Dark Magus Returns

By now, the crowd knew what was coming when they saw The Demon place two hands onto the sword. They had seen the strike enough, and unlike before, this was from the real person.

The entire sword was encased in darkness. Widening his stance, Raze threw out the sword, but rather in a Vertical strike, he had done so horizontally.

"Horizontal Eclipse strike, the second formation!" Raze called out.

A large strike of Dark Qi had ripped through the arena along with the swing of the sword, cutting the air. The attack went out from the sword and was heading straight for the two of them.

A single strike aimed at getting rid of both of the opponents in one go.

Hannah could see the strike coming right at her. Her sword was still glowing with Qi, but she was unsure if this was something that she could even block.

Lifting the sword, she started the sequence for her Moon Block technique, as she swung the sword in a spiral and focused.

In the middle of performing her technique, she saw from the side Mantis jumping straight into the attack. He had landed in front of her, with both of his claws and swung at the strike.

The entire attack pushed him back and looked to have consumed his body to the point where he couldn't be seen, and then the attack had reached her and her blade as well.

The full moon block technique was clashing against the attack until it encased all of her body and pushed her right back as well.

The attack faded as it continued forward. The middle stage warriors that were on the ground had jumped up to the edge of the wall before they knew it, not wanting to get hit by the attack themselves.

When looking at the ground, both Mantis and Hannah could be seen. There were no severe wounds on their bodies, but the fact that they were lying on the ground made it clear that they had been hit and were hurt from the large wave attack.

It was then that Hannah opened her eyes, her body sore, and she started to get up off the ground.

"Is that it? Is that the end of the fight? Did the demon get rid of them with his one strike?"

"That attack, every time I see it, it gives me the chills. It's seriously powerful. Is he not some clan head or something that's fighting the students instead?"

"Even if Hannah and Mantis get up from this, I think the fight is already decided. I mean look at the Demon; he hasn't even broken a sweat."

While the crowd was already sure of the demon's victory, in the Organizer's viewing area, one of the leaders had a deep scorn on his face as he witnessed what had occurred.

"Did you not give her the item?" Kawak asked.

"I had passed it onto Beatrix," Ricar replied. "She shouldn't have been that hurt from the attack, and it looked like nothing had activated. It appears that Beatrix has some explaining to do.

"I shall go inform someone to go get her."

"Without the item, I would say it appears the winner has been decided as well," Cicle reluctantly said.

The first of the two to get up was Hannah. She could feel her entire body was sore as if she had been hit by an eternal Qi strike.

However, she remembered, in the last moments of the attack, Mantis had jumped in front of her first. He had taken the brunt of the attack, leaving the residue of the attack to hit her.

It might be only for that reason that she had survived. Still, she needed to look in front of her at the one that was still standing.

"If I take him out, then I can win this. I still haven't done everything I can do yet," Hannah said to herself. "After such a large-scale attack like that, it will be a while before he can make another one, which means, this is my chance!"

Hannah bore the pain in her body, all the aches that were against her moving, and started to charge forward.

"Get out of my way!" A voice was heard from her right, and she could see Mantis in the air jumping toward her.

"Half-moon block!" she lifted her sword and just barely was able to hit the strike away. When Mantis fell to the ground, he paused for a moment.

'I thought he was done for taking the hit head-on, and then he suddenly leapt at me like that?' Hannah was steadying her breathing, trying not to get too startled.

'Wait, but why isn't he moving now? Is it because he's hurt? He took the brunt of the attack, so if that's the case, he should be in a worse position than me.'

The moment Hannah saw that, she saw Mantis look up, and immediately he lunged at her.

He swung one of his hands, and Hannah was able to just block in time, but the large impacts that were going against Raze just moments ago now had hit her.

She felt nearly her whole body flying through the air, her feet lifted off the ground. Before she had even hit the floor, Mantis had hit her from the other side as well.

What was amazing was the fact that Hannah, even when flung into the air, was still able to swing her sword to block the strike.

'These are how heavy his hits are, this whole time, this is what that guy was blocking. Who is he? Who is this Demon that came out of nowhere, and who is this person in front of me, with such fierce eyes!'

A straight attack had come right at her; she managed to lift her sword in front and strike down toward the claws, but Mantis's attacks were far stronger.

Flung away, and skidding across the floor until she had almost hit the wall, just stopping a few centimeters from doing so.

'I'm outmatched in this, both of these in this fight, both of them are far stronger than me. I'm not even deserving of this position.'

While thinking of these words, she could see Mantis still charging toward her, and as for the Demon, he was stood to the side.

Raze was fine with letting the two fight it out, and then him deal with the last one. It made things easier for him that way, and he needed to conserve his energy anyway.

Hannah continued to look at Mantis coming her way, with his wild eyes.

'What am I doing? Why am I thinking this way? I promised, I said that I would become the top of the top, so I can't think this way!'

Moving her hand over her sword, it started to shine brightly. Carefully she spread her legs further apart and waited for Mantis.

When he was close enough, she leapt forward and swung her sword down. She felt it clash against Mantis's hands, and it was heavy, but she didn't stop there.

Moving from her position, she swung her blade again using more and more of the Dawnblade techniques, one after the other.

Now, Mantis was the one that was being hit from all sides, and all he could do was lift his hands to protect himself.

And then, a breakthrough had occurred, a sweep of the sword had knocked the hands away, and not holding back, with the tip of her sword, she pushed it aiming right for Mantis's chest.

The sword had pierced through, but stopped just an

inch inward, as the Middle-stage warriors had interfered, holding the sword before it went in any further.

"Hu…hu…" Hannah was huffing and panting for using one technique after the other, but seeing her sword piercing her opponent and the fact that the middle stage warriors were now involved it meant one thing.

That Mantis had been disqualified, he had been taken out of the fight.

Up in the stands, the hooded man and Amir were still standing next to each other.

"What now, it appears your plan has failed," the hooded man said.

"You think, there are more than one way for one to awaken," Amir replied. "I believe, this is one of the catalysts that is needed."

"Ladies and gentlemen, Mantis has been taken out and is no longer able to receive the title of the strongest!" The announcer shouted.

At the same time, Mantis with his head down, his hands lifted and grabbed onto the blade.

"I…lost."