“Well, folks, what a fight… What a palate cleanser from the nightmare we witnessed the previous round. Boy, do I gotta say these kids are wild?!!” The crowd cheered in response to his question.
“Are you ready for round four?” The crowd cheered, confirming they were, in fact, ready.
“Next round is between Daisy!!” Harry’s words were accompanied by Daisy walking out of the left-hand tunnel and stepping up to her mark.
“I have been given a note from a… Big fella’ named Gahm!” Harry began causing Daisy to look at him with surprise.
“Gahm says Flower Girl win like I showed you to,” Harry read aloud.
“Short, sweet and intriguing… Wherever you are, sir Gahm we salute you!!!”
“Next to face our darling ‘Flower Girl’, we have Maelsteez, the Blur of Port Staine!!!” The audience turned their attention to the right-hand tunnel only to see no one arrive.
“I said Maelsteez, the Blur of Port Staine!!!” Harry repeated, but still, no one arrived. A minute passed as everyone expectantly waited, only for an arena staff member to come jogging out towards Harry. The staff member whispered something to Harry and then retreated.
“I don’t believe I am saying this, folks… Maelsteez has left the arena!!!” The audience was suddenly awash with cries of outrage, especially from the people placing bets on him.
“I have been informed that he went to the lower plateau as he was peckish for a specific bakeries bread…” The cries of outrage only continued to grow louder. As they did, Lincoln leant down and whispered something into Harry’s ear.
“I have been informed we now have a five-minute timer. Should he fail to show before the timer runs out, it will be a forfeit by technicality!!!!”
“That foolish brat!!!” Michael growled, seething with rage. “I knew I should’ve assigned him, someone, to babysit him… damn boy will follow any order but, if not watched over, will let his whims get the best of him.”
“Oh really?” Mimi asked as she looked over the edge of the VIP box down into the arena.
“I shouldn’t worry too much… I shall have fun teaching him the errors of abandoning your post when he comes to the Octogram next year,” Mimi explained as her aides went a ghostly shade of white while Serena behind them began shaking like a leaf.
“I can approve very much of such training,” Michael replied as he and Mimi somehow became one in mind and spirit towards the young speedster.
“I think I know the bakery he went to,” Alex muttered as he munched on some of the snacks not ruined by a severed arm.
“They do the most delicious croissants that I often visit them in the morning,” Alex explained as he moved the severed arm off a cake and picked a slice with its icing not too severely ruined.
“You go to the lower plateau… in the morning?!!” Michael asked incredulously.
“Oh yeah, they sell out fast,” Alex replied with a nod as he wiped a streak of icing from his lips, much to the disgust of the nobles present, who could only look between him and the cake with an arm still on it.
“But the thieves and cutthroats from that place…”
“Good kids, one and all… I teach reading and writing down there on the weekends, on a first-name basis with a lot of the people in the slums,” Alex replied as he picked another piece of food near the arm, seemingly on purpose now as he was immensely enjoying the discomfort it was causing.
With less than ten seconds to remain on the clock before a technical victory, a loud boom echoed somewhere on the school grounds. Second, after the boom, Maelsteez arrived with less than four seconds remaining.
“Whew, sorry…. Am I late?” Maelsteez asked as he paused to catch his breath.
“Yes… very late,” Harry replied.
“Sorry, still getting used to the streets of the lower plateaus. In the end, I just went through every road till I got here,” Maelsteez explained.
“Yes… Anyways we can get this show on the road… LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WITH ONLY FOUR SECONDS TO SPARE, MAELSTEEZ!!!” In response, there was only a smattering of barely enthusiastic applause.
“Four seconds?” Maelsteez asked cocking his head.
“Four seconds till you would’ve lost,” Harry replied.
“Damn, I cut it close then,” Maelsteez muttered as he stood on his starting mark and stood to attention.
“First off, for our opening comments. ‘Flower Girl’, anything to say to your opponent?” Harry asked, putting the device in front of Daisy.
“Yes… more of a question, really… How attached to your legs are you?” Daisy asked as a black aura began to surround her entire being.
“Harsh words…. Maelsteez, your response?” moving the device over to Maelsteez.
“Of course, I’m attached… what a weird question… how do you think I can run? See,” Maelsteez gave his legs a shake and a hop to show they were indeed attached to him.
Very few in the arena knew this was, in fact, an issue that nearly all speedster-type enhancers had. Many assume they would think so fast that they should all be geniuses. The reality is their minds sometimes run so fast even they can’t keep up. The best they can manage is the scraps that fall out of their mind's pockets as they go by. The only time they can keep up is when they themselves are moving fast, and even then, only sometimes.
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“Ok… Let’s get this fight started then,” Harry said, deciding not to try to understand the boy before him as he hastily retreated to the referee’s booth. A moment passed before the gong ran out, signalling the start of the fight.
In the instant the gong rang, Maelsteez began to move, already achieving a blurred movement speed. Periodically he would stop at various places as he waited for Daisy’s response.
“Why aren’t you fighting back?”
“I am waiting for my moment,” Daisy replied.
“You could try to chase me,” Maelsteez helpfully suggested.
“I think I won’t do that. In fact, I will claim victory by not even moving a step off this spot,” Daisy replied. Maelsteez paused for a moment in a spot to look at Daisy with confusion, only to see her raise a hand in his direction.
A normal mage in a combat tournament would move to avoid any hand being pointed their way. But Maelsteez was endlessly curious and wondered what Daisy was going to cast. Especially as her hand was the first instance outside of the forced censorship that the baffle-field had engaged.
As he looked at the blurred hand and watched a blurring motion coat Daisy’s mouth, Maelsteez wanted to prove he was faster than any attack she could launch and demoralise her. His parents always taught him never to hit a girl so he would win without hurting Daisy one bit.
He, however, was surprised when five bolts that even he could recognise as manashot fired out of her blurred hand. The five shots were spread out wide enough that anyone would need help avoiding them. That is anyone but him, as he had a whole arena to avoid her attacks. Speeding out the path of the shots, Maelsteez rushed to Daisy’s opposite side.
“What was that attack?”
“I haven’t reached the Tick-Tock-Manashot yet, but I did make my own addition to the school,” Daisy replied as she held out her left hand, which began to blur. “I call in Mana-Scatter-Shot,” as she said this, a further five bolts shot out of her hand.
Maelsteez once again moved fast enough to avoid the shots, surprised to see such an effective use of a basic attack spell. But he couldn’t help but feel like Daisy was heavily underestimating him. Any speedster worth their own feet could dodge any projectile.
As he moved to behind Daisy, though, he noticed she had begun to lift one of her feet. He couldn’t help but internally scoff, especially as Daisy had made a point she would win without stepping off her spot. Only when her foot was at the height of its arc did he see it suddenly begin to blur.
Even with his accelerated body matching his mind's speed, he couldn’t help but pause in surprise at the idea of a mage using their foot as the channel through which magic was cast. As he focused on Daisy’s movements, he saw her stomp on the ground and a burst of energy radiate with her at its centre.
Maelsteez, as he moved, then began to see the ground shift and warp as it broke apart. This was something he had not been prepared for as he lost his footing and collided face-first into a fresh wall of stone that had been upturned by Daisy’s spell.
Falling to the floor groaning in pain, he looked up to see Daisy stomping her foot again and again. More and more, the arena floor began to warp and shape, creating hurdles, then walls.
“Maelsteez, I have learnt a lot from my teachers, and I won’t let the one I have learnt the most from be lost because of these duels!!” Daisy shouted.
“Hey, Gorm, did you teach her this?” Alex asked, gesturing to what, from the audience's viewpoint, looked like a stone maze taking shape.
“Gorm did bestest, buddy!!! Gorm understands you did not yet have a chance to teach them how to deal with a speedster,” Gorm and Alex glanced Mimi’s way for a brief second.
“So, in a break between firing practice, I taught her how to stop a speedster by disrupting the terrain around her.”
“Pah, I could handle that in less than a second,” Mimi scoffed as she gestured to the increasing size of the maze-like walls below.
“Mimi, you are a rather big exception,” Alex replied.
Having recovered from his fall, Maelsteez looked to see a mass of walls in front of him. Every time he tried to approach, he found fresh walls forming. Maelsteez couldn’t help but show his awe at how Daisy was singlehandedly warping the shape of the arena with ease.
An opinion not shared by the mages maintaining the array, who were already having a hard time dealing with these fights. They had been told six fights between students, not six fights between monsters. They were already calling for assistance from other mages, like the mage unit General Amelia had brought with her.
Seeing only one path ahead of him, Maelsteez decided he would play her game. He would move so fast through her maze that she couldn’t box him in, and victory could be his. That her attempts to stop him from getting close would all be for nought.
Charging up his enhancer energies in his legs to their maximum, Maelsteez shot off, creating a sonic boom behind him. As he went down every possible route, he couldn’t help but appreciate that he had practised with his trip to the lower plateaus, so this was kid stuff.
Looking behind him, he could see the walls closing up the paths he had taken. Maelsteez couldn’t help but let a laugh escape his lips as he moved faster than Daisy could alter her maze.
“It’s Daisy’s victory,” Alex declared as he looked over the arena.
“Don’t be ridiculous… it is far too earl-” Michael stopped mid-sentence as he now could see what Alex had seen.
Maelsteez, unaware of his imminent defeat, turned the final corner to see the only part of the maze that had a roof over it. At the end of the tunnel before him stood Daisy, who had her back to the tunnel as she continued to stomp whatever spell she was using to alter the maze.
Seeing his opening, he charged down the tunnel at full speed only to see Daisy stomp once more, causing the tunnel to close behind him. But he didn’t care; he would claim victory without hurting her. Just as he reached the halfway point of the tunnel, he felt his face collide with something cold and very solid.
What he was unaware of was Daisy had conjured a fully transparent inch-thick ice wall in the middle of her tunnel trap. Unable to regain his balance Maesteez lost his balance and began to roll. Using his full agility, he got back to his feet only to see Daisy staring him down with both hands blurred and held together.
“DOUBLE BARREL MANA SCATTER SHOT!!!” Daisy’s shout was accompanied by ten bolts shooting his way. Readying to dodge to the side, only now did Maesteez’s mind slow down enough to reveal his folly. He had been herded through the maze and confined with no way to dodge either way and with a trap in the middle to break his charge.
With no chance to avoid the hits, Maelsteez experienced ten bolts of condensed mana striking him at the same time. Then another ten and a further ten. Slowly but surely, the hits proceeded up till they reached triple digits. After a sustained abuse from Daisy, she stopped shooting.
Stomping her foot, she flattened the ground between her and the referee’s booth and gestured to Lincoln. Recognising her meaning, Lincoln approached Maelsteez and nodded to Harry.
“Ladies and Gentlemen by magical knockout the terrifying flowers for your widow… DAISY!!!!” The crowd, who were already not positively disposed to Maelsteez due to his late arrival, cheered passionately for Daisy, who, true to her word, had not moved a step from her starting position.
With her victory in the bag, Daisy set about helping the arena staff undo her damage by flattening the arena into a state that would be far less mana intensive to repair than her entire maze-like set-up.