Jacob ducked in time, and the bullets passed over his head. It didn’t send them back with the same power, but they were strong enough to pierce his armor, or at the very least make a big dent.

"Are you okay?" Silas asked.

"Yeah, but if he can control the wind, I’m not sure if using more power is a good idea."

"Then we have to take the air elemental first." Nadine was grabbing something from her back when a wave of sand hit.

The two elementals combined their attacks to form a small-scale sandstorm in the field. This was the reason the game wasn’t going to last more than a couple of minutes. Grimdow wasn’t showing any mercy.

"Take them out of bounds." The elementals intensified their attack.

Nadine was holding onto the platform, and Jacob could barely stand up. The sand blocked their view, so they couldn’t attack.

It looked like the game was over; they were going to be pushed out at the same time. Suddenly the wind changed direction, and the sand went flying away from the arena.

"What? I see you can also partially transform into an elemental." Grimdow already knew because Se’ky explained the powers he saw during the battle, but he thought it was limited to creatures similar to humans.

Silas’s body was half transparent, and his hands and air turned into wind currents. The sandstorm ended; the elemental had his power stolen by Silas and couldn’t extend its current too far from its master.

"Still keeping the shield; that’s a well-trained pet you have."

"I’m more impressed that you dealt with our first attack. Tell me, can you steal power from any kind of creature?"

"I don’t have to answer that; I already bought time for my teammates."

Nadine and Jacob were ready to attack. Nadine planted her feet on the platform and deployed the legs of her cannon. It was a makeshift cannon with a solid ball of iron inside. She lit the fuse in the back and fired directly at Grimdow.

The loud boom of the cannon caught everyone by surprise, but this was only the first half of the attack. The force of the explosion destroyed the cannon. She was used to it; after months of learning and building weapons, she noticed that by sacrificing the integrity of the weapon, you could gain more power.

The iron ball was cracking with fire, and then Jacob shot his gun. A single bullet with most of his power to shatter the ball in pieces. Suddenly, the single attack turned into a rain of pieces, all with tremendous power and fire.

"Nice try!" Grimdow saw the small pieces fly straight through his elemental wind barrier. He had nothing to fear; he deflected every single piece of hot iron away with his armored hands. The attack ended up barely inflicting any damage. It took him a moment to notice that more bullets were flying at him.

"Using the cannonball as a distraction? These bullets aren't powerful enough to pierce the wind."

The first bullet was much slower than usual. Jacob spent several weeks practicing this new technique. In terms of power, he was behind Franco. His gun was good enough to deal with most creatures in the forest, but the fights taught him that there were a lot of enemies who could take his bullets or deflect them with the shake of a whip.

If I can’t push more power, then I’ll use speed.

"Six round acceleration." He shot six bullets at Grimdow, but each bullet had a different speed. The first one was very slow until the second one hit and made it accelerate.

"That is still too slow." He raised his arm to block it, but the third bullet hit it, once again gaining momentum and changing direction.

Then the fourth, and by the fifth, he couldn’t keep up with the speed or the position of the bullet. This was the real danger of Jacob’s technique. The fastest attack he could do.

"Don’t worry, I’m not trying to kill you. If I did, then the whole competition would be meaningless."

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Grimdow looked in all directions, trying to find the bullet, but there was no time; the last bullet hit it, and in less than a second, he felt the impact in his abdomen. The bullet hit him right above the stomach. The impact would send him flying off the field, at least that was supposed to happen.

He didn’t move. The three humans look at his enemy, who was tanking the attack and barely taking a single step back.

"How? How did you stop it?" Jacob couldn’t believe it. That attack was so fast that not even he could see the moment of impact. But he noticed the ashes emanating from Grimdow’s body.

A curtain of ashes was covering the body, and in the center, the bullet stopped. He looked down at the gauntlet; the ashes were coming from there.

"Good work; that was an excellent attack, but I only need to cover my whole body. The Gauntlet of Ash allows me to release a special type of ash. It functions similarly to automatic armor. It protects me from attacks I can’t see or hear."

Nadine gran a small hand cannon and fired it. The explosion was stopped by the body of the sand elemental.

"You have done well for forcing me to do this. I can’t let you three do another combined attack," he said, pointing to one of the orbs in this armor. "These are called Orbs of Magic Absorption. They can absorb magic from attacks or even creatures. Have you heard of the wind world, Silas?"

"It's a world full of air and wind; if you can’t fly, you are going to fall until a beast eats you below the clouds. This is a sample of the power of that world!" The orb began to shine, and a wild current exploded over the platforms.

The wind pushed them out of bounds. It was like being dragged by a hurricane. They couldn’t hold onto the ground. The elementals were also thrown outside the platform, but the air elemental could fly, and as long as it didn’t touch the ground outside, it could rejoin the game. That's why Grimdow continues to look in the direction Silas flew out.

If he can copy the wind's powers, he should be able to fly back up. Once I send him back, the game is over.

He waited for the announcement of the other two being disqualified.

"Nadine, Silas, and the Sand elemental are out!"

"What, Silas?" He said out loud, Why would the one who could fly choose to touch the ground? He got his answer immediately as his air elemental landed back on the platform and Jacob rose from below with his gun in hand, ready for another barrage.

"it’s useless!" The elemental summoned an air barrier again, but the bullets were slow.

He was doing it again. The Six round acceleration. He tried to find an explanation, but the attack was the same as before. The bullets keep getting hit and gaining speed.

"Take him out, air elemental!" Without Silas to block the wind currents, the elemental could attack without risk.

"Grh!" Jacob did his best to hold onto the platform, but he was getting pushed back. He had to wait for his attack to take effect.

The last bullet hit, and then Grimdow felt the ash go to his feet. "From below?" He had no time to dodge the explosion. The platform on which he was standing shattered, and he was sent to the sand.

"Take me back!" He screamed at the elemental, who did as ordered, but the moment it changed winds, Jacob gunned it down.

The elemental was nothing more than a trained pet; of course it did as it was told and tried to protect its master, but Jacob took advantage of that moment to shoot a barrage and destroy it. Without his pet and having used his orb with wind magic, Grimdow was out of tricks.

He could see the terrified faces of his people as he fell. This was the end…

"NO!" He refused to accept this defeat. He was the master of the fourth caravan. He had to set an example for everyone. He can’t lose here. He activated another orb, and a column of magma came out.

The magma burned his right hand, but the force sent him right back into the field. He was prepared to hit Jacob with one last attack and win. The momentum of the magma sent him too high in the air, so he was still falling. This was going to be the last attack; he could see the desperation in Jacob’s eyes.

The human took position and shot his gun one last time. It was the same technique, but the bullets went in the opposite side. He prepared for another attack in the air, but the ash wasn’t protecting his body.

There was nothing to fear; he fell right back on the platform and used the last orb while the air elemental reformed itself.

"Grimdow is disqualified!" David announced the news with sadness. He couldn’t look at his master in the eyes, so he pointed to his feet.

At that point, he realized he had crushed some fruit with his feet.

"You can’t touch anything else than the platform, and you didn’t have that fruit at the beginning."

"I see you sent those bullets back there to toss the fruit at my feet. You calculate it in just a moment?"

"No, I didn’t aim for a single fruit, but a whole barrel." The fruits were also scattered on the other platforms, and there were more who didn't make it in the sand.

"The air elemental also touched one of them. The game is over, and the winner is Jacob from Dawn!"

"Yes!" Jacob yelled with happiness and looked down from the field at Nadine and Silas. Without their help, he couldn’t have done it.

Nadine gave them the sticky bomb, and Silas put it under the platform and sent him back to the field. They both trusted his judgment and skill with the revolver to pull off the last attack, but they didn’t count on Grimdow’s last attempt to get back inside with the magma.

"Nice one, Jacob!"

"That was some nice quick thinking."

They hugged after he came down; at the same time, the members of the Crimson Caravan were silent with their heads down. They lost the carnival 2-1. This was a complete humiliation.

The leaders were silent, and some of the subordinates were tearing up, biting their lips to try to hold back the tears.

Suddenly, laughter cut the silence like a knife. It was Grimdow.

"hahaha, HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Everyone else began to laugh as well. It wasn’t a fake laugh; the sadness turned into genuine happiness. They were now crying tears of laughter.

He walked in front of Jacob and extended his hand. "Well played, Jacob."