Chapter 199: Conan Vs Seth [1]:A Parasite
Chapter 199: Conan Vs Seth [1]:A Parasite
"Begin!"
The moment those words left the herald’s mouth, Seth suddenly made his move, but Conan was ready for it.
Or at least he thought he was.
He quickly switched to his lightning module, but just before he could move, vines broke free from the ground below him, attempting to restrain him.
The moment a single vine touched him and alerted him to Seth’s attack, he moved just before they could get him.
Conan stopped at a small distance away, looked at the vines for a while, and then at Seth, who seemed a bit surprised.
From what he had seen during the hunt, he was certain that the kid before him should have a water spirit, so how was he using lightning right now?
"No matter," Seth said calmly, "I already gained the upper hand."
Conan was confused for a while before he suddenly felt his mana flow towards his legs, which wasn’t supposed to happen in the least bit.
He looked down only to notice what seemed like a small flower where the vines had touched him.
The flower was plain white at first, but it was quickly turning red as more mana flowed towards it, and the moment its color completely changed,
BOOM!
The petals exploded, sending Conan flying towards the opposite side of the stage the two were on.
The crowd was surprised by the way the fight started; even the academy students who had made it there were quite taken aback.
They were certain that this was going to be an easy win for the first year, after all, he could go toe to toe with that battle-obsessed freak of a second year.
And yet, what was before them was quite different from what they expected.
Conan’s body slammed into the barrier surrounding them before he fell to the ground and let out a groan of pain.
From the pain coming from his right foot, he was certain that the explosion had taken it cleanly off, but to his surprise, it was still there.
And annoyingly, somehow, it was the flower.
"Don’t worry," Seth said as he noticed the first year looking towards his foot, "you’ll lose no part of yourself, but you’ll soon run out of mana since that’s what my Bloom Parasite feeds on."
"The hell kind of spirit allows you to do this?" Conan muttered with a frown.
After all, his scanner had only shown that his opponent had a plant-based spirit; there was nothing about exploding mana-eating plants.
In response, Seth just smiled and said, "Quite the useful kind."
"But I hope this won’t cut our fight short," he added, "because, you see, I am curious about you using multiple elements after all."
"Don’t worry," Conan said as he slowly rose to his feet with a grin on his face, "my benefactors are watching me, so there’s no way I’ll put on a disgraceful performance. "
Rising fully to his feet, he added, "Besides, I promised to kick your ass."
"Splendid," Seth answered with a smile, "but before that–"
BOOM!
Conan was launched into the barrier again by the plant that had just finished absorbing his mana to detonate again.
"You might want to find a way to get rid of that," Seth finished his words.
"How the hell do I do that?" Conan muttered to himself as he looked at the flower before an interface suddenly popped up, blocking his vision.
{Warning, the Nexus core is quickly losing mana}
{Projected mana depletion at current rate: 4 minutes, 12 seconds}
{Note: removing the flower manually will trigger detonation}
{Note: using mana to remove it will accelerate the drain}
{Note: this is a problem}
"..."
"As if I didn’t know that already," Conan muttered in response to the UI before quickly dismissing them.
He needed to think.
Which was difficult when a flower on his foot was actively trying to explode every thirty seconds.
Also,
Conan moved out just in time to avoid a vine that suddenly burst out of the ground, careful not to let it touch him this time.
"Unfortunately, I won’t be standing around and letting you figure out a way to deal with them," Seth spoke up.
BOOM!
The flower exploded again since Conan had just actively used his mana to dodge that vine, which quickly killed it.
This time, he was launched towards the barrier like a physics-based ragdoll, and he landed straight on his head.
All this while, Seth hadn’t moved a single inch, and Conan was starting to find that annoying.
Plus, the West’s representative’s pompous formal speech sounded as if he were mocking his opponent.
Seth had no intention of mocking Conan, but after being thrown around so much, the second year was quickly getting annoyed.
Conan recovered before he took a breath and looked at the flower, now white again as it slowly began its next cycle.
’What was a counter to plants?’ He mentally questioned, and the answer soon came to him.
Slowly, his hair started transforming to red, and so did his eyes.
To Seth’s surprise, the lightning mana his Parasite was absorbing suddenly disappeared, and the next second, the atmosphere around Conan started heating up.
Fire.
Seth’s eyes narrowed slightly.
The Bloom Parasite on Conan’s foot seemed confused for a moment; the mana type had changed, and plant-based spirits weren’t particularly fond of fire to begin with, before it began adapting, starting to absorb the new element.
Or at least it tried to, but the atmosphere got hotter and hotter until flames enveloped Conan’s entire form, quickly turning the flower to ash.
"So you do not only control water and lightning, but fire as well?" Seth placed a hand on his chin, "How fascinating. "
"Alright then," Conan let out as he was certain that the Parasite was gone, "Come at me."
***
Meanwhile, the leader of the various factions partaking in the convergence festival looked at the fight with varying degrees of surprise.
Even Boreas, who had known of the child previously, thanks to the information Sebastian had provided, was surprised.
"What a fascinating child," the archbishop voiced everyone’s thoughts.
He then turned towards the headmistress who was looking on without a change in her expression.
"I didn’t know the academy hid such power."