“Ladies and gentlemen! Are you ready… for the semi finals?! This match will decide who among our talented contestants will gain the opportunity to compete in the finals, as well as who will be knocked out of the running.”

“Please welcome team A3 and A9!”

Cerion actually waved at the stands as we entered the arena, enjoying the attention. Always a crowd pleaser.

Arcellus wasn’t in the mood for that, however. No, his feral grin signified that he came here looking for something far more interesting.

He was here to fight, to test his mettle against our own. That was something I could relate to far more easily.

“On one side, the [Sunscorched swordsmen] Peter Arcellus and his companion, [Burning warrior] Aleph! Arcellus’ scathing hot fire has allowed him to dominate the competition practically on his own. Will team A9 be even stronger, now that their team has reunited, or will team A3’s [Overloading Death Knight] Arthur make quick work of Aleph like he did in the second round?

[TIdal swordsman], Cerion Rass has joined him to make sure they win, regardless!”

“Oh, and what’s this? Peter has equipped a title, [Sunblessed]! I have no idea what it does, but it sounds impressive!”

I grunted as I saw the golden textbox appear above Arcellus’ head. Somehow, it perfectly resembled Arcellus’ penchant for showing off.

“What do you think? Time to show off?” I asked Cerion quietly.

“Normally, I would refuse to match his actions, but this time we are also representing our factions. No doubt, there are some political intentions paired to Arcellus’ battle lust this time. We can’t afford to be outdone by him.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” I grumbled, before equipping my own title.

From the audience’s reaction, I could tell our titles became visible, because the moment we equipped them, their screaming, shouting and cheering grew even more.

What I forgot to put into perspective was that titles were rare, exceedingly so. Any person that reached tier 5 would automatically be given one, but those in the kingdom that had a title at tier 2 could probably be counted on both hands.

“Would you look at this, everyone! Both Cerion and Arthur have matched their opponent’s actions and equipped a title of their own! They match, even. The [Dark prodigy] and [Water prodigy] won’t be outdone! Get ready for what could possibly be the most heated battle of the bracket!”

“Both teams are in position, the match will begin in 3…2…1… start!”

“And… they’re off!” Arthur initiates with…”

I drowned out the sound of the crowd and the announcer as I moved, leaving cracked stone wherever I put my feet down. By the time I had reached our opponents, Arcellus had already set his sword aflame and met my own with a parry.

Cerion and I had agreed on a rudimentary plan before the match, since we knew our opponents ahead of time for once. I would be distracting Arcellus while Cerion dealt with Peter’s companion, an arrogant no-name that could only prove to be distracting otherwise.

Cerion had surged after me as I had approached, so he was on top of Aleph at the same time as I had attacked Arcellus.

As our blades met and he redirected my initial blow, he swung his sword’s pommel at my forehead. I dodged to the right, but his guard still left a cut on my brow before I made enough distance.

“There’s more spirit in your eyes this time, necromancer. Have you finally gathered the courage to face me?” Arcellus taunted.

I sighed. If he intended to unsettle me, he would have to be a little more creative.

“Not a necromancer, choir boy.” I quipped back. That little comment seemed to have gotten under his skin, though, because he made a noise not dissimilar to growling when he heard it.

“And I’m not a part of the church, mongrel!”

I chuckled. I had known that. That’s why I said it, after all.

He pointed his open palm to the sky and summoned a miniature sun, which he threw in my direction. I easily dodged it, but something about the way he grinned as I did so told me that was his intent.

“I wasn't aiming for you, idiot.”

I looked over my shoulder, scared that Cerion had been hit, but he, too, was fine, leaving me perplexed.

Instead, the small sun had zoned in on Arcellus’ companion, Aleph. As he was hit, the sun didn’t explode. Rather, it turned into a blanket of fire, covering Aleph from head to toe.

The audience became silent and watched in horror as Aleph began to scream his lungs out from the pain.

Surprisingly, Arcellus was still smiling. A moment later, I found out why. Aleph was still burning, but he had turned silent. Then, with a guttural, animalistic roar, he threw himself at Cerion.

My friend defended himself by trying to douse his opponent with a tidal wave, but no luck. His flames continued to burn.

“So he’s a fire-affinity berserker?” I asked rhetorically, not expecting an answer.

“Something like that.” Arcellus replied, giggling weirdly. “He’s a pet my father got for me. Doesn’t burn, no matter how wild I become, you see…”

“You are an impressive kind of ‘fucked up’, did you know that?” I asked stoically, trying to ignore the implications of what he had said.

Arcellus' sadistic grin turned into a frustrated smile.

“Just shut up and fight, Arthur. Entertain…me.” he said with gritted teeth, anticipating our fight.

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At that point, I finally understood just what I was facing. Arcellus wasn’t an arrogant rival, or a stereotypical noble. He was just insane. Just like that necromancer. Therefore, I would treat him the same way I treated that necromancer. No mercy.

From there, it was like a switch had been flipped. Since Arcellus wanted a true fight, I would give him one.

My maelstrom erupted around me, the overloaded mana running wild and nearly falling apart. my core hummed with power, pumping mana into and out my body constantly.

There was no point in fighting him with pure swordsmanship. There was no point in trying to defeat him in one blow. I would outlast him anyway.

Before I knew it, several flaming orbs were flying in my direction. I sent out sword arcs to intercept them and created overloaded orbs with my other hand, slowly sending them out and blasting the arena apart.

As I pushed my core to the limit and my mana started to turn my veins black, all of my attacks further increased in power. Add to that my title’s 5% boost, and I was stronger than I had ever been.

I saw Arcellus desperately trying to defend himself from the attacks I sent at him from all angles, a happy grin on his face the entire time.

“So you were hiding this much power, Arthur?!” he shouted gleefully.

I responded by turning it up another notch and speeding up my attack pattern even more. As my black mana arced across the arena, leaving deep grooves in the stony underground, I could start to see some chinks in Arcellus’ armor, figuratively speaking. He had hardly any defensive skills to speak of. Meanwhile, the attacks that got through my sword arcs just impacted my maelstrom futilely, not even leaving a scratch.

From the corner of my eye, I could tell that Cerion was struggling with his opponent. For some reason, the burning, unintelligible berserker was fast, strong and tough enough to go blow for blow with him, which meant that Cerion’s favorite long range attacks became hard to use effectively.

At this rate, their battle would take too long and exhaust him. Quickly, I came up with a small plan, that would allow me to speed things up a little.

I shifted focus from Arcellus to Aleph, the flaming animal that was using his bare hands to send Cerion flying.

I threw my overloaded orb near his feet, rather than Arelluc’s, and sent him flying into the arena wall. Before he could recover, I sent a few sword arcs his way. That would be enough to draw his attention to me.

Sure enough, the burning corpse that was Aleph jumped out from his crater and jumped at me, this time, slamming into my maelstrom.

Luckily, Cerion had caught on to what I wanted to do, because he stayed back and started to charge up his signature skill, with the intent of finishing Aleph in one blow.

That meant that I had to defend myself from both of team A9’s members at the same time though.

What I should have expected, however, was that this course of action would send Arcellus into a rage as well.

“Am I not strong enough to keep your attention, Arthur?!” he screeched. “Am I not enough to hold your attention?!”

I knew his fury was genuine, because veins had appeared on his neck.

Unfortunately for him, my plan had worked. All it took was a few seconds of exposure before Aleph was sheared by the maelstrom. His wounds healed quickly, but I only needed to weaken him. As Aleph, or what used to be Aleph, reeled back in pain, Cerion’s [Torrential cyclone] tore through the sky like a dragon in flight, and tore into Aleph’s weakened form.

His attack continued to rain down for a few more seconds. When it finally abated, a doused, burned corpse came back into view and flopped on the ground, unconscious. He was teleported away for medical attention right after.

“While this was happening, Arcellus continued to bombard by maelstrom with solar attacks, forcing me to take defensive measures. Once, I even had to restart the skill to recover the barrier. Luckily, Arcellus hadn’t landed any solid hits.

Now that Aleph was out of the picture, Cerion and I were ready to tag team Arcellus and finish this fight. Our opponent didn’t take that revelation well.

As one of Cerion’s water balls hit him in the face and sent him reeling, he snarled in anger.

“So that’s it, then? You’re not going to give me the fight I want, Arthur? Don’t you enjoy the thrill of battle as well? Don’t you like standing at the edge of life and death? Don’t you want this, as I do?” he shouted psychotically.

“Did you think I was a kindred spirit? What gave you that idea? You’re half right. I don’t enjoy fighting. I enjoy beating, crushing, destroying… people like you.” I replied, matching his earlier tone.

“You alright there, Arthur? It sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder.” Cerion whispered, half in jest.

“Shut up, Cerion. I’m trying to enjoy this moment.”

Sure enough, from the way Arcellus' face twisted, I had hit a sore spot.

He didn’t reply to my taunt. Instead, he screamed. An unintelligible shout, that nonetheless was very effective.

He must have activated a skill as he did so, because the midday sun became glaring, its heat causing us all to sweat. Arcellus’ form started to shimmer, the same way the air did on a very hot day. Then, his skin lit up, shining orange light. His eyes became yellow and shone like two small suns, as his veins turned yellow as well.

His hair stood up and was lit aflame as a final touch, revealing Arcellus in all his glory, as if he was some kind of god.

The skill certainly matched his arrogance. Unfortunately, we didn’t know what this dramatic transformation did.

It didn’t take long to find out. I sent a sword arc at him, trying to take the initiative. He didn’t even bother to block and just took the hit. My attack was destroyed before it reached him though, as if it melted in the air.

Instantly, I knew what had happened. I had seen this occur before and was, in fact, rather familiar with this phenomenon. My skill had destabilized as the mana that made up the skill dissipated. This happened when my overloaded skills overwhelmed other mana-based projectiles by destabilizing the mana that fueled it.

Something about Arcellus’ aura was destroying nearby mana. On top of that, the heat he emanated made melee combat a bad idea as well.

Arcellus knew this too, and rushed at us both, sword drawn.

“You’ll pay for underestimating meeee!” several voices seemed to scream at once.

As he approached, the heat became unbearable. I created a maelstrom, but it dissipated once he came closer.

Sure enough, the overloaded mana I kept stored in my surroundings was being converted to fire-aspected mana. When he got close enough, even the mana in my body was starting to act up. Luckily, Dark form ran a tight ship and quickly took control over my internal mana again.

Cerion wasn’t so lucky. Blisters started to appear near his veins and arteries as fire mana replaced water mana. Normally, fire mana wouldn’t have harmed him, seeing as all mana remains in a neutral state when not controlled by a skill. Fire mana would stay near hot places, but it wasn’t hot by itself, unless, of course, one of Arcellus’ skills made it hot.

Despite the pain, he remained standing and was using skills as he burned from the inside out.

I knew I would have to finish this battle quickly if I wanted to win, so I decided to throw caution to the wind. I would have to use my new sword skill. [Mana intrusive swordsmanship].

I ran to the center of the arena to meet Arcellus in the middle, causing him to grin in anticipation.

The air around us was starting to boil, the earth began to melt. All of my equipment, except for the tier 4 sword I was wielding, was turning red hot. I couldn’t feel it though. I couldn’t feel pain at all. I couldn’t feel anything at all. I knew dark form would heal me faster than I would burn. That was all that mattered.

When our swords finally clashed, we forgot about defense and just swung, parried and countered. With each clash, his glowing sword would create sparks as it hit my pitch black two hander. We managed to leave cuts on one another, but nothing serious enough to matter. Arcellus’ skin had become tougher to pierce and, more often than not, my attacks just glanced off. The small cuts I did manage to create wouldn’t have been enough to weaken him. At least, that would have been the case if I hadn’t continuously sent overloaded mana into his veins.

Cerion kept trying to send attacks at Arcellus, but they were futile and evaporated before they even came close. From the corner of my eye, I could see my friend keel over, the pain from the mana finally becoming too much. He was teleported away a moment later.

Arcellus wasn’t much better. His yellow, supercharged veins were starting to darken, his eyes starting to wane.

He knew he wouldn’t outlast my healing. He stepped back in anger and shouted.

“Since you didn’t give me a fair fight, I won’t give you one either!” he said, before erupting into flame and flying at me like a comet. I blocked his sword and redirected its force, but he had other ideas. He let go of his weapon and let if fly out of his hands, before drawing a dagger, seemingly from nowhere, and stabbing it straight into my heart.

The audience gasped and I probably would have been teleported away, if it wasn’t for me grabbing Arcellus’ arm and lifting my sword with the other hand, much like I had done in the last round. Then, I decided not to hold back and cut off his arm in one swing, using all of my force and mana.

With his remaining arm, he grabbed my shoulder and spoke.

“That was… one h-hell of a f-fight…”

The pain from the overloaded mana and the loss of an arm was enough to finally knock out Arcellus, who collapsed as his skill dissipated, his arm sliding off my shoulder and flopping to the ground.

I slid the dagger out of my body and watched as my flesh slowly started to knit itself back together again.

The end of the match was a blur. The announcer declaring our victory, the crowd cheering.

Still looking at my wound, all of this passed me by.

“Looks like this will take a few minutes to heal…” I muttered as I walked back to the waiting room.