Rising Against Fate

The crowd was excited. Many were thinking, 'what surprises are we going to see today? It wasn't just the crowd, though. Even the judges were curiously staring at Razak.

There was a tension in the air as Homura, who was usually the first one to charge in, was hesitating. Both hadn't spoken a word, and no movement was observed in the first fifteen seconds.

"Burning orbs!"

After fifteen seconds, Homura made the first move with what appeared to be his most powerful attack. It was a popular spell that could create several flaming orbs made up of compressed gases. The quantity of flammable gas in the orb was maintained to control the explosion, and the user could explore them at will by changing the proportion.

This move served two purposes — first was to keep Razak from charging forward, and the second was to create an opening to land another hit.

"Dark Cocoon!"

Razak created a complete dark Cocoon this time as he was expecting that this wasn't the end of his attack.

A loud explosion was heard throughout the arena as he unleashed the orbs at Razak, but as expected, despite the scale of the attack, the Cocoon was unharmed.

"Hall of flame!"

Homura used the heat from the burning orbs to cover the entire stage with flames. Normally, it wouldn't have been as strong as Kosuke's, but since he used the same idea that Itsuki used to win the match, it was just as strong.

Dark Cocoon could resist the heat, but it also restricted Razak's movement. He could just activate it for the next few minutes and wait for Homura to run out of mana, but that would still be a waste of time. There was also a possibility that Homura would be able to strengthen his Hall of flame with another Burning orbs.

"I guess I am out of options here," Razak whispered. However, because of all the noises, his voice couldn't get through.

Partially deactivating the Cocoon would be the same thing as completely deactivating it. The heat would still be able to get through. There were other measures to resist heat, but that would mean revealing too much at a stage like this.

Like he once said, his goal here wasn't just to win the tournament. He was here to win it in a way that would contribute to his long-term goals. And antagonizing the other clans was the last thing he wanted to do.

However, there was no problem in antagonizing those that were already prepared to stand in the opposition.

As it went, not every clan had a positive reputation among the general population. A prominent example of that was the Kage clan of Yami District, who were infamous for their traditional beliefs. Razak was able to use shadow magic freely because, as of recent, they had been doing several deeds to improve their social relationsh.i.p.s. And at changing times like this, that was the wise way to proceed.

On the same boat was the Avem clan of Caelum district. They had a bad reputation for being involved with criminal organizations and —although not-yet-proven— international terrorist organizations.

Villous used to do many of his businesses in the Caelum district, and during that time, he somehow ended up offending them. Since then, they have always tried getting in his way.

"Glass walk!"

Even though it was neither attack nor a defensive spell, it was classified as an advanced class spell. The reason for that was simple. Even though the actual flight was normally considered impossible, this ability allowed them to create a glass-like floating substance in the air, which could be stepped on.

He disabled the Cocoon and created several of those steps in the air, and used physical enhancement to jump on one of them.

Yet again, the whole arena was filled with shock. All the judges at the luxury box were now standing, and a variety of expressions could be observed on their faces.

The old man looked thrilled, Naoki was worried, and as for Tadashi, his face looked like he just saw a ghost.

Although the whole stadium, including Homura, was in shock, Razak wasn't planning to wait for them to recover. Not when he could use this as an opportunity to counterattack.

Razak rushed towards Homura by jumping from one step to another. When Razak was about to reach right above Homura, Homura composed himself and attacked Razak with a Fire slash.

He dodged the attack with a side flip and created another step behind Homura to support himself.

"Shadow slash!"

Razak fired a slash at Homura, but he jumped forward and dodged it. The slash required the movement of his hand, and the aim needed to be adjusted for making it non-lethal, so avoiding it was easy.

However, due to the unexpected turn of events, he wasn't able to maintain his balance. And in that exact moment, Razak used Glass walk to reach right next to him and attack him with a high kick aimed at his shoulder. Needless to say, he was using physical enhancement.

If it was someone physically strong like Daichi, he would have been able to resist the attack. But Homura wasn't that strong, so the impact sent him flying.

It was a miracle that Homura was still able to stand after the attack, although, at this point, he was no longer able to maintain the Hall of flames. As a result, the fire that was covering the stage extinguished.

Even though he was able to stand, he had taken a lot of damage during the attack earlier. It looked like he was barely in a position to cast another advanced class spell.

This time, Razak dashed towards Homura from the front. Homura fired several Fire slashes towards Razak, but he created a shadow shield and blocked them without even stopping.

In just a matter of seconds, he reached right next to Homura. Homura tried defending himself by creating a Circle of Flames around him, but Razak used Glass walk and physical enhancement to jump over it.

When he was within range, Razak attacked him with another roundhouse kick. He crashed onto the floor from the impact, and, as a result, he lost his consciousness.

For a few seconds, the crowd was silent, but after a while, a huge cheer was heard,

"Ladies and gents, it looks like we have the winner! The winner of this match is Razak Grace."