Living Life As A Game: Through And Through
/ Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 150 Just A Bit Of Danger
Alas, Tristan's power was only gained artificially after taking in a dangerous amount of pills and talismans and in just a short five minutes, he was already running out of steam. Elizabeth knew it as she could see his bodily functions and fighting prowess slowly start to dip after the fourth minute mark, and Tristan himself could tell by the pain which told him that if he kept fighting so intensely, he would end up crippled at best and dead at worst.
After entering yet another lock of their respective blades, with Tristan's body slowly losing power, he was starting to lose defense and this lock resulted in his body trembling from the shock. Coughing up a mouthful of blood and seeing Elizabeth shake her head as she dismissively shoved him back quite easily now that his body was weakening and he didn't have the strength to defend himself, a threshold even Tristan himself didn't know of was crossed as he decided to go nuclear…
With his body tumbling as it skipped on the ground all the way until it was stopped by colliding with the tournament arena's Defensive Barrier Formation, a muffled laughter could be heard slowly becoming more and more mad. The spectators had long since quieted down, most of them not even letting out so much as the sound of their breaths escape as this kind of dramatic battle should be reserved for Saints.
With a couple more coughs splattering blood as Tristan slowly got up, Elizabeth finally understood why so many story protagonists let their enemies reveal the trump card behind their trump card; so to speak. She had many more powers and abilities yet to be displayed with her combat prowess barely below its optimal performance, so seeing the idiot across the arena from her laugh as if he had something hiding in his sleeve, she couldn't help but let him do as he pleased to see what else could be thrown at her.
'Could it be another Pill? Maybe an Enchantment? Or maybe...' All her guesses were wrong as Tristan didn't pull out any more auxiliary items to artificially increase his strength anymore. Instead, a wicked smile comparable to Elizabeth's signature schadenfreudian smile dawned on his face as he said, "You only have yourself to blame for this!"
Tristan's hands combined to make several forms which seemed nonsensical to Elizabeth even as she looked into his body to see nothing out of the ordinary happening. But from the audience, a frightened voice could be heard screaming, "NO!!! You idiot, stop the ritual! You'll fucking kill yourself!" Alas, Tristan, even in his ever-weakening state, could move so fast that the thousand forms required to initiate "the ritual" were completed within two seconds.
With everything prepared, Tristan gave Elizabeth one last look which encapsulated the totality of his hatred, envy, and malice before he used his Qi to galvanize his Dantian and soul simultaneously. In the moments that followed, it looked like Tristan had committed suicide as his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth exploded with blood leaking everywhere.
But, where the crowd and judge were looking on open mouth and wide-eyed at the way Elizabeth had won, all of them thinking Tristan truly killed himself, Elizabeth and the few who understood the true nature of Tristan's actions look on with rightful concern.
Elizabeth, by virtue of yet another activation of Ominous Passage, felt her life being threatened for just the slightest of moments upon setting her eyes on Tristan's fallen body, and though she understood that the level of threat should be relatively low considering the fleeting nature of the intensity with which Ominous Passage activated, any threat was one she took seriously.
Preemptively charging up enough Space Magic to launch herself at least 20 meters should any sudden developments unfold, Elizabeth eyed Tristan with more than the amusement she had previously when was but a tool used to increase her experience. She even materialized her Dawnbringer Pistol in her unoccupied hand and took advantage of Tristan's still seemingly dead state to successfully brand him with her Target Homing Spell Circle.
Moments later, from Tristan's corpse, a slow rhythmic thumping could be heard growing louder and louder as a bright reddish pale energy caused his blood to flow in reverse. Wisps of blood which initially sprinkled out of his body became jet streams of pressurized blood that could cut steel, while hovering around him almost supernaturally. Like a puppet being lifted by a puppeteer, Tristan eerily rose from the ground as his body became pale and skinny from the blood loss. His focus-less eyes succeeded in giving anyone one who looked into them a range of negative feelings. While those much stronger than him were only slightly put off, the Pawns and Soldier Stage competitors that looked on from the spectator's area were utterly terrified as if they confronted their natural enemy; some even fainted or developed traumatic stress…
Elizabeth was the only exception as even with her lacking cultivation base and being the target of Tristan's concentrated hatred, she at most reacted with a frown and a pair of squinting eyes. Her focus was directed at the Yin Qi which held the pressurized blood around his body and temporarily gave Tristan the same power Jane's Pure Yin Qi Connection granted her; Spiritual Breakthrough.
'Yin and… is that Blood Qi? Heh… This ought to be interesting.' Elizabeth thought as she felt the Talent Sealing Blood Seal Spell Seed in her Dantian react to the "foreign" energy mixed in Tristan's Yin Qi and floating blood. A moment later, the static Tristan shot forth with a speed even faster than Elizabeth at her max!
Chang! Elizabeth was blown back from the sheer strength behind Tristan's blow, her arms numbing as she flew three meters before stopping. Elizabeth snorted as she saw Tristan follow up with another stroke of his blade. Even after casting [Slow] and [Fast] she was lacking in Speed by several dozen units, so it was time to use Grandmist Pressure and her guns offensively.
Crunch!!! The reinforced floor of the arena underneath Tristan collapsed as his body was afflicted with as much pressure as Elizabeth could send out and though it wasn't enough to physically damage him, because of the unexpected nature of the attack, Tristan slowed down as he almost lost his footing. Then, before he could even react, from a range of less than ten meters, a volley of bullets open fired on his body.
Puchi! Puchi! Even with the use of the blood revolving around his body deflecting dozens of bullets, while under the pressure of grandmist, two bullets still managed bypass his defense to penetrate through Tristan's armor and wreak havoc inside his chest. Staring Elizabeth right in her eyes, Tristan didn't flinch from the gunshot wounds. Instead, smiling as a bit of his blood covered his sword, he swiped in Elizabeth direction.
To others, the gesture didn't seem to have a point as the two were over ten meters apart, but to Elizabeth, the amount of danger her body detected was hair-raising as she used [Spatial Contraction] to dodge the bullet like droplets of blood that fired off from Tristan's sword. Upon successfully dodging the blood droplets, she took a quick glance behind her previous position, and a chill ran down her spine as she saw the blood droplets still fully intact as they were affixed into the Arena's Defensive Barrier Formation.
Guesstimating the firepower behind the blood droplets to retain their structure even after crashing into the formation, Elizabeth prepared to activate her 4th Chaos Seal the moment felt things might go out of hand. She looked back at Tristan, who was already dashing towards her position, and after heaving a deep breath, yet another spectacular battle ensued.
Using her Time, Space, and Grandmist abilities in conjunction with her Blade and Gun Arts, Elizabeth managed to abate the relentless attacks Tristan launched at her. Usually, only barely dodging the most dangerous attacks as Tristan exposed her to what was for all intents and purposes, Spirit Realm combat, with his blood forming whips and bullets, attacking her from all directions along with his augmented body, Elizabeth's nerves were tempered as she knew this was the real deal. The safety that she knew of when sparring with Yrre was gone and with every attack coming for her life without reservations or the intent to stop at just wounding her, Elizabeth slowly grew familiar with the nature of life and death battles.
Slowly losing the sense of fear that hid in her subconscious whenever Tristan's blade was barely evaded and some hair was cut or her body was thrown backward when she could only resort to locking blades and being overpowered, Elizabeth grew uncharacteristically cold. Only her obsession kept her from activating her Fourth Chaos Seal and ending this battle, as she knew fully well this was a perfect time to train herself under pressure from one of her chats with Yrre.
Chapter end
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