*Bang!*

Mako shot the next flame bullet, but alas he missed! The bullet grazed Mikhail’s cheek as it went past him and blasted the ground behind him, creating a decent-sized crater.

Seeing that Mako had missed, Mikhail snickered as he quickly closed the remaining distance between them.

With nothing else at his disposal, Mako was left undefended against Mikhail, who was clocking back his flame fist to deliver a massive punch.

Mako brought both of his arms close to his face just as Mikhail launched the punch forward and he was able to block the punch, given unsuccessfully. He successfully intercepted the punch and blocked it with his arms, but he wasn’t strong enough to hold his ground as he was launched several feet in the air.

Mako was completely shaken by that strong strike and had momentarily lost all sense of balance and direction as he fell through the air, and landed head first into the ground.

Mikhail had already considered this battle won as he started celebrating by laughing out loud and slowly making his way toward Mako with a skip in his step. Mako slowly regained his senses and tried to get back up, but before he could do so, Mikhail was upon him once again, not letting his prey escape.

He tried to land the finishing punch on Mako’s face and make the patrolling officers stop the match, thus granting his victory and marking his job done; however, just as it would look like Mikhail’s punch connected with Mako’s forehead, his image disappeared from the ground and Mikhail hit nothing but air.

Phantom Shift has been activated

Phantom Kick has been activated

Before Mikhail could even realize what was going on, he sensed Mako’s strike coming from his right-hand side. He was fast enough to turn toward Mako and see his kick almost strike his chest.

Mikhail pulled up his arms to block the kick, but just as when he struck Mako earlier, the kick never hit Mikhail as the image of the kick disappeared upon contact, and a second kick appeared a bit higher than the original. Mikhail didn’t have time to react to the second kick and the kick was able to land cleanly on Mikhail’s face delivering a massive blow.

Blood spat out from Mikhail’s mouth and nose as it was Mako who launched Mikhail several feet back into the air.

‘Since he is wearing chest, leg, and foot armor, it is really no point striking him there as the armor would just absorb the damage.’ Mako theorized. ‘I should instead just focus on the thighs and face as they are unguarded and I can deal the most amount of damage,’

‘I was able to block his punch because of my arm guards, but I won’t get so lucky again. He probably has the strength ability and it will be dangerous for me to take him on in physical combat, but I can fight with him at long range either cause he has elemental resistance.’ Mako thought.

He was facing a serious dilemma as he couldn’t figure out his next plan of attack. Mikhail was a strong opponent who he couldn’t beat in close or long-range combat. Mako’s initial idea was to get hit by Mikhail purposefully so that he could fill up his Rage meter and enter Rage mode.

However, he really couldn’t take a continuous beating from someone like Mikhail so filling up the Rage meter was out of the question, and even if he just activated his title and didn’t strike back so that Rage mode would be activated, it wouldn’t last long as he didn’t have the Rage meter filled up.

The momentum from Mako’s kick carried Mikhail a good distance back before stopping and he was not happy with this outcome. Mako heard a massive angry roar from Mikhail’s direction as he saw him stand back up. Mikhail’s face was now similar to Mako’s as they had both received injury and were bleeding.

Mako used his bleeding to his advantage as he rubbed the blood on his arm guards, activating their passive ability: Blood Boost.

As the blood dripped onto the red arm guards, Mako felt a rush of refreshing energy flow toward him as he received a 5% boost in all of his stats.

“You are going to pay for that, big time!” Mikhail shouted as he punched the ground in anger, creating another crater. 𝒷𝒹ℴ𝓿𝓁.𝓬𝓸𝓂

Mikhail began firing several blades of red fire toward Mako from a distance in quick succession; however, Mako’s perception and agility were enough to dodge each and every one of them.

From observing Mikhail’s fighting style, Mako had observed that he only had a couple of moves that he had been reusing constantly to try to defeat in which he was partially successful.

Seeing that his long-range attacks were not working, increased Mikhail’s frustration as he punched the ground once again and started bolting toward Mako once again.

This was bad news for Mako because even though he could hold his own against Mikhail in long-range combat, he was still inferior to him in close combat.

As Mikhail quickly approached him, Mako could only think of one thing that might buy him some time.

Electrical Discharge has been activated

Mako didn’t have time to charge his staff with lightning aura to cost a stronger electrical charge so he ended up just casting it himself. He released a big pulse of electricity just as Mikhail was within 10 feet of Mako and sure enough, the pulse did its thing and paralyzed Mikhail’s muscles.

Since Mikhail was running very fast when he was paralyzed, his momentum carried him forward even after his body stopped moving making him fall to the ground and glide forward on the ground.

The reason why Mako was reluctant of using this move was that Mikhail had elemental resistance which would make it so that he would either not get paralyzed at all or paralyzed for a shorter duration, both didn’t look too good for Mako, but with nothing else to use, he risked it by casting it himself.

The Electrical Discharge skill had leveled up several times from the time that Mako had learned it, and with every level up, the pulse of the discharge and the duration of the paralysis would increase.

However, the duration of the paralysis remained on Mikhail for approximately ten seconds only making it look like Mako was using a level 1 Electrical Discharge again.

Now that Mako knew that the Electrical Discharge did in fact work and the time that Mikhail would become paralyzed, Mako started to formulate a new plan to defeat Mikhail.

Just as the paralysis in Mikhail’s body started to wear off, Mako changed the tempo of the fight by launching an attack himself with his fist ready to punch him in the face; however, Mikhail was able to recover in time and launched a counterpunch.

Both fists collided with each other creating a loud bang and releasing a small shockwave that blew away all the loose rock around them. With the boost given to Mako by his arm guards, he was able to almost reach the same level as Mikhail as both of them remained still even after their fists had collided, breathing heavily and staring deep into the other’s injured face.

************

Natasha and the imposter were now getting worried as they had never seen Mikhail get knocked back this much in a fight before and they were considering joining in the battle to make sure that Mako was knocked out for sure.

However, as soon as they took a single step forward a powerful voice accompanied by a strong aura resounded from behind them that made them freeze right in place.

“Stop right there! You have no right to interfere in a duel!”

They slowly turned around and could see a patrolling officer had appeared right next to Bill and the rest who were still in their dream-like state.

“Whenever a duel is initiated, there are meant to be no interferences between the two cadets who are fighting and the patrolling officers will enforce this rule with force if they have to!” The patrolling officer addressed Natasha and the officer clearly stated his intention and claimed that he will resort to using force if they were to interfere with the duel.

Both Natasha and the imposter gulped as they were nowhere as strong as a patrolling officer and knew that they would most likely get eliminated by him if they ignored his warning so they quickly backed up.

Natasha only hoped that Mikhail could somehow he would be able to defeat Mako quickly because it looked like Mako was adapting to Mikhail’s fighting style and was slowly gaining the upper hand in the fight.

The patrolling officer himself was quite tense as he had to constantly be on the ready to jump in and stop a lethal attack, but so far both boys had continued to surprise him. Just when he thought to jump in and end the fight because one of them was about to deal a lethal blow, the other person would come up with a way to dodge or block the attack, and hence, continuing the fight.

***************

After a couple of seconds, Mikhail had had enough as broke away his fist from his and quickly tried to attack Mako’s legs and make him fall by delivering a low kick; however, Mako used High Jump just in time to dodge the attack and was now several feet in the air right above Mikhail who was still on the ground.

Now with Mako having the height advantage, Mako’s right hand crackled with lightning while his left hand burst into flames. He aimed both his hands forward aiming directly at Mikhail and hoped to do some damage to him with an onslaught of constant attacks despite his elemental resistance.