Chapter 367: Weakness

"Start!"

Timothy tapped the ground with his shoe. The water started surging again, while Katarina immediately activated her Sanctuary.

"That won’t be enough to defeat me, though." Timothy had seen this power before and studied it as much as possible. He believed that the only scary thing was her ability to combine them.

However, the swords weren’t enough to penetrate his wall of water.

"I’ve told you. I simply have a good friend who is worried too much about me and he ended up telling me about your weakness." Katarina smiled.

"!!!" Timothy widened his eyes when Katarina actually combined not the spheres but the swords. She created a bigger sword with even more powerful energy.

Then, she struck the ground, unleashing all that energy toward Timothy.

All the water that was supposed to surround Katarina flowed back toward Timothy, trying to contain Katarina’s energy.

"That good friend... of yours is quite terrifying." Timothy breathed heavily. It looked like someone had indeed figured out his power better than he had himself.

"Hehe. That friend asked me to tell you that if you feel yourself drowning, you may want to visit him for a simple treatment. Of course, you need to pay the appropriate fee." Katarina winked playfully.

"!!!" Timothy looked shocked. "Yeah. He’s indeed terrifying. Are you going to tell me to give up if I want to be treated?"

"Nope. Let’s fight to the best of our abilities. I don’t intend to get a free ride. In fact, if Theressa Lee unleashed a more concentrated power, you might lose to her."

"That’s indeed possible. That’s why it’s such a shame. Well, I don’t think we’re here just to talk. Of course, that will be a different question if you’re willing to talk to me over a cocktail."

Katarina chuckled. "I’m sorry, but I don’t think you’re qualified."

Katarina combined the spheres this time. Since the water wall was able to contain her slash, she changed her attack to a bullet. She increased the penetration power. At the same time, the swords also flew in all directions, trying to surround him.

Timothy had to contain the overwhelming power of the bullet while spreading his defense thin because of the sword.

"..." Timothy frowned. He first expanded his power so that he could catch all the incoming swords. Unlike Theressa, he had to handle the swords even more carefully, even though the swords only had as much power as Theressa’s fireballs.

However, Katarina controlled them in a way that made it impossible for him to underestimate them.

That was when the bullet was fired. The beam blasted open the water wall, penetrating the center of the wall. The water was dispersing to the side, but Timothy poured even more power into controlling the water.

The bullet gradually lost its momentum and stopped half a meter in front of him.

Even Timothy understood what this distance meant.

They had just fought, but this was the first time someone could penetrate his defense this deeply.

He could confirm that Auric Elfe... No, Katarina’s "friend" could indeed understand his element and even tell her about its weakness.

The swords continued, but the water he spread earlier managed to contain them, though not all of them.

One sword actually possessed even more power than the rest of the swords. It actually pierced through his water wall.

"!!!" Timothy turned around in shock. The sword hit his right arm.

His right arm fell to the ground as though it had been chopped off, but there was no blood splattered on the ground.

His arm turned into water and dissolved into the surrounding water. Meanwhile, his body regenerated the arm as though it were nothing.

"As expected of the extremely rare transformation, full-body transformation. It’s really annoying to fight one." Katarina smiled.

"However, you are the first one who is able to hit me in our first fight. I suppose I should commend you and... your friend." Timothy clapped.

More water surged from the ground and rose into two waves, hitting Katarina from both sides.

Katarina stomped. The ground was being pushed by the dark metal, carrying her up high.

"Well, you need to go to high ground in case of a tsunami." Katarina smiled and formed her power again. This time, she combined her sword and released all her bullets in all directions.

"But my water can flow up." Timothy waved his hand upward. The water started to climb the ground.

Katarina shot her blade this time.

Timothy ran toward Katarina while creating another water wall to contain the sword. At the same time, the bullets flew around the water wall and tried to suppress him.

As soon as the water wall contained the sword, Timothy leaped forward, hiding inside his own wall.

The bullets tried to penetrate the remaining wall, but it wasn’t enough to reach him.

Timothy realized one important fact. He didn’t have to spread his defense thin. Instead, he just focused on his water wall and protected himself from everything. He could also use part of his energy to attack her.

The arena had turned into his domain, so there was no way Katarina could return to the ground since she would be swallowed by it.

Katarina, on the other hand, didn’t choose to defend herself.

She recalled what Auric had said earlier.

"How badly do you want to win?"

Katarina’s expression turned solemn. "I want to win after doing everything possible, except getting a free ride."

Auric smiled, telling her the method to defeat Timothy.

Seeing the incoming energy, Katarina stomped the ground and created one more layer of defense. Without climbing over it, the water wouldn’t be able to reach her. At the same time, if she couldn’t defeat Timothy with this one attack, she would lose.

Katarina took a deep breath and used her Sanctuary. Instead of dividing them into swords and spheres, Katarina just formed the spheres.

As a result, she formed twenty spheres.

However, the twenty spheres were divided into two categories. The first ten spheres contained a powerful casing, which allowed them to withstand even the toughest metal. The other half were extremely unstable, as though they could explode at any moment.

"Fusion!" Katarina muttered and combined all twenty bullets into one big bullet.

The fusion process took quite a long time, but the moment she finished, the wall that surrounded her immediately crumbled, revealing what she had been preparing.

"Interesting. See if you can penetrate my defense." Timothy knew Katarina was concentrating everything she had on this one attack. If she couldn’t defeat him, the water would surround her and contain her completely.

Timothy waved his hand upward. The water surged and formed a thick wall.

The bullet blasted open the thick wall, but just as had happened previously, the bullet gradually lost its momentum.

In the end, the bullet stopped a meter in front of Timothy.

When everyone saw this, they couldn’t help but look away, knowing Katarina had lost.

The people from the UK started cheering.

Surprisingly, Katarina and Auric smiled at that moment. "We... won."

"!!!" Timothy widened his eyes in shock because the unstable energy inside her bullets suddenly exploded.

Boom!

The explosion blasted all the water away as ten bullets continued toward Timothy with renewed momentum.

"What?" Timothy was taken aback and tried to twist his body to avoid them, making sure they hit the parts that could be regenerated.

However, Katarina’s talent was originally in her control. That was why the bullets suddenly curved and hit him in the chest, in the head, and in the side of his stomach.

All three cores that maintained his transformation shattered.

’What? All the cores?’ Timothy was startled. How could she pinpoint the cores? He made the cores during the transformation, so the energy intensity from the transformation should be enough to hide these cores.

Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do. The remaining bullets that hadn’t been depleted yet curved toward Timothy, whose transformation had been undone.

The referee rushed to Timothy as soon as he noticed that the water climbing the elevated ground had lost its power and flowed back to the floor.

He stopped the bullets and announced the match. "Katarina Vasilyevna from Esfrata won!"

The people from the UK froze in the middle of their celebration. Meanwhile, the people from Esfrata were dumbfounded. They thought Katarina had lost. It was still understandable because Timothy had a full-body transformation and an absolute water element.

Katarina might be strong, but Timothy was simply more talented than her.

They didn’t expect much. They only wanted Katarina to fight in a way that didn’t disgrace Esfrata’s dignity.

Yet, she actually defeated Timothy.

Katarina jumped off the elevated ground with a smile on her face. "The weakness of the full-body transformation is the core. Unlike the others, whose core is in their heart, which will also kill them if it’s broken. The full-body transformation will lose all its power after all of its cores are broken."

Timothy was in disbelief, but he just smiled as though he were accepting his defeat. "The analysis from this friend of yours definitely helped you defeat me."

"I have to admit that, but it’s not illegal. People are even analyzing our powers right now, so..." Katarina shrugged.

"Hahaha. That’s true." Timothy laughed. He extended his hand. "It’s your victory. Congratulations."

Katarina smiled and shook his hand. "Oh, right?"

Katarina suddenly took out her business card. "If you need treatment, you can contact me. I will set up an appointment for you. I guess your drinking habit is not because you just like to drink..."

"Well, I do like drinking, but I guess you can say I came to like drinking." Timothy smiled weirdly. He would rather not talk about the past, but he wasn’t an addict before. His physical condition just happened to cause him to be like this.

"As he said. It must be hard for you to be plagued by that condition for a year already. Well, give me a call. Don’t forget to bring some money." Katarina waved her hand while walking away.