Really, the arena couldn't be defined better by anything other than the crowd's cheers.
They were explosive. Their voices and the stomping of their feet shook the entire city of Terra where the arena was located. Compared to the previous days, they were much more plentiful. This final match was one they'd been anticipating, after all.
Damien was a new star who rose like a rocket, dominating the competition. Meanwhile, the Dragon Lord was a seasoned veteran who had experienced countless battles.
Everyone wanted to see how the new and the old clashed. And, more importantly, this was the first time in history that a fight against an Area Lord was being publicized.
Not only would Damien fight him in front of everyone, but he'd do it in a place where their energy manifested into the physical plane, giving the common people a chance to actually understand how the battle was progressing.
The exciting event drew millions into the arena. Its size had to be expanded just to accommodate them, and even then, the area outside was swarmed by those who wanted to watch on the big screens.
Damien faced the Dragon Lord in this climate. The frown on his face looked like one of extreme concentration, but he really was just unhappy with the situation at hand.
His voice entered the Area Lord's mind.
"Are you prepared for this?"
He didn't say anything that could trigger the curse, but it was enough for the Dragon Lord to learn that Damien knew what was going to happen.
He glanced at Damien with a strange expression.
"I am not," he responded.
"And I am not able to entertain you at this time."
The announcers were no more than flies at this point. The way they riled up the crowd and prepared the stage made it difficult for Damien to delay.
In fact, they were already in the process of starting the match.
He looked into the Dragon Lord's eyes, trying to find any semblance of fighting spirit. However, he only found the hollow emptiness of someone who had already resigned to fate.
"Now, the moment you've all been waiting for! Let the final battle between Damien Void and the Dragon Lord…"
"If there is one thing I do wish to say…" The Dragon Lord's voice cut through the announcer's words.
The first impact was loud. The sounds that would otherwise be nonexistent were recreated by the arena's systems.
In that moment, two things happened. Half of the arena was covered in a sea of black flames. At the same time, a metallic defense structure took hold of the other half, preventing the fire's spread.
The crowd immediately broke out into cheers, but Damien was no longer paying attention to him. His entire focus was on the Dragon Lord in front of him.
'The goal is not to win.'
No, it was something much harder. To stall and stall and stall until he had no choice but to win; that was Damien's goal for this battle.
His eyes went to the black flames.
He could feel the flames corroding his own defensive layer at every point of contact. They had a sort of ethereal burn that could be felt in the soul, and though they burned nothing in the environment, they were deadly against Nonexistence itself.
Damien and the Dragon Lord both stayed planted within their territories. For the first few seconds, they analyzed the interaction between their energies at the center of the arena.
To say that one of them had an inherent advantage was wrong. The Dragon Lord's theme was to burn the enemy's energy and existence, leaving them with nothing more than an empty vessel. Meanwhile, Damien trapped his enemies and cut through them in a single blow like an assassin, ending them quickly.
Their strategies and energies were inherently too different to be directly compared. So, in a match , they were forced to find more creative ways to face each other.
'My web won't work the same way against him.'
It was pointless to try and trap someone who was able to melt the cage. To leave the complicated things in the background and simplify, the current match was like one between a metal elementalist and a flame elementalist. That couldn't be allowed.
Especially when the key to his plan was landing the final blow at the exact timing that he wanted to, he needed to eliminate the variables caused by the usual method of combat.
'Minimize and compress.'
Damien's thought process ended with the conclusion that he couldn't fight this battle at range.
As people in this realm were rarely able to mobilize enough power while moving, battles were carried out in the way Damien was already used to. The casters themselves would stay in position and let their abilities do the moving.
If Damien could attain mobility, he would already have an advantage that others didn't possess. The Dragon Lord wouldn't be able to predict it, right?
A huge wave of fire crashed down onto the metal construct. The concepts within were all related to banishment.
Defense, fortitude, and ambition were all targeted at the same time.
Damien was forced to respond by increasing the tenacity of his web. The defense aspect was meant to break the physical factors protecting Damien. While he was busy trying to fix them, the banishment of fortitude and ambition would heavily affect his mental state.
Ambition wasn't something people usually targeted, but it was just as important as more obvious targets like fighting spirit.
Ambition was the core concept that drove a practitioner. If it was taken away, they would lose a lot more than they realized.
To truly take away someone's ambition, the caster had to have dominance over their enemy. They had to prove that the weight of their own ambition overshadowed that of those they faced, and when that difference was made true, the opponent would crumble.
It was a brave move to try a stunt like that from the start, but Damien figured it was more of a probe than anything.
The Dragon Lord didn't put any real effort into banishing the concept. He only wanted to see what attitude Damien responded with.
And currently, he was of the mind to defend as best as he possibly could until he grasped the concept that he was trying to bring into reality.
'A form. A familiar form that I can use to bring the elusive things into the light.'
He pondered on it for but a few seconds. There were only a few things that could fit the criteria for the form he had in mind, so thinking was useless.
Only, to actually turn his current domain into a weapon that could be wielded…
'...is going to be extremely difficult.'
Nevertheless, it was better for him. Because his job was to hold the Dragon Lord back, his current defensive strategy was perfect for that goal.
He only needed to bring that concept into reality when the time was right.
And, conveniently enough…
…it seemed the main body had also arrived at his designated battleground.