Chapter 144: Exhibition

Chapter 144: Exhibition "Who do you think is going to win this fight?"

"Of course its Dain. Haven’t you seen his Titanborn?"

"He hasn’t been defending the 62nd Rank with subpar skills after all."

"Yeah, he’s been moving up rapidly gaining favours with those noble power houses. I highly suspect this whole things is a ploy to satisfy those who had been looking negatively upon this commoner’s actions at the Ranking battle back then!"

They chatted lazily about the battle that was about to start. To them, the result of this match had already been decided before it even started. They were just here to watch the show.

They had also felt dissatisfied and angry that a commoner had entered and won a ranking match. It was an insult to the noble community as a whole. Watching Dain taking the lead to set things straight and put the commoner back in his place was a show they didn’t want to miss.

<Fight!>

The countdown had ended and the fight was finally starting.

Immediately the signal was given, the air around Dain changed, as he waved his long staff at Kieran who dodged easily.

BANG!

The ground where he had been standing blew up, pieces of rocks sent flying in the air and Kieran’s eyes narrowed.

"You see? You should take this serious, for your own good!"

Dain said, warning Kieran again.

’He might have a point!’

Kieran thought, seeing the damage caused by the light wave of Dain’s staff

He couldn’t tell if that was an effect of the eye catching staff or the power of its weilder.

"Fine then!"

’I should show that failure how its done!"

Dain said breaking into a small sprint as he unleashed a flurry of attacks at Kieran, his staff moving flexibly through the air like a cloud dragon.

"Hmm..."

Kieran suppressed a grunt as he took one of Dain’s attacks head on, skidding back by a few meters, reaching the edge of the stage.

’I should be able to handle this!’

Kieran was eager to test out what he was capable of now in a real fight, and that made him less cautious than he usually was before awakening.

He had just been struck by the staff and felt no need to dodge the same type of attacks, there was a strange force of momentum in the opponents strike though.

’Does he really think he is that talented?!’

Dain’s expression turned sour at the sight of Kieran taking his attacks head on without dodging, but instead of bursting out with some furious words like expected, Dain just smiled and switched up his flow.

"What the—"

"Ugh!"

Kieran sensed the sudden change in the flow of his enemy’s attack, but it was too sudden and too fast for him to react accordingly.

The attacks came like the harsh winds of a mountain, pushing him back and caging him.

"Didn’t think it’ll be this easy!"

"Yeah!"

Dain’s audience present murmured amongst themselves with small smiles at the performance on stage, some had even stated to take to their feet. The final blow wasn’t necessary to them as they had already foreseen the end of the fight.

BANG!

"AH!"

A loud gasp left the mouth of the audience simultaneously, causing those who were making their ways out pause and turn only to join the rest in their feeling of shock.

’What is this?’

Kieran stared at his arm which shook subtly under the strain of Dain’s staff in his palm. This wasn’t what the crowd and Dain were seeing though.

’How?!’

Dain’s expression was dark seeing his weapon being held in Kieran’s palm like it was a stick.

He looked like the last attack had no effect on him.

"I guess you weren’t made of paper after all, but you’ll have to handle way more than this for anything to matter!"

Dain said and his eyes flashed, his aura taking a massive rise as the dust and debris around them blew off the stage.

Kierans eyes narrowed, wondering if he was being dragged into an illusion as a faint shadow of a tall mountain projected out the back of Dain, standing tall and domineering over both their figures.

Once the image was full projected, the weight behind the staff in his hands suddenly multipled, going beyond what he could handle in a loose stace like that.

BOOM!

Kieran’s expression became after he hurriedly pushed the weapon to the side.

That whole space at the edge of the stage had just crumbled to dust. He could see and hear clearly as the remains made it down to the bottom.

CRACK!

Kieran felt his bones crack as he brought up his right am in a desperate block against the staff that had almost crashed into his head.

The attack sent him flying back by a few meters, but all that distance did everything but give him some breathing space as Dain’s weapon trailed and followed his figure closely.

The moment he landed, he rolled to the side, ignoring the pain in his arm as several more mini craters were made in his previous positions.

Kieran tensed his teeth as he an image flashed across his mind.

One draw back that came with the immense and subtle benefits of Mirrored perspective was that he could feel his body in more ways that should have been possible.

That meant one thing for him in this situation. Little pain equaled more pain. His arm had only cracked yet it felt like his bones had shattered and cut across his muscles.

Luckily, after getting his bones broken over and over again under August’s supervision, he had a pretty good resistance to light injuries like that and once his healing factor kicked in, the bone was restored to its previous state.

His mind couldn’t ponder on those things for long though as he was forced to dodge the red, long staff again.

With each attack, Dain’s aura increased and the feeling he got from each attack became more dangerous, up to the level where he was starting to feel a little bit excited.

"Huuu...."

Kieran let out a deep breath, emptying his lungs as his the black in his eyes darkened, before being filled with scarce tiny white dots, resembling the stars in a dark sky.

’I see now!’

Kieran’s mind churned and he paused half step sliding into another move with sly elegance, unseen before to the audience present as his steps became more fluid, dodging the attacks more efficiently than before.

’Are all commoners as slippery as this?’

Dain clenched his teeth, veins popping across his forehead as he watched Kieran slip through his attack.

Another thing which fueled his anger was the fact that up until this point, Kieran hadn’t sent a single attack his way.

Up until recently when his movements suddenly switched up, he hadn’t even used anything resembling an ability.

’I heard he was only half awakened. Yet he dares look down on me?!"

His blood flowed furiously through his veins as he thought of how the audience he had taken his time to gather were looking at him currently.

He had even made sure the fight was being streamed live for those who didn’t or couldn’t make it to the venue in such short notice.

"This can’t go on!"

Dain said to himself as his aura fluctuated again, becoming denser than before, proceeding to cover the whole stage.

"Ugh!"

Kieran who had been taking his time to have fun, dodging the attacks of his opponent, suddenly found it harder to move as the felt a sudden wait press down on him.

Taking advantage of that moment where Kieran paused under the pressure, Dain took it a step further.

"Third step!"

His voice was heavy and flat compared to before, bearing a foreign intensity as the air and the space surround him seemed to churn in response to his simple statement.

Dain’s narrowed eyes snapped open as he raised his foot and took his ’third step’ since the beginning of the match.

At the same time, the length and width of the staff suddenly changed, becoming thicker and longer as Dain spun on the foot he had just planted firmly on the floor.

The pressure increased again pressing down on Kieran who was still in the same spot as before watching the staff swing towards him like a baseball bat.

"Heh!"

BANG!! BOOM!!

A thunderous sound went through the arena as the whole stage was covered in dust, obscuring the view from the eyes of the audience.

"It should have ended with that right? There’s no way he was getting out of a situation like that!"

"Yeah! I mean that’s Dain’s third step. I’m not sure even I could have done anything in a position like that"

The audience chatted amongst themselves, but within their words could be sensed an emotion they tired to hide—doubt.

If the fight had truly ended, then they should have seen the announcement, but nothing of such had happened yet. That only meant one thing! Kieran was still in the fight.

’Something is off!"

Dain’s eyes narrowed as his felt his staff locked into place.

His grip on the staff tightened as his mind flashed with anything he might have missed at the last moment.

’Did he?’

His heart palpitated and for the first time, he felt shock at a possibility he was unwilling to consider.

As the dust slowly settled down, the suspicions of Dain and the audience was slowly confirmed as they spotted a faint shadow standing within the falling dust.