Chapter 259 Arner, The Child of Thunder... Part-2.


    ??"Yes, I am fully prepared..."


    Arner nodded his head as he talked to his teacher via his smartphone.


    SS-rankers cannot personally meet the contestants during this event, but they can stillmunicate with them.


    Arner had called his teacher to consult about whether or not he should use the n he had made.


    After getting the agreement of his teacher, the confidence on Arner''s face returned.


    Before Arner ended the call, the other party gave him some small advice:


    "By the way, don''t overdo it; all that matters is that you tried your best... Overdoing it is harmful for your future progress as it may leave some trauma..."


    Arner nodded his head and smiled.


    "Understood!"


    With his chest puffed up with pride, Arner donned hisbat suit and grabbed his hammer to finally leave the waiting area.


    He walked through a long corridor and finally arrived at the yground entrance. With a determined look, Arner entered the yground field.


    Just when he entered, thementator introduced him enthusiastically.


    *And now! The contestant with the best control over the thunder element, the holder of the title ''Child of Thunder'', Arner Steelminer, enters the battlefield!*


    Amidst the loud cheers of the audience, Arner slowly walked over to the middle area of therge stadium.


    Rio was already standing there beforehand.


    Arner and Rio both stretched out their hands to do a handshake before the match started.


    Both of them nodded their heads at each other, then immediately jumped back to create an appropriate distance for both of them.


    The handshake showed that this was just a friendly duel and that there were no grudges between them.


    (Fun Fact: When this tournament was still considered a deathmatch, the participants never used to handshake or even talk to each other... they used tomunicate directly with weapons...)


    And the distance was created to give each other enough room to do a proper ''first attack''.


    A massive hologram appeared, showing a timer of 30 minutes.


    If none of the two are able to win in the next 30 minutes, then both of them will be eliminated, as there are no such things as ''Draw'' in this tournament.


    Thementator raised the enthusiasm of the audience and started a countdown.


    *And now, the third match of the first round begins in 3... 2...1! Fight!!*


    When the word ''Fight'' was shouted, Arner and Rio both took their stance in an instant.


    Arner knew that Rio was fast, and he would try to deal a quick blow to him, but he was prepared for that.


    [Thunder Dwarf Art: Full Immersion!]


    Without wasting any time on using low-level skills to create a good show, Arner directly used one of his strongest techniques to cover his whole body in a condensed thunder aura.


    Rio''s sword swung horizontally at an insane speed, and just when it was about to hit Arner''s neck, Arner''s thunder aura activated and pushed him down.


    With that small push, Arner dodged Rio''s attack and swung his hammer.


    [Thunder Hammer Style: Rise of Steel!]


    Arner''s hammer swung at Rio in a downward-to-upward manner, still covered in a thunder aura.


    However, before it couldnd, Rio tilted his sword a bit and deflected the attack''s trajectory in an instant.


    [Handling]


    Arner wasn''t surprised that Rio was unaffected; it would have been strange if Rio really got hit with such a slow attack.


    Taking advantage of the fact that Rio was momentarily distracted, Arner stomped the ground with his right feet, and a massive thunder st happened in an instant.


    The ground cracked, and blue thunderbolts flew far and wide in the massive stadium.


    Fortunately, an SS-ranked barrier protects the audience, ensuring their safety.


    From the start of the duel until the thunder st appeared, only five seconds had passed, but Arner and Rio had already exchanged quite a few blows in these few seconds.


    If it weren''t for the high-tech cameras that show the yback in slow motion, people below rank A couldn''t even see what was happening between the two.


    *boom*


    Arner stomped on the ground once again, and the second st of thunder appeared, creating a massive shockwave.


    Even after unleashing such a strong ability, Arner''s face remained solemn, and he jumped back quite a few meters.


    [Elemental Sword Art: Sound Type: Atomic Deflection!]


    Due to his amazing sword skills, Rio not only deflected the shockwave, he even caused the massive thunder attack to dissipate.


    Without caring about Arner''s shock, Rio said in his usual emotionless tone:


    "Continue..."


    Rio''s image blurred in an instant, but Arner was ready for that; he had already seen Rio use that swift movement technique an hour ago, and he now had a countermeasure for it.


    Arner immediately ced his hammer on the ground and unleashed a massive amount of his mana and thunder into the earth.


    [Thunder Dwarf Art: Static Thunder Field!]


    Arner''s aura covered the entire stadium ground, creating a massive thunder field that helped him track down Rio''s movements much more easily.


    Arner immediately jumped to the right as he sensed Rio''s swording at him.


    And sure enough, Rio appeared right at the spot where he was standing just now.


    "Hoh, this field is good; electricity has a much faster speed than an individual; this way, no matter how fast someone is, you can easily figure out their moves...."


    Hearing Rio''s emotionless words, Arner didn''t let his guard down for even a single second.


    He knew what kind of monster he was up against, and even a single moment of distraction could be fatal.


    At that moment, Rio''s figure appeared to be teleported directly in front of Arner.


    [Darkwing Movement Art: Steady Steps.]


    Seeing Rio appear so close to him, Arner was shocked; he didn''t expect Rio to still have more speed than earlier.


    ''He bypassed my electric field!?''


    Arner had misunderstood Rio''s normal speed to be movement art, but when Rio really used his movement art, only then did Arner see the horror of Rio''s immense abilities.


    [Thunder Dwarf Art: Short Switch!]


    Arner immediately used one of his strongest abilities to dodge Rio''s attack.


    His body switched positions, with the dirt on a spot twenty meters away from the current one.


    The ''Short Switch'' ability works in cooperation with the''static field''.


    Arner used static fields earlier because his short switch ability allowed him to switch positions with any inanimate object inside the static field.


    However, as the skill''s activation caused a slight dy, a small cut still appeared on Arner''s right cheek.


    Arner heaved a sigh of relief.


    ''Phew~ barely made it… Now to the main part…''


    A smirk appeared on Arner''s face. Before Rio could attack him again, Arner immediately ced his hammer on the ground and forced a massive amount of concentrated mana into a one-meter radius.


    Rio used his ''Darkwing movement art'' to chase Arner, but just as his sword was about to hit, Arner switched positions again.


    Arner repeated this same tactic five times; he ced a small amount of mana and then left.


    Rio frowned a bit at those strange moves.


    Just when Arner was about to do the same thing for the sixth time, Rio suddenly used more force in his legs.


    [Darkwing Movement Art: Instantaneous Rush!]


    [Elemental Sword Art: Moon Type: Setting Summer Night!]


    In an instant, Rio appeared right behind Arner and swung his sword in a downward manner.


    The attack was so precise and lethal that Arner had no chance to counter it.


    Arner barely pushed himself away and avoided a fatal wound, but the attack still hit his right hand, cutting off his arm in half.


    A massive amount of blood started flowing out like a fountain.


    But Arner stood unfazed; he grabbed his hammer with the other hand and used thunder to immediately stop the bleeding, while jumping away to make some distance from Rio.


    Rio stopped attacking at that moment, as he felt a bit strange.


    "Hmm… is this it, Arner?"


    At Rio''s words, Arner narrowed his eyes, ignoring the sweat on his forehead, and replied with a smirk.


    "I was hoping to ce three more ''cores'' but I guess that''s not possible now… Let''s go with five for now…"


    Arner immediately ced his hammer on the ground and pushed nearly all of his mana into the static field as he shouted.


    "The truth is, static field is just the ''base''; the real attack needs eight static ''cores'' to function… I was only able to ce five, but five is also enough to activate this attack."


    A crazed and excited look appeared on Arner''s face as a massive amount of condensed thunder started to dance around him in an uncontrolled manner.


    The whole static field started to glow up, and a massive magic circle appeared under Rio''s feet.


    Rio dodged with his ''Darkwing Movement Arts'' technique, but the magic circle followed him everywhere, even in the sky.


    Arner smirked and shouted.


    "No use trying to dodge this one, Rio! It''s an attack with an ''un-dodge-able property''! As long as you are inside the static field, you can''t dodge it!"


    From the start of the duel to this moment, everything went just like Arner predicted.


    He knew that this attack was the only way to really attack Rio.


    But he needed to buy time, and the''short switch'' ability yed its role right there.


    If Rio had used his sword intent to shatter the static field, he could have still stopped Arner''s attack.


    But Arner took the gamble and won.


    He gambled on the possibility that Rio wouldn''t use his sword intent as long as Arner didn''t show too much strength,


    Seeing Rio staring at the magic circle that was locking at him.


    ''If this was a real battle, Rio could have easily walked out of the static field''s range, but right now, we are inside an enclosed SS-rank barrier, and you can''t leave the static field at any cost…''


    If the SS-rank barrier hadn''t been there, Arner''s n wouldn''t have worked, but its presence worked in his favor and helped him trap Rio.


    ''Although the damage will be reduced a bit as I only created five ''cores'' instead of eight, that should be enough to do the work…''


    As Arner finished pouring his mana into the ground, he smiled at Rio and said,


    "This is checkmate, Rio sh!"


    …


    …


    Author''s Notes.


    Yo! It''s your beloved author here!


    If you have noticed, I am showing the event from Arner''s perspective rather than Rio''s. This is because right now, Rio is ying the role of the ''challenge'' and Arner is the ''challenger''.


    It depends on Arner if he can pass this challenge, though…


    Question of the day:.


    Do you also think Arner is quite a good strategist?


    1. Yes! (He''s at least better than a certain dumb harem lord…)


    2. Yeah (Author really knows how to make amazing side characters outta nowhere!)


    By the way, don''t forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.