Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Two - Sandblasting

The fight was... I wasn’t sure if it was going well for me or not. In terms of stats and such I was fine. Barely any stamina or mana spent. My HP was a couple of points shy of full. In terms of everything else, the gap between us was still wide.

Flein had the advantage. Close up, he was much slower than me, but he moved as if he knew what he was doing. Maybe it was a skill, maybe it was a martial art, maybe he just practised fighting a whole bunch. I don’t think it mattered how, as long as I kept in mind that he was the better fighter up close, despite my reach and speed advantage.

From afar, Flein had whips of sand and likely a few other ways to make my life difficult. I couldn’t just keep dodging him forever. Eventually my stamina would run out, or I’d get tired, or one of his whips would hit me hard enough to disable me. There was a chance that he’d run out of mana first, but that was a lot to hope for.

I bounced on the balls of my feet, hands raised defensively before me, and ears laid back against my head. Flein took a moment to loosen his shoulders and carefully rebuilt the armour covering his hand.

So far the only trick that had worked was getting in real close, touching him, and disrupting his mana. Turning it into Cleaning aspect was easy, and it did a number on his sand armour.

My eyes darted around the arena for a second--where was my broom anyway? Oh! It was a few steps to his right

My eyes shifted back to Flein and saw a blur of sand already halfway to my face.

Yelping, I tossed myself out of the way of a sandy tendril that... flopped onto the ground harmlessly where I’d been standing.

A feint!

My little bun heart was clawing its way out of my chest as I watched Flein draw up more sand into a fresh whip. It spun around the air above him, then darted out at me faster than I could blink.

I was on my feet and running already, but not fast enough.

The whip cracked against the back of my thigh and I hissed at the fresh line of pain it left there. The crowd above, almost entirely forgotten, gasped.

Flein wasn’t going to be swayed that easily. He pulled the whip back, then cracked it out again.

I ducked under it this time, the snap going off just above my head, louder than a gunshot.

Staying at range wasn’t going to work.

I planted my foot down and flung myself towards Flein. At least when I was close I had a chance to take him out. Maybe land a lucky blow. From far away all I was doing was letting him bully me around the arena.

Flein was ready for my move. It was a rather predictable thing to do, I guess, and he had to know that I was nearly out of options.

The arena’s sandy floor burst upwards, turning into a hip-high barrier of long spikes. Running into that would be like headbutting the back end of a hedgehog. I squished myself down sideways, and somehow, just barely, I managed to slip between two of the spikes then dropped into a roll.

A roll which ended right where Flein wanted me.

I screamed as his whip caught me right across the face. I was wearing a helmet, but that blow crossed right through it, and the padding within the helmet shoved itself into my face and sent me reeling back. I coughed and blinded hard as sand grit into my eyes and cheeks.

I only barely caught sight of the whip returning to council above its master’s head. He was going to hit me again!

I never formed a fireball so quickly. My mana spun into shape and launched a burning dart across the arena with a whistling shriek.

Flein aborted his attack and tore his sandy spikes apart to form a barrier between him and me. It caught the fireball with a dull thump.

Planting my feet down for just a moment, I squatted, then shot myself up and into the air as hard and fast as I could so that I was launched over Flein. Humans didn’t tend to look up, but sylph were able to fly. It was only natural that he would glance up and catch sight of me zipping above him.

He twisted around, tracking my arc as I flung fireballs and cleanballs at him as fast as I could make them.

Depleting my mana supply wasn’t an issue. The fight would be ending soon either way, and if I lost it while I still had mana left, that just meant that I didn’t give it my all.

Flein swatted my magic out of the air with a twisting mass of sand. It burst apart at every impact, but reformed just as quickly.

I landed across from him, spun around so that I was facing his direction, then charged toward him, fists raised before me and body low to the ground.

Flein swung his arm out wide between us, and a second wall of sand spikes formed.

Good!

I hadn’t jumped this way for nothing. As I ran, I ducked low and picked up my broom, both hands gripping onto the very end of the handle and mana flooding through the shaft.

I swung with a grunt of effort, more and more magic pouring out of the mop until it glowed.

A broom was a tool for sweeping, and right then, all I wanted was to sweep the sand away.

Something about cleaning magic made it... strange. It would only clean out impurities, but the sand wasn't an impurity. When I tried to clean it away, all I was getting was clean sand.

What if I didn’t target the sand so much as the mana holding it together?

It was a weird idea, and one that I really, really hoped would work out as I charged right into the teeth of his barrier.

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My mop tore into the spikes... and right through them. Where it passed, the sandy construct burst apart into a cloud of dust.

I was through the barrier and right up against Flein faster than either of us could think.

Turning just a little, I rammed into the sylph shoulder first.

I was a lot heavier than he was, even with his sandy armour, and I was moving pretty darned fast. It still hurt. His chest had a thick layer of hardened sand over it, rough and coarse and not something I’d normally want to run into at a full sprint.

We crashed into each other, then I drove him to the ground. I heard him grunt beneath me a moment before he swung a fist around and hit me in the ribs. My armour took some of the sting out of the blow. Some of it.

Flein twisted, trying to throw me off him, but I pinned one end of my broom under a knee and pressed down on the other with one hand. With the other, I tried to reach for his face.

Sand twirled around us and shot towards my face. Was he going to try to suffocate me?

I let out a powerful burst of cleaning magic, wiping his mana out of the air.

Then, finally, I placed a hand over his face. “Stop!” I screamed.

He grunted and shifted under me.

“Stop, or I’ll turn your mana into fireballs inside you,” I said.

He froze.

I froze too. That was a very mean thing to say to someone. Worse... I wasn’t sure if I meant the threat or not.

He sighed and let his head fall back. “I’m not being paid enough to test that.”

The referee was suddenly right next to us. “Winner, by forfeit, is Captain Broccoli Bunch,” he declared.

I carefully shifted off from on top of Flein, then sat down on the ground for a bit. I hadn’t noticed early, but all of the sand of the arena was bunched up around us, forming a slight hill. That... had been close, very close, way too close.

“Ma’am, are you well?”

I blinked and looked up into the eyes of a white-robbed sylph. A young man, maybe five or six years my senior. “Uh? Oh, yeah.”

“I’m going to touch your shoulder and hand,” the sylph said. He was very gentle as he grabbed hold of me.

I felt his magic coiling under his skin, then it shot out into me and I flinched. My own mana twitched and his dispersed.

The sylph blinked. “Oh, you have very fine mana control, Captain. I’ll assure you, on my name and oath, that I mean you no harm. I’m just going to run a diagnostic to make sure you’re in good health.”

“Oh, sorry,” I said. I glanced to the side and noticed another sylph doing the same to Flein, though they were just finishing up.

This time I let the mana move in without touching it. I couldn’t even begin to guess what he was doing though. My senses weren’t anywhere keen enough to figure it out. It felt warm though.

“Two small cuts, arm and upper thigh near the buttocks, one forming bruise on the left side of the chest near the short-ribs. Some light scraping of the skin around the shins... a lot of tension in your muscles and bones, especially around your legs. You might want to consider switching to a day-on-day off workout schedule, and add some more protein to your diet. Otherwise, I validate you as being in good health.”

“Oh, thanks,” I said. He helped me onto my feet, and out of curiosity I checked my arm. There was a cut in the fabric of my gambeson and... that was it. No blood, of course, not with all the Cleaning magic around, and no cut under that either, just smooth, pale skin. “Healing magic’s pretty neat.”

“I must agree,” the healer said. “You should rejoin your friends now, before the referee’s patience runs dry.”

I nodded and headed towards my friends, but not before trading a nod with Flein and taking off the lion-headed helmet I wore.

The moment I stepped into the room with my friends I was swept up into a big big hug. “You did great!”

“Well done!”

I laughed as the tension bled out of me. It took a bit of wiggling to free my arms, but as soon as I could I squeezed Awen and Amaryllis right back. “Thanks,” I said. “I wasn’t sure I’d win that.”

“I didn’t doubt it at all,” Awen said.

“Well, I certainly did. That was a tough opponent for you,” Amaryllis said. “Which only makes it all the more impressive that you managed to pull off a victory.”

“Yeah,” I said. I wasn’t sure what I was agreeing to, maybe it was just the hug speaking. It was nice and warm and made all the tension in my shoulders bleed away. It also ended all too soon, though I knew I could always get more hugs if I asked.

“Are you well?” Amaryllis asked in a hushed voice that only we could hear.

I bobbed my head up and down. “I’m fine. That really was a tough fight. But we won.”

“You won,” Amaryllis said. “And you deserved it too.”

“You were great out there,” Awen added.

I was going to deny that, but then Augustus’ voice cut me off. “Our final contestants. Representing Lord Francisco, Malter Roggen! And representing Lady Amaryllis Albatross is the lady herself.”

Amaryllis took a deep breath. “My turn.”

“Be careful out there,” I said.

“Show him why you’re so scary,” Awen added.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Amaryllis said. She was almost purring. “With things at a tie I have no choice but to win. I’m going to put the fear of me into that mercenary, and maybe show Francis what’ll happen to him if he crosses me enough.”

Contrary to Amaryllis’ wishes, I was worrying a lot.

***