Unsealing Emptiness

How would Ozul explain about this old man when he himself didn’t know anything about him?

He didn’t say anything and remained in his thoughts until Blaze’s match started.

. . .

Two hours later, Raven was still recovering as she stood by Ozul’s side while Blaze stood in the middle of the ground, far from the audience.

In front of him stood Mikol with sweat dripping from his face in an unnatural way.

Many from the audience thought that he feared going up against Blaze after seeing the previous battle.

.....

But a couple of others like Raven and the Rank-9 Mages felt that it was strange.

Blaze didn’t get complacent either. He remembered Ozul telling him that there were high chances for his defeat. Even if he didn’t think so himself, he believed that Ozul would have his reasons for warning him.

Also, Mikol’s face didn’t look worried or anxious. It looked more like he was in pain instead!

Before Blaze could say anything, the representative of the Mercenary Guild flew in the air and with a clear voice, announced the start of their fight,

“Begin!”

Blaze didn’t waste any time before rushing towards Mikol with his Magical Spells ready to shoot at any time.

The audience cheered, most of them shouted for Blaze only because of his good looks. The people belonging to the prominent factions didn’t utter a word since none of the two participants’ victory or defeat concerned them.

Responding to the cheers, Blaze increased his speed with each step taken towards Mikol, who he just realized was standing still in his place all this time!

‘Hm? What is he planning...’ Blaze didn’t assume for a second that Mikol was only scared to move because of how well he had fought with Raven previously.

While he contemplated what Mikol was hoping to achieve by just standing still, he continued to rush towards him with confidence in his own strength.

Though just at that particular time, Ozul’s warning flashed past his brain which made him stop at a safe distance from Mikol. He decided to play it safe first.

Standing a few meters away from Mikol, Blaze shot two giant ice spikes at him. The ice spikes rotated at a blinding speed as they threatened to kill Mikol with just a single hit.

Just when the ice spikes were 3 meters away from Mikol, he finally moved!

He swung his arm in the air, hysterically chanting spells upon spells that created a bright light that forced almost all of them to close their eyes.

When they opened them back again, Mikol and Blaze were already engaged in fierce combat.

Blaze kept on creating sharp ice objects and direct them in Mikol’s direction while the latter rushed at him.

If it was Raven doing that, he might have even understood her reasons since she was good in close combat, but Blaze didn’t understand Mikol’s reasons.

‘Is he also confident in his physical strength?’ Blaze pondered before blocking Mikol’s path.

Even with Blaze’s intense efforts, Mikol gradually began to close in the distance between them. No matter what Blaze sent at him, Mikol dodged almost everything while taking care of the rest with his spells.

He didn’t only dodge either, just like Blaze’s Icicles, Mikol cast a spell that sent sharp beams of bright light at Blaze.

When Blaze realized that these beams of light would do much more than just giving him a burn, he instantly conjured an ice wall in front of him which blocked all of the beams.

He didn’t miss how it was just a thin layer remaining at the spots on which the beams had hit the ice wall.

‘Even that simple spell did this much?... I will have to end it quickly,’ Blaze decided not to waste his time anymore and finish it as quickly as he could.

One lesson he had learned while being there in the Nine Petals Sect was that the Mages all were physically many times weaker than one would actually think.

Unlike him and Raven, their bodies had only now started to incorporate with Mana, so such a disparity between their physical ranks was a given. Right now, he was thinking of exploiting this weakness of Mikol.

‘When else would I use it if not now...’ Blaze thought as he cast another spell which didn’t create any ice spears or sharp Icicles. Instead, something started to appear on his hands!

Slowly, tiny ice chunks appeared out of thin air and all of them started to join together until they covered all of Blaze’s fists.

In the audience, Ozul didn’t have any change in his facial expression, but Raven peered curiously at those ice gauntlets.

She hadn’t seen him cast such a spell before, so it was also as much of a surprise for her as for others.

Without giving Mikol a chance to think, Blaze ran towards him at full speed.

For distraction, he created a rain of Icicles around Mikol and sent them all towards him at once.

Meanwhile, he closed in on his retreating figure as quickly as possible. He was confident that if he could just get one solid hit on Mikol, his victory would be assured.

Mikol was barely able to defend against those Icicles by creating a dome of light around him that seemingly erased even the tiniest particles of ice that came near him.

Blaze was surprised how effortlessly Mikol defended against his attack, but he was determined to end this quickly.

Just when the dome of light over Mikol was dispelled, he turned to his side to protect against Blaze, but before he knew it,

Bam!

Blaze hit Mikol straight in the gut with a force that would shake even the toughest of structures in the Neutral City!

As expected, Mikol’s body went flying in the opposite direction with the cheers increasing for Blaze.

Blaze took deep breaths to steady his breathing. Although the gauntlets on his hands did not seem so special, only he knew how much Mana it took him to keep up this spell.

The force that he had hit with Mikol was unnatural even considering that he had the advantage in physical strength! And it was only because of the spell.

Him sprinting here and shooting other spells at Mikol and at last getting that last hit rose dust particles that if one didn’t know what was happening here, they might have thought that there had been an explosion here!

While Blaze thought that Mikol had lost since there was no chance that any Mage under Rank-9 would be alright after such an attack, much less a Rank-8 in the middle stage.

Everyone in the audience also thought as such. Only the Rank-9 Mages continued to stare at them with serious faces.

Ozul also squinted his eyes, but he failed to notice that the smile on Old Gu standing beside him was getting wider by the second.

Blaze was still smiling believing that he had already won. However, he was left astonished when the dust started to settle and a standing silhouette appeared a few meters away from him!

“No way...” he unconsciously muttered as his thoughts were jumbled in a mess, ‘But that hit would have smashed large boulders! How is his body not broken into pieces already!?’

Unlike him, the Rank-9 Mages had realized the match didn’t end long before that. It was only because of the peculiar aura that Mikol started radiating the moment he was hit.

When the dust fully settled, Mikol’s bloody figure appeared before everyone’s eyes. There was a trail of blood leaving his mouth while the clothes on his upper body were all tattered to the point that just a single wind blew even those stripes of clothes away.

What attracted everyone’s attention was not his injuries, but his appearance instead.

Because his body was unusually reddened and his eyes were now bloodshot. Some could even notice a few trails of steam leaving Mikol’s body which gave them an idea of his body’s temperature. It wasn’t normal that even the sweat on his body was getting vaporized!

Everyone was quiet as they stared intensely between Blaze and Mikol. Everyone except for an old man with the beggars’ appearance and the ceaseless grinning face.

At this time, Old Gu didn’t continue to look at Mikol’s oddness. Instead, he turned his face towards Ozul.

Feeling his intense stare, Ozul also turned his head to meet his gaze, “What is it?”

“Ho~ You really don’t know?” Old Gu laughed as he asked Ozul.

When he noticed Ozul’s confused gaze, Old Gu again laughed, “Gahaha! You really don’t know! You are really strange... young man. Really strange.”

Old Gu repeated the words ‘really strange’ twice before shifting his attention back to Mikol, making it apparent that he wouldn’t explain anything.

Although Old Gu was now looking at Mikol and Blaze, his thoughts were a little different, ‘This kid is really special. Just a little whiff of his essence was able to corrupt that guy. Huhu~ I never thought things would get so interesting after just a few decades.’

Unaware of Old Gu’s thoughts, Ozul focused on the match.

At this moment, Blaze didn’t feel discouraged. It was only a single hit and he was able to reduce Mikol to this state.

As he was contemplating whether to just go in again or play it safe which would drag the fight, Blaze suddenly felt something that caused all the hair on his body to stand.

Not only him, but everyone felt the aura released by Mikol as steam rushed out of his body as if he was a volcano!

“What is this...”