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The match was set to start in about five minutes, and Theodore had decided on his strategy. It was a simple one. A straightforward one. And one that would make sure to humiliate the guy in front of everyone.
Right now, though, he was just chilling in the VIP room. Juliana should be busy trying to get Jason into their fold. It was a good thing that Garrett would be busy here.
When it was time to get in there, Theodore was teleported inside, eyes naturally moving to meet Garrett's in the distance.
This was going to be one of the quickest fights he'd ever had.
The moment the match started, a dozen spears of compressed thermal energy instantly slammed into Garrett, each one more powerful than the previous one. Even with his skills, the damage was not ignorable, the heat burning through the blood armor he'd summoned and melting his skin.
Still, Garrett had reacted fast enough and managed to escape the quick attack.
It was only when the second volley came that he realized the previous volley was a trap to get him out of cover. The spears of energy were faster, and it was all he could do to avoid getting hit by the spears, which melted the ground and made it impossible to stand on, forcing him into the air, where the spears chased after him in a wave.
But Garrett still dodged them all.
Hm, it seemed he wasn't all talk. He did indeed have some skill. He used his [Telekinesis] to defend himself diverting all the attacks.
Garrett hovered there for a second, looking down at Theodore like he was some bug he hadn’t managed to squash yet, and frankly, the look was starting to get on Theodore’s nerves. The guy really bought into his own hype.
Suddenly, Theodore felt a nasty, invasive tug deep inside his chest, like a fishhook snagging his heart. [Blood Manipulation]. The skill bypassed defenses and latched right onto the fluids pumping through a person’s veins, threatening to pop them like an overfilled water balloon.
It hurt a bit for exactly half a second.
Activating his partial slime form was as natural as breathing. Hell, he didn't even need to make a show of it. On the outside, he still looked like Theodore but underneath everything shifted. Organs dissolved into uniform slime. Veins melted away.
The blood Garrett was trying to grab simply ceased to exist as a distinct concept, merging into the homogeneous slime that now made up Theodore’s entire internal structure.
And thus as a result, the tugging sensation vanished instantly.
Garrett’s eyes widened. A bead of sweat beading on his forehead as he seemed to try harder trying to crush a heart that wasn’t there anymore. He genuinely looked startled.
"What?" Garrett muttered, his composure cracking just a tiny bit. "Why aren't you bleeding?"
Theodore tilted his head. "Is that it? I thought you were supposed to be scary."
He took a step forward.
Garrett frowned and swept both arms forward. Massive amounts of blood sprayed out of his arms as he did so, and he ripped the red liquid into the air, crystallizing it into jagged needles.
Huh, did he have some kind of blood generating ability as well?
Hundreds of red needles hovered in the air.
"Die!"
The needles launched, breaking through the sound barrier instantly, whistling as they tore through the air straight for Theodore’s face. The soundwave hit him a moment after he flared his [Severing Aura].
Usually, the aura was a passive aura surrounding him, something he kept close to himself. But now, he grabbed that energy with his mind and molded the jagged, invisible mana into a cone in front of him, turning the aura into an active meat grinder.
The blood needles hit the aura and disintegrated, turning into harmless red mist that spread behind Theodore in a cone shape harmlessly.
Abandoning the blood magic, Garrett poured everything into [Telekinesis]. The air distorted around him as he gathered an immense amount of pressure. He wasn't trying to be subtle it seemed. He was trying to flatten Theodore into a pancake with sheer crushing force, which he seemed to be used to doing given his confidence.
An invisible giant’s hand slammed down on Theodore and the ground around Theodore’s feet cracked and cratered, sinking a good six inches. Dust billowed out in a ring.
But Theodore was still standing there.
"My turn," Theodore said.
He grabbed the invisible telekinetic force pressing down on him with his [Severing Aura]. The aura bit into Garrett’s mana construct and Theodore ripped Garrett's telekinetic hold.
Theodore kicked off the ground, the stone exploding behind him, and launched himself into the air.
Garrett tried to throw up a telekinetic shield, and Theodore punched it.
His fist was wrapped in that violent, shredding [Severing Aura] and it punched straight through the invisible barrier, shattering Garrett’s defense like it was made of cheap plastic, and connected squarely with Garrett’s gut.
Garrett folded in half. The air was knocked out of his lungs, and his eyes bulged. He went flying, skipping across the arena floor like a stone on a lake, tumbling and rolling until he smashed into the barrier wall on the other side.
The crowd was going wild, but Theodore tuned them out. He wasn't doing this for them. Landing softly, Theodore looked down at Garrett.
The man looked pitiful.
"You..." Garrett wheezed, struggling to his feet. "You filth."
He raised a shaking hand. A piece of heavy rubble, a chunk of the arena wall weighing at least a ton, lifted shakily into the air.
Was that it?
The boulder was sliced clean in half.
The two massive halves crashed to the ground on either side of Theodore, shaking the floor, but he walked through the dust cloud between them, stopping right in front of Garrett now.
Was that it?
[Blinking] behind him Theodore slammed a kinetic energy fueled kick into his knee. Garrett collapsed down, his right leg bent at a weird angle.
"Did you just break my leg...?" Garrett asked more stupefied than anything.
Most people would be crying, but Garrett just stared at it.
Blue mana wrapped around his broken leg. He was using his telekinesis to manually hold the bones in place, creating a makeshift splint of pure force.
He looked up at Theodore. His eyes were cold. Dangerously so.
Theodore stomped and the other leg went.
"Stand up," Theodore commanded, grabbing Garrett by the hair and hauled him up. Garrett’s legs dragged uselessly, but Theodore forced him upright. Garrett was dangling, his toes barely scraping the floor, held up entirely by Theodore’s grip on his scalp.
Having thwarted away any attempts at attacking or trying to break free, Theodore dropped him, and Garrett hit the floor in a heap.
Theodore stepped behind him, slamming thermal lances and spears onto his back whenever he tried getting up.
"You like making people kneel, right?" Theodore asked. "You like seeing them down in the dirt?"
He dragged his hands under his chest. He pushed. His arms were shaking violently. He dragged his useless lower body across the stone, trying to prop himself up.
"I..." Garrett coughed, blood splattering the floor. "I do not... lose."
A kinetic blast tore into his back and Garrett collapsed, forced into a kneeling position.
"I will kill you," Garrett promised. "I will flay you alive. I will—"
"Shhh."
Another kinetic blast, this time onto his head, shaking him up. Theodore leaned down, bringing his face close to Garrett’s.
"How's the view down there, hm? Not so much different from a commoner now, eh? Just a guy on his knees in the dirt."
Garrett’s face twisted just as Theodore stood up straight and stomped his foot down on his head, grinding his face into the dirt.
Garrett’s [Telekinesis] flared one last time but Theodore’s [Severing Aura] chewed through the defense instantly.
A kinetic blast followed, flattening Garrett's brain to the ground, and his body went limp, collapsing fully onto the floor in a broken, kneeling pile.
Theodore stepped back, shaking his foot to get the gore off his boot. The match was over and it was heavily disappointing. Garrett turned out to be nothing more than a one trick pony that never got a good match up to his skills. Theodore hoped Julius wouldn’t be as disappointing.