"Movement Technique: Leaping Tiger Steps!"
"Fire Skill: Fiery Lungs!"
When Reginald made the first move, it was like he was possessed by a beast as he exploded with speed towards his opponent the next moment.
Every breath of his left fire puffing out of his nose. The smoke even seemed to be coming out of his ears as he seemed to have turned into a speed demon, rapidly eating yards of space as he charged in the direction of his opponent.
Not only that, as he moved forward rapidly with his movement technique, a fiery aura covered his body which soon formed the phantom of a mighty White Tiger with flames dancing around its body.
He sprinted for 5 seconds before he started attacking.
"Fire Skill: Breath of the Western Dragon!"
Reginald mid-sprint raised his hands, rapidly drawing 2 vertical parallel lines with them before forming a funnel shape with them across his mouth. This was the stance that he mastered to better channel his mystic energy.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Not even a second after he made these gestures, he opened his mouth and breathed out as 3 massive fire breaths followed.
The temperature rapidly increased, the battle arena turning orangish-red as the 3 massive fire breaths rapidly moved towards Roland who was still rooted to one place in his battle stance.
Roland's eyes slowly turned as the massive fire breaths appeared, and in a few nanoseconds, the fire was now burning in his eyes like his opponent.
"Fire Skill: Disintegration Palm!"
Roland took his first step forward as he put his left hand behind his back, while he pushed his right palm forward towards the first fire breath.
Bam!
Once his palm touched the massive fire breath, a reaction of chemicals seemed to have been inducted as a sizzling sound filled the atmosphere.
The next moment, the massive fire breath disintegrated, but 2 others were coming. Roland took 2 steps forward, bringing his left hand this time also as he formed claws with his hands before clawing at the fireballs.
Roland literally clawed the raging fire breaths apart, also disintegrating them.
The effect of such a direct display of might was that the high-temperature power burned his hands, but as a wielder of a fire mystic ability also, he was able to put off the fire. The only problem was that Reginald was not idle.
Having a deep understanding of his opponent, Reginald knew that fire breaths would not do it, that was just his probing attack.
"Advanced Fire Skill: Spilling Volcano!"
"Fire Skill: Raining Fire Storms!"
"Fire Skill: Fire Kicks of Destruction!"
"Advanced Fire Skill: Fire Seed!"
Reginald activated 4 energy-intensive skills at the same time. This was his battle style, overwhelming his opponents with tyrannical fire, eradicating them before they could even retaliate against him.
The first skill caused the arena floor to burst open as flowing magma came out of the arena, this was an advanced fire skill and was rightfully powerful.
This magma seemed to possess a will of their own as under the manipulation of mystic energy, they all rose and flew at Roland.
The second skill induced a fire rain from the sky that descended, bombarding the arena with impunity. The fire covered everywhere in just a few seconds.
As for the 3rd skill, as Reginald kicked his way forward, fire accompanied every one of his kicks that precisely went after Roland.
As for the last skill, Reginald compressed a fireball that surpassed a few thousand degrees centigrade before throwing it at the sky.
This fireball exploded, spreading fire everywhere and increasing the fire presence in the arena to a horrifying level.
If a non-fire ability basic warrior entered the battle arena now, he would suffer terrible life-threatening burns while a normal human could literally be cooked from the horrifying heat now in the arena.
Even another fire ability mystic student was not guaranteed to survive this, Roland and Reginald were that horrifying.
This heat benefited both sides, but as the better fire user, Reginald saw this as an advantage and was the reason why he activated the skill without hesitation.
All this expended a lot of mystic energy, but this was his battle style. His sole mystic treasure, the ring on his right index finger's only mystic effect was to increase his mystic energy by 50%, this facilitated his battle style.
In just a few seconds, the battle arena already turned into a mini hell.
Being in the center of all this, Roland was already suffering damage but he was not idle. Unlike his opponent, he was not an outward fire mystic warrior, his fire mystic ability was more like a support for his main battle focus.
His Iron Shirt martial arts were already trained to a level that his defense was at a reasonably horrifying level. His fire buffed this defense further, making his bones as tough as steel and enabling him to take a lot more damage with his skin.
While his Iron Shirt martial arts provided his ultimate defense, his Vibrating Palm martial art was the real deal, being his offensive force.
He was known as the Iron Qi Lord; this was because of his ability to channel his mystic energy to form an equivalent of ancient qi in his attacks that could deal a horrifying amount of vibrational damage to opponents.
He was a taijutsu student, he excelled more in close combat which was why he finally exploded with speed towards his opponent amid the burning fire.
His Disintegration Palm skill was still active, and this was what he relied on.
Whoosh!
Roland dove into the burning hell. His hands moved like lightning, slamming hard against the fireballs flying towards him, disintegrating most of them with his skill while tanking the rest of them with his skin.
His skin was already burning, and the damage was already stacking, but he ignored all the scorching pain, his eyes were only focused on his opponent as the distance between them closed rapidly.
A few seconds later, Reginald finally decided to retreat, but Ronald anticipated it as his eyes glowed in a fierier manner the next moment.
"Movement Technique: Draconic Dance!"
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Roland finally activated his famed movement technique, and like a drunken mystic warrior, he weaved his way through the burning hellfire, evading fireballs rapidly like a ghost as he closed the distance to his opponent.
Reginald saw this, he knew his opponent would surely use this movement technique but he was still unable to counter it as Roland finally closed the distance.
"Taijutsu Skill: Shadowless Kick!"
"Taijutsu Skill: Vibrating Palm!"
Pu! Pu! Pu! Pu!
Finally getting close enough without being eliminated, Roland finally passed his strongest hurdle that prevented him from clinching victory, now he was in his domain as he launched toward his opponent.
With fire covering his legs, he kicked rapidly towards Reginald.
"Fire Skill: Fiery Barrier!"
Roland directly kicked the fire barrier to nothingness. He suffered damage, and his legs were scorched and bleeding, but he achieved his goal.
Once he landed, his palms finally started doing their work, wreaking corporate havoc, this was the apt way to describe his offensive martial technique.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Aware of how lethal his opponent was at close range; Reginald threw all caution to the wind as he spammed fire skills at his current location.
Fire soon engulfed him, including his opponent but Roland did not care. With his Iron Shirt martial technique doing its job, he focused on striking the lethal hit.
Reginald could only dodge so many times, he was finally hit.
Ptui!
The 1st hit immediately heralded the 2nd, the 3rd, and the 4th.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Reginald attacked without restraint, spreading fire everywhere, burning both his opponent and himself, while Roland gritted his teeth through all the fire burns, adamant about landing his palm strikes on his opponent's body.
The palm strike hits increased, and both opponents became bloodier with time. Even with their fire affinity, being in such a hot temperature was damaging.
Tension ran high, emotions were stretched taut as the spectators watched silently, guessing who would emerge victoriously.
Roland's face was already blackened, having been slowly burned beyond recognition but he held on, remaining focused on releasing more palm strikes.
In the end, after 10 whole minutes of going at it, Reginald succumbed first.
"Ugh!" He coughed blood as his face turned pale amid the burning fire.
The Vibrating Palm martial technique was infamous for the internal damages that it induced in every opponent that faced it.
Having suffered so many hits, Reginald's internal body regulation was messed up already, most of his bones and organs were already displacing from where they should be, and this all culminated in his current situation.
On seeing his opponent's state, a Roland who was already at his wit's end became emboldened as he felt adrenaline rushing through his body, he ruthlessly went for the finishing blow.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Roland's lethal accuracy was put on full display here. One of his palm strikes hit the side of his opponent's neck, causing Reginald's eyes to roll backward.
The next strike hit the pressure point in Reginald's abdomen, causing him to jerk like a drunkard who just choked on his beer while the last palm strike precisely hit the point of his chest where his heart was.
Instantly, Reginald went into cardiac arrest!
The hidden Masters watching the tournament finally intervened.
A powerful intermediate mystic warrior master of the academy arrived, instantly extinguishing all the fire with a few skillful manipulations as he dove down and grabbed Reginald before quickly flying straight to the academy hospital.
A dreadful silence descended upon the arena and the spectator stands.
Roland Cross knew that it was over, but he could no longer concentrate as all the aftereffects of suffering so much fire damage finally came with full force.
"I won". This was all he could mutter before he fainted.