Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.01.13]

Zeph found himself dumbfounded.

In the first place, the obscuring effect of such magnitude shouldn’t take place. Yet, he could barely see the forms of the two combatants.

Kwan’s surroundings were bathed in gray with a stray flash of electric discharge, but Mana shouldn’t be visible to the naked eye. He observed similar effects only in a vastly higher Mana density – like in the exhaust of Mana engines – because only then the Magicules could destabilize and release their energy at mass, creating a perceivable light effect. Lucas had done something similar—he still remembered the red haze—but it wasn’t even close in intensity.

The sandstorm around Arioch was even more interesting. Manipulating physical matter required at least mediocre skill in Advanced Mana Manipulation – something the warrior shouldn’t be able to replicate. A wind-controlled sand cloud wouldn’t form such a densely-packed twister around the man. Especially not when it was moving this fast, as most of the grains would be simply catapulted away because of the centrifugal force, which evidently wasn’t happening. And the moving wall of sand was only increasing in thickness.

It’s their equipment, isn’t it? Zeph asked himself, unable to believe everyone was holding back so much until now. My god… am I going to fight a similar monster? he thought as cold sweat started covering his forehead. He only had one trick in his arsenal that could pretend to rival effects of such a magnitude.

He calmed down quickly, though. He needed to see what they were capable of before making any judgment. The impressive display of power didn’t mean they could freely manipulate and apply these forces.

Kwan’s knees bent before she jumped forward and literally flew at Arioch weapon-first. A deep gorge in the ground, accompanied by a shower of sand, was left behind as she accelerated. It brought to mind Aisha’s charges but was bigger in scale and impact. The gray cloud compressed and moved to her back, stretching into an oblong shape. She touched the ground two more times, using the tops of the dunes to move through the air. Each step was marked with an explosion of silica dust. She was constantly accelerating, achieving ridiculous speeds by the time she reached her target.

She thrusted her weapon into the dense, rolling wall of sand. The explosion of force that followed completely obliterated the twister while almost entirely stopping her forward momentum. The shockwave pushed all sand in a 3-meter radius away, creating a wide crater.

For a moment, she was suspended in the air. Her body was curled and sideways as the pommel of her weapon was pressed against her tight, right in her center of mass. As she gracefully uncoiled and landed, the remnants of the floating sand started reforming into three much smaller cones a few meters away.

Yet, the man was absent. In the center of the ex-tornado, a heavy-looking metal pole was standing instead.

The twister hadn’t been high – merely five to six meters. Arioch couldn’t possibly jump up, so she didn’t waste her time and after a quick glance ahead immediately started pounding on the ground around the pole. Each hit was explosively shoving away a wheelbarrow’s worth amount of sand. Whether Arioch was hiding below or not, she couldn’t just ignore the obviously enchanted device of this size.

The heavy contraption was stuck deep within the sands, but it took her only a few seconds to destabilize it. It was flung away with her last swing, easily dislodged from the dune by her blow despite its presumed weight.

Suddenly the dune under her feet bloated before the whole thing erupted like a miniature volcano. Kwan was sent straight up into the air, along with literal tons of sand.

Not seeing any indication of damage to her armor, Zeph assumed that she wasn’t harmed. It seemed her decision to preemptively stop whatever Arioch was preparing was the correct one.

The man himself jumped from under the sand just before the strange explosion took place. He was hiding under a shallow layer of sand a few meters ahead and to Kwan’s right. Whatever force was released, it didn’t seem to affect him much – he jumped straight into the epicenter, yet he wasn’t lifted more than half a meter into the air.

Landing just under Kwan’s airborne form, he took a sideway stance in preparation for a full-force swing. His Morgenstern gained a greenish shin as he pumped unknown Magicules into the oversized weapon.

He was going to take advantage of Kwan’s situation. She wouldn’t be able to dodge.

Kwan already changed her chaotic tumble into a controlled spin. It seemed she opted for a direct clash. Zeph was sure that she could use her Electro-Magicules to pull herself in the direction of the metal pole she had removed, but Arioch would probably catch up easily either way.

He wasn’t sure about the nature of the Magicules she was using. Especially because her enchantments seemed to amplify or supplement her Skills. But he already recognized that she was able to attract metal objects. Particularly, her weapons when saturated. On the other hand, she shouldn’t be able to do that on vast distances… and yet, he was almost certain she used just that to assist her acceleration during the charge moments ago.

System Skills were the only option for that to work because she couldn’t use Spells, while enchantments weren’t able to project structured Mana that far.

Or she just used an incomprehensible amount of Mana to manifest the effect, but that was a ridiculous notion.

Even if it is possible for a strata-three enchantment powered by Manasolid, she wouldn’t use that for a simple opening charge, Zeph thought with certainty. Then, he remembered the bloody smile that blossomed on her face every time she fought. He tilted his head. Right?

His thoughts were quick, but the time for taking his guesses was coming to an end. He refocused on the match – Kwan was reaching Arioch’s weapon range.

The discharge of electricity happened again, but the arcs seemed to actively avoid Arioch’s armor and weapon. Kwan’s club was pushed back and she hit the long shaft of her own weapon with her left shoulder as the momentum of her fall was stopped, then reversed.

Her body was launched into the air once again, this time with visible dents on her armor and weapon. But the gray haze that was constantly following her didn’t stop its downward movement. Like a downpour from a waterfall, it quickly cascaded over Arioch and filled his immediate surroundings.

Before he could recover from his heavy swing, the air around him flared up. He was once again obscured by an elemental tornado, but this time it was made from electric currents instead of sand.

It dispersed as quickly as it started in the accompaniment of a thundering shockwave that rolled over the dunes in an expanding circle. The widows of the audience’s seats shook. The echo of the explosion of energy could be heard even from behind the airtight glass panels of the observation halls.

The man was pushed to the ground, right into the liquified glass that had formed around the epicenter - most of the electricity grounded itself after a second, melting the sand.

Even though he couldn’t hear them, Zeph was sure the whole stadium was cheering loudly right now. It was probably the most amazing exchange in the whole Tournament.

The image in the window zoomed out to show both combatants. They had difficulties standing up, though, so the image zoomed out even more to encompass the whole area to show the extent of destruction that had happened in the last half of a minute.

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The fight was probably going on for less than that, but it was hard to believe because of how action-packed it seemed.

Kwan rose to her feet first but paused after a few wonky paces. She quickly discarded her helmet, bent down, and started vomiting. The bright red color of the fluid didn’t bode well.

Arioch was trying to stand up, but every time he tried, he was landing back on his knees after taking a few stumbling steps. He stopped after the fourth try but managed to escape the smoldering bath. Despite being on all fours, his body was still wobbling from side to side as fat drops of blood started leaking through the openings in his helmet.

Despite the small amount of blood and mostly undamaged armor, he seemed much worse for wear. The electric storm didn’t touch him, it seemed, but Zeph could imagine the scope of internal damage the man received. The shockwave aside, high-energy magnetic fields were dangerous by themselves. Adding compatible Magicules and possible ferromagnetic materials to the mix was a recipe for a deadly weapon.

I wonder how many Teslas she produced there… he definitely received some serious brain damage. Concussion maybe? If any of them had used metal powder, it would have caused more harm to his body… he analyzed, trying to know the scope of damage done. His helmet, or a mask beneath, should be airtight. He is either bleeding from his eyes and ears, or he has a full mask that was damaged. There is no way he doesn’t have iron parts under that armor of his...

That was another interesting fact. Despite looking like a proper steel armor, it definitely wasn’t made from any metal. That, or it drastically changed behavior when saturated with a selected group of Magicules, but those were rare.

Zeph started discussing this with P’pfel, as there was a longer break in the action.

Kwan was the first to get a hold of her body. She lost a lot of blood and was limping slightly, but something like that couldn’t possibly stop her. Her bloodthirsty smile – visible for a long moment before she reattached her helmet – was the best proof of that fact.

By the time she reached him, Arioch could keep himself straight if he was kneeling on one knee. He still wasn’t able to stand for long but his weapon had a longer reach than Kwan’s.

The fight never regained its previous volatility. The two combatants seemed content to continue in a race-of-endurance fashion – trying to wear the opponent down with the application of Magicule injections and active enchantments. Kwan was better geared in the latter, but Arioch’s Magicule group seemed to cause much more internal damage. Both were causing constant force explosions and distortions of air near the points of impact. The terrain seemed unfavorable for them, as after the initial grand application of Mana, none had used any impressive attacks. And Zeph knew of at least one powerful enchantment in Kwan’s possession.

Ghrughah and P’pfel confirmed his suspicions. It was unfortunate, but not much could be done with sand without specialized, sizable equipment. Even Arioch’s pole didn’t do much with it while clearly being geared towards soil in general.

With time, it seemed that Arioch was gaining the upper hand. Despite receiving more hits, he blocked and deflected masterfully using every part of his armored body. He never lost balance for long – always ready to counterbalance with his heavy weapon – but being on his knees, he wasn’t able to retaliate much. Kwan was actively avoiding his weapon, going as far as to strain her damaged body. But because of it, she was exhausting herself. Her breath became ragged, her movements slowing down considerably. She started taking short breaks by jumping back and unhurriedly circling the man, forcing him to awkwardly rotate to keep up with her.

She tried a few times to run around and attack from behind but Arioch easily countered that by rotating with his wide swing, then directing the weapon’s movement to above his head and spinning the Morgenstern horizontally to keep her away when regaining his balance. The spiked ball was connected to the shaft directly, so he could use it like a staff to some extent. In the end, running rounds around the man was nothing more than a waste of energy.

Ten minutes after the start of the melee, Kwan seemed to be on her last legs. For some reason, she never changed her tactics.

Just when it seemed like the result of the match was written in stone, Arioch did something unfathomable.

He jumped at her in a half-tackle, half-strike.

Kwan was slow to react but used the hit to push herself away, shielding her body with her bad arm while releasing the grip on her weapon. Even if she used something to better move with it, the hit was heavier than it looked and picked her off the ground. Thankfully, that allowed her to avoid being grappled.

She rolled on the ground a few times before stopping on her knee, facing her opponent. Her club was already sliding on the sand in her direction – the bulky modification on her right arm and the pulling mechanism finally found some use, even if a basic one.

But the match ended before the weapon could reach her.

Arioch was lying unresponsive on the ground – right where he crashed after his messy attack. Part of his head was buried in the sand, his appendages comically tangled under his body.

The light show started alongside the loud announcement.

“Landlord Arioch Chanlu knocked down! Medical team…”

Kwan sighed visibly.

Then, her body spasmed. She curled into a ball, hurriedly removing her helmet.

Blood painted the sand in red once again…

~~~

Despite the quick reaction of the medical team and even faster transport, Kwan was in a critical state.

She was white as snow, her skin almost translucent. Pavail took her armor off with the help of her medical co-workers from their Guild. Shockingly, only a few bruises marked Kwan’s pale skin – mostly in the area of her left shoulder and the husk of her right arm.

She had lost consciousness shortly after Arioch and never regained it. The initial diagnosis – of the life-threatening internal injuries and extreme internal bleeding – was grossly understating the reality of the situation.

It took only a few seconds of examination for Pavail to start shouting orders all around in a slight panic. All of her internal organs were mutilated and on the brink of collapse.

Zeph and the rest of their small group could only stand to the side and watch helplessly as the squad of medical experts started preparing for surgery.

The only saving grace was the fact, that her opponent was in even worse condition. He was suffering from severe brain damage – the fool fought despite the crippling wound, his own Magicules probably making it worse. They knew of his state because of the arbiter’s announcement.

Aisha left the room soon enough for her own fight. Her new armor unnoticed by everyone. Probably because it looked almost identical to the destroyed one.

Zeph was walking in circles near the red curtain separating the operation table from the rest of the observation room. His thoughts flew at high speeds as he tried to find anything that could help. His knowledge of the anatomy of the Hannyajin was insufficient to try anything physical. His external Mana manipulation would do little good without any Skills related to healing… or rather, operating on a living organism. He didn’t even have basic stimulants, like adrenaline, if those would even work as intended for their race.

His musings were interrupted abruptly by an announcement of Aisha’s victory.

That fast? he thought, turning abruptly to the window. Did she finish in one… a woman in an opulent dress was standing across from Aisha with a raised hand. She yielded, probably as soon as the match started.

A heavy hand landed on his shoulder. “You should try to focus. We don’t know how much time you will have,” the giant said before patting him lightly and moving for the door.

He was, of course, right. After Ghrughah it would be Makani, and then him.

I should worry about myself. I can help Kwan right now… he tried to convince himself while walking to the tables at the lowest tier of the floor. Sitting beside Makani in a comfortable armchair, he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He could forcefully stabilize his mind, but it was better to not reinforce bad habits. His emotions were important to him. If possible, he would rather deal with them the old-fashioned way. He had already pushed too much into the dark recesses of his mind by using forceful methods.

“Worried?” Makani quietly asked, looking into his glass of diluted wine.

“You aren’t?” Breath in… Breath out…

“I have faith in the capabilities of their bodies,” the Manacaster said with fake confidence. His frown only deepened, though.

“Kwan’s brain isn’t damaged… too much. We can deliver her to the Shrine in time if everything else fails,” P’pfel the professor cut in. “We are prepared for it.”

“I really hope you are right,” Zeph said darkly. His body relaxed slightly despite that. He did trust P’pfel to a great extent. “So, we are going to use lethal forces from the get-go now…” he changed the topic slightly.

“It never registers until first serious wound, ain’t it?” P’pfel the wild said joylessly. “How scary it can be…”

“Especially against Manacasters…” Zeph added, shivering at the memory of the Adeptus from the western forest.

“You are one yourself, though,” Makani noticed mirthfully.

They chatted for a while. Aisha returned at some point, but stayed silent. She didn’t sit down, instead leaning against the stair’s handrail behind them, crossing her arms.

Not long after, the combatants were delivered to the arena. All of the three men in the room started frowning, all at the same time.

Ghrughah’s already impressive armor was absolutely intimidating with all the modules that the giant had added to it. A big contraption on his back that looked like a grenade launcher in particular was very unsettling. But his opponent was wearing only simple, ornamental clothes. He didn’t even have a weapon.

Predictably, the man surrendered immediately after the match started.

“What kind of strategy is that?” P’pfel asked, anger and worry mixed in his voice.

“You call that a strategy?” Makani asked incuriously.

“Maybe a strategy of not-antagonizing-half-of-the-major-factions-in-the-city…” Aisha suggested in a quiet but rough voice.

They turned to her. Her face was covered by a shadow as she glared at the arena below.

“Or rather, amending-future-actions…”