177 - Duel S vs V

*

Their stats were quite similar due to their classes, though Sakase was slightly faster.

Starting off the match, Sakase bent his right knee 90 degrees, exerting all of his body weight and pressure and that one leg. From that stance, we could tell that he walked forward with his right leg first as he would use it to launch forward after his stance. Though invisible, intense currents of wind begin to gather and form rounds around his limbs. Holding both his arms up in a martial art stance, he launched off his foot with all his momentum, swinging his right hand forward with all his strength. His left hand bent back to maintain his body's balance, causing his rush to be unhindered.

Valern answered with a wall of fire bent into a V shape. The wall seemed to cave in with the intent to capture its foe. Unleashing his punch in time, Sakase broke a hole in the wall with sheer wind currents, the momentum from his launch powered through the path, escaping the blazing wall of heat.

Preparing his left fist to attack, he applied multiple air currents to aid the speed of his body and fists. The resulting additional currents weighed on his existence, slowing down his overall momentum. However that was it, he could reduce the weight were he to rotate it faster. Pouring his magic into the air around him, the current escalated to an astronomical scale, such that it picked up the dust and debris around to form a visible tornado.

"[Corkscrew gale punch]! " (Sakase)

"[Flame armour]! [High heat evasion]! [Return blow incinerate]. " (Valern)

With a combination of defense that shake off the shockwaves and an evasion skill to avoid the centre of the punch, Valern effectively dodged Sakase's devastating attack, leaving a row of craters in the punch's path. Executing a spin with the evasion skill, the punch barely missed his neck as a new skill was applied. [Return blow incinerate] was a counter attack skill, it relied on the user to either dodge or tank the attack, as such it saw extremely little use in a world where people ca n die in a single hit.

Carrying over the momentum from the spin, the skill applied an extremely high heat layer of Valern's right fist, it was capable of melting through metal. As such it was scary to face Valern in the arena, leading to miniscule amounts of actual sparring practice. The flame roared into the air behind as it consumed more oxygen, effectively growing as large as a car and powering his fist like a rocket.

As Sakase transitioned from his left fist to a high left kick, he casted [Steel rupturing wind] and [ballistic gale kick]. A soft green glow emanated in an instant to signify its casting success, while a deadly violent wind blew little chunks out of the surroundings.

As their attacks met, both their limbs ruptured and blew off into countless fragments, strewn into a rain of crimson over the battle ground. The environment didn't matter as such could change based on a whim of the 2 adversaries. Losing his balance, he casts a wind spell to support his body weight without his left leg. While Valern sealed off his wound by burning it shut.

Both barely making out of that exchange with their health in the red, the threshold for Teleporting out of the arena and healing was avoided by pure luck.

"Tch, it seemed we were both evenly matched. And don't last too long in battle either. Unfortunately I brought a stamina potion. [Will of wind] [Superfocus - gale] [Soothing breeze]. Time to taste defeat!" (Sakase)

"Haa~? You think I'll go down this easily? [Body of flame] [Edge enhance - fire] [Flame armour] [High heat groundshrink]" (Valern)

Far from expectations, Valern's lean body wasn't quivering like all his rather extreme fans fantasise about. No, it was the opposite in fact. Unlike his class and elemental affinity, his mind was rather cool and his gait held absolute confidence. Everything was going according to expectations, even the struggle and pain.

If you disregard the monsters like Sakase and Lilith, everyone else would have been normal. Such thoughts have leaked into the insecure crevices of his mind, whispering, consuming, devouring his conscious. However Valern wished to be both different and same as the 2 devils of the school. Recently, the two even had a city destroying Duel atop the school building.

That is why he needed to stand, right here right now. He couldn't give out, all those awful thoughts, all those awful assumptions, they could be blown away right now. All he needed to do was stand, assert his existence on everyone here. All his struggles were simplified and given clarity when he watched the Duel between Lilith and Sakase.

Jealousy, envy. They had power and he didn't. All his problems would disappear right now if he proved himself stronger than at least one of the 2. Unfortunately one existed on an Unreachable height, he had a bone to pick with his lifelong rival anyway. Even if he couldn't win, Valern needed to exert his strength, become one of the monsters and spread his reputation. And that needed strength, what better way to display it than fight his rival?

His eyes were fixed onto Sakase's, his target couldn't leave out of his sight. Sakase has way more stamina, it was proven due to how much he trained to fight Lilith. He had been training a whole entire year to fight a demon on another dimension, how could Valern's little struggle ever match his resolve? However he always had one thing over Sakase due to his elemental affinity, his explosive power. At this point, he would lose after the next exchange. The only logical move left, was to expend everything while he still had the mana, and finish the fight.

"... [Fireball Ex-tier 5] [Hellfire constriction] [Runes of ifrit] [Runes of surtur]... One final... [Return blow incinerate]!" (Valern)

An array of colours wash over his body as 9 different skills activated. In an instant, the ground shrink activated and his figure was in reaching distance of Sakase's. He fire off every attack in his right fist, roaring his will into the air.

"HOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

(Valern von hofeuer)

"[Ultimate! Steel gale barrier]!! "

(Sakase)

As Sakase's speed was slightly faster, his barrier cut through Valern's arm, leading to an amputation.

"aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!" (Valern)

Regardless, his palm had finally past Sakase's barrier, leaving an amputating force applied in between his wrist and elbow on his forearm. He cried out in pain, wringing the last dregs of his vocal chords before they went sore. The palm that went past the barrier was in the shape of a fist from Valern's punch, the fingers lifted up, revealing an orb so bright it blinded nearby individuals. It was the [Fireball Ex] that he had casted, boosted by [Ifrit's runes] and [Surtor's runes]. Gradually, the light consumed everything, it couldn't be defended against at such short range. Sakase had simply underestimated Valern.