24 A Contest of Winners and Losers - Part 5

The siren went.

I looked at my opponent who was still manipulating mud around himself. Slowly, I walked towards him and summoned [Blood Blade]. As he saw me walking closer, he pulled out his slingshot and conjured some hard projectiles to load it with.

I lifted my left arm towards him as he looked at me in confusion. Gently, I sliced a wound on my left hand. The blade seared against my skin as a hole was opened up. A deep red liquid gathered at the wound, drop by drop, falling onto my blade.

'What the hell are you doing?' He shouted.

There was no need for me to respond.

I stood still, letting the blood calmly drip onto the hard crimson blade of my sword. He looked at me in awe and confusion, as if he had no idea what was going on.

'What the hell is your ability?'

I continued to wait, letting the red liquid gather on my blade and then get soaked in.

'Screw it!'

He pulled back on his slingshot and aimed it at me.

Just before he shot his slingshot, I swung my blade, splashing a few drops of my blood on him. He jumped back and put more distance between us.

'Say something goddamit! Why are you here?'

'I'm here to fight, isn't that why you're here.'

'No! I mean, but why are you here!'

'I must say, I don't understand the question.'

'You're a level-0! How did you get past them?!'

'Get past who?'

He was furious at my answers and shot a hard mud ball at me using his slingshot. I had gained enough strength from [Blood Strength] to block the projectile with [Blood Blade].

'No way...'

This was starting to get boring.

I began walking once again, closing the distance between the two of us. I could see his gathering mud in his right hand, forming the shape of a spear. That was going to be no problem. As he a vortex of mud continued spiralling around his hand, I simple continued to close the distance, step by step, I was less than three metres away from him now.

I raised [Blood Blade] and prepared to fight.

He had just about finished forming his mud spear and pointed it at me.

'I don't know why you're so strong for a level-0 but that doesn't matter, you're still a useless level-0.'

Ah, how much are you guys going to keep going on about this level-0 thing.

Putting my right leg forward, I swung [Blood Blade] straight down towards his body. He quickly jumped back and avoided my first attack, the wind from the swing caused his clothes to flutter. He bent his knees and prepared to jab at me with his brown spear. I quickly sidestepped and turned my body, using the momentum to spin and swing at him.

He wasn't half-bad as he managed to see through my attack and dodge it once again by jumping back a few centimetres. Suddenly, I could feel something cold touching against my ankle. When I looked down, I noticed mud gathering at my feet.

So this was what he was going for.

As I tried to pull my feet out of the viscous muddy slime, he rushed towards me and tried to stab at me with his spear. I raised [Blood Blade] and angled it so his sword was slide off my blade and miss me. He recovered his footing and jabbed at me again. I once again blocked his attack as I continued trying to pull my feet out of the mud.

It was going to be extremely difficult to continue blocking his attacks from this range and with my lack of mobility. I decided to slice at the mud to break one foot free. I ended up cutting my leg in the process but it was only a small wound. With one free leg, I counter-attacked and swung towards his torso.

He did his usual manoeuvre and jumped back to avoid my swing once again. However, with the extra strength in my free leg, I was able to break free of the mud and lean forwards for another strike. This time, he didn't have enough time to jump back again so he was forced to block the attack with his mud spear.

My [Blood Blade] was much stronger than his weapon and it easily broke the brittle hardened mud. Just as my blade was about to cut him, he liquified the mud and stopped the momentum of my sword as it smashed against his mud barrier on his skin. I withdrew my sword back near my body and took a step back.

This opponent was quite tricky in terms of defensive capabilities so I needed to land a few good shots in a row in order to break through.

I tensed my body as I prepared to attack him again. He was re-hardening the mud on his mud spear and I quickly took a few steps forward. He formed a ball of mud on his fist and tried to much me from the other side. I swiftly ducked my head and avoided the punch, simultaneously loosening my arms to allow for a long swing against his body.

He managed to deflect most of the damage by blocking with his spear however my sword still clashed with his mud barrier which acted like armour around his body. I quickly then went in for a second strike which he did not have time to block or dodge due to his poor footwork.

I landed a solid blow, cutting through his mud barrier and slicing his chest, forming a large wound on his body. He grunted in pain as he let go of his mud spear. I used this opportunity to close in on him and punched him in the face, sending him crashing down to the floor.

I looked down at him as he held his chest in pain.

In one hand, I pulled out the Disrupter and stuck it onto his neck. All the mud around his and on him disappeared in an instant. Leaving him just a normal person, bleeding on the ground.

The fight was over.