Under Felarial's high Time Perception, everything appeared to move in slow motion to him, whether it be Vral's ragged breaths or the outrageous attack she launched.
Although the attack was way too powerful, the speed at which it traversed was not to the point Felarial couldn't snatch Halbor out of the way.
But contrary to Felarial's expectations, Halbor didn't seem to be dodging the deadly attack; instead, he tilted his body so that the chest plate mirror of his armour was in line with the attack path.
Felarial couldn't tell if Halbor was brave or plain stupid to think he could defend an attack that could even end a Tier-4 Low-Phase monster.
Either way, he intended to drag Halbor off the path before the attack could collide with him.
Just then, Felarial heard Jay's voice in his head, 'He has a way to survive it. If you save him now, he will lose the Bout, which would be the same as their team losing the Match.'
After a momentary hesitation, Felarial chose to believe Jay and ceased in his tracks. That Match was equally important to both teams since it was the deciding factor for placing first in Group-A.
In the subsequent second, the attack landed on the center of Halbor's armour, but no explosion or a deafening boom was associated with it.
The only thing the attack left was silence, dead silence. Not just on the stage but in the entire Colosseum Arena.
Everyone couldn't fathom how such a deadly attack vanished as soon as it hit Halbor's armour.
Soon, their questions were answered as a single crack opened on the chest plate mirror, from which several other cracks extended till they covered every corner of the chest armour before breaking it into unrecognisable junk.
To those who watched that, it appeared as if the armour somehow absorbed that attack. But, other than Halbor himself, only Jay and Olivia knew what exactly happened as they were able to read his thoughts.
The chest armour was a prototype Halbor crafted using the spatial mechanism of the <Space Platform>.
Although its plain defence capabilities were lacklustre compared to a standard Rare Grade Spirit Armour, the chest armour compensated with a life-saving skill that could transfer any attack to another point in space, provided it was supplied with enough Spirit Energy.
Despite charging the armour with 6 Tier-3 Spirit Crystals, it drained almost every bit of his Spirit Energy to transfer the Stage-4 Spear Aura Projectile.
However, being a prototype, it lacked neither the spatial stability nor material durability to sustain transferring such a powerful attack and broke apart.
Meanwhile, Vral stared at Halbor with disbelief. To apply 20 Augmentations over her final attack, she used seven days worth of stored Stamina, which was all she had, and such an expensive attack disappeared just like that.
Then, her stare was met with an intense glare from Harbor, who gritted his teeth and yelled at her.
"Don't you know the Omega Chosen, Miss Olivia, is a female as well?! So, Why would I look down on you because of your gender?
Do you have any idea how much effort and hard-earned resources it took me to make this armour?! All that went to waste just because of your petty stubbornness. You don't want to admit defeat, right? If I have to beat you unconscious to win this Bout, I shall gladly do it."
Watching the infuriated Halbor approach her, Vral shuddered and shouted meekly, "I……I….concede."
She was then saved by Felarial, who announced Halbor as the winner before removing the cubical barrier and let Vral leave the stage.
Then, Felarial informed Halbor, "As the winner of the first Bout, you may now choose your next opponent from Vatruter Team unless you wish to rest and send your team member in your stead. In that case, your opponent team could send whomever they wish."
Halbor's Spirit Energy was pretty much exhausted from the previous spectacle. So, if he were to continue fighting, he could only rely on physical attacks and limited Stamina.
If he were to face a Tier-3 combatant, it would be troublesome, but since the choice was in his hands, Halbor chose a Tier-2 Centaur as his opponent.
"You, get your ass over here!"
{Author Note: 'Centaurides' is a Female horse-humanoid, whereas 'Centaur' is a Male one.}
The Centaur, whom Halbor pointed at, had chills run down his spine. He wished nothing but to admit defeat right then and there, but under their Queen, Vral's orders, he was left with no such choice.
"Vyrin, your opponent doesn't have much Stamina left. As long as you exhaust him out, even if you lose the second Bout, we could win this Match."
To which, the scrawny Centaur reluctantly agreed, "My Lady, I will tr….try my be…best."
Although he said that, he exclaimed in his mind while climbing the stage, 'It's easy for you to say. Just look at him. How scary!!'
Meanwhile, Halbor's team members wore wry looks on their faces. Even when Holt, their fellow team member, schemed against him, Halbor was nowhere near as angry as he was on the stage.
But that didn't come out as something new to them since they were well aware of how over-protective Halbor behaved towards his crafts and creations.
Soon, Felarial announced the 2nd Bout to begin, and as soon as he did it, Halbor rushed towards Vyrin even more aggressively than Vral in the 1st Bout.
Before the Centaur could do anything, the Heavy Hammer in Halbor's hands kissed his head and left an oversized swelling.
That continued until his body was beaten black and blue. Halbor controlled his strength in each hit, just enough to not leave severe injuries on his opponent but inflict as much pain as possible.
The fight continued for another five minutes before appeasing Halbor's anger, and only then did he let go by knocking out his opponent.
Even the audience could only shake their heads and sympathise with Vyrin. That incident left many to fear Halbor and strictly noted never to anger Halbor.
The Vatruter team didn't send another member and directly acknowledged their defeat. If not, the third combatant would suffer the same fate as Vyrin, if not worse.
Just like that, 1st Match concluded with the Falud team's victory.
You might think the first Match is too long, but I had to make it that way to bring a good understanding of the rules rather than dumping all the info at once before the Match even began.
From here, only important matches will be this long, and there were not many in the First Segment.
I am gonna take my time with the fights and interactions between Alpha Chosen as that is needed to let you guys familiarize yourself with the top Alpha Chosen, their characters and their abilities.
All of this is me steering and planting everything needed for the Final Fight of the 1st ARC. Simply, Lay back and Enjoy the ride.
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