After we reached a certain altitude, he carefully covered our bodies in his demonic flames, creating one large ball, then plunged towards the ground.
I wonder what he is up to now…
Inside the large ball, he made many hands out of flames, and he used those to fix both himself and me, straightening our hair and making sure our clothes were well adjusted. Then he made those flames soft to the touch to cushion the impact with the ground.
I expected a loud crash the moment we made contact with the ground, but nothing of the sort happened; the ball of flames turned elastic and safely allowed us to land without damaging our bodies and the floor both.
"Just stay upright; maybe cross your hands on my 3." He warned me before taking a couple of steps away from me.
"Huh, wait, a second—"
He ignored me and began counting as he was debating which pose to strike.
"1."
"2."
"You haven't even told me—"
"3."
I quickly crossed my arms as the flame around us began to move, merge, then separate, blooming into a fiery lotus flower.
No way, don't tell me.
Currently we were in the middle of the arena; all the people around were cheering loudly for our entrance.
The announcer was loudly presenting the two of us, hyping up the crowd even more.
"What are we doing here? " I asked him, furious.
"My idea, I thought maybe we should begin the event with a friendly spar… show off what we're capable of. To give the crowd a spectacle!" He proposed with his usual innocent smile.
"And be humiliated in front of the world? No fucking way." I replied.
I looked around and located the uncle in no time; he was sitting in a special VIP box. Along with him were all his sons and his adoptive daughter and the rest of my family.
Ugh, I have to see her for the rest of the day.
"Oh, come on, you wouldn't want to disappoint the crowd today, would you? Today there are just no names fighting; think about them. They have nothing worth watching. What if it comes to damaging our reputation?" He pleaded as he clapped his hands twice and bowed his head.
"You could've handled the preliminaries elsewhere; not my fault," I protested.
"You owe it to me!" he then yelled.
Huh, what is he on about? Wait, is that why you're so well equipped today? All because of this exhibition match?
Everything started to fall in place; there was no reason for so many people to be present on the very first day, especially when today we were only supposed to show a bunch of preliminary matches.
Damn, you really planned this through; that is why there were so many people on the first day… fuck, what have you done to my tournament? It was supposed to be something small and simple!
"If I take the match, I'll use everything at my disposal. This is a warning; do you really want to fight me?" I warned him.
He nodded positively.
I hoped the warning scared him off, as there were many weapons capable of causing great destruction in my room; out of the many, there were many sets with sure-hit effects and more.
Instead, he seemed even more excited than before, his eyes glowing with pure excitement.
Something's off here; he must be scheming something… shit! I'm dancing in the palm of his hand, aren't I?
So we began to distance ourselves from one another. I took out a special set of gloves from the pouch; I needed them in order to freely switch from one weapon to another and to summon them from my room directly to my hands.
How should I even deal with this? Even if I told him I'm going to use my full arsenal, I doubt I can; I can't possibly show them all today… Fuck.
I couldn't exactly remember all the artifacts I made for Leonhart, but it was an arsenal of weapons that was almost larger than mine, especially because he went out of his way to buy and collect all sorts of artifacts while I mostly used the ones I produced.
If I turn this into a battle of attrition, I'll end up running out of demonic energy before I can even land a scratch on him. I regret the day I agreed to make those rings for him.
Unlike normal bodies, I produced my own demonic energy at a scarily high speed, but compared to his crown, that was just a puny gimmick.
I grabbed the pouch containing the artifact that would've revived me in case a killing blow were to land on me as well as the many small coins that came with it along with other consumable artifacts to replenish my cursed energy.
If I want to win, I probably have to pick either something fast or overwhelmingly powerful… that leaves only a few possible weapons… mhhh.
The first weapon I called forth was Andrea and Andrea, the final version of Camilla and Camillo, the latest and most powerful version.
The two kids naturally materialized in front of me, confused.
This was the standard way sentient weapons communicated with their owner, by projecting an avatar into the wielder's field of view. It wasn't really there, but it did help a lot mentally.
Daddy is occupied; please don't distract me.
I ordered, and they naturally agreed; they climbed on top of my back.
We then waited for the announcer to finish speaking before the sparring match began.
Leonhart Lumine immediately activated the five rings on his finger, inducing an explosion.
Hot flames were shedding off his skin, flames so hot they were slowly melting everything they touched. They spread far and wide and, with a flick of his finger, converged over his head, forming a crown made of flames.
With all the pieces I gave him active all at once, right now his physical prowess probably matched that of the uncle; even if I tried to use the blades, I would probably never be able to pierce or slash through his clothing.
"Going easy, my ass! You're going all out! "I protested.
"Did you really grow so much to the point this is going easy? Seriously, Uncle should've kept that ridiculous crown for himself. "I complained loudly as I braced myself for what was about to happen.
I took a wide stance, holding the two swords at my sides aimed at the ground as I waited for Leo to make the first move.
I shouldn't have been so stubborn; had I accepted Uncle's help, I might have gear comparable to his.
I started pouring in power into my two swords, even using the family trait.
Might as well put on a show; I doubt these people ever saw Mother using it; she almost never relies on demonic artifacts, not that she really needs them.
The red hair, the sign of our family, allowed us to use demonic artifacts better than anyone else, being able to understand it the moment we wielded them and being able to make them go beyond their limits.
They began to shine brighter than usual as I began to overcharge the two weapons.
"Here I come!" I yelled as I ordered the weapon to push me forward.
My eyes could barely keep up with the speed I was flying at.
My first attack was targeting his neck, but I quickly had to give up as he created a large spike on the ground aimed at me. I made quite a large turn only to make a second attempt.
He blocked the second slash using his arm as his shield. The protective coat was able to effortlessly endure the slashing attack without so much as leaving a scratch on his body.
Fine then, let's go even faster then.
I accelerated further, making many various turns, landing many hits using the pommel of the sword and the edge, but left almost no wound on his body.
I was constantly switching positions; one moment I was in front of him, then I switched to being to his left side, back in front, slid beneath him, and attempted to cut off his legs only to then go to his right side.
I was constantly changing position to avoid getting hit by his flames, trying to keep an unpredictable pattern so that he couldn't land a hit on me; meanwhile, all I could see was a blurry color in rapid succession.
The last attack landed against something different; I heard a clang sound as I was being pushed back. I looked at my hands and saw that they were trembling; the impact must've given the entire arm quite the shock.
How unfair you are.
I complained in my mind when I saw the kind of weapon Leo had taken out from the pouch I gave him.
The apex of the sentient weapon project, Lilith.
A giant broadsword, it had a dark body with many red vein-like tendrils growing out of its handle, covering the entire length of the sword.
Its ability was simple. The ability to analyze and copy any ability of any artifact it clashes with. And it had already clashed with my swords.
It was a weapon that I had gifted the uncle; he then forbade me from producing another ever again. I didn't know he had given it to Leo.
I wonder how much that weapon has grown… When I last saw it, it could hardly copy even the most simple ability; it was fairly clumsy and cute.
But in his hands it had turned into my greatest threat. Anything I could use would be used against me; I couldn't swap recklessly.
Leo pointed his sword at me, and the flames behind him began to extend towards me; some were slithering above the ground, and some were flying straight at me. All of them quickly took the shape of a snake.
Damn it, there's no way to win this without leaking a powerful weapon. I'm surprised he even took out Lilith in this match.
I began to move in circles around the edge of the arena to avoid those snakes, activating my transformation ability and turning into the angelic form to improve my reflexes and increase my speed and power at the cost of a heavily increased energy cost.
Should I just throw the match?
Just as those words came up in my hand, one of those snake heads came dangerously close to my head; it crashed against the invisible wall separating the arena from the podium. Out of its long body, other snakes emerged, charging flames in their mouths to then shoot those at me.
I heard a powerful roar coming from where Leo was, and when I turned my head, I saw a giant lion with a mane made out of flames, its mouth wide open, ready to bite my head off.
My head was already in its mouth; all he needed was to close its jaws, and the match was over.
I further accelerated my pace and then bee-lined towards Leo, who was looking at me with a big smile.
"You know how to make my heart skip a beat." He said to me, smiling as he summoned a giant wall of flames in between us.
I cut my way through the wall of flames only to see bullets forming mid-air.
"Do you remember them?" Leo asked me before firing them.
I accelerated even further, missing them by a hair.
He brandished his sword, and together we began clashing swords. He was able to perfectly mirror my movements and make improvements to them.
At first I simply tried to cut off his head. When I failed, I began spinning around him, unleashing many attacks almost all at the same time, trying to land on either wrist, ankle, or throat.
He would mirror the exact movement, ending up clashing with me time and time again.
When our blades kept clashing, I flew away to force him into an aerial battle, but that didn't change things in my favor. Initially, he was still able to mirror all my movements, but bit by bit, he was adapting.
Muscle memory was probably kicking, and in between exchanges he was able to land various kinds of kicks on me.
Eventually he landed a heavy axe kick, sending me back flying straight towards the ground.
Fuck… even if he has absorbed the power of my artifact, how is it possible for him to match me in terms of speed? I am using my family's trait for fuck's sake!
Then I realized what he was missing with the ability copied; he made up for it with those flames, using them to propel himself forward.
You're a fucking lunatic!