Nightblade (Darkest night)-Chapter 219: Unexpected boon

A split second later, a thunderous boom rippled through the empty gymnasium.

In the next moment, the steam was forcefully cleared, revealing the two youths on either side of the large sparring platform. The two made for quite a sight.

Warren's eyes glowed with a strange, dark light; his tall, lanky form towered over Edmund. The air around him palpably vibrated with unbridled power, small sparks crackling throughout the space from time to time. His dark hair fluttered slightly in the unnatural breeze that swirled around him, giving him an even more dangerous aura.

Edmund stood on the other side, several small towering pools of water flowing around him in serpentine fashion, with lifelike fluidity.

The pools of water slowly coalesced into humanoid figures standing that closely resembled him standing next to him.

For a moment, the hall was only filled with the sound of the rustling of water and the faint crackling of electricity.

Then a moment later, all hell broke loose. Talia watched curiously, unable to tear her eyes away from the sparring match.

" What the heck..."

Because of the harrowing experiences they'd gone through over the last two years, most of the Survivors were monsters when compared to other scions and Talented.

But these two...were proving to be quite capable of measuring up to that same status.

From her standpoint, Talia could tell that neither of them was going all out yet; they were still probing themselves, slowly testing out each other's stamina and mental fortitude with the progression of the spar. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

With a roar, Edmund dashed forward using small streams of water to accelerate across the platform.

"Don't hold anything back!"

Warren grinned, gliding forward.

"Since you're so insistent, I'll use your power as well..."

The discharges of electricity around him suddenly disappeared, replaced by flowing currents of water that coursed around him with an intricate level of control.

The water sharpened into several smaller drills that whizzed through the air, twirling at bullet speed.

Edmund gritted his teeth, halting in his tracks and jumping back.

With unnatural synchronicity, the humanoid figures threw themselves into the path of the projectiles, bodily intercepting them.

The multiple jets of water struck through the humanoid figures, mutilating them in several places, leaving them riddled with ghastly holes.

Within seconds, the humanoid figures became a patchwork of holes that quickly began to mend themselves at a visible speed.

Edmund grinned nervously, the brilliant light in his eyes shining with renewed intensity.

Sweat rolled down his face, his eyes darting across the platform.

"What will he do next... what's his next move..."

A moment later, two massive tentacles flattened two of the figures.

With a sinister grin, Warren flung himself forward using another of the strange tentacles.

With several flicks of his fingers, several small explosions erupted through the air, pushing back Edmund inch by inch.

The fluid tentacles ravaged the slowly regenerating figure,s sapping even more of Edmund's strength with every exchange.

His eyes burned with a feverish look, his chest heaving with every effort to dodge and stay ahead of the murderous onslaught of attacks.

"Ah, curses..."

Biting back a shout, he hit the ground rolling, just narrowly missing...

" Where do you think you're going?" Warren asked from right beside him.

Edmund's eyes widened in disbelief, his mask of composure cracking slightly.

How did he even...

Before he'd fully form, ed he thought, a blistering blow from the side rocked his entire body, his hand barely rising to block it in time.

He groaned, violently skidding back across the platform.

"What the hell..."

His eyes widened in disbelief when a split second later, Warren's fist materialized in front of his face once more.

"There's no time to block or dodge...."

His mind churned feverishly for a solution in the small window. In that brief moment, his eyes hardened with clarity.

Tilting his head back slightly, he took the blow head-on, rolling with the motion to disorient the worst of the impact.

Staggering back, Edmund spat out a bloody wad of blood and spit.

His ears rang, his vision swimming with stars for a few painful moments.

"Shit... that hurt..."

Shaking himself, he shook his head in a daze.

"Come on, snap out of it...he's coming..."

Even in a daze, he could vaguely hear Warren moving towards him at a terrible speed.

Edmund instinctively made himself a smaller target, drawing on the remainder of the humanoid figure,s transforming it into a shield around him while trying to catch his breath.

A split second later, a giant force slammed into the compact spherical dome he'd formed around himself. Edmund gasped, falling to one knee. His vision slowly cleared, then his eyes widened.

With every passing second, Warren relentlessly attacked the dome, sending jarring shockwaves through it.

"Come on, I'm not even going all out, and you're cowering..."

Warren's voice turned ominously cold, taking on an icy edge.

" You bore me..."

Edmund snarled, instantly pushing him back with his dome. A massive blade of water dangerously whistled through the air, forcing Warren back.

Part of the protective dome simultaneously coalesced into three humanoid figures that surrounded Edmund.

Warren let out a weary such slowly shaking his head.

"Same old tricks...you won't be able to beat me with that...

Edmund simply smirked.

With a simple twirl of his hands, two of the figures dashed forward, unpredictably zigzagging across the giant platform.

"Let's try something different..."

Being innately attuned to the Water element as his primary ability, Edmund was empowered by it every time he used and while most of the time, he intuitively used it to block and attack, he'd never attempted to actively wrap it around himself.

The thought was simply a spark of inspiration that he'd decided to try out on the spur of the moment.

And in that moment, something unexpected began to unfold.

The third figure dashed back towards him, digging into the platform and lunging through the air with inhuman strength. Of course, the task of manipulating the three figures simultaneously at such an intricate level of control was no mean feat.

Feeling a headache brewing, Edmund gritted his teeth and blindly followed his intuition.

He ran straight at the approaching figure, then leapt into the air.

The two collided midair, then strangely, the water melded to his skin, fluidly flowing up and around his body, encasing him in a fluid second skin, an armour of sorts that fluidly shifted around him with a silver crystalline sheen that sparkled in the pale light.

Edmund instantly felt his strength surge unexpectedly.

His lips curled into a wicked smile, his eyes glowing with excitement.

" Ready for round two?"