章 20: Fighting Festival (The Unshakable Hero) 3

After waiting a little bit, I went up on stage for round 1 of the tournament. My opponent was some guy named Rick, but he seemed a little put off by my appearance. I wonder why that was, but I wasn't given much time to think about it as the referee for this tournament announced the start of the match. I launched toward my opponent with Light in my hand. When I reached him, I turned the dial to fire and slashed my blade at him. To my surprise, he didn't dodge and my attack went straight through him. It turned into a cloud of smoke and disappeared from my sight. This seemed familiar to the test we just took. When I slashed him, I didn't feel any substance that was supposed to be there as opposed to the slight friction my sword would contact if it went through such dense gas. I quickly realized that it was another illusion. I had enough of illusions for one day as I concentrated my aura into my eyes and looked around the stage. I could see the outline of his figure in the distance, but chose to pretend not to notice his true body as I looked about the stage. I rush toward him and I could see the shock in his eyes after realizing that the illusions he used did not affect me at all. He took out a small knife and clashed against my weapon with his own. Surprisingly, he managed to block my first attack. He was no pushover by any means and he proved that he was capable of close-quarters combat with his knife. He slashed at me repeatedly trying to get me to surrender. He was fast, but I managed to hold my ground with my sword skills and managed to knock him back more than a few times. The few hits he did manage to hit were quickly healed up with my semblance devour absorbing the surrounding aura to give me a boost. I used my aura solely to heal me, so I could have some time polishing my battling skills for future matches and events that may take place in the future. Eventually, I get bored with the fight and break his knife into two pieces. Shocked and scared at the damage he would take without his weapon, he hurriedly surrenders and I win my first match. I wait a bit before my next match takes place and review what I've learned so far to put into use in my upcoming matches. The next thing I would test out is if I could use my devour power to solely win a match. My next challenger approached the stage and I went up to meet him. This time my opponent was a short girl with pink hair and in her hand was a crossbow. Once the match started she quickly retreated and shot multiple arrows in my direction with great accuracy and speed. I was impressed, but I merely stuck out my hand and completely absorbed the arrows she was shooting at me. She kept shooting arrows at me, only this time she added her aura into them to make them faster and powerful. Unfortunately, it was all for naught as I still managed to catch all her arrows. I used the arrows she already shot at me to make a small shield made out of the materials the arrows she shot at me. From that point on I slowly walked toward her while blocking all her shots with this shield. She looked increasingly agitated in every passing second. I mean who could blame her when all of her attacks were failing and the challenger seemed not to be taking this seriously. She made a last-ditch effort to lure me close to the edge and take the opportunity to kick me off stage. She tried to kick me but I devour the kinetic energy she was trying to use to push me off and sent the force right back at her with a simple push. She wasn't expecting this counterattack and was sent off the stage rather easily. Even though she wasn't especially powerful, she did make a good sparring partner to practice my devour skills without restraint. The uses for this power extends beyond boosting my aura for healing and enhances my sense. Using this power, I could essentially reflect attacks, see throw illusions and more. This will make stopping Cinder and her pals that much easier. Though this Dark Phantom is going to be a challenge to get rid of since we still don't know much as I would like about his semblance or his true identity. The next match was pretty easily won with the guy surrendering before I could even attack. All that remained between me and winning was this final contender who just so happened to Frank. The guy who was laughing at people while they were signing up and believe that this championship was in the bag for him. He was about to get a rude awakening after I beat him and claim the victor of the Fighting Festival. What I didn't notice was a tall, muscular figure in the distance that seemed to be sizing up me and my competitor.