"We see no problem with that," the announcer said after the lord waved for them to continue.
Aster's smile widened. "I really appreciate this opportunity," he replied with a bow. Vale could only watch everything unfold with a frown.
He snickered; this was clearly a setup, and there was most likely no way to get out of it. The officials were always going to favour Aster over him.
"He had it coming," someone in the audience said.
"Yeah, he's probably ignorant of how things work around here."
"Sigh, Poor kid, he had potential."
…
The referee looked at both of them and said, "Since everything is settled, I'll start the match now."
With a wave of his hand, the match officially commenced.
The two participants stared at each other: one holding a claw-shaped dagger and the other had his hands behind his back. Aster now had a smug expression as he spoke: "Three minutes, I'll stay in this position for three minutes. If you can touch me, you win; if you can't, then well, we'll have to fight."
Vale's eyes twitched at the egotistical claim. Still, he had no plans of wasting such an opportunity.
With swift feet, he ran towards the star boy who, as he claimed earlier, didn't move an inch.
Vale was soon within a ten-metre range of him and his dagger was already positioned for a swing. When he was finally close enough, his arm swung down with all its might.
But his hand stopped mere centimetres from Aster's body as if by an invisible force.
This caused him to grow weary as he hurriedly created distance between them. However, Aster had no plans of attacking and just stayed in place with a smug smile.
Again, Vale rushed and attacked his opponent, but he was stopped by the invisible armour once again.
After that, he decided to pause and fully understand the situation.
His opponent had to be a magi-class user, that was the most logical explanation for the barrier. If one had enough mana it was possible to condense it enough to form imaginary mass.
Normally, this type of armour could easily be destroyed by someone else's qi or mana.
But Vale didn't have any of that. A specific amount of demon points was required to have that, and Vale hadn't reached that amount.
Still, it was possible to use brute force to break it, but the difference in power was clearly too much for that to happen. At first, Vale hadn't believed the rumours that Aster had maxed out his common demon points.
But it seemed very plausible now, as only then would he have such a large mana reserve.
"Tch, it seems it's going to be impossible to win this," Vale muttered under his breath.
Still, he had no plans of giving up. If he couldn't compete in strength, he would have to find an opening through which he could land an attack.
He continued attacking, but couldn't get past the barrier. His strikes had as little strength as possible, as he preserved his energy.
"Your time's up." Aster then removed his hands from his back and took a step forward.
"The name of my class is Five Elements Sovereign. It is a magi class as you have probably suspected.
"If I were to use my mana on you, this fight would end in a second. To make things fair I'll only be using my fists."
Vale clicked his tongue; this was an unfair match-up for him, as his opponent had trained for years, while he, on the other hand, had barely a week to get accustomed to his new body.
Still, a certain adrenaline pumped through his veins and he licked his lips.
Magi class users had little durability, so even if Aster was far stronger than him, he doubted he could take an attack from the dagger unscathed.
All he had to do was time the strike well.
The next second Aster moved.
Shit, he's fast.
Vale hadn't expected his opponent to be that fast. To keep up he had to use blitz, narrowly escaping the attack.
He thanked the anti-fatigue serum as under normal circumstances, he wouldn't be able to use Blitz this well.
After seeing that his punch had missed, Aster was secretly surprised.
He turned to Vale, ready to launch another attack, but he was met with a dagger to his neck.
Instinctively, he raised his mana barrier, but then remembered that he promised not to use any mana-related abilities or skills. He snickered, removing the mana barrier and using his bare fist to parry the strike.
The force pushed him a step back and his eyes widened when he saw the crimson liquid dripping from his hand.
"Blood…my blood," Aster muttered silently. Slowly, he started laughing and with a powerful kick to the ground, he pushed himself towards Vale.
His attacks became frenzied as he threw punch after punch. His stats were definitely higher than Vale's—this was something Vale had accepted. The predictability of Aster's attacks was the only reason he hadn't lost.
Still, he wasn't able to keep up and was hit a few times.
After a punch to the gut, he was sent tumbling a few yards back.
Time and time again, Vale tried to use Primal State. But for some reason, the ability didn't seem to be working. He silently cursed and got back to his feet.
He had used blitz so many times that the muscles in his calf had started to spasm.
Aster saw his opponent's current state and grinned, a cocky grin.
"Don't tell me you're already spent out, it's just starting to be fun."
Vale ignored his remarks and tried to run back to create some distance. But he had greatly misjudged the amount of damage he had done to his limbs as he slipped.
Aster's grin grew wider as he walked to his opponent with carefree steps.
"I thought you'd put up more of a fight. Although, the fact that you injured me is quite impressive, I'll give you that."
The Star boy then squatted in front of Vale and said, "You shouldn't have touched my sister."
And just as he was about to punch a hole through his opponent's chest, Vale smiled.
With his opponent so close to him, he used blitz—one last time.
[Author's note: Ten power stones and I'll post an extra chapter this week.]