December 20th Year 2024
Over the next few weeks, Jack and Kyle participated in the divine tournaments. Kyle fought and won in the 4th tournament and Jack in the 5th. And now it was Alina’s turn for the 6th. To Alina, it was most amusing to watch the 4th tournament as she got to witness Kyle go toe to toe with Jack. But the winner of the fight was already determined.
Jack the controller of the black shadow sand had little chance against the master of lightning. Despite the large tentacles of black sand proving to be effective shields against lightning, they could only do so much. With Kyle’s flight and powerful bolts, he was able to Strike jack and knock him out in one blow.
Alina on the other hand had decided to pass in favor of saving her strength for winning the master tournament later. Or maybe she was a little distracted.
Over the last couple of days, Alina had been meeting up with Camillia. So far, their meetings had been really casual, Coffee, dinner, and war practice. To Alina, being friends with the strongest Manaform and old friend of Eldria took priority over practice for the tournaments. Throughout this period Alina did notice that Camillia had come off as a little bit protective of Alina. She seemed to still see Alina as Eldria and was a bit demanding. When the conversations turned to the tournaments Camillia strongly recommended Alina not participate. Though Alina was adamant.
When the time came Alina, Kyle, and Jack traveled to the Whiplash Coliseum. This ginormous palace was made entirely of badge stone, has seats all around the field for 5,000 Manaforms, and in the center laid the perfectly flat stone oval battlefield.
Alina parted from the group to meet up with all those participating. There she saw all the contestants, in the gym-like waiting room. She didn’t recognize anyone she knew but did see a hooded figure sitting in the corner.
After a few moments, a voice on the speaker told them that there were 16 contestants and that each would be called in groups of two to go into the coliseum and dual. Because it is based on tournament brackets all one must do is win 4 rounds to be the winner.
Alina sat around for a while longer, as each dual took about ten to fifteen minutes. Alina kept herself busy by talking to a few of the contestants until she was eventually called. As Alina walked outside on her first dual, she could see the stands were packed almost completely full. Despite that, she was quickly able to see Kyle and jack in the front rows. They waved at Alina and cheered for her, much to Alina’s embarrassment. After a bit of pondering, she was also able to find Camillia watching her from high up in the stands, as well as Thio cheering her on.
Alina’s first two fights would be easy grabs. The first was a Manaform who could grow and shrink specific objects he touched. He preferred his signature attack, an increased giant fist to crush his opponents. However, he quickly discovered this was a mistake as Alina was easily able to turn the fight against him. The first time Alina got slammed by the giant fist she was crushed against the ground with tremendous force. But of course, Alina stood up with her hair longer than before and her strength improved.
Just like Eldria, Alina had the divine ability to absorb many forms of energy with the primary being kinetic. Every time Alina was struck with a moving object the force behind it would seemingly vanish upon hitting her. The kinetic energy from the object would be transferred to her, adding to her total energy absorbed. The more energy Alina has the faster she can move, the more strength she has, and the tougher she becomes. Unfortunately, this dies off fast. With every punch, she throws and every step she takes she loses this energy until it reaches a stabilization amount. This amount is her typical status when she is not powered up. Alina also lets out this energy in the form of heat, most prevalent in her hair. When she has more power, her hair grows longer and glows brighter. Because of this, she loses energy at a faster rate the more she has. One might assume this drawback means Alina is powered down most of the time giving her the stats of a standard human, however as far as anyone can guess there is no limit to the amount of energy Alina can absorb.
So, when this fight came around Alina was easily able to absorb the attacks and use his own force against him. A single uppercut and he was out. The second one to fight Alina was referred to by everyone as the Screecher. She had the ability to amplify the strength of sound waves. This proved even less challenging to Alina as the waves of sound were another form of energy she could absorb. The Whirling air passing her by almost perfectly translated into the fire lit on her hair. With each screech, she let out Alina simply ran faster. Screecher seeing her tactic was helpless and surrendered not five minutes into the fight.
The third round came, and Alina was approached by a muscular man whose name was widely known as Shon of Aegis. Shon was known around the sanctuary as the tough jock that people looked up to. Alina had feared potentially going against Son as he had the ability to create basically indestructible forcefields. These fields could take the shape of whatever Shon chose and he could control them through the air making for extremely good tools both offensively and defensively.
“Hey there Shon, any chance you go easy on me given your passive-aggressive personality.” Alina almost begged.
“Oh Alina, I’m sorry but if I win this tournament, I will get the power to defend everyone on this island. If I must harm you to protect everyone else I will. Even if you are the clone of her.” Shon spoke in his signature deep voice and was not amused.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
From the stands, the face of Camillia would tell anyone she was angry at someone threatening Alina in such a way. Alina simply shrugged her shoulders and took a fighting stance.
When the fight began it was clear that the transparent force fields from Shon were tough, real tough. Alina attempted to attack the force fields but without a lot of power built up, she could not break it. Shon originally played defensively, watching, and focusing on how Alina fought. But as he sees that she is not doing any damage Shon strikes her with a floating fist made of the transparent barriers. Alina goes flying but lands with hair twice as long as before. With this temporary strength, she is able to break Shon’s fields, however just as Alina would punch and destroy a barrier Shon made 2 more ready.
For the next few minutes, Alina plays this dangerous game where she must balance her use of energy against Shon. If she uses too much at any given moment, she could become trapped by Shon and officially become subdued ending the match. When the fear of losing got to Alina she notices the glass dome that covers the battleground. This of course being used to prevent some of the Manaforms attacks from hitting the watchers. If she could just make it up the wall, she might be able to gravity assist herself to have enough force to break through Shon’s fields and push through to him.
With a bit of juking and dashing Alina makes it to the wall of the dome and using most of her remaining energy runs around the field and begins to run on the wall. Her speed increases and with a jump she spirals up the wall and lands upside down for but a moment. With her last bit of strength, she pushes off the ceiling and slams down right through 3 of Shon’s fields. Her Fists light on fire and create a small sonic boom as she pushes all her energy into this last attack. Without touching him the sheer force of the break slams Shon to the ground. Alina then lands on top of Shon's chest. A defeated breath of air leaves Shon and he taps out.
When she is declared the winner by the speaker, she walks over to Shon and lets out her hand to help him up. Shon respectfully accepts her hand.
“Those were some wicked skills out there. Just like Eldria.” Says Shon.
“Thank you, Shon, not bad yourself. You know if I win or lose the upcoming battles, I could use a shield when I tackle with Rold. Would you be up for that?” Alina said curiously.
“Alina, I would love to do that. I will stand with you against him.”
Shon accepts Alina’s handshake. Both then make their way back to the waiting area where Alina stays, and Shon exists the Colosseum. It takes little time for the next round to finish. Alina now waited for the last winner to get a bit of rest for the finale. While pondering who could possibly be this unbeatable opponent Camillia walks in and confronts her.
“Hey there. That Shon is quite something ain't he.”
“Oh yeah, but I got clever didn’t I,” Alina responded.
“Yes, but be super careful on this next fight. She knew Eldria quite well. I assume she will know in detail about your powers. And she will try to overwhelm you.”
“Meh, whatever I got this.” Alina smudged.
“I'll be rooting for you. Abd if you need me just say,” says Camillia.
Just then the speaker calls Alina to the fight. Alina begins to walk out, giving a thumbs up to Camillia. Camillia then leaves with a worried look on her face. As Alina walked outside, she could hear the crowd still cheering for the winner minutes ago. Once on the battlefield, she saw her opponent. Claire the one-woman army. Alina instantly recognized her and could not believe she had to fight her.
Claire is a Manaform with the divine ability to duplicate herself. Her duplicates all have the memory she has, and the host original Claire is able to control them all telepathically. She can see through them, live, as if one big hivemind. Now of course the more clones she has created at any given moment the harder it is to control them and thus takes more concertation. However, that has barely stopped her as she apparently pushes herself to her limit. In fact, no one has seen the original Claire since the early days of the Sanctuary’s birth, and it is presumed she buried herself in a bunker to hide her true location. She has around 5,000 clones at any given moment on the island, each filling in many of the labor-intensive and time-consuming jobs. In fact, one of Claire's clones is in the stands selling snacks for the watchers. Because each clone works for a bit of money, Claire is the richest Manaform on the island just above where Eldria was at.
As Alina walks up to face Claire, she too approaches. They meet closer than expected and Alina is shocked. Claire then immediately grabs Alina’s hand and starts to drag her toward her waiting area.
“Come with me please, I need to discuss something with you.” Claire rudely demanded.
“Uh alright, Claire was it,” Alina says confused.
“I hate that you don’t know who I am. You look so much like her and now I got to start all over again.” Claire responds angrily.
From the stands the crowd is puzzled but no one more than Camillia who is getting a bit jealous at their interaction. They make their way into the waiting room where Claire sits Alina down on a bench.
Alina confused asks Claire “Start all over on what exactly?”
“I’m going to be real with you alright. Maybe just because you are like her in some way. She was my friend. More than a friend, we were like sisters. She showed me I didn’t have to be alone in this place because she was there with me.” Claire released her emotional wait.
“You are lonely? Do you need a friend?” Alina asks.
“No, I need Eldria. Do you know what it is like to be responsible for so many people’s problems? Hmm. When you live thousands of lives at once you think it's easier to find purpose? Well, it isn’t. I’m sorry to throw this at you but I can’t do it alone anymore. And I can’t do it without her. It hurts.” Claire hugs Alina and starts to cry a little.
“It’s alright. Hey if you need someone to make you not feel purposeless then I got something for you.”
Claire rapidly stands up on the bench and points at Alina.
“No, I got something for you. A deal of sorts. If you become my friend, my partner, I will surrender and give you the win for this tournament. And I will be your loyal servant forever.” Claire exclaims will pride.
“You know what. Yes. I was going to do it either way but yes. Let’s do it. I will take you on glorious adventures. We will together find purpose on this floating rock.” Claire super happy jumps down and hugs Alina tightly.
They both shake each other’s hand and walk back out to the coliseum where Claire declares she forfeits and gives the win to Alina. The crowd cheers as she is declared the sixth tournament leader. And now with just 2 tournaments left and five months till Rold's arrival, the pressure from the outcome of the tournaments weighed heavily.