cerim
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Chapter 582 - Absolute Candidate
🕑 Added 2025-03-24 09:50:10 +0000 UTCRuby is just as I remember her. She looks barely out of her twenties, with long red hair and yellow eyes marked by a complex pattern. Her skin is slightly paler than usual, and she wears clothing similar to what Absolute Lissandra of the 2nd floor used to wear, sleek, suit-like attire that might suit a man more than a woman. Like all the avatars I've seen, she shows no emotion. There's simply no life behind those eyes.
The moment both of us appear, my eyes activate to their utmost, and I trigger all my passives and prepare my defenses against someone 50 levels lower than me.
Absolute Candidate Ruby moves first even as I set up my defenses. She manipulates her mana with incredible ease, and her skill activates before I can grasp its structure, seemingly further powering the domain she deployed. That domain pressures against me, greedily pressing against my mana and taking it away from me.
It stops only when my own [Mana Domain] seeps past the borders of my skin and Mana Wavelength Tyrant activates, claiming the surrounding mana as mine. But the pull remains, ready to take my mana the moment my concentration slips.
My mana surges as the unseen attack hits my barrier, shattering it in an instant. It slices into the side of my neck, nearly severing my head.
Ruby herself vanishes from where she stood.
I track the leftover mana to locate her and succeed in following its trail. However, she isn’t there. It’s a fake signature meant to confuse me and so are the other ones she created.
Without any warning, something hits me from the left, fully breaking even my now layered barrier and sending me rolling to the ground.
I use Wraith Step a few times and try to rely on my mana senses again, but I quickly realize a field surrounds me, spreading a jamming effect meant to throw them off. It feels like trying to find a feather lost in a hurricane.
Switching to kinetic and thermal senses, I move across the battleground, doing my best to dodge her attacks until I finally pinpoint her location. My Ley Lines spread through the area, and [Eclipse] erupts, pushing against the field and draining the color from everything nearby. I reach out to teleport to her, but all the Ley Lines are ripped apart as if they were fuses set on fire.
Ruby, standing a mile away at the top of a hill, creates a huge number of mana projectiles and shoots them in front of her. The air itself in front of them weaves and twists and the projectiles teleport through and materialize about an arm’s length in front of me.
[Eclipse] hums with the mana powering it, and I barely manage to tear through the swarm of projectiles. With great effort, I expand it as far as I can, finally breaking the field surrounding the area.
I boost myself high into the air and then further boost myself to fly toward where Ruby is.
She takes a step and disappears, reappearing two miles away.
I locate her immediately because she has a huge amount of mana gathering over a lifted hand. Flying in that direction, I observe the structure and prepare my countermeasures. Instead of Ley Lines, I create a set of marks on my mana projectiles and shoot them in all directions.
But even now, I don’t have enough time. Ruby finishes her attack at blinding speed and waves her hand.
And nothing happens for a few seconds.
During that pause, I reach her and she doesn’t move away, likely to prevent overuse of her skill to prevent me from understanding her method.
I radiate more mana from my body as Mana Wavelength Tyrant presses the area, turning mana particles within under my control. My heart thumps, strengthening my body and gathering kinetic energy for a possible escape.
I weave an [Empyrean Lance] and shoot it ahead while deploying [Eclipse] in her direction.
Even so, she allows it to proceed.
Just before my lance would pierce her head, she activates her skill; the space in front of her wavers, and my lance appears at my back, flying at the same speed and nearly pierces me.
I barely dodge it, and then the skill she used earlier reactivates. The remnants of her field in the distance change and implode on themselves, creating an audible pop and an immense pull that uproots trees, destroys the nearby hill and even affects the two of us from a mile away along with everything around.
It creates a small dark center around which the space itself seems unstable.
With all my strength, I push against it and teleport away, but the teleportation is disrupted. Its landing point is forced into the center of the collapsed field.
I force my mind into overdrive, and my mana bursts out. At the cost of damage to my heart and brain, I manage to shift the direction of the teleport mid-cast.
Even then, Ruby is already there, waiting for me.
Up close, a barrage of projectiles slams into the barrier I create, dissolving into mana particles as I disrupt them.
She gathers the particles and moves them like drifting sand caught in a storm, sending them crashing against my barrier in steady waves. They swirl and grind away at it until I release a powerful burst of kinetic energy to force them back.
I charge at her but she teleports away again, and I track her more quickly, covering the remaining distance with Wraith Dance. My barrage of projectiles fires at her along with two tricolored orbs, yet once again the air in front of her waves, and all of them reappear at my back. Even now, I cannot grasp the skill she employs.
Protected by my barrier, I launch myself away from the explosion and soar high into the air. As I rise, I extend more Ley Lines across the area, firing projectiles marked for teleportation.
For a moment, I look toward the area where she collapsed that field. A mile of forest is totally destroyed, with no tree left standing and no hill untouched.
Ruby gives me no time to rest, keeping up the pressure with skills that activate almost instantly, paired with the constant, shifting flow of her mana. Her eyes study me just as I study her, and she counters with an ease that can only come from thousands upon thousands of hours of practice.
Her projectiles shatter my barrier, a disruption wave hits me, and I am certain that without my passive and skills, she would have completely disrupted my mana or taken it away.
Each attack is fast, precise, and hits with force. No matter how much mana I pour into defense, she keeps pushing me back, causing serious problems while using only a fraction of what I'm spending.
I pull all my mana back into my body and send some of it through my heart to convert it into kinetic energy. At the same time, I allow the seal around the Ignition Heart to lift slightly, and golden flames begin to surround me. They crash out from my body, from the exhaust nodes on my palms, soles, and the one on my back. These flames gather under my control, forming a circle of rotating fire behind me.
Ruby moves again to put distance between us, but I continue to track her even as she sets up fake signatures to misdirect me. It is something she weaves in a second, yet each of these signatures is more accurate than anything the twins together are currently able to perform.
I catch up to her, launching a laser-like stream of flames in her direction.
A single pale blue barrier forms in front of her, and the flame stream stops against it. I maintain the flame and continue to increase its output; the point of contact causes the barrier to heat up, turning from pale blue to light red as the heat spreads outward. Yet, that feeble looking barrier still holds.
I let the mana in my crown destabilize, and a disruptive attack explodes into the area, breaking the barrier as the stream of flames continues toward her head. But once the main force of the disruptive attack fades, she weaves another barrier that stops the flame in the same manner.
I repeat the process, and so does she. A few barriers finally break, even as she continues refining them while I focus on my own disruption. The flame now stops just a palm’s thickness away from her forehead. Nevertheless, she continues building up another skill in the background, and so do I.
This time, I do not disrupt the barrier. Instead, I release all the flames I had been collecting and move them around me as they shoot out in waves toward her, turning trees to ash and the ground to lava.
Ruby then disappears through her teleportation, but this time I track it and look up, finding her standing high in the air.
After all that preparation, a single mana projectile floats over the palm of her hand as she lifts it high. A transparent pale blue lance she shoots toward me. It glitters in the air as it heads down, gradually increasing in speed.
The mana I had gathered inside my body compresses and seeps out, touching my [Mana Crown] which turns black and immediately demands all my effort to regain control. I shape more of that mana into a black orb and shoot it ahead in the path of the pale blue lance.
The world quiets and the colors lose their vibrancy as the lance reaches the orb.
The lance cuts through it with ease at first. It nearly escapes the pull of the orb before the orb begins to tear apart. But the black mana left behind swirls and consumes. It spins, and its pull drags on the pale blue lance, slowing it down until it stops completely. Blue particles peel away, drawn into the orb until the lance breaks apart entirely.
The black orb expands, growing to the size of my fist, constantly compressing and expanding as if it is fighting to devour that mana.
Behind me, Ruby appears and the palm of her hand moves to strike my back.
Tearing my muscles to move faster, I react by coating the palm of my hand with black mana to meet her blow. That black mana absorbs the deadly attack she hurls at me but even so the bones in my hand crack and some of the attack pierces into my body.
She tries to teleport away, but I empower [Eclipse] with black mana, fully draining the colors from the area in an instant.
For the first time, her teleportation fails. Using kinetic energy, I launch an attack at a speed I’m sure would catch even Tacita off guard.
But Ruby reacts in time and ducks with a swiftness I never thought she possessed. She uses her mana to strengthen her body with such precision that I start to wonder if facing her at close range would be even more dangerous. But I can see the cost, tears in her skin, and the twitching of torn muscles.
Her red hair floats through the air as she dodges my series of attacks, only to be caught off guard by Needle Point piercing her foot and causing her to stagger.
Even though my [Eclipse], powered by black mana, disrupts all mana outside her body, that monster still manages to form a skin-tight barrier just in time. It holds against the full force of golden flames and a blast of kinetic energy that rips through the forest like a living thing.
Trees are torn from the ground and flung aside like broken spears, their trunks split and scattered through the air. The blast churns up the soil, carving deep gouges into the earth and sending shattered roots and debris flying in every direction. The heat rolls out in waves, warping the air and reducing everything in its path to scorched ruin.
And still, at the heart of it, she stands untouched.
Her body isn’t even damaged or thrown aside, and she moves with incredible speed once more, tearing more of her muscles in the process. She touches my hand before I can react and a pulse travels through my body, disrupting my mana and deactivating all my skills for a moment.
She uses that moment to teleport away, leaving behind a tricolored orb on the verge of destabilization and ready to explode. Something she managed to recreate after seeing me use it just once.
I know that if I let her escape now, it will become far more dangerous. I am certain she will either deploy countermeasures to prevent me from closing in again.
My Mana Wavelength Iris activates to the highest degree. One of my eyes almost popping like a squeezed grape as I read the remnants of her teleport and all the countermeasures or traps she left behind.
I resonate with it and pull as much mana into my body as I can. I break through some of the traps while ignoring others to damage me, trusting I can survive their impact.
I follow through and appear on the other side, the black mana I sent ahead absorbing Ruby's attack. Still, a few projectiles slip through before the black mana can consume them, piercing my body as if my defenses, Mana Wavelength Tyrant, and disruption aren’t even there.
Regardless, I strengthen my body, even as blood spurts from my torn chest and back. I grab that black mana in front of me and form it into a dagger. With all my effort, I stop another one of her teleportations. Even with a 50-level advantage, I have to use the full force of my mana to pull it off.
Then, I drive the black dagger into her arm.
Up close, the pattern in her yellow eyes glows as her face moves slightly closer to mine.
Feeling a sharp pain, I glance down and see her hand coated in pale blue mana piercing through my chest and exiting on the other side. In that same hand, she holds my Ignition Heart, its heat burning her until only the bones of her fingers remain.
But she sends a pulse of mana into the heart and squeezes. It destabilizes as the seals unravel beneath her mana, and a moment later, the heart explodes.
As if in slow motion, I watch the flames surge toward me. A roaring mass of heat and fury, intense enough to erase everything in its path. A force neither of us can survive.
She tries to teleport away, pushing against the black mana to some extent. She nearly activates her skill until I add disruption to the mix, barely managing to stop her.
I strengthen my body with that same black mana, lean back, and then swing forward to smash my forehead against hers, literally exploding her head.
I can only breathe out slowly, feeling my skull crack and blood flow down my forehead as I reach toward the flames erupting from the heart. Even though I know I don’t have a single chance of stopping them, I attempt to do so. With my eyes wide open, I watch as parts of my body gradually vanish in the heat. It does not even burn; there are no ashes at all. It is entirely gone.
The flames burn so intensely that they melt the mana itself.
My [Focus] consolidates and everything else is gone with all my attention driven to that single task.
And for the briefest split of a second, I succeed. The heat and the flames slow down for the shortest moment, and multiple notifications ring in my head just as they did during the fight. For that short, beautiful moment, I think of nothing but that huge ball of thermal energy.
But the moment is gone, and the flames surge to devour me.
"Stop." A single word sounds and the flames halt.
A field forms around me, and the sensation of being completely cut off from the outside world sinks in. Then, in a blink, my body is fully restored. The sealed Ignition Heart is back in my chest, my mana returns, and the area around me repairs itself.
Yet I'm also cut off from the tournament floor, and I’m certain now that no one is watching my challenge anymore.
Ruby’s avatar body, which should have disintegrated into particles the moment I defeated her, stands back up despite being headless. Her head regenerates, just as mine did, and the avatar stays a few steps away.
And that same avatar, meant only to defeat me and never show emotion, smiles.
Then she says, "It is quite rude to headbutt a lady, Nathaniel."
***
Comments
ShockedCorgi
Tacita -> it a cat. I just realized, I'm so dumb
venkata siddhardha yarlagadda
I feel like it's not just a matter of 50 levels. It's also about the growth in skill levels and efficiency increase, etc. It's just not the same. But he might be absolute candidate Level because liss has higher standards, so a normal absolute candidate might just be at that level. Level 274 nat was a few months after the 1st tournament and he would have gotten his ass kicked back then.
Zaim İpek
Seriously though, someone needs to challenge Biscuit. His avatar won't hold back the way real Biscuit always does. It's disappointing that Cerim wants to keep Biscuit a secret as long as possible, so all characters are mind-wiped into not challenging Biscuit until Cerim feels ready to reveal his abilities.
P K
I mean he did lvl gap her fitty lvls, if it wasn't the obvious feat of doing so with only two years of being in the system v. born into it, I'd she she did amazing
Florian
i think Lissandra should challenge Biscuit, she could use a beating.
Florian
doubt it. It just that ruby had years of training under Lissandra, training and mastering her skills, efficiency etc. while Nat just has to try to accomplish as much as possible in the time he has. Ruby didnt have a need for levels, she could focus on skills more and obviously did.
Woojoe
So time for I’ve been awake way too many hours tin foil theory. What if Greed was actually puppeting the Ruby clone the whole time. Greed still limited herself to the skills/ skill levels of the Ruby from the second floor but used all her actual fighting experience. I’m not saying it’s likely, but what if?!
Kirin
Thank you for the chappie! Absolutely fantastic fight. This also shows that Nat, even if he needs to be 50 levels higher, is around absolute candidate level. It’s iust… not to Lissandra he is.
Stephen E Wilson Jr.
They know he has an explosive heart? Ruby ripped his heart out and it exploded. Without clear knowledge of why I wonder what they will say on his card.
xerebz
Cap mean lies, No cap essentially means 'No lie'
LawBear2005
While that is mostly true, she probably got way higher than level 250 before that murder spree. Remember, that was when she was with Lissandra before Eliadore was destroyed.
LawBear2005
He didn’t just come close, He actually won, he just would have died in the aftermath of his heart exploding.
ramir
I agree especially as nat also punches way above his level. Him barely defeating a ruler with basic class against his upgraded should be right in the lore
Daniel
Yeah I think it's about right in terms of matchup. I think it would make sense even with a bigger level gap. Nat's talented, but it's only been two years. An avatar of one of the top existences in the universe should be able to punch wayyyy above their level. I appreciate that the author kept the power level/talent level at least somewhat reasonable, despite the MC halo.
Borbino the great
No cap means like that’s not true 😂
NerdyFellow
I would like to say that ruby isn't just another absolute candidate, she is one of the best absolute candidates in history at her level who eventually became one of the stringest being in the universe, and also accompanied an absolute on a ruler murder spree and didn't die in the crossfire. At level 250.
Hugh Peeble
Literally Fire power
Hugh Peeble
Problem with fighting Biscuit is Nat would limit himself to nose boops for attacks…
Semper Malus
I would argue that many would care. He's being made to be a weapon to kill pride. Whether or not he dies doing so matters very little. Just that he's willing to go that far to win. Besides, with how stubborn he is i doubt dying will even be enough to kill him! Lmao!
Sedjet
Biscuit has an unknown primordial element, mana control close to Nats and has been acknowledged multiple times by strong beings that didn't give Nat the time of day. Also where Nat has been able to hold the heart of a champion with major restrictions, Biscuit just freaking ate one and restructured his whole body.
Sean Andrews
Amazing 👏
Johnny
My thoughts exactly. Was gonna comment some incoherent mess about how stoked I am but I’ll just second yours…love this shit
Bryan Yeip
Insert "Mah Queen" meme here
RingoSeto
oh... i didnt know what legit cap meant ... i thought it meant really awesome???? thats what my kids said???
Venno
But this isn’t the real world, which allows for tactics like that
xerebz
He's jokingly calling Ruby the 2nd wife, then he's commenting in absurdity that she uses her mana to lie, to deceive, to tell untruths.
Oaktree
Everyone save maybe savant and taci rethinking their plans on how to challenge nat. Jean thinking how dare he not go all out against me. Vic thinking thats my baby bro. Whitey thinking hey look at that im not the only one he tries to head butt. That or how much he wishes it was him facing ruby.
Edmund Dillon
Tftc!!!
Lestrat Shadow
Thanks for the chapter...... This fight was brutaly sick :D:D
Zaim İpek
Yes, Biscuit. Don't underestimate him just because he is cute.
Zaim İpek
First. She interacted with Clonethaniel before. This is her first interaction with Realthaniel.
Madje Tobi Marc'Avent Tchona
He didn't use Fracture!
Zaim İpek
They never did. Ruby flirted with him and made the offer. Nat turned her down.
Zaim İpek
In the real world it's a draw with both dead. Nobody cares who died one second earlier. Dead is dead. In this specific tournament setting, Nat won because of that exact technicality. It's the same way Savant technically beat him in the previous tournament battle royal.
11335577
*happy squat
Zaim İpek
Those info cards are a very nice background detail. I hope we see more of them in the future.
11335577
It makes sense. The tutorial gives you advantages in gaining levels and skill combination tokens etc, but being in a system integrated world, will get you better control and handling through experience and guidance.
11335577
It was in the box
Zaim İpek
Probably something like "I'm proud of you, and btw your minion is cute AF. You should try being more cute like her sometimes. Just look at me. I'm cute all the time, and now I'm a ruler. Lady Lissandra was not cute at all, always so serious, and look where that got her. Be cute, Nathaniel. Ok, bye. ; ). P.S. Do you regret not having sex with me now that you know you could have fucked one of the Rulers? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Lol, ok bye. I'm going to make Vega like me more than you!" Something like that probably.
P K
Still thinking. Hoping that Tess only stayed behind to fight mimics to level up her Chastity, not that she's actually infected
P K
Liz already stated that she's going to the beyond tho, also, I'm sure the other rulers are keeping a close eye on Ruby
Funny guy
DANKS FUR DA CHAPPIE! And to think Nat came close to defeating Liss's only proper disciple in just two years.. Oh and Ruler Ruby :D
Madje Tobi Marc'Avent Tchona
Biscuit??
Zaim İpek
From everything we have seen, the tournament avatars are no worse than the actual person. It's not like the undead Lurkers in the Beyond dungeon.
Zaim İpek
Plot twist, it was actually Tess's idea. Tess has done reckless scemes like this before.
Zaim İpek
Nice. I have been waiting for a good fight like this. Even though Nat won, it was a very close fight that would definitely leave him dead at the end because he can only slow down his own disintegration. So technically a draw. For being 50 levels higher with an upgraded class while Ruby still has her basic class, I think this might not be enough for Liss to acknowledge him as an Absolute Candidate. On the other hand, she has had the system her entire life and has had Lissandra's guidance for significantly more time than Nat. So maybe that consideration is enough for Lissandra to give her approval, since Nat has only had the system for two years and much less time getting instruction from Lissandra. P.S. I think Nat should choose Biscuit as his opponent for the next tournament if he wants to really test his limits and find his weaknesses that need improvement. He won't win, but he should be able to learn a lot and make improvements to his training based on how the fight goes. I bet Nat is going to work very hard on his skill activation speed and increasing his simultaneous skill activations after this fight.
Carl Christian Müller
I actually had to take short breaks while reading this chapter, I got so worked up
Madje Tobi Marc'Avent Tchona
that would consist of Tess not actually knowing the exact details of what that "motivation" would entail. I don't think she would opt for emotionally abusing Nat when she's all about "healthy" relationships. That would also consist of Biscuit somehow also being in the loop. I would consider that betrayal lol, and I think so would Nat. Plus I think it's statistically unlikely that Tess AND Biscuit both would choose to betray Nat at the same time. She has the mimic. I can't think of a single time when Lissandra has ever bluffed this entire series.
Lonnie
Aww shit! Ruler Ruby making an appearance! Thanks for looking after Vega, Red!
dampsey damamme
Why! Why? Why!! I kind of new where it was going but god why make it so entertaining 😍😍😍😍
Sedjet
Most likely only possible due to it being her avatar.
Jamarus Jenkins
Same here. They all got checked to see if they had mimics or not before they got to the settlement. After that they did not get in anymore fights.
NerdyFellow
Damn this was fucking awesome. I’m so fucking pumped right now lmao
Slycerr
Jean does a *happy squal*
13L00D13ANE
This is the second year tournament, so 3 to go. And i can see why you think she will declare him after this, i still think itll be after the whole tourny. I may be wrong though.
anonymous patreon
Lol, no. I imagine it similar to shunpo from Bleach
zoarian
Wraith Dance has been Naruto run all along?
Hugh Peeble
I was hoping Ruby would do this in some way, especially after the Emotional Support Minion told Nat about the red head that showed up to visit her. Thank you for not making this a Thursday drop.
asdfmeepman
Classic nat. Willing to die for a win
asdfmeepman
The way you write fights is addicting. Thank you
Brandon
Oh snap!
Matthew Walter
I was more thinking is this sufficient proof of qualification, not the literal mechanic :)
Greg Lambert
I have a theory I've been toying with. Tess doesn't have a mimic in her. Liss made her stay behind to help 'motivate' Nat.
Greg Lambert
I'm finding it interesting that Ruby can 'take' over the tournament. I wonder if she is going to give him tips on dealing with Lissandra. Regardless of what the other tournament participants see, they are going to be even more scared of Nat after taking on an Absolute Candidate
jax rammus
Any welcome back ruby.
Hardworking Guy
Knew she was going to say hi, now I just wonder what else will she say.
JTP
I'm in stitches thinking about the updates to his info card after this. Frickin laser beams!
Cody
I agree! I believe it was mentioned that Ruby was with Lissandra for 40 years at that point on the 2nd floor
Jordan Jones
Yeah, I think this is fair. Even with a level advantage, as long as it isn’t absurd, I would find it weird if Nate beat Ruby with ease, who I gather had years and years of Lissandra’s direct attention, where he has only been in the tutorial for 3 (I think), and has had her guidance, such as it is, for far, far less time. Him barely winning seems like what should occur with a level advantage. But, for the same reasons, him winning should qualify him as an absolute candidate. I can’t think of why this would not be the case.
tishane Imperial MageKiller
Is that the fight between him and crollo? Cause yea this chapter deff has that vibe.
Dual.
tftc
William Johnson
Hello Greed! *waves*
anonymous patreon
thats how i imagine them in my mind - as anime fights. then i try to describe whats happening
Andrew
Thank you!
CptJimmy42
You must be declared by a certain powerful entity to become one, or else the system doesn't recognize it. So either Ruler Ruby will make him one, since it seems like a plan Liss would make, or he will have to earn it from someone else on a higher floor. Liss made him a Champion candidate already, so I don't think she is allowed to update that title, since she is trying to go around the system here.
Rocotrap
"Oh! He's so much more powerful than last time" - Jean
Rocotrap
I was thinking the same! Actually I was thinking about the battle between Hisoka and the Spider (chapters 351-356 in the manga)
11335577
No.
Borbino the great
What the hell does this mean?😭
Borbino the great
I don’t think so in this case cause he didn’t challenge them I think? But by the end of the tournament liss will make him one
RJ
Fire ass chapter!
blimko
Holy smokes that was an amazing chapter. I was visualization the fight like it was an anime ngl. The laser scene would have be incredible animated. And the destruction of the countryside. Cerim you have done wonderful with the descriptions!
mitchell kaiser
I think it was implied they were flirting but nothing more than that. Liss killed her before anything could happen.
JTP
It's so good to see Nat cut loose against someone like Ruby.
Jayson J
Greed??!!?
Tsorov
They did? When? Did I completly forget that part?
ManaJunky
TYFTC🥹 twas beautiful in every sense of the word
ManaJunky
pretty sure it’s the first time that he’s met the real Ruby as her Greedy self
vEnviouz
TFTC!!!
Matthew Walter
If Nat beats an Absolute Candidate, does he become an Absolute Candidate?!
Al
I’m thinking it might be Ruby the Ruler, Greed, who stepped into the avatar to play with Nat.
Al
I am so upset it ended there. I’m going to be waiting so anxiously for the next chapter
tishane Imperial MageKiller
Lol Remember Liss said Nat would have been a gifted Prodigy on her world, and you know what I'm really interested in, is if Lily ever peeps that Nat and Ruby had a Hook up how her mental state would affect her destruction powers cause maaaaannn.
ZaA
Seeing as lissandra can enter nats mindspace freely, she's probably been waiting for this. Yes, she wants to challenge him and make him her legacy in case she fails, but also doesn't want to fail. She'll probably come out and try to take over Ruby's avatar when she's done talking with nat in order to be able to leave? I can see Rubys avatar being able to escape more easily due to technically being a ruler, but maybe Ruby owes Liss a favour she never cashed in or something and she might even ask Ruby to help her.. although with liss personality it'd be more along the lines of wanting Ruby to give liss something so that liss' can help herself
tishane Imperial MageKiller
Right lmao 🤣 imagine killing him and saying wood wee that was hard won and then Boom 2/3rds of Texas is Gone.
tishane Imperial MageKiller
I'm telling you, your fights are so on Point🤌🏿🔥🤌🏿 it reminds me of Nen Battles in Hunter X hunter the the technical/tactics of it.
Andrew Parkinson
He did technically win, though dying two seconds later to a thermal explosion makes it a Pyrrhic victory at best
CptJimmy42
"Shit! I blinked, what happened?!" - Normal Player "Uh... Something exploded after 1 second, and then he headbutted her head off the next second..." - Hell Player "Didn't it just start?!" - Easy Player "WTF..." - Twins
RingoSeto
Love the 2nd wife in this... her usage of mana is legit cap
RingoSeto
yep
Poutine Au Syrop d'érable
Yeah that was obvious a while ago, even to me who forgets everything.
Adrian Rake
Nat is Nat as always. He will do everything to win. He doesn’t mind to be brutal if needed.
jj
Wait, is this reconstructed Ruby the way Liss plans to leave the tutorial?
zoarian
You have it right. He won, then Ruler Ruby paused for a chat.
ramir
Copium hoping ruler ruby has a way for whitey to survive pls
Blaxxun
Banger fight. Also great to see him meet her real self finally. Maybe she will declare him Absolute candidate at some point in the future. I still wonder when we will learn what exactly that black mana is.
Venno
Wait wait, didn’t he win the fight? Exploded her head before his heart exploded him. And then after that, she took possession of the avatar. Right? Just want to make sure I didn’t miss something here.
Harrison
There’s always a bigger fish
Woojoe
Love it. Now everyone knows about his second heart. And the kind of firepower it contains. Great chapter!
Dirkk Diggler
I'm guessing Ruby is Greed
Wonko The Sane
That was in tents.
Ansordia
... Oh my god.... This is epic beyond reason! I wonder how annoyed the other attendees are at Nat that he ONCE AGAIN threw all of their well made plans out of the window once again... Chefs kiss!
zoarian
Yesss, Ruby! It's been so long! I'm really glad to see her. The fight was awesome, it really shows how Skill usage is the litmus test of power. Still, it's crazy Nat was able to match an Absolute Candidate, trained personally by Liss for however long, after only two years. Even with all the advantages of the Tutorial. Rizzthaniel was on the ball the first time they met, will he make a reappearance here?
Claro reyes
Thank God this wasn't dropped on a Thursday.
Shawn Treants
Loved it! Great chapter!
Belmont Igneul
God that was a good fight. Was it good for you too?
Leyphelio
Does this count as a first or a second meeting?
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
mitchell kaiser
God Damn! Such a tease!
Sir Supports Alot
Nat being humbled love it
Venno
Whaaaaaaat
Claro reyes
Tftc.
Eric Emerson
Firsty first TFTC
Dr.Awkward
Tftc! This fight is so sick!
