Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit-Chapter 138: The Elven Nation of Sylph(Part 8)

"Alright, let’s do this. I’m the Vice-Captain of the Second Knight Squad, Jacks Aldi," Jacks greeted his opponent as he stepped onto the arena.

"I am Kolvar, a member of the Council of Elders and a First Stage Warrior," Came the gruff response.

He had messy, longish dark blonde hair, dark green eyes, a thick mustache and a scruffy face, a fair complexion, his left ear was scarred and missing about a centimeter off the tip, and he was quite tall with a strong, muscular build.

He was wielding a large, rocky club with a jagged, abrasive head, held in his right hand as he readied himself for the duel.

He was one of the Elders who were especially apprehensive towards forming an alliance with Persona, and was eyeing Jacks with a wary, tense look on his face.

"Hey, no need to look so serious, this is just a friendly duel, right?" Smiled Jacks, in an effort to ease the tension, as the barrier formed around the arena.

"I have no interest in playing nice with you humans...I was once a slave of one of your so-called Nobility, so excuse me if I have something of a bias against your kind," Responded Kolvar with a grimace.

"Oh...I’m, uh, not sure what to say to that," Jacks thought to himself uncomfortably.

"The third match will begin in three...two...ONE!!!"

Right as the countdown ended and a fireball erupted high up in the air, Jacks drew out his twin blades and unleashed a powerful sonic screech towards his opponent.

Kolvar swiftly launched himself up with intense bursts of flames from the bottom of his feet, evading the attack before blasting out a devastating wave of scorching flames from his mouth towards the Knight.

"[Giant Sound Wall]!" Exclaimed Jacks, forming a large, ringing wall of sound in front of himself, the flames colliding against it and coming to a halt.

Beads of sweat ran down Jacks’s face as the flames roared ahead of him, before his gaze quickly darted across to the right as Kolvar zipped around that direction with bursts of flames from his heels, before blasting himself straight towards Jacks with immense speed, as he unleashed a concentrated eruption of flames from behind himself.

As he zipped through the air rapidly, he raised his club up high as he closed in on Jacks, before swinging it down with immense, brutal strength.

Jacks sprang back as fast as he could, tensing as the head of the club missed the tip of his nose by a whisker, before a devastating shockwave burst out as the club slammed onto the floor of the arena with a crushing impact, a deafening crash ringing out as Jacks got blown away, hurtling back through the air as the floor cracked deeply and broke apart.

Jacks fired out a burst of sound behind himself to cancel out the momentum, his feet skidding back across the floor before his back lightly thudded against the barrier, a grimace on his face as he let out a slow exhale to compose himself.

"Alright, then...," He muttered, before chanting as he began to float up off the ground, "[Sonic Armor], plus [Supersonic Flight]!"

A high pitched ringing echoed out around him, before Kolvar’s eyes widened in alarm as he suddenly lost sight of Jacks, stiffening as he then spotted the Knight right in front of him.

Jacks rapidly whipped one of his blades across at the Elf’s chest, inflicting a shallow gash across his skin as Kolvar sprang back just in time to avoid a more serious hit, before raising his club up defensively as Jacks drove his second blade straight towards his throat, a sharp clang ringing out as the tip of the blade collided against the head of the club.

Jacks grimaced as a couple of cracks spread out across the blade upon impact, before he quickly flew back as a devastating burst of flames erupted around Kolvar, wincing slightly as a stifling wave of heat hit him and knocked him back.

Kolvar then came charging towards Jacks, leaping forward with a pressurized burst of flames from behind as he closed in and swung his club across with all his strength.

Jacks quickly flew up as fast as he could, before letting out a stifled hiss as the club landed a partial hit on his left foot, a sharp twinge of pain erupted across his foot before he gritted his teeth and locked onto to the Elf...

"Take this...[Supersonic Screech]!"

He unleashed a powerful, deafening wave of immensely high-pitched sound towards Kolvar, who raced away as fast as he could, firing out a concentrated blast of flames to launch himself away, but he couldn’t fully evade the attack, his face tensing up in agony as his left side got caught up in the devastating wave of noise, blood pouring out of his left ear as a dazed look appeared in his eyes.

He then turned towards Jacks as he bit his lower lip to reorient himself, wiping away the blood streaming down the side of his face from his ear.

"Let’s see you defend against this!" Snapped Kolvar, before chanting as several massive, swirling fireballs formed around him, "[Giant Fireball Scattershot]!"

The large balls of flames then went barreling towards Jacks with immense speed, roaring through the air fiercely as the temperature without the barrier spiked sharply, the flames rapidly eating up the oxygen as Jacks sprang back and formed a wide wall of concentrated sonic noise, the fireballs colliding against it before his eyes widened in alarm as Kolvar send an immense, blazing wave of flames towards him.

The flames engulfed the wall of sound and roared around it, beads of sweat pouring down Jacks’s face as he struggled to keep the flames at bay.

Kolvar strained himself and forcibly channeled more Mana to intensify the flames that were spewing fiercely out of his mouth, a fiercy orange glow blanketing the arena and the surrounding area as the entire space within the barrier shimmered violently.

As his Spell finally petered out, he let out a sharp gasp and stumbled back, his vision blurring as he struggled to catch his breath, the air inside the barrier scorching hot, with hardly any oxygen left in the space.

Suddenly, he tensed as a high pitched ringing echoed out from above him, quickly turning his gaze up, his vision blurring further from the sudden motion, as Jacks came swooping down towards him with blinding speed with a pained look of determination on his face, his skin covered in seared burns and dripping with sweat, before he swung his blades across at Kolvar’s head as he closed in on him in the blink of an eye, who reacted as fast as he could and whipped his club up with all the strength and speed he could muster.

As the edges of Jacks’s blades began to cut into Kolvar’s skin across the middle of the bridge of his nose, his club reached the side of the Knight’s head, before the two of the them vanished from sight, reappearing outside the barrier simultaneously.

"H-huh...?" Uttered Jacks in a daze as he look around, his eyelids fluttering before he met Kolvar’s gaze from several meters away, right as the two of them lost consciousness and collapsed onto the ground with thuds.

A brief, stunned silence ensued, as everyone took a moment to process what had just happened, before a few startled cries rang out as a scorching wave of heat erupted from the arena and washed over the audience as the barrier faded.

"Uh...I believe that counts as a draw!" Called out the announcer in bemusement.

Jules and Aster jogged over towards Jacks and lifted him up off the ground, supporting his shoulders as a pair of Elves did the same with Kolvar.

"I think this is going pretty well so far, both sides each have a win, plus this draw," Remarked Aster, as he and Jules carried Jacks off to the sidelines.

"Yes, I’d say we’ve put on a good showing so far," She nodded in agreement, looking a lot less tense and stressed out now.

"Is he alright?" Inquired Hart with a look of concern as they stepped onto the sidelines and gently set him down.

"Yes, the lack of air in the arena from all those flames likely made him light-headed and knocked him out once the adrenaline wore off, he should be just fine," Replied Jules, as Raven knelt down beside Jacks and healed him, the burns all over his skin fading away, his expression easing as his breathing grew more stable.

"Guess I’m up next, huh? This match got me pretty fired up, so I’m raring to go," Remarked Tilda with a smile as she began stretching, while a couple of Elves with Earth Magic conducted some quick repairs to the arena.

"Yes, good luck out there, Tilda," Responded Jules with a smile.

"I won’t let you down, Commander," She stated assuringly, as she brought her scythe out of her Storage Ring and made her way towards the arena as the Elves finished their repairs.

Tilda hopped onto the arena as she reached it, taking her place on the platform as her opponent stepped onto it as well.

Her opponent met her gaze before giving her a nod, and then raising his index finger, a dark mist flowing around it, before taking shape above his fingertip, forming letters...

’Hello. My name is Nero, a Grand Warrior of Sylph. It is nice to meet you.’

He had wavy, pinkish blonde hair combed off to the right, with the left side of his hair trimmed short. His left eye was dark blue and his right eye was dark green, he had a pale complexion, with a black mask covering the lower half of his face and neck, and he was slightly above average height with an agile, nimble build.

"Uh...what’s that about? Why’s he using letters made with Magic to speak? Seems he’s got Dark Magic like me, and he appears to be an Assassin, which is the base of my Unique Template, Reaper," Tilda thought to herself, before responding, "It’s nice to meet you too, I’m Tilda Malachite, a First-Class Knight of the Commander Squad of the Knight Order."

"Alright, the fourth match will now begin in three...two...ONE!!!"

The instant the countdown ended, Nero swiftly drew out three stone throwing knives and flung them towards Tilda, who whipped her scythe across to deflect them away, before firing out an arrow of dark energy as Nero did the same, the attacks canceling each other out.

The Elf then unleashed a dark, wide cloud of mist, obscuring himself from the line of Tilda’s sight, before a barrage of piercing dark projectiles came shooting out of the mist.

Tilda swiftly raced away to evade them, grimacing as one grazed the back of her right calf and drew out a trickle of blood, before she channeled and concentrated dark energy around the blade of her scythe.

She then ducked as a piercing beam of dark energy came shooting towards her head, the beam severing a couple of strands of her hair before she swung her scythe across and unleashed the charged up energy, firing out a rapid wave of slashing dark energy.

The wave sliced through the air with immense speed, cutting through the mist before zipping forward and hitting the wall of the barrier as Nero swiftly got down on all fours to evade the attack.

As the dark mist cleared, he sprang back onto his feet as Tilda shot towards him at full speed, tilting his body across as she fired out a dark blast at him, evading it as the blast whizzed past the front of his chest.

As she began to close in on him, he flung out another throwing knife at her, before she quickly spun her scythe across, hitting the knife with the handle of her weapon and deflecting it, before Nero drew out a pair of curved daggers as she leapt forward and swung her scythe down towards him.

He reacted with impressive speed, crossing his daggers above himself to block the slash as the scythe zipped down towards him, before his eyes widened in alarm as the blade of the scythe phased straight through his daggers and sliced through the right side of his body, inflicting no physical damage but draining his Mana and stamina.

As the intangible blade sliced through his body, Tilda spun the handle across and materialized the blade before whipping the blade back up towards Nero, who halted the swing by stopped the handle with his foot, before whipping one of his daggers at her face.

She quickly turned the weapon intangible again and sprang back, grimacing as the tip of the dagger grazed the bridge of her nose, inflicting a horizontal scar across the middle of her face, trails of blood trickling out as she unleashed a dark mist around herself and backed away.

And she leapt out from the back of the smokescreen, she began to take a moment to catch her breath, before stiffening as Nero came charging straight through the cloud and zipped towards her immense speed and agility, getting low as he closed in and slashing at her knees.

A sharp clang rang out as she just barely blocked the slashes with the handle of her scythe, before Nero sprang back and fired out a dark arrow at her as she whipped the blade of her scythe towards him.

He lowered one of his daggers defensively as Tilda tilted her head across, the arrow grazing her left cheek and ear as she turned her scythe intangible, the blade phasing through the dagger, the edge grazing Nero and drained a bit more of his Mana and stamina.

The two of them then backed away from each other, taking a moment to catch their breath as they eyed each other warily. Nero then lifted his right index finger, writing more words using dark energy...

’Impressive. But not quite good enough.’

"Yeah? I wouldn’t underestimate me if I were you," Responded Tilda, while thinking to herself, "I say that, but he’s definitely a lot stronger than I am, I’m pretty much going all out but I can tell that he’s still holding back."

Nero then cracked his neck with a tilt of his head, before doing a couple of quick hops to loosen up, a dark mist swirling around his body before he swiftly shot forward with a sharp burst in speed, Tilda’s eyes widening as he closed in and sprang towards him, the dark mist surrounding him expanding and taking the form of a dark, shimmering mirage.

"What incredible control...I’ve never seen Dark Magic used like this, I can barely follow his movements!" She thought to herself in alarm.

Nero then slashed at Tilda with his daggers, she just barely managed to block one of them, before wincing in pain as the second blade sliced across the right side of her stomach, blood streaming out as she sprang back, before she quickly spun her scythe out in front of herself as a rapid blast of dark energy came shooting towards her.

The blast slammed onto her scythe and sent her flying back, her heels hitting the floor with a thudding impact and skidding back, before she stiffened as she lifted her gaze but saw no sight of Nero.

She then froze as she sensed a presence behind her, before a couple of words formed with dark energy appeared in front of her...

’Too slow.’

She began to spin around as fast as she could, and in the next instant, she found herself teleported outside the arena, collapsing onto her knees with a weary, disappointed sigh.

She then glanced up as footsteps echoed out, to see Nero stepping off the arena and approaching her, holding his left hand out towards her as he held up his right index finger...

’You fought well.’

He then helped her up as she took hold of his hand, before giving her a bow of respect and walking away.

"Damn it...and after I told the Commander that I wouldn’t let her down. How embarrassing...," Muttered Tilda as she dejectedly began walking towards the sidelines...