“Don’t worry Nang. Your big brother will always be there to beat him even if you lose.” Said one of the slave girls in Jae Il-Seong’s party. Every member knew they were cannon fodder and had mentally prepared to lose just so Jae Il-Seong could defeat their opponent. One member was the exception to the rule. She was a tiny cowardly mage going against a giant of a man, and she was stressing herself out over the possibility of losing.
“B-But he’ll be disappointed in me! He keeps you three around because he romantically likes you, so he’s never going to kick you out. I’m here on a much slimmer connection. I’ll get kicked out if I’m dead weight.” The slave girl looked away as Nang said that. Nang was painfully unaware, painfully innocent, painfully saddening to everyone who understood why she was kept around.
“Yea. Of course. Just make sure to not be afraid of him. Imagine him as the big and dumb type who doesn’t even know that you can knock him out with enough spells.” Said the slave girl before she pushed Nang through the arena’s entrance. Christian was already in the middle. The sun shining behind him obscured his features and face behind a veil of shadow. Nang’s heartbeat increased exponentially as his size and lack of perceivable features made him look like a creature straight out of her nightmares.
“Welcome back one and all to our second round!” Said the commentator. “While our previous match might’ve been between two titans of equal skill, this one is a battle between David and the Goliath. On one side is the colossus from the land irreparably burnt, the giant with enough muscle to put an entire army of men to shame. The one, the only, Christian!” This time, the booing was more restrained. Christian, whether he knew it or not, was the most intimidating member of either party. The girl in front of him was a poultry five foot four compared to his size of six foot five, and most people in the stadium weren’t much taller than her.
“Shite crowd innit?” Said Christian. The nano-chatte had made sure to give everybody a worse version of Ian’s translating software so they could understand the Koreans. The nano-chatte was even more generous that day, as it implanted a tiny speaker in the roof of their mouth so they could communicate back to the Koreans. Christian’s was special, as his mashup of accents confused the regular software.
“On the other side we have the greatest magician in Korea. A master of any elemental magic and her brother’s equal in preparing for battle. Nang Il-Seong!” Nang slowly stepped forward as she clung to her long scarf. She could feel her heart beating out of her chest and sweat pouring out as the announcer went in for a final statement. “And whenever our participants wish it so, they shall engage in combat.” Nang, who was trying to gain some confidence so she wouldn’t freeze, shot out barrage after barrage of fire infused with lightning. They strook Christian, but he tanked them and swiftly moved at Nang before swinging his sword right at her neck.
“N-No!” She cried out right as Christian stopped his slash before it touched her.
“What’s wrong pal?” Said Christian as Nang forced herself away with her wind magic. She threw a couple fireballs at Christian, who casually just blocked them with his sword. The fire illuminated his concerned expression before the switch in position meant that the sun shined upon Christian.
“Stop pitying me and end this!” She said as her anxiety finally paralysed her. She couldn’t do anything. Christian blocked her attacks so easily. It wouldn’t matter what she would’ve done. He could’ve withstood all of it and not even felt any pain from it. She was a failure. Her brother would kick her out. She’d be seen as a–
“Hey. Calm down.” Nang felt a warm sensation on her shoulder as Christian shook her back into reality. He was the only one in the entire stadium who could’ve read her anxiety just from the tiny erratic yet purposeful movements her body made. Christian made sure to keep his distance after letting go of her shoulder. He’d look smaller from a distance, and she’d have the advantage while fighting from range. “Come on! I’m not ending this fight until you run out of options. Try everything you’ve got.” Said Christian as he readied to block whatever attacks she may send at him.
“Alright?” Nang said with a distinct tone of confusion. She didn’t get why he didn’t end her where she stood. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Nobody cared about her outside of her usefulness. She lifted two long, sandy boulders and cut them into chains with aeromancy. She electrocuted them, and started trying to whip Christian with them.
“That’s it!” He slashed one of them away, only to purposefully get his hand caught by the other chain. The shock from the chain rushed in all at once and made him kneel. He breathed heavily before getting up. The first step in getting someone’s confidence up was by letting them win at something. Difficulties were expected by everyone, but when they became the default option instead of the exception to the rule, it led to a self-destructive loop of disbelief leading into her not tapping into her willpower, which ultimately led to her doing worse in combat, and that only upped her disbelief of her own abilities.
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Christian snapped the chain in half by yanking it back and smiled as Nang immediately followed up by using air to move the sand beneath Christian. The miniature sandstorm surrounded him and scraped his skin. It didn’t do much damage, but it would allow Nang to just keep shooting lightning into the sandstorm that would be guaranteed to hit Christian. He endured it, letting his body adapt in small bursts that would leave him strong enough to endure the attacks, but not strong enough to not look hurt.
He flipped his sword so the sharp edge faced upwards and spun in the opposite direction of Nang’s wind. The weight allowed him to gain more and more momentum until the storm dissipated. He stabbed the ground with his sword to stop himself, which gave Nang enough time to ready her next attack. Nang punched the wall and spread her magic through it. Her control over earth extended to stones, and most of the wall was made from perfectly cut stone bricks. Christian looked around to see that bricks were flying at him from all sides, which forced him to summon his barriers to protect himself from the bricks on one side, and then punch the rest of the bricks since his sword was stuck in the ground to keep up the barrier.
“Why were you terrified before? You’re plenty smart.” Christian’s fists bled as the bricks cracked into tiny chunks from Christian’s punches.
“This is the bare minimum! I can’t be proud until I can be as good as him.” Said Nang. She threw more thunder at Christian before he picked up his sword and charged at her again. He couldn’t just be a punching bag, as that would slowly make her suspicious of why he isn’t doing anything. He would up the heat slowly until Nang was fighting at her maximum potential.
“You don’t have to be the best to succeed.” Christian swung his sword, and Nang quickly pushed herself down into a squat with her aeromancy. “You just gotta keep trying. Success is incremental. You’ve already improved. You dodged my strike.” Nang noticed how she actually started fighting without fearing what would happen. She immediately took advantage of Christian’s stop by striking him straight in the face with a brick before flying around him with aeromancy.
“Progress isn’t success. Victory is success. Nobody would call a battle where you lost a victory just because you gained experience.” Christian wiped his chin before his body stitched the skin back together.
“Victory is something you keep temporarily, progress is something you keep forever. Which one would you rather want?” Christian jumped back, using his back as protection from any attack she may throw at him. She took a deep breath before flying up and over him using aeromancy, and then shot her electrified fire straight into his face, using the recoil to land on the wall and surround him within a sandstorm again. Christian, who upped how much of his true power he was using, broke out of it easily and rushed Nang down again.
“I’m not even making progress! I’ve barely even damaged you.” Said Nang.
“You are making progress. If you’re hitting a wall twice as hard, but it still doesn’t break, that doesn’t mean you haven’t improved.” Nang quickly flipped over another of Christian’s slashes before trying to kick him while her boot was infused with fire, only for Christian to grab her foot and punch her into the sky. Nang quickly got used to the ringing pain and the taste of blood before spitting a droplet of water infused with all the electricity her body could produce. She summoned a sand storm to distract Christian, and the droplet bounced from sand grain to sand grain before touching Christian’s arm.
Christian shook from the electricity before jumping up to Nang. He grabbed her by the head and brought her down to the ground. Nang prepared to be slammed into it, but Christian just gently laid her down while still having his hand on her head so she couldn’t escape his grasp.
“Alright. I surrender.” Said Nang before Chrisitan let her up. She dusted herself off and really thought about what Christian said. She felt… good. Never before in her life had she felt good about how she did in combat. If she won, it was expected, and not rewarded. If she lost, she had to live with the shame of loss. She didn’t feel it this time. She had lost, yet she felt better than when she won.
“Good job pal. I’m proud of–” Before Christian could finish, he was hit with a blast of light. He shielded Nang and endured the blast of light before it dissipated.
“You barbarian! What did you do to my sister!?” Said Jae Il-Seong.