Life Hunter

Instead, the only thing that was the same as it would be outside, was the shock wave that just made sway the plants like it was a simple wind and it didn"t even reach the group watching as it stopped just in front of them.

Lanya didn"t want to lose time and wanted to end this fight as quick as possible, she knew that when you fight with someone as strong as you, the first error, as well as the first clean hit, would always be the main goal and basically, the decisive point.

She instantly pressed the trigger of her rapier and the pellets left the barrels with a detonation because the two girls" swords were entangled, the shot was just aimed at the sky but the noise surprised Velvet and her blade was struck by one stray bullet.

Lanya used the recoil to move and enter in Velvet"s blind spot. When she was about to swing her sword once more, the nine tails all produced orange flames and attacked Lanya like they were going to stab her.

She reacted quickly and conjured a huge wall of silver light that illuminated the surroundings and mixed with the dark blue glow coming from the bluestone below it. The nine tails struck the wall of light and it exploded with silver light and orange flames.

Lanya and Velvet both retreated because of the shockwave and they also both glanced at the bluestone after the explosion. Not even a dent. They smiled wryly and charged at each other once more.

Each time the two weapons clashed, a destructive force and aura would spread around. The more they fought in close quarters, the more they started going seriously. Lanya started using her tail a lot more, she was also firing with her rapier when she saw an opening and also made use of her wings to help her in her deplanements.

Meanwhile, Velvet seemed to mainly use her nine tails to fight and combined it with her sword skills. She had a great advantage in the detection area, her ears were not only for the show and she had a great hearing.

Until now, neither Lanya or Velvet used any powerful magic and just fiercely fought in close combat using everything they had. They continued doing that for ten minutes at least, sometimes they would be so fast that you could only hear sonic booms, detonations and metal clashing.

Only people around Raal"s level or higher could follow their movements while the students did their best to even locate the places where the sounds were coming from. Some who were quite smart and used magic to boost their eyes. Lena got the help of her soul beast and watched. Ofia"s eyes also had changed and she was following the fight.

Other people were doing the same, particularly those who had a soul contract with a beast that had a better eyesight than a human.

Arima, Karma and Night just had their eyes closed. This place was their territory, they could perfectly feel what happens in it without using any of their senses.

Lanya and Velvet clashed one last time when they both realized that waiting for an occasion to hit the other was too much of an incert.i.tude.

Lanya swung her rapier and left a silver line in midair, she continued to slash with her sword and formed different runes and circles. Velvet"s nine tails also moved and started drawing runes and circles like Lanya with red lines.

"[Light Dragon]" Lanya chanted and the incantations she had written became a whirlpool that slowly formed a silver dragon above her who roared and made the air shake.

"[Burning Impalement]" Velvet chanted and the runes became flames that condensed into nine different spears hovering in mid-air.

The light dragon spread his wings and raised his head toward the sky and started acc.u.mulating inhaling, as he did, the different lights filling Arima"s soul were absorbed too and a silver light gathered around the dragon"s body as his lungs were inflating.

At the same time, the nine spears of Velvet started rotating and a huge amount of flames suddenly appeared behind it like they were ready to propel it. The spear in the middle was particularly big and seemed to be propelled by even more fire.

The two opponents only needed a thought for their magic to be cast. The dragon roared and a giant beam of light escaped his mouth. The huge spear on Velvet"s side was thrown at the beam with an unimaginable speed and the two attacks met each other.

The encounter caused a tremendous discharge of energy that spread in the entire realm, although the bluestone was still indestructible for them, some plants around started to lose some of their petals or leaves.

The audience watching couldn"t see the fight anymore as the light from the explosion covered the entire place. At that moment, Arima smiled "A fox is mischievous"

Velvet threw the other spears in eight different directions that went around Lanya and attacked her from the same number of angles.

"But a dragon is wise" Arima muttered.

On her right hand, Lanya"s sigil revolved "[Fourth Destruction Art, Vashta Nerada]" She chanted and the zone behind the huge dragon of light became trapped in darkness, the fire spears penetrated the sort of dark smoke and nothing happened after that.

After a time, the dark smoke dispersed and the spears were nowhere to be seen and Lanya was unscathed. Lanya had prepared the fourth destruction art at the same she was writing the runes for her light dragon.

Velvet smiled "I see" She waved her hand and the explosion that was still ongoing became even stronger with more fire surrounding it. Lanya"s eyes glowed and she extended hands, the dragon roared stronger and the beam of light became bigger.

A last discharge of energies occurred, the fire spear lost any stable form and exploded while the silver dragon howled one last time before vanishing. The sound and shockwave caused the students to cover their ears in pain. Arima snapped his fingers and the sound from outside disappeared as they were now surrounded by a peculiar transparent dome.

When the flames died down and the light disappeared, Lanya and Velvet were already making the swords talk. They also started using a lot more their magic and aura. The orange fire was filling the air and the crisping sound of the flames could be heard at any time. Meanwhile, Lanya"s light was illuminating the place and sending numerous beams of light toward Velvet.

Although it was an intense fight, the fusion of the two magic was really pretty and was even more accented by the environment.

At some point of their fight, Lanya managed to parry one of Velvet"s strikes and break her guard, she had her rapier directly pointed at her. But if she went for the stab, Velvet would most likely have her chances of avoiding it. That"s why Lanya went for the most logical thing to do, she pressed the trigger and shot adamant.i.te bullets while infusing her mana.

Velvet did her best to gather her mana in front of her and created a shield of fire, even her nine tails moved to the front to protect her but the bullets were surprisingly strong and she was struck directly in the stomach. She coughed some blood and flew away while Lanya jumped back because of the recoil.

Velvet"s students breathed in while Arima"s were quite happy to see Lanya getting the first hit. Velvet landed on the ground with a small amount of blood flowing down her lips. She grunted and took a decision, her eyes glowed and a strong fire ignited around her, spreading into the whole stage made of bluestone.

Lanya"s eyes widened and she realized that Velvet wanted to finish this in one attack. She retreated and released her own aura along with light magic. Now the stage was filled with fire on one side and a sort of physical silver light.

The two energies even left the stage and spread until the plants around. At the same time, both of them started chanting.

"[Recover the world and turn it into ashes]" Velvet"s voice resounded.

"[Those ashes are not enough, make them disappear]" After that, it was Natsu"s voice that continued the chant.

"[Auribus percipite verba mea] (Heed my words)" Just after, Lanya began her chant too for the third destruction art.

Arima frowned at that sight, he slowly stood up and silently waited. His companions understood the reason and didn"t say anything. Only the students, the judges, and the princ.i.p.al were confused.

"[Then let"s burn them even more]" Velvet chanted. It sounded like a conversation between her and her soul beast.

"[Yeah, let"s reduce everything to nothingness]" This time it was Natsu"s turn. As the two were preparing their magic, the fire around just kept burning stronger and stronger, and the height of the flames reached an astounding level.

Lanya also reached the last stage of her chant and a blue and black light shined in her hands to form the shape of a book.

"[Third Destruction Art, Pars impios] (Lawless Tome)" She finally summoned the art and the book completely formed. The book opened itself and the pages started flipping as a strange aura filled the air. Lanya"s silver light was also shining stronger, the book continued to flip the pages and stopped at a certain one.

"[No blood, no bone, no ash. Destroy everything to oblivious!]" Natsu and Velvet shouted at the same time and all the fire that had spread became even denser and even some of the plants started to crisp. All of this fire became a giant tide that approached Lanya.

The book the latter was holding transformed into numerous beams of light that landed in the middle of the silver light. That same light started to act strangely at some places and gathered to make some silver spheres.

Those spheres then changed shape and formed the body of a small dragon. Soon, a great number of small silver dragons were on Lanya"s side. The little dragons" eyes glowed with a red light and flapped their wings, they flew off and rushed toward the incoming tide of orange fire.

Now, it was a "tide" of little silver dragons fighting against a tide made of fire. When the two clashed against each other, the result was even more powerful than the fight Arima had with Koden back when he was at the tenth level.

Arima"s soul manifestation was now a.s.saulted by silver and orange discharges of energy that went for miles starting from the epicenter.

Both Lanya and Velvet"s figures were shrouded by the explosions. Arima pointed his fingers at the sky right at that moment. When he did so, the water of the ocean up there started to condense into one point and formed a small drop which slowly fell toward the ground, or to be exact, the fire and light energy.

While it was falling, the drop met a beam of light and blasted into microscopic pieces. What happened after was something that could never be explained. The entire part below the drop of water was totally free of the light and fire destroying everything around it.

Then it really started, the ocean in the sky continued to release more drops until it became a downpour. After just a few seconds, the silver light and fire had already totally vanished.

Now, Lanya and Velvet were both panting while staring at each other "It"s all good to do your best, but don"t risk your lives just for a showcase" Arima spoke to them as his figure appeared on the stage, totally drenched in water because of the rain.

"On this, I announce the end of this fight. The winner is Lanya" Arima said and waved his hand. The rain stopped and the ocean returned to normal while the plants were now even more resplendent than before the fight started.

"Wait! Why did I lose?" Velvet shouted.

"Calm down Velvet, look at your neck" Natsu reappeared as a fox beside her and said. Velvet slowly looked at her neck and saw a miniature sky dragon ready to bite her neck off at any moment. She gulped and didn"t dare to move.

"The Lawless Tome is even craftier than a fox" Arima smirked and said.