Chapter 38

The fight didn’t seem to have lasted that long, one moment Artina was asking me to wish her luck and the next I was undergoing check up from the healers for my own fight. I couldn’t recall when my opponent had come to the waiting room, but they were clearly a female, I would say we were the same age, but I wasn’t sure. Her skin tone was a light tan with a short mop of hair on her head, at least I thought it was short and not just coiled up like Artina’s.

She could be called pretty, but what those swords of hers planned to do to me wouldn’t be pretty at all. Then again, there are those that view sword work as pretty. She looked like she could easily lop off my head in a single swing if I gave her the chance, which had me wondering, would anyone be fast enough to save me then.

Soon enough, the healers left and we were called to the arena. Each step into the arena filled me with a courage I hadn’t had before, by the time we made it to the center of the arena, all my nerves were gone and the only thing left was the determination to win the fight and get the extra gold. I no longer cared about advancing to the next level of the competition, all that would mean nothing if I didn’t have the gold to upgrade my equipment.

We went through the initial introductions and the presentation of the potions. Like always, I took two of everything, quickly sequestering them into their usual places. I had gotten used to the locations and I wasn’t going to start a new one at the finals. That was followed by us taking our positions at the center of the arena facing each other. She had donned her helmet, leaving her the black lean killing machine that I had seen in the semifinals. I gulped a little as I steadied myself by passing a small amount of Mana through my right hand just to remind myself that it was good for action. I had used it a lot the previous day in the bouts against Paul and the others. But I still needed the assurance.

As that I studied her closely, I could see that she was shorter than I was, but that didn’t take away from the aura emanating from her. But that didn’t bother me at all, at the first fight, I had taken out a Level 35 while I was still Level 28. I was already at Level 31, what was a Level 34?

I could only see her eyes through the eye holes in her helmet, everything else was covered up. We stared at each other in anticipation, waiting for the fight to be called, the fight to determine who walked away with hundred golds and who got one-fifty golds. I wanted one-fifty, and for that, she had to go down.

“Ready!?”

I had already gotten used to the question not-question, but it bothered a part of me every time I heard it. They really needed to settle on what exactly it was supposed to be, otherwise, I might end up going crazy by the time The Grand Competition was over. I took slow deep breaths as I stared at my opponent, we were within seconds of starting the last fight of The Baronies. So many had fallen for us to get there, and deep down, I knew the only reason I was, was all because of luck and not skill. But I would proof that I was good enough to be in the finals by winning it.

“FIGHT!!!”

…

I felt invincible, it was the first real fight I was in after getting back the full use of my arms. I could do anything. But to be honest, I was scared of her. She had nearly beheaded Dawkins in the semifinals, and that fight was still fresh in my mind. I had gained Levels and experience during the competition but I knew I was still out of her league, so I did the only thing that I could.

I dashed towards her, striking up a dust cloud her way, then running as best as I could to close up the distance between us. The dust cloud move had somehow become a go-to thing for me, and I didn’t like it. It helped somewhat, but it was also kind of predictable, I mean I was most definitely going to hide in the cloud right?

The dust cloud cleared as fast as it had come to being, and I had to roll out of two crisscrossing Mana sword slashes.

It wasn’t good enough, I thought. With a determined mind, I pushed myself off the ground, adding a little bit of Mana into my movement for extra power. I flew forward for a moment, before coming to land a few steps in front of her, with a [Fire Ball] already heading her way.

I followed with my staff as she dodged nimbly, she was fast, maybe even faster than me, and I knew that. I just wasn’t going to let her control the fight, that would be a good way for me to lose the finals fast. I kept my staff going, with [Fire Ball]s and [Wind Gust]s zipping from it towards her, each one leaving a trail in the air, be it wisps of fire or dust. But through it all, she was a hard target to hit, using her swords to redirect my staff whenever it came too close to her, while the Skills only met air, some pushed aside by invisible forces.

This is getting me nowhere, I thought. I need to rethink. I scrambled away from the engagement, ducking away as she attacked with one of her swords. I rolled across the arena, putting distance between us, then came to a brief halt, spinning the staff with one hand before stomping it to the ground. Stop with the showy moves. I checked my [Status] as we studied each other, I had done more than her during that engagement and it showed. I wasn’t in a state that needed a potion, but I would, soon enough.

The break lasted only for a few seconds before we both dashed towards each other. I was momentarily surprised by the timing, nearly backing off from the dash, but I pushed those thoughts away. I was in the finals, second guessing my decisions during the fight was not going to help me win, and I needed to win.

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I held back on the Mana, deciding to go pure physical. I hadn’t seen her use too many Mana attacks in the semifinals, and Oki had said the same was true with their fight. I switched my grip from the center of the staff to one end so as to increase the reach I had and use it to full effect.

It seemed to work in my favor, putting her in a passive position from the get go. She tried closing the distance between us, but all I had to do was take a step or two back while moving the staff between us and she would be forced to stay back. I landed a few hits every now and then, but I don’t think they did much to her health. As much as a staff packed a punch, and the fact that she was wearing little armor, I was still not using a lot of effort in swinging it at her. And it didn’t look like she was going all out either, there was no way we were fighting at the speeds she had shown during the semifinals.

She tried a few more slashes, which I deflected with ease, then cursed as I rolled out of the way of one of her Mana slashes. She didn’t let up this time, following through before I even got out of the roll. I fast found myself on the back foot, trying my best to keep her away from me.

She is finally getting serious, I thought as I swallowed hard, redirecting her attacks as much as I could, and ducking and dodging others. I couldn’t fully block her swords with my wooden staff, that would be recipe for disaster, especially in a world with magic.

As it became clear and clearer that she was overwhelming me, I tried using [Earth Grab] to immobilize her, or at the very least to disrupt her rhythm enough for me to get a breather. But all my attempts always seemed to be a second too late, her feet leaving the ground before the Skill could take effect. It meant that using [Hurtling Projectile] would be a huge gamble on my part. The only times I had used it effectively, my opponents had been incapacitated in a way. If I couldn’t do much to her with my staff, and [Earth Grab] couldn’t catch her, then I had no Skill at my disposal that could immobilize her enough for [Hurtling Projectile] to be worth the effort. I still used it when I thought I could get lucky, but she always got out of the way in time enough times that I started suspecting that she was doing it on purpose, trying to eat away at my Mana.

I tried everything I could, even [Fast Dash] was no match for her, she was still faster than me, confirming what I had already suspected during the semifinals. Minutes stretched on as we dashed across the arena trying to subdue each other. I sometimes got desperate enough that I threw [Hurtling Projectile]s indeterminately. I somehow managed to down some of my potions during the continuous engagement we maintained.

…

This isn’t good, I thought in trepidation as I jumped and somersaulted through the arena, it was the first time my [Acrobatics] Skill was seeing full use in the competition. I didn’t have any more Mana potions to take, nor was she giving me the break I needed to take a Health Potion.

She pushed towards me, slash after slash, both Mana and physical. She was moving so fast that even the reach I had enjoyed before was no longer a hindrance to her, easily getting in and out of my reach as she pleased. And in all that speed, she still moved dexterously, and her eyes burned with a determination I hadn’t seen in our whole fight.

She is going for the win, I thought to myself as I desperately kept her at bay. With that look, she is definitely going to do anything she can to get it.

I jumped to the side, rolling off to avoid consecutive slashes to my neck. I could feel my heartrate going up in alarm as the reality of the situation started to register, even a killing blow was fair game to her. In a way, it brought back the dream I had had the night before to the forefront of my mind. And I got even more alarmed.

She pushed still, every attack coming faster and faster than the one before it, and every time I was getting a little bit slower in defending. The muscles of arms were straining with the effort of keeping her blows away from my vitals. She attacked in a flash of spinning swords, and I was forced back again and again.

She’s too good, I thought with anxiety. But I already knew that, the little training I had gone through before the start of the competition couldn’t be equated with whatever training she had gone through, and it was showing. I wished I had trained harder, maybe even looked for a good-to-honest trainer to help me.

I felt a flare of pain in my cheek as I failed to parry a slash in time. I wanted to drop the staff in shock, maybe reach up and confirm whether the slash had really landed. I stumbled back as I tried to avoid even more of her slashes. The look in her eyes never changed, making it hard for me to tell whether she noticed just how close she was to decapitating me.

Just how much stamina did she have remaining to keep the attack going for so long? Had she taken a potion without me knowing? I couldn’t even recall how many and which potions she had taken. I gritted my teeth. I didn’t have much choice anymore.

I shot forward, pressing my own attack and forcing her to scramble backward, the first in a longtime during the fight. But she didn’t give up her momentum, dancing through my staff to threaten me with her swords; I tried to keep up with her, dancing to my own tune too, but she was better. And I was barely avoiding her swords, I could feel the whish of air as her swords passed close to my head too many times for my own comfort.

She swung her swords, and I twisted to the side, avoiding one slice and blocking the other with my staff. Or trying to, I miscalculated, or she redirected the strike, I’m not sure which, but it ended up on my forearm, earning me a deep gash. I didn’t feel any pain as I pushed through to deliver a powerful strike to her stomach. I had been aiming for her sternum.

She grunted in pain, bending slightly, but she didn’t fall. She came up with her right hand swinging her sword against the staff, she followed with a slice to my stomach which I barely avoided, she did manage to slice through my vest and shirt though. Maybe she even kissed the skin underneath, but I didn’t have the time to check as her right sword came back for my neck.

I barely brought the staff back in time to stop her from beheading me, quickly pushing through to land a direct hit to her head. But it had been a trap, it took me a while to realize that she had rammed her left sword in my chest while I was going for her head. I stumbled backward, staying on my feet only with the help of my staff.

She came at me still, and I tried to keep at bay with a [Fire Ball] but nothing came out, reminding me that I had run dry already in the Mana department. I took a stable stance and tried hitting her with my staff, but she easily slapped my strike away, the force of her parry enough to cause me to stumble back further. Before I could do anything else, she slammed the second of her swords right next to its partner.

I looked down at my torso, and then back at her, asking with my eyes why she couldn’t have tried to knock me out instead. Was that so hard for her to accomplish? I slowly collapsed to the ground, with the swords still stuck in me. My vision got hazy as figures started flickering in and out of it. I could remember a similar scene, was I dying again?