Rui's eyes flew wide open as Ian struck him with a more powerful blow than ever before. Rui skidded away as he gazed at Ian with a surprised expression. Why was he suddenly stronger than before despite the wound?
Ian had a furious expression on his face. "You bastard...!"
He coughed up a little blood.
('He's pushing himself to the absolute limit.') Rui realized. Ian was essentially pushing himself to his peak at the cost of accelerating the deterioration of his condition.
Ian abused Lightning Breathing even as blood splurted out of his wound, to move faster than he ever had, reaching Rui in an instant.
Rui grimaced as an immensely powerful blow crashed against his guard. His body shook with the impact as he leapt back. Even the combination of his three defensive techniques weren't able to mitigate the impact.
Rui's senses heightened as he realized they had entered the final phase of the battle.
He abandoned all offense and shifted all of his focus on evasion and defense. Whatever happened, he could not afford to make a mistake! A single mistake was all Ian needed to turn the tables around for himself.
Rui carefully evaded a strike with a feint as he immediately activated his maneuvering techniques to open up distance between them.
However, Ian was relentless.
"RAARGH!" he snarled as he shook the very ground with the sheer force he was accelerating towards with Rui with.
Rui ducked sharply as he evaded yet another strike from Ian.
He spun out of the path of a drop kick that cracked the ground Rui was upon a moment earlier.
The entire colosseum was absorbed into the battle, frozen.
Everyone understood that they were witnessing the decisive part of the battle.
And yet, the clinch came suddenly.
Ian's blow crashed into a feint as Rui sneaked past his guard, launching a FLowing Canon on his wound.
"ARGH!" Ian snarled in pain as he crouched clasping his wound.
A powerful kick landed on his jaw, disorienting him. He ignored his condition, lashing out a flurry of wild attacks, but his condition had deteriorated too much, he was barely able to use breathing techniques.
A simple uppercut to the jaw pushed his blunt force trauma beyond the threshold.
Ian collapsed to the ground as he bled out, unmoving.
"Winner; representative Rui Quarrier!" The referee declared.
For a moment, nothing happened.
And then the crowd erupted in cheers and applause.
"And there you have it folks! The winner of this fight is representative Rui Quarrier! Against all odds he managed to overcome one of the favourites with a stunning victory! He moves onto the finals of the Martial Contest!" The commentator cried.
Rui exhaled, as he calmed his beating heart. He threw a deep look at Ian, who was being treated. He did not respect his character, but he respected his power, his perseverance and his determination. He never gave up until the very end, despite his condition.
He left the arena immediately after.
"Nicely done my boy." Squire Dylon smirked, throwing him a thumbs up.
"You have managed to reach the finals, win or lose this is an achievement you have every right to take pride in." Squire Kyrie told him.
"Thanks." Rui smiled wryly. He was not blind to why she was saying that. He was relatively certain she though he had a high chance of losing in the finals. She was just being more tactful about it. Squire Dylon on the other hand was very candid about that.
Frankly, Rui appreciated when people were blunt in such circumstances, Dylon even managed to be funny about it. Though he did appreciate her sentiment.
"Aaand onto the final fight of the third-round folks." the commentator announced. "One on hand, we have representative Mia Marnt and her Echo Blast Style representing the Fellen branch. On the other we have representative Fiona Roschem representing the Vargard branch!"
The crowd erupted in cheers as the atmosphere lit up with excitement.
The two representatives entered the arena, facing each other. Rui could merely be surprised at the contrast between the two representatives. Mia was in her early twenties while Fiona was fifteen, like himself, furthermore she was short and petite for someone her age. It really did look like an adult was trying to bully a child.
Yet no one in the colosseum entertained that notion for even a second. If there was a bully at all, it would certainly not be Mia Marnt.
Fiona simply gazed at her, yet she exerted pressure on those who beheld her.
"Take your stances." The referee instructed.
Mia adopted her usual neutral stance with her hands in position to immediately begin attacking with her sound bullets. Rui approved of this decision when considering how fast Fiona was, she needed to maximize her chances of being able to keep Fiona at a distance.
Fiona on the other hand, yet again, did not adopt a stance.
"Begin!" The referee commenced the match.
Fiona crossed the distance between them in an instance.
Yet, for once, things didn't particularly go her way.
A powerful sound bullet collided into her, pushing her back.
Rui raised an eyebrow, impressed. Mia had launched an extremely potent singular sound bullet, instead of a barrage of sound bullets. Rui approved of that decision. Stopping Fiona should be her greatest priority since Mia would not be able to withstand even a single attack from her.
Knowing that she would lash out and bull-charge like she normally did, a single sound bullet with high power had better chances than a barrage of sound bullets. Since the energy was more focused, rather than spread out.
However, it didn't deter Fiona for too long. She simply lashed out once more, this time even harder.
The sound bullets had the power to blow her back but not enough to hurt her much, seemingly.
What ensued was a ferocious battle between the two of them.