As the crowd mulled over the results of the first round, an explosion of dust and colour erupted from the centre of the arena. Concealed within the dust and smoke, a deep ethereal voice began to laugh maniacally. As the dust started to clear, a figure stood in the centre of the arena cloaked in a simple grey robe with a hood pulled over his head.
“These boys are now mine to do with what I will!!!” He declared as his deep ethereal voice echoed around the arena. Approaching the figure, the announcer and Lincoln placed themselves between this new arrival and the still-unconscious Gunter and Simon.
“WHO ARE YOU, STRANGER?!!!” The Announcer asked.
“Who am I?” the figure repeated as he pulled down his hood, revealing a polished skull with crimson flames floating ominously in the eyesockets.
“That should be obvious!! Nyeha-ha-ha-ha-ha,” He replied, breaking into a fresh fit of maniacal laughter.
“We won’t let you take them!!” Lincoln declared with a gruff voice that sounded like he brushed his throat with sandpaper every morning.
“Lincoln?... Do you really not recognise me?” the figure asked, sounding rather confused.
“Should we recognise you?” the announcer asked.
“Harry, we met last week?” the figure asked, looking as confused as a skull could.
“We did?” Harry asked, looking just as perplexed as the rest of the arena.
“It’s me…”
“That doesn’t help…” Lincoln replied.
“I’m Doctor Henri… The head of the medical courses for the school?” The moment he gave his name a look of realisation dawned on nearly the entire arena.
“Wait, so you’re Doc Henri?” Harry asked.
“YES!!! Now move aside. I need to get those boys to the treatment room so they can properly rest. Mana-induced healing is draining on the mages receiving it, you know,” Henri declared, giving a little hand gesture for them to move aside.
“Henri… Why aren’t you wearing your death mask?” Lincoln asked.
“My…” Henri began before he brought his gloved hands to his skull and began patting it down. “GAHHHH!!!!! No wonder why you didn’t recognise me… I forgot to put my face on this morning… Sorry guys, well, let me get these boys out of here, and we can proceed.”
Giving a wave of his hands, causing a quartet of skeletons to crawl out of the earth, carrying a pair of stretchers between them. Gently picking up the still unconscious duo, the skeletons hastily left the arena through the central tunnel towards the medical suite.
“Can I ask yah something, Henri?” Harry asked.
“Sure shoot.”
“Why did you arrive the way you did?”
“Well…” Henri began to look bashful… well, as bashful as polished white bone could be.
“I’m a big fan of Gentleman Jack… She is so lively every time we stitched her back together, and I kind of let myself get carried away,” Henri admitted.
With the confusion sorted, the crowd waited as the healing array returned the arena to the state it had been in before the start of the fights, filling in the holes created by Simon and Gunter’s fighting. Eventually, when it was back to pristine condition, Harry, the announcer and Lincoln, the referee, stepped out into the arena.
“Wheew, that was one hell of a bout, wasn’t it, Lincoln?!!!”
“Grhmmm,” Lincoln replied, returning to his preferred grunts.
“Come on, mister grumpypants… You are an elf; you’re meant to be fun, right?”
“High Elf,” Lincoln replied.
“Oh, the dork elves… sorry, my condolences… ANYWAYS PEOPLE, ARE WE READY FOR ROUND TWO?!!!” The audience answered his question with a roar of approval.
“In this corner, weighing in at an undisclosed amount and wearing so little that we have to censor the elementary school sections view, TASHA, THE WARMAIDEN!!!!” Harry declared as Tasha stepped out of the left-hand tunnel and approached the centre. All to the tune of a very male-focused cheering and wolf-whistling.
“In the opposing corner, coming from the Orcish hordes to the far north of Gluttony’s territory, MANA HANNAH!!!!” This time Hannah’s approach was accompanied by a far more female-orientated cheering as the majority of the male half of the arena were currently soothing bloody noses.
“Now, Mana Hannah, do you have anything to say to your opponent?” Harry asked as he moved the device towards her.
“Yes, Announcer, sir… I just want to say you are a disgrace to the fairer sex… Dressing like that is shameful, and the gods would be disappointed in you!!”
“Strong words from the girl blushing as much as the boys!!! Now Tasha, what say you in response?” Harry asked as he moved the device in front of Tasha. However, Tasha didn’t immediately respond as she glowered at Hannah.
“Tasha?”
“I am going to beat you till your insides become outsides!”
The entire arena baulked at these words. Even Harry and Lincoln visibly retreated a step away from Tasha, who was not breaking eye contact with an increasingly nervous-looking Hannah, who was looking around as if she couldn’t believe what she had just heard. Deciding it would be best not to be near the psychotic elf threatening such things. Returning to their referee booth, the gong rang, signalling the start of the fight.
Not wasting a second, Tasha sprung into action closing the distance at a speed that seemed monstrous to those observing. As she was only half a step away with her arm back, ready to bring down her spiked gauntlets, Tasha collided with an invisible wall.
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“AEGIS!!!” Hannah had conjured a flash shield to block Tasha’s approach. Retreating from the stunned Tasha, whose nose was now bent at an ungodly angle, Hannah began to chant her response.
“AQUIAS!! COLUMBIN!! VERISTAE!!! CIRICKULAH!!” Finishing her chant and using up the reagent packet in her hand Hannah launched an orb of water towards Tasha. Unable to avoid such a large orb, Tasha found herself soaked head to toe.
Her clothing, now soaked, created an even greater void of imagination, causing a nearby alchemist who was originally destined to cure a disease that day to not have the imagination needed for the idea to manifest. Instead, he decided to produce a makeup that used magically infused mercury.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha!!!” Tasha burst into a bout of laughter as she gripped her stomach. “That was your attack? I have been dealing with attacks far worse than that for the past week… GET ON MY LEVEL!!!”
“A-at least I am a modest lady!!” Hannah rebuked, retreating from the slowly encroaching Tasha. Further angered by Hannah's barb Tasha began to be enveloped in a reddish aura as she sprinted towards Hannah even faster than she had the first time.
Hannah, however, did not panic or block the charge with a shield spell. This time she grabbed hold of Tasha’s left arm and wrenched it behind her back in a hold. Tasha, in response, tried to wrench her arm free, only to be surprised by the vice-like strength securing it.
This in of itself was a feat as Tasha’s assessment of physical strength was forever warped by the week spent in Elissa’s presence. So for, Hannah’s strength to impress her spoke volumes as to the level of power being exerted by the half-orc girl.
“Tell me, harlot… do you know how negative magic works?” Hannah asked with an ear-to-ear grin from her position behind Tasha. “Let me enlighten you.”
“CIRICKULAH!! VERISTAE!!! COLUMBIN!! AQUIAS!!” Tasha and the audience were confused why she had chanted a conjure water orb spell in reverse. Only when they saw the results did they understand what she had done.
Negative magic itself was complex, as you needed to have an absurdly high understanding of the element you were removing. It was one thing to bring it into existence but another to remove it. Hannah had removed all the water centred around her hand, which was currently locked around Tasha’s wrist.
Before the eyes of everyone but Tasha, her left arm began to shrivel up and look like a withered mummy or an ancient lich. Seeing her attack succeed, Hannah gave one final twist of her wrist and snapped the limb as if it were as dry as a twig.
Throwing the broken limb on the ground in front of Tasha to further demoralise her, Hannah approached the VIP booth, her hands raised in assumed triumph. The audience, though, was not cheering at this supposed victory.
As Hannah wondered why they weren’t cheering, as that kind of injury would debilitate an enemy. Even the toughest warriors would likely pass out due to shock. Hannah got a very abrupt answer as she felt something dry and rock-hard smash into the side of her herald, showering her in dust.
Falling to the floor due to the strength of the hit, Hannah rolled away from the threat only to look up and see Tasha standing there with her shrivelled left arm held like a club in her right hand.
“HOW ARE YOU STILL CONSCIOUS?!!!”
“Please, this..” Tasha held up her left arm. “This is nothing. Now remind me of the promise I made before we started… Oh yes, insides becoming outsides…”
“Eeeek!!!” Hannah squeaked as she began shuffling away from Tasha, who was approaching her in a shuffle like a zombie.
The entire arena was deathly quiet watching this. The only noises that could be heard were coming from the VIP box, where dignitaries and other VIPs were demanding to know if Tasha was an undead of some kind.
“She isn’t undead… Even I’m as confused as…” Alex trailed off as his gaze turned to Elissa, who hastily retreated behind Mimi once again.
“Elissa, mu darling… what did you do… even a berserker couldn’t do that,” Alex said, gesturing to Tasha, who was tanking manashots being desperately launched by Hannah.
“Well… I kinda put Tasha through some really harsh training…”
“What kind of harsh training, honey? BE SPECIFIC!”
“EEEEKKKK…. I used the area’s healing array to get Tasha so used to battle injuries nothing short of beheading will stop her from fighting…” Elissa hastily explained under the gazes of the entire VIP booth.
“Is this why you wanted to borrow my mage unit?” Mimi asked, removing herself as a human shield for Elissa.
“Listen, I had good reasons… and she is super strong… and I wanted a little bit of revenge… and please …. I WANTED TO-” Elissa’s desperate attempts to defend her reasoning were interrupted as a severed arm crashed into the food table within the VIP booth. Looking down at the arena, they could see Tasha standing in the middle, looking up at them.
“Please don’t bully my instructor!!!” With the moments respite Tasha’s admonishment of the VIP booth had given her, Hannah went to launch one of her strongest water spells.
“AQUIAS!!! FLOODIASH!!! FORTIANTH!!! DAI!!! SEZZ!!!”
Chanting a truly massive spell, the entire floor of the arena became flooded with water up to the Referees' safety wall and halfway up to the audience's wall. Everyone looking on was shocked by the sheer volume of water that Hannah had conjured.
“So you are tough, huh?!!” Hannah asked, panic clear in her voice. “Let’s see you endure this!!!”
“GLACIAL!!! SHRETT!!! CLOCKSIOUS!!!” Jumping up as she chanted her spell, the entire water in the arena froze solid, trapping Tasha in the waist-deep water.
“This spell is useful as it’ll allow the mage who conjured it to manipulate the ice for a short while afterwards,” Hannah explained as she placed her hand against the ice.
Through the crystal clear ice encasing Tasha, the audience could see minor wounds begin to open up around her lower body as spikes began growing up, piercing her upper body. The few in the medical course couldn’t help but wince as they could tell Hannah was targeting the nerve bundles.
“SUBMIT!!!!” Hannah’s order, though, was left unanswered as Tasha, for the first time, began showing pain.
“I SAID SUBMIT!!!” Tasha though just shook her head through gritted teeth as she glared up at Hannah.
“I have the largest manastores of the team; I can keep this up for ages; please just submit,” Hannah said near begging.
Tasha, though, only sent a blood-soaked toothy grin Hannah’s way. Recoiling a step in fear from the clearly insane elf, Hannah felt a sharp pain pierce her foot. Looking down, she could see a crimson-red icicle had pierced through it.
Following the trail of blood that linked to where the spike had originated, Hannah felt her blood run cold. Tasha had somehow used her own blood and the cold environment to launch an attack, even when fully restrained and in agony.
Hannah failed to conceal her abject terror at the sheer focus and willpower such a feat would require. A feat she herself failed at as due to the pain and fear, her manipulation of the ice reversed its effects, leaving Tasha no longer an icy pin cushion.
“It’s been fun, Hannah, but you are just basic,” Tasha announced as she twisted her body and pulled herself up.
“NO, DON’T!! YOUR SKIN WAS WET; IT’LL…” Hannah’s voice trailed off as the entire arena went deathly quiet once more as Tasha staggered towards Hannah with her legs being kept in a bloody red single piece by a swirling mass of blood that was solidifying.
“Blood Magic…” Hannah muttered as terror began to overwhelm her.
Tasha now stood over a cowering Hannah, her lower half a blood-soaked mass of muscle and exposed bone that was slowly healing itself under the effects of the array. With her left arm regrown, Tasha swung her arm back, ready to deliver a punch.
Only no punch came as Tasha retreated backwards a few steps and gestured for Lincoln to come out. Doing so, he checked on Hannah before muttering something to Harry.
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE A VICTOR. BY FEAR-ENDUCED KNOCKOUT, TASHA THE BLOODY VALKYRIE IS THE WINNER!!!!”
With a snort as if the result was a given, Tasha turned to walk out of the arena only to feel a heavy woollen cloak draped over her shoulders. Looking to the source of the only clothing she now had to keep her long-lost modesty Tasha saw Lincoln, who only gave a nod of acknowledgement.