Mystical Journey

Garen felt a shiver in his heart.

The Shockwave Killing Fist, he had only heard of the name of this combat skill before. With every strike and blow, it could create a strong concussing effect on the opponent’s willpower, and even those with willpower on par with her’s would be affected by these blows, causing their reflexes to be slowed. Unless you had undergone training to strengthen and enhance the stability of your willpower, against this kind of opponent, even if you had a stronger willpower, you may still lose the battle in a David and Goliath fashion.

“Hahaha! How interesting! To think you managed to survive the first hit!” Celine’s voice rang from the black mech opposite him. She lunged towards him once again. With her level 2 Dodging Techniques along with the effects of the concussive blow, Garen did not have even the slightest chance of getting his aim right.

On the other hand, close combat required that he get closer to the opponent, making him susceptible to even stronger concussions.

“What a terrifying bastard!” for the first time in his life, he felt a complete lack of confidence. He had always had the upper hand against his enemies, but this was the first time his abilities and strength were weaker than his opponents.

He saw his opponent dashing towards him.

“What can I do!?” Numerous possibilities of countermeasures flashed through Garen’s mind, but even for a Master-level veteran with tons of combat experience, he was rendered helpless against this type technique that combines willpower. All the information he had gathered about Celine could be thrown out the window, as this bastard’s hidden strength was too terrifying, its level was even comparable to Merseus’ strength.

If only Garen wasn’t piloting this mech, but rather fighting with his physical body, Garen would have countless methods to temporarily stimulate his potential as a countermeasure. However, when it came to piloting a mech, his options were very limited.

“I can’t possibly be defeated here by a brat that’s so much younger than me…” as Garen scanned over the Moonfang, he started to feel a sense of adrenaline he hadn’t felt in decades. Only when backed into a corner could a situation be considered a difficult challenge! He hadn’t felt this way in a very long time.

Maneuvering the mech to crouch down, he avoided the two flying fists piercing at his head. Then, with a fierce kick, he propelled himself upwards!

Whoosh! The flames from his thrusters were at maximum intensity!

In an instant, the white mech did an action completely out of anyone’s imaginations.

From a crouching position, the mech’s legs kicked upwards. The sharp bit of the leg’s armor pierced into the cockpit where Celine was in.

“How could this be!!?” Celine started to panic. “His willpower was definitely far weaker than mine! How could he possibly manage to counter-attack with such a swift movement without being affected by my strikes!?” She could not wrap her head around how this could’ve happened. Judging from their difference in willpower, her opponent should have at least a few seconds of input delay when it comes to maneuvering the mech. With that amount of delay, even she would be rendered helpless. However, this opponent she was facing right now managed to not just dodge her attack, but even successfully hit a counterattack of his own!?

“This has got to be a joke…”

From the stands, the two spectators from Blue Narcissus stood up in awe. It wasn’t just them, almost the entire stadium stood up, giving him a standing ovation.

“Did this fellow not get affected?”

“Impossible! Based on his performance just now, he was definitely affected!”

The two stood there in shock over the scene that just presented itself in front of their eyes.

At the judge’s seat floating at the top.

“This is…” Red-Eyed Medero was completely shell-shocked, her vision scanning through the tournament brackets, locating the finals for Grade C. “Even under the suppression of his willpower, this guy managed to do all that…? This fellow…”

“What’s wrong?” A guy by her side asked with a weird look. He seemed to have missed the key part of the battle.

“Nothing much, it’s still too early for me to say anything.” Medero started to question what she just saw.

******

Clank!!

The black mech’s arms collided with the legs, causing a loud crash.

Both parties were knocked back by the tremendous force of the impact, flying backward as they lost their balance.

After a couple of flips, Garen rapidly got back on his feet, whilst Celine, in the black mech, used a burst of her thrusters in an attempt to regain her balance.

Staring down her opponent, beads of sweat started dripping down Celine’s forehead.

“You… didn’t get suppressed?!”

“Who knows?” Garen’s calm voice rang from inside the white mech.

He was undoubtedly being suppressed, but at that instant, he predicted his opponent’s likely course of action from a combat standpoint, then input the actions beforehand. In other words, even before Celine did anything, he had already predicted her moves.

This was the fearsomeness of a Master-Level martial artist, he could completely see through his opponent’s actions. Every one of his opponent’s actions was within his calculations.

Even exceeding the Master-Level, Garen was at the level of King of the Century. At this level, they could completely see through all the tricks each other had up their sleeves, rendering all their special moves and secret techniques useless. The deciding factor in such a bout would be a clash of overbearing absolute force. At the level of King of the Century, they could achieve a level where they only needed to rely on open tactics, forcing their opponents to have no choice but to take the initiative and use their full potential in a burst to counter incoming attacks at any moment.

Hence, even though his abilities were restricted when piloting his mech, Garen was not a small fry that could easily be defeated.

“Come on!”

Celine refused to believe that he could completely counter her every move.

The black mech lunged forward once more, the two mechs exchanged blows. Almost as if two humans fighting, with a flurry of strikes and blocks from both sides.

As the fight went on, Celine started to feel worried. It felt almost as if the opposing white mech was covered with eyes on all corners, all of her hidden tricks were completely seen through. What’s even weirder, she had multiple opportunities to deal the killing blow, but somehow in a swift move, the opponent managed to turn the situation around, forcing the battle back into a competition of pure strength.

She felt that her no matter what she did, she was completely seen through by her opponent, almost as if he was peering into the deepest parts of her mind, seeing all her secrets. This induced fear caused her reflexes to slow down, and her strikes were also getting meeker.

“This bastard…” Celine was drenched in sweat. “I’m sure he was being suppressed by my willpower, how is this even possible! How could he still move like that!!?” she was certain that her opponent’s willpower was still being suppressed by hers.

All of a sudden, she hesitated with her actions for just a brief moment. Not being able to react in time, Celine felt a blow on the mech’s legs.

The warning alarm for damaged circuit boards started to ring.

The damaged modules on the leg started to flash red.

At this moment, Celine saw a gigantic fist flying towards her.

Due to her moment of carelessness, she was immediately forced into a corner.

Her feelings of disbelief started bursting out from her heart.

“I am Celine!! I will not be defeated!!” looking at the fist that was getting closer, she had a frenzied look in her eye.

“Go to hell!!”

A piercing sense of willpower suddenly burst out.

Shapeless Needle!

As Garen’s fist pounded onto his opponent’s cockpit, at the exact moment, he felt a sudden strong piercing willpower forcefully passing through the mech, stabbing him in his chest.

Willpower Attack!

He suddenly felt that this was his opponent’s Hail Mary attack.

Unable to dodge or block, Garen could only follow his backup plan, concentrating all of his willpower together, preparing to take the opponent’s attack head-on.

This type of attack that used pure willpower at the cellular level, if he didn’t manage to block it, would directly destroy his willpower at the cellular level. This would cause all affected body parts to lose their functionality, losing their livelihood, almost as if it was an attack on his body matter itself.

Bang!

It almost seemed as if an explosion had erupted in his mind as an immense pain started spreading throughout his body, originating from his chest.

Even Garen, who was unprepared for this attack, let out a long sigh, his face was extremely pale. At that moment, his willpower that had just evolved was almost dispersed, almost turning him back into an average human.

At the same time, at the center of his chest right above his stomach, a black dot started to form on the skin underneath his clothes. The dot started spreading out, almost like a drop of black ink in a body of water, expanding to the size of a fist. All the spots where the skin turned black felt almost like a wilted plant, as it had lost all its shine and elasticity.

The two mechs staggered back a few steps, then stood motionless.

With the last blow onto the cockpit, Celine was bleeding profusely from her eyes and ears and passed out on the pilot’s seat. Her appearance was completely ravaged.

On the other hand, Garen was hit by that piercing willpower and his body was permanently damaged. He was also heavily concussed and unable to come back into consciousness for the time being. He took had suffered serious injuries.

The two were both unable to continue their battle and could only remain idle.

‘Results of the battle: the two parties are unable to continue the battle. It is a draw.’ the result was quickly delivered by the judge’s panel. It seemed like the judges did not want to have any permanent damage done to these two unimaginably powerful geniuses just because of a competition like this. Hence, they reached a decisive conclusion as the result of this battle.

“It’s a Draw!”

Instructor Hamm and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief. Neither him, Fervale, nor Sara could’ve predicted that just within one year, Nonosiva could improve so much, reaching such an amazing level. To put it in a more concrete manner, even though his willpower did not strengthen too much, his combat prowess seemed to have had a huge leap after his injury from last time.

“Celine… Draw…” Fervale stared at the screen displaying the results with a complicated expression. He couldn’t believe that the undefeatable Celine was almost defeated by Nonosiva, who he had always seen as inferior to him. To put it bluntly, for someone who was utterly defeated by Celine earlier on, it was a complete mockery of himself.

“Don’t think too much of it. After all, Nono is also one of the members of our class,” Instructor Hamm patted his back to comfort him.

“I understand.” Fervale nodded while taking a deep breath.

******

On the Arena

Numerous ambulances and technical crew rushed to the scene. They were each checking on the condition of the mech and the pilots.

Garen was carried out of the mech. Looking at the black patch of dead skin on Garen’s chest sent a shiver down the paramedics’ spines. This kind of wound caused by the sheer force of willpower was the hardest to deal with. To their surprise, Garen was still conscious; although his forehead was drenched in sweat, he was definitely still conscious. He tilted his head over to look at his opponent Celine who was being dragged out of the mech right opposite of him.

Celine’s body was completely covered with blood as she was being dragged out, and her body was as stiff as a plank. The paramedics immediately attached an oxygen mask to her and rushed her stretcher to the ambulance.

Swiftly, the two were carried onto the same ambulance and transported out of the arena, leaving a trail of ambulance sirens. The technical crew also started towing the two mechs off the arena.

This was the worst injury Garen had sustained in this body to date. The damaged parts of his chest were not the problem, but the traces of Celine’s willpower around those parts were troublesome. These traces was what was left from Celine shattering her own concentrated willpower, the remaining power. All of these traces were a portion of the power from the strike earlier, preventing his body’s recovery system from repairing his injuries.

There was a pair of doctors and nurses next to each stretcher attending to them to monitor their condition.

“You’re too good!” Celine said through the oxygen mask.