Chapter 720

（Master. Let's go）

『Yeah!』

Fran readied my blade, clad in the power of the chaos killer, and rushed towards Sibylla.

「Haaaaah!」

「Come on!」

She feinted a blow to the legs and then changed mid-trajectory, aiming at Sibylla's head like a kendo master slashing at the face mask.

The speed and sharpness of the blows were the same as before. But the sword she was holding was completely different.

I was radiating a vicious power drawn from the blessing.

My blade dives straight into Sibylla's head and… misses.

「Tchi!」

Sibylla twisted herself around in a desperate attempt to avoid me. This was the same person who never even tried to take any significant evasive action until now.

As a result, my sword blade slammed right into Sibylla's left shoulder.

A little while ago, it would have caused a shallow cut and that would have been the end of it.

But that was not the case this time.

「Impossible!」

「Yes!」

『Yeah!』

Sibylla's left arm flew through the air and blood spurted from the wound. It is the most damage we've dealt the entire match.

The lost arm slowly began to regenerate from the shoulder. However, unlike before, the speed of regeneration clearly slowed down.

「What the…… That sword?!」

『Keep up the pressure!』

「Nn! Tah!」

「Damn!」

For the first time since the match began, Sibylla was on the run. Her movements were truly animalistic, as she abandoned her offense and concentrated on evasion.

The attacks that we thought would hit were avoided by a hair's length. Sibylla didn't seem to feel any pain, since her movements did not show any sign of slowing down even as the damage accumulated.

Even so, it was impossible to avoid all the attacks from Fran and me, who were going at full power.

「Shhh!」

「Wha? Teleportation!」

I used the teleportation I had been holding back up to this point, and piled up damage by taking advantage of Sibylla's surprise. The number of non-regenerating wounds were increasing, even if we could not deal a one-hit-kill.

『How about this one!』

「Even the magic is strange……!」

I unleash a lightning spell, with the image of imbuing the blessing of the Chaos Goddess into it. It doesn't do much damage, but the spell wasn't completely nullified either.

Sibylla's movements were momentarily blocked, and Fran's slash cut right through her.

Can we push through like this? Just after that thought passed through my head, Fran took a big leap backwards.

「Urrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!」

Sibylla's whole body is overflowing with red magic power. No, not just that. Blood was gushing out alongside with that magic power.

The mixture of red blood and red magic power emitted an intense red glow.

The sight of the red liquid dancing around Sibylla was somewhat enchanting. However, despite its beauty, I felt a sense of danger like no other.

The blood was not the only strange thing, Sibylla's own appearance had transformed. All the muscles in her body have grown a size larger, and her teeth and nails have visibly lengthened into fangs and claws. Her eyes have also changed to resemble those of a reptile.

It was similar to the half-dragonkin I'd seen before. Could it be that she was not a pure blooded human?

Whatever the case, it looks bad.

「Devour her!」

Sibylla shouted, and the writhing blood swirled like a creature and attacked Fran. It was moving like an amoeba with a mind of its own.

We absolutely cannot let that touch us.

『Fran! Don't let it hit you!』

「Nn!」

After dodging it, Sibylla's blood hit the arena causing that area to be melted away as if it had been eaten by a slime.

Does Sibylla's blood really have such a property?

Fran slashed away at the blood, which was now extended like a whip chasing after her. As expected, it wasn't enough to melt me, since I was clad in the divine attribute.

However, my durability was considerably reduced. We would be in trouble if we continued to take these attacks.

I thought we had pulled off a victory, but I didn't know that she had a trick like this up her sleeve! She's good!

『Fran, let's decide it immediately. Our resources are looking bad if we have to deal with these unknown attacks.』

（Got it.）

Fran nodded and lifted me up in the air. I used Dimension Shift and Physical Nullification to buy Fran time to prepare.

Then Sibylla's attacks stopped immediately. It wasn't that she gave up, since she gathered the blood she had been manipulating and set it up around herself like a barrier.

She must have sensed that Fran was about to finish the match, and planned to block it and dish out a counter attack.

「……」

「……」

Both Fran and Sibylla looked at each other without a word. The audience watched them with bated breath. They must have understood from the tension between the two that the end was approaching.

In the strange silence, Fran and I moved. She lightly crouched down to make it look like she is going to rush in, but this was bait.

（Master!）

『I'm on it!』

I used illusion magic. The effect was to remotely generate a faint sound and nothing else.

It's a poor feint that can hardly be called a technique, and is not even close to Diaz's abilities.

But it's the first time I've shown illusion magic in this match, so Sibylla reacted slightly to it. Seizing the opportunity, we teleported.

We take Sibylla's rear, but she was looking right back at us. She must've read us, since she wasn't panicking at the slight delay caused by the illusion magic.

I saw the red blood around us, controlled by Sibylla, rushing toward Fran.

But this was just another feint.

「Black Lightning Roll!」

「!」

Though we first teleported behind Sibylla, the actual plan was to move above her head with Black Lightning Roll. This time, we succeeded in completely delaying Sibylla's reaction.

Still, Sibylla tried to thicken her defense by concentrating her blood above her head, but we were faster.

「Taaaaah!」

『Doryaaaah!』

This time, Fran's Heavenly Judgment sliced Sibylla's body cleanly in two. The head was just barely avoided, but my blade entered the left shoulder, cut through the heart, and passed down through the groin.

「Gah……」

Sibylla lost control of her blood, falling to the arena with a splash. A split second later, Sibylla fell to the ground in a pool of her blood.

Victory? But neither Fran nor I dropped our combat stance. The cradle of time did not activate. In other words, Sibylla was still alive, even in that condition.

「Ah…… Gah……」

I could see that Sibylla was trying to do something. Her left arm, which should have been separated from her head, lifted. It seemed like she was using her blood as a catalyst to control it.

『Fran!』

「Nn!」

Fran and I aimed at her to release a spell.

In the meantime, Sibylla's left palm gathered magic power…

「Tch!」

But Sibylla suddenly stopped moving. Her appearance returned to that of a normal human being, and she muttered in frustration.

「I've… lost……」

Immediately after, the cradle of time activated and Sibylla's body was enveloped in light.