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The weary swordsman looked upon Joker with a grim expression etched upon his already harshly toned face, observing the blonde idiot closely. Although incredibly frustrated by his opponent’s trickery, Auron had to admit that he was indeed fairly impressed with the trident wielding madman. After all, the firestorm technique often resulted in the complete decimation of his adversaries, yet Joker didn’t appear to have a single scratch upon his lanky yet well toned body. Auron grimaced, allowing the smallest hint of confusion to show on his face. Had Joker even broken a sweat?

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had such a good fight…” Auron muttered, yet the remark was uttered so quietly that not a single soul besides the monk himself was able to hear it.

Rotating his shoulder in its socket, Auron kept a watchful eye on Joker, who was still perched in a highly unnatural fashion upon the walls of the stadium. Casting a swift, fleeting glance over the partially obliterated floor of the arena, Auron shrugged inwardly, as he arrived at the conclusion that it was probably too late to hold back, now. All things considered, it was apparent that he would have to pour everything into this battle in order to defeat Joker.

Although the blonde maniac had at first appeared to be utterly incompetent, the truth was soon revealed throughout the fight – Joker was a crafty bastard, even if he did appear to have some sort of annoyingly convenient good fortune on his side.

“Your luck runs out.” Auron declared mightily, his low, commanding voice heard by any person in the stadium who cared to pay enough attention. The spectators had mostly all shuffled back to their seats now, after the incredibly uncomfortable conditions which had been temporarily brought about by Auron’s tornado. Despite the incident, it seemed that each and every spectator was ready to get their moneys worth from the semi-final round, all of them watching eagerly, hoping for the fight to take an interesting turn – and hopefully a bloody one at that.

The two combatants did not move a muscle for a considerable amount of time.

Murmurs could be heard from the direction of the crowd, and puzzled expressions washed over previously excited faces. What was going on? Why weren’t they fighting? Nobody knew. Nobody paid enough attention to notice that despite the apparent lack of activity, something was in fact happening down on the stadium floor.

Atop the blackened, ash stained tiles, Auron stood, his sword resting firmly on his shoulder whilst he supported it in one hand, as he always did. Yet, something was different, if only slightly.

Barely noticeable, the single white light which now encompassed Auron was increasing in luminosity whilst it span around him in a spiral, twisting and turning around the warrior monk like a mystical white snake. Seconds passed, and before long it was joined by another of these spherical twisters, which looped around him in a peculiar fashion, dipping underneath his arms and hooking through his legs. Auron’s face was a picture of concentration as he focused hard on Joker, who was still upon the wall directly in front of him.

With that, Auron acted. His hastened movements allowed him to execute the skill with increased rapidity, as his hands moved into various shapes and symbols at speeds which could not be followed by the human eye. The incantation was swift and silent, causing the spell to be set into motion.

The two ivory white orbs which had roamed around Auron’s body halted at once in their path, before their light intensified, glowing with the radiance of one hundred stars. Nodding his head, the warrior monk cast the two orbs towards Joker, willing them to separate as they did so, causing the pair of orbs to split into four fragments each, resulting in a total of eight of the magical spheres hurtling towards Joker, the trails behind them now tinted a deep navy blue.

It took less than a second for the spell to reach Joker, and all eight of the identical orbs began spinning around him, as they had done to Auron. This time, however, they followed each other closer, speeding around Joker’s perimeter in no time, accelerating incredibly with every passing heartbeat. Having completed several circuits around the blonde haired trident-wielder, all eight of the spheres shot up into the sky at a fantastic pace, whistling mightily as they did so, and cutting effortlessly through the skies as though any wind resistance did not affect them whatsoever. Lighter than feathers, the orbs danced upwards and upwards, twisting like a helix within one another as they ascended further and further until they were almost completely out of sigh.

All of a sudden, it was as though each of the marble-like summoned spheres had somehow transformed into the heaviest of stones, as each of them began to fall back towards the earth with a terrifying pace. Separating from one another as though they repelled themselves, the eight identical balls of magical energy seemed to recognize Joker’s life signal, homing in on him with explosive intent, ready to detonate with but the slightest collision with the insane blonde man.

“Pray. Now!” Auron barked, knowing that it would certainly be exceedingly difficult for Joker to escape from this particular onslaught.

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