Chapter 7: First Showdown

Enten suddenly let out a fierce roar, and when his eyes opened again, they were burning fire-red. His fists were suddenly engulfed in orange flames.

"They can still use their spirits?" I asked Moye in my mind.

"Of course. Qi and spirits are similar, but they don't consume each other's energy," Moye replied.

Yuminaka, who stood on the other side, put his hand over his bowstring. It was suddenly deluged with light, as if a lightning is running through it back and forth.

"Time to ignite the air with my heat!" yelled Enten in excitement.

"Let's see if you can burn through my arrows," Yuminaka replied as he formed a white-glowing arrow from his hand and fired it.

Enten swiftly dodged it and charged in on Yuminaka with his fist ready to punch. Yuminaka kept on dodging and firing arrows.

"This is not thrilling at all!" Enten suddenly stopped. "Let's settle this with one blow."

"Only an unwise man would risk that," Yuminaka shook his head, then smirked. "But your energy is likable. Alright, I'll show you my strongest attack."

Enten laughed and charged up all of his power to his right fist, while Yuminaka formed a purple-glowing arrow with lightning arcs running through it.

"Here I come! Hellfire Blaze!" Enten roared as he charged once again.

"*Kumokiri Yajirushi!" Yumikana chanted as he let go of the arrow. The contact force kicked up a duststorm, blocking everyone's vision.

When the duststorm died down, Enten's flames were gone, and he had a wound on his chest.

"Seems like he lost," A spectator sighed. "No matter how strong melee is, it's useless if you can't get into point-blank range of your opponent."

"No, Yuminaka lost," I shook my head in denial.

"What do you mean?" People around me asked in confusion. Many were looking at me like I was a fool. I ignored them.

"He channeled all of his spirit energy into the arrow," I explained. "Since Enten was able to endure the hit and take out the arrow, he took out Yuminaka with it as well."

The people who thought I was a fool turned around and squinted. A second passed. Two. Three.

And then Yuminaka fell first, followed by Enten; except Enten only fell to his knees, while Yuminaka fell unconscious. The barrier surrounding them slowly faded away, and the winner was declared - Enten Nanguu.

"Such a lucky guesser." One guy with purple hair who was mocking me earlier said.

"Why are there idiots everywhere?" I asked Moye, who was on my back, but my voice rang loud and clear to everyone.

"Who-who are you calling an idiot?" He gritted his teeth.

I sighed and continued to watch.

It was another three matches before I got called up. Coincidentally, my opponent was the purple-headed guy.

"Well, well," He chuckled. "Looks like your luck ran out."

"It's alright. I won't need it to beat you," I replied as I walked onto the platform, not giving him another look. He humphed and walked up as well. As soon as we both got ready, the energy dome emerged once again.

"Hope you'll still be this calm when I annihilate you - oh wait, of course you'll be," He smirked. "Because you'll be unconscious."

He then laughed and took out an axe.

"Do you realize that you're the only one laughing at your own jokes?" I took out a titanium sword.

"You can't even afford a low-ranked Spirit Artifact?" He waved his hammer and bragged.

"Don't need one to beat you," I repeated the same phrase.

The truth was Moye was a weapon that could even rival Godly Artifacts, which only appears singly in every world - but for one, she's sealed, and for two, I wouldn't be able to use her powers at my current rank.

And for three, I wanted to make the purple-headed guy mad. And I did.

"Why you-" He said as he swung the axe at my face. I swiftly dodged to the right. This has almost become muscle memory from all that hellish training- no, training in hell, physically.

"Not a smart move. His power scales with his anger," Moye told me in my mind.

"In that case," I sheathed my sword and stood there, looking at him.

"Looks like I won't need a sword," I shook my head in "disappointment".

"Agh!" He screamed in anger and immediately activated his spirit, surrounding himself with lightning arcs, glowing bright purple. "Die, you little-"

His voice was overridden by the overwhelming lightning power coming from his axe. My face got a little more serious and raised Moye's sheath.

"Um, what are you doing? I'm sealed, remember," Moye asked me in my head.

"Don't worry. I'm only using the sheath." I replied as I blocked the attack with the sheath.

"Not bad," The purple-headed guy smirked. "Now take this!"

He channeled all of his power into his axe, making it glow even brighter.

"Thunder of Execution!" He yelled, swinging the axe at me. I raised my sheath and braced for impact.

The roaring thunder pummelled at my face, but I didn't fell much damage. After a few seconds, the attack went away. My eyes focused, and my body suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind my opponent.

"Sorahoshi!" I shouted and charged with my sheath. He groaned in pain, and in that instant when he lost focus, I slammed the handle of the sheathed sword at the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.

"And the winner is Reiken!" The voice rang as the dome slowly disappeared.

"Did you realize?" Someone said in the crowd. "He never used his spirit!"

My lips twitched. Dude, my spirit barely does anything in battle.

"Hell, he didn't even use his sword!" Someone else nodded. "Who's this Reiken guy? Never heard of his name around."

Oh, we both forgot to introduce ourselves. I guess I was able to leave a "mysterious" impression.

*Kumokiri Yajirushi: 破云矢印