Sunny's next match was… somewhat unexpected. It was someone he had already faced in the battle royale, back in the beginning of the Dream Tournament.
"Challenger Kaboom! has joined the fight!"
"Challenger Mongrel has joined the fight!"
It was the same redhead girl he had fought during the climax of the battle royale. Sunny vividly remembered decapitating her after dealing with the other guy.
Seemingly recognizing him as well, Kaboom grinned.
"Hey. It's been a while. You know, my stream has been begging me to get revenge, so I guess I'm pretty lucky! Oh, and how did you get such accurate Memories for your Mongrel cosplay?"
As the girl in the red tunic harmlessly laughed, Sunny started to make a few calculations.
'Does she get money from streaming? How much?'
Not that it really mattered currently. The supposed Legacy was probably richer than the entirety of Earth's populace.
And, just like the last Legacy he fought in the tournament, she'd fall to his blade.
As Serpent turned into liquid darkness, taking the form of a staff, he darkly replied:
"My mother made them for me."
Kaboom's orange eyes blinked, before giggling.
"Well, if I break anything, tell her I'm sorry!"
Sunny snorted as he lunged forward. There was no need to take his time with her, since he had already shadowed her style of fighting. A few moments later, their staffs were being slammed against each other in a rhythmically explosive dance. As tongues of flame coiled up Kaboom's staff, Sunny's seemed to be a blur of insidious darkness, contrasting against eachother with each clash, short as they were.
Sunny had managed to make a few deductions on her Aspect and enchantments from when they had originally fought. She seemed to be almost immune to fatigue, was able to ignite her weapon — whether through an Ability or the Memory itself — and could create explosions from her palms. The more she fights, the more powerful those explosions get.
Sunny humored her for a while as he cemented her battle art into his bones, dashing around explosions while performing a chaotic dance. Her attacks barely singed him as he deflected a sinister swing her of her staff. As he pushed her off balance, he twirled Serpent around for a moment, before obliterating her skull with it's shaft as he increased the weight of his blow with [Feather of Truth].
'Died to me twice. Honestly, people need to step up their game…'
Two more duels before the grand finale. Surely the difficulty would be ramped up a little.
***
He was right. None of his next two duels were easy, although for very different reasons.
The third opponent he faced today was called Lowph. It was a young man with shoulder-length hair who wore a light armor, wielding a round shield and a spear. His technique was impeccable, but the most dangerous thing about him was his speed.
Lowph was fast. Very fast. So fast, in fact, that Sunny could barely see some of his movements. The worst part was that this speed did not come from an Aspect Ability, but simply from skill, training, and incredibly precise Essence control.
The young man seemed deceptively slow until he chose to attack, at which point his weapons almost teleported from one place to another. Sunny only managed to resist because his enemy skillfully masked the movements of his body, but didn't think to mask the movements of his shadow.
The smart thing to do was to kill the deadly opponent as fast as possible, but Sunny was utterly fascinated by the way Lowph used his Soul Essence, so he lingered, trying to infer details of this technique from how the young man fought.
By the time he grasped the technique, Sunny attempted to replicate it. The flow of his Shadow Essence became extraordinarily precise, augmenting specific targets as his speed skyrocketed…
'…Eh?'
Sunny blinked. He had only used a little bit of his Essence — an amount relative to what Lowph used. And yet, the effects were a little… overdone.
If slicing a man in two could be considered overdone.
A few questions lingered as Sunny returned to the black void.
'Is this because of the quality of my Essence?'
Unlike others, Sunny's Shadow Essence was saturated with divinity. It was to point where he had an entire Attribute for it, [Essence of Divinity]. He recalled Herta saying that his Essence was exceptionally potent, which explained why it was so hard for even one of his Cores to deplete.
And yet, he had never noticed any extreme bursts of strength when using his Shadow Essence. Maybe that was because he was never precise enough?
'Huh.'
When one had as much Essence as he did, precision and expenditure wasn't much of a concern. When it came to the common Awakened, however, it was something that needed to be practiced no matter what.
'I guess I need to figure that out…'
The next duel, however… made him rethink a lot of things.
This time, his enemy was a friendly-looking guy with a funny alias, Dynisor. Weirdly, he wore simple garments instead of an armor and wielded no weapons. At first, Sunny fought that this was some sorcerer… however, he couldn't have been more wrong.
As soon as the voice of the Dreamscape announced the start of the duel, his opponent… changed. His muscles suddenly ballooned and shifted, ripping through the simple clothes. His skin glistened, becoming covered by metallic scales. His nails grew into terrifying talons, and his teeth turned into long, sharp fangs.
In just a few moments, what faced Sunny was not a human, but a frightening hybrid creature that resembled a predatory humanoid lizard. A split second later, the creature was already upon him in a furious whirlwind of claws and teeth.
However, while it looked like a Nightmare Creature and was as strong and fearsome as one, the hybrid fought with a measured technique of an experienced, cunning, battle-hardened brawler. The effect was nothing short of terrifying.
The Ability humans received after conquering the Third Nightmare and becoming Transcendent was called a Transformation Ability, but not all transformation-type Abilities were meant only for Saint. While extremely rare, some Aspects manifested similar powers at earlier stages.
However, while Sunny knew that such Awakened existed, this was his first time facing one in battle. And what a battle it was!
It was really worthy of being the penultimate spectacle of the whole tournament.
It was also the first fight where Sunny felt that he really might lose. The enemy was just too strong, ferocious, and overbearing… while also being skilled, intelligent, and subtle. Fighting him was like fighting a Devil, or a Demon at least.
In fact, while Sunny had no idea, this was what their duel was being called on the network — the battle of two demons!
And one of these demons was bound to fall.
Under the stunned gazes of numerous spectators — both those in the Dreamscape and those watching the broadcast on the screens of their communicators — Mongrel was pushed back by the rampaging monster, his dark odachi sliding off the steel scales without leaving even a scratch on them. Nothing he did seemed to have an effect.
But then, something changed. At some point, the demonic swordsman dismissed his great blade and lunged into a violent, terrifyingly brutal hand-to-hand combat with the towering creature, using his fists, legs, and even the horns of his mask to attack the enemy. His style changed, turning savage and vicious, insidiously deadly, and utterly ruthless.
This was developed from his recent attempts to shadow Nightmare Creatures.
It was the same primal, devastating way of fighting the Barrow Wraiths had used when they invaded Jarilo-VI.
The uncompromisingly cruel brawl lasted for a dreadfully long time. In the end, both fighters were bloodied and broken, their bodies battered, but their murderous wills as sharp and unshaken as ever.
Mongrel's onyx armor had cracked in several places under the unrelenting assault of adamantine talons, but the hybrid's scales were also shattered and torn, his movements slowing down more and more.
And then, unexpectedly, it was all over.
Mongrel had caught his enemy into an armlock, and then bent, straining with all his might. A loud crack could be heard in the deathly silence that had settled over the arena a while back, and the creature's neck suddenly twisted at an unnatural angle.
At first, people couldn't believe their eyes.
Only when the massive body of the hybrid reptile shuddered, and then turned into a flood of white sparks did they open their eyes wide and started screaming with shock, joy, and admiration.
Swaying lightly, Sunny looked at the disappearing torrent sparks and grinned.
'...One more left. Man, I felt so cool!'