A few hours had passed since Alina’s battle and by now things were coming to an end. Currently, there were only the top eight left like Sokai had intended however they still needed to battle it out to see what the top three would be.
Those who achieved this would be allowed to pick out an extra reward, the top eight of course consisted of Damien’s entire group which was of course Ela, Ruby, Jake, and Adam taking up four of the eight spots.
As for the remaining it was Alina, the man Alina had warned outside which Damien had learned his name after hearing Sokai say it after the man won a match “Abel” the man had put on quite the display and Damien believed he deserved the top eight spot. Following Abel there was another man who had been off to the side on his own the entire time, his name was “Aresus” which again Damien learned from him winning a match.
Some of the abilities displayed by Aresus were truly unique, even causing Sokai to express shock and interest. Damien observed that Aresus was using a special ability involving cards. Each time Aresus brought out a card, something different happened, which led Damien to believe that the effect was related to the type of card being used. However, he couldn't see the cards clearly before Aresus used them.
He did however know what some of them did after seeing them being put to use, one card would explode, another would make the man go invisible, but the truly unique thing about them was that sometimes the card would do nothing or would backfire on the man. It was almost like he was playing some luck of the draw game and if he got unlucky it could have dire consequences, as for how the man looked Damien did not know as he was similar to Adam in that he covered himself with a hoodie.
The final person who made it into the top eight was another woman named “Amelia” and although she wasn’t unique like Aresus she did however have strong abilities and was very skilled in combat almost as skilled as Ruby.
Based on everything Damien had seen so far he believed she had a real chance at the top three, it would all depend on whether or not she could contend with people from his group… the only person he was unsure of was Adam.
While Adam had fought on stage he had swiftly defeated his opponent without any effort, now this was entirely unsurprising to Damien as he knew Adam had to be strong after all he was the first one to arrive at the temple and was also the first to reach the final room where they waited for everyone to pass the trials.
As Damien had been lost in his observations of the others Sokai had been instructing everyone of what was going on and that they had a chance to receive an extra reward if they reached the top three. After having explained everything to those of the top eight he quickly fixed up the damage the arena had sustained from some of the previous battles before pulling out something from thin air.
In his hands was what looked to be a mirror, “Alright I am going to pass this mirror around to everyone present all you need to do is think about your name inside your head and will it be put inside the mirror. Once everyone has done so the mirror will randomly select two names to come onto stage and fight.”
Hearing his explanation everyone was intrigued about the object, surly it had other uses than just choosing names that had been placed inside it. Nevertheless after receiving the mirror they all quickly followed Sokai’s instructions believing the old spirit meant them no harm.
After the last person went the mirror suddenly floated back to the old man surprising Alina who had been the last to go. Upon entering Sokai’s hands he let the mirror float into the air and it began to project a giant screen into the sky above them displaying two names.
Glancing up at the projection Damien smiled, ‘This will be quite an interesting fight’ Damien thought after reading the names floating in the sky.
“Ruby vs Amelia” both women were extremely skilled in combat and this was not their only similarity, on top of their combat skills they were also both brawlers and did not use weapons making this match-up truly interesting to Damien. While he believed Ruby was the more skilled of the two Amelia might have some surprises up her sleeve that she had not shown off in the previous battles.
Walking onto the stage the two women exchanged glances with one another before smiling, it seemed they were both looking forward to the fight. Seeing they were both in position and ready Sokai floated down between them.
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“Alright, we will do as we previously did with the other battles as soon as this coin I am holding hits the floor you may begin fighting.” Seeing the two women nod Sokai flipped the coin into the air sending it soaring upwards.
As the coin fell Ruby and Amelia could both be seen staring at it like a hawk the closer it got to the floor the more tense the two became. 10 feet, 5 feet, *Ting* immediately as the sound of the coin hitting the arena floor sounded both women sprang forward and collided their fists against one another.
Within seconds almost one hundred different types of attacks had been enhanced between the two before they both backed up and let out massive grins on their faces. “It's about time I find someone who can contend with me without weapons.”
“I think the same, almost everyone I fight against either uses a weapon or relies on their abilities almost no one uses their bodies to fight anymore,” Amelia said before once more launching at Ruby and throwing at some quick jabs.
Outside the arena, Damien, Sokai, and the remaining six were watching this fight in awe, although some thought the women were stupid for relying on their bodies to fight when they could use abilities from the system or a weapon. To them what Ruby and Amelia were doing was putting themselves into danger for no reason.
It wasn’t even like these people were just being scared either as most people on earth agreed with this train of thought. Who would want to needlessly risk dying by using their own body to fight when they can use mana attacks or weapons to keep a distance?
Sokai, however, knew that what these women were doing could lead to significant consequences. If they could reach the level of Tobisha or even go farther than him, then these two would truly be a force to be reckoned with. His thoughts were not without reason either, back when he had been alive Tobisha had been right behind the head in terms of strength for good reason.
While using your body to fight might seem like a bad idea on the surface in reality it's one of the best ways to evolve and was also something he told Damien about back inside the illusion earlier, if Damien can evolve his body and his skill with the sword and mana then his chances of reaching the peak be raised massively.
Back inside the area, it seemed like the two women had bruises all over and were panting heavily, seeing this Damein was quite shocked especially since he knew firsthand how insane Ruby’s stamina was.
Ruby adopted a serious expression and looked into Amelia’s eyes, “If you can take this last attack of mine I will forfeit this fight. How about it?”
Amelia immediately agreed not backing down in the slightest making Ruby smile once more, “Let me warn you, this attack is something that I came up with recently, and it's not something to be taken lightly.” With that Ruby adopted a position Damien had never seen before
She was standing with her knees bent and she had her arm drawn back, taking a deep breath Ruby’s skin began to change from white to red almost like the blood in her body was heating up. Suddenly the pressure in the air around her seemed to become more dense and the floor below her started to let out a creaking-like noise as if it could not stand the pressure.
Sokai who was watching this from the outside had a stupefied look on his face, ‘it can’t be that technique right?’ he said to himself in thought, unable to believe what he was seeing.
As the pressure around her reached its maximum Ruby set her eyes back onto Amelia who was beginning to feel a little nervous seeing the display from Ruby. Steeling her heart she looked back with equal zeal. “Come,” she said before adopting a defensive stance and covering her body in a light blue mana shield.
Upon hearing Amelia’s words Ruby flashed forward and swung her fist into Amelia’s crossed arms sending her flying back and out of the arena. Feeling the force she had just been hit with Amelia’s face grimaced and pain coursed through her arms.
The mana shield began to crack before breaking and the pressure it was holding back blasted into her sending Amelia flying back once more, this time however she was unable to withstand the force and was immediately knocked out falling onto the ground.
Ruby rushed over and checked her pulse worried she had killed the woman, fortunately, Amelia was fine, breathing a sigh of relief she woke Amelia up. Glancing around and noticing she was lying on the ground Amelia chuckled lightly.
“I lost huh” she mumbled before standing up and looking over at the crowd outside the Arena, everyone had a look of astonishment at what they had just seen. If any of them had been the one to receive that attack they were not sure if they would survive let alone be unscathed.
“The winner of match one is Ruby,” Sokai announced while staring at her with a discerning look. Amelia hearing this walked over to Ruby. “Congratulations, it was a fun fight.”
Ruby smiled at her words, “That it was… say I could use a sparring partner if you are interested in coming to my town after this is over.” Ruby said in response.
This had come as quite a surprise to Amelia as she was not expecting such an offer, “While I would love to I have some things to take care of after this.” Ruby was a little bummed out upon hearing this but did not say anything further.
As she was about to walk back over to Damien and the others Amelia called out to her from behind, “What up?”
“What is the name of your town or city? While I have something to take care of now that does not mean I can’t come in the future no?”
Ruby’s face lit up hearing her words and let out a smile. “Of course, you can my town is called Newstar.” With that Ruby promptly turned around and headed back over to Damien and the others.