“If you win today, you’ll make it into the top eight of the tournament.” Brendu’s smile is so radiant today, it’s hard not to smile when I look at her.
“I’ll give it my all.” I kiss her on the forehead before standing up.
All my friends wish me luck, as always I’m the first to step into this round. I feel a bit of pressure on my shoulders being the first one to go out every time, but when I remember the pressure of defending my territory from waves of monsters, I calm down. This is nothing.
This time I know a bit about my opponent, he’s the son of a marquis from the kingdom of Quyr. The twins came to me this morning to tell me a bit about him, though the information wasn’t very detailed. My opponent is a skilled mage, he usually fights from a distance and has won several tournaments in his kingdom.
What surprised me the most was how smoothly the twins spoke, both of them synchronized perfectly. When one finished speaking, the other immediately continued as if they had planned it beforehand, I’m sure they didn’t.
I walk calmly toward the arena, my opponent comes out at the same time from the other side. We both position ourselves near each other, the announcer once again explains the rules of the tournament and gives a short introduction about us.
“Good luck in the match.” Reynal is the first to break the ice.
“Same to you. Why do you look a bit disappointed?” His smile doesn’t look happy, his eyes don’t give the impression that he wants to be here.
“I’m happy to have reached the top 16, but I don’t see how I can beat you to move on to the next round. My goal was to reach the top eight.” I look at him for a second, before I can speak he continues. “If it were only a competition of constructs, I would have a chance.” He lets out a sigh.
Just as I’m about to respond, the bell rings to start the match. We both step back instinctively, placing ourselves at a good distance to measure each other.
His words leave me thinking. Should I try to defeat him only using ranged attacks? I don’t know if it’s possible, being close to him I was able to better sense his strength, he’s someone very difficult to deal with if I don’t put in effort.
Let’s try it! I set myself a small challenge to defeat him using only constructs, I’ll fight like a long-range mage, if things get complicated I’ll use my swords.
I need to move my body as fast as possible with the small amount of accumulated gravity mana, I got distracted thinking and almost got caught by several wind blades. I barely manage to dodge them, that attack almost reached me.
Reynal creates more blades to not give me time to breathe, this time I have enough time to dodge them without much trouble. I slowly activate my abilities while moving side to side.
Each blade contains a massive amount of mana and power, the ground shatters with every impact. He’s concentrating a good amount of mana into each construct, enough to break my ice armor if it hits me, they are not inferior to my Joyeuse.
I dodge another wave and finally have a moment to finish constructing a dozen ice swords at full power, I’m not holding back at all. I launch them at him without hesitation, I thought I had caught him off guard, but that’s not the case.
Reynal already had a backup plan and huge wind currents reduce the speed of my constructs. “That’s not enough.” I mutter. He seems to have realized it as well, because he launches several blades to intercept them as soon as possible, but he doesn’t make it in time and three of them manage to break through his defenses.
“So fast!” For someone who only fights at long range, he’s quite fast. He propels his body with strong wind currents to move away from where my Joyeuse strike.
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I can’t relax even for a second because enormous wind scythes are coming directly toward me, they are a bit weaker than before, but the quantity is ridiculous, more than fifty scythes spin around me.
I move side to side dodging as many as possible, he has good control over his constructs because this time they aren’t being destroyed as soon as I dodge them. It seems he has sacrificed some power in exchange for quantity and control.
Gravity buys me enough time so I don’t have to face them all at once, and the electric serpents around me try to destroy some along the way. The scythes endure the hits well, I can feel several Laws in his constructs, even a Law of sharpness.
I destroy as many as possible with my ice swords, I’m using my constructs defensively, even though the number is ridiculous I always know where each scythe is.
The scythes stop reappearing, Reynal had been reconstructing them as soon as I destroyed them, but now he isn’t doing it anymore. I know why he stopped, he’s been preparing something massive and he finally finished it.
Two spears, easily three meters long and very wide, are ready. I can feel and see the wind mana swirling around them, the pressure is intense.
Both are launched, they are so fast that I need to find a way to slow them down before I can move. All the mana around me tries to obstruct their path, gravity has minimal effect, electricity can’t deal enough damage to stop them, and my ice swords are the only ones that manage to cause significant damage.
All my effort buys me just enough time to move at the last moment using gravity, my Gravity Overload does a magnificent job as usual, my body moves away instantly.
One of the spears hits the ground first, the other will arrive a second later. When the first spear is destroyed, it turns into dozens of smaller spears that fly toward me, I have to push my body to the limit to dodge them.
Some of the smaller spears manage to hit me, their power isn’t that strong and they only break my armor without causing real damage.
For a moment I lose track of the other spear, in the middle of all this chaos that happened in less than three seconds, I lost focus of the other construct.
I focus as much as possible on my Personal World, trying to feel the mana around me to know what happened to the other spear. My idea to search for it was correct, because the massive construct appears just a few meters behind me.
Space magic? The speed of the spear had stopped, the acceleration time gives me enough time to construct many layers of compressed ice, I use all the mana I can gather to slow it down as much as possible.
I also build ice walls around me to block Reynal’s and the audience’s vision. The walls don’t last long, but they hold. I gain enough time to use my own space magic, when the last reinforced wall breaks, I finish my preparations.
I teleport to Reynal’s blind spot, several ice swords infused with electric, gravity and death mana appear a moment later, I’m using a ridiculous amount of mana right now and the cost is high, I feel a thin thread of blood running from my nose.
I can see Reynal’s surprised expression, but his body and mind react quickly, creating wind currents and walls to stop the momentum of my constructs. All his attempts shatter like paper, he only manages to buy a moment.
The first sword hits near his ribs and the next one in his thigh, he disappears from my sight at that instant. I look up to see him floating in the air, he teleported and is using his wind magic to stay airborne.
I don’t give him time to rest, I also use my own magic to fly. The mana from my constructs is reused to create mini Joyeuse to torment him, he dodges clumsily while flying side to side, still suffering from his wounds.
I move closer to finish the match, but I’m surprised to realize he has been gathering mana all this time while moving. I’m not ready to use my space magic again, and I’m greeted by dozens of scythes trying to tear my body apart.
I use all my mana, Imra, Laws and Banner to endure as much as possible, my body is covered in cuts everywhere, blood flows from multiple points, at least I avoided the worst. I look at Reynal, who is completely exhausted, he must have used all his mana in that attack.
Reynal is about to fall, he can’t even control his flight anymore, I create an ice sword and stab it into his stomach, in my other hand a new Joyeuse appears and goes straight for his neck. Just when I feel his flesh and pierce slightly, the same phenomenon as before happens.
The enchantments activate to save his life, his body shines with light, my constructs are destroyed and his body slowly falls to the ground, I descend calmly as well. His wounds are healing, especially the most severe ones, I heal myself to avoid triggering the bracelet’s enchantments.
I came out heavily injured from this fight, I have dozens of cuts all over my body, if I hadn’t defended at the right moment everything would be different.
Reynal slowly opens his eyes, I sit in front of him waiting. He looks around, a bit disoriented. “In the end, I lost.” He says it with clear sadness and disappointment.
“That last attack was impressive, for a moment I thought I would lose.” I extend my hand and he takes it without much hesitation. “I hope we can fight again someday.” I say with a big smile, he looks at me a bit confused and then smiles back.