Chapter 35: Fear the Wolfe
Sullivan eventually stopped his onslaught of attacking arts, but not it wasn’t due to him finally noticing that he was he being played with. Rather, Sullivan was running low on aether and stamina.
He stopped to catch his breath, but while he did, Donovan kept spinning around him. It was in this moment that Sullivan realized he had been fighting in a circle.
‘I…I hadn’t manage to pressure this guy at all?,’ Sullivan realized with icy dread building in his stomach, ‘why the hell is he still spinning ?!’
Now that Sullivan had stopped attacking Donovan, the latter had stopped spinning circles around the long-armed Digger and was now spinning in place like a human top. Some of the audience members thought this moment looked rather hilarious, but those with sharp eyes and sharper senses thought differently.
“Look at him spin! Is he trying to make himself dizzy?”
“What are you daft? Feel the aether man, that Wolfe guy is about to do something big.”
“It ain’t just the aether, the air around is acting up too!”
As Donovan kept spinning and spinning, turbulent winds began to kick up clouds of dust and sand and gather around him in a circular fashion. Little by little, Donovan began to look less like a human top and more like a man-sized dust devil. The sight of this man-made natural disaster was enough to cause Sullivan and several audience members to tense up out of fear and anticipation. Evidently, this included Jin Fang.
“This unnatural disturbance in the aether…,” Jin Fang whispered as she stretched her senses, “could that art be a W-”
“Close, but not exactly,” Zhen Liu interrupted, “that’s actually a major Ethereal class art known as [Dust Devil Cutter].”
“[Dust Devil Cutter]?”
“Like the name implies, this art uses a mix of Aeroqi and Terrati aether to turn the user into a weaponized dust devil. The weird thing about this art though is that it’s power is directionally proportional to the user’s physical environment. More dust and sand in the area, the stronger it becomes,” Zhen Liu explained, “Granted it’s also dependent on the user’s aether expression being the right mix of Terrati and Aeroqi in order to use it without getting dizzy.”
Jin Fang gave Zhen Liu an odd look after his explanation, but she just nodded and went back to focusing on the fight.
‘At least that’s what I remember from my time in the Library…I should probably see if that place is still in the lake at some point…’
The [Dust Devil Cutter] was actually part of a series of arts that are meant to be used in conjecture with a minor World-Class aether formula called [Desert Tyrant’s Indignation]. Zhen Liu had wanted to see if he was compatible with this formula when he read up on it back in the Library of Nowhere. While he couldn’t find the formula at the time, he did find the [Dust Devil Cutter] sister arts, [Sandstone Aegis] and [Sandstorm Piercer], as well as a weaker version of the [Desert Tyrant’s Indignation] called [Sand Prince’s Arrogance.] Zhen Liu wasn’t compatible with that formula either.
‘Huh…does this mean the Wolfe Family have a complete set or just a fraction? Do they have that formula?’
Back in the arena, Sullivan’s mind was racing for a way to deal with Donovan’s unusual attack.
Based on all of the past information that Sullivan had gathered on Donovan before this fight, the latter would usually employ Corporeal class arts due to his perchance for wanting to watch the blood of his opponents flow and spill before him. The fact that Donovan had decided to use an Ethereal class art, especially one that suddenly transformed him, set off all sorts of alarms in Sullivan’s head.
As of this moment, Sullivan could only see two possible paths to victory.
First was to go about this defensively. He could probably tank the hit or dodge it, but there were some issues with this plan. Sullivan had already burned up a good chunk of his stamina with his onslaught of attacks earlier so he wasn’t sure if he could defend against it. There was also the possibility of Donovan launching another attack should this one fail. Sullivan didn’t know how much aether this art would drain from Donovan and he didn’t want to find out.
The second option: Attack!
‘Screw it! I’ll just go all in for one last attack! Slam him into the ground before he can make a move!’
Sullivan took a deep breath and began to circulate the last of his aether into his fists. Once they were fully charged, he rushed towards the dust devil and launched his final attack.
[Mountain Crusher!]
Stone gauntlets composed of dense Terraqi aether formed in an instant as he swung his fists at the dust devil. A loud thinking sound echoed throughout the quarry as the two rock fists met in the center and the dust devil dispersed. Unexpectedly, Donovan wasn’t in the center of it. In fact, he was nowhere near Sullivan.
“What the hell? Where’d he go?!,” Sullivan began to curse as he looked to see where his opponent had gone.
“Up here!”
“Huh?”
Turning his head upward, Sullivan was greeted by the sight of an airborne Donovan with his hands forming a strange hand seal in the shape of a beast’s head, his claws looking like a muzzle or armor. Visible strands of aether began to swirl around Donovan as he angled himself downward. Seconds later,stone and sand began to materialize from the aether and condense around Donovan’s hands and claws, but instead of merely coating it, the stone and sand began to morph into the head of a vicious looking wolf.
‘Oh shit…,’ Sullivan thought once he realized what art Donovan was about to use.
“It’s over,” one of the watchers in the crowd stated.
[Wolf Breaker!]
Once the wolf’s head was completed, Donovan let out a mighty shout as he launched himself directly at Sullivan’s position.
A low howl followed by a cracking, thudding sound echoed throughout the Quarreling Quarry as a long limbed digger was launched out of the fighting arena.
“And the winner by knock-out is Donovan Wolfe!”
