Ascension of the Immortal Asura

"What…what is this Mage Art Chloe has unleashed?" the announcer said frantically, equally shocked and excited at the sudden mage art being used. "We've never seen Chloe use this art before, so what could it possibly be? Wait a minute, I'm receiving word from our tournament experts that this is one of the Mage-Dao Sect's most secretive and formidable Mage Arts, the Eight-Seal Gravity Field Art!"

The gravity field pressed down on John with incredible power, trying to force him to his knees. John stood tall against the power of the mage art, although it took a good portion of his heaven-defying physical strength to do so. 

The crowd roared again with excitement, thrilled to see a legendary mage art from the Mage Dao Sect be used. As the crowd roared with excitement, John studied the eighth pillars surrounding him. 

The pillars were all the exact same, gray in color with exquisite glowing runes of some sort carved into their surfaces, making them look arcane and mystical. As he studied the runes closer, John was able to notice that all the intricate runes were made from a single base rune, the rune for gravity.

In addition to the runes, John noticed that some of the pillars were covered with paper like talismans. The four sides of each pillar was covered with one of these paper talismans, which covered approximately half of the pillar's surface. John scanned the eight pillars and noticed that three of them had no talismans at all, while five of them were completely covered.

After studying the pillars, he shifted his focus back to his opponent. Chloe stood in the very center of the circle made by the massive pillars, her face strained with focused concentration. However, the strain was not from the gravity pushing down within the circle, but from channeling the mage art itself.

'So she's still channeling this art?' John mused, studying his opponent.

After a short silence, Chloe finally spoke to him for the first time. With her still using most of her power to continue channeling this mage art, her voice was strained from the effort.

"This is the Eight-Seal Gravity Field Art, one of the nine restricted Mage Art's of my Mage-Dao Sect," Chloe said while looking at John, a look of confidence on her face now that John was trapped within. 

"So I heard," John said, shifting his focus between Chloe and the eight pillars. "So what does it do exactly? Just increase the gravity?"

"Just increase the gravity?" Chloe repeated, her tone almost as if she was disgusted by John's dismissal of the power of gravity. "Each pillar restricts a portion of this Mage Art, with the first pillar unlocked resulting in a ten times increase in gravity. When I remove additional sealing talisman…like this," she said, her power flaring again, followed by the sealing talismans on one of the pillars turning to ash. "The power of this gravity art doubles! Right now, with four pillars unsealed, you're experiencing eighty times gravity."

Boom!

The arena trembled again as the gravity within the confines of the pillars increased again. John's knees buckled under the strain of the gravity, which indeed seemed to have doubled when the talismans were removed from the fourth pillar. 

"You speak of the power of gravity so casually, but gravity is one of the most destructive forces in the universe," Chloe continued, her voice slightly more strained than before. "Looking down on the power of gravity will be your undoing in this fight."

Still straining against the gravity pushing down on him, John waved his hand dismissively before his face. "I'm not looking down on the power of gravity. I was just curious if there was more to this mage art I had to be careful of, but it seems like there isn't."

Chloe frowned, clearly not pleased by John's comment which indicated that he was indeed looking down on the power of gravity. Her frown turned into a confident smile as her aura exploded again, while her face became even more strained from the power coursing through her.

Boom!

The arena trembled again as a fifth pillar was removed of its talisman seals. John felt the power of gravity double once again, this time successfully pressing him to his knees. His bones creaked and his muscles strained against the formidable power pressing down on him; power that would crush any not strong enough to withstand it.

"Woah! For the first time in this tournament, John Fenix has been forced to his knees!" the announcer exclaimed. "Is this where the mysterious dark horse meets his end, or does John have something that can deal with this overwhelmingly powerful Mage Art?"

"By the time this battle is over, you will come to respect the power of gravity. That is, if you forfeit before you are crushed to death by my power," Chloe said, her confident smile still lingering on her face. "I've been perfecting this Mage Art for the last three years in order to win this year's tournament. With the Ancient Blessings being the ultimate reward this time around, I cannot afford to lose. Give up before you are killed. I'd rather not be disqualified."

"Heh, using my own words against me huh?" John scoffed upon hearing the same warning he had given his previous opponents. 

Using the full strength of his body, John slowly stood up and returned to his feet. The overwhelming power of gravity pushing down on him made moving quite difficult, with each step feeling as though he had an entire mountain pushing down on him. 

After standing, he looked at Chloe who stood a short distance away, seemingly unaffected by the gravity. 

'I have to admit that this Mage Art is incredibly impressive.  The only way to beat Chloe now that I'm trapped is to either destroy the pillars, or defeat Chloe directly, but I doubt either is so simple.' John thought, then decided to pick one to try.

He turned towards the nearest pillar, then mustered his full strength to race towards it, scythe appearing in hand.

Boom!

His scythe slammed into the ground at his feet, the weight of it far too great to wield under the effects of this gravity field. John clicked his teeth in frustration then stored his scythe away, continuing towards the pillar, opting to destroy it with his fists instead.

As he neared the pillar, the direction of the gravity field suddenly and unexpectedly changed, going from downwards to horizontal. Not expecting the change, John found himself flying through the air as the gravity pulled him sideway. It changed a moment later, returning to its original direction of pushing downwards.

Boom!

John slammed against the arena violently as if he had fallen from hundreds of miles up. The arena trembled from the impact as John was forced flat onto his back, looking up at the sky above.

"Naive," Chloe said from a short distance away. "Not only can I increase the level of gravity, I can also change its direction. If you move at all, I will change the direction to face the opposite of where you want to go. Give up, you cannot win."

John laid there flat on his back for quite some time, not speaking or even making a single sound at all. After a minute of this, a confused look appeared on Chloe's face, wondering what her opponent was up to.

"What are you doing? Why are you just lying there? Have you given up?" she asked, cautious focus on her face as if she were ready to react to anything John did at a moment's notice. Unlike his previous opponents, she was clearly not looking down on him, and had come at him with her full strength right from the start.

Upon hearing her question, John strained against the powerful gravity to lift his head and look at her. 

"Am I giving up? Not at all," he said, voice also slightly strained under the effect of the gravity pushing down on him. "But moving about is too much of a pain right now, and from what I can tell, this Mage Art is eating up a great deal of your Qi every minute."

As he said that, he looked towards the crowd, where the floating formation screens revealing each opponent's battle statistics hovered in the sky. He read one, then smiled, noticing that Chloe's stamina and Qi reserve numbers were rapidly draining, already being twenty percent drained.

He looked back at Chloe, then smiled.

"No, I don't have to do anything at all to beat you," he said, then rested his head against the floor again, looking up at the sky above. "I just have to lie here and wait until you run out of Qi."

He then placed his hand in front of his mouth as he yawned, then closed his eyes.

"I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up when you're done," he said, then fell silent as if he had truly fallen asleep.

A stunned look appeared on both Chloe's face on the face of almost everyone in the crowd, as none of them had expected John to lie down and fall asleep in the middle of his battle.

The stunned look on Chloe's face was quickly replaced by an enraged look.

"Insolent brat! Don't blame me for killing you then! Sixth pillar, unsealed! Chloe said as she exploded with even more power than before, removing another pillar of its talismans, doubling the power of the gravity in the arena once more.