Dark Magus Returns C.655 A Strong Pain

?The next fight was about to start, and Simyon was getting ready. Just before he headed out, there were words of encouragement going on from his side.

"Remember, if you lose this match, basically it means you're at the same level as me," Liam claimed. "Because the person I lost to got in the final, which means she's better than you for getting that far, and I had lost to one of the best."

"What are you on about?" Simyon replied. "It doesn't work like that; in this tournament, I will have already achieved a higher position than you, no matter what."

Sparks, as usual, were flying between the two, and then Safa, who had just lost, had come in the middle. When she had returned from her loss, Murkel didn't seem to care much.

To the public, it was a good matchup, and no one felt less of seeing her skills. The only thing was, they didn't think that Safa was the White Dragon, and had assumed Liam, who she had bested in the first match, was most likely the person in question.

"Remember what we discussed," Safa said. "We shouldn't push ourselves so far in these matches. We might need all your abilities and powers."

Simyon didn't nod and instead turned his head around. He felt like it was disingenuous of him to give her an answer. Because when the glass door lifted, he looked straight ahead at Mantis coming out from his side.

He had a large scar across his chest, perhaps a scar made from him battling against a beast. He wore his clothing strangely, with half of it off and tied around his waist showing some of his muscles and more.

'I'm sorry, but when I look at this person, I remember when we met him in the Demonic Faction territory. How he had taken us all out, and I was unable to protect you, I was unable to protect anyone. Back then, Raze was the one that helped us… but he won't always be there to help us… I need to do something today, I can't just let him win.'

Heading out, Simyon looked at Mantis. They stared into each other's eyes, and eventually, he spoke out.

"Do you remember me?" Simyon asked.

"Do I remember you?" Mantis replied as he drew his hand out, covering both of his hands around his fingers; there was strange black casing. The ends were extremely sharp and pointed and it only covered the fingers, nothing else.

It was the same on both hands, a strange weapon that was sharply used in fighting, if anything, it appeared as if it was something custom.

"Remember you? Why would I remember someone that was so weak; of course, I don't remember you," Mantis said.

Simyon didn't know if he was lying or trying to make him angry on purpose, but it worked, and as Simyon took a fighting stance with his hands, the power of the ring was surging through his body, added along with his Qi.

"Alright… then I'll make sure you remember me this time," Simyon claimed.

"Fight, begin!" The announcer shouted.

As soon as the fight began, unlike the matches before, Mantis didn't charge in, and neither did Simyon. Instead, Mantis was slowly walking towards his opponent, and Simyon was doing the same from his end.

"It's time for me to show everyone here what I can do, as everyone has been waiting for this!" Mantis claimed.

When he came close, Mantis lifted his hand in the air. The area was extremely dense around where he lifted his hand, and Simyon didn't keep his eyes off the strike.

"Brace yourself, let's see you protect yourself from this!" Mantis exclaimed as he threw the claw into the air. 𝗳r𝐞ew𝚎bn𝚘ve𝚕.c𝗼𝗺

Simyon lifted his forearm, stopping the attack, and the clawed hand hit his skin. Sparks went off as if two swords were folding against each other. Pushing through, Mantis dragged his hand, and the claw fingers hit the floor.

A large claw mark was seen through the air, continuing forward, heading straight for Simyon.

'I didn't protect the rest of my body with Qi; I can only rely on my body!' Simyon thought.

As the Qi energy from the claw mark continued, it hit Simyon's hard body and pushed him back. His feet skidded across the room until he had just about reached the edge of the arena. He hadn't crashed into the side of the arena wall, but it was extremely close.

A slight smell of iron had entered Simyon's nose, and he could see dots of red blood on the floor.

'My chest, it was cut, but the attacks, they weren't that deep, and it doesn't hurt that much… I can tell he put a lot of strength into that attack. Which means I can win this!' Simyon thought to himself.

Immediately, he started to run along the ground and headed right toward Mantis with no fear; he was confident now in his body.

As the two came close, Mantis exploded and leapt, swinging his claws from the side. Simyon blocked the attacks with his arm and then went to strike the hit in the air. It was filled with Qi and would have been a solid hit, but it crashed into nothing but the air.

Mantis was quick and nimble and was already attacking from the side. He swung his arms multiple times, and Simyon was able to gather his Qi on his side. Sparks went off his body as if the whole thing was made of metal and hadn't pierced the skin. Quickly, Simyon went to attack, hitting the air again, and even kicking the air, but not a single thing was hitting.

'Crap, I need to figure out a way; I need to figure out how to hit him somehow, no matter how many attacks I block, I can't win this if I don't hit him!' Simyon thought.

At the Dark Faction area, as they were watching everything, Safa was deeply concerned.

"He wants to win this fight, why didn't he listen to me?"

"Hey, I don't blame him," Liam said. "If I was in his shoes, I would have done the same thing. Don't you remember what happened? We should let him get his revenge."

The worry for Safa was that Simon might not be able to. There was something about Mantis, there had to be a reason why he was considered the strongest.

Since the small attacks from Mantis weren't working, he had flipped in the air backwards landing on the ground, then when running forward he dragged his claws through the floor. They were cutting it as if it were made from butter, and then he swung it up.

Simyon blocked the attack, but the sharp claws ripped through his skin, drawing blood once again.

"This battle is already ended; I will tear you apart bit by bit!" Mantis exclaimed.

His attacks, they were like that of a wild animal; he was quick, nimble, and attacking from all sides. The students that were watching were wondering how they would deal with such a thing, and they were finding it hard to come up with an answer, and that was if they could come up with one.

As Mantis was moving throughout, he flipped back again, ready to draw up another large attack breaking through Simyon's defense , that was until he felt something in his chest. An extreme pain that jolted his whole body.

Simyon, for a breath moment as he managed to catch a break, looked ahead. He opened his arms that were bloody, but none of the wounds were extremely deep. Simyon wasn't tired either.

He just needed to use his head to figure out how to win this battle, but looking at his opponent, he wondered why he wasn't moving, and then he saw that Mantis had placed his hand on the floor, and he was sweating.

'Is he tired, is his constant attacks and his stamina the answer to all of this, then maybe I can do something.'

Mantis placed his hand around his chest, and he could feel a thud going through his body. With each thud, his entire body was hurting more and more. He looked up ahead, and his eyesight was starting to blur.

'It will go away right, it will go away just like it did before.'

Mantis started to think back, back to when he was at the clan, back to everything that had happened. His memories were fuzzy in his head, and now his head was starting to hurt in pain as well.

Shaking it, it was slowly starting to go away. However, it wasn't the first time that Mantis had experienced pain like this, and now it seemed like it wasn't going to be the last either.

'Back then, when that happened… What did those guys do… why am I in pain whenever I push myself, My heart… it's hurting again… what did those people… do to me.' Mantis thought.

From the arena, there were quite a few keeping an extremely close eye on the match.