Scarlet

The guy quickly staggers at my onslaught of blood boil and life drain, but he holds firm otherwise and activates the skill I’ve seen him use on others. One that turns the skin on his arms into crimson scales. The entire reason he’s wearing some sort of sleeveless magi-tech armor with a form fitting top and pants.

Unlike me though, he doesn’t get any sort of claws or anything, with the scales not covering his fingernails in a way that looks slightly off.

We both begin charging straight at each other, with me using blood boil on the way and him using some sort of heat aura skill that makes the area around him grow hotter. Which turns out to be uncomfortable when I get closer, but nothing beyond that for now.

If I remember correctly, this guy specializes in defense buffing skills and offensive attacks, with his scales dramatically increasing the amount of force he can take and blunting the damage of sharper attacks. But the guy himself isn’t overwhelmingly strong or anything.

So I quickly clear the rest of the distance between us with my claws balled up in a fist, deciding to forgo the clawing for now since he has his guard up and will just block it with his scales. Then I bring my fist down straight on his crossed arms, forcing him back with a grunt as his feet dig into the volcanic ground beneath us. But before I can follow up with a swing of my claws from my other hand, his arms suddenly begin to heat up to the point of burning the hair on my shifted arm and making me grimace. Which is enough of a pause for him to disengage and jump back while sending a wave of flames straight at me that I block by using blood claws on both of my hands and raising them to take the hit.

I grimace as I feel the heat even through the blood coating my hands, but most of the flames don’t manage to make it through thanks to me supplying my claws with blood I had in my blood storage before any of the duels began. Then after about two seconds of flames, I manage to push my hands outwards, making a break in the flames that I use to jump out of the way before rushing straight at the guy as he is still shooting flames at where I was standing from his mouth.

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Some sort of dragon’s breath skill? Like in the video games?

Either way, I crank up the blood boil and life draining I’m doing along with my own blood sacrifice, scowling in the process thanks to the pain of my blood burning, which can be seen in the red steam leaving my body as I jump straight through the air towards him before drawing a long and bloody line across his side from the shoulder to the hip.

The guy shouts in pain, accidentally closing his mouth in the middle of his skill and filling his mouth with flames that very clearly isn’t healthy. But I don’t stop to watch as I instead spin around him and tear another gash along his other side, this one making him drop to a knee. Then I proceed to do it over and over again while still using blood boil but going a little bit easier on the blood sacrifice now that he’s down.

I tear strip after strip until he’s left as a bloody mess lying on the floor and barely breathing. Despite that though, he still manages to at least attempt to stand, all while glaring at me with clear hatred and fear in his eyes.

Deciding that I’ve done enough by now, I kneel down next to him, swiftly tilting my head to the side when I see flames building up in his mouth before they shoot straight past where my head was in the form of a small fireball. Then I rest my elbows on my knees and my chin on my hands as I look at him.

Which only seems to make his face flush from shame. Or at least I think it’s shame. It could also be the many dozens of wounds across his body.

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“Next time be more polite,” I tell him with a scowl. One that fades away into a very nice smile showing all of my pearly whites as I add, “Okay?”

Then – after one last look of shame-filled hatred towards me – he seems to black out. That or he dies. Either way, we both find ourselves back in the dome with the earpieces announcing our winnings or losings to each of us.

[Three points have been awarded for winning a duel. You now have a total of 116 points.]

Immediately upon seeing him again, I find him glaring at me. But the moment I move slightly, I notice a tiny flinch in him before he says, “I’ll be going to find other opponents now,” and leaves without another word.

I raise an eyebrow before nodding my head, satisfied with my work.

Now he won’t be a problem anymore.

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“Aren’t you worried he’ll get his parents to make your life difficult or something?” Tar asks in my head, but I just shrug.

He can try, but generally the GUs try to keep that sort of crap out of the campus. Especially when it could hurt a talented student that might be of major importance to the school’s Interschool Tournaments, just because some other student was upset that they were defeated by them or something.

Besides. I doubt their parents would want to deal with Frost just because their kid got beaten.

Tar doesn’t say anything in response, but I can practically feel his agreement despite that.

Anyways, I turn my attention to the others to find them looking rather startled at what just happened. But at the same time, none of them seem mad or anything. So it’s fine.

“So who’s next?” I ask while putting my hands in my jacket pockets.

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