Samael tilted his head back, effortlessly letting the blade slice through the air just inches away from his nose.
He watched with mild amusent as Calem imdiately pivoted on back foot and twisted his body to perform another strike — a straight thrust, this ti aid at Samael's chest.
It was fast and precise.
…But also predictable.
Samael took a half-step forward and veered sideways, evading the blade and leaning closer until he could hear Calem's heart beating like a war drum in his chest.
Samael's voice was almost a bored whisper when he asked, "Revenge? Do I even know you?"
Calem's eyes flared with rage. But before he could physically react, Samael moved.
A sharp elbow strike slamd into Calem's ribs, knocking the wind out of his lungs with such force that his vision flashed white for a split second.
He staggered back, gasping in pain… but Samael was already on him. Calem instinctively raised his sword and lashed out in a wild swing.
But this ti, Samael didn't try to dodge.
Instead, he tried to catch the incoming blade by clasping it between his palms.
Within a fraction of a second, Calem realized that Samael was going to use his power to destroy the sword.
So, reacting as fast as he could, he awkwardly jerked the blade aside to change the trajectory. But in doing so, he lost his balance for just a mont.
…A mont too long.
Samael capitalized instantly. His hand shot forward, clamping around Calem's wrist.
"You don't want to use my power?" Samael mused, twisting sharply. "Then don't be so slow."
Calem barely had ti to yell before the world turned… upside-down?
No, it wasn't the world that turned…
It was him!
Samael had pivoted under Calem's arm and flipped him over his shoulder!
In the very next mont, Calem was slamd hard into the ground. It was jarring and painful, but he didn't stay down.
Gritting his teeth, he rolled — just in ti to avoid Samael's foot stomping down where his head had been a second ago.
That bastard!
With an angered snarl, Calem pushed off the ground and swung his sword again.
There was no pause in his movent. No hesitation.
Because if he were to hesitate right now, he'd lose.
As long as Samael couldn't make direct contact with anything for more than a second, he couldn't use his ability.
Calem just had to keep moving and keep Samael busy—
"...Huh?"
—Wait.
…Why couldn't he move his foot?
Calem's eyes widened in horror. His heart dropped in realization as he looked down.
The ground under him had turned soft — almost mushy.
Like quicksand.
And his boots had sunk into it.
It was then he understood what happened. Samael must've touched the ground earlier while slamming him down.
It had only taken a second.
And it was enough. That was all the ti he needed to brush his fingers against the ground to transmute the imdiate terrain around them.
Calem's head snapped up and he saw Samael already closing in, intending to finish him right then and there.
Calem roared in frustration, wrenching against the sinking ground, trying to break free. But it was too late. He wasn't fast enough.
Luckily, soone else was.
—BOOM!
A sonic shockwave tore through the battlefield as Leon Vaan Asta, the leader of the noble faction, had finally made his move.
He had raised his hands and pressed them together to form the shape of a handgun using his fingers.
His Origin Card, «Skybreaker's Judgent», glowed brightly as azure arcs of electricity crackled across his body, converging at the 'barrel' of his 'handgun.'
Then, with a deadly calm, he took aim at Samael.
The world blurred with a flash of white-blue light as a bolt of lightning shot toward Samael.
Thankfully, the golden-haired Ace had seen the attack coming from the corner of his eye long ago and activated his «Steel Hide» Card in ti.
The lightning struck Samael in the side with a deafening crack of thunder.
The force of it blasted him sideways like a ragdoll until he crashed into the ground and skidded across the concrete for a few ters.
By the end of it, he rolled with the montum and rose to one knee, shaking his head in a daze.
Residual arcs of electricity sparked across his vest, snapping and popping before fading into the air.
Exhaling slowly, Samael felt his ribs ache in pain — not from the electricity itself, but from the sheer concussive force behind that attack.
«Steel Hide» had dulled the damage but hadn't negated the impact. Not completely, at least.
He wasn't injured.
But he was definitely hurt.
Yet, in an intense battle like this, he had no ti to rest.
Gritting his teeth, he groaned and pushed himself to his feet. The side of his vest, where the lightning had struck, was charred and smoldering.
But perhaps he was still too slow to stand back up… because the mont he did, sothing thick and rope-like slithered around him.
…A tentacle!
A massive tentacle coiled around his torso, like a snake wrapping itself around a mouse, before hoisting him into the air.
The man behind it was none other than Reiner, the leader of the commoner faction. His right arm had transford into a monstrous appendage.
His Origin Card — «Abyssborn» — allowed him to sprout four to five prehensile tentacles from literally anywhere on his body, each capable of stretching up to six ters and thickening to monstrous proportions.
Right now, one of those tentacles had ensnared Samael.
The girthy, sinewy limb constricted Samael's movents like an iron vice threatening to crush the breath from his lungs.
Reiner stood firm on the ground, his expression completely impassive as he flexed his transford arm, tightening his hold even further.
But he wasn't content with just trapping Samael.
No.
With a sharp motion, he whipped his tentacle-arm downward, slamming Samael into the ground with bone-shattering force.
The impact cracked the concrete beneath, and a pained grunt escaped Samael's lips as the shock rattled through his bones.
But once again, he had no ti to recover — because, rely a second later, the tentacle yanked him back up in midair once more.
Dangling several feet off the ground, Samael grimaced as the coils around his body tightened further still, almost crushing his bones to powder.
Reiner was really trying to squeeze him to death.
But Samael had no intention of letting that happen.
With a thought, he activated «Steel Hide» once again and reinforced his body, while at the sa ti summoning another one of his Acquire Cards — «Piercing Bolt».
Shimring particles of light began to coalesce at his fingertips as he pointed them toward Reiner.
Reiner didn't know what that ability was, and he had no interest in finding out.
With a sneer, he poured even more strength into his tentacle, desperately trying to squeeze Samael before he could use his newly cast Card.
Unluckily for him, because of «Steel Hide», the added pressure beca nothing but a small inconvenience for Samael.
Reiner clicked his tongue in frustration. "Soone take out that bastard's defense Card!"
And his order was imdiately heeded.
Standing at the farthest position from the ongoing battle, almost at the edge of the arena, was Erwin Holt.
He was arguably the best scout and sniper in the first-year batch right now. And he had been lying in wait.
His Origin Card — «Laplace's Deadeye» — granted him supernatural aim and the ability to predict his target's movents for the next three seconds.
Looking through his scope, Erwin locked his crosshair onto Samael's «Steel Hide» Card.
—Boom!
But before he could pull the trigger and fire the shot, another blinding bolt of lightning split through the world.
Only this ti, the lightning didn't strike Samael.
It struck Reiner.
The thunderbolt shot through Reiner's transford limb, charring the flesh and severing the tentacle cleanly.
The burned appendage fell to the ground, along with Samael, who landed lightly on his feet. He didn't even need to look to know who was responsible.
"Tch! Leon, you bastard!" Reiner cursed, his face twisting in fury as he glared at the noble faction's leader.
He wasn't cursing because of the pain — though the sight of his severed limb writhing on the ground was certainly infuriating.
It was because Leon had deliberately intervened right when he was about to win.
Lowering his still-glowing 'handgun' fingers, Leon smirked. "Relax, Reiner. You weren't going to finish him anyway. Besides, he's my prey."
Reiner's expression darkened, but before he could spit out a retort, Samael made his move.
His palms pressed against the ground.
And the terrain bent to his will.
With a low rumble, a massive concrete log shot upward from the ground, rocketing toward Reiner like a battering ram.
Reiner's instincts scread at him to move, but he couldn't. He wasn't fast enough to get away in ti.
So, he reacted with pure reflex.
His remaining arm twisted, its flesh morphing and sprouting into another thick tentacle to shield himself.
—CRACK!
The impact was brutal. Even with a giant tentacle cushioning the blow, the sheer force of the rocketing log flung Reiner back like a broken marionette.
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But Samael didn't have ti to savor the satisfying result of his attack.
Because at that mont, a hulking silhouette was already barreling toward him from the left.
It was a giant young man.
And calling him a 'giant' wasn't exaggerating!
His towering fra, nearly seven feet tall, was ripped with muscles bulging beneath his taut skin like boulders threatening to burst.
That was Giaus Vorant.
And unlike the others, this was soone Samael actually recognized and acknowledged as a threat.
Giaus' innate power — «Bloodhowl» — allowed him to go into a frenzied state called battle rage where the angrier he got, the stronger and more muscular he beca.
Pain and fear ant nothing to him in this state.
All that remained in his mind was the will to utterly dominate his foes until they were squandered like bugs.
That was why he was called the Berserker.
Giaus leapt high in the air and plumted toward Samael like a descending teor.
Samael barely had ti to react as Giaus ca crashing down. He hit the ground with such force that the impact sent a localized earthquake.
A brutal shockwave rolled outward as dust and debris exploded into the air like a small explosion going off.
Samael had already moved. He rolled back just in ti to avoid being flattened.
But even then, the shockwave from Giaus' landing nearly threw him off balance.
And yet, that wasn't all.
Samael soon spotted another enemy rushing toward him.
It was one of the nobles, Rowan Dusk.
His innate power — «Jester's Masquerade» — allowed him to create five illusionary clones, each one capable of creating heat and sound that made them nearly indistinguishable from the real him.
So Samael wasn't surprised when several identical figures began attacking him.
But he wasn't fazed by Rowan's illusions.
If anything, those clones were an annoyance more than a real threat. Distractions — that was what they were.
They attacked, but their punches and kicks passed harmlessly through Samael's body like a mirage.
Samael ignored them and focused instead on evading Giaus' relentless assault.
The berserker, true to his na, fought like a rampaging beast.
Each punch he threw carried enough force to shake the earth.
Every one of his strikes was violent enough to stir the wind and shatter the ground on impact.
Samael ducked beneath a wild hook, jumping back a few feet just as Giaus' fist obliterated the spot he had been standing on.
Finally, after creating a safe distance between himself and the mindless giant, Samael launched his own attack.
He raised his hand and activated «Piercing Bolt» again. A bright beam of light shot toward one of Rowan's figures which was getting too close to him.
But his attack easily passed through it, signaling it was a clone.
Samael clicked his tongue and sidestepped as Giaus ca barreling toward him again, throwing out a crushing haymaker.
He avoided it by a hair's breadth, feeling the displaced wind brush against his cheek as the massive fist barely missed him.
anwhile, Rowan and his clones continued circling around him, flitting in and out of Samael's peripheral vision like ghosts.
They weren't ant to attack.
They were ant to distract.
Samael could already guess Rowan's strategy.
Rowan was distracting him using his illusion so he could sneak up on Samael and finish him off with a backstab.
And very soon, it happened.
Just as Samael turned to evade another one of Giaus' crushing blows, Rowan lunged from behind with a dagger gleaming in his grasp.
There.
Samael smirked.
At the last possible mont — just as the blade was about to be plunged into his back — he reactivated «Steel Hide».
A dull clink rang out as the dagger failed to pierce Samael's hardened skin.
Rowan's eyes widened in disbelief.
…And that hesitation cost him.
Samael whirled around and grabbed Rowan by the arm in the blink of an eye.
"Can't run now, can you?" he murmured.
Then, right as Giaus' massive fist ca roaring toward him, Samael yanked Rowan into its path.
—Thwaaam!
There was a sickening thud as Giaus' punch connected with the force of a speeding car, sending Rowan flying back as his limbs flailed wildly.
He fell down a few ters away but didn't get back up.
He wasn't going to.
One down.
Samael wasn't finished.
At that exact sa mont, he dropped and placed his palm on the ground — and the land under Giaus' feet subtly shifted.
The berserker, caught mid-motion, suddenly lost his footing.
His balance broke.
And that was all Samael needed.
A blunt, thick spike of concrete erupted from the ground — rising at an angle and slamming into Giaus' solar plexus with the force of a siege engine.
The massive young man gasped as the air was violently driven from his lungs.
His entire body jerked.
Then, like a felled giant, Giaus collapsed.
Two down.
Eight more to go.
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