Chapter 101: Awakened Tournament Crisis (7)

Dust hung heavily in the air.

Chunks of broken stone continued to fall from above, bouncing across the ruined battlefield as the restoration system struggled to keep up with the sheer amount of destruction.

Jax stood at the edge of the massive crater.

His crimson eyes remained fixed on Elio.

"That’s more like it." He smiled.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then a faint purple glow appeared within the crater.

Purple Essence began rising from the dust.

It wrapped around Elio’s body.

At first, it looked almost harmless.

A thin layer of purple energy.

Then it became denser.

It crawled across his arms, his shoulders, his chest and his legs like living armor.

Elio slowly stood.

Blood ran down his face.

His clothes were torn.

But his purple eyes were calm.

Jax tilted his head.

"Finally."

Elio raised his whipblade.

Purple Essence flowed into the weapon.

The segmented blade trembled.

Then Elio disappeared.

Jax’s eyes widened.

Elio crossed the distance between them in less than a second.

The whipblade snapped forward.

Jax leaned sideways.

The blade passed inches from his face.

Elio immediately reversed the motion.

Jax ducked.

The blade tore through the space above him.

Elio stepped forward.

A horizontal slash.

Jax twisted.

Another.

He jumped.

Another.

He spun around it.

The purple blade repeatedly tore through the air, each missed strike carving enormous trenches into the arena.

Jax laughed.

"That’s rhe spirit!"

Elio continued attacking.

His movements had changed.

Before, he had barely fought back.

Now, his attacks flowed smoothly.

The whipblade transformed constantly between sword and whip, giving him an enormous number of attack angles.

A sword thrust became a whip strike.

The whip retracted.

The weapon became a sword again.

The two exchanged dozens of attacks in seconds.

Yet Jax still looked comfortable.

He avoided every strike with frightening precision.

A sword passed beneath his chin.

He leaned backward.

A whip snapped toward his legs.

He jumped.

Another strike came from behind.

He turned and blocked it.

"You’re getting faster!" Jax admitted.

He grinned.

"But you’re going to have to do better than that."

Elio suddenly accelerated.

His purple Essence flared.

He thrust the blade forward.

Jax shifted his stance.

Instead of dodging this time, he raised his brass knuckle.

The segmented blade struck the golden weapon.

Jax redirected it.

The force sent Elio slightly off balance.

That was enough of an opening for Jax.

He stepped inside his guard.

His left hand shot forward.

He grabbed Elio by the throat.

Elio’s feet left the ground.

Jax lifted him with one arm.

"Gotcha."

Elio’s hand tightened around the whipblade.

Jax smiled.

"You know, I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to—"

Something touched his arm.

Jax froze.

Purple Essence.

A small amount had spread from Elio’s body onto his own.

It crawled across Jax’s arm like a living serpent.

Jax’s expression changed.

"What..."

The purple Essence tightened.

A strange sensation passed through his body.

For an instant, his strength felt different.

Jax’s eyes widened.

He immediately threw Elio away.

"Get off!"

He used Burst-Step at the same time.

His body vanished.

He reappeared nearly a hundred meters away.

Jax looked down at his hand.

The purple Essence had disappeared.

But the sensation remained.

His expression slowly became serious.

’That wasn’t an attack.’

He flexed his fingers.

’A Debuff.’

’It...’

’Took something from me.’

Jax closed his eyes.

He could feel it now.

A tiny portion of his physical attributes had been drained.

Not permanently.

But temporarily.

And it hadn’t even required Elio to land a proper hit.

Jax’s gaze shifted toward Elio.

’Every time I touch him...’

His eyes narrowed.

’That purple Essence can steal a portion of my attributes.’

Then another realization struck him.

Jax’s smile slowly returned.

’So the longer this fight goes on, the weaker I will become.’

He could feel his own strength beginning to return slightly.

What Jax failed to realize however, was that the stolen portion hadn’t simply disappeared.

It had gone somewhere.

Toward Elio.

Jax laughed.

"So that’s what you’re doing."

Elio remained silent.

Jax’s crimson eyes sharpened.

"You’re locking my attributes, huh."

He grinned.

Elio finally spoke.

"You figured it out quickly."

Jax smiled.

"How could I not?"

His excitement returned.

He rolled his neck.

"Good."

Elio’s purple Essence continued flowing around his body.

Jax lowered his stance.

"I was starting to get bored."

Elio’s eyes narrowed.

Jax disappeared from his vision.

This time, he wasn’t holding back.

He crossed the distance instantly.

His first punch struck Elio’s guard.

Jax unleashed ten strikes in rapid succession.

Elio blocked the first three.

The fourth slipped through.

The fifth caught his ribs.

The sixth hit his shoulder.

The seventh his chest.

The eighth his jaw.

The ninth his stomach.

The tenth sent him stumbling backward.

Jax followed.

His body rotated.

A spinning kick came toward Elio’s head.

Elio raised his arm.

The kick smashed through his guard.

Jax’s leg continued moving.

The momentum flowed seamlessly into another attack.

A low Brazilian kick swept toward Elio’s legs.

Elio jumped.

Jax smiled.

"Gotcha."

He followed him upward.

Thirty strikes.

His fists, elbows, knees and feet became a blur.

Elio tried to defend himself.

But there were simply too many.

Every time he blocked one steike, another four strikes found an opening.

The battlefield shook.

Cracks spread beneath them.

Then Jax landed.

His feet hit the ground.

He immediately launched another assault.

"Let’s see you handle this one!"

Jax launched a simultaneous fifty strike Combo.

It was difficult to even comprehend.

Jax’s body seemed to exist in multiple places at once.

His fists struck from every angle.

Elio’s body was hammered from all directions.

The final impacts landed together.

The arena exploded.

A massive shockwave swept across the battlefield.

Stone was thrown dozens of meters into the air.

The ground beneath Elio collapsed.

A crater formed.

Jax landed.

He took several deep breaths.

His chest rose and fell.

His arms trembled slightly.

Even for him, that combination had been exhausting.

"That should do it."

He looked toward the crater.

The dust slowly settled.

Jax waited several seconds.

Then a figure moved.

Elio’s hand appeared against the edge of the crater.

Jax’s eyes widened.

"Tsk."

Elio pulled himself upward.

He stood.

His clothing was heavily damaged.

Blood covered parts of his body.

His breathing was rough.

But he was standing.

And He somehow didn’t even look nearly as injured as he should have.

Jax stared.

His smile disappeared.

’How?’

He had just unleashed some of his his strongest moves followed by a Fifty Hit Combo at full strength.

It should have been enough to cripple most B-Ranks.

So even an A-Rank should at the very least be down for the count.

And yet Elio was still standing.

Jax suddenly understood.

His eyes dropped to the purple Essence still wrapped around Elio.

’It’s not just stealing my attributes.’

He clenched his fist.

’It’s giving them to him.’

The realization was almost absurd.

Every time Jax struck Elio, he was making Elio stronger.

Every time their bodies came into contact, Elio stole a little more.

And now...

After everything Jax had thrown at him...

Elio was much stronger than when the fight had started.

Jax couldn’t help but smile.

"You’re ridiculous."

Elio raised his sword.

Jax smiled.

"Seriously."

He looked at his own hand.

"I’ve never seen a skill like that."

He looked back at Elio.

"You’re barely using one skill, and you’re already this strong."

Elio didn’t respond.

Jax’s grin returned.

"But honestly?"

He lowered his stance.

"It would’ve been boring if you were any weaker."

Elio’s eyes sharpened.

Jax exhaled.

"Which means..."

His expression became serious.

"...I can’t risk playing around anymore."

Elio immediately moved.

Purple Essence surged around him.

He rushed forward.

His whipblade condensed into its sword form.

The blade gleamed.

Elio raised it.

He was going for the decisive strike.

Jax didn’t move.

Elio closed the distance.

Twenty meters.

Ten.

Then five.

Just as his blade was about to come down, Jax had somehow disappeared again.

Elio’s eyes widened.

Then Elio felt something behind him.

He turned.

Jax was standing there.

His back was facing Elio.

His right hand hung beside his body.

The golden brass knuckle gleamed.

Jax hadn’t moved.

At least...

Not anymore.

Elio’s eyes widened.

"What..."

Jax slowly turned his head.

A confident smile appeared.

"Too late."

Elio’s expression changed.

Jax raised one finger.

"I call this..."

The air seemed to stop.

"Wild God’s Descent."

Thats when Elio felt it.

One hundred strikes.

A simultaneous one-hundred-hit combination.

The technique was so fast that even the cameras struggled to capture it.

Jax had hit the combo back when he disappeared, and now the delayed impact was catching up to his speed.

Then the battlefield erupted.

The first impacts shattered the ground.

The next destroyed the surrounding stone.

The following strikes created overlapping shockwaves.

One hundred attacks landed within an impossibly small window.

The sheer force of the combination created a massive explosion that swallowed the center of the arena.

The ground collapsed.

A crater hundreds of meters wide opened beneath Elio.

Stone and dust were thrown into the air.

The protective barriers around the stadium flashed repeatedly.

The crowd was completely silent.

They couldn’t even see what had happened.

All they could see was the aftermath.

A gigantic cloud of dust covered the battlefield.

Jax stood outside it.

His chest heaved.

His arms hung loosely at his sides.

For the first time in the entire battle, he looked genuinely exhausted.

He wiped sweat from his forehead.

"That..."

He breathed.

"...should be enough."

The dust slowly began to settle.

A massive crater was revealed.

At its center lay Elio.

He wasn’t moving.

His silver hair was spread across the broken ground.

His whipblade lay several meters away.

Jax stared at him.

He waited, but ultimately nothing happened.

The crowd remained silent.

Then a wave of whispers spread.

"Is he unconscious?"

"Did Jax actually win?"

"That was an A-Rank!"

"He just destroyed an A-Rank!"

Jax slowly straightened.

A confident smile returned to his face.

He had done it.

The Martial God had defeated an A-Rank.

The announcer stood frozen for several seconds.

Even he seemed unable to process what he had witnessed.

Then he finally raised his microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen..."

His voice echoed throughout the silent stadium.

"The winner..."

He looked toward the crater.

"...appears to be Jax!"

The words had barely left his mouth when the stadium erupted.