章 168: Nick and Ghost

As Alex and the other man faced each other, both started getting ready to face off. The man started loosening himself up, and said,

"My name is Nick, I'm from a world where there's adventurers and monsters, dungeons and quests. Thanks to my abilities I reached the pinnacle of what that world had to offer, what they considered a SS class adventurer. I even managed to kill the demon king and get to the hundred level milestone." Alex nodded his head in admiration, and said,

"That's impressive, I'm Alex. I've been fighting top tier monsters and gods of this world, while constantly trying to master my own capabilities. I reached the hundred level milestone a while back." With introductions out of the way, Nick suddenly disappeared, and Alex felt an attack coming at the back of his head. He swiftly dodged and turned to look at his attacker, wondering how he got behind him so fast. He decided not to think about it too much though, as one of Nick's abilities was most likely related to instant movement instead of just speed, and there was no telling which ability he was actually using.

This started the game of cat and mouse, as Nick chased Alex everywhere with his instant movement ability before attacking him, and Alex would simply dodge with superior reflexes and speed. He was waiting for Nick to use his full powers, as a demonstration to how unique the powers of otherworlders were. Curiously enough Nick never seemed to use his abilities, making Alex think he might have gotten less flashy powers, or he was trying to hide them. Alex did notice however during the times Nick tried to hit him, that he seemed to be trying to correct his attacks as if he was aware of how Alex planned to dodge, except Alex was too fast for him to hit.

He then decided to test something, and finally counter attacked for the first time. Though he didn't project his attack as much as possible, and lowered the speed to something that Nick could react to. Alex then watched as he dodged each of his attacks as well with ease, Nick's composure not even breaking as the potentially lethal attacks just barely missed him. Alex then smiled as he believed he realized what Nick's second ability was, and separated from him before asking,

"Is that observation Haki?" When he heard a Alex's question Nick stopped moving, and gave him a blank look. A minute later he started laughing and replied,

"That's right, I forgot I was facing other people who would have an idea about my abilities. In the other world people just thought I was good at reading my opponents, or that I was a guy loved by fate since all of the attacks aimed at me missed. It also helped me with dungeons since it would let me find monsters before they ambushed me." They then laughed for a second, before leaping back into trying to kill each other. After a few more rounds of testing the limits of Nick's Haki, Alex decided to try and end the fight since it seemed he didn't intend to use his powers.

He stopped limiting his speed and rushed forward, punching Nick's chest hard enough to blast a hole through it, or so he thought. Almost instantly the hole closed around his fist, and for the first time since being reborn, Alex's hand was burned. He gritted his teeth and swiftly pulled his hand out of Nick's chest, leaving a glowing hole of molten rock behind. He looked at Nick's now smug looking face, and said,

"Really? Haki and Devils fruit?" He smirked at Alex's words, and said while turning his hands to magma,

"Yeah I was a fan of one piece, plus the Magu Magu no mi helps nullify physical attacks while giving me very powerful attacks as well. It was hard trying to keep it a secret in the other world since people wouldn't understand someone made of magma, so I would always work alone. I'm surprised though, you're the first person I've done that to that kept their hand afterwards, must be thanks to your high defense from being a saiyan." At his words Alex looked at his hand again, before doing a partial transformation and turned both of them into dragon claws. Alex himself was mostly immune to fire, but he never tested magma, his scales should hopefully protect him a bit from it.

He then smiled at the situation, a devil fruit user was perfect to show the uniqueness of the powers they had access to. While Alex could think of nearly a dozen different ways to win regardless, he decided to draw this out a little and practice against a devils fruit user personally. Temporarily abandoning close combat, Alex started firing ki attacks at his opponent, effectively destroying entire chunks of his body. Nick then swiftly regenerated, and started forming massive blobs of magma to throw at Alex. With each miss the blobs started burning the surroundings, leading to the jungle being set ablaze. Alex smirked at this, as Nick most likely thought that even if his attacks missed, the smoke and fire would still be enough to turn the battle in his favor.

The flames then started bending to his will, and took the forms of various animals before converging on Nick once more. He was surprised that the fires he started suddenly turned against him, but smiled at the futilely of the attack as he was magma, no fire could burn magma. He simply ignored the attacks, and turned most of his body into magma and leapt into the air. What happened after that could only he described as armageddon, as large blobs of magma rained down on what he just realized was an island, turning most of it into a raging inferno.

***

Ghost was running place to place on the island, trying to find a safe spot to turn tangible again as another blob of magma passed through his currently nonexistent body. It was times like this he greatly appreciated having his Void ability, allowing him to not only turn invisible, but also made it so that he was untouchable and undetectable while it was activated. It was also what made him such an accomplished assassin in his previous world, which was also where he got the name Ghost. The main drawback was how draining the ability was, and that he also unable to attack while in this state.

He ran till he was at the beach on the edge of the island, outside the range of the devil fruit users attack. Even seeing all of the destruction at his hand, Ghost had no doubt of the saiyan's victory, even if he hadn't seemed to take the fight seriously yet. However he doubted even the saiyan would be able to survive a single cut of his sword, Murasame from Akame Ga Kill, capable of inflicting near instant death after piercing the skin.

Ghost stood out by the beach, waiting for the fight to end. Though he didn't doubt that Murasame would kill the Saiyan, he didn't want to be caught in a direct fight with him, he'd be dead before he even unsheathed his blade. Only a few seconds later the rain of death stopped, and the sounds of battle continued. He then sat down on the beach, and listened to the roaring of the raging inferno, and the distinct sounds of combat as he waited for the two to tire out.

Soon the sounds of fighting started dying down, so Ghost reentered the Void and started heading back into the island to find the other two. The flames around him continued raging, but he wasn't affected by them thanks to his Void. The sounds of fighting got louder as he closed in on the fighters, but then Ghost heard something that made his blood freeze.

As he heard the boosted gear shout out, Ghost suddenly wanted to turn around and run the other way. A super Saiyan with the boosted gear? The worst part was that he even had the penetrate ability, Ghost wasn't sure if it would work against his Void or not, and was debating on turning the other way this time. He decided it was too late for second guessing, and his time in the Void was running out while he was still in the middle of a burning island. He staked it all on taking the Saiyan's life and possibly being able to escape. He continued to where the fighting was, and unsurprisingly saw the Saiyan standing over the devil fruit user, his left hand gauntleted. He then said,

"So penetrate does work on logia fruit users, that's good to know." The Devil fruit user laughed bitterly, and asked,

"Did you take our fight seriously at all, or were you not sure if that move worked?" Alex shrugged, and replied,

"I had a few different ideas, but wanted to test it out." Hearing his words, Nick could only shake his head at himself. When Alex went to deal the finishing blow, Ghost moved in for the kill. He generated no sound in the Void, so he didn't worry as he unsheathed Murasame and swung at the Saiyan's neck. He couldn't attack while using the Void, so Ghost deactivated it when Murasame was within inches of the Saiyan's neck.

One of his abilities allowed him to completely ignore an opponents defense when attacking, so he completely unsurprised when his sword sliced through him. He was surprised when Murasame passed completely through him, and sliced into the ground to the side. He looked up in surprise, as the Saiyan he tried to attack started flickering before disappearing completely. He panicked for a second, before a voice said from behind him,

"So that's where you were." He then felt something hit his head hard, knocking him to the ground. Ghost looked up in a daze, and saw the Saiyan staring down at him and the devil fruit user. The last thing either saw was a staff appearing in Alex's hands, and the gauntlet on his hand shouted out,

<PENETRATE, TRANSFER>

Before it swung at both of their heads, promptly turning both to paste. He then watched as several seconds later both of them turned to dust, and vanished. As he continued watching the spot they both vanished, Alex was deep in thought as the fires continued raging around him. If these three were anything to go with, if he died then there would be no body. There would be no real evidence of his existence left behind, except the memories of those he left. A voice suddenly said,

'That's what happens when a contestant loses, even if you all can travel freely between worlds, we can't allow evidence of another world to be left behind for others.' Alex didn't say anything to Lauren's words, giving her the chance to ask.

'Would you like to hear what happens when you kill another contestant now?' Alex was pulled from his though, and nodded his head even though she wasn't physically looking at him. Lauren then continued,

'When you kill someone else with powers, you have a small chance to win their powers. Instead of experience there'll be something like a lottery wheel, with options like experience itself or levels, while powers of your opponent would be the "grand prize". You get one spin per opponent, so now you have three. Would you like to spin them now?' Alex nodded again, and a wheel appeared in front of him, with three lists alongside for each contestant he killed. The first one listed,

Charm

Mind control

Enslavement magic

These were the powers of the first guy Alex killed, the one whose name he didn't get, but the system listed above them as Kyle. The second one listed,

Magu Magu No Mi

Resist status ailments

Haki

Shundo

These were from Nick, who came here from an adventuring world. Alex realized that he never saw a fourth ability of Nick's, but the resist status ailments explained it. He then moved onto the third one,

Murasame

Void walker

Ignore defense

Shadow clone no jutsu

This was from the third guy, labeled as Sean, who Alex never actually saw until he tried to kill him. He was surprised to see the shadow clone ability there, and wondered why he didn't use it instead of attacking him himself. Figuring he'll never know the answer, Alex just ignored it, and said to Lauren,

'Start the wheel.' And watched to see if he'd get new powers.