Chapter 528: The Snake versus the Claw

Once the introductions of the last four contestants had come to an end both Lily and Joshua were teleported out of the arena leaving only Madalyn and Dmitry. They were positioned so that there was one on each side of the arena with some space between them so that they'd have to close the distance between each other once the match started. This was a normal set up for the start of a match in the battle arena and it seemed like they were going straight into the start of the semifinals right away.

"Now to kick things off we'll have a match between the strongest mercenary and the leader of one the strongest guilds in the hub city. Both sides have rushed through the brackets without slowing down for a moment and now it's time for them to clash." Sarah said cheerfully as the countdown started for the match to begin. Each side had a minute to prepare for the fight and they both got to work right away. Although Dmitry had been very overbearing and confidant for most of the tournament he seemed to be taking Madalyn a lot more seriously than any of the other people he had faced outside of Adrian and to some degree the Raider's Guild leader.

Dmitry didn't back away from his spot knowing full well that he needed to be as close to Madalyn as possible when the match started. It was no secret that Madalyn would open up the match with a wide area of effect poison to put a timer on the match that was in her favor. Being further away from her would only make it take longer to approach her while the poison was in effect. Every second would count if Dmitry was put into that type of situation and he knew. Before the match even began Joshua noticed Dmitry's skin hardening and changing color to the bronze tinge that made his body hard to damage, but even so Joshua had no idea how Dmitry planned on dealing with the poison or how he planned on catching someone as fast as Madalyn. In a situation where Madalyn didn't have to come to him she would have all the advantages.

On the other side of the battle arena Madalyn was preparing for the match in her own way. She took out four canisters that she threw around her side of the battle arena. They were blinking at the moment as if they were counting down for something while she pulled another couple of containers that she held in one hand. She had her daggers at the ready on her waist as she tossed around a throwing knife in her free hand. When the countdown ended Madalyn was the first one to make a move as with two quick motions she tossed the two canisters high into the air while throwing the knife right at Dmitry.

The two canisters exploded into a thin green haze that covered the entire arena. It was a weaker poison with how spread out it would be, but it was unavoidable. The knife that Madalyn through slammed across Dmitry's shoulder, but it didn't even leave a scratch or break the skin. Because of this the poison on the knife wasn't able to affect him at all and Madalyn frowned at the idea that none of her throwing knives were going to have any effect against the Tank that stood before her. This meant the only way she was going to be able to break through his defense was up close with her larger more powerful daggers. She didn't need to be able to pierce through muscle or anything, but she needed to at least break skin for her poison to have some effect.

Although Madalyn's first plan was a no go the poison she had filled the air with was still an obstacle that Dmitry was going to have to deal with if he planned to last and win the fight. Dmitry grinned as he took a deep breath breathing in the poison, but Joshua noticed something right away that was different than normal when Dmitry started breathing in the poison. The poison in the air around Dmitry was thinning at a rapid pace as if his body was absorbing it in a similar fashion to how it was able to absorb the Raider's Guild leaders shadow magic. Joshua was stunned by this fact since the poison didn't seem to be having any major effects against Dmitry as he breathed it in. His movements were still the same and he wasn't growing any weaker. If anything his energy reserves were growing from absorbing so much energy.

Watching this Joshua frowned. He could see a green aura starting to form around Dmitry as If it was taking on the attributes of Madalyn's poison. The aura was extremely faint and couldn't be considered much more than the amount of aura that a martial artist could generate, but the moment Dmitry shot off the ground at speeds far faster than anyone had seen him move throughout the entire tournament it was obvious that the energy he was syphoning from Madalyn's poison was drastically increasing his stats. By this point the poison in the air was so thin that you could barely even see it around the center of the arena and only seemed to turn things in Dmitry's favor.

Madalyn was surprised by the turn of events, but she wasn't willing to believe her poisons would be completely useless against Dmitry. She took out both her daggers and started moving backwards as Dmitry shot after her leading him into her side of the arena. The canisters that she had set up before the match all went off at the same time covering her side of the arena with an even thicker wall of poisonous gas that Dmitry was going to have to run through. Madalyn was playing a dangerous game by doing this. If Dmitry absorbed all of the poison and didn't start getting hurt by it then he would just grow even stronger and faster than he was which would give him the opportunity to keep up with her movements. If that occurred then Madalyn would be stuck trying to fend him off with just her daggers being useful.

The fact that Dmitry didn't even have to actually touch her to syphon away energy meant that if he was able to stay in close range then she'd eventually be too tired to avoid his attacks anymore. Giving him a leg up in that situation would only make matters worse. Once Dmitry ran into the thick poisonous fog he once again started absorbing all of it as the faint aura around him grew thicker with an even deeper green tinge. By the time he finished absorbing in enough of the poisonous fog that everyone in the stadium could see both him and Madalyn, he was able to move at a speed that allowed him to keep up with Madalyn as he charged over.

Even though Dmitry had gotten stronger once again from taking in the poison Joshua could see specs of green start to form on his currently bronze skin. This was a good sign that the poison was taking effect judging by the wicked smile that graced Madalyn's face. Even so Dmitry didn't stop his mad dash toward her as he grinned as well and the second he got in close he struck out with an open hand in an attempt to grab onto Madalyn. She dodged around it as his hand slammed into the arena floor sending out a wave of cracks as the simple strike had so much destructive force that it was comparable to one of Joshua's swings with his aura charged scale blade.

For a time the two were dancing around each other with Madalyn trying to cut into Dmitry with her daggers, but he'd block her attacks with his blackened hands that were even more metallic and impenetrable than his bronze skin at the moment. Madalyn's daggers weren't able to break through the metallic skin of his hands, but based off of the way Dmitry was defending the rest of his body it was clear that they could break through his bronze skin which would only fastened the rate of the poison damaging his body. At this point there was a timer that everyone could see for how long the battle had to go on. By the time all of Dmitry's skin turned green he would start suffering from some of the more severe effects of Madalyn's poison outside of just pain. He had that much time to take her out and she was doing her best to avoid that.

At one point Dmitry was able to get a hold of Madalyn's shoulder and was about to pull her in to end the match quickly, but she sucked in a deep breath and spit out something from her mouth that forced Dmitry to back off. The moment the bright green substance hit the arena floor it started melting right through it. Madalyn had used some kind of corrosive venom and Dmitry's instincts were the only reason he was still in the match after avoiding it. By the time over half of Dmitry's body was covered in the green coloring Joshua noticed that Madalyn was starting to grow more sluggish as well. Being so close to Dmitry for such a long amount of time was sucking away all of her strength.

At this point it was a matter of who would falter first and at the speed the poison was spreading on Dmitry it was likely that Madalyn was going to tire out before Dmitry succumbed to the poison. With that in mind she stopped trying to just strike him with her daggers and focused on avoiding his attempts to hit or grab her. The entire time she kept spewing out poison or tossing more canisters that he'd absorb causing the poison to spread faster. The only issue with this was that he was getting faster and that eventually caught up to Madalyn.

Dmitry finally got his chance to get ahold of her as he reached out for her through one of the clouds of poison being shot right in his face. Madalyn was going to avoid him but she was taken by surprise as he swept out her legs from underneath her. While she was falling over he tried to grab her by the neck but she placed her arm in front of it causing Dmitry's massive hand to wrap around both. Even though Madalyn was put in a bad position Dmitry wasn't much better off. His skin was nearly completely green and he was coughing up dark blood from the poison starting to damage his insides. Madalyn wrapped her legs around his arm up to his shoulder and used her free arm to stab one of her daggers into his bronze skin. It didn't dig deep, but based off of the way a dark green coloration started to form around the area along with flaring veins that were crimson red it was clear the poison was reacting faster.

Dmitry coughed up even more blood while roaring from the pain, but he didn't stop his strangle hold on Madalyn. Instead he slammed her into the arena floor causing Madalyn to shout in pain from her back getting slammed into the ground. She tried to force the dagger in faster and even prepared to shoot venom at Dmitry's face, but he wrapped his other hand around her head covering her mouth. He started to absorb the mana from Madalyn's body which quickly took away the last reserves of strength she had left. Her body finally slumped over after Dmitry increased the force around her neck and then vanished from the arena. With this Dmitry had won a close match.