown even started.

The two siblings walked forward so that they were standing right across from each other being as close as possible without crossing their side of the arena. Joshua had his scale blade on his back, but decided to put it away back into his inventory before the match started. Amy had a look of surprise at first when she saw this, but the she grinned. "I guess this means you're taking me seriously. We'll fight like old times then?" Amy said as she punched her fist together.

"I've gotten pretty decent with my scale blade, but I'm still quite a bit better at hand to hand for now. Using my scale blade against someone like you would just be a disadvantage. Besides last time I've checked I'm the one that's always kicking your but in are spars." Joshua said with a grin as his aura cloak formed around his body and started giving off its usual pressure.

"Well we haven't fought against each other with all of her skills in a long time, and I'm much stronger than I was before." Amy said before pointing at Joshua with a closed fist. "Today's the day I'll finally take you down. I've been able to beat dad a couple times, but you're still the goal I've yet to reach. That changes now!"

"Well try not to disappoint me Amy." Joshua said as he mirrored her posture. "I've been looking forward to a good challenge." The moment Joshua finished talking the countdown ended and they both tapped fist before stepping back and getting in position to fight. Joshua knew that Amy was going to rely on her advantage when it came to speed to try to get in some hits, but she was going to need to figure out a way to deal some real damage if she wanted to win. Joshua on the other hand was going to rely on his experience and advantage in most stats outside of dexterity. The true test of the clash between the two siblings was going to come down to whether Amy's penetrative abilities were going to be able to do enough to get through Joshua's aura.

Amy was the first one to dash forward as both of her legs were shining with a light tinge of aura. Joshua already had his aura sense up so that he'd take notice of such things. This let him know exactly which attacks he should be looking out for. Although Amy acted as if she was about to throw a punch, Joshua focused on the more threatening blow that would come next. He tilted his head back avoiding the incoming punch then used his hand to knock aside the following kick. At first Joshua thought that might be the end of her first surge of attacks, but she continued to twist her body to send in another kick that was stronger than the first and Joshua had to use a bit more strength to redirect it.

When it looked like Amy was about to continue with another flourish of kicks Joshua realized what skill she was using and smiled as he didn't allow her to continue building up momentum with her attacks. This time around he caught her by the ankle stopping her momentum. He was going to pick her up and restrain her, but Amy leaped with one leg while twisting and aiming for his head. The fact that the blow was still under the effects of the skill meant that it was much stronger than the previous one and Joshua didn't like his chances of being able to catch it so easily. He was forced to release her as he avoided the kick then he shot out a small blast of aura forcing Amy to dodge out of the way.

With that her momentum had been stalled, but they both stared at each other grinning as they knew the match had just started.