Lars lost his temper and was p.i.s.sed off when he realised he had been tricked into defending himself from the "fire" attack, and then completely lost it when he was pierced right through by the thrown dagger from Vignis.

'What the f*** is going?!? This... This little kid! Dammit! It hurts, dammit!'

Lars could not catch even a moment's break at that time, as when he fell to the ground with the dagger embedded in the left side of his ribs. Every time he tried to move the littlest bit, pain would lance through his senses from the lightning crackling through the enchanted blade.

And he didn't have any chance to even raise his blade when Vignis came rus.h.i.+ng at him with her remaining sword in hand!

'Flight? No, she'll close it off again! Ahhhhh!!! Dammit, looks like I can't just rely on swordsmans.h.i.+p...'

His frustrated eyes turned cold as tendrils of mana began to pulse through his body.

'Time to get serious!' Lars stood his ground and began to calculate at super-speed his next moves. Though, it was not like he had the mobility to avoid anyway.

Vignis' eye flickered slightly as she seemed to sense something change in Lars' demeanour and suddenly slowed in her approach, showing how highly she regarded her wounded opponent.

Nevertheless, there was no backing down from this clash and so she channelled purple and red mana into her sword once more, causing it to light up like a pillar of eldritch fire. At a distance of about 10 metres away from Lars, she then lifted the sword above her head in a 2 handed grip and unleashed a flaming wall of blazing fire surging towards Lars!

Her target, Lars, instantly reacted, this time not trying to block it with water but to stop it at a distance. He slapped the ground with a s.h.i.+mmering palm of mana and yelled out, "Level 3: Earth Spike!", causing the stone floor to ripple upwards before a section burst upwards to stop the wall of fire heading towards him!

Just in time too, as the flames immediately slammed into the stone wall with a roar!

"BOOOOMMMM!!!!"

Lars was shaken from the sheer volume of the explosion as the stone barrier before him shattered apart in front of the ferocity of Vignis' attack!

'What the--What kind of fire attack is--' But Lars had no chance to complete his thoughts as he cast several spells straight at the incoming fire wall that had gone unhindered by his defensive stone barrier. Hurriedly, Lars unleashed a rainbow flurry of prismatic spells, whether physical bolts, arcane bullets, magic missiles or a cone of frigid air to counter the surge of flames coming towards him.

"Useless!" Vignis yelled as she was hidden somewhere beyond his field of vision, drawing Lars attention and keeping him on edge. But he quickly returned his attention to resisting the fiery attack barrelling towards him.

"BAMMMM!!!!" The ground under his feet shook from the shockwave as a singular, focused wall of power struck against his plethora of spells, and Lars struggled to keep his footing while keeping his eyes peeled in the face of the explosion of dust and smoke erupting before his eyes.

'I really need to learn a signature, focused spell... I can't keep relying on just using a large quant.i.ty of spells to fight back anymore... It's too inefficient...' He watched carefully and suddenly caught a glint of light from the corner of his eye through the dust.

'There...!' Lars flicked his hand toward the light and simultaneously dodged to his left, releasing a wave of force to slow down Vignis' advance.

But just a half-second later, his eyebrows rose and his expression froze when a thrown sword emerged from the dust cloud, revealing the source of the glint of light...

And Vignis was nowhere to be seen!

The wave of force caused the thrown blade to wobble slightly and veer off target, piercing into the surface of the ground off to the side. Then all of a sudden, Lars a dull grey blur shot into his vision and Lars did all he could to defend and avoid it, but instead, the projectile pierced right through his hip!

"ARGHH!!" Lars cried out in pain as electricity coursed through his veins once more, carried by the 12.7x99mm bullet that sliced through his armour and Apprentice Robes like a hot knife through b.u.t.ter and lodged into his flesh and bones!

Unable to bear the pain and the shock to his senses, Lars momentarily blacked out and slumped weakly to the floor, limp and spasming under the electric shocks as the auburn haired girl unloaded the bullet casing from her sniper rifle, the hot smoke still wafting out of the gun's barrel.

With deft movements, she quickly reloaded her gun and was poised to fire once more within less than 2 second, raising the gun to her eye and nocking the no-scope sniper rifle!

The hairs on the back of Lars neck stood on end and he felt the back of his scalp grow numb as he snapped back into reality. Then before he met his doom at Vignis' hands, he quickly leaped into the air, soaring off at a diagonal angle and tried to make himself a harder target to hit as he frantically dodged in every direction. But everytime he changed direction, the hairs on his whole body would stand on end again, indicating that the 3-eyed girl had locked on to him again each time!

"Lars! It's been a worthy match! But our 2 minutes are nearly up! Looks like I'll have to end this!! Good game, well played... See you in the spectators' stands from now on!!" She pulled back on the trigger carefully even as the purplish eye on her forehead began to grow strained, turning pink around the edges as the veins within the organ started to emerge.

She concentrated more and more and more and suddenly, an esoteric form of rhythm seemed to form between herself and the dodging Lars as it was as if though the arena were a dance floor, Lars a dancer and herself the DJ...

A DJ about to pull off the grand finale of the night's performance and bring down the curtains on this great battle!

And it felt as if though time froze for just an instant as she pulled the trigger and her sonorous voice rang out through the hearts and minds of everyone in the arena, the bell-like tone rippling outwards and clearing up everyone's mind.

"Gun-Blade Unity: Deadbeat Shot!!!"

A peculiar rhythm seemed to emerge, a drumbeat formed between the heavens and the earth as the concepts of the blade and the gun intertwined and resonated with Lars' movements.

His eyes turned wide in shock, the whites of his eyes showing as he felt s.p.a.ce constrict around him and the "flow" of reality sucking him in, drawing him against his will into a dance routine he could not resist...

Into the soaring bullet that glinted with a sinister purple and red light, instilled with all the energy Vignis had left in her person!

Then time began to speed up again and the bullet instantly exploded through Lars' chest, causing blood to spray forth from the cavernous wound formed on his chest. In that moment, even Mr White was not quick enough to rescue Lars; he could only cover three-quarters of the distance by the time he could react, and watched with horror as Lars' chest caved in from the calamitous bullet released from Vignis' rifle.

Helplessly, Mr White, Duke Leanne and every person watching could only dumbly witness his lifeless body tumbled through the air like a kite with its string cut, land with a thud, bounce several times and finally flop down to the stone floor...

Motionless, without any signs of mana, blood energy or movements... Without any signs of life.

Stunned and despairing, Mr White rushed over to the spot where Lars had landed, far outside the ring, thrown nearly 150 metres from the impact of the ravaging bullet.

And when he landed beside Lars, his face fell in dismay, and he could only gape in shock and awe as he gasped and exclaimed.

"This... This is... This..."