Without any warning, Maximillian conjured several metal coins around him, immediately firing them at Sero.
Copying 'Metalmake', Sero ran through his skill rotation, quickly stomping out a Force Field to block the small projectiles. His Perfect Analysis was on full throttle, studying Maximillian's every move.
As the coins struck his green Force Field, Sero realized that Enzo was right about Maximillian's strength; his shield began to show cracks as the projectiles kept pelting it.
Sero cursed to himself, casting Fairness on Maximillian as he dropped his Force Field. The overwhelming strength flowed into his body, but Sero emulated Harmony to convert the excess into mana which he then used to conjure his dragon twins and Sting.
Maximillian frowned in annoyance at the balancing of their strengths, but otherwise seemed fine as Moss and Lime began to cast debuffs on him. Sting dashed forward, priming her rapier at the Iron Tyrant.
"Not bad," Maximillian smirked, waving a hand at Sting.
Sero's body buzzed as he copied 'Repel', watching as Sting was seemingly pushed aside by an invisible force. He realized that Maximillian had repelled the Joker's rapier, dragging the familiar with it.
"Guess a mana blade's out of the question," Sero muttered to himself, conjuring a Soul Blade instead. He assumed Maximillian might have a skill that attracted metals, so he didn't want to risk using any metallic weaponry.
Sero telepathically ordered Sting to switch to a ranged offensive, causing the Joker to throw exploding playing cards instead of relying on her rapier. Moss and Lime continued to hinder Maximillian with weakening status effects and absorption of his coins as Sero dashed into melee range.
The Iron Tyrant was already prepared, casting Form Shift to transform the coins around him into long metal blades that seemed to have minds of their own, zipping around to deal with Sero and his summons.
A few of the blades tried to pierce him, but Sero simply casted his own Repel to push them away, clearing a path to Maximillian. With a grin, Sero fired off a Lightning Bolt, expecting the metal around Maximillian to attract the attack. To his surprise, the spell was deflected back at him, forcing Sero to dodge quickly.
He glanced back at the attack, seeing the floating blades behind him absorb the lightning and realized Maximillian had used 'Attract', which not only drew metal in, but also enabled the metals to pull any attacks toward it.
"Holy shit, he's strong," Sero thought to himself, snapping his attention back to Maximillian and firing off a storm of alternating mana railguns and nukes.
Even as the Iron Tyrant used the metal blades to deflect the oncoming magic, Sero casted Mana Lock and Shadow Bind, hoping to restrict Maximillian's movements. But he simply conjured more shards of metal around him that quickly tore up the shadowy tendrils and green cage to shreds.
Sero sent out a Fire Blast, using Wind Rush to boost his speed to maneuver around the blades. Maximillian was now in the center of a massive hurricane of blades, easily pushing back Sero and his familiars as the fire crashed harmlessly against the steel.
Swearing under his breath, Sero casted Ground Fortress, whipping the sand and dirt around him in a storm to combat the metal hurricane. The earth and metal clashed, giving Sero and his familiars enough time to regroup. Moss and Lime took advantage of the momentary lull by casting buffs and heals on Sero, restoring his strength. Sting, on the other hand, dashed forward, aiming for a weak spot in Maximillian's defenses.
"Oh, this is a lot more fun than I thought!" Maximillian roared with a grin, stomping the ground. A huge tsunami of jagged metal screeched forth from where he stomped, growing in size as it approached Sting. Unable to dodge in time, the colossal wall quickly pierced the Joker, causing her to disperse into green dust.
Despite the loss of a powerful familiar, Sero was already prepared, casting Synchronization as his Fairness wore off to merge with his dragons and summoning an army of green spectral reptiles. The Ground Fortress sandstorm was dying out against the metal hurricane, causing Sero to fire a desperate Dominate at Maximillian. In the back of his mind, Sero wondered where the ghostly reptiles came from, considering he only had Moss and Lime.
Just like with the Lightning Bolt, the Dominate beam unnaturally veered off path, hitting a stray blade instead. It seemed as though Maximillian had a counter to everything Sero could throw at him; at least, for now.
The blade hurricane switched focus, tearing through the ghostly familiars as Maximillian broke apart and morphed the jagged metal wall into a storm of shrapnel that came raining down on Sero.
Thinking on his feet, Sero casted Metalmake himself, throwing out a single coin at the shrapnel storm. He used Attract on the coin, causing the silver shards to gravitate towards it instead. The pieces slammed together around the coin, giving Sero a brief opening. A quick combination of Shadow Sneak and Wind Rush brought Sero behind Maximillian, where he conjured the Jury axe to bring down upon the Iron Tyrant.
"Damn, you're pretty good," Maximillian whirled around with a smirk, flicking his hand at Sero.
He gasped as the Jury axe wrenched free from his grasp due to Maximillian's Repel. The golden weapon flew through the air, directly towards Enzo.
With a snarl, Enzo effortlessly smacked the axe away with the back of his hand. "Watch it, asshole! I know you did that on purpose!"
Sero, however, was already leaping at the opening, thrusting his Soul Blade forward. Since Maximillian was using his metal at range, Sero figured he wasn't well-versed in close-combat.
He was immediately proven wrong as he copied 'Metallicize', watching a suit of silver metal form around Maximillian's body. The Iron Tyrant easily blocked his Soul Blade with a hand, firing a quick punch to Sero's gut.
Sero flew back, landing on his butt. Pain exploded in his abdomen, but he ignored it, jumping back on his feet. As his Synchronization wore off, so did his spectral army, leading Sero to emulate Relentless and casting both Provoke and Undying Spirit.
Like a rocket, Sero dashed forward, slipping through the hurricane of blades as he managed to get a clean punch on Maximillian. However, the Iron Tyrant simply grunted, quickly retaliating with his own punches and kicks.
It took all of Sero's effort and concentration just to avoid the simultaneous attacks from Maximillian and his floating blades, pushing him to focus on defense as he slowly drained more strength and mana from his opponent.
Sero considered copying Maximillian's skills and moves exactly, but figured that the Iron Tyrant had a stronger mastery over metal, which would prove disadvantageous. Running out of options, Sero decided to go for a surprise attack.
Before Maximillian could land a decisive hit, Sero clapped his hands, casting a Lightning Bolt directly on top of them.
"What the fuck?" Maximillian quickly diverted the electrical attack to one of the floating blades, giving Sero the chance he needed.
Deactivating Provoke and Undying Spirit, he emulated Lawbreak, casting Cat Paradox and hoped that his plan would work. In the blink of an eye, the metal hurricane vanished, momentarily stunning Maximillian.
Before he could recover, Sero charged up a full-powered mana nuke, firing it point-blank at Maximillian. The attack exploded on contact, and Sero managed to change into shadows to dodge the resulting shockwave.
As he rematerialized, a metallic fist emerged from the smoke, striking Sero's jaw hard. The force of the blow sent him flying backwards, landing hard on the ground. He groaned in pain, his vision swimming.
Sero kicked back up to his feet on instinct, scanning his surroundings. He caught sight of Maximillian heading straight towards him, surrounded by floating blades of steel. In the back of his mind, Sero could feel a strange bloodlust welling up inside him, threatening to take over.
For some reason, his Rationality didn't quell the feeling. In fact, Sero felt almost seduced by the feeling of carnage. His muscles tensed and his heart raced as he prepared for the inevitable clash. As Maximillian drew closer, Sero reached out with his senses, searching for another opportunity.
Time seemed to slow down as Sero indulged in the bloodlust, casting Hellfire and Hellspark to cover his body. His Perfect Analysis heightened all of his senses, reading every one of Maximillian's movements. The Iron Tyrant launched the floating blades at him, but Sero easily brushed them away with Repel, crouching down as he charged up a Revenge in his fist.
Maximillian quickly closed the gap, throwing out a punch to which Sero responded in kind.
Just before their punches reached each other, a massive golden axe swung down in between the middle of them, causing the two to halt their fists before they struck the weapon.
"Time's up," Enzo declared, drawing his Jury axe back. "Congratulations Sero, you managed to last the entire 15 minutes."
"Oh," Sero blinked, relaxing his body as his skills dispersed. His bloodlust faded away as his Rationality took over. It was only for a moment, but Enzo seemed to have a look of concern in his eyes.
"Ugh, right when it was getting to the good part," Maximillian grumbled, releasing his Metallicize suit along with his blades. "I was looking forward to cutting loose."
Although Sero believed the match would've ended in a tie, he sensed the presence of metal blades behind him. He realized that even if Enzo hadn't stopped them because of the time limit, he would've lost either way. He shivered, agreeing that Maximillian was indeed on par with Enzo.
"Looks like you have to do my paperwork for a month," Enzo bared his teeth happily as his eyes glowed red, preparing to teleport the three back.
"Shut up, mutt. If we were surrounded by even the tiniest bit of natural metal, I'd have gone even further," Maximillian replied with a scowl. "Damn desert is useless to me."
Casting Recovery on himself, Sero couldn't help but notice how relaxed the Iron Tyrant was, as if their match was nothing more than a warm-up to him. If this was how strong Maximillian was without metal around, Sero didn’t want to imagine how powerful he could be had there been some.
After returning to the association, Maximillian excused himself to the restroom, leaving Enzo and Sero alone.
"You've grown really strong," Enzo remarked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Didn't expect you to actually keep up with Max."
Sero shrugged. "I've been training harder," he said simply. "But he's still stronger. He could've taken me down if he wanted to."
"True. But you wouldn't have gone down with a fight," the Demonic Judge took a hand out from his pockets, glancing at his phone. "Besides that though... I'm surprised you've developed a killing intent."
Sero blinked, taken aback by the comment. "What do you mean?"
"During training, you were developing a sense for combat, and in your matches in the tournament, you showed that you can handle a simulated fight. Neither of those situations can foster a killing intent, which means you went through something traumatic to develop that," Enzo lazily glanced at Sero. "I'm sure Max noticed that too. By no means am I saying it's a bad thing, considering me and the other Janitors have developed our own killing intent."
Sero paused for a moment, his face a bit pale. "I guess... I never thought about it like that."
"Yeah, well, killing intent is much different from the emotions you're used to. In fact, there's hardly any emotion involved. To be able to take a life, you need to be rid of the guilt and fear that comes along with it." Enzo slipped his phone back into his pockets. "Just... keep it in check, okay? I'm not supposed to condone it, but I think it's good that you have it. It's only a problem once you aim that killing intent at your allies."
"I'll keep that in mind," Sero nodded, his expression serious. He paused for a moment, thinking about what had happened to him. It made sense; his Rationality had been suppressing his emotions, so it wasn't a surprise for Sero to develop the so-called killing intent Enzo spoke of.
Their conversation ended when Maximillian came out of the restroom, nodding at Enzo, then Sero.
"Good match. Next time, I'll end it before the time limit," the Iron Tyrant grunted to Sero, walking away.
Enzo glanced at Sero, raising an eyebrow. "You know, after a match like that, you don’t seem winded at all."
"Oh… I just… my skills and familiars were keeping me in shape," Sero replied lamely. "My Recovery is also restoring my body."
The Demonic Judge smacked Sero’s back with a fanged grin. "The Boss was the only person I considered a monster, but I think I might be seeing another one grow right before my eyes." Enzo said before following Maximillian.
Sero watched the S-ranks leave, slowly becoming aware that he never used the restroom like he originally planned.
