Chapter 454: The Grand First-Year Combat Festival: Ezra Ashenlocke Vs Fatima Drakes IV

Ezra’s eyes sharpened as he looked all the way down toward Fatima.

From his current position, she had become a smaller figure on the fighting platform below.

However, he could still clearly see her.

SLAM!

Fatima’s hands struck the ground.

Brown Cognis, taking the form of thin streaks of lightning, immediately spread through the massive pillars of earth surrounding Ezra.

The glow travelled along their surfaces.

Ezra’s expression tightened slightly.

He could already tell that whatever Fatima was preparing next wasn’t going to be pleasant for him.

So, without wasting time...

Ezra began running down the pillar beneath his feet.

His movements were quick as he descended along the massive body of earth.

But just as he took his first step...

"Tsk!"

Ezra sharply spun.

The place where his foot had just touched suddenly erupted.

A thorn made from hardened earth shot upward.

Ezra moved his body away from it, barely avoiding the attack as the pointed earth tore through the air beside him.

He jumped slightly away from the pillar.

But before his feet could properly settle again...

Ezra’s eyes moved.

Another attack was already coming.

One of the massive pillars began moving toward him.

The enormous structure bent and extended through the air like a living snake, its body twisting toward Ezra as it rapidly closed the distance.

At the same time...

A second earth thorn rose toward him from behind.

Two attacks.

One from the front.

The other from his back.

Ezra immediately turned toward the incoming earth thorn.

His Desert Eagle rose.

Bang!

Boom!

The bullet struck the thorn.

The pointed earth exploded apart.

However, Ezra didn’t have the time to relax.

The huge pillar from behind him had already reached his position.

His hand holding the Glock 40 moved.

Instead of immediately firing it...

Ezra used the handgun to support his movement.

The approaching pillar smashed forward.

BOOM!

The massive structure crashed through the pillar Ezra had been standing on.

The impact shook the entire structure.

Chunks of rock broke apart.

Dust exploded outward.

Many people in the crowd gasped.

Because from their point of view...

It looked as though Ezra had been directly crushed by the incoming pillar.

But...

A figure suddenly shot out from the thick dust.

Ezra somersaulted through the air.

His body completed the movement before his feet landed on the pillar that had just smashed into the first one.

He immediately began running down its surface.

The crowd erupted in shock.

"AMAZING!"

A young Noble boy shouted excitedly.

"LET’S GO!!!"

Another person shouted.

The massive Holographic Screens around the Arena had already zoomed in on the high-altitude battle.

The screens showed Ezra moving between the enormous pillars far above the main fighting platform, allowing even those who didn’t possess the eyesight of an Alchemist to properly follow the battle.

If not for those Holographic Screens...

Many of the ordinary spectators would have been unable to clearly see what was happening so high above them.

As for how Ezra had escaped that earlier attack...

The Glock 40 had been important.

Ezra had used it to touch the pillar as though it were another part of his hand.

After destroying the incoming thorn with his Desert Eagle, he immediately shifted his body and performed a backward movement away from the first pillar before the second pillar crashed into it.

That was how he had escaped.

The moment Ezra’s feet touched the new pillar...

His senses immediately spread.

The sensation travelled through the massive structure.

Down.

Further down.

All the way toward Fatima.

The screams and cheers of the crowd continued entering his ears.

However, Ezra’s attention was focused somewhere else.

He could see that Fatima was performing something different.

Something he had seen before.

Ezra’s eyes narrowed.

A term appeared in his mind.

He had seen Diane use something similar during their battle against the Elder Ghost Crawler.

Continuous Alchemy Ignition.

Fatima was continuously performing different Earth Alchemies of different ranks.

One ignition after another.

Not giving herself a break.

The amount of Cognis she was currently using should have already pushed her close to exhaustion.

Yet...

She was still standing below.

Ezra quickly understood why.

His eyes moved across her body.

The number of Alchemy Accessories she wore had become noticeable.

Those accessories stored enough Cognis.

She was using them as an additional source of Cognis pool to maintain her Continuous Alchemy Ignition.

With that now understood...

Ezra knew that he could no longer continue holding back.

I also need to go all in.

Cognis immediately passed through his veins.

It flowed into his legs.

Ezra’s speed increased.

Earth thorns began growing from the pillars around him.

They shot out rapidly, one after another, forcing him to continuously change his direction as he moved downward.

It wasn’t just the thorns.

Another massive pillar suddenly moved toward the pillar Ezra was running down.

It came crashing forward.

The enormous structure threatened to send him back into the air once again.

Cognis passed into Ezra’s black gloves.

White Cognis travelled through the circuits within them.

The gloves activated.

Thin black threads immediately moved.

They shot outward and attached themselves to his two handguns.

Ezra’s right hand moved.

He released the Desert Eagle.

The handgun fell downward, while the hand went into his space bag.

However, it didn’t disappear into the Space Bag as his hand entered.

Because it remained connected to one of the black threads.

Ezra immediately landed on another section of the pillar.

Then...

He threw the Glock 40 forward.

The Repel Force of the Black Magnetic Glove activated.

The handgun shot forward while the thin black thread attached to it pulled Ezra’s body along with the force created by the glove.

His body moved through the air.

But...

More earth thorns suddenly grew toward him.

They were larger than before.

And that’s exactly when...

Ezra’s right hand moved away from his Space Bag.

Several daggers flew out.

White Cognis immediately flowed through the circuits on their bodies.

The daggers glowed white.

Then...

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

The daggers struck the incoming earth thorns.

Their Explosion Function activated.

One thorn after another exploded apart.

Fragments of rock scattered through the air around Ezra.

Immediately...

Ezra activated the Attract Force of the Black Magnetic Glove on his right hand.

The black thread connected to the Desert Eagle tightened.

The handgun’s polarity had already been locked, so the Attraction Force pulled it back toward Ezra.

The Desert Eagle shot through the air.

Ezra fluidly caught the handgun.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

He immediately fired.

The bullets were aimed at the more earth thorns growing around him as he continued moving downward.

His feet moved.

His body leaned.

He shifted his weight from one side to another, weaving between the attacks while firing at the thorns that came too close.

Minewhile...

Fatima sensed all of it.

Her senses were connected to the Earth Alchemy surrounding Ezra.

She could feel his movements through the massive structures.

"This slippery Alchemist!"

Fatima shouted in slight frustration.

She had just finished performing another Earth Alchemy.

Her eyes remained fixed upward.

More pillars immediately moved toward Ezra’s position.

Ezra’s dull black eyes looked upward.

The incoming pillars twisted through the air like enormous snakes.

He pulled the Glock 40 back toward himself.

Then...

Ezra removed the Desert Eagle’s magazine.

At the same time, he jumped.

Three earth thorns passed through the space where his body had been.

Ezra spun slightly through the air.

However, he wasn’t completely untouched.

Part of his clothing was cut.

A sharp edge grazed past him, leaving another tear along his clothes.

As he spun...

Ezra threw both the Desert Eagle and Glock 40 toward one of the incoming pillars.

The Repel Force activated.

The two handguns shot forward.

They moved along the surface of the pillar before rolling across its body.

Then...

The polarity lock activated.

Both handguns held tightly onto the pillar.

Locking themselves together to stay firm on the pillar.

Ezra’s Cognis flowed through the black threads.

The threads remained stretched between his gloves and the handguns.

Then...

Ezra activated the Attraction Force.

The pulling force increased.

His body shot toward the pillar where his handguns had locked themselves.

BOOM!

The pillars crashed into one another.

The impact shook the air.

Rock fragments scattered in every direction.

Some people in the crowd flinched in fear even though the force field was already doing its job protecting them.

Ezra continued moving.

During this motion...

His hands suddenly came together.

Clap!

Cognis flowed through his veins, coming out of his palms.

A Gun Alchemy Circle formed.

The materials needed for the Gun Alchemy were already moving forward in the direction Ezra was travelling.

His hand extended.

White Cognis flowed out like lightning.

The Cognis influenced the black steel bars in front of him.

The bars began to change.

They melted.

Merged.

Compressed.

Then molded themselves into a new form.

The metal continued changing.

Until...

The material finally formed into an...

RPG-2 Launcher.

Ezra caught the launcher.

He was already approaching another pillar.

And he knew exactly what was about to happen.

The moment his feet touched that pillar...

Earth thorns would grow toward him.

Fatima had already repeated that pattern several times.

And Ezra was prepared.

But...

BANG!

He pressed the trigger before the pillar could even become a stable foothold beneath him.

The RPG fired.

The projectile shot downward.

Then...

Ezra quickly moved the RPG-2 toward his feet as his body touched the pillar.

At the same time...

His body twisted.

The movement resembled someone spinning across a skateboard, using the momentum of his movement to change the direction of his body.

The earth thorns still grew.

Exactly as Ezra had expected.

But the spinning with the RPG on his feet made the earth thorns to break as they pierced slightly into the launcher.

Although, several of them still tore into the side of his sleeves.

One of the sharp points grazed his arm.

However, Ezra didn’t stop.

He deactivated the polarity lock on the two handguns, then he pulled them back toward his hands, as Cognis passed into his legs.

Ezra jumped down with greater force.

At the same moment...

Fatima, who was still calmly maintaining her Continuous Alchemy Ignition, noticed the incoming RPG.

Her eyes moved.

She immediately performed another Earth Alchemy.

A section of earth moved upward to intercept the incoming projectile.

BOOM!

A powerful explosion occurred.

The impact created a thick cloud of dust and smoke.

The upper part of Fatima’s view was immediately covered.

She could no longer clearly see what Ezra was doing above.

Fatima’s eyes narrowed.

I can’t sense him again.

She realized something else.

Ezra was no longer standing on the pillars.

But that didn’t mean he had suddenly disappeared from the battlefield.

He’s clearly in the air.

Her thoughts moved rapidly.

But I can’t find his Cognis trace.

Fatima quickly analyzed the situation.

The smoke from the explosion is already covering the area above, and Ezra Ashenlocke is using this situation to hide himself.

And now...

He is hiding his Cognis as well.

That means...

Fatima’s thoughts continued.

He must be coming down from the air itself, trying to catch me off guard.

Her expression remained focused.

But I can simply change my move.

Fatima immediately adjusted her plan.

She was an Earth Alchemist.

So, as long as Ezra entered the range of her Earth Alchemy...

She still had ways to find him and could attack him quickly with her fast Alchemy ignitions.

When he comes down, I will first focus more of my Cognis senses on a smaller zone around me.

Her eyes remained fixed on the smoke above.

So, the moment he enters my range, I will sense his presence.

Her hand moved slightly.

Then...

The Earth Alchemy around her began responding.

I will attack him with Earth Spears at a closer range.

Fatima completed her analysis within a few milliseconds.

Her plan was already set.

And now...

She was ready to act the moment Ezra appeared.