Divine Beast Ascension

Chapter 469: Test 2, Oli vs Trantor

“Can I try?”

Everyone turned their attention to Trantor, who was already stepping toward Oli. “Do you mind if we spar a little bit? Master Zelsh has given me a soul art, though it’s only a basic one to protect me in the Prefecture Qualifier.”

Intrigued, Oli nodded. “Alright. If Master Zelsh is alright with it, then I’m ready to go right now.”

Fulkar was already walking back to the others when he heard that comment. He felt a surge of self-languish enter his heart, but it burned inside him like a motivating bonfire. Who would want their sparring match to be equivalent to their opponent’s warm-up?

“I’d like to see this, myself,” laughed Zelsh. “But you’ll both be using your peak-elder weapons. You should take all the time you can to get used to them.”

“Right,” Oli and Trantor replied in unison, smiling as they stood a few krin apart.

Trantor’s fitted black and red robes flittered as fiery essence surrounded him. A staff appeared in his hands, one with two gem-like stones embedded in the handle, a black one and a red one.

.....

Oli reactivated his essence armor and retrieved his mace. But Oli’s weapon wasn’t as ornate or powerful as Trantor’s dual essence, peak-elder staff. It was a simple mace made with strong materials and a basic earth essence formation, the same mace Oli had found in his void ring ages ago.

“Maybe I should invest in a more suitable weapon,” Oli remarked with a chuckle.

Nodding, Trantor replied, “I agree. I was just lucky to be called the family and territory heir. Without that, the family wouldn’t have bought me this for the next round of the tournament.”

“So we’re both getting used to new weapons. Well, there’s no better place to learn than in a great sparring match!” Oli laughed, loading his legs and preparing to jump forward.

“Are you two ready?” Zelsh called out. When the youths nodded, Zelsh did as well. “Go!”

Fire lit up one half of Trantor’s staff and darkness covered the other half. As he twirled it and took a defensive stance, fireballs and orbs of darkness were flung at Oli.

But Oli thought little of the attacks and rushed ahead. Earth essence coated his mace as he smacked the incoming fireballs. As for the orbs of darkness, Oli merely covered his free hand in dark essence and struck a few orbs while letting some crash onto his essence armor.

Crunch!

Trantor jumped back as Oli’s mace cracked the ground where Trantor had been standing. “You’re too strong! One hit and that’s it for me.”

“I doubt your family wouldn’t have bought you armor to go with that new staff.”

“Ha, ha... You make a good point.” A set of light armor appeared on Trantor. Some parts were hidden under Trantor’s robes but the shoulder pauldrons and arm guards were visible to everyone. “Just because I have armor doesn’t mean I want to get hit. I’m not you.”

Laughing, Oli continued to chase after Trantor. The dark orbs weren’t strong enough to affect Oli with only a few landing on him. And even when a couple of fireballs crashed onto the essence, they weren’t strong enough to break Oli’s defenses, though the painful heat wasn’t fully repelled either.

Trenk was amazed to see Oli racing after his brother, especially knowing about their wide gap in cultivation. Freele and Fulkar were too busy wondering something else. Why hadn’t Oli activated those beast-like abilities he used to dominate that exhibition years ago? They distinctly remembered Oli’s domineering ape-like earthen armor and his speeding dragon-esque darkness armor.

“... Is Oliver not fighting seriously?” Freele mumbled under her breath, thinking about her husband’s pride.

“That’s not the case.” Zelsh spoke up, sharing some words with the youngsters at his side, “Oliver’s trying to grow past his old self. He’s recreated his entire arsenal of battle arts. That’s why he hadn’t started increasing his cultivation until recently. Because he had to remake the foundation of his cultivation in order to build up his abilities properly.

“And Trantor recognizes that. That’s why Trantor is running and probing Oliver’s defenses. Because he understands that Oliver’s physical strength has drastically increased, which most would underestimate given Oliver’s lower cultivation. With only fire and darkness to protect him, apart from that light armor, a blow from Oli’s mace would end the fight faster than Oli using his old battle arts.”

Suddenly, the tempo of the match changed.

“Oh? He’s done probing...” chuckled Zelsh.

As Oli drew close, Trantor’s entire staff turned black. Dark tentacles took shape and lashed out at Oli.

While Trenk and Freele got excited, Zelsh sighed ever so softly, “... Too bad.”

The dark tentacles wrapped around Oli’s mace-swinging arm first and then the rest of his body. At the same time, the very tip of Trantor’s extended staff turned into flames as it launched a huge fireball.

“Well done, Oliver!”

The fireball engulfed Oli, who was barely one-krin away and still charging forward.

However, Trantor’s eyes twitched as he lost contact with his black tentacles and a broad human figure came barreling out of the fireball. An essence helmet had appeared on Oli’s head, better shielding him from the powerful flames. Oli still had to bear with the great heat but he charged ahead anyway, completely unimpeded by the now broken tentacles.

“I give.”

Trantor hopped backward. He released his essence and stored his armor. As the fireball vanished, Oli dispersed his essence armor. Though there were burns all over his body, Oli wore a beaming grin. As for the mace, it had been stored mid-swing in order to not land Trantor who had surrendered.

“Nicely done, you two!” Zelsh clapped and tossed Oli a bottle. “Lather that on your burns and take another bath after it’s set into your skin.”

Oli nodded. However, Oli couldn’t help but pant and breathe heavily. He had won but it was a narrow victory. And there was no telling if the tricky Trantor had truly given his all for just a sparring match. “... I really need a dual essence weapon...”