Chapter 202: Chapter 202 - Scrap Battle
RUMBLE—CRASH!!!!!
"DIE, KURT ROSSANA!!!"
"This cannot be good for the people," Ayako stood up from her seat bench as she shifted her gaze from the dark thunderclouds to the spectators who were currently looking up in terror.
"An attack of that magnitude will send stray electrical discharges out to everyone present."
Emelie reached into her bucket, pulled out a single popcorn kernel, and let out a disgusted hiss.
Crunch.
’Everett, you idiot. You’re taking things way too far. Your fragile ego is going to get people killed.’
Setting her bucket aside, Emelie unleashed a massive telekinetic dome that rapidly expanded outward like a rushing wave. The invisible barrier swept over the entirety of the coliseum stands, sealing the spectators behind a wall of safety just as Everett threw the attack.
Beside her, Ayako’s eyes remained locked onto Kurt, her pulse quickening with the thrill of excitement. ’What are you going to do now, Rossana-sama? Show me.’
Then, the lightning hit.
CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The world went white as catastrophic violence of the S-rank attack hit the arena floor, creating an earth-shattering boom that made the telekinetic barrier shake violently.
Fighting to keep the dome from collapsing under the electrical pressure, Emelie groaned aloud as her white boots slid back slightly against the stone.
The dust and smoke that erupted from the epicenter was a towering pillar of white stone powder and silver sparks that completely obscured the ring.
Ayako’s eyes widened behind her sunglasses. Her sensory perception of mana sliced through the smoke, but what she found made her heart skip a beat.
"He... he just disappeared," she whispered with uncharacteristic shock. "There was no mana displacement. No draft. He did not dodge."
"HEY! OVER HERE, BLIND PEACOCK!!!"
A mocking roar suddenly echoed from high above Everett.
Everett, who was still hovering in the air, panting heavily as his silver aura flickered, flinched. He spun his head around and widened his eyes in horror as he looked up.
Kurt held his black sword with two hands over his shoulder like an executioner’s axe. The dark steel was humming with a terrifying display of blue stardust.
"HAAAAAAA!" Kurt screamed as he began his rapid descent.
"AHHHHH!" Everett screamed back in terror as he tried to lift his rapier to parry.
"AAAAAAA–!"
"AHHHHH–!"
"AAAAAAA–!"
"AHHHHH–!"
"HIYAAH!" With a brutal arc, Kurt sliced his blade directly across Everett’s chest.
Strangely, the impact didn’t draw blood – instead, it unleashed a deep thud that completely robbed the noble of his breath, sending him hurtling downward through the air like a broken bird.
BOOM!!!!!!!!
Everett slammed into the center of the ruined ring, creating a fresh crater in the dirt.
["WHAT IN THE NAME OF OUR HOLD GODDESS JUST HAPPENED?!"] Commentator Ken’s voice screeched from the speakers.
["JUST A MOMENT AGO, KURT ROSSANA WAS ON THE GROUND, AND IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, HE REAPPEARED IN THE CLOUDS! IS THIS TELEPORTATION?! IS IT ILLUSION MAGIC?! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THE EVERETT HERST HAS BEEN STRUCK DOWN!"]
Kurt dropped out of the sky and landed perfectly on his feet with a dust-kicking thud. He rested the flat of his blade against his shoulder, looking toward the center of the crater.
As Everett staggered to his feet, his face twisted into a mask of fury. His expensive, tailored garments were completely shredded across his chest, exposing his pale skin to the open air. But as he wiped the dirt from his mouth, he realised.
There was no wound. There was no blood.
Instead, right across his sternum where Kurt’s blade had cleanly sliced him, thousands of tiny, glowing blue sparkles were slowly dancing around his skin.
"Huh... that’s weird. Hey, Ev. Don’t you feel hurt? Not even a little? I man, hit you pretty damn bad with that swing."
Everett looked down at his intact chest, then back up at Kurt. Not understanding why he wasn’t currently bleeding out, his fear instantly transformed back into arrogant confidence.
"Haha... Hahaha! You see that, F-rank?! Your weak strength can’t even pierce my flesh! Someone like you... someone of your low, disgusting birth can never hurt me! I am an S-rank noble!"
Kurt’s smile vanished. His jaw locked and an irritated tick formed near his temple. He was really beginning to hate the high-and-mighty noble routine, especially when he had just clearly outmaneuvered the idiot.
"Right, right. Noble blood, S-rank plot armor, whatever you say... Hey... by the way, Ev. Just out of curiosity... What colour is my eye right now?"
"You won’t have an eye left in your skull when I am finished tearing you apart, Rossana!"
"Haaa..Man... You really are something else. You go to the best academy in Eldoria, I bet your family also spent millions on your tutors, and you can’t even answer a basic question."
Falling for the blatant bait hook, line, and sinker, Everett’s face turned bright red as he took a furious step forward.
*Tsk* "It’s BLUE, you moron!"
Kurt’s eye narrowed slightly as a knowing smirk returned to his face.
’Alright. So the idiot can’t see the gray world. To him, everything is still happening normally.’
"Don’t you look so smug in my presence! Die!"
Driven by hatred, Everett charged forward first, completely abandoning his defensive guard as he launched into an incredibly scrappy close-quarters brawl.
CLANG! CLANG! STAB!
The rapier swung wildly, but because his personal domain was still active, Kurt’s perception was superior. Every time Everett threw a high-speed strike, he could see the exact trajectory a full half-second before it arrived.
He ducked under a lethal horizontal slash, ducking low to drive a heavy, left-handed punch straight into Everett’s jaw.
WHACK.
The noble’s head snapped back violently, but instead of bruising or spitting blood, more of those strange, sparkling blue glitters erupted from the impact point, dancing across his cheek.
Everett didn’t even seem to register the pain. High off his seemingly immortal state and the bizarre lack of physical trauma, he leaned into the fight with reckless abandon. He lunged forward, using his shoulder to ram into Kurt’s chest while simultaneously bringing the pommel of his rapier down toward Kurt’s collarbone.
CRACK.
"Aurgh! Dammit– You just don’t give up, do you?" Kurt grunted as the pommel struck his shoulder. As an additive, silver lightning also seared through his skin and left a deep, black burn mark.
Unlike Everett, Kurt was taking very real, very physical damage.
"Haha! See?! You bleed while I remain untouched!"
SLICE!
A fresh spray of crimson blood splattered onto the ground as Everett cut through Kurt’s blocking forearms.
Stumbling back two steps, Kurt furrowed his brows in deep confusion.
’What the hell is going on here?’ He thought as he parried another wild downward swing.
’Every time I land a blow on this clown, he doesn’t get hurt at all. This doesn’t make any damn sense.’
Because of this apparent invulnerability, Everett grew entirely unhinged. He stopped caring about parrying entirely. He stopped trying to maintain distance. He simply rushed forward like a feral animal, throwing wild, unprotected slashes and heavy kicks.
He did all this while being completely secure in the knowledge that he would take zero physical damage.
But Kurt didn’t stop fighting back. For every cut he received, he returned three.
A devastating knee to Everett’s stomach – WHAM.
A backhand slice across his shoulder – SCHWING.
A brutal elbow directly to his nose – CRUNCH.
With every blow Kurt landed, more and more of those glittering blue lights began to cover Everett’s body.
By the end of the exchange, the noble was practically covered from head to toe in a glowing shroud of sparkling blue stardust, making him look like a walking constellation amidst the dust of the arena.
"Hahaha! Got you!" Out of psychotic desperation, Everett saw his opening.
Completely blind to the fact that he was covered in sparkles, Everett dropped his rapier. As Kurt lunged forward for an overhead strike, Everett ducked beneath the long shadow of the dark blade and slid directly into Kurt’s left blind spot.
Before he could twist his torso to adjust, Everett lunged forward with everything he had left and wrapped his arms around Kurt’s torso from behind in an unbreakable bear hug.
"HAHAHA! I FINALLY HAVE YOU!"
"Get the hell off me! I already have a woman!" Kurt growled as he violently drove his elbow backward into Everett’s face.
THWACK! THWACK! CRACK!
The elbow strikes smashed directly into his nose and jaw, throwing off more blue sparkles, but Everett’s grip didn’t budge an inch. He had locked his fingers together with the strength of a man who had completely lost his mind.
"You’re not escaping this!" Everett tilted back as his entire body began to surge with an unprecedented amount of silver electricity.
CRACKLE-CRACKLE!
Everett’s downward hair suddenly began to convert upward into blinding silver lightning and his green eyes fully whited out. He was turning his own body into a nuke.
"Let’s see you survive this, F-rank! I know I will! Because I’m immortal! Ahahaha! " Everett laughed as the heat radiating from his skin began to melt the surface beneath their feet. "WITH THIS, DIANA IS MINE! GOODBYE, KURT ROSSANA!"
Kurt’s heart hammered against his ribs. The temperature was rising too fast, and his skin was already starting to blister.
Thinking fast, he focused his mana deeply into his vocal cords as he prepared to activate his domain once more to freeze the world before the blast could release.
Emelie quickly vaulted over the barricade and flew over to them. "EVERETT! DON’T DO IT!"
"STO–!"
But Kurt was too late.
BZZT–BOOMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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