149 Serena versus Luke
The Nathalia Strogueher knockout was not sudden, but a consequence of combinations of several factors. From the beginning, Nebezial made it clear that he was superior, both by his posture on the field and also by how he watched each Playoffs battles paying attention to the skills and techniques of his potential opponents.
Still, it was a disappointment that Nathalia couldn’t even make Nebezial bleed; in fact, no one could. And that was it, just a disappointment, not a surprise.
In the same way, it would not be a surprise if the ‘Half-Wolf’ lost now in the semi-final against Serena Daren. To many, she was like an alternate version of Nebezial, but with an overwhelming charisma and without a grumpy face.
Serena defeated all her opponents with extreme superiority, using her Panspermia sword. This sword was the same size as Luke’s long Claymore from the Tank he killed in the first phase, but Serena’s weapon was several times thinner, lighter, and more powerful. Although the blade of this sword was lilac, like its owner’s dress, it had the added effect of putting blue fire on every skin it touched.
Now up close, Luke found this weapon even more intimidating than Serena herself.
Noticing the half-wolf was analyzing his sword, Miss Daren looked at him and revealed:
“Rest assured…when I cut you, the fire will only burn for a few seconds. If you are strong, you will still be able to maintain consciousness.”
The woman still smiled audaciously after teasing her opponent, and Luke’s response was to summon the Behemoth Axe. For the audience, no matter how many times the ‘Half-Wolf’ evoked his axe, every time they would scream in excitement.
Mikaela Åkerman checked to see if the two competitors were ready and when both nodded, she announced:
“START!”
To gain the upper hand, Luke ran towards Serena, who thought the same thing. When Serena’s Panspermia Sword and the Behemoth Axe collided against each other, the metallic noise sounded like a bang, and the sand around them lifted with the gust of wind.
After the clash, Serena jumped back to get some distance. Subsequently, she held her grip firmly and initiated a blow from below.
‘She’s going to force me to block, then try to knock the axe out of my hand. Luke deduced, and instead of defending himself, he copied her move from before and jumped back.
‘Hum… he’s shrewd… but I’m faster!’
During her own movement, Serena smiled and switched her drawing movement to a thrust quickly. Since her sword was already at the height of the half-beast’s abdomen, all she had to do was stretch out too far to try it to hit him.
Luke arched his eyebrows as he saw the sword coming towards him. The weapon was fast, and if this blow hit, he would probably lose. So, he crossed his fingers and hoped it would be fast enough. He opened the <Normal Inventory> and clicked as fast as possible on the first icon he saw.
The audience sighed because there were only a few centimeters between the tip of the lilac sword and the skin of the half-beast. Some people indeed saw that scene in slow motion in their minds.
Suddenly a clang echoed through the arena, and half-beast appeared wielding his Claymore in his right hand and the Behemoth Axe in his left hand. That day, Luke learned to use his inventory as quickly as he could never imagine.
“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?”
“Again! That sword came out of nowhere!”
“He’s using two Panspermia weapons? Isn’t that a bit appealing?!”
The half-wolf sighed in relief, and Serena was also impressed by the speed of her opponent’s inventory skill, but she also saw that the blow from her sword managed to crack a bit of Claymore’s blade, which blocked the blow.
Serena moved further away and dug her sword into the ground beside her. Luke saw that gesture as her provoking him, and charged towards her.
However, the beautiful woman’s intention was completely different. When Serena saw the half-wolf approaching, she decided to use the <Stain of Estus> skill.
She overlapped her left hand on her right hand and then closed the four main fingers of each hand, excluding her thumbs, to finish the activation sign of the skill. In front of her hands, the next moment appeared a sphere over five meters in size, purple, and glowing.
Luke immediately stopped his run, facing that gigantic magic. ‘Okay… what the fuck is that?! She hadn’t used that yet. Had she?’
Then, the <Stain of Estus> was launched, and it destroyed everything in front of it with excessive speed. The half-wolf inevitably got hit, because everything happened too fast.
However, Luke Lange wasn’t the type to give up easily. He dropped his weapons and took the Gene Skill into his own hands. The gloves that covered them tore off, and the particles that came out of the enormous sphere cut the clothes and the skin of the half-beast like knives.
‘Sorry Ayumi, but your gift is going to get a little worn out.’ He lamented, after all, he already had great affection for the accessories he received.
On one side of the arena, people saw only the sphere colliding against the man, which was also Serena’s view, and on the other side, the audience was going crazy over the fact that Luke was resisting.
Serena thought it strange that her ability stopped because it only stopped when it exploded. A few moments later, she saw the sphere rise a little and then a little more.
When Luke emerged below the < Stain of Estus>, with his knees bent and the sphere over his shoulders, the whole stadium exploded with excitement. His opponent smiled, wide-eyed, at that affront.
Luke gritted his teeth and roared as he managed to hurl Serena’s ability in her own direction. At that moment, the few who were still seated stood up.
Ayumi screamed with excitement, as did many in the box. Nebezial, alone on the ledge of the competitors’ stand, narrowed his eyes to see what would happen. In the infirmary, Nathalia and Shiro felt the walls shake.