I understood Craig's murmur, seated beside as I was while our team watched the third individual match. Already Lily and Cody had lost their matches and we were currently down 0-2 to Anuaiz Academy, and it was looking as if we were going to be 0-3 down by the end of this match.

"Huff…huff…"

Dong Fang Yue Chu was panting while he withdrew from the opponent, a big, burly guy who carried a gigantic cannon. The heavy gunner, Timothy Drake, hefted his bulky weapon up and pointed the smoking barrel in Yue Chu's direction. The fire mage quickly dove to the side as the cannon unleashed a powerful torrent of superheated energy that seared the concrete into molten rock. Hitting the ground, Yue Chu rolled and threw a hand up to launch a huge fireball in Timothy's direction, but a metallic shard of armor hovered in front of him and erected an energy s.h.i.+eld that deflected the spell and rendered it harmless.

"That's cheating!" Yue Chu complained, only to be forced to evade when Timothy fired another immense blast at him. Panting, he threw himself up and fired off a barrage of fireb.a.l.l.s from different directions, but Timothy's armor shard settled on its wielder and turned into full body armor. A mechanical set of armor that resembled a metallic exoskeleton. The fireb.a.l.l.s dispersed ineffectively against the advanced body armor, and the Anuaiz Academy student strode out of the inferno unscathed. Raising his left hand, he unleashed a hail of small but lethal energy sparks from a flechette blaster built into his wrist. The rain of energy projectiles carved tiny craters into the ground, even as Yue Chu scrambled hastily to dodge them.

Both of his hands glowing red-hot with flames, Yue Chu launched dual streams of h.e.l.lfire at the lumbering Timothy. Confident in his armor's defenses, the heavy gunner allowed his gleaming exoskeleton to endure the inferno that bathed him before he raised the ma.s.sive cannon with his augmented right arm and fired off yet another destructive bolt that tore a molten tunnel into the battered arena ground.

"d.a.m.n it! How am I supposed to beat someone like that?! And isn't he just relying on his weapons and equipment instead of his magic?!"

To be fair, Timothy was using his innate mana to power up his bulky cannon and move his power armor, so even though he was packing heavy firepower it came at a cost. Spamming such powerful spells and attacks must be extremely draining on him. It had been only fifteen minutes and already his movements had slowed considerably. Adjusting my gla.s.ses, I zoomed in on his face, just behind the armored but transparent visor of his exoskeleton, and noted the large amount of perspiration streaming down his face. A visual filter told me that he was quite pale from the exertion, and I could see from his moving, open mouth that he was breathing heavily.

I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't have a lot of mana left. At this rate, he would run out of mana before he could subdue Yue Chu.

Unfortunately for Yue Chu, it would take only a single well-placed hit to bring him down. And Yue Chu's stamina wasn't without limits either. Just one mistake, one slip, and he would be knocked out from the match.

"d.a.m.n it!" rolling back to his feet, he crouched down and slammed both of his palms against the ground. "Bloom, Rafflesia!"

…uh, what? Since when did he turn into Julis Riessfeld? Was he going to name all of his fire spells after flowers?

When nothing happened, Yue Chu recognized his mistake, and he cursed under his breath. Instead, he switched the incantation, his lips moving and muttering something that I couldn't hear. Whatever he chanted, it definitely worked because the next thing we knew, the whole arena burst into flames and Timothy's armor was engulfed by an enormous inferno.

"Hah! Your fire spells have no effect against my advanced T102 Armor!" Timothy laughed maniacally, like some Sat.u.r.day morning cartoon villain. Seriously? The idiot just raised his own flag for defeat. No villain who laughed like that would ever prevail. It was an iron law unbroken by any self-respecting cartoon or anime. For my part, I was also amused that Timothy's armor actually had an actual designation.

Yue Chu didn't rise to the bait. I smiled when my senses were p.r.i.c.kled by the nature of his flames. This wasn't any ordinary fire spell, but…

"The Pure Yang Flames."

"?!"

Timothy recognized that something was amiss, but by now it was too late. Swearing under his breath, the sweating heavy gunner lifted his ma.s.sive cannon and fired off another immense shot toward Yue Chu. However, the fire mage firmly stood his ground and raised both of his hands to fend off the tremendous beam.

An enormous firewall shot out of the ground and intercepted the beam, exploding right in the middle of the coliseum and sending huge shockwaves that buffeted both Timothy and Yue Chu. They staggered a little, but somehow Yue Chu managed a smile as he gathered the resulting flames and absorbed them into his spell to strengthen the inferno.

"Why, you…!"

Timothy could sense the direction in which the fiery mana was flowing toward, and realizing the threat, he immediately flipped some sort of switch in his armor. Pods opened all over his exoskeleton, countless laser cannons that jutted out. With a single command, he triggered all of them and fired over a hundred laser beams that arced through the air to crash down on his opponent.

Even in the face of such a calamitous bombardment, Yue Chu remained stationary. Instead, he merely adopted a defensive stance, both his arms raised and ready. The firewall flickered away, torn apart by the first wave of lasers, but Yue Chu made no move to evade the rest.

"What the f.u.c.k is he doing?!" Craig demanded, his eyes wide. He wasn't the only one.

Right before the stunned spectators, Yue Chu's hands seemed to multiply several times, making it look as if he had a thousand arms. Like the thousand-armed Buddha, he thrust all of them forward, using his palms, fingers and fists to deflect each and every one of the laser beams that curved toward him. Divine fire wreathed each hand, allowing it to withstand the sheer destructive power of the countless laser beams that rained down on their owner.

Not only that, with each thrust and counter he executed with those many hands, the inferno that surrounded Timothy intensified. It wasn't just the temperature or heat. I wasn't sure how to describe it with words, but if I had to say, it was the "purity" of the flames. The yang essence of the flames, I guess? It just felt so pure, so divine.

"W…what the h.e.l.l are you?!" Timothy roared as he stumbled back, trying to escape the flames. His onslaught of laser beams had ceased, each and every one of them successfully parried and deflected by Yue Chu, whose hands had returned to normal. Or I should say he no longer had a thousand hands but just a normal pair. The Buddhlike imagery was gone, replaced by that of a perfectly normal teenager. If a normal teenager could wield fire…

"I'm Dong Fang Yue Chu from Jing Tian Academy," the fire mage replied sarcastically as he advanced upon Timothy. The heavy gunner growled something inaudible before he hefted his bulky cannon up to fire another ma.s.sive torrent of energy at the approaching Yue Chu. Even so, my friend didn't falter and continued strolling toward the clearly trembling Anuaiz Academy student. I could see him trembling inside his armor, thanks to the transparent visor, in case you were wondering. No, his armor wasn't shaking, it was the wearer inside.

"f.u.c.k!"

Howling, Timothy fired off a ma.s.sive burst…or tried to, but nothing came out of his cannon. His jaw dropped and he glanced at his huge weapon, trying to understand what was going on.

"Why won't it fire?!"

At first glance, the cannon looked as if it was intact, but when I inspected it with the magnification function of my gla.s.ses I noticed that the hull had melted and warped from the sheer heat of Yue Chu's flames. Even so, the weapon was st.u.r.dy enough to be able to fire off at least a couple more shots despite the damage it had sustained.

The reason why it couldn't was…

"Impossible! Impossible! Ugh?!"

Timothy fell over, his armor creaking and completely unresponsive. He had lost all power to his exoskeleton and was currently unable to move or fire any of its useless weapons.

"No way! What's going on!?"

"It appears that the opponents do not know of Yue Chu's Pure Yang Flames," Harrison remarked softly, in our technical area and too far for any of the Anuaiz Academy team to overhear him. Well, they had hi-tech gadgets on their side, but even so we were magically protected from any bugs that they might have planted on us, because of defensive wards and buffers. Otherwise it would be considered cheating.

Teams currently partic.i.p.ating in a match were not allowed to spy on each other. The tournament organizers were pretty strict on that.

"Oh, you're right." Lily, despite having lost her match, had finally regained consciousness and was able to watch Yue Chu's duel with Timothy. She looked ashamed of herself, but she had fulfilled her role as vanguard spectacularly and allowed us to glean important information about the other team. It was a thankless job that often landed her in quite a humiliating position where people called her useless for losing, but none of the Jing Tian team ever considered her a burden. After all, if it wasn't for her, Harrison wouldn't be able to plan and strategize accordingly.

Just getting the opponents to show their trump cards was important enough for him to be able to turn the tables and figure out a winning plan.

"If I recall, Yue Chu's Pure Yang Flames have the ability to not only exterminate any kind of monster, but it can also be used to 'refine' or purify Divine Devices and any other kinds of mystical weapons or equipment."

"That's right." Harrison nodded at Lily's explanation. "And right now, Yue Chu has refined and purified Timothy Drake's hi-tech armor. It's nothing more than a useless heap of sc.r.a.p metal now."

Why did that suspiciously sound like a certain technique from a particular famous Chinese web comic that had an anime adaptation of over 110 episodes? An animation adaptation that had something to do with the matchmaking fox spirits of Tu Shan?

"Whoa…that's scary…" Craig's jaw dropped from awe. "I never knew that Yue Chu had such a terrifying ability!"

"Well, now you know," Theodore stated, amus.e.m.e.nt evident in his deep voice.

Timothy was not as amused, and he was desperately trying to reactivate and restart his armor, to no avail. Even though he was infusing the dead armor with his mana, sc.r.a.p metal was still sc.r.a.p metal. And he required a more sophisticated spell to repair and restore his now useless heap of refined armor. Such spells required a long casting time, obviously, and Yue Chu wasn't going to stand around and watch his opponent rebuild his most potent weapons.

Striding forward, he smashed a fiery palm into the center of Timothy's armor, and the hull actually cracked.

"!!"

Whirling around, Yue Chu then kicked the helmet that Timothy wore, causing the bulky mechanical outfit to careen and crash into the ground. His foot blazing with h.e.l.lfire, Yue Chu raised his leg before stomping on the p.r.o.ne Timothy. A deafening boom thundered throughout the coliseum, and a crater actually opened up beneath the buckling suit of armor.

"Why, you…!" Timothy hollered defiantly. He tried to raise his arm, physically reinforcing his own body and raising his strength rather and try to power his armor. The gears and inactive servos whined in protest, but they responded adequately to the sudden surge of physical strength from their wearer. A metallic fist shot up, almost catching Yue Chu by the head.

But the fire mage had already antic.i.p.ated such an attack, having spun around to avoid it. In a swift, elegant motion, he kicked Timothy in the midriff, further denting the armor and expanding the cracks. Timothy grunted from the impact as his armor rolled back helplessly.

He scrambled to his feet, forcibly crouching on all fours with sheer physical strength now that his armor was cut off. If I were him, I would discard the c.u.mbersome armor and fight normally – the exoskeleton was more of a hindrance than an advantage right now. Unfortunately, either because of sentiment or misguided faith in his armor and equipment, Timothy refused to divest himself of it and insisted on making it work.

Yue Chu exploited his enemy's lack of speed and mobility, agilely landing beside Timothy before he could turn around to face the new threat, and punched him with a fiery fist. The armor crumbled again, the cracks spreading and growing. Timothy growled and retaliated with a clumsy hook, which Yue Chu effortlessly dodged before he rammed his flaming palm into the cracks and gouged out a huge chunk of armor.

"How dare you break my suit!?" Timothy howled as he awkwardly threw a punch, only for Yue Chu to duck under it and kick his armored leg. The blazing fire turned the dormant metal red-hot and Timothy stumbled to a knee.

The fire mage didn't waste any time, flipping himself up and over the armored heavy gunner, the latter's desperate swing going wide. Delivering a barrage of punches and palm strikes onto the helmet and back, Yue Chu left Timothy's gradually crumbling suit immolated.

With his armor offline and the defensive enchantments inoperable, Timothy was unable to endure the spike in temperature. Even within the supposedly protective confines of his armor, his skin began to blister and he wailed from burns popping up on his reddening flesh.

"UGH!"

Whirling around in an ungainly manner, he lashed out at Yue Chu – who was originally behind him. Obviously the fire mage wasn't going to remain behind Timothy forever, to wait for a counterattack. He was already moving, darting out of range before closing in and slamming his fiery fist into the cracked chest portion of the burning armor.

Timothy gasped in pain, staggering back from the impact, but Yue Chu was not done. Not yet.

With a determined roar, Yue Chu slammed his palm into the cracked chest armor, causing the wearer to judder backward. While Timothy was trying to regain his senses – an increasingly difficult feat given the rising temperature of his suit's interior – Yue Chu rammed another fist into the widening c.h.i.n.k in his opponent's armor. Curling his fingers, he then rippied out a large chunk of metal from the exoskeleton.

Timothy snarled and swiped with his bulky armored arms, in hopes of braining his opponent. Yue Chu dodged under the slow and clumsy movements, and then plunged the fingers of his right hand into the hole he had just dug out.

"Burner Fingers," he muttered, obviously ripping off the technique from a certain Quincy from the manga Bleach.

Inside Timothy's armor, flames engulfed him and he screamed as his trapped body was burned almost into ash.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

It didn't take more than five seconds before Timothy's armor crashed onto the ground, smoldering from the inside. In fact, the commentator took almost twice the length of that amount of time to stammer out the outcome of the battle.

"Match over! Winner…Dong Fang Yue Chu of Jing Tian Academy!"

And with that, the heated cheers and pa.s.sionate yells of the spectators followed.