Chapter 1948: The Warrior Variant
Upon watching, the people were finally on the edge of their seats. They never expect it to be such a nerve wrecking experience to see these two Demon Exorcists clash among themselves.
The killing intent was immensely strong being emitted from the both of them as each went for their vital points. Even as each of them failed, the desperate attempts to survive were undoubtedly being conveyed to the people watching the show.
The only person who was unsatisfied by the fight was actually the Demon Exorcist Teacher who had seen the Grade 4 Demon Exorcist displaying his Grade 12 Red Cross Ape for the tour group to see. He specifically wants to see how the Red Cross Ape fights against the Warrior Type Demon Exorcist.
Would it be an exhilarating duel for the audience to watch, that he does not know as he has never seen the Red Cross Ape in action before?
However, he does know that this upcoming fight would be an even fiercer one mainly due to the fact that both of them had been handicapped. People might think otherwise but the Demon Exorcist Teacher knew that if one were to handicap themselves, they would be pulling their best shots out for everyone to see.
And it was indeed nothing less spectacular when Jin and the Warrior Variant met for the first clash the moment they had declared their handicap status. The chi and magic powers being unleashed by both contestants were felt by the audience.
With each clash, the chi residue got even stronger, and if not for the force field barrier that was surrounding and protecting the people in the stadium, some of the audience in the front seats might have already been affected by it.
Soon, both of them had enough of parrying and started to play the 'display' game. The Warrior unleashed his explosive powers but Jin was able to deflect it swiftly with his very own as well. Soon, the floor tiles they were fighting on had been destroyed and the ground sunk from the consistent explosions that had happened.
It did not take long for them to subsequently move to another portion of the arena so that they could continue their attack. But unlike the last minute where they were pretty even, Jin finally got the hang of the Warrior Variant's attacks as well as force. It did not take long to see the gaps that the Warrior Variant had mainly due to the fact that the Warrior was mostly a two handed user.
He was definitely competent with the use of his double blade axe but gaps could be seen when he attempted to wield the same explosive powers with just one hand compared to the ease of use when he wielded it with two.
And unlike the Warrior Variant, Jin was proficient in wielding his longsword for the longest time possible. He had deflected even stronger blows via his longsword and dished out equally strong attacks with just one hand. That was why it was not a handicap for him to wield it in one hand instead it was the norm. Having two hands available merely gave him more opportunities for a counterattack.
That was why when he felt that the fight was becoming a standstill as compared to the adrenaline he had when Jin first fought against the Warrior Variant, he instantly sent a burst of chi into his sword and slammed it hard into the Warrior Variant's axe blades.
The only difference now was that the burst of chi was sufficient enough for Bam to cut through the Double Axe's blade and eventually slide into the leather cuirass of the Warrior Variant. Yet at that point, the Warrior Variant knew that the only opportunity was now. It was a do or die kind of situation for him even though he did not have the edge of the axe on his side.
Instead, he had summoned another Demon Wolf to do the killing in his stead.
As much as he did not wish to follow Jin's matter, the Warrior Variant had used the Demon Wolf which he summoned as a gauntlet. He grabbed it by the neck and sent it flying towards Jin's neck once more. If Jin were to plunge his sword into the Warrior Variant's torso, he did not have to worry about distance. The only thing he need to hope for is that he was able to time it right.
"Tsk. I did expect a bit of dirtiness on your part. But to use the Demon Wolf to act as your extension." Regardless of the danger that Jin was facing when he talked to himself, he still regarded the handicap that he had promised with the Warrior Variant and took the bite.
The only difference was that the two could play that game of 'extension'. With his Maqi, he was able to temporarily create a Panda chi silhouette that had a physical body to withstand the attack for him. The baby panda covered his neck in a way where it looked like it curled up Jin's entire face to protect.
It was not a particularly good sight for the audience to see as the Chinese people tend to have a bias towards cute things, especially baby pandas.
But a fight was a fight. No matter how unfair it was, the opponents had to play to their advantage.
That was why Jin pulled this trick to gain sympathy points from the audience but he had forgotten that in doing so, it had also verified to the Pandarens that the one who was fighting might have been Jin. Knowing that the cat was out of the bag, he decided not to hide his powers any longer as he kicked the Warrior Variant away and started to slam his hands on the ground.
This caused a series of spikes to emerge out of the ground and attempts to hit the Warrior Variant with it. Of course, the Warrior Variant was not stupid to be pierced so easily as he unleashed a devastating blow to the ground, decimating the ground spikes coming towards him and under him as well.
But what he did not anticipate was that he should not have just slammed once as the spikes grew once more at a pace that he was unable to cover.
It sent him flying into the air while more spikes from the side pierced him. The Warrior Variant as the name suggests went through battles with a shockingly high level of tenacity with him as well. This enabled him to break all the ground spikes all at once in a single stroke of his two handed axe.
At the same time, Jin did not relent with the ground spikes but the Warrior decided to play the same game as well and summoned as many Demon Wolves as he could.
Desperately copying the idea from Jin, the Demon Wolves had been used as meat shields to cover himself from the onslaught of ground spikes but at the same time, he had summoned them near Jin in order to distract him from using the ground spikes spell.
But to his horror, even before they could be summoned out from their portals, the moment Jin sensed an embodiment of mana converting in the area, the ground spike had already been prepared to pierce the emergence of the Demon Wolf.
As ugly as the battlefield had become, it turned into a battle of attrition to see who got a sufficient amount of mana to waste and the amount of energy to hold on. But unlike the Jin, who had surpassed the supposed Grade 20 threshold, the Warrior Variant could not hold a candle to his master.
Even if he wished to show his master his ultimate move and see how would the master react, he basically had no time to even prepare for such a skill as his master's ability to cast these many ground spikes so effortlessly is already considered a talent that he could not surpass. And like those who had been enamoured by Jin's powers, the Warrior Variant was also caught in that vicious trap.
Even as he died meaninglessly through another wave of ground spikes, his faith in his master had been renewed.
At the same time, the audience was speechless.
They knew that there was something special about the Demon Exorcist just as he had managed not to break a sweat against the enemy that managed to wipe the Demon Exorcists so easily. But to see the chaos that ensued after that was an eye opener for them to see such a strong Demon Exorcist exist among them.
The Sinhua reporter was the same as well. He initially wanted the Grade 4 Demon Exorcist to lose but to see the battle develop to such a state, the reporter knew that this was no ordinary Demon Exorcist. He was called out to show that there was still a standard that the Demon Exorcists could achieve.
Whether or not the Demon Exorcist Commando could reach that particular standard, it was for the audience to see in the coming year.
However, all of those were not the audience's main concern right now as they wanted to know badly if the baby panda survived the attack or not even though they knew it was not real.