Chapter 158: Grand Endurance
———Lynda———
<3: 09 pm>
*Tackle* *Punch* *Kick* *Grab* *Swing* *Crash* *Strike* *Block*
“It’d be a miracle if they aren’t hospitalized…” I can’t help but to say that. They have been going at it for a while and it still feels like they could easily crush me under their feet.
Each attack, the impact of them crashing onto the hard ground. It’s clear they all have so much weight to them even though I am seeing it from afar. The others can tell as well, everyone here can see just how powerful they are.
*Punch* *Crash*
One punch sends the other flying into a rock pillar and rolls onto the floor on the other side of it.
“They are a tenacious bunch. Not like that’s not the case before, but now it’s so damn exaggerated.” The nerdly and snarky guy from Perfect Class said. “They didn’t even set a condition to heal the people inside the field constantly. Only if they were in mortal danger.”
“None of those settings have stamina healing, right?” The dumb-sounding one from Perfect Class asked.
“As far as I’m aware, no. I’d imagine that kind of magic is not very easy to set up to go off with so much to consider.” The smart one muttered. His name was.. Gregori. Right. I never interact with any of them unless it’s entirely by accident, which is admittedly more often than one would think, but regardless, sometimes their names slipped out of my mind sometimes. “This is all from them. They can keep going for a long time. Qyunda’s body is built for endurance, so it’s expected, but Malk is still a regular human. This level of endurance and durability came entirely from his own efforts.”
One is a demi-human, the other is a simple man, yet both are fighting mostly on equal footing. It’s clear that the stronger and more durable body provided to the snake lady makes it so that she can recover from all the punishment her rival threw at her rather quickly, mostly using brute force to go past the other’s defense.
His gameplan involves subtly more underhanded tactics and more hit-and-dodge style of approach. Choosing his options carefully which does leave him with a window of opportunity to possibly be taken advantage of.
In terms of raw power they are neck-and-neck. So it’s ultimately rather even. The victor could’ve been decided by a coin-flip at this point, but neither are willing to budge. The condition for losing was already set, after all.
“Say… When did people start rolling in? What in the world is going on?” I couldn't help but ask, seeing the increase in spectators. Do you guys not have anything better to do on the last day of the year? I know a lot of travel options are still restricted, but it’s way less than before.
“Yeah. That is weird.” Gregori said before scratching his head, also looking around and seeing the decent crowd spectating the event.
*Punch* *Crash*
Qyunda punched Malk hard in the face and sent him flying and crashing into another rock formation, leaving behind a dust cloud.
“...Doesn’t she usually use twin swords?” I asked, seeing that she chose to not use them this time around. The midday round she did use them, but this round she doesn’t?
“Malk had wisened up to how she used them, so she abandoned the idea and opted for fists instead.” Gregori explained. “He had already disarmed her multiple times throughout their many sparring matches. Probably best for her to cut her losses and just fight with her limbs instead.”
“She isn’t even a bad brawler, really.” Jeff chimed in. “Those two have always been neck-and-neck in just about every category. You could say that Malk had been more successful than her in a lot of areas with her taking silvers often, but they’re still very close. Anyone that gets stomped by one would definitely get stomped by the other.”
“Yeah? But that could be said for the rest of you guys as well?” I said half-jokingly. “Even the weakest of you guys would stop us. Saying that won’t mean much.”
“Oh, I know. However, we’re talking about those two, aren’t we?” …This freaking smartass.
“Why aren’t they out of energy yet?” Fiss asked while I am still trying to keep myself composed. That guy sure knows how to act insufferable from time to time.
“Mana can be converted into stamina, albeit at a bad conversion rate. Everyone can do it, but you could master it to almost give you max stamina at a low mana cost. These two train together a lot and their specialty lies in melee combat where they use up a lot more stamina than someone in the back, so they start mastering any sort of fatigue-reliving spells.” Gregori explained in detail.
“But they already use quite a lot of spells, right? How do they still have any mana left for that?” She asked further. She has quite a bad gauge on how much mana someone has, it seems. “Not to mention all those attacking and sprinting…”
“Oh, that?” Gregori said with a smirk. “They’re both actually conserving a lot of energy. I get that all those elemental spells and being flung across the field multiple times make you think that way, but they both got enough mana to destroy a town at least, if they were to actually go all out the whole fight would’ve been completely unreadable. Not to mention a lot shorter and basically turn into a game of quick draw.”
“What the fuck are you saying?” I asked with probably a very perplexed look. “A town?”
“Why is that such a revelation to any of you?” He said with a smirk. “Did you forget that they took down a Titayrant? At minimum those things could wipe out an army of a thousand men. Those two have gotten stronger since then as well, maybe like fifty percent?”
“Stop with the bullshit! It’s been three days! Three days! No way they jump that high in that short a time!” I can’t help but say how absurd that kind of claim is.
“Oh, they did. I believe they went into the dungeon for a very long time yesterday and seem to get enlightenment or something along those lines.” He said with a straight face. This fucking guy…
“Oh, so that’s why I didn’t see them anywhere yesterday.” Jeyst chimed in. Why aren’t you calling your friend out!? Don’t try to support that stupid claim!
*Kick* *Leap* *Punch* *Crash*
Malk kicked Qyunda up into the air and then followed it up with a punch to the stomach while she was still airborne, sending her straight down into the hard ground.
“Okay, how in the world are they tanking all that?” Stamina is one thing, but no way in hell they tank that many attacks that would’ve been lethal to a normal human. A few of them I get, but they have been going at it for almost half an hour at this point. “Also, can you please tell me in what reasonable world can they have that big of a jump in power?”
“Hey. I’m just the messenger. I wasn’t there to see it happen, you know? It’s not like with Jennla who does have a good reason for the jump in power, since it’s not an actual jump.” That monkey woman? I don’t think there was really any disclosure on what happened between her and the others. I kinda forgot about her until that incident happened and she popped up in people’s minds again. It was weird, what kind of inciting incident caused those three to start going at it?
“Feels like I’m missing a lot of context here…” Fiss muttered. It’s only natural for her to be confused. She’s an outsider while everyone around here is at least a little bit familiar with each other.
“So yeah, what is her reason for the jump?” I asked since he’s the one who brought it up.
“Sorry, I have even less clue for that than I do with those two.” He said with a knowing grin. He definitely knows something and is keeping it a secret.
*Grapple*
Oh. Those two are grappling each other, their arms are locking. One of the few times they don’t turn into a blur that’s hard to see.
If only there was a better way to spectate this. I think for many people this is completely unreadable, which just makes me wonder why the crowd keeps growing. Is that another row being filled? Why are they watching this like a sport? I thought the days of those bloodsports were long gone?
*Zap* *Kick*
Malk then blasts her with lightning point-blank, staggering her enough for him to find an opening and break out of the stalemate then kick her right in the stomach, sending her flying.
…It’s kinda weird that those lightning spells are even remotely perceivable. I know it’s some weird explanations about magic being different and all that, but it’s still really weird. Also, the books explaining those kind of thing are insanely long, I ain’t reading all that.
“...So when are they actually going to stop?” Fiss asked. Certainly a reasonable thing to say, since with Gregori’s words in mind, it does look like they aren’t taking much damage at all though this fight has been going on for what feels like forever.
“At this point, it looks like it’ll end when one of them is completely out of stamina and mana. Can’t say I like the possible end result from that, but there’s that shady doctor who could help, or if we’re lucky Wiina will just pop in out of nowhere to make sure nothing terrible happens.” Gregori answered. If it’s that redhead, I think he could do something to help, but his shadiness in general is such a vibe killer. As for Wiina… It always feels like she appeared at the most convenient of times. It’s hard to tell if her entrance into the fray is intentional or not. I’m still wondering if that encounter yesterday was planned or not. It does look like she knows the convenience store granny, but everyone knows her, basically… Is she actually a local who got an appearance change? Or someone new? I think most people think the latter because she doesn’t resemble anyone that has been here, but…
*Slap* *Crash* *Tumble*
A tailslap from Qyunda completely caught Malk off-guard, causing him to be sent flying and tumbling on the ground.
I wonder, do they even notice the crowd? I can’t tell from here if their eyes ever darted this way or not.
*Punch* *Kick* *Smack*
…Are their speeds going down? Am I going crazy or do those attacks seem a bit slower than before? They still look insanely fast, and their reaction time is still quite superb, but it does feel like they are slowing down a little bit? Maybe if I get a better look I could actually tell. Maybe I’m going crazy spectating two people going at it for an unreasonable amount of time.
…Seriously though, are they close to being done yet?
“It’s insane that someone can fight for that long.” Fiss remarked.
“It’s a whole new world we’re living in. This kind of thing is definitely becoming more and more common.” Gregori said, as if he’s waxing poetic. “And with all this spectacle, maybe people will be more encouraged to do this kind of thing.”
*Punch* *Smack* *Kick* *Tackle*
Yeah, violence on a larger scale. I think it’s gonna be hard to find a place to accommodate that kind of thing. These two are fighting over a massive field and they are moving around the entire area. It looks impressive, but we don’t have a good way of spectating it right now. At least with the other arena, it’s big but nowhere near this big, also the shape is different so it’s not like there’s some poor sod who got a terrible seat for spectating over there unlike here. This one isn’t circular like the other one.
Seriously, at some spot on the field they look like specks. No way they don’t have at least some way of making the spectating experience easier. Maybe like a camera function or something? Or one of those screens on the seat like in the other arena?
“They definitely are slowing down, but it’s clear they won’t stop until one is laying flat on the ground like they’re dead.” Gregori remarked. So they actually are slowing down and I’m not being crazy.
“Really? I can’t really tell at all.” Fiss said. It is pretty hard to tell.
“People are posting this fight all over on the internet, by the way.” Jeff suddenly said. Wait, seriously? No wonder people are trickling in. Someone probably said that this place is accessible and a fight is happening. Not that I think most non-students are even aware of how to get in here quickly.
…So can they actually get this over with already? We’ve been here for way too freaking long and I could go for something to eat after all the exhausting stuff we did in the middle of the day.
At what point do they just end it already? They’re already losing speed.