31 Chapter 31:Heat

James watched the starting matches of the finals with not much interest. His friends weren't involved and the fighters were just above average fighting skills. As the match went on for a few more minutes, James was thinking back on his knowledge of the world and considering what should be his next step after this. Well, most likely the next step will be group up again and go hunting once more. After all, wheres the fun in just sitting around doing nothing? Plus it will make him and his friends stronger. So it's a win-win right?

As James finished this thought the two people both collapsed out of exhaustion and thus they were tied. Considering everything of the rankings, that must suck, but fewer people for him to have to deal with down the line. The next few matches were the lower top 20-10 people fighting against one and another. This was a bit more interesting to watch. One of the fights was between a martial artist who was the fifteenth rank, against swordsmen who ranked tenth. The fight, in the end, lasted around five minutes. Which might not seem too long, but between two skilled fighters, it really is a decently long time.

More interestingly the fifteenth ranked was able to stop some of the cuts from cutting that deep into his body at all, making the opponent have to try to use more energy and strength to do damage. Overall it was fun to watch, at the very end the martial artist won the fight, only barley tho. This surprised everyone, however, the guy was barely able to stand after the number of cuts he suffered. He was announced the winner of that round, however latter he announced he would forfeit the next round due to his energy being so depleted that he wouldn't win anyways.

'Sad, but it can't be helped'

Next up was Austin.

He went down slowly, taking his time as usual. His opponent was rank number four. His name was Luis. He had dark brown hair with red highlights in it. He wore a blue jean jacket with some jeans as well. Under his jacket was a white shirt. James saw this and thought that he looked like he came out of a highschool drama tv show for teens or something. Anyways he also seamed to use a single dagger-like Austin. As the two-stepping into the arena together James realized something.

'I didn't tell Austin that he knew magic...Shit...Maybe he knows on his own???'

{Austin Pov}

'Well, from what I heard he was the rank five right? So if I beat him...I should gain his ranking within the school...' Austin was happy by this thought, if he wins people at the school would have no choice but to respect him. He was also happy as everyone in the group had leveled up recently a bit. Will and he were both level seven now. Ben had reached level eight, while Isaiah reached level nine. Finally, James had reached level eleven. This was achieved by their training as well as a bit of hunting normal animals. Overall their general stats had increased a bit making them feel a bit more confident. At the moment he was sure they would all get to [A] at the least. Which was really good. So these rounds were more for the social standing then ranks.

Austin took out both of his daggers and readied himself. Luis smiled at him and simply said, "Let's have a good fight."

"Sure,"

A few moments later Austin rushed towards Luis while keeping his guard up. The two met in the middle of the arena which kicked up some sand and dust from the floor. Austin slashed at Luis which was blocked by Luis making a clanging sound from the metal hitting. This was followed up by a thrust from his dagger. Austin jumped to the side before slashing at him again, only barley being dogged by Luis. Luis flung his leg up towards Austin kicking him in the face and throwing him back a few steps. Luis came from the side and tried to slash at Austin but was parried by him as the metal rung against each other. The two kept this back and forth up for a few more exchanges.

*Clang* *Clang* *Clang*

Finally, Austin managed to land a slash on Luis's arm, however, Luis stabbed Austin's side shortly after making him wince in pain.

'Damn that hurt like hell...He's fast. keeping this up may not be easy... including my wound compared to his right now. it's not looking that good...'

Austin rushed Luis and trusted both his daggers at him, one landing and hitting Luis in the abdomen, while the other grazed his leg. This sadly left a wide opening on Austin which Luis quickly took advantage of but barley cut Austin's back due to his pain making him flinch.

"Ack!"

Luis: "Impressive... You are quite fast and skilled aren't you?"

Austin stared at him while getting a little bit of distance between them before responding. "Your pretty good too.. However we both cant keep doing this forever."

Luis: "True, doing this does take up some energy, however, you seem to be worse off than me at the moment, and you're slowly losing your speed."

'tch, he's right. But he's not much better, with the wound on his stomach and his leg, plus his arm...Moving won't be that simple.'

Luis smiled for a moment before he brought his dagger down near the cut on his leg. His blade glowed red as heat poured out from it. Bringing it down his wound was sealed. He did this to these other wounds as well. This surprised Austin but he couldn't let him finish nor let the opening not be used. He quickly threw one of his throwing knives from his belt at Luis.

However...

Austin had been just slightly too slow in throwing it allowing Luis to dodge out of the way of it. Regaining his posturer he finished sealing his wounds, looking at him. Austin gritted his teeth and stared down Luis. 'damn it, this is not a good situation to be in...' Austin's vision began to get a bit blurry from the blood loss he was experiencing. Luis immediately rushed up to Austin and kicked him to the floor before making flames come out from his dagger. Right after this, everything went black and Austin passed out.

{James pov}

Looking at the scene before him James was worried. Austin had been bleeding for some time now. Although the cuts weren't that deep, they were still deep enough where if not treated he could be in a bad situation. James was worried something like this might happen. But he was glad Austin did as well as he did. Austin was taken by medical staff to be treated properly.

"And with that, Luis is the winner!"

The sound of the announcer ringed out again. At this point in time, it bothered him that Austin listed that fight, but in the end, he still made it far which made James proud of him. Luis left the arena shortly after this

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~