Chapter 511: Joshua versus Shawn Part 1

After the match between Lilly and the gunman there was only one fight left before Joshua's own match against Shawn. The surprise of having Cinder appear in the arena made the previous fight the most exciting one so far for the crowd. The devastation that Cinder was able to create throughout the entire arena was enough to put Lilly higher up in the betting rankings that were going on throughout the tournament. At the moment she was fifth on the rankings behind Dmitry, Joshua, Laura, and Madalyn. Joshua knew that Lily was an even bigger threat then what she had shown throughout the tournament up to this point since the only powerful beast she had shown off so far was Cinder.

The last match Joshua had to sit back and watch was one between Madalyn and a swordsman that had upset a number one seed along the way to this portion of the tournament. The man was level eighty which meant he wouldn't have to deal with any level suppression, but against someone like Madalyn Joshua didn't see any hope for a normal swordsman. If it was a contest of skills the swordsman might have been able to put up a bit of a fight, but even then Madalyn was amazing with her pair of daggers at this point.

Joshua didn't get the chance to see a close ranged conflict that everyone seemed to be expecting with the way Madalyn treated the fight. Instead of wasting time judging her opponent and figuring things out in a long drawn out match, Madalyn decided to end things the second the countdown ended to start the match. The swordsman dashed forward using a flash step to try to close the distance between them as quickly as possible, but that form of attack fell right into Madalyn's favor. The moment the match started Madalyn took a deep breath as the swordsman was only a few feet away from her at this point. She took one step backwards and slightly avoided the quick slash attack that was aimed at her throat and then let loose the buildup of poisonous gas that she had been holding back.

In an instant the swordsman in front of her was blasted in the face with poisonous fumes that not only did what their name suggested but also kicked up enough force to knock the swordsman back and allow her to casually leap away from her opponent. The moment the large cloud of poisonous gas started to fade away everyone could see the condition that the swordsman was left in. Madalyn hadn't pulled out a single weapon and had already won the fight based off of the coloring of her opponent and the fact that he couldn't even move. The poison she used was a mixture that induced heavy paralysis which was a nightmare for any close ranged fighter along with a powerful poison that slowly ate away at anyone unlucky enough to get in contact with it.

The poison was a powerful mixture that slowly took out the swordsman as he stood in the middle of the arena unable to move while glaring in Madalyn's direction. The poison wasn't nearly as vindictive as the one Natalie used earlier which was why the swordsman wasn't currently shouting out in pain, but was instead silently standing there. Eventually the poison ran its course and the swordsman was taken out of the arena without being able to do anything about it. The fight wasn't nearly as exciting as the previous one had been but it did show off just how dangerous Madalyn could be in not only a one on one fight, but a fight against several people. Her poison effected large areas and was incredibly difficult to deal with.

With the match finished Joshua could already see the short countdown until his own match with Shawn starting. Joshua let out a small sigh before stretching a bit so he could be prepared to fight right away the moment he was brought into the arena. When the countdown finished he was brought before a cheering crowd while Sarah was on the mike introducing both contestants.

"In the next match we have a fight between two people who have been undefeated throughout the entire tournament and haven't come across anyone that could stop their paths forward. Now they will be forced to fight one another. In this match we have the mysterious mage Shawn who has finished every match in a blink, up against the Fenrir Guild Leader Joshua that crushes all of his foes with overwhelming power. Who will come out on top?" Sarah said getting the crowd to explode into loud cheers. After her little speech Joshua and Shawn both appeared in the arena and focused on each other as the countdown began.

Shawn didn't seem like the type to talk as he stood in the same spot waiting for the countdown to come to an end. Joshua wasn't going to be the one to start a conversation either under the circumstances and was focused on figuring out how he should start the battle. After seeing so many of Shawn's fights up to this point Joshua still didn't have a clear idea of what unique job Shawn had. All he knew was that he had some sort of ability that allowed him to close in on his opponents quickly without giving them much time to react. It was an annoying disadvantage to have going into the fight, but Joshua knew he could deal with it in several ways.

The first way Joshua could think of to get around Shawn's sudden close in capabilities would be to blink away himself or to use an aura blast to create distance between himself and his opponent. Joshua had about four ways to create distance between his opponent and himself in quick successions, but he'd rather avoid using so many skills at the start of the fight and reserve them for when Shawn was forced to show off something new. The second way to handle the situation was to start out the fight using his aura shield which would make it impossible for Shawn to hurt him at all for a brief period of time, but that idea was shrugged off as well since it was a trump card he wanted to keep for certain situations as well.

In the end Joshua decided on a particular way to handle the situation and he had done so just in time as the amount of time before the countdown ended was a matter of seconds. Joshua took out his scale blade and had it planted in the arena floor as he held the grip with both hands. It was a position that left him wide open, but at the same time would allow him to reach out and grab Shawn if he came in close like Joshua was expecting him to. At the moment he wasn't flaring his aura, but he was allowing his battle intent to roll over Shawn to make him as tense as possible. Joshua was doing everything he could to unsettle Shawn before the match even started without using any of his own trump cards. The only reaction Joshua could see was Shawn's hand tensing up as it gripped harder on to the dagger he was holding. That was all Joshua needed to know that things were going the way he wanted them to go.

The moment the countdown ended Shawn used his aura sense to keep track of Shawn and it was a good thing he did, because Shawn was on the move. At first Joshua was expecting Shawn to blink towards him like he had done with all of his other opponents, but instead Joshua noticed that Shawn's approach was weird. From what Joshua could see it looked as if Shawn had simply took a step forward and appeared right by his side. Even with his aura sense Joshua could sense the exact same thing, but what through him off was the fact that Joshua's own reaction speed seemed to be extremely slowed down. It felt as if he was moving in slow motion while Shawn was moving at his normal speed. Joshua knew in that moment that he was under the effects of some kind of soul beast ability.

It was a weird feeling, but Joshua now had a good idea of why Shawn was able to sweep through his competition so easily. If Joshua tried to react with his first instinct then he'd try to move his body so that he could block the incoming attack, but under the circumstances Shawn could easily get in a vital hit before Joshua would have been able to defend himself. The right choice for most people would be to use a skill to avoid the incoming attack, but skills had cooldowns and Joshua was certain that Shawn could do the same thing again in short order from what he had seen in previous matches.

Instead of wasting time running away from the incoming attack Joshua could sense coming as the dagger was aimed upward towards his exposed neck, Joshua stood his ground as his aura cloak flared into being with Joshua flaunting his aura in full. The powerful force that his sudden giant surge in aura sent Shawn sprawling away. Even so Shawn wasn't going to let his opportunity to end the match quickly go that easily. With his aura cloak up Joshua could feel that the slowness that his whole body seemed to be stuck under wasn't as bad, but he was still moving a lot slower than Shawn. This gave Shawn the opportunity to close the distance once more as Joshua tried to turn his body towards him only to sense Shawn appear on his other side as if he had teleported once again with a single step.

Shawn was going for the neck once more, but this time he was already accustomed to the pressure given off by Joshua's aura. The dagger was positioned to stab directly into the side of Joshua's neck and even if Joshua's regular aura cloak could slow it down it wouldn't prevent the dagger from breaking through completely. When Joshua turned his head and started to pull his scale blade out of the ground to cut down Shawn as quickly as possible he noticed a small smile underneath Shawn's hood that made it look like Shawn thought he had won the fight. Joshua simply smiled in turn as his aura cloak suddenly thickened as he used his aura hardening.

The aura cloak became so dense that the moment the dagger stabbed into it the small blade was stopped well before it could get anywhere near Joshua's neck. Shawn frowned as he tried to leap away, but was forced to blink away once again as Joshua swung his scale blade in the spot that he previously was. The crowd was stunned by the short exchange after finally seeing someone survive Shawn's first series of attacks. Joshua hefted his scale blade up and swung it over his shoulder as he turned towards wear Shawn was standing. From the frown underneath the hood Joshua could tell that Shawn was expecting the match to be over at this point, but instead it had just begun.