Instead of staring at each other for a whole minute, Leah thought of engaging in a conversation. She knew that Azzy and Velez belonged to the same clan and possesses the same death energy, although with different levels of powers. Considering that Azzy is already claimed by Claire, this guy could become one of the suitable candidates who can be her future husband.
There's no love in this situation. For Leah, the future of Camelot and her descendants holds much more importance. At first, Azzy was also the same but slowly over time, she grew to like him after spending time with him, although not in a romantic way, yet.
But then again, Velez would inherit the throne. Even though the king of Freyles, like other democratic nations, doesn't hold any real authority, he still can influence the government's decisions.
As the future queen of the Camelot, she would eventually encounter him sooner or later. Even if they won't be destined, being friends with him wouldn't be a bad idea for diplomatic relations between the kingdom of Camelot and the Republic of Freyles.
Since they have no personal enmity, Leah felt like there was no need to be all wary from the start and wanted this to be a friendly battle. Not to mention, she was confident that she would win.
"I'm curious, Prince Garcia. Why are you participating in this tournament?" She asked with a smile. The spectators don't know what she was talking about but her smile melted the hearts of several men. They just couldn't help but stare at his heavenly beauty.
On the other hand, Velez furrowed his brows in response, "why shouldn't I?"
Claire answered, "I heard that Abel Tower rarely involves the matters of worldly affairs."
Velez nodded in response, "That's true but I'm afraid I cannot reveal the reason to a stranger I cannot trust."
"That means there's something going on after all, huh," commented Leah while nodding in understanding. Since she had already opened the topic, she thought of clearing her suspicions too, "Is it about some rare treasure that will appear in the World Auction? But, even if you don't participate, you guys are going to get an invitation either way. So, you aren't planning on stealing something or assassinating someone, aren't you?"
Velez flinched at first and narrowed his eyes, almost glaring at her. He neither confirmed her suspicion nor denied it. Standing silently at his place, he glanced at the screen. As the timer is below 30 seconds, he spoke, "Look, young lady, if you want to chat with me, we can talk later but now, it is time to battle."
"I wonder if you reveal it if I win?" Leah probed the matter, further. She was actually telling it half-heartedly as she was too bored to wait. Leah was already thinking that this match is hers. She was also right in thinking so. Apart from higher soul power, her opponent almost has no obvious advantage against her.
Velez then stared at her a few seconds before giving a reply, "if you win, that is."
*Ting!
The timer hit zero and both of them stopped talking immediately and got into action.
Velez's Death Knight clashed with Leah's Aqua girl.
The Death knight tried to vertically cleave the water Arcana into two but those two halves quickly reattached themselves to get its original form once again and she showed a strong resistance before he cut her completely.
As a result, the sword was stuck inside the Aqua girl's chest. He tried to pull it back but it couldn't come out.
Having no other choice, the Death Knight used the death energy without waiting for his host's order and continuously poured it into his weapon before releasing it into the Aqua girl.
In an instant, the death energy spread all over her body and tried to eat her core. As a fellow platinum-grade Arcana who was born from the Jewel of Water, the Aqua girl isn't that easy to defeat.
She just moved the core to a part of the body and split herself from the original body. All of a sudden, the original body became nothing more than a water body. She controlled the water body to envelop her opponent.
The Death Knight raised his free hand and released concentrated death energy in the form of a sphere and exploded it.
*Boom*
An explosion occurred, making the water body explode into thousands of pieces. The Death Knight was finally free and his eyes wandered around. He found the Aqua girl good and well. However, she appeared much smaller than before, trying to recover. He charged toward the figurine-sized opponent.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the battle platform, Leah and Velez were engaged in some sort of volleyball-style fighting.
Earlier, Velez took the initiative to shoot a normal energy ball. Instead of cutting it down with her Excalibur, Leah reflected the attack using her passive skill. Velez Garcia's passive skill is looping.
It means that he can create a space loop at a place, normally around the target. So, when the target attacks him. The attack will have to pass through the boundary of the space loop instead of going further. The attack will be teleported to another boundary and take the enemies by surprise.
So, when Leah reflected the attack, Velez used the loop, and the reflected attack returned to her from her behind. She then reflected it again back to Velez, who used the loop again back to her.
While it seemed like they were playing a nonsense game to see who will come victorious in the end while letting their respective Arcana fight somewhere else, in reality, both of them are thinking the same thing.
Both Velez and Leah wanted to exhaust each other's passive abilities because those abilities are too much of a headache for the opponents.
After several minutes, Leah became the first one to put a stop to this by slicing the energy ball upon realizing that Aqua girl is down with her soul finally got corrupted by the death energy.
As Leah dashed forward while the Death Knight is returning to his host, Velez recovered his soul power on one hand and took out a rank-7 shield from the storage card, and held it in another hand.
"There's nothing that my Excalibur cannot cut," mumbled Leah as she sliced the shield into two. Velez hasn't recovered his soul power completely. He didn't expect that a 34% Mythril-made armor was destroyed just like that. Leah then punched his cheek upon finding an opening.
With his face bruised, Velez crashed onto the ground. A look of surprise appeared on his face before it turned furious.
Not intending to give him an opportunity to fight back, Leah jumped high in the air with flames dancing all over her sword.
"Enough," Velez roared in anger. A gust of death energy erupted from him and pushed away Leah for at least a hundred meters. As she managed to land without losing her footing, the Death Knight reached his master.
Leah raised her sword above her. The intensity of the flames increased. She was preparing to execute a sword technique she developed on her own.
She spun around a couple of times and released a spiral beam of flames.
Meanwhile, Velez rose to his feet. His eyes suddenly turned pitch black with no visible pupils just like how it was for Azzy.
<strong>"Seal of Libra, Unlock."</strong>
All of a sudden, his soul power was pushed to 12 million, putting him in the same league as a low-rank-7.
<strong>"Hidden Skill: Merge"</strong>
Before the flames reached him, Velez and his death knight merged together. The final transformation looked like a Death knight but with human hands. And instead of the knight's helmet, Velez's head could be seen, although his eyes appeared to stay pitch black as earlier.
He raised the sword and pointed at the incoming flames. "Absorb"
As soon as the word escaped, the spiral that supposed to burn him now being absorbed by the sword. Continued to hold the sword, he stared at Leah who was preparing for the next attack.
Just then, suddenly, Leah felt like something pierced her chest and she coughed out a mouthful of blood. It was the first time Leah ended up in such a state.
"What's going on?" Leah felt confused for a second. Velez was still standing more than a hundred meters away and there was nothing around.
It was then a warning echoed in her head, "Careful, incoming attack."
"Where?" She sensed her surroundings but she couldn't find anything. She could only trust the Excalibur and dodge to the left before her leg and her shoulder were pierced by an invisible attack once again.
"Argh…" She screamed in pain.
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