Chapter 25 Combat exam (Part 5) "Semi finals (Part 1)"

Half hour break was given which the judges used to set the match up for the Semi finals. The students in the arena did not go anywhere and discussed about the upcoming matches and were debating about who would win and advance to finals. The four students who were in the Semi finals moved to a shade and stood separate from each other trying to concentrate on their upcoming match. Sean moved to a corner and removed his t-shirt which had blood and was a bit torn during the match and wore another t-shirt which he took from his spacial pouch.

Soon half an hour passed and the announcer asked the four students to come forward and announced "

Match 1 Melinda Merlin Vs Sirius Blackwood

Match 2 Roman Pierce Vs Sean Walker"

The judge announced the start of Match 1 as Melinda and Sirius entered the stage. Sirius and Melinda maintained a distance of 15 meters ready to make their move. Melinda as usual started with her slash attack as she sent three Qi slashes each aiming at Sirius's chest, face and leg. Sirius used his movement technique to easily dodge the Qi attacks and sent his own Qi attacks which were integration of sword arts and Qi slash which resembled more like a sword Qi attack as he targeted Melinda's upper body. Melinda instead of dodging the attacks sent her Qi slash at the sword slash which cancelled against each other and continued by sending three more Qi slashes - one on Sirius's chest while the other two towards the left and right side of Sirius where he could move to dodge the Qi slash which was sent towards his chest. This was to cut off the option of dodging for Sirius. Sirius who could not see any opening to dodge the Qi slashes sent his sword Qi to counter the attacks from Melinda. Both Qi slashes met each other and were cancelled. Though the two seemed to go all-out from the begining, they were only testing each other to see if they could find any weakness. 'This is going to be a pain in the ass' thought Sirius as he could not find any weakness and decided to attack and see if he could get any opening which he could exploit. Melinda was rather calm despite her offence not going anywhere.

Sirius decided to make his move and activated his bloodline for the first time in this exam. His bloodline was stealth type known as Shadowless which helps him hide his body within the shadow increasing his ability to create a sneak attack. It also helps him in increasing his speed and combining with the use of sword which is Sirius's choice of weapon turns him into a natural assassin. Sirius who activated his bloodline had his body covered in black smoke and disappeared and instantly appeared behind Melinda and stabbed at her back by using his fingers covered in Qi. Melinda was shocked due to the sudden turn of events and instantly used a defence Martial technique while activating her bloodline to enhance her defence. Melinda trained a body strengthening Martial technique known as iron wall technique which improves her overall defence, however despite enhancing her defence she felt a sharp pain from her back as a small cut appeared in her back and small amount of blood spilled on the stage. Bearing the pain Melinda turned around and sent a sharp Qi attack behind her which passed through Sirius as he turned into a black smoke and attacked the back of Melinda once again aiming at her leg. Instead of blocking this attack Melinda dodged by rolling away and narrowly escaped the sword slash of Sirius. Sirius sent three continuous attacks, all aiming at the back of Melinda as she was rolling away and it landed on her back drawing further blood despite loosing more than half of its power to her defence technique. Melinda remained unmoved as if she was knocked out and just as Sirius moved closer to her, she turned around and sent a Qi slash at point blank range. "Shit" shouted Sirius as he tried to block the attack as it was way too close for him to dodge using his movement technique or escape by activating his bloodline. Sirius's weakness was defence as his training in sword arts focuses on offence and speed while completely ignoring his defence. Though Sirius activated his defence technique the enhanced Qi slash of Melinda proved to be too good for him as his defence technique crumbled and he received a deep cut in both his arms.

Melinda who finally saw an opening sent a Qi slash towards Sirius. However Sirius had already retreated and just as Sirius planned on sending his own sword Qi to destroy Melinda's attack, the Qi slash sent by Melinda exploded near Sirius's face and blocked his sight. "Argh" screamed Sirius as he covered his eye in pain and then Sirius felt sharp pain in his chest as he received barrage of attacks from Melinda. Sirius desperately escaped using his bloodline and retreated to the other end of the stage. His upper body and arms were filled with slashes through which blood flowed and his eyes were red from the Qi blast attack from Melinda during the previous attack. Though explaining took a while the actual fight only took less than 2 minutes.

Sirius who seemed to hold an advantage at first was instantly pushed to his limits as his movement became sluggish and Melinda who had received some damage at the begining seemed more calm as usual as if she had received that damage to make him drop his guard and find an opening against Sirius.

"She is good. The way she has moved from the start till now proves that she is a meticulous planner and she had controlled the match from the begining. She just toyed Sirius Blackwood from the begining" said Lucy to Carmella who nodded her head.

Sirius who was badly injured thought 'Fuck, this woman is scary. She purposely got herself injured in order to lure me and easily injure me. No if I want to blame someone, it should be myself. I let my guard down once I knocked her down without even thinking of the possibility that she might have faked it. But this match is not over. In-fact it is far from over. I let my guard down once but it won't happen again. First I'll go back to the basics' as Sirius sent his sword Qi slashes towards Melinda ignoring the pain and blood. Melinda instead of countering with her Qi slash like before just dodged them in order to preserve her Qi and sent a Qi attack first behind which she sent two more Qi attacks. Sirius who saw this concentrated a large amount Qi in his sword Qi slash to increase its sharpness and sent it towards the first Qi slash which he knew to be the exploding Qi and just as Sirius predicted the first Qi slash exploded after being split into two by his sword slash. However instead of dodging or activating his bloodline Sirius ran towards the exploded Qi slash and activated his movement technique to increase his speed and using the smoke from Qi explosion as cover he arrived before Melinda who was also ready to face Sirius in close quarters. Sirius used his fingers covered in Qi to attack Melinda who blocked using her arms while activating iron wall technique and sent her fist towards Sirius shoulder who seemed to forget about defence and was continuing with his second move and slashed the abdomen of Melinda. Sirius whose attacks were sharp and powerful though blocked to a certain extent by Melinda's defence technique still broke through to injure her leaving a gash in both her arms and the abdomen and spilling blood, on the other hand Sirius who was already weak in defence completely abandoned his defence received Melinda's punches and slashes started to receive even more injuries in his body. 'Has he gone crazy after receiving my attacks' thought Melinda while looking at the Sirius who was covered in blood. Melinda was not doing any better as she started to feel weak from blood loss. 'Now this is a battle of endurance. The one who looses his endurance will loose this fight thought both of them as they moved for the next exchange where Sirius used his finger to stab at the arms of Melinda which was open to his view while recieving a punch from Melinda on his face. Just as Sirius was about to make his next attack near her abdomen, his knees buckled from the damage he received and Melinda who saw this utilised the opportunity to punch his face and followed by an uppercut to his chin and kicked his chest to make Sirius fall down. Sirius who hit the ground remained unconscious while Melinda was covered in wound and breathing hard as she listened to the judge announcing her as the winner.

Both winner and loser were taken to the medic to get healed. Melinda inorder to get ready for her next fight which was the finals utilised her Qi stones to recover the Qi she expended in the battle.