Scarlet

The rest of the time before the round passes by in a flash and soon enough I find myself in the arena facing off against the Blind Prophet. And this time the arena is different. This time the arena is an actual arena grounds on the bottom level of the stadium with no mist wall blocking us off from the audience, making it so we can actually hear the audience. Just with them being a bit muted so we can focus on the match.

Which is very different from the norm so far.

Another difference is that this round we have no time limit for the battles, unlike the five minute time limit for the previous rounds’ battles. So we can fight for as long as we want without having to worry about the time limit ending.

Although I can’t help but wonder what they’d do if the time limit did end during one of those matches, since it never actually happened, nor was it explained.

Doesn’t really matter now though. Not as I watch the man standing over a dozen meters away from me wearing a simple white and purple robe with a purple blindfold on his head covering his eyes.

A few seconds pass with neither of us moving, the black stadium’s center being filled with nothing but the cheers of the audience and a faint breeze as we stand at opposite ends of it.

Eventually the man straightens up slightly before bowing, not surprising me in the least since he’s done that at the start of every single one of his matches so far. And I decide to return the gesture because why not.

His lips quirk up slightly as if he can tell I did it – which he probably can through his premonition or something. Then we both immediately sprint towards each other, each activating skills along the way.

By the time we reach each other, I have my arm shifted, hands covered in blood claws, and my vitals in blood armor with a layer of blood diffusion over me, meanwhile he has a faint purple glow shining off of his body, and an even brighter one coming from underneath his blindfold. But my eyes narrow as I see him rushing towards me while not seeming to do any actual attacks. Just plunging headfirst with his arms trailing to the side.

And just as expected, the moment my claws get near his face, he fluidly avoids my attack while spinning in a smooth circle and sending a kick around towards my side. I don’t let him though as I stomp my foot into the ground, cracking the ground in the process before turning around and raising my arms, creating two plates of blood armor in the process.

But by the time I finish preparing, he’s already stopping the kick and backing away.

I grit my teeth while lowering my arms.

Annoying. Very annoying.

We continue going back and forth for a while, neither of us landing a single hit on the other despite my use of every skill I have. And throughout this process, I’m sitting here wishing very much that my stupid blood boil and life drain skills would work on him. Because the guy has some sort of skill that’s making him immune to those types of attacks.

This guy really is the definition of a nuisance in battle.

And the cheering crowd isn’t really helping. Although it’s not hurting either, since they’re very muted from here. So I can still clearly hear every footstep and breath and even heartbeat made by the Blind Prophet.

Eventually I get sick of our little game and jump backwards before summoning various blood weapons to keep him at bay as I summon forth my blood shadow. And just as I thought, he tries to take advantage of my weakness from the blood loss, only for him to be beat back by the various weapons as he repeatedly dodges them, not making any actual progress towards me.

After I finish summoning my blood shadow, I wince, feeling the blood loss from both it and my minimal use of blood sacrifice this fight.

I very much prefer a straightforward fight.

And with that thought in mind, I straighten up, using pain diffusion to ignore the discomfort brought about by my blood loss as blood regeneration quickly works to restore my blood. Fortunately I was using blood sacrifice little enough that blood regeneration was able to mostly keep me from really losing much blood. So within a minute of watching the Blind Prophet avoid my manifested weapons, I’m already back to fighting shape again with my blood shadow standing next to me while wielding a spear.

Of the various weapons I’ve trained with over the past months, the spear is most likely the best one in this situation. It’s mobile and has a good reach, making it great to catch him up when he tries to dodge out of the way of our attacks.

Allen also went over the Blind Prophet’s last battles with me and worked through strategies alongside Cynthia last night in our training. Before the whole Destroyer thing happened. And he agreed that the best way to deal with the Blind Prophet is to overload him with too many attacks simultaneously for him to dodge.

Which means going all out with every last one of my skills, including my blood shadow and my blood manifestation skill, arming it with a weapon as we both attack it at once. Not to mention the rest of the blood weapons sent flying through the air at the same time.

Out of nowhere, the Blind Prophet jumps backwards, away from my blood weapons before simply standing there.

With his blindfold on, I can’t really tell what he’s looking at, and it makes it even harder to figure out what he’s thinking. A very annoying problem.

He just stares at me – I think – for several seconds, my blood weapons floating through the air between us. And right when I think he’s about to rush towards me again, he raises his hands and says, “I surrender,” making me blink in surprise. At the same time, the audience just suddenly goes silent.

My mouth parts open for a second, only for me to end up back in my private booth again.

What… just happened?