37 Chapter 18.1: Battleground of The Elements - Fire vs Ice (2/2)

”Snarl Grrroar”

The beast quickly turned over and stood on all fours, quickly sizing up his opponent.

getting a good look at how the beast looked it wasn't an understatement to say that it was massive. It even seemed like the armor had evolved along with the beast as it was now covered in spikes.

The beast rushed towards Leonardo, quickly summoning an ice wall behind him, making him unable to getaway. The only thing Leonardo could do now was to take the beast head on getting himself caught into his exploding flames or quickly take to the air and creating some distance between them.

Leonardo laughed and decided it was best to gain some more advantageous maneuverability. As the beast rushed towards him, he quickly ignited his booster boots just barely dodging the beast. The beast crashed into his own ice wall but seemed to get out without even getting a scratch.

Quickly making the most of this opportunity Leonardo created a few small eruptions behind the beast hoping to inflict some damage. Seeing as its fur got scratched and the beast screeched in pain, this was a given.

Just then Cordelia arrived at the scene unaware of what had happened before all this.

She knew it was best to let Leonardo handle the battle that transpired before her eyes because he to was one of the opponents she had to defeat.

But, her pride didn't want anyone to die, at least not before her very own eyes.

This blinded her rational thinking capabilities making her rush to Leonardo's aid in slaying the beast. Even though Leonardo had the upper hand with his gear allowing him to quickly dodge attacks and attack with explosions the beast slowly but surely began overpowering him.

Getting used to his flying patterns the beast summoned more frost walls, now, not just to block the back but rather summoning a small frozen hollow cube imprisoning them both inside. Now unable to fly away, Leonardo really was in a tight spot.

The beast began rushing towards Leonardo who lost the advantage of the air,

Now only able to take the beast head-on Leonardo prepared for the worst.

When suddenly sharp ice spikes grew towards the beast making it unable to finish his charge.

”Quickly attack it while you have the chance!”

Leonardo heard someone shout outside of the cube.

Quickly Leonardo held both his hands together summoning a huge burst of fire towards the beast. The flames instantly began melting away its flesh as the beast too had nowhere to go inside the small cube it had created to imprison them both.

After a while, the eyes of the beast became devoid of life as the massive body collapsed on the floor letting go of its crystals. The cube slowly began vanishing as Cordelia rushed towards Leonardo's aid. Leonardo grabbed and examined one of the core crystal. Shocked he held one of them up when Cordelia sad down next to him.

”are you okay? What was the matter with that creature? It was all black instead of white…”

Leonardo looked at Cordelia and began explaining what had happened.

”If you wouldn't have stopped the beast with your Ice Spikes who knows what might have happened to me…? You see, this creature began going berserk after it had eaten the flesh of his own kind. It evolved when suddenly his crystal became pitch black, only containing this deep dark purple aura inside… It's almost as if it got taken over by this…

Very fascinating and intriguing, yet horrifying… haha.

Thank you for your help. You see… winning this thing would be great, but to me, it's all just for promoting my products, so getting into the finals like this is more than enough got me.

But since you're here I would like to ask a favor of you.”

”Yes? What is it?”

”I would like to have an honest battle with you, just so I can promote my gear a bit more,

after that, I will withdraw from the tournament.”

Surprised by this remark Cordelia answered Leonardo's request.

”Then… wouldn't it be better to strive to be number one in this contest?

As for your request to fight me, I accept as this is a tournament to test one's strength.”

Happy yet conflicted Leonardo continued talking about why he decided to end this shortly.

”You see, dying inside this competition isn't an option for me.

Seeing as how strong the other finalist is I would be content just showing off my gear one more time since the worth and credibility have already tripled.”

”Tell you what, let's make a deal. But I'll only tell you about it after we had our match,”

Leonardo nodded and quickly stood his ground allowing Cordelia to do the same.

They both nodded towards each other, genuinely starting their match.

Leonardo quickly began building up the power of his suit to enable long-range attacks.

Cordelia, on the other hand, didn't want to allow him to much time and decided to launch a barrage of icicle shards towards him.

Leonardo smiled creating an eruption around him which quickly melted all the shards that were incoming. Seeing as Leonardo had the advantage Cordelia decided to attack his blind spot summoning spikes around him hoping to catch him and immobilizing him.

Her efforts looked to be rewarded, but quickly again Leonardo melted the ice.

having the advantage of distance Cordelia kept throwing in barrage after barrage hoping to keep Leonardo pinned to the ground. But then a burst shot into the air showing that Leonardo was now indeed flying. Gaining momentum he quickly launched himself towards Cordelia, dodging all incoming projectiles.

He once more tried to use the attack he used against the Winter Beast holding together his hands and condensing the eruption into a small space after enough power had accumulated he unleashed it towards Cordelia who could only defend herself with extremely thick ice. Melting everything in the surrounding area Leonardo thought it was now the best time to close in on his opponent.

But just when Leonardo wanted to strike he got to close to the ground allowing Cordelia to block and grab his arms, allowing her to fill his gear with water and rendering it useless, meaning she had won the match.

”You see, even without an advantage one can win, maybe take that into account next time?

As for the deal I wanted to make is that for now, I want you to continue as neither of us gave up, got knocked out or died. You too deserve to be in the spotlight and I bet you, there will be enough people who would like to buy your ignition gear when this is all over.

Give me and my friends back up if needed against other opponents, the rules didn't say we couldn't work together right? And once most days are over you could always forfeit like you planned to.”

”hmm… that seems plausible… working together creates more opportunities to study other elemental magics and even implement them in future use. You have a deal!”

As the deal concluded positively and both of them went on their way, the others got to know the areas they were in.