I Was Exiled to Die, Now I’m the God of Sickness and Salvation

"FIGHT!"

When the announcer's voice ended, that was when the fight started.

"GO AHEAD AND LICK MY BOOTS!" Ben shouted, his two palms raised in Ash's direction.

Mana surged from inside him, attracting the mana present all around him.

Without a single chant coming out of his mouth, his two arms glowed different colors.

Even from a distance away, Ash could feel the mana that made up the two spells clearly.

It wasn't anything as weak as the ex-strong arm's member fireball.

However, it still wasn't enough to raise the alarm in his mind. In fact, Ash had a mental dilemma with himself rather than paying attention to Ben's attack.

'Should I just use the energy beam and erase him from existence…?'

With Verdania's energy beam, one that he got from copying her DNA, then someone like Ben would instantly disintegrate from the surface of Earth.

But that wasn't what Ash wanted.

In the first place, the 30 minutes he spent in the waiting room thinking of a strategy was him thinking of a way to make sure he didn't straight up kill or overwhelm his opponent too much.

He didn't need to worry about being defeated, not when the Grey Leash members told him that most of the fighters were only high tier 2 awakened.

What he needed to worry about was showing too much power that people would rate him as something like a high tier 3 awakened.

It would be an unfortunate circumstance for him since that tier was the highest possible tier on the whole Planet.

Or at least, that was what his textbook said before.

Such attention would not go unnoticed by the city.

Ash could only say goodbye to his plan on taking the city by surprise if that was the case.

Ash's pondering stayed for so long that Ben's spells manifested as a strong gust of wind blew, and a burst of flame shot forward from his two hands.

The wind arrived first, while the radiation from the heat hit him second, waking Ash up temporarily from his stupor.

'Oh, right, I need to at least show an effort.'

Steelbark vines grew from his feet, rushing forward as they braided themselves and made an Ash sized shield in front of him.

The burst of flame hit the steelbark, exploding and charring the outer layer of the steelbark.

The flame spread everywhere, covering Ash and the shield from sight.

It wasn't a weak flame. It turned 90% of the front side of the shield completely black.

The audience cheered, and the Grey Leash members leaned in closer, trying to get a closer look at what would happen next.

Just like the Grey Leash member said before, the wind wasn't just there to make Ben's opponent comfortable.

While the first two spells flew, Ben cast another one. And he actually used both of his hands and a chant this time.

It didn't go unnoticed by Ash, but he decided to see first.

Another spell manifested, this time right on the spot where Ash stood.

Ash braced himself for another flame explosion or even a lightning strike since the two elements were the most destructive, but it wasn't the case.

A tornado manifested itself, just slightly beside Ash, making sure he wasn't in the eye of the tornado.

Ash rooted himself onto the ground, preventing himself from being carried away by the strong wind.

It was an undoubtedly strong tornado, fully capable of flying Ash into the sky with it if he didn't root himself.

But the wind itself didn't do any real damage. The wind wasn't as sharp as blades.

What made it a troublesome spell that even the Grey Leash members recognized its strength was what happened next.

Just like when it tried to pull Ash in, the tornado grabbed all the scattered magical flames that stayed in the surroundings.

Not only that, but even the initial gust of wind was also pulled in, making the tornado itself bigger and stronger.

With Ash standing right beside the tornado, the flames directly crashed onto him, trying to latch onto his cape and eat it for their own sustenance.

But of course, the damn thing was made with titanroot.

Not even a minuscule charred spot was present as the flames tried to burn away the cape.

But that was what made Ash panic.

'No, wait! I need to struggle!'

Doing it quickly before the tornado spell ended and the flames were completely gone from hitting an invincible wall, Ash pulled in the steelbark shield in front of him and grew more steelbark vines.

He turned the shield into a dome and hid himself right in the middle of it.

When he felt the combined spell ended, Ash made a hole in the dome and ran out of it.

Making sure to leave the half-charred dome out in the open for everyone to see his great effort in surviving the great combination spell of his strong enemy.

When the crowd saw the tornado of flames, the charred remains of the steelbark dome, and Ash running out unscathed, the cheers broke out even louder.

It was Ash's first time hearing such a loud cheer that it even slightly deafened his ears.

'They definitely love a good show.' Ash nodded to himself as he saw some of the audience even started standing to see the fight better.

Hearing the cheer and seeing the look of admiration the people in the audience area gave him, Ash's mood improved.

'Well, I guess it will be too harsh for this Ben guy to get energy beamed… Let's just stick to the initial plan then.'

Ash cracked his knuckles and stretched his shoulders. His eyes scanned the rude middle aged man who had the mouth of a 13 year old teenage boy.

'Let's see how you deal with flesh-melting acid.'

Upon hearing the unusually loud cheer, Ben knew that something wasn't right.

The audience wouldn't be as excited if his opponent just went down like that after a single spell combo.

And he was right.

When the dust settled and he saw Dust standing just a few meters away from a dome-shaped plant structure unscathed, he realized that the fight wouldn't end as quickly as he thought.

'I need to crush him to prove my point. I need to overwhelm him so much that even those bastards won't dare to pull up some bullshit to keep him here.'