Chapter 59: Blood-red [1]
Norian and the enraged noble had a stare-down for a few seconds, their powers dominating the entire arena, suffocating those who still managed to remain conscious.
The composed expression of the vice president only seemed to enrage the noble even more, as he teleported toward him at incredible speed and launched a punch laced with so much attack power that it could make an entire city experience a devastating earthquake.
Norian had already braced himself for the impact, as he immediately transferred his blood-red energy to his fist and sent it forward to counterattack.
The attacks connected, resulting in an explosive sound that shook the entire place at once. The shockwave that was released was so strong that it caused cracks to appear on the tough structures of the coliseum.
The Lunaris noble did not hold back and launched yet another attack of the same magnitude as the first. His fist was so fast that even most of the high-ranking hunters on the scene would not be able to follow, even if they used all their focus.
But once again, Norian counterattacked.
I need to lead him out of here and give the others a chance to evacuate everyone from the arena, Norian thought.
He acted quickly, controlling his energy and shooting himself hundreds of meters into the sky. Just as he expected, the Lunaris charged after him.
Norian did not wait for him to attack this time, as he contoured a massive ball of his blood-red energy and sent it blasting toward him.
But the Lunaris noble punched through the massive ball as though it was nothing and closed the distance midair.
Nonetheless, Norian did not actually mean for that attack to succeed; he only needed a short distraction to disorient his opponent for a little bit. Just as the noble closed the distance, he delivered a punch with a strong gale of wind drifting after it.
Because the noble’s vision had been distracted by the red energy ball, he could not brace himself in time to block or counterattack, and the punch landed perfectly.
With a boom, the noble rocketed toward the crowd, causing the air to roar as wind parted at an unnaturally fast rate.
The noble clashed into the roof of the coliseum, the force at which he fell causing a crater to first appear before the whole area he had landed on crumbled into debris, and he plunged deep into it. Debris scattered across, and dust created a cloud over the destruction.
Thankfully, the area he had landed in was one of the sections of the coliseum that was empty, and thus, aside from property destruction, there was no loss of life.
Even at that moment, all the high-ranking hunters present could be seen flying around with a couple of unconscious trainees in their grasp as they moved them far away from the area that had now turned into a chaotic battlefield.
Crimson could be seen carrying the semi-conscious body of Marlon. With the agility of a B-rank hunter that she was, she zipped through the chaos.
(AN: High-ranking hunters are B-rank, guardians are A and S-rank, and seekers are SS-rank hunters. Currently, only Axel Storm has reached SS, and in the current scene, Norian is the only S-rank hunter.)
Marlon, who could barely remain conscious at this moment, weakly observed the terrifying battle between the two powerhouses. But unfortunately, while he would love to watch and experience the might of absolute strength in play, he was too weak.
He shut his eyes weakly and fell into the slumber he had struggled to hold back for a long time, allowing Crimson to take him to safety.
All around the two of them, there were plenty of other high-ranking hunters on the scene, moving at an alarming rate, carrying two to three unconscious bodies with them. Most of the high-ranking hunters had not been present at the competition earlier, as they had been stationed by Norian to act at moments like this.
Fortunately, none of the other Lunaris attacked them to stop them from leaving, as they were all focused on the fight of their leader and the red-haired human powerhouse. Currently, they had stern looks on their faces, watching the area their leader had crashed into.
Norian observed the movement with satisfaction.
With everyone out of the way, there was no reason for him to hold back his powers anymore.
His eyes darted toward the place the noble had crashed. The destruction was visible; high-ranking hunters would be critically wounded with such intensity, and normal hunters would die. But he knew the noble was still unscathed, and just as if his thoughts were a cue, the noble shot up into the sky toward him.
"I’ll kill you!"
His roar shook the very fibers of the area, spreading like the aftermath of an explosion, causing everyone who heard it to tremble.
The distance between them was closed in a split second, and the two of them began another round of exchanging attacks.
The arena was filled with the explosiveness of their powers.
The two of them moved like lightning in the sky, zapping from one point to another, attacking, counterattacking, and defending.
After each successful attack, either one of them was flung into the sky or sent crashing into the infrastructures below.
Norian had taken the most damage in the battle, but he still had enough stamina to continue the fight.
The aftermath of their attacks shook the world around them. It was as though two deities were fighting, and all other weaker humans could only watch in fear and pray they would not die from the aftermath of their powerful attacks.
After only a few minutes of their battle, the vast coliseum, capable of holding more than two hundred thousand people, now lay as a demolished shell of its previous self, and every other structure around them was in the same state—shattered.
Fortunately, Norian had expected the Lunaris to act up beforehand. Among the many orders he had given the day before, evacuating everyone in the area was one of them. With this, he was less worried about hurting others and could focus entirely on his fight.
I still have enough stamina and health points to continue this for about one hour, Norian thought as he observed the noble rocketing toward him, both still floating in the sky.