Chapter 164: The Finals
"After more than a month of tense and fierce competition, the grand finale has finally arrived! First, let us congratulate our two contestants who persevered to the very end: Black Raven and Luo Yi!" Before the final battle began, the host, as usual, whipped up the enthusiasm of both the live audience and those watching the broadcast.
On the arena, the two opponents engaged in a verbal confrontation.
...
"Black Raven, why did you participate in this competition?"
"To fight against stronger opponents, and then defeat them!" Black Raven licked his lips; for him, battle was pure enjoyment. "The next one to fall will be you."
"I will soon become the strongest, or rather, I am already the strongest right now! You will never catch up to me."
Luo Yi, with memories of his previous life, had already completed half of his brain's spirit energy transformation before the competition, reaching the ninth layer of the Spirit Animation Stage. And as his cultivation memories continuously unfurled, he was now very close to the perfected Spirit Animation Stage, considering himself a trailblazer in this world after his reincarnation.
"You were utterly crushed by Ying." Black Raven delivered the remark with extreme malice.
"You don't understand. I, who am rapidly growing stronger every day, have already left that coward who didn't even have the courage to continue competing far, far behind."
...
"You'll never get your revenge." Though Black Raven appeared to be a Westerner, he could speak fluent Huaxia. He continued to verbally batter his opponent.
"Further talk is useless; prepare to die!" Luo Yi, whose sore spots had been repeatedly jabbed, was the first to draw the curtain on their battle.
"The clash of auras between these two masters has reached its climax, and the battle officially begins now!"
The later into the competition it got, the more cautious the host's phrasing became. He essentially only used positive vocabulary to broadcast the matches. If one accidentally misspoke and angered these individuals who truly wielded power, their fates were usually tragic.
They were not like the contestants in the arena, who possessed equivalent power to protect themselves, and could even say outlandish things without consequence.
Before this, several senior "celebrity commentators" who had no sense of propriety in their speech, and who had touted their style as "freely jesting and scolding as they pleased," had used brutal, bloody facts to teach their successors to be cautious in their words and actions.
Because many of these power-nouveaux-riches were the type to chop off a leg if you dared to mock them. Heroes who violate prohibitions with their martial prowess; true heroes with the capacity for forgiveness were often a rare species.
With a mighty roar from Luo Yi, the iconic wolf-shaped phantom reappeared behind him.
"Brought out the projector again?" Black Raven scoffed.
From his previous matches, many had already discovered that the phantom behind Luo Yi could only counter certain special abilities, such as Ying's invisibility and various psychic attacks. It had no effect on physical matter, and thus had no impact on Black Raven himself. So Black Raven simply nicknamed it "the projector."
"If I just had another six months or a year, I could break through the limits of 'man,' and my will would be able to affect physical matter. I'd slap you across the face with a wolf's claw, and see if you still dare call it a projector!" Luo Yi thought indignantly to himself.
Although he constantly taunted his opponent verbally, Black Raven inwardly never underestimated Luo Yi, who possessed a myriad of tricks. Just his endless stream of Spirit Arts had already caused almost all previous contestants to concede in regret. And how exactly Ying managed to defeat him in that battle remained a mystery to this day.
"Wind-Piercing Cones!" Behind Luo Yi, things resembling homing missiles continuously generated and flew towards Black Raven.
Black Raven could only continuously use the laser cannons equipped on his body to deal with these almost endless tracking projectiles.
And from the moment his first laser was effortlessly blocked by the spirit energy shield in front of Luo Yi, he extinguished any thought of relying on long-range weapons to deal with him.
"He's completely different from the giant I fought before. With his movement speed, plasma cannons that require charging would basically never hit." During the combat probing process, Black Raven continuously compiled all the information he had gathered.
"Compared to light-speed laser cannons, my long-range attack speed is too slow. No matter how many I fire, they will only be intercepted. There's no point other than wasting spirit energy."
Soon, both sides of the battle realized that long-range attacks were largely meaningless, so they immediately shifted strategies, and initiated a more brutal close-quarters combat.
"Both contestants seem to have realized that long-range attacks are merely a waste of time. Their distance is rapidly closing in. Next up is even more spectacular close-quarters combat! To allow all viewers a better experience of this match, this battle will also be broadcast in slow motion at one-fifth normal speed, starting now."
After the host, suspended in mid-air, realized the battle was about to enter a high-speed phase, he immediately sent a signal, instructing the staff in charge of slow-motion processing to begin their work.
"Second gear, close-quarters combat mode!" To meet the upcoming battle, Black Raven silently switched his combat mode. His muscles began to swell, and the power output of his spirit energy-enhanced heart rapidly increased.
"Roar!" Luo Yi also rapidly transformed himself into an exoskeletal warrior.
"Boom!"
"Clang!"
...
The two began exchanging blows at an incredibly rapid pace, so much so that Ability Users below the fifth layer of the Spirit Animation Stage could see almost nothing but a blur of afterimages.
With every punch he took from Luo Yi, Black Raven felt a jolt to his mind. If his will, honed through numerous modifications, hadn't been as firm as bedrock, any other Ability User of around the fifth layer would be turned into an idiot within ten moves by the mental impact carried within his opponent's fists.
"Your projector, it's actually quite impactful!" Unlike Luo Yi, whose every punch carried a mental impact, Black Raven's fists were imbued with trace amounts of plasma. Each blow penetrated his opponent's turtle shell, striking Luo Yi's main body.
"Too bad the Spirit Shield Art excels at defending against energy attacks, but isn't good at dealing with fists." Constantly parrying Black Raven's attacks, after each defense, Luo Yi's hands would go numb for a split second due to the plasma.
Every time the two exchanged a blow, Black Raven would lose focus for a split second, while Luo Yi's entire side would go numb for a moment. It was like a turn-based battle, with a slight pause after each "turn."
In just a few minutes, even including the "rest" time between "rounds," they had already exchanged hundreds of moves, yet neither had gained an advantage.
"Spirit Burst!" Luo Yi was the first to lose his composure. Breaking from tradition, he roared out the name of his move and charged towards Black Raven.
Black Raven, who had also watched Luo Yi's match against Ying, although he couldn't understand why his opponent would suddenly loudly declare the ultimate move he was about to use, this didn't prevent him from instantly judging that his opponent was serious. The attack that had appeared fleetingly in the battle with Ying, like a fuel-air explosive, still left him with lingering fears.
"Contestant Luo Yi intends to decide the outcome with a single blow! He has unleashed his ultimate, hidden trump card, Spirit Burst, with the determination of burning his boats, planning to quickly win this match, lest unforeseen complications arise." The commentator in the helicopter provided a timely explanation, and the live broadcast screen was quickly filled with bullet comments.
"Blow up that muscle-bound brute!"
"Take down that pompadour!"
"What he said!" Fans supporting Luo Yi continuously spammed the screen.
"Oh, really?"
...
"You have no idea who you're fighting!"
Meanwhile, Black Raven's fans continuously used those two "showing off" quotes from Ying to rub salt in the wound. The two sides began a war of words on the live broadcast platform.
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