Absolute Soul
73. Final Match IV

The sudden appearance of Haikal shocked many parties, both the lay audience and Blazers who were present there widened their eyes together when they saw the figure of Haikal who was still intact and alive, even standing.

"This kid!" Veindal unknowingly rose from his chair while exclaiming loudly with his widest smile, so surprised the young man was not only able to survive, but also able to repel the deadly attack of Gaia's Maelstrom owned by Jack.

The grim aura from the audience who thought Haikal had turned to dust from Jack's previous attack now disappeared without a trace. It can be seen they are now cheering so loudly knowing their champion has not lost.

"Your body is something else, yes" said Jack smiling wryly not only unable to subvert Haikal with his strongest magic, but also Haikal did not get too badly injured.

"Well, I've been training my body for a long time," Haikal replied, wiping the flow of blood dripping from his lips, "I won't fall down easily."

Although it can not be said to be severe, Haikal though can not escape without injury from Jack's last attack. He got injuries in several places, many scratches, abrasions, and bruises that Haikal received but did not interfere with his movement.

Haikal's clothes had also been tattered thanks to Jack's attack. Currently his body is only covered by a piece of clothing that crosses from the shoulder down and long pants that have been torn so badly that they become shorts.

Jack was still amazed to see the condition of Haikal's body that was still intact did not even suffer serious injuries, even though Gaia's Maelstrom was the strongest move he had when using magic, clover magic card from his Forbidden Magic Card.

Jack's previous attack was indeed just a concentration of a large amount of soul energy that revolved like a compacted little whirlwind. At first glance this style looks trivial and not life-threatening, but if it can be mastered and used properly this simple style can even destroy a small town in an instant.

Jack shook his head slowly intending to put an end to his admiration that felt quite excessive, "Haikal, can you tell me how you survived the attack just now? Though I think an Advance-level Blazer alone would not be able to survive without serious injuries."

Haikal raised his brows in response to Jack's question, he could see the young man's eyes not intending to figure out his weakness but purely out of curiosity. He also did not mind telling the secret behind his abilities.

"I haven't been able to awaken my Soul Arc until now, so all this time I've been practicing soul energy control and efficiency, as well as training my physique as much as possible to exceed the limit if possible to accommodate more soul energy." Haikal reveals that his secret survived Gaia's Maelstrom.

Haikal's body gave off a thick blackish-red aura which then slowly enveloped his entire body, forming a kind of dark red-colored armor slightly transparent, "Then, the, from the results of my hard work so far I managed to make a kind of armor that I call this Berserker Plate."

Jack widened his eyes watching the 100% embodiment of soul energy to form a armor like Haikal's, unable to believe his vision.

Jack was no stranger to soul energy embodiment techniques considering that he also used this technique to a certain stage in order to form his form of magic attack while taking out the clover card from the Forbidden Magic Card, which was a form of magic attack, but it never crossed his mind that the soul energy embodiment technique could be used to such an extent.

"What height is the control of his soul energy until it can form such thick and hard armor?" Jack had indeed used the embodiment of soul energy in attacking using magic but had yet to reach the level Haikal was showing right now, "What kind of training did he actually do to reach this level?"

Not only was Jack amazed to see the Berserker Plate Haikal, Salvia at the edge of the arena could not help his surprise looking at the slightly transparent dark red armor protecting Haikal's body.

"Is it really pure using the embodiment of soul energy?" Born in the Blazer family, Salvia certainly knows the soul energy embodiment technique that requires its user to control and form his soul energy independently without needing any help from Soul Arc.

Salvia does often manipulate the form of snow she uses in combat, but all of that is thanks to her Soul Arc. He only conveyed his will and visualization towards the Soul Arc, then his Soul Arc would respond and form snow automatically.

He himself had seen the manifestation of soul energy that Veindal had done in training several times, but despite being at the second strongest level, he was at the second strongest, Salvia felt that her father who was a Cardinal-level Blazer was inferior to Haikal in mastery of pure soul energy.

"This child is indeed not an official Blazer, but his soul energy control might be at the highest level!"

"Soul Arc hasn't risen yet that's one thing, but the mastery of soul energy like this already far surpasses other Blazers!"

Not only Salvia and Jack, the other Blazers as well as the Guild representatives could not resist their intention of recruiting Haikal. They were expressing their desires blatantly, making a small commotion in the territory of the representatives of the small to medium Guilds.

While in the room of the representatives of the large Guilds themselves despite not being uproarious, they had heated discussions to determine how they would recruit Haikal. No one would not want a Blazer like Haikal to join their Guild.

In the arena itself Haikal scratched his nose while smiling awkwardly hearing all the hoopla, while Jack chuckled at Haikal who a few weeks ago was ignored even ridiculed for not awakening the Soul Arc, now that young man was actually contested by Guild representatives beyond himself.

"You're a hard worker, Haikal. I can't imagine how hard you've worked until you've mastered such a high embodiment of soul energy." Jack praised Haikal once again stopping his laughter, he then raised his right hand and created a dozen magic spears once again leading to Haikal, "But, don't think I just give up."

"Of course, it wouldn't be exciting if this match ended so quickly just because one of us gave up," haikal countered a wide smile before lowering his waist and concentrating a certain amount of soul energy on his legs after eliminating the Berserker Plate.

Jack immediately threw a dozen of his magic spears towards Haikal, but the ragged-looking young man was able to avoid everything quite easily. Jack's magic spear was no longer darting as fast as before and the number of spears created was also much less so Haikal could handle it quite easily.

"Perhaps after releasing Gaia's Maelstrom just now his soul energy was drained enough so it couldn't be recklessly attacked," Haikal's inner self analyzed Jack's every attack while dodging and brushed him off.

"Haikal, by the way, can you tell me what you used to dispel Gaia's Maelstrom?" While attacking Jack raised a question, he could not help his curiosity about the style that Haikal used when he hit his giant soul energy vortex.

Haikal raised his eyebrows slightly as he dodged while fending off Jack's spears that kept coming, "Ah, I call it Void Breaker. You know about the Void Palm, don't you?"

Haikal explained that the Void Breaker was not much different from the Void Palm, it was just that he concentrated a certain amount of soul energy on the inside as well as the outside of the arm and the fist he used in order to drastically multiply his physical exertion for a while as well as dampen the side effects on his arm.

"Well, in short Void Breaker is a melee version and uses hard fists rather than long-range attacks and soft Void Palm palms," haikal said ending the explanation along with the destruction of Jack's last magic spear using his punch.

Jack nodded slowly while holding his chin understanding how Haikal's style worked, "So it seems. It's great that you can dismantle and reassemble the Void Palm mechanism into a new style."

"It's not as good as you who can master a wide variety of fighting styles at once." Haikal raised his shoulders smiling little.

Jack shook his hand in defiance of Haikal's praise, "No, if noticed further using such a big stance while maintaining your Berserker Plate using that pure soul energy embodiment...." Needless to say, everyone can guess what Jack wants to say.

In the world of per-Blazeran using one or more styles at the same time is not something special, but there is nothing in any historical record that there was a Blazer capable of deploying more than one soul energy embodiment technique simultaneously.

This was why Jack was so amazed at Haikal, yet had not been able to awaken the Soul Arc but had already achieved this high soul energy control.

"No, it is precisely because of this deficiency that Haikal is able to do such an out-of-the-box thing" Jack murmured inwardly holding a dry smile on his lips.

Haikal raised his eyebrows for a moment to see the smile on Jack's lips, and he suddenly had a bad feeling. It came from the pressure of Jack's soul energy which once again increased.

"I won't be able to defeat you if I continue to rely on long-range attacks like magic" Jack realized that each of his magic spears could be broken quite easily by Haikal. He then took out a piece of card from his Forbidden Magic Card stack, then showed the card to Haikal before it split into energy particles, "Then I will serve you according to your skill."

Haikal's eyes slightly widened to see the card shown by Jack. He gulped spontaneously, "Card 10 spades.... It's gonna be harder."