Risen World

Chapter 534: Joshua versus Dmitry Final

The explosion as a result of Joshua's attack created a large cloud of dust that covered half of the arena. For the most part all of the destruction was headed in the direction of where Joshua swung his blade. It wasn't just an explosion on impact, but a giant sword made out of aura that would direct the force of the blow forward. When Joshua swung the blade down he could feel some resistance for a moment so he knew that Dmitry was able to block the blow, but the following explosion of aura should have been enough to overload his draining ability if all things worked to plan.

It took a little while for the cloud of dust and dirt to disappear and Joshua stood up shaking his arm a bit to make sure it was still functional. His aura was already healing it, but with that one blow Joshua now knew that there was no way he was going be able to take on any attacks from Dmitry without using aura hardening. He was still holding that ability until the right moment and if his last tactic didn't work then he was going to be forced into his final plan.

Before the cloud of dust even finished clearing out Joshua could see the silhouette of Dmitry standing at his full height shrugging his shoulders. When he came into full view Joshua was able to see that his body was now completely metallic without any spots remaining. The sheen of the metallic skin even grew darker as if it had been saturated in energy to the max. Joshua knew that Dmitry had reached his limit in the amount of energy that he could absorb due to the fact that he hadn't absorbed all of the energy from Joshua last attack even when he had the chance to while holding it at bay.

Soon enough Joshua also noticed that the oppressive draining aura had disappeared. He couldn't even feel a slight drain on his aura and due to his regeneration rate it was refilling instead. It was just another sign that Dmitry had reached the limit of his ability and Joshua was going to have to push him past it so that all of that energy would become self-destructive instead of empowering. Luckily Joshua had an idea of just how to do that.

Dmitry strode forward casually as he cracked his neck while any wounds on his body were already well on their way to healing. The rate at which they healed was about half the speed of Joshua's own regeneration, but that was far more than enough to deal with the level of injuries he would gain with how sturdy his body was at this point. He had a bit of a smirk on his face as he strode forward towards Joshua without a care in the world. He knew at this point there was no attack that could take him down quickly so he took his time as he watched Joshua stand up.

"That was a powerful strike, but I weathered it nonetheless." Dmitry said with an excited gleam in his eyes. "I haven't absorbed so much power in a while. The last time this happed was against a boss class beast that none stopped shot off beams of energy throughout the entire fight. No matter how much energy I absorbed the beast just kept firing away and eventually I reached my limit. It's kind of the same situation I'm in now."

"Seeing as how you're here now you didn't have any trouble taking down such a beast even under the circumstances." Joshua said as he started concentrating his aura around himself just in case Dmitry decided to go on the attack right away.

"True. Although I had reached my limit in the amount of energy my body could handle I was at peak strength. My defenses so strong that the beast claws and fangs could no longer do any serious damage to me. My strength more than enough to break through its hide and cause fatal injuries. In this state my power was at its highest. All I had to do was stop draining away energy." Dmitry said as his smile faded and he looked seriously towards Joshua. "Just as I have done now. If you were hoping to overwhelm me and force my ability to go out of control then I suppose I will have to disappoint you."

"Oh I'm sure you have your ways to avoid draining energy from your surroundings, but that doesn't mean I don't have my ways to force you over the edge." Joshua said as he lifted his scale blade and pointed it downward stabbing it through the arena floor. He then stepped around it as he stood right across from Dmitry before lifting his hands and getting into his usual fighting position. "This time around I'll be giving you exactly what you wanted."

Dmitry looked at Joshua calmly and started to chuckle before breaking out into full on laughter. "Looking at you now you look like the spitting image of your father. I'm going to enjoy this." Done with the talking Dmitry got into his on natural fighting position before charging over ready to strangle the life out of Joshua. Before Dmitry could get close Joshua instantly used his aura hardening knowing full well strength wasn't what he was going to need to win this fight. No amount of strength that he could muster would be able to do any real damage to Dmitry's energy empowered metallic body. Instead he need the huge rise in defensive capabilities so he could survive the oncoming onslaught.

Joshua tilted his body to the side to avoid Dmitry's attempt to grab his shoulder. Although Joshua wanted to turn things into a fist fight, he still didn't want to allow a grappler like Dmitry to grab ahold of him. Joshua immediately responded to Dmitry's sudden strike with a punch into his rib cage. Joshua made sure to infuse his fist with as much aura as possible before slamming it into Dmitry. The punch ended up giving off a loud thud and to Joshua it felt as if he had just punched a steel metal beam, but he knew with his aura infused fist even that would have dented. Dmitry however was just slightly knocked aside without a scratch on him. Even so, Joshua had hope when he noticed the aura he had hit him with was channeled into Dmitry's body. It wasn't nearly enough to push him past the limit, but it was a good sign that Joshua last ditch strategy had a shot of working.

Dmitry simply smiled before throwing a punch of his own aimed for Joshua's chin, but he brought up his hands to block it instead of dodging it. The force of the blow was enough to cause Joshua to stumble backwards, but it was clearly not as damaging as the blow he had blocked earlier. In his aura hardened state Joshua could withstand the blows of Dmitry, but the damage would still pile up. Joshua was going to have to withstand it for his plan to work out and it would all be worth it. From that one punch Joshua could already feel an energy starting to surge inside his body. It was not his usual aura, but energy that he gained from a certain trump card that he had been holding back throughout the entire tournament. His new vengeance skill.

The two of them went back and forth exchanging blows none stop. Joshua didn't try to avoid anything except when Dmitry tried to grab him in a hold. Dmitry on the other hand wasn't blocking or avoiding anything. He fought liker a crazed berserker that did nothing, but strike out again and again. Whenever he was knocked back with a powerful blow he'd just come back even more relentlessly. Joshua made sure that every blow that he delivered was infused with aura that he forced into Dmitry's metallic body, but it was never enough to push him over the edge. That wasn't his goal with such small attacks however. Instead Joshua was trying to make sure Dmitry stayed filled with energy. Even if Dmitry wasn't shooting out beams of energy he was wasting some to maintain his current form.

The battle kept raging on and Joshua was being pushed to his limits. He took a blow to his stomach when Dmitry feigned trying to grab his throat an instead strike downward beneath his guard. The blow caused Joshua to cough up a bit of blood before he grabbed hold of Dmitry's arm and flung him over his shoulder to create some space between them once more. Even when Joshua's defenses were raised up he could still feel that his body was on the verge of giving in. Even with his aura there to heal him he could still feel that his bones were on the verge of breaking and this muscles were strained beyond belief. He was getting to the point where he struggled to stand and lift his arms.

Dmitry on the other hand stood up after being tossed aside like he hadn't been hurt at all. He still had a giant smile as he strode forward towards Joshua once more. At this point Joshua could feel the swell of energy had reached its peak and was ready to be unleashed. Joshua put on a bit of a tough front and regained his posture to make it look like he was ready to keep on going, but he knew he was going to be able to avoid Dmitry's attempts to grab hold of him anymore. Dmitry feinted a strike to Joshua chest before swerving his hand at last moment and grabbing him by the throat. A big smile was plastered on his face as he attempted to reach out with his other hand to strangle Joshua, but Joshua caught the heavy arm so that Dmitry could only use the strength of one arm.

Joshua was struggling to breath, but his aura hardened state was strong enough to prevent Dmitry from being able to snap his neck or crush his wind pipe right away. To the crowd it looked like the exciting match had come to an end, but through all the struggle Joshua smiled knowing that he had Dmitry in a position where he wasn't going to be able to avoid his last ditch attack. Joshua channeled an aura blast into his free hand as he balled it up into a fist. Both Dmitry and the crowd thought this was a sad last struggle, but Joshua didn't stop there. He finally activated his vengeance skill in full, causing the aura to be surrounded in another energy that was far more potent and concentrated. It was the energy of all the attacks that Joshua had been enduring and it was more than enough to finish the job.

Before Dmitry could realize what was happening Joshua pulled Dmitry closer with one hand and slammed the energy charged fist into his gut with the other. Unlike with all of Joshua's other blows that couldn't even cause Dmitry to flinch, the force of this strike made him curl up and vomit blood onto the arena floor. The shock caused him to release Joshua from his grip, but that wasn't the end of things. The energy wasn't shot out in an explosion, but was instead forced into Dmitry's body causing his skin to turn red and the metallic sheen to look like it was overheating. Joshua could sense the wellspring of energy that had been absorbed throughout the entire match start to bubble over as Dmitry roared from the pain as his body started to break down.

Then suddenly Dmitry's body erupted as a surge of energy shot out causing almost the entire arena to explode. Joshua quickly used an aura shield as his body was sent soaring away from the explosion of energy. Even his aura shield struggled to block the amount of energy that just surged forward. After a minute of looking at the devastation as a result of the explosion everyone seemed to be on the edge of their seats. Joshua struggled to stand as he was almost completely drained of energy and didn't even have enough left at the moment to heal any of his injuries. He looked directly at the spot where Dmitry had been knowing full well that if the man came walking out looking in decent shape then the match would be over in Dmitry's favor.

When the dust cleared Dmitry's figure could be seen, but he wasn't standing tall. Instead he was on both knees with his arms drooping to the ground. His body was no longer metallic and instead it was filled with several life threatening burn marks that made it look like he had just been caught in the middle of a fire. His eyes were still open but they looked like they were looking at nothing. The man had passed out refusing to fall over. With that Dmitry was teleported from the arena and the tournament champion had been decided.

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