The whole audience was looking at the very brutal scene. A boy who was known as a genius was falling into a fainted state while a humanoid demon burning in the fire was about to eliminate him with a finishing move. His right leg was burning in a very strong fire.
A worried expression appeared on Kajal's face for a second before she hid it. Everyone has given hope; only the guild members still believe that Rishab could win.
Just as Rishi's back was about to touch the ground, he activated his trump card, which he had saved for this moment as the cooldown of this skill was fifteen minutes.
He activated this skill and turned into a shadow. Everyone saw Rishi falling to the ground and Rajan's leg hitting him and blasting the area around him.
After a second, Rajan looked below and said, "Where is his body?"
"Behind You," A voice came from Rajan's back. A chill ran through Rajan as he moved back and started looking for Rishi with his vision skill, but to his surprise, he was not able to find him.
"Just kidding," said Rishi before coming out of the shadow and using the Triangle Slash's sword technique's third form, the 'Star Form'; Rishi's shining golden sword moved at a rapid speed and created a star shape made up of two triangles.
Rajan turned and used his defensive skill, 'Block' to defend, but the star-shaped sword attack hit him and blasted him to the end of the fighting ring.
The star turned into six sword slashes shining in a light golden color and hit six different parts of Rajan.
Two slashes landed on Rajan's two arms, and they were both chopped down; the other two landed on his legs, and they were also cut almost in half. The fifth landed on his chest, and even his ribs were cut in half.
Rajan cried out in agony and fainted when he saw the last slash coming at his neck.
The last slash was about to behead him when the "Protective Barrier" surrounded his body; the slash hit the barrier, and a mark appeared on the barrier.
The whole stadium was silent when they saw a boy covered in blood standing with shaky legs and putting his sword back into its sheath without even looking back.
He slowly walked out before going back and sitting on his throne. The whole crowd cheered for him. Even in such a state, the confidence and presence radiated by Rishi were those of a champion.
A middle-aged man was the one who was as happy as Rishi; he looked at the reaction of all the other professors who were telling him that his student would lose.
"My student won; now what will you guys say."
"I can't believe he was able to master the third form, 'Star Form' this fast, Its really a waste of his talent if he waste his precious time learning stealh" said one teacher.
"What are you saying? Do you know how hard it is for a person without Assasin class to learn stealth? I know it had really taken his most of the time but think how deadly will be the combination of his stealth with sword techniques." commented a teacher.
"That kid is really good, but you should really teach him some more sword techniques; he would have won easily if he had a good damage-increasing buff-type sword technique," said the other teacher.
He was not only famous for his brutal fighting but also for his attitude.
"What a reversal! I simply can't get enough of Rishab. The knockout was very brutal, but it's not like Rajan was showing mercy with his finishing move. It will take a month for him to recover completely," said the commentator.
"The third form of the last sword technique is called 'Star Form,' and it shows a very high level of mastery of that technique. Even Nina, to whom I gave the title of 'Sword Queen, has only mastered the second form, 'Sword Triangle.'" Said Shreya.
"The weakness of Rishab was self-evident in this match; the "stealth" he worked so hard to master was completely useless against Rajan, which gave him a big disadvantage, while not having buff-type skills also made this match tough for him."
"Last but not least, I think he should explore the usage of his element more; when it comes to using his element, I think he is the worst student."
Rishi listened to all the criticism. If someone had said such harsh things about him before the start of the battle, he would have thought it was nonsensical, but this battle today proved how vulnerable he is. All the points that Shreya had mentioned, he noted them down.
He thought that he would easily win, but he had not even guessed in his dreams that this battle would be so close. This time again, his ass was saved by his special spell, but the more he relied on it, the more useless Rishi felt, and thoughts like what would happen if his opponent somehow survived this move came to his mind and haunted him.
He decided to meet his Sword Class professor and request that he teach him some buff-type sword techniques. As for the criticism about not learning how to use the Shadow element, it was one of the toughest elements to master, and it was also rare, so unlike other element users, Rishi didn't know where to start.
He wanted to buy books but thought it would take too much time. The better thing would be to search for a teacher online, but that too would be very hard.
At last, he decided to use the government-sponsored app 'Awakeners' to look for a teacher. This was a free-lance app made by the government for the Beast Tamers to interact with other people.
Rishi walked back to his apartment and took a bath, after which he downloaded the app and registered with his ID. Every citizen who had awakened had an ID.
Rishi went to the freelance tutor panel before filling in the details and searching for the perfect teacher for him. The profiles and requirements of the teachers appeared there.
Instead of money, these people traded in mana stones. The price they were asking for was very high, but Rishi decided to pay if he could improve his strength quickly.
At first, the people he found were either low-level, or they were mage characters; in both cases, he would not be able to learn much from them. The one he was looking for was a physical damage dealer with a shadow element.
He finally found the perfect person. The nickname of this person was 'Silent Shadow,' and the profile picture he had used was also of a black shadow laughing behind a person.
The price this person was asking was twice that of the other people, but the thing he had written was that he would even teach his skills, and anyone who is confident in his comprehension ability could apply.
Rishi was not sure about investing so much without being sure that it was not something fraudulent. The chances of it being fraud were very low, but loopholes could still be used.
When he saw the rating, he wanted to give up, as the average rating was three stars, but this person had gotten a one-star rating. Rishi saw that fifty people had rated.
He started reading their reviews one by one, and many strange expressions appeared on his face as he went through the reviews. One was positive, while most were negative and asked for refunds.