It felt strange to be in the spectator gallery, since I’d only known the arena from the perspective of the combatants. From what I’ve learned, it seems to be a rather rare experience too, considering how popular arena battles are throughout the continent.
After the first few fighters showed why they stood in the novice line, a few better showings from the intermediate line kept me from getting bored, though they weren’t that much better than the three stooges I fought on the first layer. It was when Bel’s fight was announced that I leaned in with interest; hopefully she’ll give an impressive showing. After the familiar black dome covered the arena, a number of screens showed up in front of the dome, showing different angles of the forest that the fight was apparently set in. The instructor then read the rules for the fight like he always did and began the countdown.
“2… 1… FIGHT!”
As soon as the instructor announced the beginning of the fight, the falconman rapidly took flight and retreated deep into the forest, likely hoping to ambush Jezibel. The tiger next to Jezibel began to climb the nearest tree with deceptive agility, then disappeared into the cover of the leaves. The owl flew many times the height of the tallest trees, likely scouting ahead for any signs of danger. The monkey had disappeared while I was observing the other two monsters, likely up to its own shenanigans.
Jezibel moved her wand as if writing on thin air, and a magic letter appeared in front of her. It faded away as her eyes gained a dim, purple light for a moment before returning to normal. Soon enough, an arrow whistled from deep within the forest behind her, yet she jumped to the side long before it even got close. A gale of wind rustled the leaves near her before the arrow got close, and in the blink of an eye, a tree ahead of where she just stood was torn to shreds by innumerable wind blades.
The forest was quiet once again, and Jezibel pushed herself off the ground and stared at where the arrow came from before running in the opposite direction.
After passing innumerable trees, the sound of another one of the powerful wind arrows was released, and Jezibel stopped to try and see or hear where it may be coming from. Surprisingly, the arrow was shooting straight up into the sky, suddenly turning towards Jezibel’s owl!
The owl tried to dodge and weave, but it was a futile attempt as the arrow chased it down in no time and tore it apart just as easily as it did the tree. Whatever was left of the owl turned into ink blots that faintly glowed and vanished. Jezibel frowned, then went to the biggest tree she could find and put her back towards it. As she did so, Ati flew out of the cover of the forest nearly a kilometer away from her into the sky and nocked his bow with another magic arrow. This one seemed to be thicker than the arrow he had at the start of the duel.
A gale of wind appeared in front of the arrowhead and rushed towards Jezibel, who narrowed her eyes at her foe in suspicion. Ati should already know Jezibel can dodge an arrow she could see from the last time he tried to shoot her. So, what was the catch this time? As I wondered what Ati had up his sleeve, his arrow spoke for itself as it launched much like the previous arrows, with a road of wind boosting its speed and directing its flight towards Jezibel. Just as the arrow approached the treetops, it suddenly split into five smaller arrows, each with its own gale guiding it!
To her credit, Jezibel moved more decisively than I expected. She immediately launched mana blades towards the arrows, forgoing attempts to dodge or shield herself with a more proactive measure. A mana blade caught one of the arrows, which exploded into a burst of wind blades! The wind blades struck two other arrows, also causing them to explode pre-maturely. The remaining two managed to veer out of the way but were too close to the ground to correct their course.
Still, Jezibel did not manage to come out unscathed. Rocks and dirt from the exploding arrows pelted her, with a particularly large rock managing to break the arm that was shielding her face and a stray wind blade chopping a leg off. Her wand fell out of her hand as she fell to the floor, screaming with agony. Above her, Ati was not doing too great, but not as terribly as his opponent either. His face was pale and covered in sweat, the classic signs of mana depletion. He sighed and holstered his bow behind his back and drew a sword whose latter half that looked like a sickle, then dove towards Jezibel to finish her off.
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Jezibel saw his rapid approach and crawled desperately towards her wand, though it seemed like she was not going to make it in time. Just as Ati crossed the treetops, a monkey suddenly jumped at his face and clawed at it, forcing the boy to halt lest he crash into the ground. Just as he managed to throw the monkey off his face and slice it in half with his sword, he saw a tiger leaping of the branch of a tree towards him, its claws ready to sink into his skull!
Ati, however, demonstrated the aerial agility and dexterity of a falconman as he leaned back and thrust his sword beneath the tiger’s jaw and into its brain. It wasn’t enough, however, as it crashed into his left wing and sent him crashing down!
At this point, Jezibel had reached her wand and fumbled on the floor to face her foe, only to be confronted by the boy standing up with a broken wing and mangled arm, using his remaining hand to pick up his weapon. They stared at each other for a few, tense moments, then exploded into action.
Jezibel launched a flurry of mana blades at the boy as he dodged as many as he could while rushing at her, choosing to take the hits that he couldn’t afford to avoid head on. He even intentionally directed some of them towards his vitals, which were covered in what seemed to be enchanted leather armor that shattered the mana blades like they were made of glass. Ragged and battered, Ati was finally upon Jezibel, with his sword ready to lunge at her heart! Just as the blade began to move forward, a viper lunged out of Jezibel’s sleeve and past her wand, moving in parallel with his blade and sinking its fangs into his open nape!
Ati shuddered, and that moved the blade’s trajectory only a tiny bit. That was the move that decided the match, as the blade that stabbed through Jezibel missed her heart by a few centimetres. A silent scream echoed in her mouth as the boy slumped forward; the snake had ended him with venom injected directly to his neck. His body turned into fragments of light and shattered, followed by Jezibel’s mere moments after that.
Before I knew it, they were both standing on opposite ends of the arena as the black dome began to retreat back into the floor.
No one said anything, likely in awe of the fierce battle we’d just witnessed. Not even the contestants themselves said anything, standing dazed and rooted to their spot. The first to move was Instructor Adelphius, who began clapping.
“Brilliant fight, you two! That was a brilliant and ferocious battle you gave us!”
The instructor’s praise broke the tension as everyone began to clap and cheer for the two of them. I clapped alongside everyone else; watching such an intense and close match was waking my hunger for the thrill of the fight. I think I am beginning to understand why these arena battles are so popular.
Also, was it just me, or was the intermediate line longer than before?
The two of them were shaken out of their stupor and shook hands before returning to their place in line.
“Ah, ah, ah! The two of you need to line up in the advanced line. I have no clue who told you the average adventurer was capable of what you two just pulled, but you both have no business standing in that line!”
They looked at each other and grinned before lining up at the back of the now visibly shorter advanced line.
“Now, going by the rules of standard arena combat, Ms. Hiram would be considered the winner. However, this isn’t a tournament contest, but a class on survival, and you both inflicted fatal wounds on your opponent. You even died within moments of each other! For that reason, we’re going to consider it a tie. Normally, an extraordinary fight like this one deserves to be broken down step by step, but in the interest of time, we’ll leave that for our next class. Now, it’s time for the next fight!”
***
The rest of the fights were interesting, but none came even close to Jezibel and Ati’s fight. Soon enough, we were done with all of them with only the boy from Syressa left in the back of the advanced line, waiting for his turn.
“Well done, all of you! I am proud to say that you’ve all demonstrated incredible fighting capabilities, and even greater potential. We will be working on unlocking that potential in the future sessions of this class! In the meantime, I’ve got a treat for you.” He said, turning towards the spectator gallery.
“Lady Sept and Ms. Azoth possess power and combat experience that are a bit higher than the level of this class, so I’ve asked them to wait until the end for a match up worthy of their skills!”
The girl shot me a hateful glare as I more than matched it with my own. It was finally time to put her in her place.
“And now, the time for this match up has arrived! Lady Sept, Ms. Azoth, and Mr. Iphitus will be fighting in a team against me!”
“Wha-?!”
“Huh?!”
“Eh?!”