Child of Destiny

……

While everyone was having their respective thoughts and making the necessary arrangements based on the information that they had just gotten, the match had already started.

Bang!

Just like how Berserk Dragon usually dealt with all his opponents, he had taken the most straightforward way to fight.

Swoosh!

He rushed straight toward his opponent while Lawrence swiftly retreated and took out the book hanging beside his waist.

He swiftly opened it, using it as a grimoire, before casting a spell.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

In response to his call, the grimoire released a jade-green light, which swiftly turned into a bunch of snakes that swarmed toward his opponent.

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

Bang!

Berserk Dragon furrowed his brows a little when he saw the swarm of snakes heading his way, particularly after seeing that they were all taking a tricky angle when charging at him.

Some of them dove straight to the ground and pounced out like a bunch of vines trying to entangle themselves all around his body, while the others flew at him from multiple angles.

Moreover, this attacking method seemed to be oddly familiar. It shared a lot of resemblance with how Cobra utilized his powers earlier.

“A member of Hydra Guild?” This was the first thought that entered Berserk Dragon’s mind before he swung his war axe and sent a powerful, blazing crescent to annihilate all the poison snakes.

Boom!

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

All the poison snakes were evaporated under the might of his blazing crescent. The air was also purified by the intense heat that his flames were producing, thoroughly erasing all the traces of the poison that could possibly affect him.

After that, Berserk Dragon squinted his eyes and stared at Lawrence before taking back what he just said earlier. “No, this method is different. They may look the same on the surface due to certain similarities that they have, but their essence and overall nature are different.”

He might look brute and a battle maniac, but he was quite bright himself when it came to fighting.

Adding that he was a long-time rivals with the members of the Hydra Guild, he was quite familiar with their techniques and special methods.

At a glance, he thought that the technique that Lawrence had used was the same as those poison methods of the Hydra Guilds, particularly the modified ones that their higher-ups possessed.

However, upon closer inspection, he immediately realized that it was not the case. Instead, the method that he had seen from Lawrence was a more refined version of it, which seemed to be a much more advanced level of it.

When compared to the poison methods that he had seen from the members of the Hydra Guild, the one that Lawrence was currently using seemed to be the opposite.

If the methods that the members of the Hydra Guild were using emitted an eerie and evil feeling, then the one that Lawrence was using felt more refined and natural.

The former felt like a poison that was artificially created, while the latter was something that was naturally made by nature itself.

The earlier collision might not be as intense as it was supposed to be, but the threat that Berserk Dragon had posed was real.

Boom!

With a powerful stomp into the ground, Berserk Dragon released an overwhelming force and turned into a giant flame that revolved and danced around him. This firestorm continuously spun in his surroundings, making sure to purify the air and erase all possible poison contamination in the air.

Seeing this, Lawrence could not help but furrow his brows, realizing that his usual trick would not work against top-notch experts.

He was originally planning to spread his poison in the surroundings, trying to poison his opponent with it and slowly weaken them.

However, he just realized that Berserk Dragon was too familiar with these methods and knew how to effectively counter them.

Recalling the previous matches, Lawrence could not help but think of the way Cobra and Viper utilized their poison techniques and applied them through different methods.

“I can just give it a try,” he mumbled before thinking of a way to mimic them.

The first thing he did was to cast a spell that spread poison in the surroundings, covering as much area as he could, while also avoiding the area that was being dominated by his opponent’s flames.

This poison that he released into a huge green fog, which greatly resembled the technique that Cobra used during his fight against Arthur.

Seeing this, Berserk Dragon could not help but smirk. “Trying to copy that guy’s methods? It is not a bad thought, but you still severely lack in terms of understanding its essence.”

After that, he twirled his war axes to generate momentum before brandishing them left and right, releasing a blazing storm that swept through the surroundings and clashed against the surrounding poison fog that was trying build an encirclement to trap him.

He was quite confident about this, especially when he was already used to these kinds of situations.

However, he was suddenly taken aback by what happened next.

“What!?”

He suddenly realized that his violent flame, which was supposed to be destructive and domineering, seemed to become a bit weak right after coming in contact with the surrounding poison fog.

Moreover, these flames seemed to be nurturing the poison fog instead of extinguishing it. The poison fog became larger and more potent right after coming in contact with these flames, particularly the heat that they were generating.

Releasing this, he swiftly released a much stronger flame that turned into a violent firestorm, fighting against the enclosing poison fog and warding it off.

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

He was successful at first, but his expression immediately turned grave after a bunch of green snakes sprouted out of the ground around him and started swarming in his direction immediately after.

Bang!

With a powerful stomp from him, the ground instantly collapsed and sent a bunch of debris into the air alongside the snakes that were supposed to be crawling on the ground.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Roar!

Alongside a powerful roar, he breathed out a violent flame that looked like lava, melting everything that came into contact with it.

Whoosh!

While he was busy dealing with all these, something suddenly happened above.

Puff!

A massive hole suddenly appeared in the violent firestorm spinning around Berserk Dragon, followed by a massive mouth that suddenly came crushing from the sky.

Roar!

It looked like a colossal mouth of a gigantic snake, which seemed to be capable of devouring the world.

Berserk Dragon immediately sensed the threat coming from above his head and swiftly responded by fixing his stance and leaping into the sky.

Boom!

Along with a blazing trail beneath him, he dragged his war axes, which then gathered a huge amount of fire elemental mana that turned into a pair of miniature suns behind him.

Roar!

Not long after, the two sides clashed, resulting in a massive explosion that spread in every direction.

BOOM!

***

While the two were having intense clashes against one another, the other parties were currently having different thoughts in mind.

“A Toxin Devil?” asked Boa after seeing the poison fog that Lawrence had released to surround Berserk Dragon.

He turned to Cobra, who was more of an expert in terms of poison understanding, with an inquiring look.

Cobra, on the other hand, squinted his eyes while observing Lawrence and the poison fog that shared a great resemblance to his. “It is not just a Toxin Devil, but also an extremely high-quality one at that.”

“It can even rival a first-class Elemental Spirit or even a Supreme in terms of quality,” he added along with a deeper frown.

“Now, this is getting more interesting,” commented Boa before adding. “Even with all our resources, we have only discovered quite a few of them. Moreover, most of them are second-rate.”

“Aside from yours and the two that are stored in the main base, we have never found anything better than it.”

He then paused and pointed at Lawrence, particularly the existence hiding within his poison powers, before continuing. “Yet-… you are telling me that this kid has something much better than ours? Those people from the Black Market must have invested quite a lot in him.”

“Not only that,” said Cobra while squinting his eyes. “From what I can see, that kid must also have a ‘Gu’ within his body. I am not sure about its quality, but it must be on the same quality as his Toxin Devil, or a notch lower at the very least.”

“Given this, this kid can either be someone they have discovered by chance or a young agent that they have nurtured specifically for poison knowledge.”

Pausing for a moment, Cobra thought of something before continuing. “Moreover, the poison method that this kind used greatly resembled ours, which is something that can’t be possible by just copying our earlier moves.”

“It feels more refined and natural compared to ours,” he added, seemingly emphasizing something.

Boa raised his brows for a moment before asking. “So, are you telling me that we are basically right about our earlier assumption?”

Cobra shrugged his shoulders before answering. “It can either be-… them discovering that ‘person’ we are looking for or the person themselves come to them voluntarily as some sort of protection.”

Hearing this, Boa suddenly started grinning before continuing. “Then this is going to be a bit interesting, don’t you think?”

…