“In a surprising turn of events, Zane summons a scale armored knight!” Wilder narrated. “Just what does this knight have in store for us.”
“It’s not even a knight,” Zane muttered as Ravelous seemed to be looking around the arena.
Lina didn’t seem to care about the new arrival and just charged once again. This time, her entire arms transformed into beast-like arms with orange fur and sharp claws. Lina rushed Ravelous, aiming her claws at its head.
Lina’s claws stopped a few inches from Ravelous’s head as the summoned creature grabbed the limb. In a swift motion, Ravelous spun and slammed Lina on the ground, creating a massive crater. Next, he tossed her across the field and then his helm opened like it was liquid to reveal a dark void and fired a beam of corrupted energy.
Lina’s claws stretched and dug into the ground to regain her footing, then she began rushing around the field to avoid the beam. Lina was very fast, somehow managing to outrun the beam of energy chasing her.
But to her surprise, Zane intercepted her and landed a heavy hit to her face and knocking her back into the beam. Zane hoped that the dire situation would force her to reveal her true form, but Lina took the hit and was eviscerated by the attack.
“And Zane takes the win!” Wilder exclaimed as the magic domain was undone.
Zane kept his eyes on Lina who laid motionless on the ground. He was conflicted in exposing her as a monster, or letting her be as there’s no proof of her being a monster.
“What the hell should I do?”
-------
The semifinals were where things started to get very serious. Tasha knew that since her opponent was considered to be the most likely to win by her family. She didn’t care about what they say online, they weren’t experts, so they wouldn’t know who was truly the biggest threat.
Tasha observed the man from a distance, watching as he went towards the infirmary. If she remembered correctly, this was where his previous opponent was taken.
“Is he going to check on her?” Tasha wondered.
Unless they knew each other, Tasha saw no reason for him to even check on his defeated opponent.
When he entered the room, Tasha peeked through the glass window on the door and saw him just standing beside her bed as if waiting for something to happen. That lasted for a couple of minutes to the point that Tasha was about to leave, but Lina had chosen that moment to wake up.
------
Zane stared at Lina who had just woken up. His neutral gaze caused her to fidget uncomfortably, making the situation awkward.
Zane decided to break the silence by being direct and blunt. “Who are you?”
“What are you talking about?” Lina replied. “We’re not close enou-”
“What does as a shifter want in this tournament?”
Lina flinched. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she tried to deny, but Zane’s face was hardened.
“Did an organization send you?”
Lina looked around the infirmary, finding it unusual that there wasn’t anyone else inside at all. “Leave me alone... I just want to live my life.”
“Lina’s life?”
“My life!” Lina yelled. “I am Lina!”
“I know how a shifter’s ability work,” Zane stated.
“Well, you don’t know everything!” Lina got up from the bed. “This is how I really look from the moment I was born! I’ve never eaten a human, nor even needed to,” Lina demonstrated by transforming into a feminine version of Zane, catching him off-guard. “I can’t do males though....” Lina returned to her supposedly original form.
“This can only mean that she’s a half-breed.”
“A half-breed?” Zane spoke.
Lina raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”
“I’m going to need an explanation.”
“The only way she could have a humanoid base is because one of her parents is a human and the other is a shifter.”
Zane nodded. “One of your parents is a human and the other is a shifter,” Zane repeated to Lina.
“I’ve never met them...”
“I see...”
------
Back in the arena, Lance and Sylvinia’s battle was about to begin. Wilder was doing the usual, trying to hype up the crowd as the two competitors entered the arena.
“Who do you think is going to win?” Lina asked.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
In a surprising turn of events, Zane and Lina sat beside each other to watch. “I don’t really know anything about them much.”
Lina raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you fight Sylvinia in the first round and was in the same group as Lance?”
Zane raised his hand in surrender. “In my defense, I don’t give a shit about them.”
Lina stared at Zane with a strange look. “You’re a weird person.”
“I’m sure I’m going to hear that a lot more in the future,” Zane replied as the match began.
Since they were seated in a contestant reserved booth, they had a good view of the match. Both of them had a clean shot of Lance almost getting impaled by tree roots before floating up into the air.
“The human is using an artifact.”
“He has a dragon trigger?” Zane muttered.
“Huh? How do you know that?” Lina asked.
“Um... I could sense it?” he answered, but Lina just turned back to the match with doubt in her eyes.
Lance conjured a magic in the sky with the emblem of a dragon. When the magic circle shattered, a black sphere appeared and began sucking in everything. The ground, the roots, and even the air inside the magic domain.
“The prick made a black hole!” Lina exclaimed.
“This tournament is full of surprises folks! Lance had just used a spell-based dragon trigger!” Wilder exclaimed as well. “This is the first time we see an actual dragon trigger in action!”
“I’ve been using mine every round...”
“You manifest the dragon, but nobody has actually seen the dragon trigger,” Lina commented.
“Touche.”
Sylvinia used her roots to tie herself down to the ground, but the sheer power of the black hole was tearing the roots and the ground beneath her. Despite the odds, Sylvinia didn’t want to go down without a fight.
Several magic circles appeared around her. Some were shattered by the black hole, but a few of them activated and conjured a black ball. They were pulled towards the black hole before suddenly exploding and releasing a black gas that was immediately absorbed by the black hole.
“Sylvinia fights back, but her efforts were in vain,” Wilder commented.
“Not yet!” Sylvinia yelled, then a massive building-size tree shot out of the ground.
The black hole began tearing apart the tree, but it distracted Lance long enough for him to not notice that Sylvinia was right under him.
“Take this!” Sylvinia had a magic circle in each hand, then slammed them together.
Purple roots shot out of the ground and wrapped around Lance’s legs. He used wind magic to try and cut them, but the roots didn’t even budge.
“This won’t change anything,” Lance said as the black hole completely sucked in the massive tree.
Sylvinia smirked. “Sure it is.”
The roots shot out towards the black hole and began getting sucked in, then a moment later, the roots were ripped out of the ground. That’s when Lance noticed that the roots bound to him were connected to the roots being sucked into the black hole.
Lance was pulled into his own spell, but before he was sucked in, he raised both arms toward Sylvinia. “Black hole dragon!”
A black dragon manifested. The dragon had a miniature black hole on its chest, the tip of its tail, and in between the tips of its two hooked horns.
The dragon slammed down on its claws on Sylvinia, then the magic domain shattered, reverting both of them back to their normal states.
“Just when Lance was about to face defeat. He manifests a dragon to turn things around!” Wilder yelled. “Lance wins the first match of the semifinals!”
“It’s my turn now.”
------
The last match had just reminded Tasha of what she was facing. Personally, she didn’t think her opponent was stronger than her. Without his dragon manifestation, Tasha was pretty sure that she could beat him head on.
“In this match. We will find out who will be facing Lance in the finals!” Wilder yelled as he flew over the arena.
“So... without further ado, let the match begin!”
Tasha rushed her opponent, reaching him within seconds. Thanks to her family’s mana control method, her physical abilities were greatly boosted by her mana. With a heavy swing, Tasha felt the sensation of bones breaking as her opponent blocked her attack.
He was blown back and clutched his broken arm as he landed across the field. To her surprise, his arm that she broke recovered after he transformed into its draconic form.
Tasha spat on the ground and charged once again. However, this time her opponent began avoiding her attacks. It seemed that his mana control boosted his own speed as well, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to keep up with her.
But it was futile. “Gear shift!” Tasha exclaimed as the colorless mana surrounding her turned green.
She threw a straight punch towards her opponent, but Zane caught her fist with one arm as a small shockwave erupted upon impact. The mana surrounding Zane had flared up and Tasha noticed his muscles tense up.
“You motherfu-” Tasha didn’t get to finish as Zane spun and tossed her across the field.
Tasha dug her feet into the ground to brace herself as her mana turned orange. “Gear shift!”
Tasha became even faster as she shot toward Zane. This time Zane couldn’t avoid her attack and Tasha landed an attack to his side, followed by a shot to his gut.
“Take this!” mana spiraled around her fist as she connected an uppercut.
Despite the relentless attacks, Zane was only pushed a single step back.
“How the fuck are you so tough?!” Tasha yelled.
Zane smirked. “You enhance yourself using mana,” Zane grabbed her wrist. “I’m already physically strong.”
“Bullshit!” Tasha jumped and slammed both feet into Zane’s chest, releasing herself from his grip and gaining some distance. “Since this is a magic domain. I don’t need to be worried about going beyond my limit!”
Tasha’s mana turned red, then a silver jacket wrapped around her. Her brother had given her a gift. Tevan had specifically mentioned to only his gift when needed since she still lacked training on using a Dragon trigger.
This was a special occasion.
“RAAAHHHH!!!” Tasha yelled as her mana flared up.
“Okay... this is getting risky,” Zane spoke.
Tasha vanished from her spot, then appeared behind Zane to deliver a powerful right hook. Zane was blown away and sent tumbling across the battle field. Tasha wasn’t done yet as she leaped into the air, aiming to bring down both her fists on Zane like a hammer.
However, a black of energy interrupted her. When she got up and looked around for her attacker, she found Zane’s summoned creature.
“You’re a lot stronger than I expected,” Zane mentioned as he got up.
Tasha greeted her teeth and attacked. “RAAHHH!” with a shout, Tasha charged.
The summoned creature wasn’t as fast as her, but it somehow kept up, avoiding or blocking any attack she threw at it. What frustrated her the most was when the summoned creature grabbed her head, then all of a sudden, the world changed.
“Huh? What happened?” Tasha looked around in confusion.
She was sitting on the ground as the magic domain had shattered. There was no sign of Zane’s summoned creature.
“Did I lose?”
“With a quick end to the match! Zane takes the win!”