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Pov change, 3rd-person
The next team was named BHK, apparently those were the initials of the three members of the group: Bogmir, Hefenhaldt, and Krummir.
Martin was already standing ready in the arena, prepared to fight the next opponent.
His opponent was, as you might expect from the names, a dwarf.
Martin had a hard time seeing him, duo to the experiment with his sisters [Light emission]. His vision mostly consisted of the afterimage of her hand, the spot made it so that he could barely see the dwarf. He could however clearly distinguish him having a giant two-handed war-hammer in his hands, and him having a giant red beard. His name was Bogmir.
Martin tried to hide his obvious weakness. Unfortunately he wasn’t a very good actor.
The dwarf laughed:
“oy kid! I ain’t got all day. Dint yo say yo was ready just a min ago?”
For some reason Martin didn’t like being called a kid. He was 16 years, and.. 156 days old. He knew he wouldn’t finish maturing before about 5 years, but society classified his age as a teenager. Whuops, he was getting side-tracked. Hm maybe he could stall some time.
“wait a sec. uhm made a small misjudgment involving some testing prior to this match”
Okay that might give him some time. Let see.. Dwarf had a low center of mass. Tipping him over would be hard. Humans was comparable much higher which meant he had to watch out for his legs in order to not simply be tackled.
The dwarf lost patience:
“if yo ain’t gon start, I will”
He dashed forward and swung his heavy hammer towards Martin. Martin tried to jump away but was, as he feared, hit in the legs and landed hard on the ground. He just managed to block the next swing, but was send meters back and lost his dagger. It landed dangerously close to the head.
The dwarf had reinforced the hammer slam with his aura! It was similar to, if not the same as, Matts [Outwards force] technique. Martin dint have much time to come up with a counter, maybe if he grabbed the hammer?
The dwarf dint leave him time to think it through, and made a solid swing from his hip. Duo to Martins low position, it hit him in the chest and send him flying back. The runic circles slowed down his speed as he was flung outside the arena.
Martin coughed, why was it he participated in this again? It was surely not because he enjoyed taking a beating.
(judge)”Out of bond! Bogmir wins this duel!. Bogmir do you wish to continue or withdraw? “
(Bogmir) “ill continuo. Think I would be able to take on some human kids, oh and oy kid! Yo okey?”
(Martin)” (gasp) I’m fine, just lost some air, you got some solid strikes”
Bogmir just chuckled and turned around to face his next opponent.
“what can I say? I aint a poshover”
________
Mathilde was already standing ready with her axe in the hand. Seeing Bogmir defeating her brother, so easily, made her angry, it really motivated her to fight him.
(Bogmir)” yo his sister? Yo gon be defeated so easily to?”
(Mathilde)” Doubt it, I have been in a lot more fights than him”
The runic circles began to spin. Mathilde lit her hands aflame in order to intimidate him. The dwarf took a step back as he faintly could determine her enormous mana pool. he opened his mouth to speak:
Mathilde wasn’t as patiently as her brother.
She swung the axe down towards the dwarf. It barely scraped his beard and lodged into the earth beneath him. The hammer hit her square in the chest and she was flung backwards just like her brother… but stopped after a meter. The rope around her was attached to the axe, which was stuck in the ground like an anchor, preventing her from being flung out of bonds.
“Gotta say, seems like my brothers smart-ass ideas actually got some real use” She grinned.
She jumped back to avoid the hammer. The dwarf was now wide open; Mathilde used the opportunity to attempt to kick him. You could catch a quick glimpse of her bare foot, hidden under her long pants, before it hit the dwarf right in the stomach. The reason to why it was bare was then revealed: The foot shortly busted out in flames and light, the dwarf was then flung meters back. Mathilde had used her new, jet imperfect, spell: [Force emission]
In the 24 hours the team had to prepare, Mathilde obviously didn’t have time to develop a bunch of deadly spells, nor did she time to learn any aura techniques, so they came up with combining some of the principles of Matts [Outwards force] with Mathildes [Emission] spells. The result was [Force emission].
It had the same effects as [Outwards force], except that it was stronger and used mana, a lot of mana, considering that a large part of it went into simply wasting it on a bunch of other mana types. She was only able to exert about 5-10% of the full potential, the more she used, the more she wasted. It was to the extent that she had to be aware of how much she used, even with her large mana pool.
The dwarf was still standing, despite of being pushed meters back. He raised his head, ready to continue the fight but was instead meet with a bright light.
Normal bright light wouldn’t be able to blind him, duo to him wearing light-blocking lenses, but the lenses wasn’t all-powerful in blocking light, so it was still possible to blind him if the light was bright enough, and it was.
Martin had confirmed it himself earlier.
Mathilde was funneling as much mana she could into [Light emission]. The dwarf wasn’t the only affected, the spectators and other persons unluckily enough to be on the wrong side of Mathildes hand was as well, even more so because they weren’t wearing lenses. A little over 200 people cried out in pain.
It was something only one with a mana supply comparable to Mathilde would be able to do.
Some mages began creating a light-blocking shield around the arena, but the damage was already done.
The commentator, who had commentated the entire time, noticed it.
“Auch, that one is going to leave some spots in front of the eyes. First I would like to apologize to anyone affected by the light: we DID NOT anticipate anyone displaying such a powerful [Light emission] spell today. Doing so is however well still within the rules.”
While the commentator spoke the fight continued. Mathilde kept on kicking and punching the dwarf, pushing him further back. The dwarf tried to counter it with his [Outwards force], but it only helped a little.
The commentator was still doing his thing:
“The girl in arena 3, Mathilde kelnen, is the record holder of the longest recorded Aura collabse in history, she is currently using a very crude version of a force spell, I can confirm that most of the used is wasted, this simply further confirms her large mana pool that I’m sure many of you, experienced with magic, feel. I must say: it might even be bigger than the rector of this academy. This girl has without a doubt one of the largest mana pools in the world. “
While he spook Mathilde managed to make the dwarf lose his hammer. She was now almost mindlessly kicking and punching the dwarf, who luckily did a brave job defending himself. Some might say she was in some kind of “blood lust” .
(Judge)” Out of bonds! The winner is Mathilde!, Mathilde do you wish to continue or withdraw?”
It took a few more punches before Mathilde heard what the judge had said; heavily breathing she took a few steps back. The dwarf lowered his guard, somehow still unharmed.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
(Dwarf)”damm girl, what did I do to make yo so angry?..”
She didn’t respond, instead she used a few more seconds to calm down, she was now feeling exhausted. She then answered the judge:
“Bring the next one in, I stay”
The judge considered for a short moment if it was for the best that he forcefully withdrew Mathilde, but decided that it wasn’t necessary:
“The I will ask Team BHK to send in their next combatant”
__________
The next was Hefenhaldt, surprisingly he was a human.
The runic circles started spinning.
She started off with an eye-hurting [Light emission]. This time it dint work, instead a spell could be seen around the man’s eyes. it blocked the light.
(Mathilde)”Fine, if that is how it is”
A [Force emission ] reinforced punch would do! It hit squarely in the palms of the man’s hand, but had insignificant effect. The man was conjuring some kind of ward to block of the force.
What? The punch dint work? Then she would just have to punch somewhere else!
Blocked. Another punch! Blocked again. This man was getting on her nerves. She unleashed a rain of reinforced kicks and punches, but somehow the man kept blocking them. God he was annoying!
The fight began to be drawn out brawl; occasionally one of them would tackle the other, but the other would always recover. Hefenhaldt could conduct electricity trough his hands, but then he couldn’t block the constant [Force emission] that Mathilde kept using. The fight was very equal: while Hefenhaldt could counter Mathilde main means of attack and generally seemed a little more experience in martial arts, Mathilde attacked with a unheard of ferocity and brutality, and she knew just enough tricks from the countless school fights she’s been part of to keep up with him.
The brothers of her was slightly scared by the scene:
(Matt) ” eahm Martin? Remind me that I should never piss of Mathilde again”
(Martin)” it’s already on my DO-NOT list”
Hefenhaldt hit Mathilde right in the stomach area. The electricity paralyzed her for just enough time for him to push her out of the arena.
Mathilde breathed a little before she light up in a smile:
“Well that was fun”
(Judge)”Out of bonds! Hefenhaldt wins, Hefenhaldt do you wish to continuo or withdraw?”
Hefenhaldt was pale in the face, and could barely stand, it was a clear sign of mana exhaustion. Blocking her punches had taken the tool on him:
“No thanks, I withdraw” he said before he fainted.
___________
pov-change 1st person(Matt)
Now it was my turn to fight. My opponent was Krummir; if you had to describe him I would say that he was Bogmirs identical twin, same hammer to. The only difference I could see was that his beard was black and not red/orange, but then again: I wasn’t used to see dwarfs, so they all looked the same to me.
The fight started:
I blocked a swing from the dwarf, was pushed back. I could instantly feel that the difficulty had risen. I followed up with a strike from above, but that was blocked as well. A few blows were exchanged.
Something bugged me: I dint use my full potential! It had been such a long time since I had been in a real fight (The wood-elf from before didn’t count as a “real fight”).
I realized the horror: so this was what it felt like to be “rusty” I knew I was better than this, but I just couldn’t get into it.
A solid hammer-swing hit my upper body and I was send flying back. Oh no! I would get out of bonds! My body reacted automatically: I slammed the sword into the ground, and put my feet on the ground and applied [Inwards force] to stop my movement. I moved about a meter further back before I stopped: my foot was just inches away from the perimeter.
With my right hand on the sword and the left hand on the ground I looked up. Almost like melting ice I could feel my psyche change: A strange mix of calmness, awareness, and Adrenalin-like felling hit me. My control of my aura techniques rose as well. That slam had awakened something in me! I could feel that I still wasn’t as good as when I had been at my peak, but I was back into it again!
My grip of the sword tightened: and I made a reinforced jump towards the dwarf. The dwarf blocked but was pushed away a few meters. My sword hit his hammer a few time, but this time it was clear that my [outwards force] was stronger than his.
I put all my power into one swing: My sword pushed away the dwarfs hammer.
Another swing: a bright blue line showed up on the chest of the dwarf.
And another: The sword pierced his hear.
I retracted my sword.
(Judge)” Matt wins the duel! Team Triple M Slaughter Heroes advances in the tournament! Thank you for participating team BHK”
I offered my hand to the dwarf.
” Nice fight Krummir”
The dwarf took it and stood up.
“Damm straight it was, yo know: for a moment I thought I had won. I din’t know yo had it in you! Where did that sudden power burst come from?”
(Me)”Oh I just remembered something, what are you going to do now?”
(Krummir)”Well watch the rest of the tournament of course! Afterwards I think I will go into the pub and grab me some beers with my pals, yo can join me if you want!”
(Me)”Haha, I might just do it”
__________
and now we had to wait again.
My mind wandered as I looked at the spectators:
Most of them were wood-elves, then there was some argonians (or was it dragonians?), the rest was a mix of the different races. The variety of races was actually larger than my home country, but that might be because this place attracts a decent amount of tourists.
The population of my home country was about 60% humans and 35% orcs. It was one of the few countries who didn't have problems with racism towards orcs.
The orcs had taken the blame of bringing the khajiit race to extinction about 850 years ago. In reality it wasn’t only the orcs to blame, any historians could see that the High-elf Empire, and part-vise the Dragonian tribes, had a part of the blame as well. Not to mention: The khajiits themselves attacked the orcs first, when they were driven away by the high-elves and their racial prejudice.
It was an internet joke that orcs made it impossible for any real furriers to exist. The reptilian races of course made a counter joke that it was still entirely possible, duo to the “monkey” races they called the elves, humans, dwarfs and orcs.
The commentator interrupted my chains of thoughts:
“Ladies and gentleman! 16 teams started in this tournament! 12 of those teams are already eliminated! Leaving only 4 teams left! But fear not! We are still only half-way there! I will now say the remaining team names out loud, as well as who they are going up against! The winners of those fights will then meet in an epic finally! Here we go: Team Triple M Slaughter Heroes is going up against….”