Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 151 The End Of A Terrific Battle

Though it felt like thirty minutes had pa.s.sed, in actuality, it was only around the three minute mark after Tristan's resurrection that even his second augmented state began to decline. 'NOOO!!! How can this be happening?!?! Even with Half Combustion, she's still beating me?! Impossible! She just a Warrior! I'm a Peak Phase King! I refuse to believe this will end in her win! I… I… I'll just have to risk permanent injury, if it means coming out on top...'

Again, Tristan galvanized his Soul and Dantian and because he had already gone through the motions three minutes ago to achieve "Half Combustion," he didn't have to make new forms with his hands to complete the ritual. Moreover, even if the peak of his power from Half Combustion was beginning to wane, he had more than enough strength to ignore the damage done to his head.

Only to the outside world, the seven orifices of his head burst out with even more blood than the first time as Tristan let out a screech comparable to a banshee. Once more, the feeling of danger Tristan gave her skyrocketed, and this time Elizabeth threw caution to the wind as she had not a shred of confidence for being able to stand up to him after going through yet another power up.

Activating her own 4th Chaos Seal of Physical Augmentation, as she felt her body become 50% stronger with a translucent grey film developing over her skin, Elizabeth thought, 'I should have known better… Give a boss the chance and he'll obviously transform. Give him another and his final form will be two or three phases away...' A bit of gamer babble filled her mind as she compared her situation to a certain "Monkey-man" who constantly gave his enemies the chances to get as strong as possible before he narrowly defeat each and every one…

With ten seconds on the clock, Elizabeth didn't make the same mistake she had in the Testing Formation and immediately shot toward Tristan to incapacitate him.

Ten! With a Speed Stat of 1417.5, even some of the weakest Spirit Realm Elders would be hard pressed to deal with Elizabeth as she could cross the sound barrier with at her max speed.

Chang! Elizabeth and Tristan clashed and to her surprise, she only slightly came out ahead of him; their roles only seemed to have switched! Even with Tristan's Blood Qi abilities upgrading as a result of overriding his forbidden technique to gain such strength, Elizabeth only slowly started to gain the upper hand with the use of her Dawnbringer pistol as she now had the overwhelming advantage in close combat.

Nine! Tristan took three shots to the chest. One punctured his lung, the other sc.r.a.ped his heart, and the third decimated a rib. Eight! Sacrificing a direct slash to his left shoulder, Tristan managed to trade blows with Elizabeth and slice a gnarly cut on her arm that went all the way down to her bone. Seven! Ignoring the pain, both Elizabeth and Tristan traded no less than five blows which only manifested grazing wounds and bruises formed from the impact of the sword locks, bullets, and weaponized blood droplets.

Six! Screeching in madness, Tristan sustained yet another harsh wound to his right shoulder to gain the leverage to kick Elizabeth all the way to the edge of the arena, her body making a discordant noise as a result of cras.h.i.+ng with the Defensive Barrier Formation. Five! Eyeing Tristan with a bit of her own madness rearing its ugly head, Elizabeth watched in disgust as a seemingly impossible amount of blood shot out of Tristan's body which flushed out all the foreign matter — bullets — out of his body. Then with fresh blood quickly clotting similar to Sun's Hyper Regeneration, all the wounds Tristan had sustained thus far were glazed over with crimson scars as he too felt the time limit of his ultimate ability start to run out.

Four! Cras.h.i.+ng into Elizabeth's stationary body, Tristan went berserk. Going so far as to tear and break the bones in his body while under the effects of his overcharged body just to strike with his sword as fast as possible; his speed became equal with Elizabeth at the moment!

Three! With just three seconds left in her physically augmented state and no end of the battle in sight, even after landing another shot on his left thigh, Elizabeth began to formulate thoughts of using her Cold Flames to end the fight; regardless of whether or not Tristan would be able to survive its destructive capabilities. Looking at the insanity behind his eyes as they fought, she had a feeling that even if she surrendered, as that was always an option, the man simply wouldn't stop until she died. Though she resolved to not go all out, if it were her life that was at stake, she wouldn't hesitate to use the totality of her power to bring her enemy to ruin…

Two! Atop all the skills she was already using — her s.p.a.ce, Time, Gun, and Blade techniques — the idea of hemorrhaging energy stopped bothering Elizabeth, as she coated her blade and guns with Death Magic; all in an effort to not have to resort to using her Cold Flames. She was being horrifically inefficient, but by utilizing the corrosive aspect of her Death Magic, all the wounds Tristan sustained could not be so easily treated with his Blood Qi.

Chang! Chang! Chang! Like a speedcore track at its climax, the sounds of Elizabeth and Tristan's swords colliding sounded off with over a dozen of beats per second. Only because Elizabeth started using her Death Magic the high pitch sounds of their swords clas.h.i.+ng slowly lowered in pitch as her Death Magic's corrosion expedited the rate with which Tristan's sword broke until finally…

One! c.h.i.n.k!!! The blade of Tristan's sword finally couldn't take any more damage as it flew like a bullet, cras.h.i.+ng onto the arena's formation. In the fraction of a second that remained, Elizabeth mercilessly took advantage of her opponent's vulnerable state and over ten deep cuts appeared on his body along with five gunshot wounds before she prepared to face the backlash of using her fourth Chaos Seal by kicking him as he did her; all the way to the edge of the arena.

Coughing up a bit of blood as a result of her the Chaos Seal's backlash along with all the damage that had acc.u.mulated throughout the battle internally, Elizabeth never took her eyes off Tristan as she gauged whether or not using her Cold Flames would be necessary. Fortunately, the damage Tristan had acc.u.mulated truly was too much; even for his augmented body. With over a dozen cuts, most aimed to specifically lower his combat prowess by targeting ligaments and skeletal muscle, and dozens of fresh and partially healed gunshot wounds concentrated on his chest cavity, only a true Spirit Realm elder might be able to continue fighting under such abysmal conditions.

Alas, the crazed Tristan made a suicidal move… 'I've sacrificed so much! That wretched c.u.n.t! I don't have much time… I'll soon cease to be regardless of whether I win or not… But if it's to get one over her, then this is fine too...' Commanding his body to begin a very peculiar form of self-immolation, for the next couple seconds or so all the pain receptors in his body were shut off and in a state devoid of energy as it all began to concentrate on his Dantian, Tristan began to slowly get up.

To everyone watching on, Elizabeth and the judge included, disbelief arose in their expressions as this Tristan fellow just would not let go and admit defeat! But, whereas Elizabeth wondered just what this lunatic would do with his already irreparable body, the crowd wondered what higher state of being this apperant immortal would enter after being defeated for the third time.

However, contrary to everyone's expectations, in the middle of Tristan's rise from the dead, he appeared to have entered an internal conflict. Oblivious to the outside world, within Tristan's soul, the previous infinitesimally small corner that was previously futility calling for the body's decision to stop being so hostile, now began to have an impact as the rest of his soul had been partially ignited to complete the forbidden ritual to use Blood Qi powers like someone in the Spirit Realm.

Not letting go of this chance to take over the soul and call the shots, the previously worthless piece of Tristan's soul first devoured pieces of the dead soul ashes to gather momentum and then, only after Tristan decided to end his life by getting rid of his life's greatest stain via self-destruction, when he couldn't use his Qi at all to help defend his soul against the resisting minority, did the cunning and calculative soul minority act out to the best of its abilities.

Being the closest person to him, Elizabeth watched as Tristan clutched his head in pain and began violently spasming on the floor as he made a mess atop a pool of his own blood… Even from a distance, she could hear, "Ugh! Stop! You… You'll ruin eve-every th-ing… Blurgh…" A small bit of vomit and blood entered his lungs which only caused the struggle to look all the more wild.

But within the second, the struggle began to die out as the previous soul minority became the majority. Consuming the previous majority at an exponential rate, it didn't take more than five seconds for the old Tristan to be killed off as harshly as someone could be. Now, with the previous soul taking control of his body, a startling revelation stunned everyone.

There, lying like a pig in his own filth, Tristan looked completely insane to the world around him as he started laughing like a kid who was offered their favorite candy. However, with a cough coming up to remind him that he didn't have much time, the "new" Tristan got up, turned to the judge, and said, "I give up."

He ignored the gasps and confusion of the crowd and hurriedly added, "I've made a terrible mistake and my Dantian will soon collapse and self-destruct. Please, let my benefactor leave the arena to not be implicated by my idiotic behavior..." With gentle eyes looking over her, Tristan disturbed Elizabeth more so than the majority of trials and tribulations she had experienced since her life changed after witnessing her most difficult and reproachful enemy admit and behave so contrary to his "regular" self.

[Status

Name: Tristan Fanford

Level: Approaching Zero Via Self-Destruction [25]

Rank: Null [Peak Phase Martial King]

Affection Rating: Immeasurable Fondness

Current State: Ever-Grateful]

"Benefactor?" Elizabeth asked as she read Tristan's Status and drew a blank look, not even knowing where to begin her questions. 'How is such a change in affection even possible?' She thought, as her Ominous Pa.s.sage skill pa.s.sively activated once more and for the first time showed her an image; presumably of the near future. From her skill's activation, Elizabeth saw Tristan dying with a smile, his body splitting up into chunks as fragments of an explosive, the epicenter of said explosion originating from the area just below his navel; in his Dantian...