<strong>November 12th, 1994;</strong>
<strong>Arena-0, Heavenly Academy of Arcana;</strong>
Top-16 battles of all the categories were conducted in the same Arena-0, the one with a million-seat capacity. With 8 battles per category, there are 24 battles for the day.
Aiming to finish all of them in one day, just like every previous tournament, the top-16 battles started right in the early morning at 6 o'clock.
Fortunately for Azzy, it will start with group battles. So, his turn will probably come around noon.
But still, he couldn't help but woke up at 5 o'clock and reach the stadium before that time as he experienced short battles lately. Leah arrived around 7, wearing her long white flowing dress. Well, at a glance, she was looking very elegant as always. Her soul power didn't improve at all but Azzy felt like something was changed. He just couldn't put his finger on it.
Anyway, at around 10:30, the duo battles started. Just like with the group battles, the fixtures weren't announced for duo category matches either. So, Azzy didn't know who they are gonna fight.
Having nothing else to do, they could only wait for half an hour until a staff member stepped inside the room and informed them that it is their turn next.
As they got out in the field, Azzy finally saw his opponents. One looked like he is in the middle ages while the other is quite young. He instantly recognized the young man with a ponytail and a vertical third eye.
"Chronos, he's the same guy I encountered back at Leunar City, right?" asked Azzy.
The Reaper confirmed it immediately, "Yes, the holder of the Eye of Destruction."
Azzy didn't actually meet the opponent but back when he solved a homicide case at Zuweth nation, the media surrounded him for the interview. He then escaped and coincidentally landed in a college where he saw this college student playing tennis in some kind of official tournament. Since they have nothing to do with each other, Azzy got out of there, back then.
Little did he expect to meet him as an opponent.
Leah had her subordinates research all the top 16 participants during her free time. So, she knew the abilities of these two. However, even she was taken aback when Excalibur confirmed to her that the third eye is indeed far more special than she expected.
In an instant, Leah and Azzy connected each other palms and closed their eyes as the Proctor announced a 2-minute preparation time.
"I guess you know what his third eye is, right?" asked Leah.
"We need to make this a quick battle," replied Azzy.
Leah then said, "Well, according to Excalibur, he needs to store huge amounts of natural energy before unleashing it. And this place didn't have such abundance. Not to mention, the two of us are also there to absorb the natural energy. It will take a long time for him to gather sufficient energy. So, there's nothing to worry about. Not to mention, he has yet to display that power in this tournament either."
At first, Azzy agreed with her but suddenly, he felt something amiss. Upon recalling her words, he pointed out, "Did you just imply that you can also absorb natural energy?"
"Is it that much of a surprise?" asked Leah, confirming her partner's suspicion. She then added, "Honestly, if only I had more time, I would have completed the second technique, which could turn into a trump card if used wisely."
Azzy assumed that she was telling that 3 days weren't enough but she was actually talking about 30 days she spent in the ancient time chamber of Camelot that is only known to the Royal family.
But then again, Azzy had the assistance of Buddhist scriptures to achieve it instantly, and that too because of the Reaper but Leah didn't have such luxury. While she had the spirit of Excalibur who mentored her, it was still tough to even be able to integrate natural energy with the soul orb. After all, the energy from nature is in unrefined form and is quite wild. Taming is a tough task. The fact that Leah even managed to create one technique is amazing.
The Reaper was indeed in awe of her talent but he knew that Azzy will get depressed if he praises her. In the current situation, it isn't recommended. So, the Reaper stayed silent and let the time pass away.
Meanwhile, the Proctor was staring at his pocket watch. As the timer passed, he picked up the whistle and blew it. As the sound reached every corner of the stadium, the participants summoned their Arcana.
Azzy summoned the black lotus and the black lightning wolf. Leah also summoned her Excalibur and Aqua girl.
On the side of Team Zee, three-eyed Rudra (20-year-old) summoned a trident while his partner, Ajakava (96-year-old) summoned a giant green red-colored scorpion. While both of those Arcana are in platinum grade, only the trident was a natural platinum grade. The giant scorpion, on the other hand, double mutated, once at rank-3 to rank-4 breakthrough and the second time at rank-6 to rank-7 breakthrough.
Usually, natural platinum grade beasts are stronger than ones that mutated from a lower grade. However, in this case, the scorpion is stronger because its master is just a step away from reaching the legendary realm (peak-rank-7) while Rudra was at the peak stage of the Upper Elite realm (peak-rank-6).
Either way, Azzy, and Leah weren't worried about those Arcana. After summoning the four of them, they went on with the merge, which became the focus every time someone talked about this couple.
<strong>"Soul Amalgamation: Merge"</strong>
It wasn't any special merging; just the usual one between the Aqua girl and the black lotus, turning Izarok into a Protos Aqua girl with a tiara on her head. As for Vajra and Excalibur, they were themselves.
Giving control of Izaru to his partner, Azzy rushed forward. In just a second, he was already standing before Rudra.
Azzy launched a punch. However, Rudra ducked it skillfully and pierced Azzy's abdomen with his trident before throwing him over the shoulder. It was probably the first time someone weaker than Azzy had bested him in the very first bout.
As Azzy was about to crash onto the ground, Ajakava took advantage of the opportunity and launched a kick while his opponent was still in the air.
Just as he was about to be kicked in the abdomen where he was wounded, Azzy caught Ajakava's leg at the perfect moment and used it as a support to control his body in the air before counterattacking his opponent with a powerful dropkick on the face.
Ajakava's nose was hit very hard and the blood started trickling down from his nose. As Rudra caught the middle-aged fellow and hurriedly applied a healing skill on him, Azzy landed on the ground and raised his hand, shooting an energy ball.
Rudra and Ajakava know that the ball can explode too. So, they cannot let it near them. So, Rudra spent a little bit of his soul power, raising the trident and shooting a fire beam at it.
The fire beam and the energy ball collided and destroyed each other. But, Azzy never had the intention to use it to harm the opponents. Instead, it is a signal for Leah and Vajra who were on standby.
Once she received the signal, Leah went with a big move, following their strategy.
Raising her sword, she unleashed back-to-back soul skills. As her soul power is only around 6 million. So, using three rank-6 soul skills reduced her reserves by two-thirds.
<strong>"Soul skill: the Queen's Domain"</strong>
<strong>"Soul skill: Amalgamation of Ice and Fire"</strong>
<strong>"Izaru, take the form of a giant. Then, use soul skill: Multiply"</strong>
Following the orders, the black Aqua girl expanded her side by spreading her concentrated form of water and then, unleashed the soul skill, multiplying herself into 6 more. It was like having six physical clones at the same time. In fact, her winning chances would have gone up had the Aqua girl not fallen to the Death Knight during the semifinals of the junior world league.
As seven black-colored water giants gained the attention of the opponents, Leah made the entire battle platform her domain. She then made her first order, which consumed 1 million SP, "Those who are unworthy shall kneel."
While Azzy and Rudra were fine, Ajakava felt an invisible pressure on his legs, trying to force him to kneel. However, he managed to resist it.
"Tch, I expect them to resist but not like this." Leah got a little bit annoyed that her skill turned out to be useless once again. "Well, then, how about this."
She passed the next order, which consumed another million soul power worth of soul energy, almost reducing to zero. "Those who have less potential than me shall not remain in my domain."
Once again, Azzy felt nothing, but this time, both Rudra and Ajakava felt an invisible pressure on their body and mind, making them walk out of the barrier on their own.
Rudra and Ajakava were trying their best to resist it while the giant scorpion started running toward the exit of the barrier. Within a few seconds, the three-eyed young man managed to nullify the mental skill but it was a lot harder for Ajakava.
Without giving their time to think of any counterattack, Azzy suddenly took out a mysterious skill card and poured soul energy into it. Almost 90% of his soul power was consumed.
<strong>"Skill card: Gravity Suppressionx100 times."</strong>
All of a sudden, an invisible barrier was erected around Azzy with about 50 meters in radius.
Ajakava and Rudra just fought the strange mental skill forced onto them. And now, both of them were helplessly forced onto their knees.
Leah, who already activated her soul skill, attacked both of the opponents while forcefully forgetting her embarrassment of the earlier failure. "Freeze" "Fire"
"Argh" "Argh"
Screams were heard for a while before they became silent, falling unconscious.
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