Even unarmed and in the middle of thick smoke, Nebezial's reflexes were almost inhuman. Luke's axe blows were deflected by him, and the same dodging motion was used to attack the half-wolf, who was thrown away. They fought for more than two minutes on the gas, and only Nebezial could land powerful blows.
However, Luke was not the kind of man who would get beaten for no reason. By getting caught, he was able to learn an effective way to fight, and ironically, it was exactly the most obvious way. Inside the <Tumult of Souls>, Luke hit and pulled back, hit and pulled back once more.
Many people had told the half-wolf that he had the ideal skills to be a rogue, but he didn't understand the function of a rogue until that day. His blows annoyed and surprised his opponent more than they did considerable damage. Even so, the role of a rogue is not always to apply massive damage, but to accumulate damage.
Whenever Nebezial dared to put his hand inside his clothes to get a healing potion, Luke would attack him.
"You fucking little annoying piece of shit! Why the fuck don't you fight like a warrior and come fight me head-on?" The blue-haired man shouted, irritated. Most of his obsidian components had already been ripped off, and he was sporting deep cuts.
"Give it up! Otherwise, the next blow might rip off an arm of yours!" Luke shouted as he circled the area around his opponent.
Within the smoke, the half-wolf's vision was limited, but his sense of smell and hearing became even stronger, allowing him to locate his opponent easily.
"I WILL NOT GIVE UP!!!" Nebezial shouted, finally losing control. The veins in his neck were bulging from so much anger.
Again, Nebezial used the elemental skill sign <Brann>. He lowered his index finger and thumb, but left the other three fingers up, and three fireballs formed from the tips of each of the remaining fingers.
Nevertheless, for some reason, these fireballs were even bigger than when he first used them. They flew in the direction from which Luke's voice seemed to come and almost hit him. Luke jumped up, using the <Vind> ability to propel himself. His jump was so strong that he stopped out of the brownish smoke for a moment, which caused the audience to react.
"Did you guys see that!?"
"That's the 'Half-Wolf', isn't it?"
Nebezial was experienced and listened to the noise of the draught, even amidst so many wailing voices. He flexed his knees and jumped up too. Although his knees hurt quite a bit, he felt relief as he stepped out of his own ability.
"Ha! I finally found you!" He called out with a smile to Luke, and then he extended his right arm toward the half-wolf. "<The Eagle of Pain>!"
A white bird emerged from Nebezial's arm. This animal did not look alive because it was somewhat transparent, as if it was made of some kind of energy. The eagle flapped its wings and flew toward Luke, surprised in the air.
The bird collided with the arms that Luke put up to try to defend himself and threw him against the stone area of the circle.
Ironically, the smoke subsided moments after that. Sore, Luke immediately got up with the help of the Behemoth Axe after falling to the ground. This time, he looked quite bruised from the impact of the fall.
'Damn... I lost my advantage. Still, I won't change my way of fighting now that I've learned how to beat him. I need to adapt!'
"Now, I won't let you out of my sight!" Nebezial shouted once he propelled himself towards the half-wolf.
Everyone could see how badly injured the former champion was; however, he was not feeling the pain from his open wounds, because of the adrenaline that was almost intoxicating his veins.
Nebezial leaped up and tried to hit Luke with both fists at once. The half-wolf pirouetted back to dodge and threw his axe. With a startling reflex, Nebezial spun the axe and threw it back. Since the speed of Panspermia's weapon was doubled, the half-beast knew he couldn't repeat the same move as his opponent, so he just dodged.
The Behemoth Axe went outside the circle's boundaries and hit the shield, so it was now out of the final.
In the next moment that Luke dodged, Nebezial attacked him with a powerful punch, which the half-beast's high guard managed to contain the damage.
'All right. If that's the way you're going to want things, I won't hesitate either!' Luke thought.
Taking advantage that the former champion was slower now than at the beginning of the final, Luke experimented with copying the skillful footwork he saw Nebezial do minutes ago, to finally gain a big advantage. Luke's legs got surprisingly faster, and consequently, he landed more punches, while hardly being hit by his opponent's blows. The half-beast would punch each side of Nebezial's skull and step back. Proud as he was, the former champion soon tried to move forward again and was met by heavy punches.
Soon, Nebezial's ears began to ring, and the sound of the euphoric crowd became distant, and his vision blurred.
High above the Municipal Arena, Kristofer stood wide-eyed. He never expected that his brother could actually lose to someone so much younger. Beside him, Brigitte and Solveig broke into a cold sweat faced with the monstrous progress Luke had made in just a few weeks since they had fought him.
When Luke saw Nebezial's legs wobble, his arms go limp, his eyes droop a little, and his guard down, he realized it was time for the ultimatum.
The half-wolf moved once again in the direction of his opponent. Nebezial tried to land two punches on him, but Luke suddenly used <Vind> with his left hand to push himself to the side, breaking Nebezial's guard. Then Luke applied a punch so hard with his right fist that Nebezial's neck sprained, and with a thud, he fell to the stone floor at the feet of the half-beast.
The audience was silent for a second because the result was so unexpected that most didn't believe it to be true until the last second. When finally, the thousands of people shouted with excitement, it seemed that the entire floor of Oukiwa shook.
"He won!? He really won!? Fucking 'Half-Wolf', you're too fucking cool!"
"Nebezial is down!"
"I got fucking rich! I've struck it rich!"
"The 'Half-wolf' is ruthless!"
"Nebezial is an idiot if he thought he was on the level of Secular!"
"From this day forward, my family, my friends, and I will serve the almighty 'Half-Wolf'!"
"Can a half-beast really be that amazing!? I want to be his friend!"
That night, many things changed in the Broteforge Empire, and I am sure that the continent was never the same again, nor Luke Lange's life.
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