When the charging fighters were knocked flat by Isa’s charge, Rai wasted no time. He closed some of the distance while they were still flat on their faces, using Accelerate to boost his speed. When they pushed to their feet, he stabbed at each of them in quick succession, nearly eight feet of aura sword projecting out from his blade. Then, when they rushed the last few feet, he stabbed them again, and finally, burning star energy, he dodged their fists and counterthrust. No holes in their bodies appeared from any of the attacks, but their clothing was damaged and crimson spots appeared on their skin where he had struck. They went down after the fourth blow to each.
Rai watched with his arms crossed as Isa fought the woman, pulling out a win.
“You got the easy ones,” she told him as they left the arena.
“I’m sure I did. You looked like you were having fun, though.”
Isa grinned. “Oh, yeah. Now I gotta heal myself up, though. She really did a number on me.”
At the end of the day, after yet another victory in the afternoon round, the two of them and Braveheart celebrated their continued success in the tournament with food and drinks at an especially large tavern.
“Can you believe it? That saurian and her partner are still in the running,” someone several tables over said. “Cleared five rounds, and they make it look easy.”
“Well, there’s three more rounds tomorrow, and the semifinals and finals the day after. I doubt they’ll win, even without any champions participating this time around. I mean, there’s those gnome guys, ‘Power Armor,’ and that Flamefrost guy. I was hoping that magic swordswoman who blinds her opponents would win, but she lost against Flamefrost.”
“Is anyone actually betting on Timeless?”
“Hic! I am!”
“Aside from you; you don’t count. You always bet on the ones everyone else hates.”
“What’s to—hic!—hate? She’s a gorgeous babe and he’s a handsome dude!”
“She’s a saurian, you lunatic!”
“So? Hot is hot!”
“I think I’m going to pretend that I didn’t overhear that,” Isa said. “Gimme your ale, I need to get drunk.”
“Hey! Get your own!” Rai protested as she wrenched the mug out of his grip and downed half of it in one go.
“Bleh. Still tastes like crap.”
“I’ll have you know it’s called an ‘acquired taste,’ and that this dwarven ale is actually quite good.”
“Says the lightweight who keeps sipping on a guzzling drink.”
“I’m savoring it!”
“Meep!”
“No, Braveheart, you can’t try it until you’re an adult,” Rai said.
“Yi-meep…”
“Oh, hey!” a boisterous voice called out. “If it isn’t Timeless! It’s me, Garrion. Remember me? We met back when you first arrived in the city!”
The redheaded man sauntered over, a young dwarven woman with dirty blonde hair at his side.
“Yeah, I remember you. You helped us out,” Isa said with a grin. “C’mon, sit with us!”
“…I think you’re getting tipsy,” Rai said. “You’re being way too… friendly.”
“Whaat? I’m always friendly with friends!” She swayed slightly. “Man, this stuff hits you fast, though.”
“That’s why you don’t drink half a stein in one go.”
“Hah!” Garrion laughed. “Sounds like you guys are celebrating your victories. Only six more wins to go and you’ll be the tournament victors. You’re almost halfway there!”
“Please, Garrion,” his companion sighed. “Are you trying to start a tavern brawl?”
“At least win the quarterfinals and you’ll be rich,” Garrion said, waving away her concerns.
“Well, what we really need is to beat Flamefrost,” Rai said. “He’s got the rock we need. But if we can win the whole thing, that would be amazing. I think we’d go for the assortment of ingots rather than equipment.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Rai smiled mischievously. “Not to brag, but Isa’s good at making weapons and I’m a decent enchanter. We made our own weapons.”
“Don’t you have an orichalcum sword?” the woman asked.
“Yep. It’s only five-star, though, since we were pretty inexperienced when we made the blade.”
Garrion sat at the table and his companion joined him.
“So, who’s your friend?” Rai asked.
“This’s my girlfrie—”
“I’m his best friend, not his lover, no matter what he says,” the dwarf woman interrupted. “My name’s Topaz.”
“Well met, Topaz. I’m Rai, and this is Isa. And this cutie is Braveheart, my familiar.”
“Yi-meep!”
“Nice to meet you.”
Fortunately, no tavern brawl broke out, and they had a pleasant meal together before parting ways.
The following day, there were four rounds. The first round, Isa and Rai faced a human trio who specialized in turning themselves invisible and taking down opponents one at a time with attacks aimed at vitals. Unfortunately for them, Rai immediately countered with Dancing Sparks, highlighting their locations, and both Rai and Isa had the preternatural ability to dodge even invisible attacks anyway, spoiling the humans’ attempts to target their vitals.
In the second round, they went up against a solo axe-wielding Berserker who fought in a manner similar to Isa. Not only that, but he was clearly a sixth-tier Master. This was the first time that Rai genuinely thought they were going to lose.
The fight began Cutter (his name) casting Guided Blow and then immediately entering Berserk Mode and charging at with a wordless cry, his muscles bulging and a golden aura surrounding him. She had no hope of evading the attack, which cut all the way through her from shoulder to hip. She staggered back, eyes wide, nearly overloaded with pain. Rai used Accelerate, rushed up, and with a burst of intense focus, flooded his mind with star energy.
I can see the vital spots so clearly, Rai thought. Now!
He unleashed a three hit combo, delivering deadly blows, one even to the dwarf’s head. But just as with every attack so far, no true wounds appeared, and the Berserker didn’t go down. Instead, he turned and cut through Rai, causing him to gasp in pain, then batted aside two “Dragon’s Wrath!” in a row from Isa with his bare hands. Then he spun, his axe going through both of them in a single swing.
Rai staggered, feeling his burst of second wind coming and vanishing all at once. He barely remained on his feet. Isa grunted, and then they both attacked at once. The dwarf staggered, dropped out of berserk mode, and collapsed.
Rai and Isa had to use healing magic just to exit the arena. The fight had been short, but incredibly brutal. He wasn’t sure whether they would have survived or not had it been a true life or death fight.
By comparison, the third and fourth battles of the day were easy.
Another night of celebration was had.
-x-
“Welcome, welcome, to the last day of the Spring Tournament!” the announcer’s voice echoed across the arena stands. “We are finally down to the last four teams! This morning, we will have two matches – the semifinals – and this afternoon we will have the finals. The matchups are as follows: Timeless vs Flamefrost and Power Armor vs Nameless!”
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“If this were a story, Flamefrost and Timeless would be the finals fight,” Garrion commented to Topaz.
“Yes, yes, dramatic tension and all that.”
“Still, making it this far means that they’ll win twenty thousand gold, even if they lose here.
“Now that we’re in the semifinals, everyone left will be walking away with a prize, so in a sense, they’re all winners. And winners get to talk before they fight! First match: Timeless vs Flamefrost!”
The giant closeup illusions of the three combatants showed them in great detail as they walked toward the center of the arena, stopping when both sides were fifty feet away from the center point.
“Team Timeless has been something of a dark horse this season! Not only has the swordsman, the Fateful Blade, never fought in our arena before the tournament, but his partner, the Blood Dragon, is a saurian who appeared as if from nowhere a month ago and took the arena by storm. Anyone who has seen her regular fights and compared them to her fights in this tournament knows she was holding back before! So! Any words before you take on your opponent?”
Isa bared her teeth in a savage grin. “Yeah. We’re taking first place, Flamefrost, so don’t even think about winning. Oh, and we’ve still got some cards we haven’t played yet, so don’t get cocky!”
Rai pointed at Flamefrost. “Flamefrost. You have something of ours. You’ve had it for nearly a year, now, but it’s time to give it back to the ones who have divine claim over it. We’ll be taking that stone on your chest when we win.”
“Oh? What a bold statement! And what is your response, Flamefrost?”
Flamefrost was relatively tall for a dwarf at a full five feet, with short brown hair and no beard. The star shard in his breastplate glowed ominously as he scowled.
“This rock is mine and mine alone! I was the one who found it, and I won’t be giving it up! It’s because of this rock that I’ve become the best dual swordsman in the world! Today, I’ll be defeating you utterly!”
“Oho! Talk about grandiose claims! Well then, let’s get this battle started!”
“You’re mine!” Flamefrost roared charging far faster than any dwarf had a right to be – even faster than the fleet-footed Isa – with both swords out at his sides.
“Like we planned,” Rai said, wings of flame and lightning sprouting from his back. He leapt into the air, hovering at a height that was just out of the dwarf’s reach.
“Eyes on me!” Isa shouted, mentally casting a first circle spell called Staring Contest, which forced her target to focus his eyes on her and her alone. She saw his eyes flicked up at Rai, indicating to her that he had resisted the spell. Then he was right in front of her, whirling and slashing with grace and impossible speed, flaming and frost-covered swords delivering cut after deep cut.
Rai’s eyes widened as Isa went down limply.
Flamefrost looked up at Rai, a manic grin spreading on his face.
“What was that about defeating me and taking my rock?! If this weren’t the arena, that dragon-blooded bitch would be dead!”
Fear warred with anger in Rai’s heart. They had so consistently tackled things that should have been much stronger than them that he had fallen into the trap of subconsciously believing in their invincibility. This was a shocking reminder that they were neither invincible nor guaranteed to win every fight. He also had no doubt that if the dwarf could bypass the arena’s protections, he would kill them both. There was madness in those eyes.
What do I do…? Rai thought desperately. If only there were some way to harness the star energy to… wait. Star energy interferes with the mind. If I… He had a flash of insight, and a new spell, fourth circle, burned itself into his soul.
“Star-Enhanced Spell: Befuddle!”
There was a brief flash of green light.
“Hahaha! Abbableladbada dofubablama!” Flamefrost babbled incoherently, his eyes going unfocused.
Now for the next step… Invisibility!
Rai flickered and vanished from sight. He gently floated down and landed beside Isa as Flamefrost attacked himself with his own swords, screaming wordlessly. Pulling out a potion bottle, he held it up to Isa’s mouth and poured it in. Isa twitched. He quickly poured another potion down her throat as the dwarf started babbling again. Her eyes focused.
“Finish healing yourself… quickly and quietly,” Rai whispered. “I’ve got him… distracted.” The dwarf smashed his weapons into himself again. Rai touched Isa’s shoulder and she became invisible.
Then he created an audio-visual-thermal illusion of the two of them and mentally directed the “Isa” to stand and stagger away while the “Rai” circled around Flamefrost, sword at the ready. He jumped back into the air, flying around to a different angle. The dwarf babbled some more, than attacked himself again.
Isa rose and moved away in a different direction, creating three Blood Elixirs, supercharging the spell each time with her mana heart’s star energy to double their effectiveness and completely restoring her physical condition.
Then Flamefrost shook his head violently.
“Ergh… I’ll kill you both!”
He attacked both the Isa illusion and the Rai illusion, his sword slicing through them. Rai allowed the illusions to disappear, as they would no longer be useful. The dwarf immediately went back to babbling.
Isa entered Berserk Mode, then charged, becoming visible once more with her halberd mid-swing.
“Silver Savage Rush!”
Her first swing turned aside from the power of a deflection field, caused by a ring on his hand much like the one she wore, except metal instead of wood. The diversion was just enough to make the axe head glance off the dwarf’s breastplate. Her second, horizontal swing also barely missed as he reacted and jumped back, the spearhead scraping along his armor. His expression turned to one of pure rage, and he savagely – and swiftly – attacked with a flurry of swings. Isa tried to intercept with a shout of “Sword Breaker!”, but his flaming sword simply battered aside her halberd, completely undamaged. She staggered.
Accelerate! Focus star energy in my mind and…
Rai unleashed a triple thrust, his sword aura shooting down. The first blow went through the dwarf’s head, but the dwarf blocked the second with his sword (now that he could see Rai, who had reappeared), and the third failed to penetrate armor.
“Dragon’s Wrath!”
It was Flamefrost’s turn to stumble back from the massive overhead blow that would have cleaved a lesser man in two.
“Stay down this time, bitch!”
Isa’s aura punched him in the face and he stopped mid-swing, eye twitching.
I need invisibility that won’t break when I attack, and I need it now! Rai thought desperately as the dwarf easily parried another swing from Isa, then slashed, sending her flying to hit the ground some sixty feet away, bouncing and rolling away from her halberd before lying still.
The rage was replaced by a glazed look as the dwarf babbled again. When he stopped babbling, his expression was as clear as it had been before the Befuddle spell. He looked up at Rai.
“Die, human bastard!”
He threw his right-hand sword. Rai swerved in the air, but if it weren’t for the deflection field slightly altering the blade’s course, it still would have skewered him; as it was, it bounced off his forcefield before flying back to the dwarf’s hand.
Do something, star energy! Turn me invisible!
Rai’s form began to flicker. He wrenched energy from his qi core, then channeled the star energy as though casting Invisibility. As soon as he started the process, the star energy leapt to complete it on its own, and he vanished.
“What’re you gonna do, human filth? You can’t stay invisible and attack me at the same time!”
We’ll see about that!
Rai slowly circled around Flamefrost, unleashing triple strike after triple strike. The dwarf couldn’t defend against what he couldn’t see, and though the armor flashed and negated Rai’s every attempt at Deadly Strikes at vital points, Rai’s attacks were still quickly whittling down the dwarf, who swung wildly, attempting futilely to strike back at what was both invisible and out of his reach. Soon, the dwarf was at his limit and staggered.
The stone in his armor glowed brightly. Rai’s next two combos cracked, then shattered the dwarf’s breastplate as it absorbed the damage from his assault. The shard floated in the air for a second, then fell to the ground.
“No!”
Rai stabbed him through the heart, and Flamefrost collapsed.
Cancelling his invisibility, Rai stepped over to the fragment and bent down to pick it up.
Its glow brightened.
“No… no… that’s… mine…”
Rai’s eyes widened. He snatched the star shard and jumped high in the air, flying backwards away from the fallen dwarf, who was now pushing himself to his feet.
Impossible! There’s no way…!
“Give me my stone!” Flamefrost screamed. A sickly green aura exploded out of him. Rai’s eyes met his – or what had once been his eyes, for they were now replaced with ghostly green fire.
What in all the hells?! There were no records of anything like this! Madness, yes, but… not this!
“GIVE IT TO ME!”
Both swords came flying point-first at Rai. He parried one with his sword, but the other went through his gut before they both sprang back to Flamefrost’s hands.
Blood splattered on the floor of the arena. Rai’s gaze fell to the hole in him.
The arena’s wards… they failed…?
“Stop the match! The wards aren’t working! Stop the match!” the announcer cried.
“I WILL BE THE GREATEST SWORDSMAN ALIVE! I WILL BE THE GREATEST SWORDSMAN TO EVER LIVE! I WILL… I WILL… Gurgk!”
Flamefrost coughed up blood. “GIVE ME THE STONE!”
He flung his swords at Rai again, putting a second hole straight through him. Rai’s daily emergency surge of vitality rushed through him. With an act of will, he used star energy to turn invisible once more, quickly lowering and circling around.
“WHERE IS IT?! WHERE IS MY STONE?!”
Rai stabbed him through the lungs with two quick strikes, then changed locations. What? The wards are still protecting him?
“Enough!”
A dwarf in a long red fur cape lined with gemstones appeared next to Flamefrost in a flash of light. He was old, but far from frail, with a massive silver beard and long curly hair. “As Ruler of Ferrigen, I declare you disqualified! Stand down or face execution!”
The younger dwarf attacked. The Ruler caught both blades with his gauntleted hands, with glowed gold. He squeezed, shattering the swords, then put both palms forward.
“Greater Life Drain.”
A black ray struck the other dwarf in the chest, and the color left his skin, turning it ashen. The beam remained for a full second.
“I will… be immortalized… I will… be the best… My stone… my stone…”
“Life Drain.”
The light in Flamefrost’s eyes guttered out, his flesh shriveled, his skin blackened and grew taut on his bones. He fell to the ground, lifeless.
Rai cancelled his invisibility, landing. The Ruler met his gaze. He swallowed.
“That stone,” the Ruler said more quietly, but still forcefully. “What is that stone? It was responsible for this, was it not?”
“It was,” Rai confirmed. “Your Excellency… this stone is incredibly dangerous. We are on a divine mission to recover and safeguard it and others like it to protect the world. I would rather not go into detail here.”
The Ruler was silent for several seconds, expression unreadable.
“Very well. We will speak later, after the tournament. Your team wins this round by default, so rest and prepare for the finals.”
With that, he teleported away.
“T-team Timeless wins the match due to the disqualification of Flamefrost!” the announcer stated nearly thirty seconds later.
The match was over.