by Andrew Rowe
We’d rested for a half hour after the last match as before, but even that half hour period must not have been enough for her to recover from the stress of moving that much mana around.
When I tried to push the slight trickle of mana outward, I saw a flicker of light glimmer across my skin, but that was it. There wasn’t enough for left for a light aura.
I was back to moving slowly, or at least at “normal” speed.
That was bad in itself, but it wasn’t the worst of my problems.
It was just after that point that I got a good look at the enemy team, and I began to sincerely regret using all our mana against easier opponents.
***
That’s very helpful Dawn, thank you.
I stared across the arena toward the wielder of Soulbrand. He hovered a few inches above the ground, a burning aura surrounding his entire body. I didn’t know if that was keeping the arena from affecting him like my light aura had — fire usually didn’t repel shadow-aligned energy in the same way that light did — but either way, it was a pretty impressive sight.
He had his own sacred sword strapped across his back, but he held a similar arena-brand two-handed sword in his grip.
With a single hand, he reached out toward me and made a “come hither” gesture.
Out of my utmost respect for other another wielder, I obligingly advanced in his direction. Nothing else changed around us — my team went to work as usual, as did his. But with another wielder on the field, my focus had changed.
Beating him was my new priority.
I hefted the single edged blade as I approached, preparing to cut through a blast of fire. I’d only fought him briefly before, but I knew that as the wielder of Soulbrand, he’d likely be hurling bursts of flame as his primary means of attack. That was doubly true since he’d chosen another fire weapon for this match.
I ducked a blast of lightning from another member of his team, ignoring the source, and braced myself as I neared my opponent. I passed the ball to reach him, closing to sword reach about half way between the ball and his team’s pillar. “I’ve been looking forward to fighting you.”
He gave me a soft, charming smile. “I know.”
Aren’t you the one who always gets jealous of people in relationships with other weapons?
I continued to advance on the wielder of Soulbrand. “Before we get into the fun part, I’d like you to tell me about that Akadi you mentioned.”
Soulbrand’s wielder narrowed his eyes. “That’s not your business.” He casually hurled a blast of flame at me, but I side-stepped it and kept approaching.
“If innocent lives are being threatened, I have a duty to protect them.”
I ignored Dawn and continued. “I get the impression we’re working toward the same goal, so if you’d just tell me—”
“Not here, not now.” Soulbrand’s wielder shook his head. “Too many eyes. If you want to prove you’re capable of working with me, prove it with steel.”
I was almost in reach now, and I raised my sword in salute. “With pleasure. You ready?”
He gave me a considering look. “Now that you’re all the way over here...yes, perfect.”
Then he vanished.
I spun immediately, prepared for an attack from behind. I knew he could teleport, and I was ready for that...in a loose sense. I’d practiced countering rapid assaults from different angles with Walter, but that wasn’t what happened.
Instead, Soulbrand’s wielder avoided me entirely and reappeared right next to the ball. It was presently glowing with an aura of water, so he couldn’t touch it safely — instead, he simply swatted it with his sword toward my team’s goal.
I rushed toward him, gritting my teeth. Every footstep felt like I was going in slow motion, restrained by the dense mana in the air that I no longer had the ability to defend against.
Another blast of lightning flew at me from behind. This time, I didn’t move quickly enough to stop it. I felt an electrical jolt surge through my body, stumbling in my tracks.
I spun, barely managing to side-step the next lightning blast. My attacker was a tall woman carrying a bow similar to the one Shun was using, but when she pulled back the string, an arrow of lightning appeared between her fingers. She winked at me, then fired another shot.
Cute, but you’re not the one I’m interested in right now.
I brought my sword up to prepare to reflect it, then belatedly remembered Dawn’s mana shortage. She couldn’t afford to reflect the attack.
Instead, I barely jumped to avoid the blast, focused for an instant, then hurled my sword at the archer.
Now, unlike Corin, I don’t have weirdly perfect sword-throwing aim. I do, however, have excellent control over magnetized objects — and that brief instant of focus I mentioned was enough time to magnetize it. With an effort of will, I pushed the sword into the right direction, correcting as the archer attempted to jump out of the way.
I didn’t aim for the archer — hitting her once with a thrown attack wasn’t going to accomplish much.
As the sword flew through the air, I nudged it to the side, into a spinning motion — and cut straight through her bowstring.
Then, with another moment of concentration, I reversed the magnetic force and pulled the hilt of the sword straight back to my hand.
The archer took a moment to gawk at her broken weapon, then ran straight to one of the walls, where other weapons awaited.
An arrow of ice crashed into her on the way, freezing her right leg. I realized Shun had hit her, but I didn’t have time to congratulate him. I turned back toward Soulbrand’s wielder, finding exactly what I’d hoped not to — the ball had changed, and it was burning with fire.
He lunged for the ball.
Reika descended from the sky, swirls of wind rippling around her gauntlets.
Soulbrand’s wielder vanished the moment before she would have crashed into him, then appeared right behind her, already swinging.
Reika turned, growling, and grabbed his sword by the blade. Her suit flashed, registering a hit, and then she ripped the sword from his hands.
His eyes widened in surprise. Then he flickered backward again, unarmed, and hurled a blast of flame in Reika’s direction.
A burst of momentum carried Reika out of the way of the flames. She snapped the sword in two, discarded it, and then surged forward on the beats of powerful wings.
Soulbrand’s wielder sighed and vanished again, reappearing right next to the ball.
He ducked down to grab it, only for Meilin to appear right next to him, slamming a shadow-coated staff into his shoulder.
He grunted on the impact, his suit flashing to register the hit, and then answered her with a burst of shimmering energy from his right hand.
I noticed.
Yeah, figured. He must have a light-based attunement or something.
Meilin took the blast right to the chest, then spun her staff to hit him again.
I ran toward the area of the fight. Meilin was in a bad position — if he could use light magic, he could remove her from the match entirely.
Worse, two more members of the enemy team were closing in on Meilin and Reika. Shun was firing arrows at them, but one of them was blocking with a tower shield, and the other was a scimitar-wielder who was simply dodging out of the way of everything Shun fired.
When Meilin brought her staff downward a second time, Soulbrand’s wielder brought his right hand up, a glimmering blade of light appearing within his grasp. He sliced right
through her staff, the blade drawing a thin line of blood across her cheek as it continued upward.
“Apologies,” he said. “I did not mean to harm you.”
Meilin shook her head. “All part of the business.” Then her right hand shot outward, a coiling chain of shadow lashing outward. Soulbrand’s wielder slashed through it, but the severed chains simply floated apart and multiplied, then rushed inward all at once to wrap around him.
The coils had only encircled him for a moment when Reika crashed into him, punching him hard. His suit flashed, then he vanished entirely.
Reika frowned. “Was that three hits, or...”
I caught up just in time to parry a strike aimed at Reika’s back from Soulbrand’s wielder, who had reappeared right behind her. My arena blade met his sword of conjured light, the two blades of the same element resisting each other.
The blade press didn’t last for long. His eyes narrowed. “You’re persistent.”
Then he snapped his fingers and the world went white.
I felt my suit register a “hit”, and as my eyes cleared and saw Meilin missing, I realized that that burst of light had also hit everyone else. He’d unceremoniously blasted the entire arena.
It hadn’t hurt, at least in my case. But as my vision cleared, I saw that the burst had accomplished more than simple damage — he’d both broken Meilin’s chains and moved, reappearing back next to the ball.
With no light mana left to work with, I instinctively conjured and hurled a ball of flame at him.
The fireball froze in mid-air. He turned toward me, raising an eyebrow. “Really? Fire? You know I wield Soulbrand, right? I’m much better at fire than you are.”
The fireball flew right back at me. By the time I’d cut it in half, he’d ducked down and touched the ball.
He vanished right as Reika charged, swinging, through the space he’d occupied a moment before.
We both turned toward our side of the arena, where Walter and Ari were still guarding our goal. The whole area was obscured by walls of stone that Walter had put into place, so we couldn’t get a good look at what was happening.
I saw another bright flash of light. Fortunately, this one was partially blocked by the stone walls, and didn’t score a hit against me. Then I heard the announcement.
“Team Soulbrand has scored a point.”
My jaw tightened.
The ball reappeared a dozen feet away from where Reika and I were standing, back near the center of the ring. It had shifted elements, now glowing with an aura of blue light.
Reika lunged straight for it. I ran right along with her, fighting against my own exhaustion.
Soulbrand’s wielder appeared right in front of us, a glowing blade of light still in his right hand.
Reika threw a punch — and I mean that in a surprisingly literal sense. She wasn’t close enough to hit him, but when she punched, the swirls of air around her right hand blasted forward and slammed into Soulbrand’s wielder. His suit flashed, and he vanished.
I hurled a blast of fire at one of his team members a moment later, causing the scimitar-wielder to jump aside and miss a swing he’d aimed in Reika’s direction.
The shield-holder crashed into me a moment later, and I saw my suit flash — then I’d been moved.
I found myself in a now-familiar doorless room. Meilin was in there, her hands balled into fists. Ari was in there, too. I wasn’t clear on how he’d gotten there.
“How bad is it?” Meilin asked.
“Not ideal. Reika got the other wielder, though, so hopefully...”
Reika appeared next to me a moment later.
Then, thirty seconds later, Walter joined us.
He glanced around at the gathered players. “This is bad.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” Reika sighed. “We’ve lost almost our entire team. And I think Meilin is out for good.”
Meilin gave a silent, irritated nod.
“Well, when the rest of us go back in, hopefully we can—”
“Team Dawn has scored a point.”
...What?
“How many people on the other team were still up out there?” I asked Walter.
Walter frowned, pondering. “Almost all of them, save for the wielder. That means...”
Reika finished the thought. “...Shun just somehow managed to score a point by himself against five people.”
I turned toward Walter. “How could he—”
Then I was moving, teleported back into the arena. When I reappeared near our pillar in the arena a moment later, I saw the answer.
There was only one active enemy combatant on the field. That wasn’t because the others had been eliminated—
There were five people on the field that were encased, from the neck down, in solid stone.
Oh.
I blinked. Isn’t that just like...
I frowned. There’d be time to ask about that later.
Shun still had one opponent left.
Soulbrand’s wielder stood across from Shun, hurling blasts of flame from his left hand. As each burst of fire approached, a shield of stone burst upward from the ground, blocking the flame, but exploding in the process.
Shun rushed forward to close the distance toward his opponent, unarmed. As he charged, Soulbrand’s wielder danced backward, putting both hands on the hilt of his sword. A mass of flames grew around his sword, burning brighter and brighter by the moment.
Shun showed no signs of slowing down. He pulled back a fist, glowing with green energy, and surged forward.
When Shun was almost in reach, Soulbrand’s wielder vanished.
The wielder reappeared right next to the ball, swinging his blazing blade in my direction. A colossal wave of flame surged across the field, melting the stone beneath it into slag. I swept my own sword upward, sending a shockwave of cutting power through it, slicing the flame wave in half.
That diminished the flames, but it didn’t stop them entirely. I gritted my teeth, focusing on the fire.
Disperse.
Nothing happened. Soulbrand’s wielder’s skill was simply too far above mine.
I braced for impact, knowing it wasn’t going to be pretty.
Ari surged past me and threw himself in the way, taking the brunt of the attack. A brilliant barrier erupted around him as the flames impacted, and a torrent of smoke rose in the aftermath. I took a step forward, waving to disperse the smoke. Beneath it, Ari looked a little singed, but otherwise perfectly intact. He gave me a grin. “Let’s do this.”
Unfortunately, by the time the smoke cleared, Soulbrand’s wielder was no longer in sight.
I reacted in an instant, finding Soulbrand’s wielder behind me with the ball. As he moved the ball downward toward the pillar to end the match, my hand moved on instinct.
My sword, wrapped in destructive mana, slashed straight through the ball.
Then, as the ball fell into two separate pieces, Soulbrand’s wielder stared at me. “Really?”
I gave him a wink just before I felt the stomach-churning effect of another teleport.
I’d been removed from the match.
I’d been disqualified.
Chapter XIV – Mysterious Emblem
Meilin and I sat in suspense, waiting for the rest of the team to emerge. One by one, our team members were eliminated, until finally the announcement came.
“Team Soulbrand has scored a point. The game is over.”
Meilin’s fist tightened. “I can’t believe you cut the ball. Couldn’t you have just hit him?”
I winced. “Sorry. I did the best I could.”
“Breaking the rules was the best you could do?” She glowered at me.
“Calm yourself, Meilin.” Walter sat down between us, putting a hand on her shoulder. “He made the right move. One hit wouldn’t have taken Soulbrand’s wielder out of the match, but that same single cut reset
the position of the ball to the center of the field. He bought us time. It is not his fault — or anyone else’s fault — that we were unable to use the chance he provided. You all did exceptionally well. We simply fought against an opponent that outmatched us.”
“That teleporting thing was really annoying,” Reika complained. “How is that sort of thing even legal in a ball game?”
“You…remember that you can fly, right?” Ari asked.
Reika folded her arms. “That’s not the same at all. Flying is fair. Teleporting is cheating.”
There was a chorus of laughter from almost everyone in response to that, aside from Shun. That guy looked like the sort that never laughed at all, and he was already slinking toward the back to leave.
Walter must have noticed that around the same time that I did. “Shun. Thank you for the help in today’s match. I may ask you to help us again if there are future team competitions.”
Shun gave a shrug. “If you must.”
Reika watched him as he left, obviously wanting to say — or ask — something, but she never did.
With Shun gone, Walter turned back to the rest of us. “Everyone did excellent work today. You should be proud. We may have lost that last match, but with four wins, we’re still easily qualified for the next round of the tournament. We should get some excellent point scores, too.”
“Thanks for leading us!” Reika offered. “You did great, too.”
Walter gave her a nod. “It was my pleasure.”
After that, we spoke to the arena attendants and got updates on our scores.
“I can confirm that by winning four matches, you’re all eligible for the next round,” the arena worker explained. I breathed a sigh of relief at that. It was nice to get an official answer. “Now, if you’ll line up, I’ll give you each your point updates...”
Reika earned a total of four hundred and sixty, bringing her total to one thousand and thirty-four.
I’d...only earned two hundred and ten. That was, apparently, because of a three-hundred-point penalty for destroying a ball.
Oops.
Oh?
