-Zeref’s POV-

I had to be smarter than him. He was clearly faster and more confident in his short range skills than I was. One thing better than speed was… timing. He could land more hits but I could do the same amount of damage with one hit. All I had to do was wait for the perfect time. But how would I know when the time was perfect? That was another issue. His fighting style overwhelmed me and left very little openings.

I zigzagged across the red carpet, aiming a Brazilian kick at his head. My leg moved like a whip as it connected with his forearm. He flinched and gritted his teeth at the impact before, jumping back and splitting into a dozen clones.

They all charged at me but I danced around majestically. Lightning cackled with my every move, as I dodged and countered each of their blows. I was in the perfect state of mind. I was going to rescue Sara even if it killed me.

A direct blow was coming for my head, I parried the fist and countered with a left hook. Just as I countered a clean cut stretched across my torso. I backed away in an instant and gripped at my aching chest, grimacing at the torn up skin on my chest.

[You have suffered 700 damage]

[You are suffering from blood loss]

I had to focus!

I waited patiently for an opening widening my senses to the max.

[MP is dropping rapidly]

“Aaargh!” the real Blake shouted as he leaped up from the ground and swung his sword down at my head.

As soon as it came into my Seikuken’s range, I caught the blade between my palms and a large shockwave of mana rippled through the atmosphere. I then swung his body across the room making him tumble and fall. My nostrils flared, chest heaving with Blake’s blood smeared all over me. My wrist pulsed from the close contact I had with his blade.

Conjuring two flame balls I hurled them at him, but he quickly recovered and disappeared out of my field of view. He was using his weird tricks again.

I thought about it before, since his element was light he could’ve easily been changing the direction of the light refracting it and reflecting it; that would explain why my sense of perception was messed up and why he could suddenly disappear. He was removing all light being reflected off of his body and camouflaging into the background.

Or it could’ve just been a skill like my ‘inspect’, something unique, that couldn’t be taught or learnt.

I feinted him with my left but swung right with my lightning shrouded fist, misleading him. Knowing he would dodge my blow because of his uncanny speed, I prepared my left fist for a powerful straight to the stomach. As soon as he barely dodged my right hook by stumbling back, I saw that split second of hesitation and shock in his eyes.

This was the timing I was waiting for. My left fist blew low and straight into his stomach, folding his body around my fist as he flew backwards, his hair turned crisp from the high voltage. Every blow I landed had to be stronger than the last or I’d fall out of his pattern and rhythm of fighting, losing myself to his techniques.

This one blow had my last ounces of strength and effort in it. If this didn’t work, I was done for.

I flashed stepped towards him, picking him up and slamming him into the wall, leaving a large crack behind him. I slammed my palm into his face, electrocuting his brains.

He let out a shrill scream, not being able to think of an escape route because of his panicked state. I let him go and threw him onto the throne he was sitting on when I came in. His body crashed into the arm rest, knocking down the whole throne.

He coughed out blood and struggled to get up. I didn’t know why he showed me mercy but I certainly wasn’t going to do the same.

“Get up.” I ordered, stalking towards him as he cradled himself on the floor, covered in his own blood.

“I said… Get. Up.” I reiterated, not expecting him to be able to.

He groaned, pushing himself up with all the fight he had left in him.

[New Quest: Kill the Light Contestant to gain his seat!]

[Do you want to accept the quest?]

[Yes/No]

‘Yes’ I thought, accepting the quest. Blake struggled, lifting up his hands to tell me to stop. I chuckled, letting my gaze fall to the ground, contemplating on how I was going to do it. He struggled on his feet in tears, his palms shaking while he trembled.

“Please! I showed you mercy before, Please I’m be-begging you-” he screamed frantically, stepping back.

I lifted my gaze to meet his and stated coldly, “Let’s end this quickly.”

His face morphed into a horrified expression as I zoomed in front of him with an unreadable poker face. My fingertips penetrated through his chest and it took a quick millisecond to locate his heart. I gripped it in my hands and yanked it out, warm gooey blood squirted out of the hole I had made in him. His eyes were wide in shock croaking a little before falling back onto the floor, next to his fallen throne.

A notification popped up on the side of my vision.

[Congratulations! You have successfully finished the quest!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Congratulations! You now have the option to take a skill of the Light Contestant ]

A list of skills floated above Blake’s body. I already knew which one I wanted. ‘Misdirection’ gleamed brightly at the bottom of the list. The power to create illusions of my next move and reflect my body to seem like it was going in a different direction than it actually was. It was perfect.

‘Misdirection’ I whispered in my head.

[Loading…]

[‘Misdirection’ has been successfully transferred to Zeref Amara’s skills list]

Sara struggled against her chains, whimpering at me to help her so I walked over to her, breaking the chunky chains. I looked up at her large form but she was staring at something else. Following her line of vision, I saw the full view of blood smeared on the wall and the corpse of Blake Handmore with his heart and throne laid next to him.

“It had to be done. Now come on. We have to get back.” I whispered to her, slightly nudging her to the entrance. She whimpered again, sad over the corpse in the room but nonetheless, she exited with me as we made our way to the portal.

I pressed the portal and as soon as it opened, I met the stern glares of three very angry people.