Rub, rub! Rub...
Inside the waiting room, a man was rubbing himself with great vigor. He cupped his hands to receive another load.
Spurt spurt!
A thick white cream landed in the palms of his hands, and he brought it up to his body - rubbing it into the skin. The face, arms, chest, no spot was spared.
The man was Cane, and he was doing pre-battle prep - the SPF 100 sunscreen he'd bought earlier was now being put to full use.
Hmm, so... based on what I know about Nick, he usually fights physical fights, relying on the fact that he doesn't take much damage physically. He also does group fights using his clones. Nick is somewhat slow, and especially more so when he enters mist form.
Cane nodded to himself. With his own strength and speed being 2 ranks higher than he should be - at an Apprentice Master's level - Cane was well assured that he could outmatch Nick in every physical aspect.
If Nick ever finds himself losing, he'll burst out in that Light Explosion attack he always does. Mostly, he saves it for his last attack since it takes up so much energy. Or maybe because he's arrogant? But ever since his last two fights, he definitely wouldn't be arrogant now.
Cane finished rubbing the sunscreen into his skin, and he put on the pair of sunglasses he'd bought.
I've got this match in the bag. If I fight him physically, I'll win. And he can't do anything using that Light Explosion, unless this sunscreen turns out to be a scam.
At that thought, he tilted his head to listen for anything strange. For some reason, whenever he'd had ominous thoughts these days there'd be some sort of phenomenon that made it even more ominous.
Say, a bird flying into a window and spelling out a sentence using its feathers. Or perhaps some advertisement from a plane, or something else. All strange coincidences, but really...
Who knows.
Patting the dust off his hands, he stood up and took the stairs - into the arena.
...
Holy sh*t I'm cooked.
Nick stared at the compiled reports of the previous battles that Cane had been in. Originally, he'd been dismissive of the prodigies from the Northern Combat School, especially after James' performance.
But after Rake...
And then Cassidy...
Now, he was very worried. Nick was attempting to find a pattern in Cane's fighting style, but alas...
This guy... he's completely unpredictable. The way he fights, the different ways he uses the same abilities, it's like he has more than 3 abilities... or perhaps, even more than a World-Warrior. Worse, he always adapts to each opponent instead of keeping a general fighting style.
The ability I should be most afraid of should be... his ability to hide. With the new sets of armour I bought yesterday, as long as my mist can spread and cover the entire arena, he'll have nowhere to hide! At that point...
Nick narrowed his eyes, his face solemn. The next fight would be tough, no doubt. But Nick held no doubt about his power!
With the power of Light Explosion, at least for those early on - before the Warrior rank - it was one of the most powerful and effective abilities to use.
Other than that... there's a new technique I think I wanna try.
He stood up, concealing a faint hint of doubt in his eyes with a look of arrogance. With one confident step in front of the other, he made his way up and into the arena.
...
Fwoosh!
The bell rung and Nick instantly split into multiple clones. Each one was wearing a powerful armour which bordered on illegal. It was even more powerful than military-grade armour.
Watching this, Cane felt no fear. Instead, he was mainly thinking about one thing...
Why do we even have a military in the City anyway? It's not like there are any people to fight, and we have the Cleansers for the Empty Districts, which are our only real enemy. Could there be something more to this...?
His thoughts were cut short as the 6 clones lunged at him. Cane dodged 3 on instinct, before taking the punches of the other two and blocking the last. One drawback of Nick's power was his lack of weapons - with a mist body and multiple clones, storing weapons and arming the clones was a fat pain.
And yet, though Cane had been struck twice already, it felt like... well, mist. At least, with a physique stronger than the average Apprentice Master, he couldn't help but feel nothing from the punches of a mere Combatant.
As Cane reveled in the extent of his power, a sudden explosion to his side knocked him off his feet.
What!?
As he flew through the air, Cane turned and caught a glimpse of Nick's fist getting dimmer and reattaching to his arm. His pupils narrowed in alarm.
Just then...
Had he managed to detonate only one part of his body, greatly reducing the cost while keeping a decent amount of power???
Meanwhile, Nick's pupils also narrowed just as much. That was because... even though his technique was a success, it only succeeded in knocking Cane backward! The expected heat should've started cooking Cane's skin, but instead it was only a little red.
As for the other intended effect, blinding him, Nick had already lost hope for that to succeed in a short while. After all, he'd already noticed the sunglasses on Cane's face when the two first entered the arena.
I'll need to find a way to get those sunglasses off from him. Furthermore... the current strength of my technique should be effective against people weaker than me, but for Cane? I might need to find an opportunity for a full-strength Light Explosion!
Hmm!?
Nick's head snapped up to see an incoming fist hurtling toward his face. Upon impact, the wind generated was so powerful it directly dispersed his entire body. With a stomp on the ground, the ensuing dust that filled the air prevented Nick from reforming himself, lest he reform with dust particles melded in his body.
The other 5 clones came in as well, but Cane whirled around to reveal a Tracking Grenade.
BOOM!
The explosion sent shockwaves of wind scattering across the arena, blowing the clones away. Their suits of armour flew backward, looking like humans being impacted, yet the black mist being forced out from the gaps of the armour spoke otherwise.
Meanwhile, even though it impacted Cane into flying backward as well, he directly tanked the hit with his Apprentice Master durability. He got up immediately, scanning the arena for black mist.
Fwoosh!
He didn't need to scan for long, though. Because...
The entire arena had now been covered by the black mist! Taking advantage of the explosion, it seemed like Nick had used the force to spread his mist evenly across the grounds.
A cloud of mist in the air condensed suddenly, coalescing into a mouth. As Cane watched in confusion, it began to talk to Cane.
"Were you thinking of hiding like you did last time? Hmhp, with my mist covering the entire arena, I'd like to see you try."
Cane didn't attack yet. His forms of attack were limited if Nick dispersed into his cloud form.
His first form of attack would be the Plasma Pistols, and yet he'd already decided not to waste time on using them. After all, the bolts were too narrow, even if they could permanently remove the mist instead of simply disperse it like regular bullets.
His second form of attack would be his Tracking Grenades, but if Nick wasn't attempting to stay in human form, dispersing the mist from an area with the shockwaves of the Tracking Grenade might just do nothing.
His last form of attack was the taser. But... since Cane was also covered by the mist, wouldn't he get zapped by it too???
Thus...
Cane began to take a lovely stroll around the arena. As he went, he sometimes dug holes in the floor, placing certain objects inside and filling them back up. Of course, he was careful to use his technique to avoid wind. Which he didn't have a name for yet, now that he thought about it.
But anyway, while it worked for air and wind resistance, it would also work for the mist in the air. And why was he doing this? Well...
He saw no eyes.
Just then, in order to talk to me, Nick needed to form a mouth using the mist. Now... I doubt my vision is bad enough that I'd miss any eyes forming, which means as long as I don't disturb the mist using my technique...
He's blind?
Nick perhaps realised that Cane wasn't disturbing the mist, and began to billow and move the clouds of mist around. If he kept it passive, Cane would continue to stroll aaround unimpeded.
Cane noticed and quickly changed his tune, using Alex's very own Omnipresent Escape technique to avoid the mist by using the airflow generated by the movements. Like a leaf in the wind, Cane began to get blown around the arena in an erratic way.
As Cane continued to move with the billows of the mist, he suddenly noticed a movement behind himself. His pupils narrowed, and he turned to block!
Clang!
A fist was blocked mere centimetres away from his face. Though the force wasn't strong, the ambush definitely scared the sh*t out of Cane.
The suits of armour which had previously been like statues in the arena came to life! All of them began to creak up, rushing toward Cane like automatons or mechs, while the cloud of mist began growing slightly smaller.
Dammit, how did I not notice earlier??
Nick... had finally gained some intelligence. He'd known from the previous fights that Cane could avoid attacks using airflow.
Thus, he manipulated Cane into heading toward the suits of armour from earlier! Even worse, he'd used the chaos of his mist to hide the fact that he had regained control of the armour.
Cane dodged the blows using the Omnipresent Escape technique, and countered with his own punches. But the suits of armour didn't exactly have bodies inside, rather, they were controlled by the mist in the joints.
And just as Cane was about to avoid another punch, a gust of mist from behind his back sent his face right into the fist! His eyes watched the fist incoming like slow motion.
F*ck, why has your IQ suddenly become 600!
Meanwhile, Nick grew solemn.
NOW!!
As Cane's head was struck by the punch, the mist cloud enveloping the arena exploded in a display of light and heat!
Light Explosion!