NOVEL NEXT 131 - The Tournament: Part 1
We watched as Rollo and Garam entered the arena under the excited eyes of thousands of spectators. They made their excitement known by cheering loudly as the two Asphons took up their positions on opposite ends of the arena. The arena was a large circle paved with a kind of stone I was told was usually indestructible. Small pillars of the same material, big boulders, and even the oddly placed tree were sparsely placed around the area and provided some opportunities for ranged or stealth-based combatants.
The system illuminated the spots the participants were to take, and once both of them stood in their respective places, the light below them turned green and a countdown appeared in the air above, counting down from ten. Garam, after slowly exhaling to calm himself, took a stance with his Glaive pointing towards Rollo, who stood casually in his own spot, not even bothering to enter any kind of stance or making any other preparations.
Soon enough, a loud horn announced the start of the fight as the timer reached zero, and Garam shot toward Rollo. A blue glow enveloped Garam's glaive as he closed in, signifying the use of a skill. He swung his weapon in a wide arc, and an ethereal blade detached itself, heading straight for Rollo, while Garam used some fancy footwork aided by another skill to move to Rollo's side quickly. The whole sequence was timed perfectly so that Rollo would have to defend two strikes coming from different angles simultaneously.
The ethereal blade and the glaive were closing in on him, when he finally moved. With incredible speed, he bobbed and weaved in between the attacks, his right fist taking on an ominous red glow. The fist cleanly connected with Garam's stomach with an audible crack, and Garam was sent flying into a nearby pillar. Another horn declared the end of the match as Garam was judged unable to continue the fight, his glaive uselessly clattering to the ground next to him.
Cheers erupted as the one-sided fight ended and Rollo made his way back to his waiting room, some helpers rushing out to collect both Garam and his weapon. The fight had lasted five seconds at most, yet I could feel my blood boil. Rollo was the real deal! If it was him, I would be able to fight to my heart's content. I simply HAD to make it to the finals! It may be a bit mean to say, but the fact that Garam lost so clearly, made me happy. I should want my team to do well, yet here I was, feeling giddy.
The helpers carried Garam back into our waiting room, and as soon as he crossed the threshold, he was healed back to perfect health. Yet another convenience provided by the system. No matter how hard you fought in your match, once it was over you'd be healed back to full health, your mana completely restored, and the built up fatigue removed. All to allow consecutive fights at full strength.
The next two fights were a lot more interesting to watch, since they weren't over instantly. The second match was Obo, a bow user from Lophan, against Skiny, an assassin-type using stealth and daggers from Kurra. While Obo used the environment to his advantage in an expert fashion, it was a bad match up at the end of the day, and he was eventually defeated since he had trouble detecting Skiny and maintaining the distance needed to use his bow effectively.
Already, Kurra had won two matches, which didn't paint a nice picture for us. Of course, this wasn't entirely unexpected, and Lophan had already told me that it was up to me to win this thing.
The third match was between Lumbar from Kurra and Rondel from Lophan. Lumbar was sporting a full set of armor, which was quite rare for Asphons. Their skin was quite tough, so they usually forewent armor in favor of mobility. A massive tower shield occupied his left hand, while a lance poked out from behind the shield. All in all, the guy looked like a walking mountain of metal. Rondel, on the other hand, wasn't wearing any armor. A deceptively simple wooden staff rested in his hands, the hallmark of an Asphon mage. He, in particular, seemed to prefer water and ice spells.
So, unless Lumbar had some neat tricks up his heavily armored sleeve, Rondel should have this in the bag.
Just as expected, Rondel was able to run circles around Lumbar, quite literally sometimes. While Lumbar revealed some surprising mobility thanks to the clever and frequent use of movement skills, he was hampered by a layer of slippery frost on the ground while having to endure a constant barrage of icicles and water bullets. The man eventually turned into a pillar of ice, completely immobilized, which was enough for the system to call the match in Rondel's favor.
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Then, in the fourth match, it was finally Nimma's time to step up to the plate. I wished her good luck as she stepped out of the waiting room, ready to face her opponent, an earth mage named Endon. For her part, Nimma was wielding a sword and shield. I'd seen her fight before and knew she was quite the fighter, hopefully it would be enough to eke out a win. Since she was up against an earth mage, I was genuinely worried that she would get literally walled out while having to defend against more offensive magic.
The horn sounded, and Nimma shot toward the mage who was already retreating while casting a spell with his staff. In a rather surprising turn of events, Nimma threw her sword like a javelin. The sword was glowing a bright blue and shot forward like it was fired from a cannon. Endon visibly panicked and tried to dodge as the expected earthen wall came into existence a split second too late, letting the sword pass by the barrier. My view was blocked, but I could still follow the action on one of the many big screens floating above the stands.
Endon managed to twist his body away just in time to turn the fatal attack into a glancing blow, the sword clanging off his tough exoskeleton. Relieved, he continued his retreat while starting to cast his next spell, confident in the ability of his rather massive wall of stone being able to stall Nimma for long enough to cast something more complex. To everyone's surprise, the sword changed direction mid-air, suddenly flying at Endon again. Nimma was still busy running around the new obstacle, but apparently she still had control over her weapon via some sort of telekinesis.
Endon cursed as his casting was interrupted due to the annoyingly persistent floating weapon. He eventually resorted to rapid casting some kind of stone shrapnel spell to deflect the sword, finally managing to pin the weapon under a larger conjured boulder. While celebrating his small victory over the annoying weapon, he failed to realize that Nimma was bearing down on him. When she was about ten meters away from him, her shield started to glow, and with an incredible burst of speed, she rushed at him before bashing the poor guy with her shield, sending him flying.
Pressing her advantage, Nimma pursued Endon, who was already recovering from the impact. While a bit wobbly, he managed to cast a spell to hinder Nimma, a wave of mud appearing out of nowhere and barreling toward her. The wave left a lot of grime in its wake, transforming the battlefield into a slippery mess. Nimma had no problems jumping over the somewhat slow moving wave, but the uneven footing gave her some trouble. Satisfied, Endon started casting a bigger spell once again, only to roll out of the way as Nimma's sword once again came flying at him.
Wise to her tactics, he kept an eye on the seemingly autonomous sword as he retreated. Switching up tactics once again, Endon gave up on big attacks and started pelting Nimma with low tier spells. A variety of rocks, spikes, mud balls, gravel, and devently sized boulders appeared out of thin air and bombarded Nimma from all sides, making it hard for her to defend with only her shield. Not to be outdone, her shield started glowing brighter and brighter, resulting in a shockwave that deflected every projectile in a big radius around her, a shimmering force field coming into existence around her, keeping further projectiles away.
Endon had to dodge Nimma's sword once again, but I could see that the high tier spell he was preparing was almost complete. Thanks to my skills, I could observe the spell matrix of Endon's spells as he was casting them, and I was fairly impressed with his ability to slowly and methodically construct the matrix for a bigger spell in between casting tons of smaller spells. Sensing that something bad was about to happen, Nimma recalled her sword and activated her trump card as well, as her whole body started glowing with the telltale blue of a skill being used.
Over the next three seconds, two things happened really fast. First, Endon's spell activated, taking the form of two massive plates of stone appearing on either side of Nimma. They crashed into each other with brutal force, attempting to flatten Nimma in between them. Second, Nimma turned into a blur, moving so fast I almost lost sight of her. She barely cleared the two plates in time to avoid being sandwiched and her sword drew a beautiful arc, cleanly bisecting Endon.
The match was called, and some Asphons frantically ran out into the field, providing Endon with some first aid to keep him together for long enough so that they could move him into the waiting room. The system perfectly healed him once he crossed the threshold, as promised, but it was a brutal reminder that death was possible on the field. While killing outright was discouraged, if you died before returning to the waiting room due to a fatal attack, the system wouldn't move a finger.
Nimma returned to our waiting room being cheered on by the crowd while the arena reset itself. We happily celebrated her victory even as the next match was called. Only three more matches until I was up…
And I couldn't wait!