CHAPTER 201: RISING HEAT

The battle j*nkie trait or battle-crazed was a very nice trait to have. The longer the battle lasts, the more damage received, and how more excitement you had in the fight, determine the stat increase. It was like a boost of adrenaline but with a much greater effect.

There was another similar trait, which was the berserker. That trait also gave an incredible increase in stats; it was actually much better than the battle j*nkie trait if you talk about the increase in stats, but that one had a massive demerit, and that was the madness trait.

The longer the berserker trait is used, the stronger the stat increase, but at the same time, the greater the madness. The people with the berserker trait usually start attacking everything that moves.

They would only stop once they got tired or died, both of which were difficult to achieve, which was why, despite the weaker stat increase, the battle j*nkie trait was so much better than berserker.

***

Right now, Elyra was the most excited she had ever been. Her aura flared violently, scorching the air around her as if the arena itself were feeding her thrill.

She kept on charging at him; she no longer used the fancy aura-based forms of the Runescar swordsmanship. Instead, she was focused on the basics: slashing, thrusting, blocking, and parrying.

At first, her movements relied on her increasing speed and strength, but as time went on and she got even more excited, since even now she could not touch Lucen’s sleeves, her movements became sharper and sharper.

’Yeah, the battle j*nkie trait is really a great trait. I wonder if I could unlock it sometime later.’ Lucen thought as he evaded another one of Elyra’s attacks.

He shifted his head just a hair’s breadth to the right, and her blade sliced past his cheek, hot enough to singe. Still, with his aura mantle enveloping him, he was able to withstand the heat.

Elyra stepped in, her footwork suddenly tighter, more efficient. Lucen’s movements from evasion to counter-attacking were also becoming much sharper, as he was trying to read Elyra’s moves before she even made them.

Lucen couldn’t help but remember those souls like games he used to play. Reading the timing of when to evade and attack reminded him so much of his past life.

The intensity of making one mistake and getting punished for it, this feeling was so nostalgic for him. Even he was starting to get a little excited.

Elyra’s next strike came in brutally fast, a clean diagonal slash that would’ve taken the arm off any normal fighter. Lucen twisted his torso just enough to let it pass, his coat fluttering from the heat.

CLANG!

He countered instantly, striking her sword’s guard with the reinforced barrel of his revolver. Sparks scattered between them, and Elyra’s eyes widened, not in fear, but delight.

"So you’re finally warming up!" she shouted, her voice half-laugh, half-roar.

"Yeah, this is getting fun!" Lucen spoke while shooting at Elyra, who deflected the bullets with her longsword.

***

Kaelvar, who was watching the match, was getting just as excited as Lucen and Elyra. But, unlike when Lucen was fighting Eisen, he was now truly holding back from jumping down on stage.

He understood how important this match was for his lovely daughter, so he decided to do his best to stop himself.

Elandor, who was watching Kaelvar waiting for him to do something stupid, was quite surprised that the foolish oaf who had muscles for brains was holding himself back.

’I guess even this battle-crazed maniac would respect his own daughter’s match.’ The second Elandor thought of that, Kaelvar grabbed the hilt of his sword.

"Damn it! They are having so much fun! I want to join in too!" Kaelvar was about to jump down when Elandor grabbed hold of him.

"You bloody fool, stop this childish behavior!"

Kaelvar struggled against Elandor’s grip like a restless bear in chains.

"Let go! My daughter’s having the time of her life down there, I should be part of it!" Kaelvar bellowed.

"You absolute muscle-for-brains!" Elandor hissed, tightening his hold. "This is a match between children! At least try to keep your dignity as a Duke."

The audience were not bothered by the noise that was happening between Kaelvar and Elandor, as they continued to focus on the match between Lucen and Elyra.

Seeing as everyone in Caelhart knew of Kaelvar’s antics, even someone like Rachel, who came from a different kingdom, knew of Kaelvar’s personality. It was quite a normal sight to see Kaelvar and Elandor arguing.

***

Meanwhile, in the arena, Lucen’s heel skidded across the stone floor as he narrowly dodged another blazing thrust.

Elyra was getting faster, much faster. Every exchange pushed her limits, and every limit she passed only fueled her further.

Still, it wasn’t beyond what Lucen could handle. In fact, he was also getting a better read on Elyra’s movements.

Lucen, who had evaded the thrust, shot at Elyra’s abdomen. Elyra had evaded the attack, but Lucen had anticipated where she would dodge and had already fired with his other revolver.

Elyra, who had pulled her sword back fast enough, blocked the bullet with the flat side of her sword, but when the bullet made contact with her longsword, it exploded.

Despite Elyra enveloping her body and longsword with her aura mantle, she was still blown away and slid backward.

This was one of the problems fighting Lucen, since, unlike other mages who need to chant their spells, or at least draw a magic circle, Lucen simply imbued his bullets with elements, and it was unknown what kind of element would hit her.

If it were anyone else, they might have grown frustrated, but not Elyra; she was getting even more excited.

She was, in fact, so engrossed in her battle against Lucen that she hadn’t noticed that her stamina and aura were getting depleted fast.

This was one of the defects of the trait battle j*nkie as her stats were increasing, her stamina was being drained even faster since she was exerting much more strength than what her body could handle.

It was a good thing Lucen had also caught her excitement and was having a blast trying to figure out what her next move would be, and countering it.

Under normal circumstances, Lucen would have already noticed that Elyra was about to run out of steam, but because of his excited state, he was more focused on his own thing than on realizing what was happening to his opponent.

Elyra steadied herself after being blown back, steam rising from her shoulders. Her boots carved shallow grooves into the arena floor as she forced her momentum to stop. Her chest heaved once, twice, her grin stretching even wider.

"Again," she growled in exhilaration, her voice trembling with thrill rather than pain.

Lucen spun his two revolvers once in his hand and pointed them casually at her, lips curled in a matching grin.

"Come on then!"

Their auras flared at the same time. Elyra lunged at Lucen at incredible speed. Lucen also dashed toward Elyra while shooting.

Elyra cut down and deflected the incoming bullets. When she got into range, she quickly did a vertical slash.

Lucen sidestepped and shot at Elyra, who dodged by spinning and lowering her center of gravity as she then performed a spinning horizontal slash.

Lucen jumped into the air and fired at Elyra, who was below him. Elyra did a sidestep, evading the bullets.

The second Lucen landed on the ground, she charged at him with a thrust, but Lucen evaded and countered with a kick.

Elyra was a millisecond too late to react and was unable to block or evade as she was hit by Lucen’s kick in her abdomen. Elyra spat out a bit of saliva from her mouth as she flew backwards and hit the wall.

She was already breathing heavily, but the smile on her face was as vicious-looking as ever. Lucen, too, had a rather ferocious-looking smile on his face as the two looked at each other.

"That’s it, Lucen! Show me more! Give me more excitement!"

"You truly are battle-crazed, aren’t you?"

"Aren’t you the same me? Aren’t you excited! Don’t say you aren’t with that smile on your face."

Lucen sighed as he shrugged his shoulders. "I guess I can’t lie, this is pretty fun for me too."

Elyra’s grin twitched wider, almost too wide. Her breathing was ragged, uneven, and her aura mantle flickered like a candle fighting against the wind, but her eyes burned with unrestrained euphoria.

She pushed off the wall with enough force to crack the stone behind her.

BOOM!

She shot forward again, flames erupting from her limbs like miniature explosions. Her sword blurred into a streak of crimson fire.

Lucen raised both guns. BANG! BANG! BANG!

She wove through the bullets, but her movements, still precise, were beginning to jitter. They lacked the perfect control she had minutes ago. Her body was reaching its limit, but her mind refused to acknowledge anything except the thrill of battle.

Lucen finally realized what was happening to Elyra, but he did not say anything as he indulged himself in the battle before him.

Lucen let go of his twin revolvers and manifested the Mauser bolt-action rifle. Seeing the new gun in his hand, Elyra understood that this was going to be the climax of their battle.

She steadied her breathing to the best of what she could do. Her aura at the Third Mantle, which was like a flickering candlelight, once again burned brighter. Her longsword, which was enveloped by her aura, was now burning, hotter and brighter.

The audience held their breath as they felt that this was going to be the final exchange between the two.

Despite Lucen having the overwhelming advantage, as even now he had not been hit a single time, while Elyra was bruised and breathing rather heavily, this final exchange might change the outcome of the match.