Draco simply raised a finger and fired out another wind bullet. When it struck his foe, it actually didn't knock him out, and a stronger rebound rushed back at Draco with twice the power and speed.
He flicked it aside and let it crash into a part of the stadium that was not occupied by people, where the seats and wall were blasted open with ease. Many faces changed when they saw this, as many had secretly disdained the girl from before for passing out and foaming due to a 'mere' wind bullet, but seeing the kind of damage it had caused humbled them greatly.
The lad who resisted it himself spat out a clod of blood, showing that his defense wasn't perfect… neither was his rebound. To be able to perfectly rebound, you had to be able to perfectly defend.
Clearly, he was not up to the task. Draco was intrigued by this and used a movement technique to suddenly appear before the fellow. With Control augmenting his muscles, he unleashed a power punch with 30% of his full power into the lad's guts.
The blow generated a small shockwave that caused dust to rise up, forcing everyone to cover their faces as they worried about the lad. They saw that he was clutching his stomach while vomiting everything he had eaten, hyperventilating as he sought for air.
He was definitely not going to be able to continue the match. As for Draco, he stood there calmly, but one could see that the skin of his entire arm was blood-red, leaking blood at certain spots while the clothes he wore were torn up.
Draco hummed and healed his arm using Nuwa's abilities, before gazing at the lad. It seemed like this rebound effect was quite a useful toy he could play with. If he remembered correctly, Orochi had an absolute defense and perfect rebound effect, but it drained a fuckload of energy to keep up.
Oh, it certainly wasn't infinite. No Bloodline related ability was. They all ran on Bloodline Energy, which was generated by the Bloodline purity. Higher purity meant more Bloodline Energy and faster Bloodline Energy regen.
However, that thing with Orochi was not a system skill. His thing was a Bloodline technique, which, as was stated, drained Energy per use. This defense and rebound thing was best used as system passive, which was always on and could even grow.
Draco had an idea as his eyes flashed, but he smiled and left the stage. When Eva read his mind, her face changed and became nasty, as Draco had found a way to prevent his booty from being desecrated by her even if he lost!
Next up were the Semi-Finals, where the first match was Eva versus some lad with a Fire Qilin! When he manifested his 12th grade Martial Spirit, the arena instantly became a scorching inferno and the lad's body bulked up slightly.
Eva's eyes narrowed as she knew that this lad was not a joke. Still, neither she nor Draco saw fit to manifest their Martial Spirits in any of these fights, something which everyone had noticed and were endlessly speculating about.
As for the Elders and Masters of the Top 10 sects, they were watching with narrowed eyes, wanting to see for themselves exactly what the two little monsters of those two deadly clans were made of.
Eva also had some Martial Arts techniques of her own, and met the attack of the Qilin Boy head-on. She easily dodged and parried his attacks, using his own force to hurt him.
With Tier 5 Control, any form of combat against them was useless unless one also had Control of that tier. Essentially, Draco and Eva were like 3-tomoe Sharingan users. They could see everything you were going to do before you even did it, so how could your attacks connect?
Eva sparred with him casually in order to not look too outstanding. It was fine if she and Draco did not manifest their Martial Spirits due to their talent and backgrounds, but if they revealed that they could even one-shot those blessed children with the highest grade of Martial Spirit, people would see something was wrong.
Normally, this wouldn't matter because the Evil Duo were extremely high profile, but one could say that they had really got into the roles of these set of floors, thinking of themselves as real denizens.
As such, acting too out of place would affect their clan – which they technically shouldn't care about since it didn't matter – hence their current behavior.
Eva eventually beat the fellow till he was out cold by striking whenever he showed an opening. Her continuous and elegant counterattacks were never rushed, always striking acupoints on the body until she easily sealed the fellow's Qi.
The crowd clapped for her battle, which was magnificent, and the top sects even clapped as well. The Top 3 had their eyes flash as they gazed at Eva with greed, thinking about how to rope her in.
Not to mention, there was the other one. Their eyes turned to Draco, who came onstage and faced off against a lad with a Devil's Eye, another 12th grade Martial Spirit.
When he manifested it, it appeared in the form of a giant bloodshot eyeball with purple irises that were slit like a snake. Being put under its glare would make one freeze and feel extremely uncomfortable, if not outright fearful.
This amused Draco as it had no effect on him, but he noted that this Martial Spirit seemed to have a passive mental attack. This was definitely a top-tier grade 12 Martial Spirit, just below one of their three Inheritances.
Draco stretched out a hand and a whitish light manifested around him that swirled around his body. When this light appeared, the Elders of the Top 10 sects almost ripped their beards and chins off as their eyes bulged.
"Impossible! Impossible, impossible!!" An Elder roared as his eyes became red.
"H-How can this be? H-How…?" The Sect Master of the second strongest sect muttered with disbelief.
"…Monsters." Was all the Sect Master of the strongest sect mumbled as he shook his head.
The Lesser Elders were curious as to why the top echelon responded like that. Seeing their confusion, the Sect Mistress of the third strongest sect, decided to be magnanimous and explained it to them.
"He is not using Qi. Rather, the boy has manifested his knowledge of the sword, turning his arm into a makeshift sword. To achieve this, you need to achieve at least, the Sword and Man realm."
Hearing this, the crowd was in an uproar. Martial Arts in this world was separated into four categories. Abilities, Qi Cultivation, Skills, and Techniques.
Abilities could be inherited from either a bloodline, or attained via the Qi Cultivation method you were using. For example, some Qi Cultivation methods allow one to move faster, breathe fire, or do other stuff as a byproduct.
Qi Cultivation was obvious, it was the Energy/Qi Gathering technique you would use from the Muscle Tempering Realm up until the Integration Realm.
Skills were martial abilities that were complete systems. For example, Heaven Breaking Earth Shattering Fist was a Martial Arts skill that was developed. A Martial Arts master would combine normal Martial Arts movement with special Qi pathways in the body that synergized with the attack, granting it great power.
As for Techniques, they were both self-developed fighting styles, as well as abstract, yet orthodox schools of Martial Arts. For example, a Sword skill in this world would be swinging the sword and unleashing a wave of fire with the blade powered by Qi.
A Sword technique, would be something that does not have a confined system, but is adaptable due to the realm of the Martial Artist. This was not the realm of Qi, but the realm of the Martial Art itself.
Like right now, Draco was using Sword and Man of the Sword School of Martial Arts. There was the Spear and Man technique for the Spear School and so on.
For orthodox weapons, the realms were Weapon and Man, Weapon Heart, Weapon Soul, Mind Weapon, and World as a Weapon. The 'weapon' here was interchangeable with the name of the specific weapon itself.
So for the Sword, it would be Sword and Man, Sword Heart, Sword Soul, Mind Sword, and World as a Sword. Quite an interesting system, but not relevant to Draco right now, as he struck out.
The lad opposite him easily avoided that attack like he could foresee it, which made Draco nod. His suspicions appeared to have been correct, the Devil's Eye Martial Spirit seemingly granted his host Tier 3 Void of Perfection at the least, but only for sight.
Draco rushed the fellow and entered a battle of speed with him, both dodging and striking out at the other, while they foresaw and avoided the other's attacks.
It had to be said that the lad against Draco suffered from hits more than he dodged, not because of incompetence, but because of the sheer difference in base stats between them.
Draco continued mercilessly, not giving him a single moment of respite, while the lad could only grit his teeth and hold on, desperately waiting for an opening.
Alas, he got crushed before he could find one because Draco had a superior form of sensory ability compared to him.
The battle opened the crowd's eyes, as they weren't knowledgeable of every Martial Spirit out there, obviously.
Now that both Draco and Eva had passed the Semi-Finals, it was time for the final round!
Draco remained onstage as Eva slowly but menacingly came up, glaring at Draco, just like how her Soulmate glared at big booty girls.
Like property!
