"...Are you actually going to make this last long?" Dulio asked as they made their way to the Exhibition Match Field.
"For sure." Noa gave a casual nod, which didn't instill any confidence in Dulio at all.
Entering the field, they saw a row of seats with all the Exorcist Trainees and young Exorcists who participated in the Holy Sword Selection part of the Festival along with the veteran Exorcists and the higher ups.
They looked like they were going to analyze their competition, but Noa wondered what was even the point, seeing as using Sacred Gears wasn't even allowed for the Tournament.
Well as they say, let them eat cake.
Lavinia went to the side with Ewald because she wasn't going to be fighting first.
Noa and Dulio went to opposite sides of the field like they always did.
Dulio was as tense as always, while Noa was standing like it was just another Tuesday.
While Noa had said that he would mock charge his Flames for 5 seconds, that still gave Dulio only 5 seconds to create a large scale Water attack in response.
If the Holy Flames burnt his elements, then he would just need a shit ton of volume in response.
While Dulio never actually used this in a match with Noa because he didn't have the opportunity, it was one of his more visually striking attacks. Even if there was no water in sight, as one of the biggest 'bugs' in the System, Dulio could create a tsunami with frightening ease.
Honestly, Dulio felt like his entire move set after he met Noa was made to try and counter Incinerate Anthem despite Zenith Tempest being the Second Strongest Longinus.
Sometimes, he even wondered during his spars if there was something wrong with him.
As the Second Strongest Longinus, shouldn't he the one overwhelming Noa?
But during his spars it was more of how to stop Noa's attacks to buy time and to counter his Incinerate Anthem.
Was this really what Zenith Tempest was meant to be used for? While he was forced to join the Church, with so much expectations on Zenith Tempest, even he felt that he should be overpowering Incinerate Anthem.
While Cardinal Cristaldi had said that Noa's mastery and scale was unprecedented for Incinerate Anthem and Noa's reassurances that he was just 'Built Different,' it still felt like Dulio was lacking in some way to keep losing to him.
Dulio didn't have qualms using such large scale attacks because he was confident in the Church's ability to create a barrier strong enough to last against it if they had enough time.
As the host counted down, Dulio focused up, visualizing the creation of large quantities of water.
The moment the round started, a ball of flames appeared in front of Noa, getting larger and larger as seconds passed.
As if they timed it on purpose, as Noa released his flood of flames, Dulio counted with a flood of water.
As the contrasting elements met in the middle, a wave of steam exploded out of the point of impact, creating a deafening steam explosion.
Every exorcist watching that clash felt chills.
While some where aware of how powerful a Longinus could actually be, with the statement a 'Weapon that could kill a God' for each weapon.
However, with only 13 in existence, it was the first time they saw the sheer presence and power of what a Sacred Gear with the title of 'Longinus' could actually accomplish.
And it was humbling.
It wasn't on the scale of merely increasing their strength by double, or the creation of swords. It was something that could be considered a Natural Disaster by itself.
Noa clapped his hands together, creating a small opening in the middle, and releasing a streamlined shot of pressurized Holy Flames.
Dulio counted it with his own special move which he was prepping while Noa still had his hands out with the flood of flames.
It was the move that he created specifically to counter Noa's first move.
Sigillo di Vapore del Giudizio Celeste.
Noa and Lavinia both had complained and said that the name was too long, so he just shortened it to Stone Artillery.
With practice, he could create multiple at once, as he just needed to get the muscle memory of which Element to use at which moment, allowing for consecutive shots.
This prompted Noa to physically close the distance. Since he wasn't given a practice sword, taking inspiration from Arthur from Fire Force, Noa had condensed his Holy Flames into the shape of a sword.
While he may not get stronger with his imagination, the condensed Holy Flames glowed white with how pressurized the Flames actually were.
Noa while having a near infinite amount of gas for Incinerate Anthem, couldn't actually manipulate it to do specific things without putting in similar effort.
But even if Noa had a focused expression when condensing his flames, due to his blessing of [Always Clean] even if Noa really was putting in more effort than Dulio was, it always made it seem like Noa wasn't even breaking a sweat.
While not a physical advantage, it did effect the enemy mentally, but since Dulio was already aware of Noa's condition, his mental state didn't waver.
As Noa approached Dulio's medium range distance, Dulio created a wave of ice to slow Noa down. While not the 'freezing' phenomena that Absolute Demise controlled, Zenith Tempest's control over 'weather' phenomena allowed for unique combinations.
Noa waved his free hand to easily melt the Ice, but Dulio retaliated with lightning due to the wet field as the Ice melted.
Noa jumped backward out of the range of the wet ground, and stabbed his sword into the ground.
The sword enlarged into a large White glowing Crucifix, with the surroundings bathed in Holy Flames.
From the surrounding flames, the Whore of Babylon emerged, and the Crucifix floated up.
As the Whore of Babylon reached for the Holy Cross, it stabbed itself into the woman, and from her blood, a Grail was formed.
Dulio was already thinking of destroying the flame woman the moment he saw her silouette.
He knew from experience that the Liquid Flames that fell from that Grail wasn't like Noa's flood of flames.
It was a genuine calamity.
The only reason Vasco had even been able to counter the Grail was due to Durandal's concept of Sharpness, being able to cut through anything along with it's blasts of pure Destruction.
The Liquid Flames were the purest form of the Holy Flames, it's phenomenon of 'Burning' at it's greatest, and it multiplied at a rapid rate to a theoretical infinite volume of Holy Flames, with even greater purity than Holy Water.
Even Holy Water didn't work on normal humans, but the Liquid Flames did.
The Flame Woman's weakness was it's actual body.
Dulio created a barrel with the wind, while using a pointed stone encased with ice as it's bullet.
Dulio was lowkey wondered why he was using the Element Manipulation part of his Sacred Gear more than the actual Weather Manipulation aspect.
He glanced at Noa, who was giving him a knowing wink. Unlike Dulio, who found moving while charging for attacks difficult, Noa with his Independent Avatar Type Sacred Gear could manifest the Holy Grail of Flames and freely move.
But looking at Noa's exaggerated look of concentration as if he was putting in effort to keep the Whore of Babylon maintained, he kind of wanted to punch it.
The Grail's propagation of Liquid Flames increased at an exponential rate, so if Dulio could destroy the Flame Woman before it was uncontrollable, then Noa would probably surrender.
This was the plan that the three devised in order to have the highest chance of their food changing. Because Dulio had lost the bet regarding the Holy Sword Selection Ceremony, Noa and Lavinia decided to give Dulio the win after a decent fight to increase the chances of his complaint getting accepted.
And because Noa could win the Youth Swordsmanship Tournament, and Lavinia wasn't participating in it, Noa would lose both his matches for the Exhibition Match and win the Youth Swordsmanship Tournament.
The three didn't even consider Noa losing.
With just 3 months of training, and the cheat that was [Protection of the Faith], with just practice swords Noa could even be on par with Ewald Cristaldi.
As the 3 months gave Noa much needed time to get used to Instinct and for his learning boosts to fully kick in, it wasn't surprising.
But one could say that Ewald's mastery of Swordsmanship along with the versatility of the Excaliburs was what made him so strong and considered the current Second Strongest Exorcist.
Noa was just relying on his Instinct and his learned basics in Swordsmanship along with his boosted as fuck stats due to [Protection of the Faith].
Well, with just Noa's stats alone he could probably win the Youth Swordsmanship Tournament.
Even E Rank stats could compare with Ewald, and against teens? Wasn't even a fair competition.
Dulio released his bullet, which pierced the head of the Flame Woman, and while the Cross was the actual weak point, Noa dematerialized the Whore of Babylon for dramatic effect and to hide their abilities' weakness.
Noa grasped at his chest and took a step back like he had took a strong blow, convincing enough to even make Dulio think that he had done something serious.
While the act could have been called out cause Noa looked fine as always, Noa had a back up plan. Popping a blood capsule in his mouth, Noa hacked up blood.
If someone wondered how this capsule was created, it was created by encasing the water created by Dulio with Lavinia's Ice, and with just some red food coloring acquired through the kitchen staff, a makeshift blood capsule was created.
Noa hid it in his sleeve and put it in his mouth when he bent over to heave.
Noa raised his hand.
"I-I concede- *Cough*-*Hack*"
The Host gave a small look of concern before announcing the results.
"The winner of the Exhibition Match of Exorcist Trainee Dulio and Exorcist Trainee Noa is Dulio Gesualdo!"
As it was an official event, there was just polite claps.
Dulio went to Noa and put Noa's arms around his neck while leading him off the field. As they entered the waiting room, Dulio looked to Noa.
"...Are you actually hurt?"
Noa gave Dulio a confused expression. "You kidding me?" His pained expression nowhere to be seen.
He wiped his mouth and by turning his head left and right, the purposefully messed up hair went back into place like it was never messed up in the first place.
"After all this effort and your complaint doesn't go though, I expect a favor." Noa put his hand on Dulio's shoulder.
"...Yeah."
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A/N: 4000 is actually fucking crazy. I'll post the 3000 and 4000 chapters in two days cause tomorrow ill go outside and come back late.
Also, I was rereading my story and I was like... Damn I wasn't funny with the first few chapters at all. I lowkey find the first few chapters unreadable if you're rereading it. What made me think I was slick with those shitty jokes? Consider the first few chapters a mistake from inexperience. My first book, cut me some slack.
powerstone goals for next week are kind of unusual, but thats cause I need time after I come back from touching grass to finish the 3000 PS and 4000 PS chapters.
--+--
We have Powerstone Goals!!!
2000 PS - Extra Chapter
2500 PS - Extra Chapter
3000 PS - Extra Chapter
3500 PS - Extra Chapter
4000 PS - Extra Chapter
and more if it's even possible.
Extra chapters will be released the day after the goal is reached, from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM KST cause that's when I'm free. They'll also be generally shorter than normal chapters.
Normal Chapters will be released every day during the times from 8:00 PM to 2:00 AM KST cause I normally get inspo throughout the day.
Also, comments, powerstones, and reviews are always appreciated.