Chapter 117: Bobby (01)
Soon it was time for Noah to compete again. This time the public"s thinking about him was a little different. They had already seen what he was capable of, and even though no one yet thought he could win the tournament, there were already some people antic.i.p.ating his next fight, thinking about what he could do and if maybe he was going to lose.
These people were s.a.d.i.s.ts by nature, they got together to see other people fighting, even going so far as to see them kill themselves a few times, just to kill boredom. They didn"t care much about who lived or died, the only thing they wanted was to know who would emerge victorious, and that the battle would generate entertainment.
Even though Noah"s last battle was a very short one, it hadn"t been a bit boring. Quite the contrary, seeing the other fighter screaming in despair like that had been a new style of entertainment for them, since this was the first time that they had seen something like that. At the most, someone would scream at having a body member cut off, but even when that happened the screams weren"t so interesting.
So even though Noah was just a young rookie, some people were looking forward to seeing his opponent screaming like that again, to see if it would be like the last time, worse, better, they didn"t know, but it would definitely be more interesting.
But Noah didn"t go on stage. As he had taken the place of the man he defeated, his fight was the third, against a man he had not yet seen fight, since this would still be the first fight for the others besides him.
The man who would be fighting this time was very different from the other man that Noah fought. This man looked like a wall, he was so big. His belly was huge, making the slim little Noah in front of him look like a child in front of an adult.
"That big belly… maybe it has something to do with the Blessing he received?... It is very rare to find Blessed that are out of shape like this man: our bodies are our guarantees of life. For this man to be willing to have a body so fat, this is probably an advantage for him, otherwise, I have to be careful." Noah thought it would be difficult to find out how the other man"s Blessing worked, until he heard a comment from someone in the audience who was talking to someone else.
"It seems that Bobby gained even more weight; maybe he really can win the tournament this time. Last time he weighed 40 kg less and made it to the finals. Now that he is so fat it will be even easier for him to achieve a good ranking," one of the people said.
"That"s true. What a pity. I liked seeing that boy burning his previous opponent; it would be nice to continue watching him torture other people. Maybe he can get past Bobby?" another man said.
"Can the new boy even beat Bobby? I think it"s impossible. He could have managed to win if he were anyone else, but Bobby is practically that boy"s counter. This great guy hasn"t known what it"s like to feel pain since he received his own Blessing... I was also enjoying watching the boy fight. Too bad." The first man responded to the second with a slightly disappointed turn, but not so much. He had been a little disappointed, but just because he missed a possible source of entertainment called Noah, he didn"t care enough about Noah to be sad if he was going to die or something.
Noah very much appreciated the information he received from this conversation that took place in the audience. The two men tried to talk in a low enough voice so as not to interfere with the fight, but it was not enough to stop Noah from hearing perfectly what they were saying.
"So his blessing really has something to do with the fat he carries on his body... d.a.m.n, such unique Blessings are several times more problematic than simple blessings like "fire control"... Anyway, I can"t complain too much since my Blessing also cannot be described as simple at all. I just hope it will be effective against him; I don"t want to show much of my strength before the final rounds," Noah thought as he went into the battle with Bobby.
Bobby was at least 50 cm taller than Noah, probably at least 2.3 meters taller, which meant that to look at Noah, who was thin and only the height of a normal person, he had to look down at him, just like an adult would look at a child.
"Just don"t break quickly, my new toy..." Bobby said with a s.a.d.i.s.tic smile as he looked at Noah and wondered what he could do with this new boy.
"Start!" The judge was quick to give the signal for the battle to begin, before running to one of the corners of the octagonal arena and watching the battle from afar. This was the same judge from Noah"s previous battle and was also a Blessed Rank D. As he was in charge of stopping the fight if neither of them gave in, he needed to be at least in the strength of the partic.i.p.ants to be able to stop it with brute force.
But even in Noah"s previous fight, when the man was screaming in pain on the ground, the judge, despite having the strength of a Blessed Rank D, did not have the courage to touch that flame. Even though he was approximately 1 meter away, he could still feel it as if it were so hot that he would burn himself even without touching it if he came any closer.
It scared him too much, to the point that he didn"t know what to do if Noah lost control during this battle and he had to intervene. By contract he was forced to stop the battle, but if Noah turned on him, he didn"t know what he could do to stop those flames.
Bobby clearly didn"t have such a thought. He hadn"t felt how hot Noah"s flames were, much less cared about the other man"s screams. Since he also loved making his opponents scream like that, that was nothing special for him.
So without a second thought, just like the man from Noah"s previous battle, Bobby immediately ran to Noah with the intention of attacking soon and incapacitating him quickly. But unlike the other man who made an ice knife, Bobby just closed his hand into a fist preparing to punch Noah, while the fat on his body decreased slightly and turned into muscles in the man"s hand, making the hand become much bigger than it should be normally.
Noah only noticed Bobby"s body fat decreasing a little because of the 360 ??degree vision he had because of the Pyakugan he received with [h.e.l.l Tunneling] reaching level 02.
Seeing that hand clearly getting bigger to the point of becoming disproportionate to the size of the man"s body, Noah imagined what kind of strength he must have in that attack and how heavy that hand had become. Noah knew there was one thing he should definitely not do: let himself be hit by that punch.
Then using the skill he developed in the previous fight, Noah formed a dagger of flame and tried to condense as much energy as possible into his new [h.e.l.l Flames] dagger, so that it could penetrate Bobby"s fat body. The previous fighter didn"t have as much physical defense, so just the touch of the blade had already done him a lot of damage, but this time, with Bobby apparently having a body-building Blessing, that wouldn"t be enough, especially after Noah heard from people in the audience about how strong Bobby was.
Using the agility that a slimmer body provided when compared to a body as big and fat as Bobby"s, Noah threw himself to the side to try to avoid Bobby"s punch, which despite its size, was coming at high speed. But while Noah took advantage of the somewhat wide initial distance to dodge Bobby"s punch, he placed the flame dagger in most likely place where Bobby"s punch would hit where he was previously, and as soon as the dagger came into contact with the great man, Noah felt the density of the flame begin to decrease rapidly.
As much as the flames lessened in intensity when cutting Bobby"s hand, Bobby"s punch also decreased in intensity when he came into contact with Noah"s dagger.
While Bobby drew his hand back because of the punch and Noah drew his hand back with the dagger, the two looked at each other with serious expressions. The viewer who said that Bobby would be Noah"s counter was right; they were basically the same, and when they met, each neutralized the other"s Blessing. In the case he was in currently, either Noah would run out of energy first, or Bobby would run out of fat. From how little fat Bobby spent just for that punch compared to how much Noah spent making that dagger, which was almost disappearing in his hand, Noah knew that Bobby had a lot more reserve than he currently did, and if someone was to run out of energy first among the two, it would certainly be Noah if he found no other way.
"d.a.m.n, that man was right. With so much fat, this Bobby will surely be problematic. He didn"t even feel pain when he was cut by my dagger, although it clearly tried to purify him, but it probably must have been neutralized by his Blessing... What the h.e.l.l is it that gives a fat Blessing? And who prays to a G.o.d like that wanting such a strange Blessing?" Noah wondered in disbelief. He had realized that if Bobby had enough fat, he would be powerful enough to give work to some Blessed Rank C.
This was a battle, so there was no time to think and do nothing. The moment they pulled away, Bobby started to use more fat to strengthen his leg and arm muscles, realizing that just strengthening his hand muscles would not be enough to deal with Noah, while Noah started to make the dagger even more dense as it began to summon several small fireb.a.l.l.s around it that floated in place and began to spread around the area until the octagonal arena began to resemble a field full of fireflies.
Both normal spectators and VIPs who were in the exclusive, dark room watching the battle were interested in this new skill that Noah was demonstrating. In their view, that dagger was already dangerous enough, but now Noah was creating small flames around him. With the sheer size of Bobby, those flames would certainly hit the giant, but they couldn"t see how it would affect him, which probably would only serve to end Noah"s energy unnecessarily.
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Please read the author"s notes down here! he he :3 ↓↓↓