Chapter 23: Insane
"I want to challenge you, Greg!"
Hearing the familiar voice from his side, Greg turned his head to the side and his eyes grew wide in shock.
The person who challenged him was none other than his only friend, Joe.
Seeing as Greg didn't say a word, Joe walked next to Greg and put his hand on his shoulder, while talking quietly into his ear, "I'm really sorry, but I have no choice, but to challenge you. I will tell everything later."
Hearing what Joe said, Greg nodded and turned toward Chris and said, "I will accept the challenge."
Chris nodded and announced the next fight.
"Seventh fight! Contesters: Joseph Dia against Greg Hyde!"
As Greg was walking toward his starting point, he started to think perplexedly, "I don't get it. Joe isn't the type who would challenge me if there is no cause. There must have happened something, which makes him do so."
Turning around, he watched Joe's figure in the distance, while Joe did the same. A few seconds later, Chris raised his hand, looked at the two, and seeing as both of them were ready, he shouted.
"Ready... FIGHT!"
In an instant, Joe raised his hand and small black clouds appeared all around in the air with small lightings swirling inside them.
Greg looked at Joe while ignoring the danger above him.
Summoning out his daggers and using Alice's speed boost, Greg started to run toward Joe, but just as he stepped forward, a bolt of lightning from above came at him with frightening speed and power.
Greg with a fast reaction jumped to the side, but just as his feet touched the ground, another lightning came at him from above.
*BANG!*
After dodging the attack another came again, not letting him get any opportunity to strike.
*BANG!*
*BOOM!*
Bolts of Lightning were raining from the black clouds like raindrops. However, next to these rapid attacks, Greg dodged all of them like they were nothing.
"Amazing! If I were him I would be dead long ago."
"Yeah, but Joseph is also good too. Without lifting a finger he can make those terrifying attacks. Just thinking what would happen, if one strike fell on me...."
People talked about the fight before them with awe and shock. While one attacked with terrifying might, till then the other dodged those insane strikes with ease.
Joe frowned as he looked at Greg. He was jumping here and there with fast reactions and speed, but for some reason, he didn't come at him. It was like he was analyzing his attacks.
After a while, Joe realized something and smiled.
"So you wait for an opportunity to strike while familiarizing yourself with the enemy's attacks. Interesting act."
As he said this, Joe snapped his fingers and suddenly a bigger cloud appeared above the smaller ones making anyone who watched it feel the danger.
After the black cloud appeared, a huge wind started to blew in the arena, blowing away things, while the thunderbolts appeared with much more power and speed.
The closest students had to hang onto something or go and hide somewhere to avoid those insane lightning strikes and the strong wind. This also showed just how strong Joe's attack was only in the Manifester rank.
Greg, while evading the thunderbolts, felt as his speed started to slow down with each second, because of the wind.
"This wind... No, I should say storm. It's much more likely this is a small storm. If this goes on, it will be a matter of time before one of that lightning will strike me."
As he was dodging the incoming strikes, Greg decided to try out his new Soul Pet in action.
"Let's see what you can do."
In an instant, a small fairy with black skin and size about a man's fist appeared behind Greg.
The pet flew around him a few times and in the end sat down on his shoulder while looking around curiously. As this happened, a dim black light enveloped Greg's body and suddenly the strong wind force from before disappeared like it wasn't there in the first place.
"Nice! So this i... Huh?"
Just as Greg wanted to say something, his body started to float in the air, making him surprised.
Seeing what was happening before them, Joe's and everyone's eyes grew wide like they just saw something unbelievable.
"H-He is flying??!! But only above the Creator rank can one fly freely, or with flying type Soul Creature! But those are worth thousands, if not millions! So how?"
"That shouldn't be possible. He is just a commoner, so he can't afford a flying type Soul Creature."
"Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable."
"I think I will faint."
People couldn't believe the scene before then and started to guess the fairy's real identity.
Joe looked at Greg's floating figure in the air and smiled faintly.
"It seems I was right once again."
While everyone was talking, Greg tried to figure out what was happening. However, he couldn't think for a long time, because a thunderbolt appeared above him with an insane speed, ready to turn him into dust.
Feeling the danger, Greg wanted to jump to the side, but to his surprise instead of jump, he flew to the side with ease.
"This feeling... Just like breathing air. Easy and simple."
As he thought about this, Greg started to fly toward Joe, while evading the lightning strikes.
Like birds in the air, nothing could stop Greg in the air. Even those frightening attacks, which looked fast a moment ago, looked nothing in Greg's eyes.
"Amazing! So this would be the Wind Sailing ability. Flying gently in the wind, just like a fairy."
Seeing as Greg came closer and closer to him, Joe smiled and said to Greg, "Like always, you surprise me every time. I hope you remain this way and give more surprises to those who underestimate you!"
As he said this, suddenly lightning bolts appeared all around his body.
In an instant, his body disappeared and appeared in the next second before Greg. The speed was so fast that Greg couldn't react in time.
"!!"
*BOOOM!!*
With a strong punch, Joe hit Greg's chest, making him fly away and slam into the platform below.