It took quite some time and a team of mages to clean up the massive amount of water that Tsarra had summoned in the arena. It also didn’t help that dark clouds had consumed the once-clear blue sky and were giving off a light rain that blanketed the entire stadium.

The staff were moving quickly to deploy canopies to block the rain. It seemed that whoever built this stadium did consider the rain and snow as a problem, as most of the crowd would be shaded. But that sadly left the contestants exposed to the elements.

“I’m curious to see how Adria Sandervile fights. Her mother was a well-known mage in the war,” Lin said casually.

“I do remember that being mentioned a few times. I believe she was a Master plant mage if my memory serves me right,” I mused.

Lin looked over at me with a raised eyebrow. “And? Can she follow in her mother's footsteps?”

I looked down at the stadium floor as Adria faced off against her opponent from Tel’an’duth. Even with a little bit of mana in my Dragon eye, I could tell what level she was. Or at least what her potential was.

“She can if she has the desire to,” I answered.

Lin and Sylas both nodded quietly to themselves. I honestly wouldn’t have imagined that the little girl who took me in and tried to be my friend would one day hold the power to be amongst the elite of the world.

I highly doubted that Adria was at the level of Grandmaster already. Not even Prince Leopold could claim that title, and he also had roughly the same potential as Adria, maybe just a bit more. I was also willing to bet that he had been training his magic for a lot longer than Adria, as well as being an Elf with a naturally higher mana pool.

Well, that’s all just speculation. I can’t confirm any of that, so I guess we will just have to wait and see how Adria does. But then again…she did injure her opponent pretty severely in her preliminary matches. I just can’t see Adria doing that…

I refocused on the match at hand just in time to watch the referee start the match. The Tel’an’duth student had already drawn one of her twin sabers from her back and was sprinting straight toward Adria.

The Elf looked confident in her abilities to handle a mage. It looked like she had faced many such opponents before. Instead of being a fish dead in the water, the Elf tossed a handful of throwing daggers at high speeds in hopes of distracting Adria for even a moment.

But that didn’t matter at all, as Adria didn’t even flinch. She simply raised her staff, and on command, green vines broke the surface of the arena and swatted the daggers away with a swift strike. It was also at that exact moment that green vines erupted from the floor beneath the Elf in an attempt to grab her.

The Elf tried to cut at the vines but only managed to slice apart a handful of them. The green plants snaked around the Elf’s leg, locking her to the ground. The Elf frantically tried to cut herself free, but what happened next made even me sit at the edge of my seat.

More green vines erupted from the ground, but instead of trying to grab their opponent, they just pierced straight into the Elf’s body. The Tel’an’duth student let out a scream as Adria’s magic impaled her through her thighs, knees, and even shoulders, rendering the Elf completely immobile.

The rainy ground and green plants were dyed red in the blink of an eye. It was a brutal display of power that even surprised the roaring crowd for a moment as they forgot to cheer. But even so, Adria was not done.

Veins wrapped around the Elf’s body whipped her back, and launched her across the arena with extreme force. The Elf crashed into the stone wall, holes in her body and bleeding.

“Ah—The Rose Maiden wins!” the announcer said hesitantly.

The crowd erupted into cheer as Sylas scrunched up his face and watched Adria walk off the platform. “It…it was a one-sided beatdown. Is that Elf even alive?” Sylas muttered with a hint of fear.

“That was indeed a beatdown, but I think that Elf is alive judging by the medical team’s reaction. It looks like Adria Sandervile isn’t taking the same path as all of you. She is showing off her strength and isn’t holding back in this tournament,” Lin said back, somewhat surprised herself.

I didn’t answer either of them. I was shocked to my core, not at the violence itself or the fact that Adria was a skilled mage with spell-core-forming times that rivaled 95% of students already. No, it was that Adria was capable of demonstrating such raw brutality on an opponent during a tournament.

Was that a message to me? It must be…I suppose it was my actions that led Adria to be this way.

“Feeling bad about yourself, Kaladin?” Lin asked me as she gave me a side-eye.

“No. It’s just another trial I have to face.”

—

A day passed, and it was the start of another tournament round. Everyone has officially fought in one match, and we are progressing through the bracket. Also, it seemed the weather was here to stay as the rain only increased in power overnight, turning from a drizzle to a downpour.

I was the second match of the day, and my opponent was Adria. I hadn’t seen her at all since the day before, and I didn’t bother going to watch the first match either. I just sat in my prep room alone, waiting for the official to tell me to go on standby.

The crowd shook the stadium above my head as their cheers rose and fell with the match. That notice for standby did not take long as the knock on my door came. I let out a deep breath and made my way through the underbelly to my side.

By the time I arrived, the stage was ready, and I was quickly ushered to the door. With a countdown and the announcement of my arrival to the crowd, I strode out to my spot, spear in hand. The crowd roared and waved to me, shouting my name and encouraging me. It was…odd having so many people cheer for me in hopes that I crushed my opponent.

I guess no matter the place, no matter the time, or no matter the world, people really do like blood sports.

“We welcome back the mage that won her first match with overwhelming power just yesterday! Give three cheers for Adria Sandervile, The Rose Maiden!”

In equal support, the crowd clapped and shouted for Adria. It made sense, considering she was a princess in her own right. A princess who was more than happy to sate the crowd’s bloodlust.

Adria and I walked to meet each other in the middle, and we stared at each other for a time, seemingly stuck in our own world. She didn’t look angry or vengeful. Instead, she looked at me with a sad frown.

“Kali…” Adria said softly as the rain trickled down her face.

“Young Master,” I said with a grin.

Her eyes went wide for a moment, wiping away that sad frown. She immediately looked up at me and giggled. “You aren’t taking this very seriously, are you, Kaladin?”

I chuckled along with her. “I am. I just don’t want to see you so down on yourself, Adria. I’ve told you before that it wasn’t your fault. Besides, you are here to show me something, right?”

A soft smile spread across her face. She let her staff rest against her and clapped her hands loudly. She took on a more serious posture and pointed her finger directly at me with a look of newfound determination, flicking the rain off her robes and hair.

“You’re right! Just like I said before, as your friend, I’m here to beat you, Kaladin Shadowheart! I’m going to show just how hard I’ve been working!” she announced proudly.

That’s much better. That’s the Adria Sandervile I know.

“I’ll be looking forward to it, Lady Sandervile,” I said with a smile and an extended hand.

Adria shook my hand enthusiastically with a proud smile, and we walked back to our starting positions. The referee raised his arm and let it fall, signaling the start of the match. Yet, the two of us didn’t move.

Perhaps it was just too surreal, but for a moment, I really did hesitate to attack Adria. Things weren’t the same as they were back then. Despite the looming agreement with the queen and what needed to be done, I couldn’t bring myself to hurt her senselessly. Even if the queen forced me, I wouldn’t follow her request, not against Adria.

Even Adria faltered slightly. She didn’t immediately form a spell core or anything. She looked worried again. That determination was slipping away from her eyes. But we both knew it had to be done. We had our reasons to fight each other, even if we didn’t like it.

But that was short-lived. We steeled our resolve, and Adria was the first to form a spell core. Tiny red flowers sprouted in front of her. I decided to keep my distance for the time being and launched a magical attack from range.

Tiny stones separated from the platform around me and shot off through the downpour with loud snaps, cutting the rain like butter. They arrived before Adria in rapid succession, but a wall of green plant matter bloomed in front of her, rendering the stones harmless.

What is that? That wasn’t vines? Did she bloom that giant wall from those flowers?

I pointed my spear forward to launch a more direct attack, but I was forced on the defensive as I watched vines speed underneath the ground and toward me in my Dragon eye. The vines broke the stone platform just in front of me, and there were far more than there had been to the Tel’an’duth High Elf that she fought just yesterday.

Knowing that if I let my guard down, I would be impaled by those vines, I used fire magic for the first time in this tournament. The crowd cheered as a cone of blazing hot heat roared out of my extended hand, making the rain and plant matter sizzle. But I couldn’t help but let my eyes go wide as I was forced to cut down two straggler vines that had made it through my flames.

What? That wasn’t enough to—water…

I realized I was looking at Adria’s magic wrong. I was treating the vines like Varnir’s roots, but that was fundamentally wrong. Adria’s plant magic was far superior as her plants were a vibrant green. And vibrant green plants meant that they were getting plenty of water.

Her magic won’t burn as easily as I anticipated, I suppose. I’ll need to increase the heat. Is she even using the external water and wet ground to feed her plants? If that’s the case, things might be even more challenging. She’s going to be troublesome. I’m impressed.

For a while, Adria and I traded magical attacks. I would send Stone Lances capable of breaking through her wall, and she would continue her assault using her vines I had to take more seriously.

But as I carved another vine in half with my spear, the probing phase ended. I fed mana to my muscles and sprinted straight towards Adria. She wasn’t slacking and had actually planted clusters of roots underground in the middle field to attack me. It was clever, and if it weren’t for my Dragon eye, I would have only heard them coming the moment I got close.

However, with Soul Sight, I could see the largest clusters and avoided them, only springing the smaller traps and easily handling them with a mixture of fire and steel. I was a little over the halfway point and on the edge of the arena, just far enough to see around Adria’s makeshift wall.

I half expected to see her watching me, but she just had her eyes closed in concentration, her lips moving in what I assumed was silent mumbling. I launched a Fireball at Adria, but vines sprouted from the ground and absorbed the impact.

Once the steam from the rain cleared, that’s when I saw something concerning. The plant matter wall had changed; thick black veins squirmed and pulsed alongside it, and veins from the opposite side of the arena and from behind me sprouted with red rose-like flowers on the end of them.

Those same black veins protruded on the surrounding veins, and with a sound like a sword being unsheathed from a scabbard, thin barb-like needles burst from the veins. It looked like thorns.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Oh, that’s not good.

I encapsulated myself in a protective stone barrier using the available platform as quickly as possible, just in time for the barrage of thorns to blanket me. Water splashed on my face as my shield was buffeted by the sheer force and volume of Adria’s attack.

I had to count to five in my head and double-check with my Dragon eye just to make sure there weren’t any more coming. I let the stone wall crumble, revealing the cracked and broken thorns thrown around on the arena floor.

Those things are no joke. They are almost as strong as metal and could easily take a limb or two if they hit the right place and are big enough. Geeze, look at that one…it’s as big as my arm.

I couldn’t let Adria attack me one-sidedly, so I raised my spear into the air. An orange ball appeared at the end and shot off high into the sky like a flare. It arced downward and exploded into small streaks that fell back toward the arena.

I blanketed the arena platform in cluster fire, burning the vegetation or just exploding it entirely. I wiped most of the plant matter out, but Adria’s wall still stood, albeit worse for wear. Holes were burning through them, and I could see Adria from the other side. It looked as if I had hit her in the arm, yet she continued to concentrate and—

What the hell is that?

When I looked back, it wasn’t just Adria’s bright soul I was seeing but something else. Underneath Adria was a spherical spell core of which the likes I had never seen before. It was growing in size rapidly as Adria continued to feed it. Whatever she was doing, it was no plant magic that I knew of.

I increased my speed to the near maximum, more than I ever had during this entire tournament. I cut down vines, burned away launched thorns, and reached Adria’s wall, ready to explode through it with a concentrated point-blank fire spell.

But that never came to pass as I just barely managed to bring my spear to guard my face. It was a blur, and when it hit me, it felt like a truck had run me over. I was forced back and rolled across the arena floor, kicking up water and defending myself from attacking veins.

I stood back up, sliced a vine apart, and barely had time to see the thing that had punched me. It looks like a giant green arm with no hand. But even that was changing rapidly as veins and plant matter swirled around, forming a palm, and then fingers began to grow.

In the middle of the fingers’ growth, another punch was thrown at me. I blocked it with a bit of earth magic and my spear once more and quickly thrust my weapon into the massive arms in an attempt to cut it. But it was like I hit a brick wall. My spear tip barely pierced into it, and like I was just a fly, the arm swatted me away.

That…that is not just plant magic. What is that thing? A living, moving hand? Is this a dungeon item?

I quickly got back up to my feet and fed mana into a spell core. The giant arm rushed me, but I wouldn’t be fooled for a third time. A bright blue flame engulfed my spear tip and increased in intensity. It had been a long time since I had used this, but it was as good a time as any. Adria deserved it with how much she had grown.

The super-heated blue flame calmed and looked like a solid piece of glass. The water droplets sizzled and turned into steam mid-air, not even able to get close to the super-heated spear tip. What was once a brick wall became butter as I sliced the arm in half at the wrist.

I launched myself forward and assaulted the arm, cutting it into chunks and letting it fall to the arena floor. The writhing plant mass seemed to die slowly as it was separated from the main body. And after rendering it to a nub, the arm backed away with its remaining length.

As I returned my focus to Adria, I watched in awe as the spell core rose from the ground, taking the shape of thick, purple and gold vines. It was beautiful in a sense. It almost reminded me of Magic Lilies, but it was just twenty times more dangerous.

The new plant appeared to have consumed Adria, wrapping around her in a protective shell. I launched Fire Lances at the mass in hopes of burning it away, but my regular spells were truly harmless against it. The moment the old arm was utterly absorbed, the growing mass shook and shuttered, and in an instant, it began to expand.

I watched in real-time as what looked to be a monster that I had only seen in books grew in front of my very eyes. Gargantuan arms, thick massive legs, a body that looked muscular and shredded but made out of plants. It looked to be an Elder Treant, a beast that should not have appeared anywhere outside of the Magical Forest on Amoth or in a dungeon.

Things just got even more complicated. Why do I always have to take down big things? Why can’t they ever just be…fast or something simple?

The towering behemoth rose to be as tall as a three-story building. The crowds shouted in a mixture of fear, surprise, and anticipation. Some closest to the arena even began to scramble out from their seats.

With speed that was consistent with monsters of this world, the Elder Treant attempted to squish me flat with its hand. I dodged it to the side, avoiding the massive figure as it destroyed the arena ground, leaving a sizable crater. In the next instant, I whipped around, blocking thorns that had sprouted from its exposed skin and even taking two to my body. Fresh blood dripped down my face, and I let the rain wash it away.

Not only was it fast and monstrously sized, but it also had range attacks, just like the real thing. With my Dragon eye, I could see that Adria was in the center of the beast, most likely controlling it there. The monster attempted to wipe me off the arena by swiping its massive limb across the surface, but I lept over it and fed mana to a combined magic core. Three orange glops of fire formed above me and took the shape of lances.

The intense heat multiplied as the color morphed into a bright white. White hot fire dripped off the lance, singing the rain into mist, and with a wave of my hand, the White Fire Lances launched off toward the monster. If my spell could take down Trolls and force an adult Wyrm to dodge, then I could kill a plant monster.

The three spells impacted different positions; two, I aimed at the left arm and shoulder, respectively, and the other, I sent toward the chest. The spells impacted with tremendous force, knocking the creature over, severing the arm from the shoulder, and dripping white flames onto the creature. But unlike a living monster, it made no noise. Only the sound of the crowd and its crashing to the floor rang out in the stadium.

But it isn’t over. The one aimed at the chest hadn’t penetrated at all. Adria added an extra layer of protection to it just before impact.

And just like an Elder Treant, it began to regenerate at a blinding speed. More purple and gold veins whipped about, replacing the burnt sections and regrowing not only one arm but two extra from the same shoulder. Solid chunks of veins grew from the monster’s back and pushed it straight back to its feet.

While its hand was still reforming, it once again attempted to crush me. This time, dodging was nearly impossible. The two hands were far too large to jump around.

Adria…you really are amazing, aren’t you?

I guess I need to show you everything I have. I’ll have to apologize for thinking that Leopold was better than you. He has nothing on you, even if this is a dungeon item.

—

Adria Sandervile's POV

Crush.

I watched through my shared vision as the hands of my golem crushed Kaladin to the arena floor. A pang of regret struck me, but I knew anything short of that wouldn’t be enough to stop him.

Unlike many people who thought that Luminar was baselessly propping Kaladin up to be something he wasn’t and overstating his skills, I knew better than to believe such drivel. I knew Kaladin was strong. I had seen firsthand what he could do as a young, crippled boy, alone against multiple adults in the middle of a forest.

When I found out that Voker was Kaladin, it all made sense. I believed it without a second thought. I knew he was capable of felling a Dragon, even if it was by luck.

And thus, I knew that if I took him lightly in this fight, I would never get to prove myself to him.

I’m not the same little helpless girl who could only cry when he left me behind. This time, I would show him that I could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him and help him as any friend would.

Yet…it seems I still have further to go. To think he is hiding his true strength til the end.

Through my shared sense, I felt the searing heat build-up. It wasn’t painful, and it didn’t hurt me. It was just a way to feel what was happening to my golem. An enormous tornado of white fire roared to life.

The rain, my golem’s two arms, and even a chunk of the platform were burnt away by the intense magical spell. The white fire was truly beautiful. At least, I thought it was.

Once it cleared and I began regrowing the limbs of my golem, I felt confused at what I saw. Kaladin emerged, standing tall in the ashen crater, lightly injured. In his hand wasn’t the same spear he was using before but an entirely new one.

I knew from watching his previous fight that he had a Spatial Ring. But I hadn’t expected him to use another weapon. But that spear…it was… different.

The smokey gray tip was jagged and with two barbs in descending size. The length was made of a pitch-black metal that I assumed was Mythril, but it was the other end of the spear that caught my attention. At the opposite end of the spear, a golden spike jutted out. It looked less like a decorative piece of metal and more like…

A horn?

With the way the material spiraled and looked, it appeared to be a piece of horn. It was the only thing I could really think of to describe it.

Either way, I have to pin Kaladin down! I can’t give up just because he has a new weapon and is using powerful magic!

I re-doubled my efforts and guided my golem to crush Kaladin once more. I knew that as long as I overwhelmed him with sheer size and speed, I could beat him. But right before my golem crushed Kaladin again, I saw something different.

Golden lighting snaked around Kaladin’s legs, and when the hand of my golem hit the ground, I knew I had somehow missed Kaladin. He…he…

Got even…faster? What is that? Lightning around his body?

Kaladin was running across one of my freshly grown arms with tremendous speed that was double or even triple what he had shown off before. He was a blur that confused my sight, and I had to rely on my golem’s senses to target him.

I tried to force vines out from the arm to grab him, but he was moving faster than I could issue commands. I brought up my other arm to grab him or, at the very least, get him away, but as I reached out to him, Kaladin thrust his spear forward.

The spear pierced my golem’s hand, and I felt the connection sever. The arm expanded and exploded in a blast of blue fire from the inside. The destructive power was unlike anything I had ever seen before.

Blue fire…this is just like his weapon tip earlier, but…this…this is the rumored magic he used to take down the Dragon!

Kaladin leapt in the air, his body covered in streaks of golden lightning, and with a single sweep of his spear, he severed another of my golem’s arms. I had to react. I couldn’t let him get close. I had to force him away.

I controlled the thorns I had been growing in my golem’s chest and let them burst out all at once. The black spines exploded forward like a hail of arrows. It didn’t matter if Kaladin dodged left or right or tried to jump. He couldn't avoid that many projectiles.

Just a single hit, just enough to slow him down. I’ve already regrown three extra arms. I’ll—

My train of thought was cut short as multiple walls of earth magic sprouted up in an instant. The thorns crushed the walls to dust, but it wasn’t enough. Kaladin was reforming wall after wall. My attack wouldn’t break through. I could only watch as Kaladin pointed the golden horn part of his spear at me.

A single blue sphere was at the tip, and he set it free. The air warped from the heat, burning my excess plants and creating a ring of water that didn’t even touch the ground. The sphere widened into a circle, and that’s when I could feel the sheer amount of mana and heat, not through my golem but with my actual body.

He—he’s so strong…does anyone even stand a chance against him? Is he already at the level of the strongest in the world?

Like a cookie cutter moving through fresh dough, the four arms, two legs, and the head of my golem were separated in a flash of blue. The magic ring had cut all my golem’s limbs clean off. Even regenerating them felt more challenging than normal.

I opened a hole in my core to see out as I fell helplessly to the arena floor. A golden blur sprung up in my field of vision, and I watched in slow motion as Kaladin kicked me mid-air, sending me flying backward.

I used what was left of the golem to protect me, but it just wasn’t enough. The sheer strength of Kaladin’s kick destroyed what little protection I had left. I only bounced a single time before being exposed to the outside again.

I felt the air rush out of my lungs, the pain of impacting the floor, and I bounced out of the arena and into the muddy pool of water. I felt my leg break, and the burn that Kaladin gave me earlier stung. But it didn’t sting nearly as bad as my defeat.

“The Dragonslayer has done it! He has defeated the Rose Maiden! What a show of magical power of which the likes we’ve never seen before!”

I could hear the crowd cheering at my loss, drowning out the rainfall and everything around me. I just stared up at the dark sky.

Was it tears or the rain clouding my vision? Had all this time and training been for naught? Had I really amounted to nothing in Kaladin’s eyes?

Knowing him…he’ll be kind…tell me I did a good job…but…he’ll just—

“You’ve grown a lot, Adria. I never expected you would become such a powerful mage in only a few years,” a warm voice called out.

“Kali?” I mumbled, my voice shaking.

Oh, I guess I had been crying, but…he…he didn’t…he didn’t turn his back on me?

“Hey, hey…don’t cry, please. Why are you crying? You fought so well. You should be proud,” he said softly as he knelt down, covering me from the rain.

“You know I really don’t like it when girls cry…I made a promise to myself a long time ago that I would do better about that kind of stuff…well, it seems I still need to work on that,” he muttered awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head.

“You—you aren’t leaving this time?” I said in disbelief.

Kaladin looked down at me with his beautiful gem-like eyes and smile. His hair and face were soaked with rain and a little blood. “I have no reason to leave you this time. I already abandoned a friend once. I really don’t want to do it again.”

“Now, let’s get you up and to the medical team. They sure are taking their time…” he grumbled as he scooped me up effortlessly.

He—he didn’t leave me behind. He really means it…we…are—

“Are we finally friends?” I muttered.

Kaladin’s smile grew as he brought my hood over my head. “Of course we are. The world might not like it, but I don’t really care what others think. Do you?”

“No…No, I don’t mind at all.”