The temperature suddenly dropped. An icy mist enshrouded Yasen as he coldly stared at Fujo.
“Tsk, tsk, the soul-compression stage truly is impressive.” Commented Fujo as he watched the swirling cold mist.
Yasen silently snorted stretching out his hand and pointing towards Fujo.
“Calm Avalanche.” He whispered. A powerful torrent of Beast Force was sent into the mist causing it to grow at a pace visible to the naked eye.
When it reached a height of about fifty feet, clumps of giant crystallized ice shuriken began falling towards Fujo. At first it was only two or three per second but as more Beast force was sent into the now Ice Mist Mountain, ten to twenty ice shurikens were being sent Fujo’s way every second.
“Yasen, do you really think this is going to be enough? At least have the decency of using your flame against me or is that too much effort to take care of a mere Tempering stage practitioner.”
As he was saying that, the fur around his neck lit up for just a second before he roared out. This was without a doubt the loudest and most powerful roar he had released since Zilan had known Fujo.
The result? The ice and the repulsive force met each other head on. Upon contact with the invisible wall trying to push it away, something unimaginable to Fujo, occurred. The repulsive wall was actually being frozen, ice crawling around it making it visible to everyone.
The wall continually trembled but thankfully in the end it managed to hold out.
Seeing this Yasen reacted by lightly frowning. Although Calm Avalanche was not his strongest technique, it was still something that he relied upon greatly as he was its creator. That icy mist was something he had developed through his own insights into ice and snow. He was confident in its power as he was the one who had developed it to its current stage however, the reality was that Fujo was able to stop it.
“Fujo, the destined leader of this Generation. Cultivated by his clan to be born with all the necessary gifts to stand above all others. That’s what they all used to say about you. Every single day. I didn’t care back then, I was only a child.” Said Yasen.
“Oh, so you care now?” laughed Fujo. The ice shurikens had still not stopped their assault yet he still remained calm despite the occasionally quivering wall of repulsion.
“Not really, I have more important things to worry about.”
Fujo’s smile disappeared when he heard this. He seriously stared at Yasen before saying,
“We both know that’s a lie, even back then you didn’t like it, but instead of doing something about it now, you’re instead going to choose to waste your life. Do you really think that is what she would want for you?”
“Shut up! You of all people….”
The mountain of icy mist instantly disappeared. Replacing it, a dark red flame that instantly melted the platform before they even came into contact with each other.
‘A Beastly flame? No wonder he excels at Alchemy as well.’ Thought Zilan. He was unable to fully follow the arguments of the two but at least the battle proved to be entertaining.
Fujo tensed when he saw the red fire that was wrapped around Yasen. A few moments later and he responded by exposing his flame to the world.
“Hey, that’s it right? The PurpleSun flame?”
“It’s obvious isn’t it? Just by looking at it one can see how powerful it is.” The audience reacted.
Yasen’s eyes narrowed when he saw the flame that covered his opponent. The more he looked the more images containing a fiery PurpleSun he could see.
‘Such a waste. If only he focused more on Alchemy.’ Thought Zilan.
“Even if you use your family’s flame, I still won’t be moved.” Said Fujo.
“We’ll see.”
As the exchange of words came to an end. The exchange of blows quickly began.
The Purple flame commanded by Fujo moved to swallow not only Yasen but the entire platform. The red flame controlled by Yasen did the exact same thing. There was no planning or strategy to this battle, it was simply a head on, pound for pound exchange. It was like they were trying to gauge who would last longer.
As expected the red flame that was powered by soul-compression stage Beast force was swiftly sweeping away the Purple fire. Fujo did not look concerned though, as he more or less predicted this outcome.
He then slowly raised up his hand, wind attribute energy coming out, and roared, “King’s tempest.”
Almost immediately, a ferocious tornado began rampaging across the stage. It strangely avoided Yasen, instead remaining within the vicinity of the Purple flame, seemingly fuelling it with its wind.
Soon, the tornado turned into a cyclone of Purple flames. It then shifted its course, speedily heading towards Yasen.
“This won’t be enough.” A voice reached Fujo who was closely watching his King’s Tempest do work.
Shockingly when the flaming tornado made contact with Yasen, aside from burning his clothes a little, nothing else happened. A thin protective membrane could be seen around his body as he calmly stared at Fujo.
‘One of the advantages of being in the soul-compression stage. Lower level energy will not be able to harm you.
Advancing to the soul-compression stage is an evolution of life itself, it entails coming closer to the Universe thus lower level energy will be brushed away by the Universe itself.’
“What is it you want Fujo? Is it to simply make me angry?” asked Yasen as he brushed off the little Purple flame that remained on his body.
“I wanted to let you know something but I got a little side-tracked when I saw how easy it was to make you angry.” Smiled Fujo.
“I don’t want to hear it.”
“Doesn’t matter, I’m going to say it anyway.” Continued Fujo. “I’ll be coming for her. Maybe not tomorrow or in the near future but I will come for her.”
Yasen’s eyes immediately turned red when he heard the words spouted by Fujo.
“You…After what you did, you still dare to say something like that?” The volume of his voice was greatly reduced but Fujo could still hear him.
“I know you know that I had nothing to do with the engagement being called off.”
“Of course you didn’t. Once Polee got..sick…your family, the people who proposed the marriage in the first place immediately called it off. And you…you couldn’t even tell her yourself! I had to be the one to watch her despair. I had to stand there every single day and see her stop smiling. I had to…see her dying.”
Fujo was speechless for a while but after a brief moment of silence he started laughing. It wasn’t a simple chuckle either, he was madly cackling, clutching his chest as if he could not breathe.
“What’s so funny?” asked Yasen, for some reason he was not angered by the laughter.
“Ha! Hahahaha, do you really expect me to believe that you blame me? Bullsh*t! Yasen Andriani, future head of House Andriani yet look at you now. A House that has no legendary Alchemy legacy has their future head coming under the Alchemy Association in order to achieve the impossible, learn enough so that he can create a cure for his sister before her lifespan runs out. A man whose own actions have created a mental block that prevents him from using his House’s bloody defining ability. And you expect me to believe that you blame me? You blame yourself! So much so that you’re prepared to die a useless Alchemist. How many great Alchemists have visited your sister? Even my Uncle and his teacher went to see her and what did they all say? Impossible to cure. You caused this and yet you want to blame me. Be a man and live your life.”
“Knowing Polee, she wishes only the best for you yet everyday you probably remind her about her affliction. How many times now have you told her that you will definitely heal her? You probably tell her to wait just a little while longer and she’ll be able to move again however, what you don’t know is that your very actions are what will lead her to despair even more. I don’t blame you though, I had the same idea in the past however, like you said, I’m controlled by my family. My Uncle now watches over me, making sure I don’t fall down the same pit as you.”
“And so I laugh. What else can I do? Dedicate my life to not living, like you? I…” Before Fujo could finish talking, flames suddenly erupted out of Yasen’s body. Beside him an image of a Beast with humanly features but completely pale and with six tentacles could be seen.
“I will cure her, no matter what the price I have to pay!” said Yasen. “I don’t care what you, or anyone else says, I will make her whole again. She is the way she is now because of me so I will take responsibility for it and use this life to find a cure for her.”
The illusionary tentacle human suddenly opened his eyes, a strikingly white glow shining upon Fujo.
From the moment the light shone out from the Beast’s eyes, Fujo became unable to move his body. He could think, see and hear but his other bodily functions except for his heart beat had seemingly all stopped functioning.
‘Hehe, I finally got him to get over his fear. Now to get out of this before he does something irreversible.’
Yasen’s eyes were wide open, he looked crazed and agitated but despite that he did not move. His inner self was screaming for him to stop using his House’s defining technique lest an accident like last time occurs. However, the more he thought about Fujo’s words the more enraged he became. He was angry at himself but at the same time he was also frustrated at Fujo for testing his conviction.
“Cough, I know…. someone…mmph… who will be able to save her.” Fujo’s strained voice entered his ears while Yasen was still contemplating on what to do.
“How can you move?” Yasen was stunned.
“Hehehe, he’s thousands of times better as an Alchemist right now than you will ever be. And he’s still getting better. I will come for Polee and he will heal her. As for you, you can either live your life to the fullest or f**k off to a place where she won’t be able to see that pathetic face which causes her so much pain.”
Yasen remained silent. This did not mean that he was okay with the words spoken by Fujo. On the contrary, he was madder than ever.
“Break.”
*Ktak*
Fujo’s right arm suddenly snapped in two. The scary part was that he had felt no pain whatsoever as it was breaking and the snapping of the bone was actually caused by his own body exerting too much pressure on his arm.
“Phew~ through powerful impulses you’re able to control my body’s functions and except from controlling my Beast force, you can do everything else. What an ability.” Said Fujo, this time his voice was not strained at all.
“How can you still talk?”
The light exuded from the tentacle man grew in intensity however, as if he hadn’t felt any of the impulses Fujo relaxedly stood up, actually stretching.
“What was it that you said? Destined leader? Born with the gifts to dominate this generation. King of Kings. Well, I don’t know about all that but right now I feel like I made a misjudgement. Before I thought that if you gained control of your ability I would probably lose however, I’ve had a change of heart after tasting your Divine ability. Turns out you haven’t improved it after all these years which means that my ability should give me an advantage.”
*Ktak, Tak*
The broken arm of Fujo unexplainably repaired itself in an instant. Yasen was shocked, trying to figure out what was going on.
Sited on his chair Zilan immediately understood what Fujo had done.
‘Strange. I’m not sure if he’s trying to help Yasen recover his ability through mind games or if he’s trying to destroy his confidence.’ He inwardly sighed. ‘Suction and repulsion. The ability to repel all things is a powerful one but his suction ability is even more so unbelievable’
Let’s say one had the ability of suction and repulsion. If theoretically one could repel everything should they not also be able to suck everything as well?
Looking closely at Fujo, Yasen was able to see the red flames that were around him being sucked into his body through the fur on his neck.
“You….”
“Don’t blame me, I’ve been continuously training my Divine Ability since before I could remember, you on the other hand took a lot of time off being an idiot. Of course, using my suction to absorb foreign energies has its consequences but I’m prepared to suffer a little bit if I can knock some sense into you.”
Before Yasen could respond, he suddenly felt dizzy as all the flames on the platform as well as even the illusionary tentacle man were swiftly and indiscriminately sucked in by Fujo.
It didn’t matter what it was, as long as it was energy, Fujo devoured it. Even the platform beneath his feet had stopped self-recovering because he was busy absorbing its energy.
Fortunately for Judge though, Fujo had a limit to how much he could contain. Thus after filling up, absorbing the foreign energies and making them his own was impossible so the most logical thing to do was to repel them out of his body in a condensed state i.e. he took in different types of his energy and now he was going to bunch them up closely together before firing them at his target which was obviously Yasen.
“Ah..this is going to hurt.” Sighed Fujo.
His eyes then quickly turned serious. He opened his mouth wide, exposing his sharp rows of teeth to the audience.
“ROOAAAR!!!”
The ground shook as he bellowed. A blinding ray of multi-coloured energy was shot out of his mouth at a speed that Yasen would find hard to dodge even if he broke through several phases.
*BOOM*
Like a severed kite, he was sent flying off the platform but a strange scene followed after the dust had settled. Fujo spat out a mouthful of blood, fainting soon after while Yasen, the one supposed to be unconscious, only had a bad bruise on his chest and arms. He was safely standing outside of the platform staring at the unconscious Fujo.
His emotions were complicated and he didn’t quite understand what had just happened. The fight was not supposed to go like this, they were supposed to ignore each other like they had ever since they both enrolled into the Association and yet here they were, confused and conflicted.
Zilan was also conflicted. He did not know how he was supposed to feel after what he’d just witnessed. It was almost like he’d been watching one of those famous plays humans acted out for their royalty’s entertainment.
‘Fujo, you truly never cease to amaze me with your antics.’
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