Novel Full Chapter 202: Cedric Vs Fidelis [Final]: Adapt
Chapter 202: Cedric Vs Fidelis [Final]: Adapt
BOOM!
Cedric forced himself to a stop as he recovered from another palm strike. Fortunately, this one had mostly been blocked by an ice wall.
Fidelis glanced at his palm and noticed the ice spreading across it. A golden glow soon enveloped his hand, and the ice melted away almost instantly.
"Yeah," Cedric muttered as he stood up straight, "I didn’t expect that to work either."
It had been over five minutes since they started, and he hadn’t even landed a single hit.
A fact that was even more embarrassing since he very clearly knew that his opponent was holding back.
Fidelis’s robe had no wrinkles on it; he was still moving at the same measured pace, and he was still using the same controlled palm strikes.
And to make it worse, he was still smiling.
Which meant Cedric hadn’t pushed him far enough to require anything more.
That was the more annoying part.
He looked at Fidelis and tried something different.
Cedric launched Ice spikes from three directions simultaneously, forcing Fidelis to either move or block all three at once.
In response, Fidelis blocked all three at once.
Both palms and a light construct he produced between his forearms that Cedric hadn’t seen him use before, absorbing all three strikes without moving his feet.
"Hm," Cedric let out.
He tried again, this time lower, targeting the feet the way he had before.
Fidelis simply lifted both feet slightly as the ice passed beneath them and let it go under him.
Someone in the crowd let out an impressed whistle, but the rest were silent, especially the fourth years.
They knew what Cedric was capable of, or at least enough to understand how terrifying he was.
And yet, the Church’s representative was facing him with little apparent effort. They couldn’t help but wonder what kind of monster could make someone like Cedric seem ordinary.
Cedric clicked his tongue in annoyance before he charged directly, in close range.
Fidelis simply stepped to the side in response to his charge, and the next second, the palm came around from a completely different angle than every previous strike.
The attack slammed into his ribs this time, launching him off his feet again and into the barrier.
BOOM.
"I advise you to give up," Fidelis said as he watched the opponent get back up, "after all, it’s very clear that you stand no chance against me."
"Is that so?" Cedric muttered, though from the way he was certain, the crowd was certain that something was broken.
Most thought he should give up, especially when it was very clear that his opponent was, as Fidelis himself said, someone he stood no chance against.
Instead, he suddenly started chuckling, finally figuring out his opponent’s staring fighting style.
Fidelis was reading his approach and positioning the strike to meet it from the least expected direction relative to where Cedric was already committed to moving.
Which was, Cedric frowned slightly, a fighting system.
He didn’t recognize it as any type of fighting system that spirit mages in Avera used, but it was a fighting system nonetheless.
And he had finally figured out how it worked.
"Let’s go again," Cedric said as he coated his fists with ice.
He preferred swords, but for this situation, his fists would do just fine.
He rushed in again, an action that seemed dumb in the eyes of the crowd.
Just as expected, the sequence of events from earlier repeated itself as Fidelis calmly moved to the side.
But just before his palm could connect with Cedric’s ribs again, a wall of ice suddenly appeared between them.
Fidelis’s palm hit the wall, and the ice on it immediately spread, restraining him for a second.
And that second was all Cedric needed.
Quickly pivoting himself, his ice-coated fists slammed into his restrained opponent, launching him off his feet and towards the barrier.
"Got you," Cedric said with a smile as his hit landed.
The crowd immediately reacted to Cedric’s first attack landing.
The fourth years who had gone quiet earlier were back, the North’s supporters were back, a fight that had looked completely one-sided, suddenly running in the complete opposite direction.
Or at least that’s what they hoped anyway.
Fidelis glanced down at his hands that had been restrained by the ice earlier, before looking back at Cedric with what seemed to be genuine surprise.
"How interesting," he muttered.
He didn’t have time to think too much about it because his opponent was soon upon him again.
Again, he easily dodged the initial attack, but the moment he tried countering, an ice wall would come between them.
And then Cedric’s fist would follow immediately after.
The attacks felt heavier each time until Fidelis was also lifted off his feet and slammed into the barrier.
But Cedric was far from done, you see, coating his fists in ice was not just for show.
Every hit he successfully landed left a patch of ice on his opponent, small enough to go unnoticed until it accumulated enough.
He extended his hand, and the ice patches suddenly enveloped Fidelis from neck down.
"I guess the win is mine," Cedric said as he looked at his restrained opponent with a smile.
Fidelis’s smile was completely gone, replaced by a darker look.
His eyes suddenly started glowing golden, and his entire demeanor suddenly changed, so much so that a heavy pressure fell on Cedric’s shoulders.
Cracks immediately appeared on the ice encasing him. But he suddenly froze, turned towards a certain direction, before all the pressure was suddenly withdrawn.
The change was so sudden that even Cedric doubted if he had felt anything at all.
"I surrender," Fidelis suddenly said, his smile returning as if nothing had happened.
The ice encasing him crumbled as he stood up, completely composed, and walked toward the arena exit without another word.
Cedric watched him go with a frown on his face.
He wasn’t the one who released Fidelis, which meant that he could quite easily escape the restraints.
So why had he given up?
Before Cedric could think too much, the herald’s voice was soon heard again.
"CEDRIC ARDENT WINS THE SECOND MATCH!"