Chapter 283 - 283 How To Hold Back
Elsewhere in the arena a healer struggled to support the team.
"Are you okay?" a voice called her from behind.
"Yeah, it"s just that they"re coming with deep injuries. This is more dangerous than a fortress..." she complained to the scout who was helping bring the injured to her.
"You say this every time we join the arena, why don"t you oppose us coming here?" he retorted back, as he saw uniformed people appear to colect their companion.
"Because this arena is important to the Family. And I owe them a lot. Partic.i.p.ating once in a while is the least I can do," she said, standing up as the men took the wounded warrior in a stretcher. "I just hope no one gets too injured. This layout is far more dangerous than the usual..." she said, looking at the walls.
"Yeah, most times the battles are about getting people off, instead of taking them out... What are the organizers thinking?" the scout asked a rethorical question, leaving the healer to her thoughts. "I"ll go ahead and see if anything"s happening. Wait here." he said, taking off into the maze.
"We lost 5 people already... I wonder how the other side"s doing," she mumbled, looking at the screen. "just 5 more minutes..." she thought, watching the timer go down.
The scout didn"t take long to spot the place where the main battle was talking place, the sounds of battle were deafening. In the very center of the arena, a large open area was available, where the warriors of both sides were at a standstill. The scout wondered whether something was out of place, since the enemies were full of small injuries, yet there was n.o.body healing them.
An arrow swooshed inches from his face, as it flew across, hitting a mage on the opposite side in the shoulder. "Leader!" the scout unconsciously yelled, moving up to him, in order to check how things were going.
"What"s wrong?" he asked, seeing his expression.
"This arena is a trap. Both teams are taking far more damage than the usual. It"s almost as if it was made for us to go into the next round with fewer people," Michael said bitterly, before biting his lip. "Noah hasn"t shown up here yet, but the other side"s leader also didn"t, even after this whole battle. I think they"re fighting one on one somewhere. That Hiei guy is a monster." He looked up to the scout, almsot telling him what to do.
"I"ll see if I can find them, send a couple people to protect our healer," the scout nodded, running off in one of the paths surrounding the clear area. "I think he"s fine... but if he can"t fight next round we"ll be in trouble," the scout muttered to himself while navigation through the walls.
Noah once again parried the sword, diving into the man"s unprotected flank, only to kave his dagger parried again. His frustration was growing with time, since none of his. .h.i.ts had properly landed. The same could be said for his opponent, but he was way more enthusiastic about this fight than Noah.
"How much are you making with the Khan Family. I can pay you double," he said, while the two crossed blades.
"It"s not about the money," Noah responded, absentminded. This was the first bit of conversation the two had in the entire fight. The frequency of their attacks had already gone down, but the strength behind them had not diminished at all. Noah"s dagger had lost quite a bit of its edge, being grinded against Hiei"s sword hundreds of times.
"Noah!" a voice called from behind. It was his team"s scout. "I"ll call someone over," he said, turnign around to leave in the same direction he"d come from.
Noah mentally nodded, since he knew what he needed was long range support for this fight.
"No you won"t!" Hiei yelled as he darted past Noah, towards the scout.
Noah quickly turned, pulling his blade towards the guy"s flank. This was Noah"s first sure hit in this entire standstill. The Hiei guy flinched as he felt Noah"s blade cut acress his ribs. Leaving such an opening against this guy was sure a bad idea, but his minds was already numbed the duration of this fight. He turned around, and parried Noah"s next attack.
Noah once again tried sliding into the guy"s right side, lesss protected, but before he had the time to think, the guy"s sword was once again at him. This time, though, he managed to deflect it upwards, forcing the enemy team leader to leave his torso unprotected. Hiei groaned, feeling the pain from stretching the cut he"d received earlier.
"Now!" Noah yelled into his mind, rushing into the gap and stabing at the defenseless chest of the swordsman. "I won," he thought, as he saw his dagger contact the guy"s chest. Then, out of nowhere, he felt his body get blown sideways, like he had been hit by a car.
Noah thumped against the wall, feeling his stomach burn. He quickly recovered, watching the dent in his armor from the hit he"d taken, and looked to the side to see the swordsman he"d been fighting had dropped his sword to the ground, his left arm set aflame.
"I hate using this power, but I underestimated you," the Hiei guy said, before engaging Noah in close quarters.
His speed had gone up by a large amount, and the strength of his arm that was set on fire was also leagues better than before. But as noah soon realized, his strenght was only really better if he were to hit. The force from this guy"s arm when blocking and parrying was the same as before, aside from the flame that would burn him if he were to touch it.
Not p.r.o.ne to taking things easily, Noah too wrapped his arm in fire, replicating the man"s blessing. Now, each time they crossed fists, both would take a small but considerable amount of damage. Never once in this fight had Noah found a gap where he could set this guy on fire. He was just too powerful. As time went by, Noah had managed to deal many small cuts to this guy with his dagger, but nothing serious enough to make him drop. "Now!" Noah thought, as he saw a gap in the guy"s defense, just an arrow flew from one of the corners towards them. In a second, Noah burst into flames once again, using this small distraction to appear behind Hiei, his dagger on the guy"s neck.
"Tsc," Hiei clicked his tongue. "I guess that"s it for me, then. I surrender." He raised his arms, but contrary to his expectation, the walls instantly came crashing down. Returning the arena to its usual flat appearance. "I was the last one?! No way!" he thought, dumbfounded, before he saw a warrior fall to his knees, unconscious, a few dozen meters away. He bit his lips, angrily, but there was not much he could do. "You, why did you not use that teleport thing against me until the very last moment?" he asked Noah.
"Because I hadn"t had the chance to catch you off guard. There was no reason to waste it if there would be no results," Noah said as a matter of fact.
"I see... You are strong. I hope we can face each other again in the future," The Hiei guy extended Noah his hand, which he took without any expression.
"Likewise," Noah said, before taking off his helmet, leaving the Hiei guy with a strong impression of his appearance.
"Noah, Good job! This battle was heaps easier because of you," The bearded warrior walked towards him, patting him on the back with unnecessary force. "I didn"t expect you to manage to keep their leader of the fight for the entire battle, let alone defeat him."
"I only defeated him because this wasn"t a battle to death. Had it been, he would"ve had the upper hand since the very beginning." Hiei furrowed his brows as he heard these words. He was surprised Noah had even defeated him in swordsmanship, but reading his fighting was another thing.
"What do you mean?" Hiei asked Noah, as the rest of the Kahn Family blessed there were still standing approached them.
"Your blessing is the same as mine, it shines when killing monsters. Toning it back against humans, especially when there"s so many people watching is a ma.s.sive drawback." He shrugged.
"So you saw that far... Noah, I"ll look forward to the day we fight again, I hope we can fight together so we can see the extend of each other"s power," the Hiei guy said, before walking off, giving his back to the other blessed without so much as a word.
"That guy was strange..." Noah muttered, so that only the bearded warrior could hear.
"Him? Strange? No, you"re the strange one. You made that powerhouse acknowledge you, that"s strange!" the bearded warrior retorted back, leaving Noah with a confused expression.
"What do you mean?" Noah asked, still confused.
"That guy is the strongest B blessed of the Hiei Family. It"s said that he equals the power of some A rank blessed, and he looks down on everyone weaker than himself," out of nowhere, Michael said, walking towards the two. "And what you said was spot on, about him having to hold back when fighting people."
"I see... Also, you guys took care of everyone in ther side? That"s impressive," Noah said, as five more people approached them, including the scout from earlier and the healer.
"We only managed to do it because you dealt with their healer and one magician before the battle even started and held their leader out of the fight. If that guy had showed up things would"ve been a lot closer," Michael said, before turning his back.. "We have to go now, the next battle should start soon."