"You saw what he's is capable of. He's practically impervious to sabotage. I could stab him in the heart, and he'd still tear Roc to shreds."
"You haven't failed me yet. I doubt you will now."
"You'd better have something big to offer me for such a risk."
Berholm held up a small glass bottle. "Pure truth serum. I told you before that Cyrilo had been using alchemy to produce it, and something tells me you can as well. However, without a sample of the original, it's clear it cannot be replicated."
Noah had tried to learn the recipe from Cyrilo, but just as she kept the alchemic spell secret from the kingdom, so too was the recipe kept secret from her. So long as enough raw materials were prepared, alchemical replication could be performed without knowing the actual composition of what was being copied. It would be easy for Noah to steal the bottle, just as he had considered robbing the royal vault, but Berholm would immediately notice the bottle's absence, same with any missing relics, and Noah's pardon would be a thing of the past. It was true that Noah was already quite skilled at extracting information from people, but genuine truth serum was too good to pass up.
"Very well, I'll see what I can do."
Noah left Berholm and went down into the ring. Seraph's fight had just ended, and right now, all of the combatants were recovering, and the destruction from Saimallah's punch was being repaired. As he waited, Noah tried to devise a plan to take out Saimallah. Gassing him might work, but he shouldn't bet everything on it. Succubus powder? If it worked too well, it would be suspicious, especially if Saimallah wasn't injured or fatigued. A chloroform rag? Even if he was invisible, Saimallah would react and probably hit Noah with a blind swing, killing him if he wasn't careful and giving away his presence. Soon enough, the seventh round commenced, and Roc and Saimallah entered the ring.
"ROC! ROC! ROC! ROC! ROC! ROC! ROC! ROC! ROC! ROC!" his fans chanted excitedly, a far cry from their earlier disdain for the beastman warrior. He had won their hearts, this young, one-armed underdog overcoming challenge after challenge, while Saimallah had dominated this tournament without breaking a sweat. Though the monk's powers were impressive, even terrifying, they didn't endear the crowd as much as the gamblers.
"You impress me, young warrior, to have come so far with such an injury. Few in your condition could have accomplished so much. However this ends, you can hold your head up high and leave here with my respect," Saimallah grumbled through his thick beard.
Roc put his hand to his chest and bowed his head. "From such an esteemed master of the martial arts, your words are a greater prize than whatever this tournament has to offer, but like you said, 'however this ends.'"
Nearby, the ref raised his arm. "Let the semifinals begin!"
Roc launched himself towards Saimallah with his wings while mana surged from his limbs. "Cyclone Impact!" He spun in the air and swung at Saimallah's head with a powerful kick, but the monk's apparition reached out and blocked the attack, then countered with a punch. Roc tried to pull away with his wings, but the apparition moved too quickly, forcing to block with his arm. He was tossed through the air, farther and faster than he would have with just his wings, a testament to the power of the attack. His forearm was numb from the blow, and his skin was already darkening from all the burst capillaries. Had he not lessened the impact with his retreat, his bones would have shattered.
Regardless, Roc went at it again, aiming for a punch to the stomach. Saimallah's apparition grabbed his arm the same way Noah had stopped Viktor, then tried to twist Roc's arm until he either dislocated his shoulder or Roc surrendered. Instead, Roc went with the force and flipped over in the air, then jumped again and tried to strike Saimallah in the kidneys with his knee. A phantom hand of mana appeared and caught his leg before the attack could land, but still, Roc didn't give in.
Using his wings to twist his position in the air, he raised his other leg and brought down a guillotine kick onto Saimallah's shoulder, only for the monk to once more intercept, this time with a phantasmal leg extending from his chest and countering Roc's kick. A second leg of mana shot from Saimallah's abdomen and kicked Roc square in the gut, knocking him back. He couldn't stick the landing and hit the ground like a wounded bird, tasting blood. While the blow was powerful and incredibly painful, Saimallah was obviously holding back. Otherwise, all of Roc's innards and his spine would have been pulverized.
Watching nearby, Noah frowned in unease. Saimallah's Touchless Technique was more versatile than he expected. His apparition wasn't just an extra set of limbs, for those limbs could extend from any part of his body in the blink of an eye. Even Noah's clone couldn't do that. Saimallah could kick, punch, and block from every possible angle without moving an inch. It was Roc's three limbs against Saimallah's eight, and he outclassed the young warrior in strength, speed, experience, and every other category. There was no way for Roc to win on his own. Noah had to step in. He got in close and began spraying carbon monoxide at Saimallah. There was no telling how effective it would be, and he didn't have much left.
After catching his breath, Roc went at it again, rocketing towards Saimallah and blowing away the gas. "Monk Spear!" He flattened his hand into a blade and wrapped it in surging mana, but instead of going for Saimallah's head or chest, he went lower, and tried to slice his femoral artery. Saimallah countered with a Touchless kick to knock him back, but Roc avoided the attack by the skin of his teeth. He then changed targets to Saimallah's Achilles Tendon, earning a Touchless punch zooming towards his face. However, Roc dodged the punch and struck the apparition's wrist with his own attack, dispelling it.
Saimallah was shocked, but looked into Roc's eyes and saw they were the eyes of an eagle. Just like in his earlier fight against Beck, he was using a partial transformation to enhance his reflexes, and he could counter the Touchless apparition with his own monk magic. Saimallah rained attacks down on Roc, and instead of targeting the man himself, Roc focused on countering the attacks. Whenever a phantasmal punch or kick hurtled towards him, Roc would either dodge or meet the attack head-on with a magic strike. Kicks were negated with kicks, and his nukite slashes cut through intangible punches. It was an impressive display of strength and agility, but it wasn't getting Roc anywhere, and it was impossible for him to maintain such a pace for long. Fortunately, the carbon monoxide that Saimallah breathed in was hindering him just enough for Roc to continue this stalemate briefly.
Finally, Saimallah moved for the first time in the fight. He pulled back his arm and punched the air. Like Reiss's wind magic, a flameless explosion burst from his fist in a linear blast. However, this was simply pure monk mana launched forward by Saimallah's immeasurable power. One of Roc's wings caught the torrent like a sail, tossing him through the air without injury, but Noah, standing farther back, received the blast at full strength. He was knocked off his feet as if hit by a car, feeling all the air expelled from his lungs and his ribs threatening to break. He struck the ground painfully hard, with his illusion magic thankfully concealing his landing from everyone. It was a brutal reminder that even if he wasn't actually fighting, he was still in danger of getting caught in the crossfire.
Noah couldn't afford to be passive about this, especially considering that Saimallah was starting to take this seriously, at least more so than in his earlier matches. If Roc took a single direct hit, it was all over. The two charged towards the Saimallah and attacked, Roc with monk magic and Noah with his sword. Touchless attacks erupted from Saimallah like a load of buckshot, with Roc doing his best to counter and dodge. However, Saimallah wasn't going easy on him this time, and was powering through the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning to hit harder and faster. That said, Noah was covering the defense.
Every time an attack was launched that Roc couldn't handle, Noah intervened and severed the phantasmal limb with his sword. He ducked and weaved in between the two warriors, avoiding both of their attacks while inflicting his own to counter Saimallah. Saimallah had to notice that his Touchless Technique was being negated, but with Roc coming at him in full force, he didn't have time to think about it and had to focus on the fight.
Once again, Saimallah moved, swinging his leg to launch another air blast. Roc, having his hands full fending off Touchless attacks, wouldn't be able to dodge or block, but Noah had his back and sprayed Saimallah's face with a mild irritant, something to mimic the symptoms of hay fever. His eyes and nose itching from the allergic reaction, Saimallah's focus was broken, and his kick and the resulting shockwave missed Roc. With that brief opportunity, Roc closed in and managed to inflict a shallow cut on Saimallah's cheek, shocking the audience. That was the first time someone had landed an attack on the monk, not to mention drawing blood.
"Hmph!" Saimallah grunted as he brought down his raised leg and stomped the ground, sending a massive eruption of earth skyward, higher than the top of the arena.
The crowd shrieked in terror as dust and sand poured down on them, as while the barrier protected the stands from magic, it didn't block regular matter. Fortunately, no rocks were falling, simply because the strength of Saimallah's stomp had crushed them all to dust. Both Noah and Roc were sent flying by the blast, with Noah suffering war flashbacks of being hit with artillery. He landed with his ears ringing and his eyes and mouth full of sand, feeling like a shoe tossed around in a dryer. Roc wasn't far off, struggling to breathe and groaning in pain.
It took several moments for them to get to their feet and clear their senses, with the explosion's dust cloud slowly settling. The referee was sprawled out unconscious at the edge of the ring, but this fight no longer needed one. Just from the look on Saimallah's face as he stood at the bottom of the resulting crater, it was clear that he was done playing around. Seeing the monk's stern expression, Roc straightened his posture.
