Chapter 27: The Duels
“Ladies and gentleman, the longest event in the tournament has finally come! The event that will determine the strongest individual within their year, the [1 v 1] tournaments!” As soon as he finishes announcing that, a green, ethereal screen appears above the announcer’s booth, displaying a tournament ladder.
In total, there was 276 participants, and there was going to be 9 rounds in total. The top 20 people in the leaderboard were put into reserve brackets, where they don’t have to fight in the early rounds due to their rankings. Due to me being first place in the leaderboards, I am placed in the 5th round, two rounds before the quarter finals. Thoth was put into 2nd place on the leaderboard due to the previous event, so she was also joining in at the 5th round. She was also on the other side of the ladder, so we wouldn’t be able to fight again until the finals.
The arena was shifted into four separate sections, each section having a different kind of landscape or environment. Each section will hold a duel between two combatants, the battleground changing locations every time. This set up will continue until the semifinals, where all four sections will be combined and the entire arena will be used as the battleground.
“The candidates this year for the strongest first year is a close contest between three students. The man who appears from nothing and barraging his enemies with bullets, the [Ghost Gunner], Pyrion Genada! The girl of darkness and ice, the [Shadow Princess], Thoth Farlite! Last, and certainly not the least, the girl who kills all with both her combat ability and her appearance, the [Angel of Annihilation], Aria Brynhildr!” The announcer makes the excited crowd even more hyped, the atmosphere of the crowd exciting me. But still, the introduction he gave for me only further increases my reputation as an indiscriminate killer.
“Now then, I shall explain two nice and simple rules. First, you restricted only to the area you’ve been assigned to battle in. Even a step out will get you disqualified instantly. Second, there is a 5 minute time limit to each fight, and going beyond that will disqualify both participants!” Several combatants and the crowd began booing at this, but the announcer ignores them.
“These rules are extremely harsh, yes, but I really do doubt that any battle will actually last beyond 5 minutes. With that, each section has a large amount of space for battle, so failing to follow these rules are near impossible unless you actually try to fail them. Now then, we shall begin instantly!” This calms everyone down, the crowd going back to their energetic ,and hyped state.
The first four pairs of fighters were called to their separate sections, and those waiting can head to the underground rooms until it’s our turn. How do we know if it’s time for us to come? The [System]’s a very convenient thing, warning us when we’re about to miss our turn in an event we’re in.
I don’t enter the rooms though, rather, I entered the spectator stands to go see my parents. As I walk through the crowd of people, they all got up from their seats, left the aisle in order to clear a proper path for me. Some of them even threw flowers at me. Why would anyone throw such beautiful plants at me? Is that how unsightly I was, how scared they were of me? To the point where they would waste flowers like this?
“Aria, my beautiful little angel!” My mother squeals as she sees me, before leaving her seat and coming to give me a hug.
“How’s it going, princess? You’re really giving those other guys a run for their money, aren’t ya?” My dad says with a proud look on his face.
“Oh, yes! Aria, where did you even learn how to fight like that!? You used everything that came into your hands so efficiently, it’s like you inherited my blood, except for combat weapons rather than guns!” My mother showers me with praises afterwards, while putting me on her lap and hugging me. My dad was also patting my head while listening to my mother.
“…good job.” A quiet voice comes from behind us, and I turn to see Raina sitting on the row behind my parents.
“…thanks...” I say, feeling my lips curve slightly.
“Aw, Aria, you’re so adorable!” My mother hugs me tightly, and cuddles me in her arms, while my dad tried to strike conversation with Raina.
“So, are you our daughter’s new friend?” He asks.
“Ah, yeah…” She replies.
“Then, please continue to remain so. We know she’s socially awkward, but she’s a really nice girl when you get to know her.”
Soon enough, my dad begins telling her many things about me, including past stories about our outings in the city. Raina listened earnestly, even though these kinds of things weren’t really that interesting. My mother continued to cuddle me the entire time until the 5th round was finally starting, and it was my turn to go.
“Good luck, Aria!”
“Go get ‘em, princess!”
My parents gives me encouragement as I leave the spectator’s area, the crowd of people moving out the way just like when I entered. I exit the stands and enter the colosseum arena grounds, towards the north-east section of the arena. The battle location was a wasteland of fire, cracks in the ground and magma bursting out in some areas. A referee stood in the middle of the section, there to monitor the battle so that no one leaves the battlegrounds, and to keep an eye on the time. I was wearing new clothing, given by Thoth after the [Free For All], and I washed my hair during the intermission between the events, so I was clean again.
“So, are both participants ready?” He suddenly says, surprising me. I didn’t see my opponent, which was strange.
“Okay then, ready, set, go!” Right there, the battle suddenly starts. I hear several gun shots in front of me, and I raise my [Magnum] to fire wind projectile spell, [Air Burst Bullets]. Although I didn’t see any of the enemy bullets, I could hear the sound of them falling onto the ground after being blown away.
I didn’t pay attention to the person I was going up against, so I didn’t know who exactly I was fighting, but I was able to deduce it fairly easily. Only one other person was able to use a gun within the first years, and his title was the [Ghost Gunner]. I was up against someone firing a gun, and currently invisible. It was obviously Pyrion.
With [Enhanced Detection] activated, I was easily able to tell his location based on sound. It doesn’t look like he’s been trained in stealth, due to the fact that he was heavily sprinting around without concealing his footsteps. His barrage of bullets stop for a second, and I make use of this opening to fire an [Inferno Bullet] at the area where he was sprinting into.
A huge explosion of fire lights up the entire area, even hotter than the heat of the magma around us, even melting the stone within 2 meters of the actual explosion. During the explosion, I see a small figure of fire dive away, so I knew that he was able to escape before he was engulfed in it. He was most likely wounded, though, because he was in the fire for nearly a whole second before escaping.
“…you’re using a very dangerous gun there. A [Magnum], huh?” My opponent dispels his invisibility in front of me, his clothes tattered from the flames and the right side of his body red from the heat.
“It looks like I can’t hold back against you, so I want to make a little deal with you before we start fighting for real.” He was full of confidence, apparently, thinking that he can actually win. Though I don’t fire my gun, interested in what he’s going to tell me.
“Aria, if I prove my strength to you by being victorious, will you–”
*sfx: BANG BANG BANG!*
I don’t want to hear this again. He nearly fooled me last time, I won’t fall for it agai
“Woah there, calm down for a second! Hey, stop shooting! Let me finish it at least! Stop, stop, stop!” Why can’t I hit this guy!? He’s moving as fast as Thoth can during her speed bursts!
“Oh fine! I’ll say it anyway! Will-You-Please-Become-My-Girlfriend-If-I-Become-Victorious-In-This-Battle!” He shouts as fast as he can, before raising his gun at me again.
Without even giving me a chance to reply, he fires his bullets again, but the projectiles were different this time. They were all created with [Earth Projectile Magic], [Stone Shrapnel Bullets]. They all scatter into smaller shards of sharp rocks, and I couldn’t blow these away with my [Air Burst Bullets]. Instead, I fired an [Inferno Bullet] to completely destroy the entire wave of bullets, melting them. He continued firing them, though, and I couldn’t keep firing my [Inferno Bullets] without running out of mana, so I was forced to start running and dodging them.
Automatic weapons weren’t very popular amongst [Magic Gun] users, because of the extremely high mana cost it takes to continuously fire it. If someone did use an automatic weapon, they often don’t use [Gun Magic] with it because it will completely drain their mana in a matter of seconds. But this monstrous opponent I’m facing is casually firing barrages of bullets enchanted with [Projectile Magic], and it doesn’t look like he’s feeling mana exhaustion.
Because the time limit would run out at this rate, I stop running around the area and begin sprinting towards Pyrion while a pillar of magma bursts from the ground between us, stopping his barrage temporarily. As I run around the pillar and close in on him, he fires another wave of bullets at me, but I continue running towards him. Just before it hit me, I use [Teleport] to go right through it, and appear besides Pyrion.
Rotating my upper body, I swing the [White Edge] in my left hand at a wide arc, and slam it into his back. I pull the knife right back out, and stab at his neck within a second of pulling it out. I kick his body away, causing him to roll over on the ground, and fire the [BLC-90] with an [Inferno Bullet], which directly hits his body.
“…I decline.” I say after killing him.
It was a late reply, but I gave him one anyway. He was being rude, you know? He fired at me before he could even let me speak. I sigh to myself, before lowering both my weapons. The referee declares me the winner, and I leave the battlegrounds, feeling slightly satisfied by the battle. He was fairly strong, for someone his age. Definitely a prodigy worthy of respect. Only if he didn’t try those poor tricks to catch people off guard, would make him an honorable warrior.
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“Here we are, ladies and gentleman, at the final battle in the [1 v 1] events!” The announcer yells, with excitement in his voice.
The rest of the duels passed by in a breeze. Only Pyrion was capable of giving me a challenge, but I guess that’s to be expected by the freshman who was able to get a top spot on the leaderboards other than Thoth and I. It disappointed me, really, fighting against these people. During the quarter-finals, I was even able to throw the guy out of the area and disqualify him in 10 seconds.
Now, it’s finally the final battle of the event, and just as expected, Thoth was my opponent for this round. The battlegrounds for this match was a large, flat, stone platform in the center of the arena, with about the same surface area as the [Hill] from yesterday. The both of us were already standing on the platform, facing each other off on opposite sides. During our spar, we were both stuck in a stalemate between each other, cause we can’t really destroy the place we’re using that time, but this time, we were going to go all out.
“As predicted, both Aria and Thoth would be facing off at the final round of the event! What will happen now!? Will Aria be once again victorious, or will Thoth will have her revenge in this match!? The suspension is killing me, so let’s start right away!” What an impatient guy, and he’s still as annoying as ever.
“Looks like round three between us, eh, Aria?” Thoth says to me, her lips slightly curved.
“…using ‘that’?” I ask. She knew what I was implying, and she makes a full smile at me.
“That’s right. This time, my goal is forcing 3%.” After that, our exchange is over, and we wait for the bell to ring.
As soon as the ringing sounds of the bell fills the arena, silence engulfs us as the voices of the announcer and the crowd is blocked out. Red markings suddenly appear on Thoth, running up and down her arms, legs and face just like tattoos. Her skin color remains the same, though, but her hair turns red and her eyes become white. Her appearance remains human, but it was clear that her strength increased greatly. [Mode: Devil], the transformation spell that grants the caster the power of a [Devil], including strength, speed, technique and spells. Upon activation, pure fire surrounds the caster during the transformation as the appearance of the caster changes.
While this happening in front of me, I immediately release the second mark on my seal, preparing for the first strike. When the transformation’s finished, Thoth disappeared instantly. The wind whistled in my ears besides me, before I see her fist flying straight at me. I was able to react fast enough to duck under, thrusting my dagger at her elbow to try and disable her arm. She pulls back quickly, though, so I just stabbed nothing but air.
She tries to make a kick at me while I was low, but I forced her to stop it by firing my [Magnum] at the direction it came. Using the force of the kick she was just about to make, she lifts her leg above me before bringing it straight down with the momentum she just absorbed earlier. I roll to the side just before it hits, causing her to miss. I fire [Air Burst Bullets] at her to force her away, creating distance between us.
We both stand there, looking at each other for a second, before lunging forward. With the armlet on, she creates a sword of ice and makes an underhand swing at me. I fire at the sword before she completes the swing, causing it to shatter, and I was able to close the distance safely. I jab the dagger forward, aiming to at least hit her with the attack, but she dodges it, before throwing a counter attack. I dodge her attack, and raise the gun to try and fire at her face at point blank range, but she smacks the barrel away just before I pull the trigger, causing me to miss.
We continue our extreme battle at point blank range, striking at every chance we get, and countering every possible attack. She makes ice weapons during the process, which forces me to focus on destroying those before attacking her, because upon contact with anyone other than her, touching it for any longer than one second will give frostbite and ends in a frozen statue of human. The distance between us gradually begins to grow farther, and then magic was added to this extreme close-quarter exchange of attacks.
Apparently, one of her [Devil Magic] included shooting fireballs from her fist, chains of molten rock surging from the ground, and fire trailing behind her every attack, making me unable to counter attack her at close range. My arsenal against her included several arrows of fire, water and earth, [Thunder Blasts], and I even tried to use a smaller scale of [Sun Raze] to hit her, but it missed due to the amount of time it took for it to actually reach the earth.
The battlegrounds began turning into a complete chaos, with several pieces of the platform completely destroyed or torn off. There were now little pieces of the platform, like small footholds in a river, where missing a step or slipping will immediately cause either of us to lose. With this harsh, self made battleground, the both of us continue our raging battle, completely going all out at this point.
My mana was nearly used up, and I only suffered minor wounds. Thoth also suffered a few scratches, and her mana pool was probably fairly low as well. She won’t be able to use any magic now without having to cancel her transformation, which costs mana to maintain. So now, I will make a gamble for one final spell to defeat her.
I leap forward, sprinting from piece to piece of the former round platform, dashing at Thoth with high speed. She does the same, dashing right at me to finish the fight. When I get within 10 meters of her, though, I spontaneously curve to the right. At the same time, I instantly create a [Phantasm] to turn left. This instantly caused her to stop her movements, while the illusion and I converge onto her from two different sides.
Both the illusion and I reach her at the same time, when she suddenly creates two swords of black ice, and spins in a whirlwind to ward us off. After we stop our movements, she throws a sword at both of us, which we were able to dodge. Dodging forced me to look away, so when I turned back, Thoth was directly in front of me, with a spear of black ice. Before I was able to react, she stabbed me right in the heart, completely penetrating through.
Her transformation dispels right after this, which was shown by her appearance returning to normal. Because of this, she wasn’t able to dodge my illusion that came from behind, tackling her body head on. After forcing her onto the ground, the illusion puts the nozzle right on her forehead, before pulling the trigger. Then, a white light covers my vision, which was completely different from the first time I died.
When it fades, I find myself in one of the underground rooms, which was the [Resurrection Point] set up by the school. Thoth was also in this room next to me, revived after the duel is over. She turns to me, and upon seeing me, she smiles gleefully while holding her index and middle finger at me. If I recall, this was the ‘peace’ sign, so I have no idea why she was doing this to me.
“Looks like I got the right one this time, right?” She says boastfully, clearly happy that she killed the right one.
“…a tie.” A surprising outcome, but it was still only 2% of my power. At least I didn’t use 3%, so I technically won against Thoth.
“C’mon, that was fun, right? You haven’t been able to go seriously like that since our final battle, right?” I turn my head away, headed towards the door without replying.
“Aww, don’t be like that. Answer me, it was fun right?” Thoth says as she suddenly hugs me from behind. I turn my head to look at her, who was looking up at me with an adorable expression.
“…yes.” I reply. I lost to that look, even though it was originally my own face. No, I’m not a narcissist, but it’s still adorable to see.
“Haha! That’s right! Only I can actually make you unseal yourself in this small scale tournament, so that makes me a special friend, doesn’t it!?” She says enthusiastically, running around theroom in circles.
This was a fairly satisfying end, though, despite it being a tie between us. I leave the room with Thoth, heading out to the arena to hear the results. She runs out in front of me, and I follow from behind. The crowd’s cheers filled the entire colosseum, all for the girl in front of me most likely. The platform was rebuilt, and the both of us climbed it, standing in the center together.
“And there they are, the two strongest angels in the first year! Because they ended in a tie, they both will be granted a special title that splits it between them! Besides, based on the friendly relation seen between them, I don’t think that they’ll mind it at all. So from now on, they will have a new title called the [Twin Angels of Obliteration]! The two girls with the power to destroy the entire area around them in their wake, together, they are an unstoppable force who will no doubt enter the higher [Immortal Tier] ranks!” Looks like we’ve been given a new title as a pair. We were also given a tiara each, and the mini-ceremony was over. Apparently, there was going to be a proper award ceremony at the end of the tournament.
All of this kind of made me happy. Before, Thoth and I were archenemies who were forced to kill each other. Now, we were both given a twin title that bonds us specially, a reason for us to help each other and become even closer friends. Though I would probably be known as some sort of [Dark Angel] while Thoth would be the [Light Angel]. I turn to face Thoth, who was shaking in excitement from the announcement. When she turned to me, though, her expression freezes as she sees my face for some reason. Her cheeks began turning red, and I tilt my head in confusion. She turns away immediately, and begins walking away while muttering something I couldn’t hear. I quickly follow her out of the battlegrounds, and we leave the arena together.
I failed to realize that I unconsciously smiled after hearing the announcement, and that the smile was the cause of Thoth’s reaction.