"The referee was about to call a deadly attack and end the fight if you had collapsed," Noah said.
"Give the guy a break," Robert said as he donned a robe to cover his body. "He just fried his family jewels. That's going to take Supreme healing to regrow."
Amanda approached as they walked to enter the tunnel to the shower rooms. "They are calling us the 'white dome wonders'," She said. "Because out of the three hundred-plus duels so far, we were the only ones to stress the shields that much."
"Cool," Robert replied with a smile.
"Did it hurt?"
"Not so much, I had dampen pain active at the maximum setting."
"Well, we need to prepare for the afternoon fights," Amanda said. "Did you use too much essence?"
"No, but I used a ton of biomass. I could eat a whole cow."
"You guys go to the cafeteria, I'm going to do... teacher stuff," Noah said. "Meet you here at one in the afternoon sharp."
"Sure," Robert waved.
*
*
They sat at a corner of the restaurant. Robert ordered fifty bowls of spaghetti bolognese and slurped them like a Japanese salaryman on a two-minute Shinkansen stop. After all the pasta, he slurped the meat out of ten dozen ribs. He forced his tempering technique to absorb all the meat and pasta, causing the bulge in his stomach to quickly vanish.
After the rift cataclysm, silly concepts like the impenetrability of matter were thrown down the drain. Some archs could hold entire swimming pools of water in the volume of a normal human. Biomass absorption stored the biomass elsewhere inside the body without altering its volume. Robert only got heavier.
After lunch, they hit the gathering chambers. Tournament contestants had priority in the queues. They were full of Essence in less than half an hour, ready to fight in the afternoon.
In this round, now that half the contestants were out, the fights could last up to ten minutes. The rules were the same but now people had an idea of what the others could use.
For example, everyone knew Robert used Time and Life. The teachers had watched the videos and calculated how much haste and slow he could output. Or how much damage he could heal, given that he wasn't healing the Lightning damage instantaneously. The same applied to Amanda. Though nobody could tell what plants she had in stock.
Wearing new clothes, they climbed out of the stadium's catacombs for the afternoon opening ceremony.
*
*
Amanda stood face-to-face with a girl in black clothes. Her druidic attunement already told her what were the goth girl's affinities. Death and Darkness. She knew her plants wouldn't fare too well against this girl.
So she took her sword out. This one she'd win with pure physical prowess.
"Begin!" The referee shouted.
Amanda dashed forward. The goth girl threw a blob of blackness at her face. The ring behind the girl flashed dark gray.
Amanda closed her eyes and slashed. All she got as feedback was a surprised yelp. Amanda focused on her druidic attunement. It allowed her to sense plants and animals around her. She tossed a handful of seeds to each side. The ring behind Amanda flashed green. She sensed Death essence stretching out and killing all the seeds she threw. No problem She had a cubic meter of them. Amanda swung her sword and tossed seeds with the other hand. She followed the goth girl, keeping the pressure as the girl worried about killing the seeds Amanda sowed. Every time that ring behind Amanda flashed green, she imagined monstrous plants breaking out of the soil.
One minute. Two minutes. Amanda kept advancing as the goth girl had no idea how Amanda was tracking her while completely blinded and deafened.
The goth girl was very concerned about the seeds. She saw what Amanda did on the first round and also what most Nature Archs could do. She despaired as she saw some tufts of grass sprout from the ground on the other side of the arena. What was that plant? What would it do to her? She dodged the wild sword swings as she rushed to the other side and cast a death field spell to kill the plants.
Sighing, she checked her essence. She was down to forty percent already. But Amanda must also be down by a lot, she knew that casting plant growth on that many seeds was almost as expensive as her area of effect spell at its lowest setting.
Five minutes. Amanda was still coming hard at her, the sword swishing as it approached, inexorable. She kept tossing seeds everywhere and as the goth girl's essence got lower and lower, she tried to make the best out of what she had in the tank and pace her casting. The grass was still growing in several patches, reaching maturity with alarming speed.
Would it become razor-sharp? Entangle her? Grow explosive seeds?
One particular patch went from green to gold as giant wheat heads bloomed. The goth girl pointed at that patch and cast death field again. The wheat dried instantly. She heard the sword swinging and jumped away, almost losing her balance.
Then the plant pots started to drop around the arena behind Amanda. The ring on Amanda's side became green. Carnivorous plants started to move around and snap as they started to grow.
"Fuck!" The goth girl shouted. She cast her last death field on the pots The carnivorous plants didn't die, they just became more lethargic. Afraid, she got a slash across her left arm that opened a bloody gash.
"You asked for this!" She used her talent. Shadows gathered and formed a giant creature that seemed made out of jello or putty. It had a big mouth and two beady eyes. "Mucker, attack!"
The goth girl's talent allowed her to summon that creature. It obeyed her commands and could slam with powerful arms, despite not being very fast on its non-existent feet. Each successful blow would sap some of the lifeforce of the target, making Mucker stronger. She wished her evolution would allow it to drain health for her but she wasn't that lucky.
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Amanda couldn't sense the ether construct. She only felt the massive fist of goop that slammed into her face. She flew back and struck the shield. Shaking her head, she wiped the darkness off her face, and, to her surprise, it came off. She saw the sludge monster and the girl cowering behind it.
"Playing your trump cards so soon?" Amanda taunted, checking the timer. Six and a half minutes. She knew she must be ahead in points but she wanted the clear win. The sludge monster seemed to be a problem. It didn't contain any water inside of it, so it might be made out of pure darkness. Her druidic attunement also told her the construct drained some lifeforce out of her. She has to take care to not get hit.
The monster seemed to be very slow. It was a defensive construct but it packed quite the punch.
So, Amanda decided to get serious. She summoned two plant pots with her prickly pear cactus and ordered the plants to attack the girl. She also threw kudzu seeds at the monster's foot, casting plant growth and using her talent on the seeds. The vines sprouted immediately and started to wrap around the goop.
The first pears fired and exploded, sending a hail of spines toward the girl and her summon. The goop ignored the spines but the girl shrieked in pain. The payload of necrotic fungi would eat her flesh unless she had a way to stop it. Since she seemed to have the Death affinity, it might be possible.
But she wasn't attacking her plants with her magic, signaling she was out of essence.
The monster kept trying to move, but it was entangled in the kudzu. It was immobile. New pears were growing.
"Rip off the vines!" The girl commanded. Amanda thought she needed to issue verbal commands to her summoned monster.
She dropped more seeds on her side, casting plant growth on them. Amanda dashed forward, running past the monster that was merrily ripping off the fast-growing kudzu. She readied her sword.
"Kill the girl!" The gothic girl shouted.
The referee said nothing. Unless the monster proved capable of wielding deadly force, it was just words. Amanda approached the defenseless goth girl and felt a pang of pity. she had cactus spines hanging from her cheeks. She didn't see the fungi growing on her so, nice try.
The monster spun around and brought an arm down on Amanda. She raised her left arm and shielded her head, taking the attack and crouching under the goop appendage. Her arm was fine, only bruised if anything. She leaped forward, causing the goth girl to run away. The latest iteration of the prickly pear had a semblance of awareness and the growing pears tracked the goth girl. The plants fired. One pear embedded itself in the monster and exploded inside of it, causing bubbles to form in the thick viscous darkness. The other struck the girl in the chest and then exploded, knocking the goth girl on her butt.
Amanda had to go around the monster lest she would be pinned by the arms. Despite being unable to move fast, the monster could swivel impressively quick. That's what it got for not having bones or muscles.
By the time she reached the goth girl, she had already stood up and was ready to run. Amanda saw droplets of blood on the ground.
Then the two vases she planted on the far end finished growing. The sheer power of these plants was worth the wait. Light affinity sunflowers bloomed and shone like spotlights all over the arena.
The effects on the darkness monster were immediate. The monster started to sizzle and smoke as the light dispelled its darkness.
"No, no!" The goth girl shouted. She stopped and turned, showing how sorry her front was. Her clothes were torn in the middle, only the runic armor keeping her from having a full wardrobe malfunction.
Amanda grinned and dashed, sword ready to cut the goth girl down. The monster was bubbling and dripping cactus spines from the pear that detonated inside of it.
"I yield!" The goth girl shouted. Amanda stopped and looked at the referee, a blue flag raised.
"Good fight!" Amanda said.
"Freak!" The goth girl shouted and stormed away.
Amanda collected her plants and walked down to celebrate with Noah and Robert.
*
*
One hour later, it was Robert's time to fight. His opponent had the blood and metal affinities, a powerful combination. One of the schools of Blood magic used one's own blood to form metallic weapons. It was called crimson mercury and was based on the tempering technique of the same name. Their blood was very rich in metals which granted hardness to their Blood weapons. And the Metal affinity was all about enhancing one's metallic weaponry.
He got on the stage with foresight, haste, and thought acceleration active. His opponent was on the other side, bare arms coming out of a sleeveless jacket.
"Begin!" The referee shouted.
Robert didn't move. Instead, he struck his opponent with a two-star slow. It forced the enemy to move at one-sixth of his normal speed. With Robert's haste making him move seventy-five percent faster, he was ten times faster than his enemy.
Robert quickly moved forward and slashed at his enemy's hamstrings and wrists even as he tried to form a sword of blood. The guy's skin was tough but his spear was awfully sharp. He got some nicks on the blade that quickly repaired themselves as the blade used water essence to make the metal flow.
He then kicked the guy in the back, sending him sprawling forward. Robert followed up, swapping his sword for the boar spear, and stabbed his enemy in the kidneys, one, two. He then glanced behind him at the opposing teacher and raised an eyebrow.
When he got no response, Robert then slashed under the guy's armpits and behind his knees, further crippling the blood and metal Arch. Then he looked at the referee. Nothing. He was burning a heinous amount of essence here.
His danger sense and foresight flared as he saw a vision of himself impaled on dozens of blood needles. Robert dashed to the side as his opponent's ring flashed crimson red, the color of the Blood affinity. The needles flew and struck the opposite end of the barrier next to Noah.
Robert ran and punted his opponent's head like a penalty kick. He looked at the referee. Nothing. Another savage kick. The guy's neck almost snapped. Nothing.
More blood needles flew at him. The moment they were fired, the slow effect stopped but Robert's haste and reflexes were more than enough to dodge given the advance warning he got.
Furious, Robert then used his spear to hack the Blood Arch's arms off, then his feet. The puddle of blood was growing and spreading. He heard the guy on the ground chuckle. What kind of deranged person would go to such lengths to...
Robert leaped back as his danger sense warned him of what was to come. Suddenly, all the blood on the ground came alive and wrapped around the guy's body, including the severed blood parts. He heard a sucking noise and then the guy started to come back on his feet as his blood became solid and smooth like a Ferrari's paint job. The red one, if anyone didn't get the hint.
The guy stood, ten feet tall, covered head to toe in armor made out of metalicized blood. It looked like one of those cartoon robots from before the rift cataclysm, the ones who could turn into cars.
The armor started to cackle. Slowly, because of the debuff.
Robert decided to gamble. He rushed forward and punched the armor in the stomach. He couldn't reach higher. To his surprise, his hand sunk into the armor. He felt his hand touch his skin. Then he glanced behind him and cast drain essence, the two-star version. The blood armor covered him enough that the barrier didn't catch the essence flying around. It didn't react to his void essence.
Then he screamed as the psycho blood mecha cut his hand off at the wrist. He jumped back.
His essence started to trickle up. Robert stared at the guy. Was this his talent or just some weird Blood spell? He would never know. Robert dropped the empowered slow spell and replaced it with a normal one. The shield accused his casting, as normal. The essence drain more than paid for all of his active buffs now.
The mecha came at him, slow as fuck. Robert moved away, unwilling to commit. Three minutes passed. The audience started to hoot and boo.
Then the robot lost its cohesion and crashed down, a deluge of blood washing over the arena and leaving a mutilated and unconscious youngster to choke on his own blood. The limbs Robert cut were still severed. Go figure.
He dismissed his curse, unwilling to let people know he'd used a third affinity. Robert then went and picked his hand that was underneath the guy, doing him the favor of flipping him sideways so he wouldn't suffocate. He placed the hand in place and focused on his stump. Regrowth reattached the hand.
The healer climbed on the ring and started with the triage process. Another guy that would need Supreme-quality healing. But then again, it was the teacher and the referee's fault for not calling the fight when they should. Even if the guy had won, how would he fight tomorrow?
Stupid one-trick-pony trump cards.