Until noon, they stayed in the waiting room, had their lunch provided by the organizers, and finally got out into the field when it was scorching hot out there and thousands of Arcana Masters in the audience section were warding off the heat with their soul energy.
Meanwhile, the pair of sisters was entering from the opposite end, fully prepared with respective earth-grade armor and accessories.
As the two duos entered the barrier, they observed that their respective opponent teams were standing far away than it appeared on the outside. Looking around, Azzy mumbled, "So, this is the space expansion technique, huh."
For most of the audience, the two teams were standing apart like 180 meters or so. However, for Azzy, the opponent team is more than 500 meters away. Through naked vision, he could barely see them. It was the same for the sisters. They had to empower their eyesight using soul energy and took a clear look at the couple at the other end.
Of course, the earlier matches also made the audience get used to this arrangement and everyone was cool with it since they were able to see the range attacks a bit more slowly.
It also goes without saying that except for Exalt and higher realm experts and the ones on the first few front rows, almost everyone else will have to depend on the special binoculars (80x zoom) that come with purchasing the ticket in order to watch the match properly. After all, it is a million-seat capacity stadium with 96 rows.
Anyway, the audience or the opponents don't hold much importance for Azzy. He just wanted to finish the match as quickly as possible and meet with his family. Affea might have told him that she is safe but there's a seed of suspicion in Azzy's mind that they might not be telling the complete truth so that he can focus on the match. It will only be cleared once he sees them personally.
Meanwhile, within a certain part of the audience section, an old man was brimming in anger as soon as his eyes fell on Azzy. "Damn, this guy… No, those bast*rds from the church are to blame. How the hell did they let his family escape?"
He's the same guy named Charlie who offered the deal to Leah and the same guy who contacted the Church to abduct Azzy's family.
His plan is simple. He will keep Azzy's loved ones hostage until it is almost the time of the battle.
Then, his men will inform Azzy about the location of the hostages along with a warning such as he will have to save them in a few minutes or something along the lines.
Since the guys who will inform Azzy will be just hired civilians while the church is going to claim the credit for the abduction, Charlie would be safe from getting traced back to him.
But, never in the world did he expect to receive a reply from the Church instead from Celus aka Tolemac that Azzy's family was freed by the Supreme Pontiff.
Now, Charlie could only put his hopes on the opponent team. Fortunately, before visiting Azzy, he made a visit to Team Ark and sold a couple of earth-grade accessories that will boost their attack strength.
Taking a deep breath, he stared at the pair of sisters through his binoculars and mumbled, "Win this, girls. Hundreds of billions of credits were at stake here."
Just like him, there are at least a hundred thousand people who were hoping for Team Ark's win and they cheered at top of their lungs. The supporters of Team Camelot didn't fall behind either. They too rose to their feet and shout either Azzy or Leah's name.
Unfortunately, none of these cheers reached the contestants because of the noise canceling barrier. They too focused on their battle.
Proctor Leaf, the 8-star realm expert, then ascended into the sky and announced the preparation time of 100 seconds.
Hershey and Holly of the prestigious Ark family, which is the wealthiest noble family in the kingdom of Sturin, summoned their Arcana and a bunch of offensive and defensive skill cards.
Meanwhile, Azzy summoned his usual Vajra and Leah summoned her two Arcanas. Both of them then joined their palms and were prepared to merge them.
100… 50… 20… 10… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
*Whistle*
The Proctor blew the whistle, signaling the start of the final match.
<strong>"Soul Amalgamation"</strong>
<strong>"Merge"</strong>
Azzy and Leah went with the fusion right away, merging the Excalibur and Vajra. But, they weren't done with just that. Leah threw the Aqua girl into the mix too.
Soon, the blinding flash of light disappeared to reveal a Black lightning wolf with a horn over its forehead and an additional tail. One looks like a compressed form of black water and the other looks like it was made of black flames.
It wasn't just its appearance that was changed. Even its size grew by ten times, becoming a new beast called Varokex (Va from Vajra, Rok from Izarok, and Ex from Excalibur).
Azzy looked to the side, "Leah, stick to my plan."
"Alright," replied Leah with a nod before taking out her own earth-grade sword, which she didn't have the opportunity to use until now, and she jumped onto its back.
"Varokex, let's go"
*woof*
Letting out a menacing bark, Varokex charged forward to meet the opponents who were already on their way to reach the range of 200 meters and attack from far away.
Azzy closely followed behind it while summoning the Protos spears of 6-star rank. The Proctor, the spectators, the VIP experts, and even the opponents expected that Leah will launch the first attack as the vanguard while Azzy ambushed one of them with those long and pointy needles made of cosmic energy.
But, just after four seconds of time, when both of the teams were about 100 meters away and the pair of sisters were about to launch offensive skill cards, Azzy suddenly accelerated, going ahead of the wolf.
Looking at the opponents, he then stretched his arms forward and unleashed his most powerful trump card.
<strong>"Soul skill: Soul Absorption"</strong>
In an instant, the pair of sisters collapsed on the floor without being able to resist the absorption of all of their soul energy as well as the draining of their stamina and strength.
As soon as they fell onto their knees, he threw the Protos spears, one at each opponent.
The earth-grade armor didn't let the Protos spears pierce their users and blocked them. But, in return, they no longer appeared as exquisite as earlier. Instead, they started turning pitch black. However, 16% adamantine mixture in them started to resist and try to absorb the invading energy.
Azzy expected it and didn't give an opportunity to recover. He threw the remaining two, destroying their armors.
Once his job was done, he slowed down and let his partner take over the battle for the finishing strike.
<strong>"Varokex, use soul skill: Volcanic Eruption"</strong>
*Boom*
A powerful explosion was detonated right below Hershey and Holly, blasting both of them into the sky.
Being closer to the targets, the sound was thunderous to Azzy's ears and it took at least ten seconds for him to get free from that buzzing in his ears. "Ugh… I forgot to protect my eardrums."
By the time his ears became normal again, the Proctor landed on the battle platform and checked the two ladies who have second-degree burns all over their bodies, owing to their tough skin and bones.
"Team Camelot wins the match and earns the gold medal." The Proctor announced loudly after exiting the noise-canceling barrier and handing them to the healers, who were on standby.
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