Vntis smashed his fists together, letting out a metallic cry of confidence. "A new form, is it!? Like a spirit of fire! Or a war demon! Good! Show me your strength, your warrior''s will, O Armored!"


    Aldrich got into his fighting stance, and as he did so, he felt burning, searing pain across every single inch of his body. After all, right now, he was literally on fire. His blood had ignited, bursting through his bulging veins in scorching red mes that covered him in a raging aura of heat.


    Patches of his skin were starting to melt off, revealing raw muscle beneath that, and soon, even that would melt down until there was nothing but bone.


    This was [Burning Agony]. The spell Aldrich used to buff his flesh undead into raging, burning fighters as fierce as any war demon. The way the spell worked was that it provided a strong base level boost of 50 to all stats or a stat multiplier depending on which was greater.


    For Aldrich, the stat multiplier yielded far better results, granting him nearly double all of his physical stats. The amount of power he felt brimming within him, coursing through his veins in burning intensity, was staggering. In this state, he could probably even beat down Valera and Okeanos in closebat.


    Though, the biggest issue was stamina. This onlysted as long as Aldrich''s Materius did, and that was probably not much longer than thirty seconds. The effects of the spell also decayed over time as the flesh burned away.


    On top of that, the spell dealt damage to Aldrich. His Materius might have just been a construct of flesh, but the burning mes from the ignited blood still scorched his true body of bone, and bone was weak to me.


    Aldrich calcted that [Burning Agony], if toggled for as long as possible, would cut down between 30-40% of his maximum health.


    Thus, using this spell was a deration to end a fight quickly.


    And Aldrich made true on that deration. His center of gravity slightly lowered, his knees bending as he got into a position to charge.


    Vntis clenched his fists and puffed his chest out, ready to take any hit head on. Without guarding, as he had promised.


    When Aldrich charged, he disappeared. The only thing left behind where he was were a pair of molten footprints.


    "Wh-," Vntis managed in surprise before an immensely powerful punch, orders of magnitudes beyond any that Aldrich had thrown before, crashed into his stomach like a ming meteor.


    Aldrich grit his teeth as he put all his strength into that punch, aiming not to hit Vntis, but to hit THROUGH him. The blood vessels around his arms popped in fiery bursts, wreathing his arm in a swirling gauntlet of intensely hot me.


    Cracks shattered out from where Aldrich hit Vntis. The metal around Vntis''s entire torso started to superheat up, turning from obsidian ck to bright hot red.


    Then, all of Vntis''s sizable bulk was sent flying far backwards like a pinball.


    =


    "Look at him! I knew my Usurper would not fail to entertain!" said the Death Lord proudly. She leaned forward against her seat, her forked tongue flitting out in excitement.


    "See, youngling?" said Valera, equally proud. "Our master always has a way to win."


    "…" Okeanos watched and nodded in awe. "But the master is taking damage. He cannot do this for long."


    "That does not mean anything if Vntis does not guard," said Med. She watched the fight hunched forward, her elbows rested on her legs and her chin resting on her interlocked hands. "Taking damage is not all that goes into weathering a strike. The time it takes to reel and recover is also crucial. Without guarding, Vntis leaves himself to get struck over and over again.


    Were he to simply guard or even try to retreat, he could easily find a path to victory.


    What he is doing now is simply idiotic and irrational - I simply cannot grasp it."


    "D-don''t call Vol that!" said Wai''ki. She lightly punched Med on the shoulder. "Taking all those hits like that - he''s kind of cool, don''t you think?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Mmm. He seems more akin to a training dummy to me." Med shrugged.


    "You simply do not understand a warrior''s honor," said Valera. "But that is to be expected for someone that never steps out of their study."


    "I do not indulge myself in shouting and beating matches, yes," said Med. "But I suppose activities like that would suit a woman like you."


    Valera and Med both red at each other, leaving Wai''ki nervously ncing between them, her mouth open as she wondered what to say to calm the two down.


    "Quiet down,dies," said the Death Lord. Her eyes were still glued to the fight. "The final exchange is near, and I want to enjoy it in silence."


    =


    Aldrich exhaled, and blood from his melted throat spilled out in tongues of fire. He briefly looked down at his fist. It was utterly mangled. The flesh around the arm waspletely gone now, leaving just raw muscle. The muscles around his hand were ripped apart, baring ck bone beneath.


    ''It''s not just burning from the spell that limits its duration,'' thought Aldrich. ''It''s the power from my hits too. Because they''re getting thrown out beyond my normal limits, they break apart my Materius.''


    All the more reason to end this as soon as possible.


    Aldrich charged again, disappearing with his speed once more. He reached Vntis literally in mid air and mmed him back down into the ground with an axe kick.


    In an explosion of me, Vntis plummeted down, smashing into the dirt and carving out a sizable crater.


    Aldrich dropped down in front of Vntis and prepped another hit. He realized he could not really chain his hits into smooth, fluidbinations like before. The way his body rapidly deteriorated plus hisck of experience with this level of stat boost meant he did not have the high level coordination necessary.


    Still, that did not mean Aldrich''s individual blows did not have devastating power behind them.


    Vntis got up to a knee. His whole body was red hot from exposure to Aldrich''s mes. His eye dot was narrowed in pain.


    Aldrich sped forward again, preparing another punch.


    Vntis reacted this time, showcasing his incredible capability to read Aldrich''s movements. It was quite likely that subconsciously, Vntis was tapping into his demonic Truesight even if he consciously wanted to only use his orcish powers.


    Vntis tried to grab Aldrich''s arm again, but even if Vntis could react, he was just too slow.


    Aldrich just weaved under Vntis''s grab attempt. He got a hold of Vntis''s arm, turned around, and then threw the Living Armor over his shoulder. He did not throw Vntis into the ground, but instead straight away, into the towering walls of the Arena fighting pit.


    Wreathed in a ball of ignited blood from Aldrich, Vntis shot out like a shooting star and smashed into the grey stone walls with ear rupturing impact. The durable stone wall cracked under the force of the attack, embedding Vntis slightly within it.


    It was a testament to how durable the wall was that Vntis did not just straight up smash through it.


    In an instant, Aldrich was upon Vntis again. An issue with this form was because the power was so explosive, it was hard to pin a target down for multiple attacks. Each of his blows sent Vntis flying, making Aldrich waste time traveling between attacks.


    But now, with Vntis pinned against the Arena wall like this, that problem had been erased.


    Aldrich could go all out with no issues.