Ace was faster.
This was the first realization Klaus had as he spectated the ongoing battle. Ace had just moved so fast that he was able to search Riley and disarm her of all her weapons before the match had even completely begun.
Riley knew that Ace's speed would be a hindrance to her, especially since her Gaia State required her to be immobile, but Ace being faster than she had anticipated was not good at all for her.
"You really took your training seriously, huh?" Riley commented.
"You have no idea," Ace responded. "I literally started the day the Cosmic League ended."
"Wow," Riley exclaimed. "But how come you're significantly faster?"
"Well, I'm sure telling you wouldn't be beneficial to me, but what I can say is that I trained every day to be able to understand this ability," Ace responded once more.
"Understand?" Klaus whispered to himself back at the spectator's area.
He was surprised at the manner Ace addressed his speed. The way he talked about mastering it made it seem like his speed needed understanding and not consistent training like the average human. Klaus then remembered his conversation with Ace back at the Cosmic League when he requested to know how Ace's speed worked, but couldn't find out since they were not allies at the moment.
This kept Klaus in thought for a while before continuing to spectate to find out more about the ability.
At this point, Riley knew that she had to continue the battle if she wanted to win. Even though her stamina was beyond impressive, Riley was aware that Ace did not require energy to move faster so she knew that she would be the first one to get tired in the fight. This meant that she had to use her abilities wisely and tactically to catch Ace off-guard and give her the win.
"Gaia State," Riley said as she placed her palms on the floor, creating an abundance of roots ahead of her.
Ace smiled as the roots rushed at him with great speed. He then folded his arms before gradually moving aside all the roots that were headed toward him. He dodged all the attacks with relative ease and a smile on his face as the roots continued to rush at him.
It was clear that Ace's speed was unmatched, and that he did not have any intention to switch to offense any time soon. this meant that his control over the match was more than anyone thought.
The roots continued to rush and Ace in a choreographed manner continued to evade them until he realized what Riley was trying to do.
"Wow, didn't see that coming," Ace stated as he stared ahead of him, revealing that the roots were aligned in a way that created a straight path between him and Riley.
The roots continued behind him, creating something like a slim cage with him inside. Ace's vertical and horizontal sides were blocked completely, leaving Riley with a straight path for her to attack.
And with this, Riley sent out a thicker root from where she was directly at Ace who had no way to evade the incoming attack. The attack went straightforward until it finally collided with her opponent and the roots at the end of the path.
She had landed a devastating hit on her opponent.
Riley then removed her palms from the floor ahead of her as she changed her position to a sitting one. She had created a tremendous amount of roots to corner Ace in a way that would give her a sure hit, but this had cost a slight amount of her energy. But for the result, this was more than enough of a trade for her.
But as she sat on the floor to catch the little breath she needed, Riley suddenly heard a noise inside the room she had created with the roots. Suddenly, all the roots around proceeded to cut into pieces, shredding and falling all at once. And at its center was Ace, with his entire body vibrating in a certain manner and his hands apart from each other.
"You're kidding," Riley said to herself as she got up from her position.
Ace halted his vibratory motion before smiling once more and waving at Riley.
"You know you're annoying sometimes, right?" Riley said to Ace with a smile on her face.
"That's the plan," Ace responded with a smile as well.
Ace had just completely shredded all the roots Riley had used to attack and bind him with ease as not a single drop of sweat was even present on him. Riley sighed in frustration for a bit before returning her focus to him.
"I'd ask how you evaded it, but I'm sure the information wouldn't even matter," Riley said.
"Kinda," Ace responded.
"So now what?" Riley asked. "Aren't you gonna try attacking as well?"
Ace smiled before he decided to respond to her question.
"Well, the issue is that if I do attack, it'll probably end the game quickly. So the least I can do is to give the Gods a show, y'know" Ace said.
"Underestimating usually leads to defeat, y'know," Riley responded to him.
"True," Ace then said before continuing. "Then do you wanna see something cool?"
And as Ace said this, he returned to the stance he was in when vibrating his body earlier. His body then, once again, proceeded to vibrate, but this time, it was quicker. This action lasted for about five seconds before Riley immediately noticed what he was doing.
And as Ace continued, three other figures proceeded to spawn beside him, all looking exactly like him.
"Afterimages," Riley exclaimed. "Of course, he can do that."
Riley then placed her hands on the floor, once again utilizing her Gaia State technique. The roots continued to move at Ace, who had somehow quadrupled in number, with hopes to immobilize him.
As the roots reached Ace, all the versions of him simply stood in one place. But as the roots arrived, they all phased through every version of Ace. All the afterimages stayed in their positions and smiled as the roots phased through every one of them. This caused Riley to halt her attack for a brief moment upon realizing it.
Ace then used this opportunity to rush at Riley as all four variants of himself instantly appeared beside her. He then proceeded to combo with himself as all the afterimages hit her from all four sides.
All the variants of Ace placed Riley into a state of no escape as she could not even react to where she was being hit. Riley continued to take heavy blows from all angles as she proceeded to lose consciousness with each connected attack.
"It's like he's performing combos with himself," Link pointed out from the spectator's area.
Ace was completely dominating the fight, and this was what all the demigods had in mind. All hope seemed to be lost for Riley. But she knew that she had to do something before she would lose consciousness completely.
Ace continued to hit her in vital spots as he continued his barrage of attacks. But as Riley continued, she managed to push herself to the ground to stop the relay that was occurring. As she fell to the floor, she placed both palms on the floor to use her Gaia State again.
Suddenly, multiple stems proceeded to spawn around her in rapid succession. The stems proceeded to spawn and grow, causing Ace to retreat by moving back. Ace then stopped the afterimages before turning his attention to Riley who was at the center of all the plants that spawned and covered almost the entire battlefield. He also noticed that all the stems had the same flower grown around the body of each one.
Riley stood up from the ground before turning her focus back to Ace who was barely visible between all the plants and flowers. Her exhaustion was clear as her breathing intensified for a while. She had created multiple plants around her to distance herself from Ace and this proved to be successful.
"You still have some fight left in you, right?" Ace said with a smile.
"I guess I do," Riley responded with a smile of her own.
Ace then proceeded to walk forward at Riley before he suddenly noticed something. Immediately, he fell to his knees as his expression changed from his confidence to a more concerned one.
"What's going on?" Ace muttered to himself.
His eyes were feeling heavy as he tried to stay conscious for some reason, almost like he was poisoned. The dizziness kept enhancing with every second and his body kept feeling weaker and weaker, gradually losing his breath.
Then he realized something. The air around him had a thick aura of what seemed to be pollen oozing from the flowers that bloomed around the plants.
"The flowers," Ace whispered. "They're poisonous."
Ace placed his hands on the ground while still on his knees to prevent himself from falling. The effects of the pollen were clear
"Wow, Ace seems to be losing consciousness for some reason," Iris stated in the spectator's area, confirming her sight of Ace.
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"How?" Trent asked.
"Seems to be the effect of the flowers Riley created," Iris continued.
"Tall palmate purple-blue flowers in clusters that appear to be poisonous," Quinn stated. "If I had to take a guess, these would have to be monkshood, also known as Wolf's Bane."
Klaus was not an expert on plants so he could not confirm this, but he knew that if anyone was to have an idea, it would be Quinn.
"But that doesn't make sense," Link eventually stated. "From what I could notice, Ace didn't have contact with the flowers at all. And no plant in the world is poisonous by just smell alone."
"True," Quinn replied. "But who's to say these aren't flowers that Riley herself created, mimicking wolf's bane and its effects by just smelling them instead? I mean, they are her creation after all."
Quinn's point was fair. There was no confirmation that these flowers weren't of Riley's creation so there was a possibility that they would behave as she intended.
Riley smiled as she continued to breathe heavily to replenish the energy she had lost. The pollen from the flowers didn't seem to have any effect on her so it was safe to assume that she was immune at that moment. She knew that Ace had no way of escaping since almost the entire arena was covered with these flowers, and the effects of the already inhaled pollen were too strong to allow him to escape its poisonous grasp.
Riley was sure that she had won the game.
Suddenly, a small exhale came from Ace before he managed to stand himself back up.
"My bad. I let my guard down a bit too much," Ace muttered before standing back on his feet completely.
As Riley looked directly at her opponent, she noticed a bright smile on Ace's face as he stared back with seemingly no sight of pain whatsoever.
"Now what," Riley exclaimed after noticing that Ace was no longer affected by the pollen of the flowers.
Ace then took his crouched stance once more with his hands apart, but this time his fingers touching each other, as he vibrated both hands with speed.
"Guess it's harvest season," Ace said before suddenly, the plants around him proceeded to shred.
Within a few seconds, Ace instantly destroyed all the plants that filled the battlefield, shredding them and moving them to the field's edges. His constant motion was also able to clear the thick aura that the pollen had created in the arena which made it easier for him and the spectators to see the battle.
"How are you still conscious?" Riley asked in clear confusion about Ace's current state.
"I mean, I do have a fast immune system that instant counters any poisonous effect even before they enter my body," Ace explained. "But I guess I really should stop leaving that off."
Ace had just explained that by will, he was unable to have any poisonous effects active on his body, which meant that the pollen initially having effect was the cause of his sloppiness by willingly lowering his defenses drastically.
Riley was all out of ideas and all she could do was stand and stare in disbelief. The fact that Ace was able to destroy all the plants in seconds meant that he had the chance to eliminate her anytime he wanted. This gave Riley a clearer dynamic of the battle, revealing that Ace had been on top since the battle's commencement.
"She's realizing that it's futile," Quinn stated back at the spectator's area.
All hope seemed to be lost for Riley as she worded out a few words.
"I forfeit."
Her forfeit made sense since there was no possible way she could eliminate Ace at such a tremendous speed gap. Ace's training clearly paid off and this was the verdict of a lot of the demigods that spectated the battle.
"Are you certain?" XVII asked Riley before commencing.
But before Riley could confirm her forfeit, her eyes suddenly widened at the realization of something.
"Wait, hold on," Riley said with her eyes still widened. "Oh my Gods, I'm an idiot."
She then turned to XVII and the others in the spectator's area before proceeding.
"I'm sorry, but no. I don't forfeit. I forgot that I had a freaking trump card."
Everyone turned to each other in confusion. Not just the fact that Riley had almost forfeited the match, but the statement of a trump card being present for her.
"Is that fine?" Quinn asked XVII to confirm if Riley could decline the confirmation.
"As long as the winner has not been declared, or that she has not perished in battle, she is still a fighter," XVII explained.
Ace stared at Riley in surprise at her decline of confirmation and wondered what she had meant by her statement.
"Trump card?" Ace asked.
Riley then stood straight and closed her eyes. She stretched her hands out and moved them upwards and apart, while taking a deep breath in, before finally joining both of her palms together after her inhaling stopped. She held her breath for about a second or two before finally exhaling heavily, with her palms still joined together around her chest.
"Her technique," Lance suddenly started at the spectator's area while all this was happening, and still focusing on the battle. "She's trying to increase her concentration to enter a state of tranquility, ultimately giving her a better focus on her surroundings."
"How would that help against Ace?" Tyler asked rightfully.
"Because," Quinn said, while also focusing on the fight. "It allows her to become one with Nature."
And a few seconds after Riley exhaled, before anyone could say anything more, Riley finally stated something.
"Ventus State."
Immediately after these words were stated by Riley, noticeable sounds of wind proceeded to occur around the entire battlefield. Fast gushes of wind proceeded to spawn around Riley as she still had her eyes closed and her palms together.
"What's happening?" Ace wondered as he started to feel the swift nature of the winds that started to fill the battlefield.
He wondered if allowing Riley to do what she was doing was a good idea for him and he started to worry if he might have jeopardized his chances of winning. But he shook all those thoughts out of his head since he perceived them to be impossible.
"Did she just say Ventus?" Link asked at the spectator's area. "That's new."
All the demigods stared as strong forces of wind filled the entire battlefield. Ace was starting to feel worried so he decided that he would have to switch to offense.
Suddenly, Ace appeared directly in front of her with his fist, pointed directly at her, and almost close to coming in contact. But instead of landing the blow, it appeared as if Ace was frozen in place.
The sounds of wind roared as a mighty force gushed from behind Riley, heading toward where she was facing and against Ace. Ace's body stayed in the same location for almost a second before the force of wind instantly hurled his entire body to the end of the battlefield, slamming to the wall.
"What is going on?" Siren asked at the spectator's area. "Everything is happening so fast."
"I had to replay it at the slowest possible speed I could," Link started. "But from what I could understand, Ace charged towards Riley in an attempt to attack, but a sudden gust of wind repelled him away."
"So that means this state allows Riley to manipulate wind forces," Quinn then added.
"I guess," Link then replied with a voice that sounded exactly like Klaus'.
Klaus turned to Link in reaction to hearing his voice but turned away without saying anything after noticing Link's expression.
Ace managed to raise his head from his fallen state. His body had slammed onto the wall by an unexpected force of wind and things were starting to look rough for him. He knew that he had to be serious from this point onward.
"Guess she wasn't kidding about the trump card," Ace said while rubbing his head in slight pain and getting up.
Ace got up while holding his right shoulder with his left hand. He seemed to be having pains in his right arm due to the contact between him and the wall. Ace stared at Riley, noticing that she had been in the same spot for about twenty seconds altogether at this point. And after a few seconds, something changed.
Riley still had her palms together and her eyes closed, but at this point, her feet had risen from the ground and she was floating. A ferocious wind blew around her as she continued to levitate, with her dark brown hair also floating and spreading.
After what seemed like an eternity of total concentration, Riley finally opened her eyes gradually, revealing a noticeable glow to her naturally green eyes.
"You done?" Ace asked as he smiled at Riley who had finally finished her transformation.
Riley stared at Ace in silence, which was interpreted by Klaus that she had decided not to speak to keep her bond with nature strong. Her silence, bundled with her floating presence, made her current state even more frightening as her palms remained together.
Ace then took his stance once more, preparing to rush at Riley once more and deal the winning blow since he no longer liked his odds in the battle. But before anything else could happen, Riley finally lifted her right palm from its position and placed it ahead of her, with her fingers still touching each other and her left hand remaining in its position.
Immediately Riley's right hand came to a stop, Ace noticed something extremely strange about himself.
"What's this," Ace asked in hesitant disbelief. "I can't move."
Ace had just claimed that he was unable to move at all, despite his speed. The raging sounds of the winds in the arena continued to howl as the entire battlefield was enveloped in it. But Ace's current situation was a bit more confusing than usual.
Ace felt as if he was feeling tremendous forces of wind from every single angle on his body, meaning that the strange wind was heading directly to him from all sides of his body, almost like he was a catalyst of their attraction. This was potentially why he was unable to move at all since the power of the wind was too ferocious that he simply could not move against it, and due to its peculiar pattern, he was unable to even build momentum from any direction.
The force of the wind was so strong that Ace's body felt numb just by standing still, although, the situation would have been worse for him if the wind forcefully rushed at him instead of the flowing motion that they had to keep him in place currently. He still kept trying to outpace the winds regardless, since his speed was superior to the wind's, but this did not seem to do anything but make his body feel numb.
Riley then turned her head as she noticed one of the daggers Ace had picked from her earlier in the round on the floor. She then gradually moved her left hand to where the dagger was, while still keeping her right hand forward.
Suddenly, the dagger proceeded to float before rushing directly to her. It then came to a stop on her left as she grabbed the dagger with her left palm. Riley then turned her attention back to Ace who was finding it difficult to do anything about the wind that consumed the entire battlefield.
And in an instant, before anyone could realize it, Riley appeared directly in front of Ace, with the dagger pointed at his neck. Her speed was so fast, that she arrived at the location before a tremendous force of wind followed behind her, queuing the swift sound of the wind after her arrival.
Riley stared directly into Ace's eyes awaiting his response to the situation, and Ace knew that he was in a situation where there was nothing he could do. It was pointless to try and do anything when his speed was being nullified. Ace had slight frustration in his eyes, but he knew that he had tried his best, so he didn't mind anymore.
"Fine, I forfeit," Ace stated after a smile ran through his face.
"Are you certain?" XVII asked him.
"Yeah," Ace then responded as he turned his eyes to Riley, noticing her deep concentration not changing one bit.
"Then the winner of the battle is... Riley Greene."
XVII's confirmation of Riley being the victor meant that the battle had finally concluded.
"That was one heck of a trump card," Shade muttered.
"I know, right?" Link responded. "She literally got saved by the confirmation screen."
Riley, upon realizing she was declared as the winner, then dropped her right palm from pointing at Ace throughout, as well as the dagger she had used. She then smiled, before the strong winds proceeded to subside after each second.
As the strong winds turned into a gentle breeze, Riley's glowing eyes, which represented her Ventus State, reverted to their normal state. Riley then suddenly fell to the ground in an unconscious state, which raised the question that if Ace had not surrendered fast enough and if she was unable to kill her opponent, she may have not been able to keep the state active for long enough.
Ace then fell to a seated position as well since his body felt numb after his release from the binding forces of the wind. The fight was finally over, so he lay on the floor before suddenly dematerializing from the battlefield, alongside Riley.
"That was something else," Quinn stated after the departure of the battle members.
"Yeah," Rose stated. "Who would've thought Riley's trump card was almost like a direct counter to Ace?"
"Honestly," Quinn replied. "Frankly, if Riley had lost there, I don't see any other person who would've been able to eliminate Ace if he had gone further."
"You'd never know," Klaus then stated to Quinn with his normal expression.
"Well," Quinn responded. "I guess that's true."
After a while of conversation and analysis of the previous battle by the demigods, Ace and Riley finally returned to the arena. The demigods welcomed and congratulated them for their performance. Although Ace had lost, he was still very energetic and positive, which made the other demigods feel better for him.
And after a few more minutes, XVII finally walked forward to announce the next fighters. The demigods were more focused on this announcement especially, since there were four individuals left to battle and the announcement would also confirm the fighters of the next and final battle of the first round of the Divine Tournament.
"The next battle is... Link Atlas vs Tyler Justice."