An unidentified point in time

  Having their duel declarations settle in, Waldo and Rāj both assume their combat stances. Waldo’s eye continues to flare a new vibrant color of purple instead of the ordinary blue. He accustoms himself into his position, looking for any openings that Rāj leaves or any opportunities that he could exploit. Rāj has quite the imposing stance, however, leaving Waldo no room to find an opening.

  “You have the courage to challenge me to a duel head on like this. As the one who should inherit my title, I commend you. I will give you the honor of facing against a prelude to my true strength. Feel proud, child.”

  In the blink of an eye, Rāj’s eyes blow up in a frenzied blue light, just like how Waldo’s eye worked. In the instant this happens, it takes every single ounce of willpower that Waldo has to not shrink back and shrivel up. This power he’s feeling is… just incomparable. How could a single curse exert such pressure?

  (Unreal… this was me? This is me? This is the power of the War Spirit? Compared to myself… this is like facing a god as an insignificant little insect. How can I stand… NO! Remove these thoughts, Waldo! Are you forgetting what you told yourself?)

  “No matter what kind of challenge I’m faced with, I will never back down! Be it a god, a super soldier, or the strongest sorcerer in the world, I will never cower before a fight! Doing so will be abandoning all I am meant for! Being the War Spirit is not just about seeking out a battle! It’s about overcoming anything in your path and destroying it with all of your might! This is my declaration, War Spirit! I will take your title and grow out of this pathetic shell!”

  “Is that so? You have guts, child. No, I suppose I should call you Waldo. You’d better not disappointment me, understood?”

  Rāj begins to laugh out loud and her fearsome aura continues to expand. Despite this, Waldo stands strong and relentlessly stares at her. Even if this is the kind of power that he has to fight against, he will never back down. How will he able to confront Osoroi and his future enemies as a good for nothing coward? How will he be able to continue teaching Mara and show her the ways of Jujutsu? There is no other option here besides winning. And it’s his time to seize it!

  Once Rāj’s laughter ceases, she looks straight at Waldo and snaps her fingers. Suddenly, the void begins to tremble and spin around. The space inside warps and is bent to her own will. Waldo watches the empty white void fill up with material and a sudden world leaking into reality. A sky is created, the bottom of the void turns into earth, and structures are being formed. Then, once the void stops trembling, Waldo sees that an entire colosseum was created inside of the void. The void is no longer empty and it feels as if he’s awake again. But he knows that isn’t true. He’s still inside of this space. He’s still in the clutches of the War Spirit. In order to return to his battle, save Mara, and defeat Iravin, he must get past Rāj. There is no more turning back from this point forward.

  “That feels much better. Setting the stage for a grand duel is a necessity, after all. Especially given who I am dueling against. Well then, Waldo, are you ready to throw your life away in order to impress me? Will you submit to me and fall under my control? That is up to you and whether you can really draw out your power.”

  “There isn’t any more that needs to be said. I may have stepped on the tiger’s tail, but I will not cower! Even an insignificant ant can lift several times its weight!”

  Waldo takes the initiative and shoots himself forward with a shockwave. He takes several irregular turns as he flies around Rāj. Rāj easily keeps track of him with a disappointed expression.

  “This again? Your attack pattern is rather linear and repetitive.”

  Suddenly, Waldo ends up going straight for Rāj and escaping his previous pattern. Waldo spins and throws a kick at Rāj’s head, but she still blocks it without any effort. Waldo scoffs and then throws a punch next. Rāj dodges it as well as the upcoming barrage that follows. Shockwaves burst from the ground behind Rāj and attempt to stagger her by knocking out her legs. Rāj simply chuckles to herself and avoids the shockwaves.

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  “Is this the best that you can do? Where is all of that bravado? I know you have more power than this!”

  “Tsk, you damn woman!”

  Waldo spreads his shockwaves across the colosseum and they condense into several clones. The clones charge at Rāj alongside Waldo, ambushing her from many directions. It takes only a fraction of a moment for Rāj to calculate all of the clones coming at her. She smiles to herself and swiftly destroys them with no difficulty in just one shockwave. Suddenly, as Rāj is occupied with the clones, Waldo comes out from under the ground and attempts to slam her head into the ground. Rāj sees this coming, however, and Waldo is kicked in the stomach by a heavy amount of force. Instead of Waldo coughing out blood, he instead lets out a devious smirk.

  “Ruin Counter!”

  Ruin counter is activated at the perfect time. In the instant that Rāj kicked Waldo, he concentrated all of his energy and learns of the power. His cursed energy, with this information, then urges his body to replicate that exact same action with twice the amount of power. And so, upon using Ruin Counter on Rāj’s kick, Waldo’s cursed energy level spikes. His eye sparks even more and he takes in one large breath. In the blink of an eye, he throws a devastating kick at Rāj that has twice the amount of power. Rāj thinks that this is just another one of Waldo’s tricks and puts her arms up to block against the kick. However, once she actually feels the power behind the kick, her eyes widen and she puts more grip on her feet to stay balanced. Waldo doesn’t let her counterattack and fires shockwaves from the edge of his ankles. Rāj manages to avoid taking damage from this as well.

  “What kind of trick was that? I don’t recall ever being able to perform something like that.”

  “Huh? You’re saying the great War Spirit can’t even do that? That means I’m even greater than you, you hag!”

  Rāj chuckles to herself after hearing Waldo’s little insults. She readjusts her hair and looks at her left forearm, which has a small scratch from blocking Waldo’s kick. She’s surprised that he could strike her like that in his current state. Perhaps she underestimated him a bit too much. No matter, she’s not even using any of her real power in this battle. She’s only trying to rile him up so he can escape his shell and remember himself.

  “You’re an interesting one. Out of the many cycles for the War Spirit, you’re one of the few who have piqued my interest. You should feel proud, child.”

  “Hmph, like that means anything. I don’t need to feel proud. I’ll just reclaim my title and be on my way.”

  “You’ll soon see that reclaiming your title will be a challenge you cannot achieve in your current state. You’ll never accomplish it.”

  “I’m done letting others tell me what I can’t or can do. If you’re so convinced I can’t do it, then show me something that’ll crush me! Come on, let’s shift this into high gear!”

  Waldo begins to roar out loud and fire a multitude of shockwaves into the air. The shockwaves fly and weave in every direction. They begin to collect together and form several clones around the grounds of the coliseum. This time, however, there are many more clones than before. Waldo uses multiply to recover the cursed energy and then he looks back up at Rāj,

  “If I can’t beat you by myself, then I’ll just create an entire army of myself. Now, here it comes! Advance! Don’t let her get a single second of advantage!”

  The army of shockwave clones all lock onto Rāj and they hop down into the battlegrounds. Rāj takes a moment to scan her surroundings and count the amount of clones. Before she can finish doing the mental math, the army all charges at her as one. Some of them sprout from the ground and some of them take to the sky. They all begin to come within close proximity of her. Once they reach that line, Rāj swings both of her arms and does a 360 degrees spin. With that spin, a large omnidirectional shockwave is released from her body. The large shockwave collides with the shockwave army and crumbles away at half of the total forces. The other half stop in their tracks to avoid suffering the same fate. Waldo himself is speechless at this. After all, she swept away half of his large army in a single attack. Which of his previous opponents can do that?

  “You’re merely sending empty puppets towards me. They’re nothing but hollow husks of the soldiers they could become. I’ll be kind and let you witness the true process!”

  With that being said, Rāj holds her arms up at the sky and fires her own shockwaves. She follows the shockwaves, jumping up into the air and catching them back into her hands. There is this feeling running through Waldo’s mind. He can sense the raw amount of power and cursed energy being put into those shockwaves. His method seems third-rate at best in front of her. No wonder she said that everything was lifeless, hollow as a husk. After a few seconds, Rāj takes in the shockwaves and her eyes flash violently. The condensed point of shockwaves is suddenly released in a wave. The wave comes into contact with the ground and 4 shockwaves clones emerge. They are truly the soldiers of the War Spirit. They’re highly developed, fully clad with power, and are the personification of capable. Even a single soldier could probably take care of Waldo. He’s no match for Rāj’s power.

  “That is how it is done, child. Your crude methods could never compare to mine. Now, seize him!”

  The four soldiers of Rāj immediately take off and begin charges towards Waldo. The rest of Waldo’s army responds by sprinting towards Rāj’s soldiers. The armies are just seconds away from clashing against each other.