For a full second, Kim Jin Seok and Satoshi locked eyes with each other right when they were done shaking their hands for a great match. With urgency, the referee ran out of the grand stage before giving the signal for the commencement of the match. He didn't even wait for Kim Jin Seok and Satoshi to return to their respective sides of the grand stage. He was just so nervous that he messed up the timing of the signal— not that it greatly affected the match, but it gave the two participants a unique start to the match.
There were no words spoken between Kim Jin Seok and Satoshi as they looked at each other. Taking a step back, the two instantly integrated with their tamed beasts without telling twice, and they clashed with each other in a single breath, not giving the audience time to recover from the messed up timing of the match.
One moment, Kim Jin Seok was a normal beast tamer, glaring down at Satoshi while squinting his eyes. He was taller than him, allowing him to look down on Satoshi. The next moment, he was covered in a nice tri-colored plume— a mixture of blue, yellow, and orange. On his head was a helmet that looked like the head of a fowl, and the beak part covered the whole upper part of his head. And on his back were three pairs of wings, having the respective colors of his plumage. He looked like a birdman— or somewhere along those lines.
Without missing a beat, Kim Jin Seok unleashed a punch toward Satoshi. But Satoshi caught it in an instant. While his tamed beasts may be subpar to Kim Jin Seok since they weren't legendaries whatsoever, Satoshi's beast integration was nothing but mediocre.
He wore the same icy armor as the Ice Empress, giving everyone the illusion that Satoshi had a sexy slender body. Fortunately, the armor didn't have boob bags, or it would've appeared extremely misleading.
Despite his icy cold appearance and the freezing temperature surrounding him like a shield of frost, an arc could be seen above Satoshi's head. This arc was scarlet red, and lava seemed to drip from it, falling on the ground and Satoshi's ice armor. This caused steam to rise from Satoshi's body, giving the appearance of a melding of ice and fire.
On his hand, Satoshi wielded an ice spear, and tentacles came out of his back like certain ghoul-like features from a very popular animated series in the past. He looked like a monstrosity, a marvelous monstrosity.
Effortlessly, he caught the punch that Kim Jin Seok directed at him. To counter the strike, the tentacles on Satoshi's back extended and pushed Kim Jin Seok out of the way.
Just from that punch alone, an intense wind pressure spread across the grand stage, producing a powerful upwind that stirred the barrier.
Kim Jin Seok smirked as he caught one of the tentacles that flew right at him, squeezing it and detaching it from Satoshi. While it might have hurt a little bit, Satoshi's tentacles were regenerative in nature, so he didn't have to worry about losing one of the many tentacles. At this rate, though, he could tell that his tentacles would easily be countered if that was the only mode of attack, he was going to use.
To widen the gap between them, Kim Jin Seok flew upward before spreading his six wings like an iconic symbol in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Ice, fire, and lightning started mercilessly raining down on Satoshi.
The sudden downpour of projectiles was too sudden that Satoshi almost couldn't react in time. He swung the ice spear in his hand, spinning it like a shield, blocking the projectiles that shot down at him.
Of course, it couldn't block all of it since there were just too many. Adding to that, every projectile packed a punch, so it took a significant amount of effort for Satoshi to deflect them. As for those that he couldn't deflect, he just avoided them, stepping backward as he did so.
"That's a neat trick you got there. But how about this?" Kim Jin Seok smiled as his wings changed their position. Their tips started converging in front of Kim Jin Seok, creating a cone shape, or was it a cylinder?
FWOOOSH!
A beam of pure energy shot from the tip of Kim Jin Seok's wings and pierced through Satoshi's ice spear in an instant. Had it not been for Satoshi's quick reflexes, he would suffer an insane amount of damage. Jumping sideways before rolling on the ground, Satoshi dodged the beam by a hair's breadth. It was a close call.
In return, Satoshi formed ice spikes in the air and hurled them at Kim Jin Seok. As if that wasn't enough, he started forming embers in the air, throwing them like fireballs at Kim Jin Seok in response to his long-range attack.
To everyone's surprise, Kim Jin Seok didn't bother dodging his attacks. He simply floated there without any intention of moving out of the way. Obviously, he was looking down on Satoshi's attacks, which is why he wasn't alarmed by them.
Shiiing~
The sound of swords being unsheathed from their scabbard filled the air as Kim Jin Seok stopped his high-energy beam attack. But instead of the beams disappearing altogether, they separated into six different beams, each coming out of the tip of his wings. Those beams cut off Satoshi's ice and fire projectiles, rendering them useless as they flew in mid-air.
After dealing with Saoshi's projectiles that never connected, he started firing the six separate beams toward Satoshi. They were all as powerful as the high-energy beam that he had attacked Satoshi with a moment ago, and that's why Satoshi had no choice but to dodge every single one of them.
To steer clear of the beams, Satoshi had to dart around and swerve left and right in a weird dance so that he wouldn't sustain any significant damage. Even then, it was a difficult achievement to pull since the six beams were faster than him. Pretty soon, Kim Jin Seok got used to Satoshi's movements and speed, and he was able to hit Satoshi with the beams a couple of times.
Since Satoshi didn't have that much of a choice (he was going to get hit no matter what he did), he decided to sacrifice a couple of his tentacles. However, his tentacles were so squishy that the beams just pierced right through them. One of the beams hit the joint on his shoulder. Another shot him through the liver, and the last one got him on the knee. By the time Kim Jin Seok was satisfied with his attack. Satoshi was already in a worse state than expected. He clutched the side of his stomach while his left hand limply hung due to the injury on his shoulder.
In his previous matches at the Official Beast Tournament, Satoshi always managed to pull through, and he always overcame his injuries thanks to his Celestial Type tamed beast called Sera. But now that he doesn't have her in his roster, he was more glass cannon than expected. Except for the first round, where he almost died, Satoshi had no difficulty tanking more powerful attacks. However, he seemed to be having a hard time dealing with Kim Jin Seok's regular attacks when he was expected to deal with them just fine.
Even the audience who had become fans of Satoshi due to his outstanding performance was beginning to get concerned. Something was wrong with Satoshi on this particular match— or maybe, Kim Jin Seok was just that formidable.
Gaining more confidence, Kim Jin Seok engaged Satoshi in close combat. Instead of relying on his long-range attacks, he now opted to abuse Satoshi hand to hand.
He was already aware that his speed was superior compared to Satoshi's. That's why he should be fine going head-to-head with him in his field of expertise.
A lightning bolt appeared on Kim Jin Seok's hand. He brought the lightning bolt down on his descent, aiming it right at Satoshi's head. Satoshi was almost caught off-guard, but he managed to block the attack with his ice spear.
When the two weapons collided, a spark and an explosion ignited, sending Satoshi backward. He skidded on the ground, but he stabbed the grand stage with his ice spear to stop himself from going out of bounds.
Before he could recover, Kim Jin Seok was already hot on his tail, swinging the lightning bolt a second time. Satoshi rolled sideways but was too slow, and the lightning bolt cut him on the cheek. He cringed in pain, but he was able to get up before Kim Jin Seok attacked him again.
Kim Jin Seok had already noticed that Satoshi's speed had drastically dropped.
As soon as he got up, Kim Jin Seok accelerated faster than sight while pointing his lightning bolt forward. He was confident that Satoshi would be able to dodge the attack. After all, Satoshi was able to pull through in a lot of tight spots in his previous matches. If he could do it before, then he should be able to do it again.
However, Kim Jin Seok overestimated Satoshi. In short, Satoshi could not dodge the attack, and the lightning bolt hit him straight through his heart. A look of surprise and despair appeared on Satoshi's face as he vomited large amounts of blood from his mouth.
It was Kim Jin Seok's win.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢