Chapter 22 - Arthur VS Two participants! Krax and Zult!

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"Well then, let us begin Arthur-san!" Zult said and what seemed like Magma started dripping from his body! He was even melting the ground underneath him!

His right hand had been completely covered in magma and was even enlarged by it!

"Yes… Let's begin… Show us what you've got Arthur!" Krax said and was then instantly covered in ice!

I could feel the cold air coming from him way over here… The ground under him had been completely frozen solid!

Damn it!

These two are Devil fruit users!

Zult threw a punch which sent a big fist of magma flying towards my direction.

"Shit… {Barrier}!" I created a barrier in the shape of a wall in front of me in order to block Zult's attack.

The magma fist collided with the barrier and splashed into all directions.

*whistles* "So that's your barrier spell ey? Seems quite durable if I do say so myself." Krax said and jumped in my direction, running at full speed while conjuring a big icicle with his left hand

He arrived in front of me in less than a second and smacked my barrier with a giant ice spear.

Cracks appeared on the barrier and I had to take it to the sky with my {wings} spell before it broke completely.

I of course have already activated all of my buff spells prior to entering through the gate, so I'm as ready as I can be for a melee.

"Hey birdie why don't you come down here?" Krax said and shot a barrage of icicles towards me.

I flew left and right through the air, bȧrėly dodging his attacks that were chasing me closely from behind.

While this may be hard I can definitely keep evading them like this.

As I was flying in between my two opponents, I looked at Zult who was preparing to throw another large magma fist towards me.

I prepared myself to start dodging him as well, but something strange happened that caught me off guard…

When he threw the magma fist… It multiplied from just one to nearly twenty!

With no place left for me to escape to, both the barrage of ice from behind and the twenty fists of magma from the front would surely hit me.

I had no other choice but to use {Teleport}.

I appeared behind Krax and used {Sea Water Prison} to hopefully disable him from the fight.

Turns out… They don't!

Krax even though completely engulfed in a ball of sea water, managed to freeze the entire thing creating a big ball of ice in the process.

He then appeared on the top of it.

"What kind of idiot uses water on an Ice user?! You're disappointing me Arthur!" He yelled at me outraged at the idea of such an attack being used on him.

The next thing I knew the ball of ice turned into a giant icicle that shot towards me.

"{Teleport!}" I narrowly escaped by teleporting a few hundred feet into the air.

The icicle kept going and crashed into the wall that surrounded us, making a huge hole in it.

So devil fruits don't have the same weakness as they do in the world of one piece? Well that sucks for me…

There's also that thing Zult did with his attack. It just multiplied and turned into around twenty magma punches out of nowhere...

And even if they do, getting close enough to use them would be quite dangerous…

Either way… For now I should make one just in case! {Sea Stone Sword}!

Okay then, for now I need to see if this can hurt them… perhaps a storm of seastone sword would wor- DING!

My danger perception rang suddenly and I had just enough time to react!

"Whatcha doin all the way up here? Get back down to the ground and play with us some more!"

I was shocked…Krax had managed to get above me and was preparing to strike me with his palm that was generating ice!

I turned around quickly, swinging the seastone sword at the same time and with that momentum I sliced Krax in half!

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Not!

He hit me in the ribcage with his palm strike, conjuring what could only be called an iceberg with how big it was.

I then realized that Krax's body had mostly turned into a gas like state, only his arm and head were normal while the rest was just… Vapor?

I was sent crashing down to the ground with the iceberg, creating a hole in the process.

The rubble from both the floor and the iceberg completely buried me in that hole.

Thankfully my defenses were able to mostly hold up but I still suffered some severe injuries from that attack.

These injuries aren't actually all that bad.

I can just use {Heal} on them without worrying about losing too much magic power.

"Hey Krax… Don't you think that's going a bit too far? I wanted to have some more fun with Arthur-san…" Zult said while watching Krax descend from the air.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure he's still fine… Ain't that right Arthur!?" Krax replied and then yelled in my direction.

"Man… You guys are no push overs are you…?" I said and scratched the back of my head.

Whelp, I tested it. Seastone weapons do not work on logia devil fruit users in this world!

I should probably take a note of that…

"What'd you expect? Another easy fight? Arthur-san I'm kindly going to ask you to not underestimate us, as we are all "chosen ones" here. Not just you." Zult said while glaring at me angrily.

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He's right…

I've been looking down on my opponents for so long now that I might have subconsciously underestimated these two as well.

We stand on what should be an even playing field.

However, ever since my last encounter with one of those participants…

Zev…

I've honestly been scared of facing any others…

Thinking about what might happen if I lost again, if I lost any more family…

Because of these thoughts… this… paranoia. I forced myself to think highly of my own abilities.

Telling myself I was invincible… Telling my opponents they stood no chance against me…

That they couldn't even hurt me even if I let them try…

That all was just me taking my mind off the real fight I'm undoubtedly going to face sooner or later…

My inevitable fight that the gods themselves most likely wish to witness…

Even while I tried to change my mindset, I've still had thoughts like:

'Am I strong enough to do this?'

'Is my resolve itself strong enough for it?'

'Can I really defeat the other participants? Kill them even?'

'Will I survive this so called death game?'

'What will happen if I don't…?'

I do not know the answers to any of those questions. And as such, I just kept being ċȯċky towards my enemies, trying to escape the reality of the situation while hiding in my own little world…

Where 'no one' could touch me.

Now because of that, even though I'm finally facing not one but two other participants...

I'm subconsciously looking down on them.

But now realizing this fact…

Am I scared?

Do I feel fear towards them…?

The answer to that question is something that I do know.

It's 'No'!

That is not something I can allow myself to feel during this battle.

"You're right Zult. I apologize for that, I'll start taking this seriously now." After a brief pause to sort out my thoughts I replied to Zult's previous comment.

"I hope you do, so far you've mostly been evading us." Krax added in

"Yeah… you're right…." I said and went silent.

The two of them both could most likely feel a change in the atmosphere and thus they had their guards up.

"I guess it's time I went on the offensive… {Gravity Field}!"

As my words echoed through the air the gravitational force doubled, then it tripled.

Until finally the whole area around us was over ten times the normal gravity.

"W-what the hell?!" Krax said as he fell on his knees

"G-gravity magic?!" Zult exclaimed.

"{Anti-Gravity Field}" I created a small field around myself where gravity was normal so that I myself could move normally in this high gravity zone I've created.

"I have more instore for you both! {Flame Pillar}! {Ice Coffin}!" While they both were unable to move I created a giant pillar of fire at Krax's location and at the same time encased Zult in a 'coffin' of ice.

"IT BURNS!!!" Krax howled through the fire, while Zult was trapped in ice and could not yell nor speak.

While they were incapacitated, I flew into the air above them.

The combination of gravity and their opposing elements didn't keep them at bay for too long though, as they both let their fruit abilities loose in all directions breaking free in the process.

Krax froze the fire itself while Zult melted the coffin.

"Where is that damned BRAT?!" Krax roared in anger. His skin had been burned from the fire and he still couldn't stand up because of the high gravity force pushing him towards the ground.

"A-Arthur-san… That w-was really COLD of you!" Zult said angrily while looking around trying to find where I was. He seemed unaffected, only his now pale face and shivering hands betrayed his façade.

What surprised me was that he had managed to get back up on his feet! What kind of physical strength does he even have?! The gravitational force here is no joke!

Either way, as they have yet to spot me, I just proceeded with my next attack.

"I'm up here you idiots! {Almighty Push}!" I sent a powerful force down towards the ground where they were standing

"Wha-" They had no time to react as the force smashed them both into the ground with full force, a crater appearing in their original location.

Flying above in the air, I stood closely observing their next move.

Zult jumped back up from the crater, seemingly unharmed while Krax was nowhere to be seen.

As I was thinking he'd been knocked unconscious, a liquid rose up from the crater.

Is that… Water!?

That 'water' soon took the form of a human child's body.

It was actually Krax. He was completely fine minus the burned marks he previously got from the fire.

His body then entered a half gas state, vapor to be precise.

With how light he was now he had no problem moving around.

Is his ability temperature control? It would definitely explain the water and vapor…

Then how about Zult…?

"You sure did a number on us there… Phew! I thought I was a goner for a second!" Krax said sarcastically and laughed.

That laugh felt really fake…

He's most likely enraged and trying to calm down by laughing it off.

"Hmm. As I thought, you are a strong opponent Arthur-san. I honestly doubt I could beat you alone…" Zult said with a smile on his face.

"Oh boy, I'm flattered. Why don't you go ahead and tell me how you're standing upright in this here gravity field of mine? I'm quite curious you see…" I tried asking Zult to see if he'd answer me.

"Hmmm… Well knowing that won't really help you so… Its strength multiplication, I guess? You could probably call it that, yeah." He surprisingly answered.

So he has a multiplication ability then? That would explain how he turned one attack into dozens…

He can multiply his attacks, his strength… I'm going to guess defense, speed and the like are also things that can be multiplied by his ability…

But can he multiply himself too?

That would certainly be troublesome…

"As you said, it's time to get serious!" Krax said and created a giant wave of water

The wave raced at me while shooting icicles created from chunks of the water itself.

Krax must be using his Ice fruit together with temperature control to create that wave…

"{Cruel Sun}!" I created a ball of fire in the form of a sun. Sending it towards the wave of water!

It melted all of the icicles along way and was about to collide with the water itself when…

"Forgetting someone are we?" Zult appeared next to me at frightening speeds.

My danger perception kicked in but his magma covered fist was already buried in my stomach, burning my internal organs.

"*Cough* D-damn…! How did you…?!" I coughed up blood as the cruel sun finally hit the water and exploded, evaporating the whole wave in the process.

"Get here so fast? Speed multiplication, times ten." Zult answered casually as he increased the magma output.

"{Ice Vortex}!" I created a vortex of ice around me, forcing Zult to retreat before the ice could overtake him completely.

"You can buy time, but it won't save you Arthur-san." He said as he jumped backwards to a safe distance.

"He's right you know, Ice is my element after all." I heard Krax's voice coming from all directions

Realizing I was completely surrounded by the water wave's vapor I knew I was in deep trouble!

Krax must have taken a complete gas state, mixing in with the vapor around me.

Thanks to danger perception I was able to figure out his location just in the nick time, bȧrėly dodging an ice blade that was aimed at my neck.

"{Magma Fist Barrage}!" I yelled out creating a dozen fists of magma similar to the ones Zult uses.

They managed to hit Krax who had morphed most of his upper body back into a physical form, sending him flying a few dozen feet away from me.

However it seems he was able to block them with his ice.

"*pant* * pant* {Heal}! *pant* Damn it all…" After finally having some room to breathe, I finally healed all of my wounds, internal or not.

That heal most definitely took its toll on my magic pool though...

A good fourth of it actually!

"Stealing my moves ey… Very bold move Arthur-san." Zult glared at me with crossed arms seemingly irritated.

"Well seeing how effective they were, I thought I'd give it a shot. Hehe…" I replied to Zult with a short laugh.

"It surely was Effective! Even though I mostly blocked them they still sure packed a punch! Hahaha" Krax laughed.

These two aren't letting up at all…

The way things are going, it will be me who ends up losing won't it?

I might not have any other choice…

Should I try and use…

That…?