Chapter 525: Fenrir Guild Leader versus World Government Guild Leader Part 1

After the short display of power by Madalyn and Henry, three of the quarterfinalist had been decided. The only match left was the one between Joshua and Charles, a match between the rising star of the alliance and the face of the World Government Guild. People were looking out for this match for more than just the entertainment factor. Many of the guilds around the hub city were looking towards this match as the way to gauge the top of the alliance against the top of the World Government Guild. It was already clear for everyone to see with half of the quarter finalist at this point being members of the alliance that there was a disparity between the two powers when it came to top class talent. Now they were looking to see the difference between the strength of the leadership of both of the powerful guild groups.

It didn't take long for Joshua to be summoned into the arena and he could see Charles standing not all that far away. Charles immediately pulled out his sword and shot gun, but Joshua knew that he had other weapons that he could use in combat if it came down to it. Joshua took out his scale blade in response but there was still a little more than three minutes left before the countdown would end and the fight would start.

"I've had interest in seeing just how strong the top of the alliance is for a while now. I've been wondering why a smaller group of guilds was able to accomplish what we at our numbers weren't able to do so quickly." Charles said as he aimed his blade towards Joshua. "Now I can see why that is the case after this tournament. The gap in quality between the alliance and everyone else is just too much."

"Well you can thank your brother for at least four members of our main group in the alliance joining us. After all they previously worked with the World Government Guild. I believe you faced one of them last round." Joshua said with a shrug at the compliment.

"That is something I'm well aware of. My brother has made a ton of mistakes that have stunted the growth of the World Government Guild, but now he's no longer in a position to be a problem." Charles said with a look of disgust. "With this I hope any grudges they have with us can be forgiven. All I can say is that we won't be going down the same path he was taking us."

"That's good to hear, but don't expect any change on our end. The alliance will still be working independently of all other guilds in the hub city. I just hope we won't be at each other's throats in the future with you at the lead." Joshua said with a small smile. "From what I can tell both Laura and Madalyn believe as long as you don't go attacking any of our territories you won't have to worry about us coming after you."

"Good. The development of civilization shouldn't be in the hands of one group in my opinion. I hope that we can work together in the future for some matters but competition should only further strengthen humanity as a whole." Charles said before looking towards the countdown timer. "For now it's time to focus on this fight. I won't be holding anything back against someone like you."

Joshua grinned in response as he held his scale blade in front of him prepared to go on the attack as his aura cloak formed into being with a little flare to entertain the crowd. "I won't be holding back either. I'd like to see what exactly you can do." With those last words both sides were ready to charge in and start the fight as the countdown ended and the arena opened up for them to go at each other. Both sides charged across the arena with their swords ready to clash. Joshua used his aura clad foot to kick off the ground to increase his speed as he soared towards Charles, while Charles used his shotgun blast to increase his speed as he flew towards Joshua.

When the two sides reached each other Joshua swung downward with a full forced cleave aiming directly for the direction that Charles was headed. Charles wasn't dumb enough to make the fight a contest of strength knowing full well that Joshua outclassed people that could knock him around like a rag doll when it came to pure strength. Instead Charles planned on making the match about speed and technique as much as he possibly could. Instead of trying to block Joshua's attack and take the brunt of the blow. He twisted his body so that he'd just barely avoid the strike. At the same time he used his own sword to hit the side of Joshua's and push it off course in an attempt to create an opening to go after, but instead of getting an opening Charles was knocked back by the force of Joshua's aura clad scale blade slamming into the arena floor.

Charles quickly used his shot gun to charge back at Joshua as he attempted to attack him from the side, but he was caught off guard when Joshua lifted and twisted his scale blade like he was using a shield to block his blow. In the first couple of exchanges between the two both sides were able to learn something about the other. From Joshua's perspective he was able to tell right away that he was at a disadvantage when it came to both swordsmanship and movement. In regards to swordsmanship Charles had that natural skill going about him that was similar to Adrian. Joshua didn't quite put him at the same level as Adrian, but he was a step up from someone like Victor or even the more experienced Ivan. When it came to movement Although Joshua could move in quick burst he could only do so a limited amount of times in comparison to Charles who could shoot off a shotgun blast at any moment to change his trajectory while moving around the arena at insane speeds.

From Charles point of view he was not only outmatched when it came to strength and explosive ability, but also in understanding of combat which came as a surprise to him. Charles had no problem with being outclassed when it came to strength since that was obvious and something he could easily get around with the right tactics, but he was shocked that he had come across someone of his own age that had a better understanding of combat itself. The way that Joshua was able to switch from being aggressive at the start of the match to completely defensive while reading his opponent the entire time and not leaving a single true opening was surprising. It took experience to know not only when to change styles in the flow of combat, but also to bait an opponent while reading their movements a step ahead.

Both sides were surprised by the other as they backed off from one another and started circling each other preparing to go at each other once again. It was still the point in the match where they were trying to understand each other so that they could know what to aim for to when the fight throughout the flow of combat. This time around Charles was the first one to make a move as he dashed towards Joshua while using his shot gun to increase his speed and shift directions over and over so that Joshua wouldn't know what direction he was planning to attack from. Joshua simply stood his ground holding his scale blade in a defensive position. He didn't have to worry about blocking all strikes with his aura cloak up he just needed to make sure to defend his vitals so that Charles wouldn't be able to injure him seriously.

The moment Charles sword came in aiming for his neck Joshua slightly shifted his scale blade to block the blow. Even with all of the momentum and force that Charles had built up as he charged over the strike didn't make Joshua budge at all as the arena floor beneath him started to crack from the strain of their clash. Charles didn't stop there as he pulled up his shotgun and started firing off a blast directly towards Joshua's head which he was able to block by bringing his scale blade up. Before Joshua could attempt to counter the attack Charles had already been moved away by the knockback of the shotgun getting him just out of the reach of Joshua.

This form of attack was an obvious strategy by Charles to allow him to go in and out of the reach of Joshua whenever he wanted while getting in pot shots that could do some real damage if Joshua didn't keep up his guard. Although the strategy kept Charles safe for the most part he knew that it wasn't going to get him anywhere and at some point he was going to end up making a mistake if he had to keep getting in close without taking any real risk. Joshua had the same thoughts in mind as he did his best impersonation of Tank that he could possibly do. He would turtle up and defend himself to the best of his abilities until he was given a true opportunity to take his opponent down. He didn't have to use any flashy skills if this was the approach his opponent was going to take and the only energy he was expending was the small amount that he had to for keeping up his basic aura cloak. At this point he could keeping fighting like this for well over a day without any breaks and he doubted it was going to take that long for Charles to make a mistake.

The next time Charles charged in with a similar fashion but this time he feigned aiming for Joshua's neck once more before using his shot gun at the last second to shift to the other side of Joshua and got slightly behind him. He was going to slice Joshua across the back with his blade, but immediately brought his shotgun up in a blocking position as Joshua kicked out behind him while turning around to see Charles. The kick was too fast and sudden for Charles to dodge which was why he was blocking instead. The moment Joshua's kick landed on Charles's shotgun he was sent flying across the arena before landing on his feet. Joshua could see that he was discomforted by the sudden strike as he coughed a few times from getting hit near the chest even if most of the force of the blow was blocked by his shotgun.

Charles looked down at his shotgun and saw the horrible condition that it was in as the barrel had been completely bent and parts of the gun had been shattered. He tossed the gun aside while bringing another similar one out of his inventory that he hooked to his waist. Charles then put away his sword and pulled out a spear and a shield. The spear was similar to the one that he had used against Natalie so Joshua was preparing for things to get more serious.