Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 79 The Final Battle Against A Peak-Phase Pawn

Looking on from the side, most people could understand how Elizabeth won, as her strength and movements were visibly superior to Irene. But after the "fight" — though it was better described as pure bullying… — Almost no one could explain why Irene was convulsing and screaming out in pain after landing on the ground.

To those unfamiliar with Elizabeth's abilities as a doctor, it was nigh impossible to understand how a "simple" palm strike could do that much damage to a person. Though the reason was easy to understand if one did know, even people with knowledge of meridians and acupoints would be hard pressed to understand exactly what Elizabeth did if they weren't paying close attention.

Atid being the only around who both knew of Elizabeth acupoint methods and had a decent collection of information of meridians and acupoints stood mouth agape as Elizabeth's "palm strike" replayed in his mind. Atid almost felt the need to cringe as he replayed the images of Elizabeth's fingers quickly dancing a grisly symphony of torture in the short span of time her palm had made contact with Irene's body.

'17? No, it was 18… 18 acupoints were opened and closed in that instance...' Atid shuddered as he came to that conclusion as it would mean that Elizabeth speed was leagues faster than yesterday's little test…

"Next?" As if she couldn't hear the sound of a poor soul begging for death, Elizabeth asked for final participant in this Best of 3 Bouts to enter the ring.

Jhan looked on with intrigue as he commanded the black-belt-wearing man to enter the ring and bring back Irene. The man did as Jhan asked and as he was moving to re-enter the ring to conclude today's event, Jhan's voice speaking once more caused him to freeze in his tracks.

Jhan looked at Elizabeth and said, "Don't you know it's against the rules for those not at the same level of cultivation to fight each other? This would naturally end in that round disqualifying you and me winning."

With a change in expression, Elizabeth stated, "I'm at the Peak of the Mortal Stage."

"Oh really? Well, I can't seem to tell your cultivation as it keeps fluctuating sporadically. So how exactly would you prove that claim?"

"Heh… I have two ways to prove my claim. Either, you let me breakthrough to the Pawn Stage right here and now and verify that I was in fact in the Mortal Stage for that last fight, or, I could stay as I am right now and fight without the use of Qi." Elizabeth initially intended to voice out only the first option as it would demonstrably prove her standing and give herself a power boost. But, upon turning to Carlos and seeing him unconscious on Atid's side of the ring and checking the black belt wearing man's mouth with her medically trained eyes. She had reason to suspect this other man to be a cheat as well and had a most dastardly thought cross her head…

With expected eyes, Elizabeth waited for Jhan to choose which way he'd like today's confrontation to end. She was not disappointed in the end as Jhan pragmatically said, "Ok~ I'd really like to see you win the next fight without Qi..." Though as soon as the words came out of his mouth, a threat of danger, similar to the one Elizabeth experienced just before Carlos' demise, shuttle through his spine leading him on to subconsciously regret the decision.

The fight hadn't even begun and with Elizabeth's grin now blossoming into the most splendid smile she had thus far shown the world, the calculative lass jubilantly said, "Splendid~ I can't wait to see how this "friendly" competition will turn out. Hahaha..." Even without demonic killing intent flooding the room, there were several people that felt as if they had returned to that ghastly plane Elizabeth had previously summoned.

The last enemy, a man by the name of Zhaoren Si, was finally allowed into the ring and the final match began with the referee yelling "Fight!" for a third time. However, unlike in the last fight where Elizabeth was a stanceless mess, in this fight, she took the initiative as she ran up to Zhaoren Si in a proper Thai Stance and let her Inner Strength blaze in glory as she kicked up a storm right off the bat.

Not expecting, the previously static demonic girl to turn so aggressive, Zhaoren Si was caught slightly off guard. But, he managed to guard on time as he had much more experience than Elizabeth when it came to fighting. Still, his experience couldn't do much against Elizabeth raw physical and spiritual strength. Her Strength Stat being comparable to Level 12 Early-Phase Soldiers and her Intelligence Stat at the cusp of reaching the standard of Level 14 Late-Phase Soldiers, there wasn't much a pitiful Peak-Phase Pawn could do; especially one like Zhaoren Si who was hundreds and thousands of miles of away from perfection.

To put in perspective how vast the difference between Elizabeth and Zhaoren Si was, Elizabeth's raw Inner Strength at Level 5 was almost as potent as Zhaoren Si's Martial Qi a whole five levels ahead of her… Adding on Elizabeth's superior strength, the difference was offset and the two were just about equal. At least, that was the case, until Elizabeth stopped using gentle neutral Inner Strength…

Clandestinely, Elizabeth began using the Innate Skill she received from reaching Trash-tier Affinity in Ice, Temp Drain, to temporarily activate and shut off a very specific combination of acupoints on Zhao Ren's body whenever her hands just so happened to cross said specific acupoints locations. Now, because her opponent was much slower than her, Elizabeth rather easily completed the goal she had set out for herself. But, this method would fail miserably against people with speeds that were on par if not faster than her.

Thus, the fight progressed much more spectacularly than Elizabeth's first battle with Irene as a victor wasn't instantly decided. However, compared to Carlos and Hou Xin's brilliant display of Fire and Earth Qi, the current fight paled in comparison. More so than anything by virtue of there not being any flashy moves pulled out by either side. Elizabeth secretly used her ice energy, while Zhaoren Si didn't possess Elemental Qi.

This also being a fight between two people around the Pawn Stage, it didn't take long for a majority of both sides' energy reserves to quickly burn out. Though Elizabeth was similarly burned out when compared to Zhaoren Si when the fight reached its critical point, she had volumes more left over considering that she had fought with Inner Strength.

Zhaoren Si noticed Elizabeth's impressive endurance and made the same decision Hou Xin did in his fight with Carlos. As Zhaoren Si mentally prepared himself for the consequences of taking the red pill, he froze; shocked that he couldn't move his mouth! His salivary gland had stopped working and his jaw and tongue were now paralyzed. He had been too concentrated on defending against Elizabeth's demon-esque barrage of attacks to notice the encroaching effects of his acupoints being manipulated.

Catching sight of Zhaoren Si's panicked face, Elizabeth started laughing as the intensity of her attacks grew with madness as her guess was right on the money. Slowly, her jabs and hooks started opening a gap in Zhaoren Si's defense, until a full-blown hole opened up, granting Elizabeth the chance to end this farce of a match.

With the hole in Zhaoren Si's defense big enough to squeeze a finisher move, Elizabeth covered her arm in red flames — the same fire she had shown Sun when they had their misunderstanding — and a direct elbow thrust cut a gnarly gash down Zhaoren Si's face; from just below his hairline to edge of his jaw, there ran a crimson line of blood.

But the punishment didn't end there, as Elizabeth used the momentum generated from the thrust to launch herself into a textbook perfect leg sweep, causing Zhaoren Si to start falling. Guided by one of the previous takedowns Sophie used on her, Elizabeth's instincts led her own to follow up on the leg sweep with a reverse roundhouse kick. Only instead of being nice like the time Sophie hit her in the gut with this combo, Elizabeth went in for the kill with her leg blazing in red flames as she targeted the already beaten man's face once more.

Zhaoren Si flew a good couple feet before his body crash down on the floor. His status unknown and the audience looking on horror as Elizabeth didn't seem to think the match was over. Watching along with the crowd, Jhan flashed Atid a knowing look as he was already ready to leave. Hateful that he had actually lost and lost even after coming with the cards stacked against his enemy, the only reason Jhan hadn't already left was that he needed to pick up the trash that had failed him.

Though Elizabeth's brutality was to be expected, what with her killing intent eclipsing that of all those present combined and these some, she was indeed going too far by the looks of her approaching Zhaoren Si's ruined body. Atid had to speak up, so he said, "That's enough, we already won..."

Unperturbed, Elizabeth continued making her way towards Zhaoren Si, She said, "Cheats need to be exposed. Plus, I think I've earned the right to get a peek at what that other failure used to win his fight anyway." That other failure naturally referred to Hou Xin...

"Cheat?" While Atid was confused, Jhan was in disbelief. 'She could tell both of them used the pills?!' Though he was in shock, Jhan could do nothing to stop Elizabeth after she brought up the possibility of external support being used in these official matches mandated by the purple card. All the events that had taken place and were still progressing where being recorded by the purple card after its activation and were being transmitted back to the archives of the Martial Society's various worldwide bases.

Chapter end