Chapter 532: Joshua versus Dmitry Part 1

The moment Joshua arrived in the arena he was standing directly across from Dmitry just like with all of the other fights he had participated in. There was a new, much shorter timer with sixty seconds on it that appeared in the middle of the arena for everyone to see and it started counting down the moment both contestants arrived. Usually this timer was there for both contestants to have a chance to prepare for the match, but both Joshua and Dmitry ignored it as they strode forward and stopped at the middle of the arena right across from each other. Both of the wanted to avoid any signs of weakness and both were close combat fighters that didn't rely on traps or distance all that much.

"I'm not surprised to see that you were the one to reach this point in the end." Dmitry said with a big grin as he seemed happy by the outcome. "I was a little worried that your partner with all of her beast companions might have given you a challenge, but I guess the same could be said from that poison mistress of your alliance when it came to my own match. If she could have held on for a little longer I would have lost."

"She's crazy and I'm sure she's already thinking of several ways to defeat you if you end up fighting again in the future." Joshua said with a casual grin. "Besides if I had made one mistake in my own match I would have been left wide open after my little stunt. I'm not going to pretend like the path here was easy."

"That's a good thing." Dmitry said as he started cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders. "The more challenging our opponents the stronger we become. Besides the strength of our hub city is not just you or me, in the end we will all need to be strong to regain our world."

"True I'm sure other hub cities out there are thinking along the same lines. Our guilds may struggle for supremacy, but in the end we all have the same goal. Eventually we'll all have to get on the same page and I'm betting there will be other tournaments that will allow us to go against other hub cities. I can't wait until then, but for now I better focus on you." Joshua said as he held his scale blade out in front of him. "Let's make this a match to remember."

"Hmm, will you be fighting me with your blade? I figured that we'd take a more hands on approach to this."

"The man who gave me this blade would scoff at me if I didn't at least try to use it in such an important match, but if you push me hard enough I'll have no problem changing strategies. Until then though…" Joshua said as he took a couple of swings with his scale blade. "…I'll rely on this beauty."

"Suit yourself, but given what you've said all I need to do is force you into a fist fight. I like the odds of that happening." Dmitry said as his skin started to turn bronze and his hands turned a metallic sheen of black. They both stood at the ready as the countdown came to an end. Five… Four…Three…Two…One….

The instant the match started off both sides charged directly towards each other. It didn't take long for them to meet since they both stood close to the center of the arena from the start. Joshua already had his aura activated knowing full well it didn't matter whether he used it or not since Dmitry could absorb it from him just by getting close. Joshua concentrated his aura so that it would stay close to his body and more connected, at least in this way it would be much harder for it to be siphoned off. One thing Joshua was aware of from watching all of Dmitry's fights was that the more his opponents used energy based abilities or wide area of effect skills, the easier it was for him to drain it away.

The poison that Madalyn stabbed into Dmitry with her daggers took much longer to siphon away and grow stronger from than the massive cloud of poison that covered the arena. The same could be said from The Raider's Guild leader's shadow magic or any of the mages he had faced throughout the tournaments large area of effect spells. This fact was a sign that Joshua could prolong the process of Dmitry trying to drain away his power by simply concentrating his aura instead of letting it leak out and surge into the surroundings. The concentrated aura would strengthen his attacks anyways and he would need his all to win this fight.

The moment Joshua got close enough he used the reach of his scale blade to gain an advantage as he swung his aura coated blade directly towards Dmitry's side. It came as no surprise to Joshua that Dmitry immediately used one of his hands to intercept the blade. Although the bronze skin would work on smaller weapons used by weaker opponents there was no way it could take the brunt of Joshua's aura coated scale blade without leaving some sort of major injury. When Dmitry tried to stop the scale blade with one hand he realized right away that he had made a mistake. Not only did the force of the blow amount to much more than he was expecting, it also left a decent cut on his hand.

Dmitry smiled at this but reacted quickly as he twisted with the force of the blow while letting the blade pass by. The quick movement allowed him to strike out with a kick that Joshua avoided. Dmitry however wasn't going to let Joshua create any space between them. He moved in quick and kept striking out with his metallic hands which either tried to grab or punch Joshua constantly. Joshua knew full well that it wasn't a good idea to block Dmitry's blows with anything but his scale blade which made it harder to counter with strikes of his own. Even so Joshua would occasionally create space between them with a short blink that would put him in the perfect position to strike back.

The fight was like a blur of strikes between two giants as Joshua stray swings would sometimes tear up the arena floor, or Dmitry's strikes would create loud bangs whenever they slammed into Joshua's scale blade. As the match raged on the crowd got into the feeling of the high octane fighting. Although to Joshua and Dmitry it seemed like they were just feeling each other out at this point, to the crowd it almost looked like two blurs clashing nonstop for anyone that wasn't an explorer themselves. Although the fight was fairly even each side was having their own troubles. For Dmitry it was becoming clear that blocking the sword was piling up small injuries all over his metallic hands, along with the occasional larger injury that occurred whenever Joshua got past Dmitry's guard with a well-timed blink.

For Joshua the issue he was dealing with was the fact that he could feel the drain on his aura reserves from Dmitry's ability even if it was only a minor amount up to this point. Unlike all of the other opponents that Dmitry had faced so far, Joshua's aura reserves was more comparable to a powerful beast than your usual explorer. Even so Joshua was forced to avoid using any of his more devastating skills since they mostly relied on his aura. Wasting his aura in such a way would be useless unless he knew for sure that the strike would be enough to gravely injure Dmitry. Otherwise he might as well be offering up a buffet of energy for the battle crazed man to enjoy.

Realizing the situation wasn't really getting him anywhere Joshua decided it was time to gain some distance and rethink his approach. Dmitry was as relentless as ever as he used his hand to knock aside Joshua's scale blade and tried to grab hold of his neck. Joshua tilted back just avoiding Dmitry's reach and kicked out with an aura empowered foot to Dmitry's chest. The blow wouldn't do any real damage, but it was powerful enough to send Dmitry well across the arena from the power of it and the fact that Dmitry didn't have his feet set at the time.

Gaining room to breathe Joshua shrugged his shoulders and observed Dmitry for a moment who was also doing the same. For a moment Joshua didn't really notice much, but when he looked at the small cuts all over Dmitry's hands he realized that the cuts were healing. They were healing slowly, but they were healing all the same and that wasn't an ability that Joshua had seen from Dmitry throughout the entire tournament. If he had this ability Joshua was certain that he would have used it against some of the more troublesome fights like the one with Madalyn. The only reason he wouldn't have used such an ability would be if he couldn't in the first place.

That's when Joshua realized something important. Dmitry wasn't only able to drain away energy, but also use the energy in a similar way to whoever he took it from. That's why he was healing, it was a property of Joshua's aura. It also explained why he was able to survive through Madalyn's poisons for so long. Absorbing some of the attributes of her energy would of course make him more resistant to her poisons. The other thing that Joshua realized was the metallic sheen around Dmitry's hands had now spread past his wrist and was starting to cover parts of his forearm. The more energy he took from Joshua the more Dmitry would gain, that was becoming clearer. Joshua would only grow weaker the longer the match goes on while Dmitry would get to the point where Joshua wouldn't even be able to hurt him with his scale blade.

Before Joshua could even try to figure out a way to get around the consequences of this discovery Dmitry was on the attack once more.