Chapter 504: The Grand First-Year Combat Festival: Gun vs Blood Rematch VI

The two went back to hand-to-hand combat.

But this time, the pace was completely different.

It was insanely faster.

Neither Ezra nor Desmond wasted much movement with their legs. There were only a few steps backward before the other fighter immediately stepped forward again, keeping the distance between them almost unchanged as their hands and bodies continued moving at a speed that made the earlier exchange seem slow.

The audience could hear the impacts, but following every movement was becoming difficult.

Desmond’s Fang Arts were built around aggressive combinations.

His attacks flowed from jabs into crosses, low kicks, elbows, and knees, with each strike meant to create an opening for the next one. He didn’t throw a single attack and waited to see what would happen. His entire body was moving as one chain, and whenever Ezra blocked one strike, another was already following from a different angle.

Ezra blocked them.

A heavy elbow came toward his head.

He raised his forearm and caught it before it could connect.

Desmond immediately turned his shoulder and drove his knee forward.

Ezra shifted his body and let the knee pass beside him.

A low kick followed.

Ezra’s boot moved back just enough to avoid it, and Desmond’s foot scraped across the platform.

Then came another elbow.

Ezra caught Desmond’s arm.

His hand turned.

Rather than stopping the strike with strength, he guided it away from his body and used the movement to twist part of Desmond’s arm before striking back.

Bam!

Desmond’s shoulder jerked from the impact.

But he didn’t retreat.

He stepped forward again.

His fist came toward Ezra’s ribs.

Ezra turned his waist and let the punch pass.

Desmond followed with a short elbow.

Ezra’s palm met the side of his arm and pushed it away.

Their movements were becoming so close that there was barely any space between their bodies.

Desmond attacked to force an opening.

Ezra’s hands answered by using those aggressive movements against him.

His movements were soft and controlled compared to Desmond’s heavy attacks. Whenever Desmond pushed forward, Ezra guided the force away from its target, allowing the attack to glide past him before using a grabbing technique to twist Desmond’s hand or arm.

There was no wasted movement.

Desmond’s aggression kept creating force.

Ezra kept redirecting that force.

The result was a strange contrast between the two fighters.

One fought like he wanted to break through everything in front of him.

The other fought as though he only needed to move the right part of his body at the right time.

Bam!

Their bodies collided again.

The platform cracked beneath their feet.

Violent gusts of wind spread around them as Cognis continued flowing through their bodies, disturbing the snow scattered across the stage. Snowflakes that had settled on the platform were kicked into the air, while small pieces of broken stone rolled away from their feet.

The force of their movements had begun to leave marks across the battlefield.

Several cracks now stretched through the stone.

The crowd remained loud, but there was a different feeling in their voices now.

They were no longer simply cheering for their favorite fighter.

They were trying to keep up.

After several minutes of this hand-to-hand exchange, Desmond suddenly slammed his leg against the ground.

Boom!

A Blood Alchemy Circle appeared beneath him.

Ezra was still close.

The instant he saw the crimson glow spreading across the platform, his instincts reacted.

He quickly performed a large somersault backward.

Cognis rushed into his leg, strengthening the muscles as he pushed himself away from Desmond and the expanding Alchemy Circle.

His body traveled several meters through the air before he landed.

The movement allowed him to escape the range of the Blood Alchemy.

At the same time, the blood scattered across the platform was already being drawn toward the circle.

The Blood Scythe that Desmond had left behind was pulled toward the center.

The blood gathered around it.

It compressed.

Then several spikes extended outward from the Blood Alchemy Circle, forming crystalized structures of hardened blood.

The crimson glow spread across the ground.

Desmond jumped backward.

His hand moved toward his Space Bag.

One blood bag came out.

Then another.

Then another.

More followed.

The number continued increasing until eighty blood bags were floating around him.

The sight alone caused a wave of noise to pass through the Arena.

Desmond’s excited smile remained on his face as he looked toward Ezra.

"This fight has gone long enough, Ezra Ashenlocke!!"

His voice carried across the platform.

Ezra looked at him.

He already knew what Desmond was about to do.

Desmond’s blood bags weren’t being brought out for decoration.

He was preparing something large.

"If you don’t perform the same Alchemy I’m about to execute, then don’t blame me if you lose."

Desmond brought his hands together.

Clap!

A surge of Cognis rushed through his veins and poured from his palms.

The Blood Alchemy Circle expanded beneath him.

Wind swept across the platform from the sudden increase in Cognis.

Snow was blown away from their feet, and loose rocks moved across the ground as the pressure from the Alchemy spread outward.

Ezra slowly exhaled.

"Ahhh..."

His breathing was calm despite the injuries he had accumulated during the long fight.

There were several small wounds across his body.

None were serious, but he could feel them whenever he moved.

His Cognis was already being used to heal them.

Desmond was in a worse condition.

He had received numerous strikes from Ezra during their close-range exchange, including repeated blows to his face, but the Blood Alchemy Path gave him an advantage when it came to recovery.

His wounds had already begun closing.

The blood around his body helped repair the damage faster than Ezra could recover naturally.

Ezra watched him carefully.

He’s about to use Mass Alchemy.

His black eyes remained fixed on Desmond.

The thought came almost immediately.

Which means my next response should also be Mass Alchemy.

His mind continued working while his body remained still.

Within less than a millisecond, Ezra had already considered the situation from several angles.

While Desmond’s Blood Alchemy Circle was almost complete.

The eighty blood bags were ready.

The other blood covering the platform was already being pulled toward the circle.

Desmond was preparing to overwhelm him with numbers.

But Ezra didn’t move.

He continued looking at the crimson circle.

Then at Desmond.

No.

Ezra refused the idea of using Mass Alchemy.

At least, not now.

Desmond was strong.

There was no doubt about that.

He was one of the strongest young Alchemists Ezra had faced in this tournament.

But he wasn’t the strongest.

And more importantly, Desmond wasn’t someone Ezra truly needed to use Mass Alchemy against just to defeat him.

If I use Mass Alchemy in this fight, everyone will know exactly what my limits are.

Ezra’s thoughts remained calm.

If I want to grow stronger and go far in this tournament, I have to be careful with how much of my Alchemy power I show to the others.

There were still more Alchemists who hadn’t shown their true abilities.

Ezra had already seen enough to understand that.

Some fighters were hiding techniques.

Others hadn’t even been pushed far enough to reveal their strongest cards.

The Combat Festival wasn’t only a place to fight.

It was also a place where the strongest young Alchemists in Britannia were watching one another.

Every technique revealed now could become information for a future opponent.

Ezra wasn’t going to give that information away for nothing.

Especially when it’s still in the seventh round of the Combat Festival.

His hand moved.

Several Gun Alchemy materials floated out of his Space Bag under the effect of Alchemy Levitation.

They hovered beside him for a moment before slowly descending toward the platform.

Ezra’s black eyes remained fixed on Desmond.

"This is your trial, Ezra Ashenlocke."

He muttered the words to himself.

His eyes seemed darker beneath the Arena lights, like a small piece of darkness had settled inside them.

Thud!

The Alchemy materials touched the ground.

Ezra brought his hands together.

Clap!

The sound wasn’t loud, but Desmond noticed it immediately.

A Cognis fluctuation came from Ezra’s position.

Desmond’s smile changed.

He understood what Ezra was doing.

"You fool!"

His voice rose across the platform.

"You think you can win without using Mass Alchemy!!"

The eighty blood bags suddenly burst.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Blood poured onto the platform.

The crimson liquid spread rapidly across the ground under the influence of Desmond’s Blood Alchemy Circle.

It flowed through the cracks in the platform.

It gathered.

Then it began rising.

Desmond’s expression became serious.

"You disappoint me, Ezra Ashenlocke."

He straightened his body.

The excited smile that had remained on his face throughout the fight disappeared.

The atmosphere around him changed.

The blood gathering beneath him formed numerous spheres.

They rose from the enormous Blood Alchemy Circle, glowing beneath the crimson light.

To be more precise...

These blood spheres were called Blood Mercury.

Desmond’s crimson eyes brightened.

Hundreds of Blood Mercury hovered around him.

They moved slowly at first, floating around his body like a field of crimson moons, but every single one remained under his control.

The sight caused the crowd to quiet down.

Even people who had been shouting only moments ago began lowering their voices.

On the other side of the platform...

Ezra’s Gun Alchemy completed.

Because he wasn’t using Mass Alchemy, the process was much faster.

White Cognis gathered around the materials.

The pieces melted.

They compressed.

They formed.

Ezra reached forward and caught the finished weapon.

An assault rifle.

Desmond stared at it.

Ezra raised the weapon and looked directly at him.

"Do I look like I care about your feelings?"

Ezra replied coldly.

Desmond looked at him plainly.

For a moment, neither fighter moved.

The crowd became even quieter.

The difference between the two choices was obvious.

Desmond Derlis had used Mass Alchemy.

He had created hundreds of Blood Mercury.

Ezra Ashenlocke had used ordinary Adept-rank Alchemy.

He had created a single assault rifle.

Some spectators exchanged confused looks.

"Is he really fighting Mass Alchemy with one gun?"

"He must have something planned."

"Or maybe he’s actually that confident."

"Or overconfident."

"Maybe he can’t even use Mass Alchemy?"

"That’s impossible."

The more experienced Alchemists in the audience didn’t speak as quickly.

They all just kept watching Ezra’s stance.

They were watching his grip.

They were watching the weapon he had created.

Some of them actually understood that Ezra had deliberately chosen not to use Mass Alchemy.

The question was why.

The silence between the two Alchemists lasted only a brief second.

Then...

BOOM! BOOM!

Both moved.

The ground beneath them cracked heavily as the two Young Alchemists moved.

Ezra dashed forward.

At the same time, the assault rifle rose into his hands.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The gunfire erupted across the platform.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bullets rushed from the assault rifle as Ezra advanced.

The weapon he had created wasn’t the AK-47.

It wasn’t the M38 SDMR either.

It was the M27 IAR, the Infantry Automatic Rifle.

The weapon’s rate of fire allowed Ezra to fill the space ahead of him with bullets while continuing to move.

Desmond reacted immediately.

Several Blood Mercury spheres moved around him.

They changed shape.

Some stretched.

Others narrowed.

Then they formed blood daggers.

The crimson weapons shot toward Ezra.

The barrage moved rapidly through the air.

Ezra fired while evading.

His feet shifted across the platform as he changed direction, keeping his upper body steady enough to continue firing.

A blood dagger passed beside his shoulder.

Another struck the ground where his foot had been a moment earlier.

Ezra lowered his body.

Three more blood daggers passed above him.

He rolled across the platform.

Several blood daggers stabbed into the ground behind him.

Their pointed ends sank into the stone.

Ezra continued rolling until he reached a new position, then pushed off the ground and returned to his feet.

Desmond’s eyes followed him.

His hand slowly closed into a fist.

The Blood Daggers surrounding him brightened.

Crimson light spread across their surfaces.

Then...

BOOOMMMMM!!!

BOOOMMMMM!!!

A large double explosion erupted.

The multiple Blood Daggers exploded at once, creating a chain of smaller explosions that merged into two larger blasts.

Smoke rushed across the platform.

Snow and pieces of stone were thrown into the air.

The force pushed outward until it met the Arena’s protective force field, which shimmered faintly from the impact.

Desmond stood behind the smoke.

His crimson eyes remained fixed on Ezra’s position.

"You aren’t the only one with explosive daggers."

He said it with a grin.

His hand moved again.

More Blood Mercury changed shape.

More blood daggers formed.

They flew toward the smoke-covered area without hesitation.

Desmond didn’t know exactly where Ezra was.

He didn’t need to.

He simply filled the area with attacks.

The blood daggers disappeared into the smoke one after another.

The audience leaned forward.

Nobody could see Ezra clearly anymore.

But the gunfire had not stopped.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sound came from somewhere inside the smoke.

Desmond’s grin widened.

The fight between Gun and Blood had entered another stage.