Soon enough the rest completed theirs and were teleported back to the arena, the spell engraved into the floor was activated once again healing the contestants and bringing their mana pool back to it's full reserves.
The announcer ran his gaze along the crowd looking mildly serious, then he cracked a smile.
"If any one of you have ever dreamed of seeing the day gods fall.....congratulations, this is the closest you will ever have to seeing that dream fulfilled".
"Four down, ten more to go".
"And out of the one hundred and six contestants that participated in this round only twenty two remain as most others suffered a mutual loss".
"A first in the history of this tournament, oh yes".
"Now this is where things get a little interesting".
"The semi finals will allow you the freedom to continuously challenge others if you so wish it until either you lose or we're down to the finalists".
"Once down to the last four of you the contestants beaten by the finalists will each have a chance to compete for third and fourth place".
"But in the meantime, a round of applause for you monsters".
"Finally bringing the most life to this tournament after nearly destroying it all in the first place".
"You are redeemed".
The crowd clapped and cheered for nearly a quarter of a minute before the announcer asked for calm, he smiled and snapped his fingers reopening the doorways for them to enter the new stage.
"Now then, you're all prim and proper for the new round".
"Let us continue then shall we?".
The contestants walked through the doorway to be met with a sea of seemingly endless lava with some superheated rock formations ranging from mountainous to hill-like spread around for miles on end, the sky was full of darkened reddish clouds and there was no escape from the heat as even the winds that blew were charged with it.
Walking upon the sea of lava Rozaria came face to face with her decided opponent, she rolled her eyes tiredly at him and heaved a small sigh.
"Of course I got the mindless brute".
Sarang grinned showing his fangs "A brute I am, though mindless I am not".
"But perhaps you were hoping for Noctis?"
He teased and almost immediately he could see the look of disgust in her eyes-
"By the goddess no, his nature is too annoying to fight without preparations I haven't yet completed".
He raised a brow "hoh? So I guess you do expect him them, though later than now".
She shrugged and he burst out with a deep hearty laugh bearing an animalistic presence as his majestic mane swayed in the wind, the beastman calmed from his amusement and stared at her with focused golden pupils.
"Then ill apologize Rose, you might not get the chance to meet your love this tournament".
A deadly light flashed in her starry green eyes upon hearing a particular word in that last sentence-
"Careful young pup, lest you permanently become a lion with no mane".
"Wonder how attractive you'll look to every potential mate of yours then".
She flashed him a sweet smile and Sarang could his spine grow a bit colder at her words, the pride a lion beared in it's mane could never be understated and Rozaria was not one for empty threats.
"Touchè".
The beastman leaned forward and burst out with explosive speed but all of a sudden found himself getting repelled just as fast into a mountainous rock formation in the far distance shattering it entirely and laying down amongst the rubbles in the sea of lava.
He blinked a few times and then grinned as he got up and flew back, Rozaria gently shook her head and heaved a sigh.
"Geez, just because I'm a mage doesn't mean you can just simply overwhelm me with speed you know".
Sarang shrugged "my mistake sure, it's never a wise thing engaging in verbal exchange with a witch".
"And yet you learn nothing from it still".
Suddenly she felt a chill run down her spine and gasped as his massive clawed hands pierced through her back, he brought his head down to her ears grinned.
"I already have".
His hands closed around her spine as he ripped it out of her back snapping it at the neck which hung in her opened up body, his golden eyes shone with madness feeling her blood sprayed all over his body and watching as she fell down looking lifeless, her blood pooling on the sea of lava unable to be harmed even as it burned.
"No, you really have not".
The sound of her voice echoed from everywhere around him sending his senses on high alert as he looked around but neither saw nor sensed anything, his gaze snapped back to her body which had begun fading away leaving a small broken wooden doll in it's place which sunk into the sea of lava.
An annoyed low growl escaped his vocals "a substitute, of course".
"Yup, I may be immortal but that doesn't mean I don't feel pain".
His gaze snapped to the sky where her form slowly revealed itself in the air, a smile danced around the edges of her lips watching his clearly annoyed gaze.
"That will most surely come back around to being used against you later on".
She shrugged "perhaps, but I'll deal with it still later on when it arrives".
"You just won't be the lucky one who gets to exploit this weakness of mine".
He growled and opened his jaws releasing a devastating roar that flattened everything within a three hundred mile radius of him but upon coming into contact with her form it simply just wobbled like a reflection in a slightly disturbed body of water.
<
"You have already lost Sarang, I'm your worst possible match up".
"But, I'll humour you for a bit".
Her hands became encased in a green flame which she used to draw an arc of fire in the air completed by pressing in a small burning dot right in the middle.
The flames grew and took the form of an eye and the small dot moved around as if having gained sentience, upon locking onto Sarang's form his body was instantly set ablaze in a haze of green flames and seemingly was not being harmed in any way as it burned yet his heart was not still as he knew they were most definitely doing something, it was just not known to him at the moment but he did not want to wait long to discover just what it was.
He was no mage but that did not mean he was completely clueless about spells, he clasped his hands together and released a great burst of mana.
<
<
A dim light shone on his body but shattered in a matter of seconds as the flames persisted, Sarang's heart sunk seeing the spell backfire prompting him to snap his head back to her.
"What did you do!"
He demanded, his face angrier than ever and yet all Rozaria could do was smile seeing the young cub give her such a cute look, she brought her index to her lips.
"Shhh, it's a secret".
His golden eyes turned an intense burning white as a pillar of grey mana shot out of his body reaching up high, a tinge of hair on his dark mane turned white intertwining with the streaks of gold and on the back of his hands was a gold star accompanied by two rings orbiting around his wrists.
For a moment it was the like the very world itself threatened to break under the presence of his majesty but it was just for a moment, he spread out his massive wings and took to the skies in a powerful burst of speed much greater than anything he had ever shown before.
'Jeez, what a scary guy'.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Rozaria felt herself getting a bit suppressed under the power being displayed, even with measures already in place a pang of worry still tugged at her heart.
Sarang opened his palm towards her and condensed a white ball of mana which quickly gained a tinge of spiraling black as it's core.
Killing arts - [First form] <
Everything turned pitch black for a few seconds but slowly began getting dyed in a world of white, in that rise a second hue rose to push back against the waves of power threatening to destroy everything in it's path. From the top half was a world of white and from the lower half was a world of bright lemon green, a trail of blood flowed from her eyes and ran down Rozaria's cheeks as she battled against the overwhelmingly violent wave of power and she knew that at this rate it would come out the winner unless she did something but right now she was stuck in a situation where she could not comfortably access most of her cards that could have possibly helped.
Her starry green eyes gained a tinge of violet and immediately a new strength like she had never felt before washed through her body, in moments her consciousness blacked out to be replaced with something different, something so....ancient.
<
Right in the middle of this great struggle a large ripple in space occurred and it drew every last bit of the overwhelmingly violent power into it until there was nothing left before closing in on itself like it was never there. Rozaria's consciousness now returned left her looking almost stunned at what had just occurred, she had felt it overtake her but she knew not what it was.
Unfortunately still time was not on her side to even ponder what it was a second longer as Sarang had begun moving again, looking so unfazed by what had just occurred moments earlier as if it meant nothing for her seemingly sealed fate.
He reached his hand towards the void and gently grasped at it, her eyes widened upon seeing a crack appear mid-air, steadily it grew and grew until it spread everywhere like wildfire even reaching her form.
< At that moment Sarang felt a sudden wave of weakness wash over him, his power, his mana, his mental consciousness and even his physical form, all of it was leaving his body and shrinking at a rate visible to the naked eye. The pillar of mana surrounding his body was receding and in it's place the green flame grew in intensity until everything was gone and his body had reverted back to the form of a young cub, unconscious and with nothing to stay in the air he began falling to the sea of lava beneath but just moments before he reached it his body hung mid-air and steadily moved over to Rozaria who held him in her arms. "What a troublesome thing you are truly". "Tsk, still so adorable so I can't even stay mad at you". She pet his head gently, the flames weren't withdrawn, not yet anyways as it still acted as her insurance against him. The mini-announcer popped up some seconds later asking if she was ready to move on to the next challenge and she positively complied but first had pulled out a floating pillow for Sarang to rest on before looking at her choices. "Ah". He wasn't there, Noctis was still currently engaged in battle with another opponent, her disappointment at this moment could not be understated. Perhaps she should have dragged the fight with Sarang a little longer, but then thinking back to that moment where she almost feared her certain loss dispelled that idea from her head. Having no choice but to come to terms with this new development she tried selecting another as her patience was limited, the options were greatly limited when recounting the fact only twenty five contestants participated in this round and only nine of them were free at the moment. Four of which were Selene, Hope, Emrys and Avistro. The latter three she wanted to avoid at all cost, especially the first two which left her with Selene as her best option and not one she could complain about at all. "Oh, Bahu just got added". Still her choice remained the same and she relayed her answer to the announcer- "Your challenge has been accepted". The mini-announcer revealed after and sent her to Selenes location with a snap of his fingers, now standing before her Rozaria smiled and Selene could not help but roll her eyes a little. "We were each other's best options and you know it". Selene shook her head a little "no, I would have been fine had anyone of them chosen me also". "I may not be the strongest, but I'll always do my best to win eitherway no matter my opponent". Rozaria was silent for a few seconds before heaving a sigh- "Tsk, now I feel both bad and like a coward". Selene smiled and walked over to give her friend a hug- "Wouldn't call it that exactly, you just.....know your limits well is more like it". Rozaria chuckled and laughed a little though trying her very best not to while Selenes smile grew wider, some moments later they separated. "Ah, isn't this place terrible for you most especially" Rozaria suddenly remembered as she looked around them, Selene shrugged a bit. "Not really, royal blood comes with a lot of very interesting perks". She smiled hearing that and soon both returned to being a good distance away from each other, Rozaria flicked her hands in a tricky way and revealed a small green card between her fingers which she rotated between them over and over again. Selene smiled and simply summoned a small water orb with a crystal-like core, her scales shimmered with an ethereal glow for a moment as she got encased in a thin film of blue mana. < To the great surprise of Rozaria her right arm suddenly exploded into a pool of blood followed by half of her torso, Selene looked to her side and then flicked at the empty space before her only to be met with a thin invisible barrier that rippled. She condensed a ball of mana to a pinpoint on her index and pressed it onto the surface, it got absorbed into it causing a wave of strong ripples as it broke apart to pieces. Now back in reality she was now face to face with the real Rozaria who was seemingly stuck in a little bubble floating above- "Quite prepared aren't you" she complimented. "And I even went through the trouble of projecting the illusion around you instead of onto you so it'll be far less noticeable". Selene smiled watching as Rozaria dispelled the bubble containing her and flew back down to the sea of lava, she flicked the card in her hands and it burnt away to nothing in the air. Suddenly everything felt so dry and hot beyond words, Selene could even feel her magic actually weaken significantly by what she had done. Curse magic -: < "I'm sure you can feel it, if I can't take your magic away completely I can at least weaken it enough". Hearing what Rozaria had said Selene only seemed to be slightly amused as she looked up to the skies and whispered a little chant of which it's effects was revealed seconds later. The reddish skies turned dark with grey clouds, in those clouds were the sounds of thunder rising ever so often and striking down as a heavy downpour of rain began falling, the dryness still persisted but it was up against a being incomparable to most and was practically useless in stopping her authority. The battlefield had now become one entirely conducive to Selene, the orb before her transformed into a twenty meter tall eastern dragon with the orb as it's core and streams of blue mana flowed along it's body as it manoeuvred around in the rain disappearing between drops and appearing once again from another making for such a strange visually disturbing and mind boggling sight as the action was not visibly fast but almost sluggish yet somehow the tiny raindrops that fell visibly fast in comparison seemed slowed and yet visibly not at the same time as it's massive body passed through the drops. Rozaria almost believed herself to be trapped in an illusion but knew what she was experiencing to be quite real and this was a threat, at any moment with that freaking movement she could be devoured entirely by that construct so the only reason she hadn't been already was due to Selene choosing not to. She almost laughed at herself of before when making the choice of whom to challenge, Selene was going to be much more troublesome than she thought and the possibility of her losing this round was once again all too real. "Boy, I'm in trouble". Selene's smile grew a little as she raised her index to Rozaria who's senses went into immediate overdrive as she pulled out a new card and burnt it which erected a green near transparent barrier engraved with an orbiting ring of writings around herself. < The spell was cast but the magic circle broke to pieces upon being neutralized. "Smart" she complimented. Rozaria did not look to be the least joyed by the compliment in the slightest, the air around her had undergone a 180° change and she was now ready to face her opponent wholeheartedly. Drawing the arc of flames once more she clasped her hands together- < < < Fusion -: < < The area around them in a ten mile radius was suddenly lit up in a small field of seemingly harmless flames as a tall near transparent dark barrier was erected around the first barrier surrounding Rozaria and at the very edges where the flames stopped. A thick poisonous fog suddenly arose clouding the whole place accompanied by a small continuous rain of acid which were strong enough to actually compete against Selenes magic as it overtook a portion of her domain. The acidic rain tried eating it's way into her protective field but simply just wasn't strong enough to do so and the poisons effect were constantly being neutralized by her natural gift of purification, the dragon flew up and around then roared thunderously causing the rain to pause as if frozen even affecting the acid itself < A thin blue vertical line was created on the barrier surrounding Rozaria, slowly it formed on her also and in moments it was like a portion of the world had been divided into two halves of a sea which was suddenly revealed to have been around them. The barrier was split in half as was the body of Rozaria and each half was held by the split sea, but Selene was not to be fooled to think that she had won just yet, her opponent was the craftiest of beings and the flames still burning all around her unaffected by her spell was proof of that. Curse magic -: < The flames surrounding her suddenly grew so large and so fast that it simply vanished from her sight for a moment but it was there, it was burning in each and every bit of this entire space. And in a new shift it was like the world had been changed once more, beneath her was now a seemingly bottomless void of nothing and from all sides were gigantic razor sharp teeth enclosing in on the entire space wanting to seal her permanently inside the belly of the beast. "Hm, though the current me can only call upon a poor imitation of a fraction of it's true strength, it should suffice". She closed her eyes and put both hands together whispering a chant then suddenly her eyes glowed a bright blue as her mana rose to high extremes. "Cleansing the world of evil once more, I call upon you– Summoning magic -: < Space itself trembled and warped violently before the might of a power so great and unending in it's wrath as the flood washed over everything erasing it all from the world's memory. The world's perspective returned to normal and she now stood atop the sea of lava, the rain falling still falling as it was and a distance away was the steadily regenerating body of Rozaria with barely any mana left in her. Their 'world' altering battle was over, victory was hers. She felt wobbly and nearly fell to her knees but managed to keep herself steady, suddenly a little light shot from Rozaria's body prompting her to look up immediately and feeling her heart sink a little at the belief it wasn't over yet but in a moment all her worries turned into a moment which left her speechless as the light burst into little fireworks and something of a holographic projection popped up. "Yayyy!" "Congratulations on beating me, it was quite a great fight Selene". "Happy for you". "Though in my defence i will note that I did not reveal nearly half of my cards in the literal and figurative sense of the word". "But that's just a self comfort, you won fair and square". Rozaria's projection suddenly heaved a sigh but smiled at her friend once again. "A crafty little witch can only go so far you know, but I had fun". "Bye Selene, good luck on your next fight". And with that the protection came to an end, Selene could only hang her head down and laugh, there was no doubt her friend was quite the character. Soon enough the mini-announcer popped up and asked if she was ready for her next challenge of which he answer was positive, the list was shown to her and she tried to scroll but couldn't. There was simply one person available as of this moment and he was simply a being of pure terror, Ishmael. It was then that Selene would remember a simple little trick about witches when it came to wishing one good luck and how the Arcane reacted to such a thing from them. "Oh you crafty little B- EnD.