Chapter 1151
Anton faced off against Chidi at a distance of a hundred meters apart, on a spatial platform made precisely for high tier duels. The distance was chosen as a compromise to actually getting some sort of benefit from their sparring and of course the limitations of physical arenas. Obviously Anton could be a full system away and continually pepper Chidi with attacks, but that wouldn't be interesting. It still seemed appropriate that he should have to close some distance to reach Anton.
Chidi felt weak. Anton knew he was anything but weak, yet it still felt like it. That was something he had to be aware of, as the lack of threat that he naturally felt could easily cause him to act carelessly.
The instant the signal indicated the match to begin, Anton formed a dozen bows of energy and began to rain arrows down upon Chidi. He was more than certain that his opponent could handle as many arrows as he could shoot with just his primary bow, but he figured that he might force something from his opponent this way.
He did. Instantly, the entire ten meter area around Chidi suddenly became empty. Not of space or matter, for which Anton was quite grateful, but simply of all energy, or at least any sense of it. Anton felt his arrows simply erase as they entered the area, all at precisely the same distance around him- and Anton had attacked from all sides except for below out of respect for the local infrastructure.
Anton wondered if that distance was Chidi’s limit, or if he was even limited to a spherical area. He would be willing to bet no for both. Chidi had immediately begun to dash forward, but with his negation abilities active he moved at a nearly trivial pace. Until he suddenly dropped negation, covering fifty meters in a fraction of a second with a surge of energy.
Anton leapt to the side, while at the same time firing more arrows. This time, he focused on different types. He retained his standard Spirit Arrows, but added to the mix those imbued with elements of fire and light. Just for fun he mixed in a few ice arrows as well- it was far from his specialty element so it was likely ten times as costly for half the effect, but it was worth experimenting with.
What Anton learned was that Chidi… didn’t care. All of the arrows simply disappeared around him, regardless of type. Anton had been led to believe that Chidi was actively canceling the energy fluctuations in the area around him, though that was information from when he first achieved Negation as an augmentation equivalent.
Even if he didn’t require active effort, activating Negation was a weakness in itself. Anton took a single ‘step’ while his arrows were being turned into nothing, making use of his distance to use his full speed. He was easily a hundred meters away once more, and he could have been a thousand or more if he were not acting within particular limitations.
That was where Chidi finally had to reveal something more, and Anton nearly lost his head for it. Or more likely he would have received a deep cut that would stop short of decapitation, based on how his master acted during spars.