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“So this is it.”
Akshuler nodded. “By my judgment, Joshua will win.”
“
Will he? Yesterday, he said he had no idea what would happen.”
“Exactly! Words are seeds. You need to be careful about what you say to him right now!”
Iceline blinked at him, perplexed.
“I’ve got everything riding on this fight. Joshua will win.”
“Everything? Wait a second, mister—”
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime gamble—a twelvefold payoff!”
Iceline gaped at him. She knew he liked gambling, but she didn’t think he’d bet his life’s saving on this. She couldn’t help but shake her head.
“Wait
” She froze. “Twelvefold?”
“Yeah?” Akshuler nodded indifferently. “By the way, the payoff for Prince Ulabis is going to be double at best, and only because the hosts used their own money to balance the scales. Real gamblers gotta go into a major match like this with confidence and aggression—”
“No one here has any concern for their fellow humans, do they.” Iceline put her hands on her hips unhappily. “So, is it still possible to join this wager?”
“Huh? Um
 W-What are you—”
Iceline stood up.
“Show me the way.”
“D-Don’t tell me, you too?”
“This match is already decided. You’d have to be an idiot not to eat the meal you cooked, right?” Her eyes gleamed. “I’m betting too.”
“Unless you’re as addicted as I am
” Akshuler trailed off under Iceline’s unwavering gaze. “
Maybe it’s not so bad to try it once
? So, how much are you betting—”
Iceline raised her pretty fist. “Real gamblers gotta go into a major match like this with confidence and aggression! All-in on Joshua.”
His heart pumped, feeding boiling blood to his eager muscles. One day, his opponent’s name would join the exalted ranks of the Nine Stars. The very idea excited his warrior’s spirit.
Joshua was surrounded by a sparking current of unblemished white electricity. Bronto was responding well; it could feel the other Primordial Stone, Magma.
As if in response, Ulabis’s body emitted a crimson haze, followed by a red blaze that hungrily clawed at the sky. The unstoppable fires of annihilation had returned. Once again, hell was let loose in Reinhardt.
Unstoppable lightning clashed with insatiable fire. The two Masters raced toward each other. It didn’t matter who got there first.
Joshua’s figure was as eye-searingly bright as lightning. Before he could even think about it, Lugia was cutting forward like a jet, leaving behind a crackling trail of afterimages.
Magic Spear Arts 3rd level, Sura’s Path.
Joshua had nothing to fear now that he’d reached the ideal fifth level. He’d created hundreds of spear images, and each held as much lethal force as a lightning bolt.
Over and over, iron clashed with a shower of sparks.
Once again, the Knight of Red Flame was distinguished from his predecessors. He was not intimidated by Lugia’s reach nor by Joshua’s exceptional accuracy and force. He didn’t take a single step back and instead was constantly searching for an opening.
Joshua flinched away from the blaze for just a moment. The blinding red fire largely consumed the advantage in reach he gained by using a spear.
For a genius like Ulabis, that was more than enough. His sword flicked through the gap, stabbing at Joshua’s side. The younger man swiftly twisted away from the attack. Ulabis was not frustrated by the exchange, though; in fact, he felt nothing but admiration.
Ulabis’s sword came at Joshua from the right—something that should have been impossible if inertia had meant anything to him. With the power of his will, Ulabis’s sword was lightning fast.
The ringing impact sent a jolt running up Joshua’s arms—but it was Ulabis, not Joshua, who groaned. Joshua’s precise moves forced the Prince to take a single step back. He took advantage of Ulabis’s opening and sent his spear crashing toward the ground. Ulabis didn’t even try to stop it; instead, he used the momentum of the strike to send himself spinning to the right.
“Using a weapon like a spear at this speed
” Ulabis took three steps back and chuckled with undisguised happiness. It was like he’d met the love of his life. Ulabis was a warrior before he was a monarch. “Hooh
” He took a deep breath and raised his blade horizontally, almost like a rapier. “I wish you the best, Joshua Sanders. And I will give you my best effort.”
His foot hammered into the ground, hurling him forward far faster than before.
Joshua’s eyes glowed. When Ulabis was still alive, he was famous for having swordsmanship as unique as his strength.
While he was still well outside the range of his sword, Ulabis cranked his arm back and furiously swung the sword out. The sound it made as it cut through the air was like nothing the audience had ever heard before.
The inside of Ulabis’s sword, it turned out, was filled with wires that connected the now-separate sections of the sword’s blade. It was a “whip sword,” as it was known on the eastern continent.
Joshua struck at the sword as it bent sharply towards him. It still had enough to excavate a gaping, burning crevice in the arena floor and send up an explosion that rattled heaven and earth.
It grows, fades, and vanishes. Don’t let his slick manipulations fool you. In Joshua’s past life, he was a reaper straight from hell. Joshua didn’t want to meet him on the battlefield again. His flaming whip and cloak of all-consuming flames warded away all enemies, lest their bodies were ripped to shreds and reduced to ash.
But no one ever defeated me in my first life. Joshua tightened his grip on Lugia and coiled his muscles.
Undefeated.
He bowed to no one, not even the reaper of hell.
“Bronto, the Primordial Stone.”
Joshua paused.
“You must have it, yes?” Ulabis closed his eyes and kept speaking before Joshua could reply. “Did you know that the Primordial Stone’s power extends beyond the attributes? Once you increase its capacity to the fullest, you will be confronted with yet another transformation. Mine was Magma’s awakening.” His mana exploded outwards. “Allow me to demonstrate the divine power of God’s treasure.”
Joshua hastily shielded his eyes as a sudden conflagration swept in front of him.
Is this what Ifrit, the King of the Fire Spirits, looks like? Ulabis’s burning figure was, in a word, fire itself1. He looked just like how Joshua remembered him from his first life.
Ulabis gazed at the miniature sun resting by his heart.
“Be careful. I am not yet able to control this strength.” A single step fractured and split the ground beneath his feet, but the floor soon began to melt due to the extreme heat.
“You’re arrogant.”
“What?”
“You said I don’t know this power?” A storm of electricity began to whirl around Joshua.
“No—!”
Joshua’s mana exploded.
“Who said I lack knowledge?”
A brilliant, blinding white light swallowed the sky.