Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 335: Death of...?

-2 left-

The whisper sighed again, but no one stopped to think about it even for a second.

“AGH! Let me wipe that smile out of your face!” shouted berk as he threw a punch at Blaze.

It hit Blaze directly in the face, but the ice had abruptly protected him from any serious damage.

Responding quickly, Blaze summoned a lance from behind Berk, threatening to kill him on the spot.

“Tch!”

He spat in disappointment; the lance could barely damage the golden armor before it melted from the heat.

.....

“Try all you want! This isn’t called Armor of Heavens for nothing!” Berk shouted in delight as he made his next move.

Although he was one rank above Blaze as a Fighter, he was still a whole stage below him in terms of a Mage!

With Blaze’s absolute raw power and his years of experience, it should have been an easy fight for him. Yet, he was struggling so much because of this technique which he had never seen before.

‘A spell or an artifact? Whatever it is, it shouldn’t last long,’ Blaze thought as he continued dodging and simultaneously attacking Berk.

Something so strong must be using Berk’s own Mana, so he wasn’t invincible. It would run out or he would get exhausted sooner or later. ‘That must be the case, otherwise, with this technique’s help, the Leonard Dynasty would have already been ruling the whole continent,’ Blaze concluded while keeping his focus on Berk.

The ice and the fire element raged all around the hill like wild beasts!

The confused audience could only wonder whether they were still in the same competition or not. They were certain that except for the man fighting the Rank-10 Beast, no one exceeded Rank-8 as a Mage inside the barrier.

Yet, why did it look like two Rank-9 Mages were fighting!?

“AHH!”

“ENTERTAIN ME!!”

The latter shout was from Blaze. He wasn’t able to even put a scratch on Berk, but the beastly smile on his face highly contradicted his current situation.

This was what he wanted! A worthy opponent that he could overcome with his own strength!

Each strike that he missed, each attack that he had a hard time blocking further pumped his blood.

‘This is what I wanted!!! Let’s see what you can do.’

Berk whipped a lash of wire at Blaze, expecting Blaze to either dodge or slow down his momentum by blocking.

“F*ck!” Berk cursed as he saw what actually went down.

Blaze had no intentions of dodging or blocking the attack!

He rushed through the flames which could melt rock boulders in a matter of seconds and aimed straight at Berk’s weakness!

Berk was caught off-guard as he didn’t expect Blaze to be even crazier than him.

Blaze’s fist landed right on Berk’s face, shooting him in an abandoned building a little far away.

With that, everything turned quiet. Even those still trying to fight each other amidst this confusion stopped to understand the outcome.

After the dust settled, people could see the shadow of the man groggily standing up from the rubbles. A few seconds later, the proud appearance of Berk became visible.

He looked just as flashy as before, but blood was currently dripping down his nose, ruining the image of the invincible general who could take down the whole world with his momentum.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one hurt in this exchange. Blaze had also endured the flames to land the direct hit!

There were burnt marks all over his skin, but he still stood tall, excitement apparent from every inch of his body. Contrasting with Berk, he currently had armor of solid ice covering all of his vital organs.

“Turns out you can take a hit,” Blaze commented.

He was seriously surprised to see Berk standing up as if he just hadn’t taken a direct hit to his head.

“You know you’re the first person to get me this excited. Enduring those flames, I don’t think... even I could have done that,” Berk muttered. These were his true feelings, “Even the Armor of Heavens doesn’t seem so mighty now.”

But just then, both Blaze and Berk readied themselves and shot at each other again. The fight was far from over.

On the sidelines, a black-haired woman boringly watched this show with a look that seemed to indicate that she wasn’t enjoying any of this.

“They should be soul mates,” she muttered annoyedly.

The man with sickly appearances behind her could only wryly smile at her attitude.

“Uhm,” Zier stuttered.

“What is it?” Raven turned around.

“Didn’t you notice?” he questioned with a worried face.

“Notice what?”

“The death! Only two people are left now, but no one except for these two freaks was fighting!”

Raven’s eyes widened at the thought. Because of this whirlpool of ice and fire elements, she wasn’t even able to feel any other spells being used around the area.

“Too late now!” A shout came from behind her.

To be more precise, it was from behind Zier!

Raven instantly registered the situation, but the distance seemed too far to protect Zier.

“Not so fast!” Zier himself had prepared for such a situation. With his quick reflexes, he tried to duck.

Sadly, he was only a Rank-5 Fighter and his opponent was a Rank-8 Mage and a Rank-3 Fighter!

It was at this moment that Zier flicked his hands and out of nowhere, an explosion of purple gas covered him entirely!

“ARGH!”

“Ukh!”

Raven heard two different shouts, though she had to stop her spell now since she didn’t know what had occurred inside the purple gas.

From the gas, the skinny man who had jumped on Zier ran away with a limp on his feet.

Raven shot a dagger in his direction before quickly glancing towards the ground; Zier was on the ground clutching his stomach with one hand and supporting himself with the other.

“Akh! I will be fine, get that guy!” Zier spat a mouthful of blood, leaving Raven wondering if she should help him or get the guy.

“Go! I can help myself!”

Seeing his resolution and the confidence in his eyes, Raven nodded her head and chased the man around the abandoned buildings.

“Fuck go away!! I have to live! I have a family!” the man who had attacked Zier started shouting as he noticed Raven coming after him.

“Should have thought about them before attacking a sick man.” Raven never learned to pity those who were in the wrong.

“URGH! Crow! Hurry up! Kill people before this bitch kills me!!”

The man frantically started shouting, though no one answered his cries for help.

‘So it’s not him alone,’ Raven understood the gist of it, but she didn’t know if this man named Crow would be so loyal as to listen to a dying man.

Without waiting for another second, she pinned that man down on the ground. It wasn’t hard, he was already limping because of something Zier had done.

Although surprised how Zier could pull off such a feat while only being a Rank-5 Fighter, she didn’t hesitate before plunging another dagger right into that man’s chest.

“Khu!”

Blood spattered everywhere as the familiar whisper again resounded in everyone’s mind.

‘One more death, and the show ends~...’

With that announcement, Raven didn’t have the time to find the man’s companion as she remembered that she had left Zier on his own. If someone found him, they would surely kill him on the spot to end this tournament!

As she returned to the location, she discovered him leaning against a stone wall, with a piece of cloth tied around his wound. He had fallen unconscious.

Raven moved quickly and precisely. She opened his mouth and quickly summoned a bottle of liquid, which she chugged down his throat.

*Cough! Cough!*

Zier violently coughed before spitting some blood to his side.

“Is he... dead?” he asked Raven with a weak look.

“Yes.”

After that, no one spoke. Only the sound of Zier occasionally coughing could be heard in addition to the explosive noises due to the ongoing battles.

Raven couldn’t do more for Zier. She had already given him the medicine, it was up to him to survive now, ‘He should be fine.’

She wanted to look for that man named Crow, but leaving Zier here probably meant leaving him to die.

.....

. . .

Back to Blaze and Berk’s fight, Blaze kept on pushing the other.

Even with a technique as powerful as the Armor of Heavens, it had its own weaknesses. It didn’t cover his whole body.

“Don’t you give up already!” Blaze shouted as he realized that Berk’s movements were slowing down. It turned out that he was already running out of Mana.

Irritated, Berk didn’t reply this time. He had to admit; he was losing this battle. If he didn’t do anything now, he would be helpless.

Just then, Berk heard a voice from a few meters away, “You just don’t know when to give up, huh!?”

“Damn, Maura! Don’t you interfere in this fight!” Berk tried stopping Maura who was about to jump in this storm of ice and fire.

Angry, Maura stomped her feet. She wasn’t about to let him die even if he scolded her later!

“Oh? Stop me the- UkkH!!”

Her widened eyes glanced down.

It was a dagger.

“MAURA!!!” Berk shouted, forgetting Blaze.

‘Aaand~ the last participant is dead~... ‘

Hearing the announcement, Blaze didn’t give chase to Berk.

Someone had snuck up on Maura when she was distracted by Berk’s fight for a moment.

Berk, panicked, dashed up to her. His wide eyes were staring down at hers, which had suddenly lost all light.

“H-ahah.. I d-did it!” the man who had plunged that dagger into Maura laughed maniacally. In his excitement of escaping death, he forgot that Berk was still here.

“YOU BASTARD!! I WILL SHOW YOU HELL!”

In a fit of rage, Berk didn’t care that the tournament had already ended...

“AaHHhH!!!...”

The tournament ended with the anguished cries of the man who was scorched to death by Berk...