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.
From the audience, Tatsuki and Ayumu gasped. Even Tatsuki's parents (Satoshi's grandparents) gasped in surprise. A majority of the audience started gasping as well.
The fight had just started, and Satoshi had already sustained an unexplainable amount of damage. The reason why it was unexplainable was that he should've been able to tank it. But no, as soon as he was hit, an injury was inflicted on his body, and he couldn't recover from it.
One could only wonder whether it was the doing of Kim Jin Seok's tamed beasts or Satoshi was just that weak. And now that Satoshi had been stabbed through the heart, the match was already over.
"That was dangerous," Satoshi mumbled as he gurgled the blood free-flowing from his mouth. Instead of being afraid that he would die at any moment, he seemed to be making light of the situation. He even found the leisure to chuckle while casually talking to Kim Jin Seok.
"Boy, you crazy as..." Kim Jin Seok responded, not noticing that Satoshi had already taken hold of his lightning bolt.
Securing Kim Jin Seok on the spot, Satoshi then brought the ice spear and stabbed Kim Jin Seok in the shoulder. To everyone, it might seem that Satoshi's attack was pointless, but if they were to look closer, they would know that Satoshi was winning.
The fight hasn't ended yet. Satoshi may look like he is losing right now, but the winner has yet to be decided. Satoshi still had a clear shot at winning this second match despite being severely injured.
Sure, he was on the verge of death, but he wasn't dead yet.
"If you want to win, you should be as crazy as me." Satoshi continued, pushing the ice lance through Kim Jin Seok's shoulder.
Due to the frost that covered the ice lance, Satoshi easily froze Kim Jin Seok's shoulder and pierced it. His skin and muscle cracked as they turned into frozen meat, and a few seconds later, his entire left shoulder had frozen, and there was nothing he could do about it.
While Kim Jin Seok could've easily dodged the attack since he was much faster than Satoshi, he didn't do anything. His left shoulder was a small price to pay for victory. Instead of dodging the attack, he pushed the lightning bolt in his hand through Satoshi's chest, burying it even deeper until it poked through Satoshi. Pretty soon, the lightning bolt protruded out of Satoshi's back.
"I can't watch this," Ayano said to herself, turning away. As the seventh superhero in SAO Rankings, she had been sent to multiple disaster areas, and the sight of blood never fazed her. But seeing Satoshi dying on the grand stage made her close her eyes. If it weren't against the rules, she would've jumped in to save Satoshi. He would be instantly disqualified if she were to intervene.
"What kind of gladiator match is this?" Grado huffed as he stood up. He was ready to plow through everyone and get to his grandson before something worse happened to him.
"Relax, he's going to be all right. Satoshi's got this under control." Lize, Satoshi's grandmother, and Grado's wife, gently tapped her husband on the shoulder.
"How could you say that? Our grandson was just stabbed through the heart. While the Nurse could heal him after his heart stopped... the pain he had to endure must be imaginable. I took a stabbing through the heart once before, and I sure as heck didn't enjoy every second of it." Grado responded.
"He would be healed after the match, of course, but there was no way he wouldn't feel that excruciating pain beforehand. It would feel like his heart is being wrung dry... my poor grandson."
"He's got this. I'm sure he does. My son had trained all his life for this. Even before he awakened his superpower, he was already physically strong. Countless times had he driven his body to the limits. And now, I'm sure he'll pull through this and win the match. I'm sure. I'm sure." Tatsuki kept on muttering to himself as he clenched his fists. A few seconds later, his fists began to bleed because he clenched them hard. He wanted to jump in and get his son out of there. He wanted his son to forfeit so the medics could tend to him.
But at the end of the day, Tatsuki knew just how important this fight was to his son. If he wins this fight, he's going straight to the finals. As much as he wanted to intervene and save his son as a father, he couldn't do it. Satoshi had already put so much on the line. There was no way he would ruin all that by disqualifying his son.
"You can do it, son. You can do it." Ayumu clasped her hand in prayer. She couldn't bear to watch her son suffer, so she closed her eyes. As the number two superhero in the SAO Rankings, it would've been easy for her to go down there and push Kim Jin Seok out of the way. But just like her husband, she knew how important this was for their son. The best they could do was sit back and watch... and suffer.
The stare-down between Kim Jin Seok and Satoshi lasted for half a minute before Kim Jin Seok deliberately retreated. The frostbite on his shoulder was now spreading toward his chest, and his left arm was too numb that he felt like it was going to fall off at any second. He had no choice but to let go since Satoshi wasn't willing to do so.
Satoshi grinned. Even though he was bleeding all over, he smiled at Kim Jin Seok as if he was the one winning.
In return, Kim Jin Seok also smiled at Satoshi before he charged at him for the second time. Even with all the injuries inflicted upon him, he was still as speedy as ever. Satoshi couldn't follow his movements since he was moving faster than sight.
Everyone was on the edge of their seats since it seemed like it would be a close fight. Satoshi was seconds away from dying, and Kim Jin Seok looked like he was minutes away from freezing. Regardless, the two engaged each other in combat as if nothing was wrong.
Relying on Ice Empress's combative skills and his instincts, Satoshi barely pinpointed where Kim Jin Seok would attack. He blocked from above, then behind, then he sidestepped to the left before leaning backward.
As for Kim Jin Seok, he was jumping all over the place, seemingly moving faster and faster as panic got the better of him. He could now feel his lungs freezing, and it was getting harder and harder for him to breathe.
'No, I won't lose. As long as Satoshi falls down first, I'll be declared the winner. I just have to hold on until then.' Kim Jin Seok said to himself.
Since the close-range attacks weren't working, he switched to long-range once again, firing beams at Satoshi. This time though, Satoshi cleanly dodged them as if an elusive target in a shooting range. There were no gaps in Satoshi's movements.
Of course, as an expert player in the famous game Laser Fingers, Satoshi could dodge all of these without much effort at all. The only reason why he couldn't avoid them before was that he was faking everything.
Right from the start, he had been faking that he was weaker than Kim Jin Seok.
Because of that, Kim Jin Seok started underestimating Satoshi when he should've overestimated him. But no one could blame him for falling for that ruse. After all, even the audience was deceived.
"Impossible... but I stabbed him through the heart? How?!" Kim Jin Seok thought out loud.
"Heh~ do you think stabbing me right through the heart would kill me?" Satoshi asked.
Satoshi's arm had healed in an instant, and all his injuries had disappeared. Previously, his appearance depicted a losing beast tamer, but now there was no injury in his body as if he had turned back time.
Apparently, one of the Kraken's unique skills was insane regeneration. Also, Satoshi had not told anyone, but he could move his organs within his body. Of course, he couldn't move them too far, but he could push them slightly to avoid a knife, for example.
Besides, now that he had integrated with the Kraken Queen, he possessed three hearts. Even if his heart was stabbed, his two hearts could still do their job and keep him alive as long as he didn't deactivate his beast integration.
And there was no way Satoshi would reveal those trump cards to his enemies. He considered saying it out loud so that he could see Kim Jin Seok's despair. But after thinking about it, he chose to keep it a secret from everyone.
"I-impossible." Kim Jin Seok's eyes widened as he continued his laser-like attacks.
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