"Why do you say so?"
"...I think he gives off a really ominous and mysterious vibe. And he has tremendous potential. Did you hear about the Elven Princess, Ava Edenheart?"
Diana nodded and let him continue.
"Well, even the fastest of swordsmen and fighters could not defend against her arrows. But he...he just cut it apart like a joke."
"Maybe he knows that archery technique?"
"Yes, that's what I assumed too. But when I investigated a little, I found that it was a technique only the Edenheart family can use. It was invented by someone from their family and they don't teach it to outsiders."
"Is that why you called him a scary guy? He indeed has many secrets but that can still mean many things. What if he has a skill, or even talent towards archery or something."
"No, that was just an example. I didn't call him scary only for that reason."
Esmeralda ordered Ray to look for people who caught his eye. When he heard that the Princess from the human kingdom was interested in the matches of a certain commoner, Ray too, like many others, was baited into watching him.
His first match was good but Ray thought he was highly overrated. It was one of the good matches among the numerous good matches that he could always watch. But still, there was something about him that attracted everyone.
Not him, not the princess, or the dukes' daughters, but everyone in the whole stadium.
They loved watching him fight.
And so, he returned again to watch his next match.
And then again. And again.
He watched his matches again and again. The more he watched, the more he couldn't believe his eyes.
And finally, he realised why everyone was interested in this kid. He already guessed it before but he was completely certain of it when he watched Marcel's match against the kid from the Rosewood family.
"These people in the arena. They don't just come and watch him fight every week. They were watching something else within him..." Taking a deep breath, Ray paused for a moment to continue, "They were watching him grow."
"What do you mean?" Diana shot him a skeptical look.
"He is someone who grows with every fight. To an unimaginable extent, that is too. Like I already said, he has tremendous potential. In addition, his ability to learn from something is greater than anyone I have ever seen."
The match was drawing near its conclusion. It was evident that Sylas Zyair was the winner. But still, everyone watching him today knew.
It was not over.
They all watched him from the start of the competition.
There is no way it would be over so easily.
"Three years..." Ray shook his head, and rearranged his thoughts "No, one year... He is going to surpass the Captain in one year. I guarantee it."
"..."
"..."
If it was someone else, they would have mocked him for even thinking about it. Their Captain? All of them knew their Captain was one of the best among all those monster-like talents in Elysium.
But Ray never said something unless he was completely sure of it. He was calculative and observant. That was the reason why their Captain entrusted him with this job. And even Diana, who had a sharp intuition didn't mock or laugh at him.
They could only listen to his unbelievable remarks with a doubtful face.
Even now, the grey haired guy who was fighting below in the arena, his hands and legs bleeding amidst his heavy breathing, was smiling like a devil looking ahead of him.
Oblivious to all others watching him, he smiled at the blue screen ahead of him.
[Stigmata of Void (2-star) is active]
[New skill "Fighting Spirit" learned]
***
I already planned my actions, and taking into consideration that I had an advantage in terms of mana consumption, I had to defend and make this fight last longer even if I get some minor injuries.
But, it was a massive miscalculation on my part.
I realized my mistake too late.
Just like I had Mana Flow to absorb and use the surrounding's mana, he too had a skill to supplement the mana usage.
Sylas reduced his mana output to minimum and used his own blood to fuel up his strength.
Earlier I predicted he needed mana to use any of his skills related to blood and I was right too.
But it seemed like he too had a skill to convert his blood into mana.
Although I could see him struggling while using his own blood, my body was in a much worse condition. I had several small injuries from which I was bleeding profusely. He lost blood while attacking and I was losing a great amount of blood while receiving those attacks.
I wouldn't last long this way.
He was faster and stronger than me right now. And he could also last longer than me if I drag this out. The odds weren't rooting for me.
I needed something else.
Something stronger.
Something that combined my speed, precision and prediction into one.
The only thing I could remember was a skill I tried learning from my sister long ago.
But...
There was no way I could do that.
I tried to use it when I was a kid. I thought if I could learn fireball then why not that skill too?
The young Owen of that time tried. Tried and failed. I even fought against that skill many times back home.
Even my sister always bragged about that skill whenever she had a chance to.
I knew everything about that skill but still I failed to learn it. How can anyone copy a skill from a 7-star stigmata so easily?
It was an impossible feat.
But that doesn't mean all my practice and knowledge were in vain.
I had very little hope for it working but I still tried.
That skill wasn't like Fireball, where you only learn it once it shows on your profile, no. It was more like a passive skill like the Dance of the Dragon.
So what if I couldn't learn it? I can still use it's knowledge to predict even a tiniest amount of his trajectories.
I know the me of that time, wouldn't be able to use the little things I learned from my sister.
But now... I was different.
I learned under Rowan for four years, and even in this competition, I nearly replicated Dance of the Dragon.
'It's worth a try'
I closed my eyes and opened them again. But this time, I ignored all the pointless lingering thoughts in my brain.
My eyes, only followed only his sword.
Then I slowly retraced them back to his hands, his legs, his face, his shoulders.
How is he moving now? How is he going to move next?
How to increase my speed right now? Where should I hold my sword to exert more strength into it?
How is he going to fight?
How should I fight?
And as if answering all my questions, my stigmata called me out with a blue screen.
[Stigmata of Void (2-star) is active]
[New skill "Fighting Spirit" learned]
Stigmata of Void: ★★
Passive : Intermediate Swordsmanship (52.88%), Beginner's Spearmanship (8.51%), Intermediate Elven Mana Manipulation(9.52%), 1st Path to Memories of Silence Archery(99.92%)
Skills: Fireball(1-star), Mana Flow(4-star), Fighting Spirit(???)
My face, I couldn't see it myself.
But I knew I, more or less, had an expressionless face on me.
That doesn't mean it didn't shock me.
'Holy Mother of Elysi- What did I do'
I felt like I stepped into a realm that no one else dared to look into.
So many questions started flooding my mind, but right now, I had another important matter.
I had to win this and go home.
Fighting Spirit. Almost everyone has heard of this skill. This was one of the famous skills from the 7-star stigmata, Stigmata of Faith. It was the same skill that Ava used to increase the strength of her arrows as well as predict and defend against most of my attacks.
Although this was not the strongest skill of Stigmata of Faith, it's utility was one of the greatest out there.
{Fighting Spirit}
Suddenly, I felt like I could ignore the pain and fight for days straight. My heart beat increased and I felt my brain clearing up.
'I can see it. His moves... My moves...'
I could see the moves unconsciously in my mind and was able to predict how it'll go to some extent. But that was not all. I felt like a strange power was guiding me.
I felt like the steps I needed to take were right in front of my eyes and I just needed to follow them.
It was telling me to dance.
I stepped where it asked me to and struck my sword. Defending against my strike, Sylas raised his feet to kick me. I immediately moved my body sideways and made a deep cut in his leg.
Slice!
Sylas staggered. It was quite a large wound but the bleeding stopped right there. He controlled the outer layer of his blood to coagulate right at that moment.
'What a monster... How am I supposed to beat him?'
I didn't give up with one attack. Our positions quickly changed and I was the one pushing him this time. I danced more and more. Sylas had several wounds now but still defended against all the fatal ones.
I could feel that I was just one step away from learning the original Dance of the Dragon. But no matter how much I tried, no matter how much I followed the Fighting Spirit, I was still lacking something crucial.
But at this rate, I'd still win.
I looked at Sylas' reaction. He seemed... scared. Scared of losing.
I could see his lips, smiling faintly with sadness, then he opened them to say something.
I followed them to read what they said.
'I'm sorry'
That's what he said.
I didn't know what was he apologising for? For something he didn't tell me? Or for something he was about to do?
But the next moment, a terrible sensation ran down my spine.
A sensation of fear.
{Blood Sacrifice}
This feeling... It was screaming at me to run away.
This is dangerous.
Wasting no time, I immediately took a step back.
I faced towards Sylas and saw that his face was pale from the blood loss. He vomited some black rotten blood from his mouth. His eyes lossed focused of who he was fighting but the grip of his sword was tightened even more.
Aaaaarrrhhhh!
With a sudden scream resembling a beast, he jumped at me with his sword.
Clannnngg!
'This.... '
My whole body felt like going numb just from his one hit. He was striking constant at a speed that couldn't be followed. Only by predicting all those with Fighting Spirit, was I able to stand still.
He backed off a little but immediately jumped at me again. I rolled on the ground towards him and immediately tried to get him from behind.
It was too fast for him to react and he still had to get a hold of his footing on the ground. But even so, he rotated his body in the midair at the last moment to block my sword.
Chang!!
'What!? This is impossible... '
He wasn't even looking at me. It seemed as if he did it purely on instinct. He used the full momentum of his body to strike the sword.
And my silver jian, no matter how great was it, was still a Grade E.
Crash!