Chapter 197 :

Episode 38 : Semifinals (3)

"My liege, did that boy's last attempt surprise you?" Frostina asked me about Louis' final act in his battle against Mya.

And I didn't know what to answer.

Naturally, I wasn't expecting Louis to attack Mya at the last second, so it was a little shocking to watch him hurt Mya, the child who he didn't want to harm but to protect.

"Not at all." I answered Frostina. 

"Indeed. Then I'm certain you had high expectations for Mya?"

"Of course, I do. She won as I predicted."

"That child might be one of the top players in the near future."

"Ho, top? Frostina, I didn't realize you feel keen for someone. Much less a child, but I do understand what you mean."

"She's the only one who is well-mannered unlike a certain foolish brat." 

Frostina meant my son, Noel, didn't she?

Speaking of Noel, the next round should be interesting to watch and one heck of a hectic match to lay eyes on.

The first round was destructive, but I'm sure when the second round arrives, it will be catastrophic.

Not that I find the matches uninteresting, it's the aftermath that brings horror to me and my comrades who have to clean the area up.

Plus, the scene in front of me just showcases the destructiveness of what a player should be like.

Clusters of debris as bloody as blood itself, none of that can compare to the rest of the mess lying ahead. 

..With a sight like this, a reminiscing sensation rushes through me as if I'm subconsciously reminding myself of what my true purpose is.

‘Is it because it reminds me of the battles I encounter along with my comrades?’ I thought, shutting my eyes when my mind went to another place.

A ghastly field unlike the one ahead of me, corpses of my enemies lay waste on the battlefields while the people who stood by my side perished one after another. 

..It was.. In no doubt

..A depressing view..

"My liege." 

Opening my eyes when Frostina called out to me, I noticed her glance piercing mine as she seemed to be concerned.

Slowly but surely, Frostina's lips moved, uttering the words I once told her. "Focus on the present that's in front of you." 

"How bold, Frostina. Aren't you in front of me right now?" I grinned as I tried to tease her a bit.

All of the sudden, I felt a hand clutching onto my shoulder, trying to make me perceive pain when in fact, I can't.

"Captain~! Hmph..!!" Mirai pouted angrily yet adorably.

Eventually, I turned around to spot Mirai carrying Mya with both hands, and I completely ignored the hand that was grasping me. "Why are you angry, Mimi?"

"Hmp!" Mirai averted her head elsewhere.

Afterwards, Raiden saved me from Mirai's anger. "Mimi chan! I need your help in healing Louis! He doesn't look so well from what I'm seeing." 

"Hm… Fine, but right after I help Mya first~! Will Louis be fine in the next few minutes, Rai?"

"Uh, let me see. Oh, he should be fine! But just in case, I'm sending a small jolt of electricity to keep him alive."

"Good, keep doing that."

Chattering…

With a faint grin on my face, I glanced at my comrades who were serious in their own ways.

Only the sight of them is enough to bring a smile on my face, but it remains a mystery as to when Mirai will let go of her 'other' hand off my shoulder.

Just so you know, Mirai is carrying Mya with her two hands, and I don't want to take a look at the hand grabbing onto my shoulder.

It could be an ominous warning to me..

‘She's angry and I don't understand why.’ I sweated in fear of Mirai. ‘I'm totally fine.’

I was having such a pleasant time grinning and watching my comrades, yet it ended with just the voice of someone behind me.

"JoonChul.. Can I speak now?" It was Etheldreda

"No." I responded without a care.

"Oh.. But can I ask you a question? Only one, please!"

"..Fine."

At the moment, I'm not looking at Etheldreda or anything, so I couldn't figure out if she was happily smiling behind me, only her voice expressed her joy.

"Will you save my kingdom again like you always do?" 

"I'm not going to tell you." 

"What..? Why? Are you really going to let my kingdom fall?"

"Those are three questions. Now be quiet."

"I.." Etheldreda was about to say something before shutting up to not anger me. 

‘Saving her kingdom, huh? I only did it for my satisfaction, not salvation.’ I thought, leaning back on my chair.

‘It's one way to get back at those bastards up there. And that's enough to bring a big smile on my villainous face.’ I sneered with mischievous joy.

———

BOOOMMM!!

The sound of an explosion reverberated out loud in the middle of a clash between the impatient contestants.

"So hm.. Uh." Raiden couldn't find any words to say or commentary. "Sensei, should I stop them?"

It was obvious why Raiden felt a bit dumbfounded by the contestants, it's because Noel and Behemoth were battling it out even before Raiden could begin his countdown nor his commentary.

JoonChul was in awe of his son and comrade not having enough patience. "No, let them fight."

BANNNG!

With such a loud sound, it was no wonder the system messages couldn't keep up with the amount of skills being used in one moment.

Aside from that, Noel, who was doing pretty great with his defense of blocking most of Behemoth's explosives, had his ice walls shattered again and again.

Noel's offense was good yet not sufficient enough to withstand Behemoth's might as Noel was found struggling throughout the entire battle.

Whoosh!

With the situation being like this, it was no wonder Noel attempted to set traps all over the place to lure Behemoth into one.

..But as one may describe Behemoth the cat, he's quite explosive.

Which left Noel baffled by the traps being used against him after it got blasted away by Behemoth's destructiveness.

Sent flying toward Noel's side were ice shards as well as a burst of chain explosives from Behemoth, it then forced Noel into a corner when he fortunately retreated before he could get completely cornered.

Swoosh..

As a result of the failures Noel had in hurting Behemoth, Noel copied Mya's tactics of an enclosed area, shutting Behemoth off from the outside by forming tons and tons of boxes upon boxes of ice to imprison the black cat.

However..

After his previous attempts, Noel knows all too well that something like this wouldn't do much against this black cat.

 

BA–BOOM!!!

In a blink of an eye, the enclosure was soon found to be scattered throughout the place in the form of particles and debris, playing a part in Noel's plan.

‘Good! This was what I wanted!’ Noel thought.

Considering the area was nothing but ice fog, it gave Noel the upper hand by overloading Behemoth's hearing with the sounds of shards of ice.

Not only that, Noel used it to his advantage to hide away in the fog while troubling Behemoth's nose through the uses of the fog.

Since living with Crystal his entire life, it may have given Noel a clue on how to deal with an animal like Behemoth.

Swissh!

Immediately to satisfy his question, Noel tossed an ice disk as loud as possible toward the opposite side…

And what awaits that spot..

BOOOMMM!

..Was nothing more than an explosion that obliterated the surrounding area, slowly replacing the fog with the smoke from the aftermath.

Taking this opportunity where Behemoth was blasting his attack toward nothing, Noel threw his splited-into-two Chakram at Behemoth's rear while Noel went for the back.

Since Behemoth is restricted from using his eyes because of the match's fairness, he couldn't see anything nor know where Noel was, but..

Nothing can get past Behemoth's ears. 

‘So that's where you are.’ Behemoth thought before turning around with his mouth fueled with blasters.

Boom! BOOM!

Using his explosion, he had caught Noel off guard and had busted out a horde of explosions in point blank range.

"Uack!!" Noel cried out as an ice coffin formed around him to shield him from the blast.

The moment the ice coffin formed to protect him, it began to break in a mere second, causing Noel to summon ice coffins one after another to safely pass through the sheer explosion of Behemoth.

It was only a line of explosion aimed at Noel, but it was as if Behemoth loaded all of his explosives into one by compressing them before shooting it at Noel.

..It seems a bit overkill, doesn't it?

"Getting cocky because you beat Rai? Think again! Meow!" Behemoth meowed.

Not understanding Behemoth, Noel was still able to understand it somehow. "Ughh! This is nothing!" 

Shortly after, Noel exclaimed at the top of his lungs as something icy flashed out of his body, freezing the surroundings into crystals.  

Noel grunted. ‘Do it..! Do it like what that cold auntie did!!’

And so he did..

Everywhere Noel looked, there were crystals floating around which led him to command them all to pierce Behemoth in one go.

Where crystals were covering the whole area, imagine them bombarding Behemoth who couldn't see it.

Blind as a restriction for the match, Behemoth twitched his ears around and sniffed things out with his nose.

Sooner or later, Behemoth immediately figured out the location of each individual crystal as he hopped, sliced and diced them like they were nothing.

Clattering!!

Too much explosions can be exhausting which resulted in Behemoth being active with his one weapon which were his claws.

A small amount of furs were cut off when Noel's attack strikes, and yet Behemoth didn't have the time to locate where Noel was, proceeding to slash away at Noel's crystals as much as he possibly could for now.

Swoosh~!!!

Noel, having the time to think things through but didn't, spawned a group of snow angels to freeze Behemoth.

Ghosting through Behemoth, the snow angels caused frost to build up from Behemoth's furs while numbing his body from the inside.

After snow angels, came frost spikes, icicles, icebergs, etc. No attacks were the same as it all targeted Behemoth.

Even Behemoth was dumbfounded by a dozen different varieties of attack directed at him back and forth.

…Noel wasn't going to go easy on the cat, was he? Then it would be wise to go all out, wouldn't it?

"Mrow!!!" Behemoth sucked up all the air in no time before quickly launching a bombardment of blasters at every side.

Despite that, Noel wasn't Behemoth to do what he wanted.

CLATTTTERRR!!!

Swiftly as it goes, Noel unleashed a gale of frost and it went ahead to put a frozen stop to the blast, illuminating its icy might onto the dynamic explosions.

Even though the frost looked to be falling behind, it was doing enough to prevent Behemoth from escaping Noel's constant attacks.

WHOOSH!

Time flies away like the ice breaking apart. 

In the end, there was frost in one minute and an explosion in another, nothing more than that within the 15 minutes of a teenager and a cat battling it out.

Both Behemoth and Noel weren't going down from this trivial match, doing their utmost in defeating their opponent as if their pride depended on it.

BA–BOOOOMM!!

"I'm about to deplete my MP.. This isn't good.." Noel murmured, retreating after releasing a ton of ice spears aimed at Behemoth.

"What should I do? I can't fight head on because that would be suicide.." 

..He's actually thinking for once.

"Wait.. I remember now!" Noel cried out, feeling assured as he used the last points of his mana while keeping some for a few skills.

All in one moment, Behemoth's paw sensed a vibration from the ground when he was greeted with a bonk from his right, sending him flying into the sea.

Splash!!

In the end, Behemoth crashed into the water which is something he HATED the most.

"MEOOOOOW!!!!"

When suddenly..

"Behemoth! Don't do the nuke!!!" Raiden suddenly shouted to warn the startled and seething Behemoth. "Don't do it!!"

"MRROOOOOOW!!!!"

Not heeding Raiden's warning, Behemoth sent forth a horrific blast of explosion which unfortunately led to the water to rise up like a tsunami.

SWOOSH!!

A tsunami bigger than the one on earth was swiftly traveling toward the beach where everyone was.

"This wasn't what I expected?!" Noel is stunned by a giant wave of water arriving his way.

Crackling!!!

Even his ice cracked from the forces of the water and the explosion accumulated in the water, demolishing Noel's defense and immediately devouring him in one fell swoop.

SPLASHINNNG!!

"Helpppppp!!! Pfff–!!! Gragh?!!" Noel was drowning since he's obviously not quite good at swimming yet.

Plus, Noel didn't have the chance to catch his breath when he witnessed his ice falling onto him and bumping his head.

..This wasn't a good situation nor was it a good sight to see…

SHHAAA!!!

The more Noel struggled, the more he couldn't focus on the fact that he has powers that are unimaginable. 

It was too surprising for Noel to prepare for this kind of dilemma, even the small lessons of swimming classes weren't nothing now.

"Ahhh! H-Help!!" Trying to call for help, despite knowing water would rush into his lung, Noel screamed in a panic. 

In his last attempt before he was no longer conscious anymore, Noel finally cried out for the one who he wanted to save him.

"Father!!!!"

SPLASSHHH!!

"This match is over!" Someone yelled in an ear-piercing volume.

It was not Raiden, but JoonChul.

SPLASH!

Diving into the water to retrieve Noel, JoonChul swam and carried his son out of the water before returning to his judge seat in a hurry.

"Rai, go and get Behemoth back here before he causes yet another trouble."

"Hai, Sensei!" Replying to JoonChul instantly, Raiden leaps into action.

"Mimi." JoonChul laid Noel on the desk as Mirai came forward. "Water has gotten into his lungs, even ice. Please do something about this."

"Hai, hai~!" Mirai grinned before doing CPR on Noel, slowly but surely removing the ice fragments from Noel's inside using her silk threads.

The ice should melt, however Noel's ice is very dense and takes a long duration to melt into water. So if left untouched inside Noel, it will get extremely dangerous for him.

As swift as the wind, Mirai cried out after spotting Raiden returning back with Behemoth in his arms. "Captain! Rai is here!" 

"Good. I'll need to have a talk with Behemoth."

‘Captain is.. mad..’ Mirai glanced, feeling the weight of JoonChul's expression. "Eto, captain.. Don't be too mean on him since that's my duty~"

"Yes, I won't take away your place of rivalry between Behemoth."

Thinking with a wide smile, Mirai giggled to herself to erase the terrible feeling she felt from noticing her captain's face.

Shortly after Mirai calmed down, she uttered quietly while treating Noel. "Though.. I hope captain doesn't go too rough on that cat."

In spite of her rivalry against Behemoth, they remained as comrades throughout their journey with Satan, so even with rivalry, they still have an ounce to care about their rivals..

"Fufu, I get to see Behemoth get scolded by captain~"

..Or maybe not?