Chapter 260 (2/2)

*****

His chest heaving, Randidly stumbled forward towards Ciel, who just watched him with wide eyes. As their gazes locked, they both became abruptly aware of how weak the other was, in the aftermath of those strikes.

Randidly had used the force from his skill to break Ciel’s but it had stopped him almost dead, leaving his body once more twitchy and weak. Ciel was still struggling to cope with the huge force she had created early, and then she was buffeted by the backlash from Randidly’s actions.

Both of them breathed for several seconds. Several small bits of obsidian fell to the ground, making a tinkling noise. The crack had become even larger, spreading almost the entirety of the shaft, and from the original crack more and more bits were falling away to the ground.

Of the two of them, Ciel recovered first, raising her spear.

“The Silent Hunter Descends.”

Her spear whipped upwards, then smashed down towards Randidly. Again, he was deeply impressed by the sudden speed with which she moved. And from the look of that strike, it was a level of power above her previous skills; this skill was designed to crush and kill.

Unfortunately for her… Randidly had some rather unfair skills in his repertoire. Although he had never used it like this in the past… he had some faith that it would work. Her attack was fast, but it wasn’t so fast that Randidly couldn’t raise his spear to block it. So Randidly stood still, his spear raised in a defensive posture, watching the powerful attack spiral towards him.

Then Randidly narrowed his eyes.

Ciel twisted, her spear whistling right past Randidly, but not striking him. Her eyes widened, and their gazes once more locked.

Ciel had expected Randidly had been holding something back, and would have just enough strength squirreled away to use the Spear Phantom’s Embrace again. To her… it was absolutely ridiculous that Randidly would stand and allow her to strike him like that, especially after she had been overpowering the entirety of the match.

The fact that he just stood there meant he was either an idiot, or had another card left.

The fact that he hadn’t reacted at all… meant he had to be an idiot. Which caused Ciel’s mental gears to fall out of sync for a split second, and sputter to come back together. Randidly grinned. All the while, warm, rejuvenating energy was flooding up through his bare feet into his body. The longer that Ciel took to attack, the better.

Still, she wasn’t the drilled prodigal daughter of the Steel Feather Style for nothing. Instantly, her spear whipped around sideways, aiming to smash his weakened stance. Again, Randidly simply stood, but this time Ciel just narrowed her eyes and committed, putting everything into this blow. This would make or break her shot here.

The spears touched.

“Absolute Control: Freeze.”

Randidly couldn’t resist the force on his own. But if he borrowed the systems help…

Their spears smashed together. His obsidian chipped even further. The wave of force traveled into him, through his froze body, and then, finding no purchase, rebounded back outwards, his body used almost like a trampoline, tensing up and throwing it back. That wave of force went back through his spear, where more obsidian chips fell off, and into Ciel’s body.

She swayed, then dropped her spear and brought both her hands up to her mouth, trying to block the blood filled vomit that spewed out onto the stage.

Then the skill wore off of Randidly, and very part of his body screamed at him. Although he wanted to, he couldn’t find the strength to raise his spear, so he dropped that too, mimicking her. Then, with all the strength he could manage, he took a step towards Ciel, who regarded him silently.

For a long time, they just breathed and looked at each other. Then Ciel took a step towards each him, and suddenly they were only a half meter away, both weaponless.

“How did you…?” Ciel asked wonderingly, her eyes boring into him.

Randidly didn’t even have the strength to shrug. He just looked at her, gathering his mana for one last spell, although it was hard to imagine moving his mana, burdened with wariness as he was...

“It was…. fun…”

Then Ciel collapsed forward, her head hitting his chest. For a second he froze, but then his traitorous hands, which had previously been so tired, instinctively caught her.

The entire arena was silent.

Then, a cough.

“The winner… is Randidly Ghosthound!” The referee announced.