Chapter 196: Fenrir Guild Leader versus World Government Guild Leader Part 2

Joshua watched as Charles twirled the spear around and fixed the small shield on to his other arm. The sudden shift in equipment told Joshua that Charles was going to completely change his style of combat as well. With a sword he'd have to get in close to do any real damage to Joshua, but with a spear he could play a more mid-range game where he had more reach than Joshua had with his scale blade. Joshua still wasn't sure exactly what Charles planned to do with the shield he brought out, but since it was strapped to his forearm instead of him having to hold it with his hand Charles could still use his shotgun to glide around the arena if he wanted to. The shield had the same shape as a turtle shell in a way with its small size, but that gave Joshua a good idea of how it could be used.

Charles didn't wait around too long as he started running over while twisting the shotgun that was on his waist so that it was aiming behind him. He fired away increasing his speed and soaring directly towards Joshua for another clash. This time Charles didn't get in close but kept just out of Joshua's reach as he kept shifting directions with his shotgun and he'd poke out fiercely with his spear in an attempt to break through Joshua's guard. The spear moved like a snake ready to strike as it shifted left and right before being thrusted at any small opening at blinding speeds. Joshua tilted his head to avoid the spear a couple of times since he knew that lifting up his scale blade to block it was exactly what Charles would have wanted. Joshua had no problem avoiding a strike to the head, but exposing his much larger body just to block one thrust would leave him open for many more attacks against a style that was geared towards quick strikes.

While the spear passed by Joshua's head he could hear a crackling sound as if thunder was exploding right next to his ear. His body tensed up as if he was shocked, but his aura cloak blocked most of the electricity that had reached out towards Joshua. Even though he had avoided the strike there was still the after effects of all of the electricity pouring off the spear into the surroundings. He could see little strings of lightning crackling and cutting across the arena floor with each thrust that Charles made. It was similar to a skill that Joshua had seen earlier in the tournament, but it wasn't a one-time strike. No matter how many times Charles struck out the lightning surrounded the spear and would shoot out into the surrounding air.

Joshua didn't waste time trying to block such a strike knowing full well that direct contact would just hinder him even more and could possibly end up paralyzing him long enough for him to freeze up and allow Charles to get in a good strike. Avoiding the worst case scenario Joshua focused on avoiding the spear while striking out with his scale blade in return whenever the spear passed by him. Charles dodged around his swings, but he couldn't avoid Joshua when he dashed forward with an aura charged leg kicking off the arena floor. Joshua timed it to where he'd be following Charles the moment he used his shotgun to try to create distance between them.

The situation forced Charles to raise up his shield to block Joshua's scale blade. The fact that Charles was using the shield instead of the spear to defend told Joshua right away that there was something special about the shield. The moment that Joshua's scale blade slammed into the shield it felt as if the blade slid off of it as it only left a small scratch even with Joshua's aura surrounding his blade. Before Charles could reposition himself Joshua kicked his foot out at Charles's shield sending him away before he could try to strike at Joshua again with his spear in an attempt to take advantage of Joshua being off balance from the powerful swing.

Charles stumbled back, but stopped himself from being knocked over by the powerful kick and started to prepare to go after Joshua once again. For a few minutes the two sides clashed over and over as neither side was willing to allow the other to take over the match. Charles kept his distance and used his spear to strike out at Joshua over and over. Occasionally he would land a glancing blow that would stun Joshua for a brief moment, but Joshua's aura didn't allow him to be stunned long enough for Charles to go after any vital points. On the other side he used his shield in several different ways to try to get in any advantage against Joshua. He was able to block Joshua's scale blade with the shield by tilting it a certain way and forcing the scale blade to slide off of the smooth curved shield.

On the other side Joshua was using his aura to his advantage as he would kick Charles around like a rag doll whenever he was able to catch him getting in to close with his spear. Although the shield was able to stop his scale blade without much problem it didn't handle his kicks nearly as well. Joshua could already see that Charles's arm was shaking from the abuse it was getting from the force of Joshua's blows against the shield. In a drawn out fight Joshua would eventually disable Charles's at the rate things were going, but it was clear there was going to be a change coming up soon if Charles wanted to win the fight. Joshua hadn't taken any serious damage with any of the small wounds he had gained healing from his aura and high regeneration.

It seemed like Charles was thinking along the same line as Joshua as he backed away quickly from their latest clash and held his spear to his side while shrugging his shoulders trying to alleviate the numbness he was feeling in his left arm from all of the collisions with his shield. It was obvious that he couldn't keep up the same strategy for much longer and Joshua was too good at putting up a defensive front to think he'd leave a large enough opening for Charles to take advantage of.

There was one other thing Joshua had taken notice of as he watched Charles carefully during their brief break from attacking each other. The spear that he had been using for a while was starting to emit a lot less electricity from it. The last couple of time he had been slashed by the spear while avoiding getting stabbed Joshua had barely been stunned at all. At first he had thought that he was getting more resistant to the paralysis or that his aura had gotten used to dealing with it, but now it was clear that the spear was getting weaker and running out of energy to supply the lightning effect.

Charles frowned a little bit after looking at the spear, but he didn't plan on letting Joshua get an edge because of the fact that his current weapon was getting weaker. This time around Charles wasn't going to keep up the same song in dance, he was clearly getting far more injured than Joshua and if they went at it the same way for the next ten minutes or so then his arm would be a ruined mess and he had no chance of winning this fight with one arm. Instead of going down that hopeless path Charles decided to switch gears one more time. He hefted the spear like a javelin and through it directly at Joshua. He wasn't expecting such a simple tactic to work, but it would by enough time for Charles to switch to another set of weapons that he thought might give him a chance to win the match.

When Joshua saw the spear hurtling his way coated with volatile lightning as if it was about to explode he used an aura blast from his foot to kick himself as far away as possible from the upcoming explosion. Once the spear pierced into the arena floor it exploded into a massive surge of lightning that melted a portion of the arena and would have done some serious damage if Joshua hadn't moved out of the way in time. Joshua turned his attention back towards Charles and noticed that he shifted to a new set of gear once again. This time he had on a pair of black gloves that stood out with the lightning shooting out from the back of the gloves from time to time. He also held a pair of military grade knives that were clearly designed in a specific way, but with far better material than such weapons were usually created with. The odd thing was the six daggers floating in the air around Charles that were all covered in lightning in a similar fashion to the gloves he was wearing.

Before Joshua could even think of figuring out how Charles planned on fighting from this point on Charles shot off with his shotgun once more as he made a mad dash for Joshua. The floating daggers were following right behind him as he charged towards Joshua and continued to use his movement strategy with his shot gun. What surprised Joshua was that when Charles swung his hand forward the knives that were floating around him would strike out in the direction that he swung his hand. This gave Charles even more range than he had with his spear and also allowed him to attack with multiple weapons at once. For a while the strategy seemed to be working with Joshua having to either block or dodge the barrage of knives while Charles would try to attack in close from time to time to take Joshua by surprise while he was busy dealing with the floating knives.

The situation was annoying for Joshua since if a single throwing knife hit then he would be stunned long enough for more to come in and hit him. They didn't do too much damage to him thanks to his aura cloak and strong leather armor but Joshua wouldn't be able to rely on his regeneration if he got stunned long enough for Charles to get in a powerful strike. Deciding to put an end to things Joshua decided to take out the injured arm that Charles was trying to keep from using. The moment Joshua dodged one of Charles strikes where he came in to try to do a big blow Joshua swung his scale blade directly at the shield on Charles's left arm. Charles had no choice but to try to stop it, but Joshua didn't plan on using a normal blow.

Joshua concentrated his aura around his scale blade along with the power of an aura blast, but this time around he didn't focus on sharpening his blade and instead he decided to use it like overwhelming blunt force. The weight of his scale blade grew even heavier as the large amount of aura filled it and the moment it slammed into the shield it shattered surprising Charles. The power of the blow completely ruined Charles's left arm and sent him crashing across the arena. Joshua didn't let up as he blinked towards his prey and used an echo strike to do the same attack again against his downed foe. Without a shield to block in Charles could only attempt to block with the one dagger in his good arm, but it was all for not as he was hit straight on in the chest and vanished from the arena.