Chapter 4 Part 3

"Next up is a female battle! Our third battle sees another human join the fray! Kiana Essery versus Sarar Tearn!" The commentator says. "On the left we have Kiana, a human with the Pathokinesis attribute. She's quite short but don't count her out! She is a force to be reckoned with."

(Narrator) She looks like she could be important so let's describe what she looks like.

She's 5ft 1in and has a curvy figure. She wears black shorts fastened with a belt and guess this...it has pockets. She is also wearing a slim fitting black crop top, black combat boots, and a denim jacket designed with detailed white wings. For her accessories we have several jewelled rings and two earrings, one is an arrow chain and the other is a sword. Around her neck is a black choker.

For this fight she has equipped two Japanese katanas. These blades are a product of your world. It's definitely an amazing sword.

"Her opponent is a Nekojin, a rare sight in this part of the country! Her attribute is wind." The announcer says.

"How is your sister doing Sarar? Is she still dead and buried?" Kiana says with an evil grin.

"I'm sorry?" Sarar says, a little stunned by Kiana.

"I mean, is she still 6ft under? Cuz 6ft never looked so damn good on someone." Kiana crosses her arms and begins laughing.

"W-was you the one that killed her?" Sarar takes a step forward, slightly agitated by Kiana's hostile humour.

"Hmm? Me? No. But I was the one that hired the mercenary to turn her into a rotting corpse." Kiana smiles wildly, Sarar's anger giving her joy.

"You son of a bitch!" Sarar says.

"Wrong. Daughter of a bitch." Kiana laughs.

"Im going to FUCKING kill you!" Sarar cries through her anger.

The two women wait for the announcer to start the match and they head off. With Sarar blinded by anger, she charges in with a frontal assault. As Kiana's opponent charges her, she starts crying?

(Narrator) Wait, what the fuck just happened? Why is she crying?

All of a sudden, Sarar collapses onto the ground, paralysed by her own emotions.

(Narrator) oh, that's right, Pathokinesis. There is a reflection effect where the emotions felt by the target, is also felt by the caster. Quite a huge percentage of Pathokinesis mages die due to emotion overload from several targets.

"You have an intense sadness for your sister. That emotion will be the thing that will make you lose this match, Sarar." Kiana gets in close, and whispers into her ear. "I truly am sorry for orchestrating her demise. She was an awful person to me and I wanted revenge. Surrender so I can stop."

"I won't. I will avenge my sister." Sarar says, tears streaming down her face.

(Narrator) This is honestly hard to watch.

"As someone who chased revenge, it's not worth it. It doesn't change how you feel. It won't change anything other than the guilt of killing someone else."

Christopher staggers back, landing on the bench. His heart rate suddenly erratic.

"Are you ok brother?" Haider asks, sitting next to his sibling. He stabilises Christopher's shaking arms with his own and hugs him.

"Me and that woman are going to have a...a shaky match." Christopher says. His voice and expression showing his extensive fear.

"How do you mean?" Heather asks.

"I know exactly what she means by the feeling of revenge. That accident was never supposed to happen. But the fact still stands that I got my revenge on the church, and it did nothing." Christopher explains. His mouth now dry.

"Do you have any water? Dad! Can you get some water?" Haider yells.

Heddwyn rushes over, cup of water in hand. "What's happening?"

"What that Kiana lady was saying to Sarar really hit home. He's still feeling the guilt for killing the High Priest." Heather explains.

Headdwyn hands him the water and hugs him after he finishes. "You couldn't have known it was a set up! There was no sign of his low mana. You can't pin the blame on yourself."

"That's easy for you to say." Christopher bites.

"Well, you see. I know this pain my cub. I was on an assasination mission given to me by a noble of the Empire, nothing out of the ordinary. I was tasked to take out a man who gave this noble a hard time. During this part of my life, I didn't ask questions, I just did what I was told." Heddwyn wraps his arm around Christopher and pulls him in close. "I climbed through the window of my target's home at the dead of night and sliced the neck of what I thought was my target...but was in fact, a little girl. I was so destroyed by what I did that I was considering taking my own life as penance. But I was stopped by my father and got cut off from doing that line of work again. My father was hoping that I would forget. But I still carry that guilt, even today."

"You're saying this guilt doesn't go away? Then how am i supposed to free myself from this-this burden. This haunting in my head." Christopher asks.

"That's something you're going to need to discover on your own, my cub. Just be yourself and you'll be fine. Try to learn to use this negative feeling as a power." Heddwyn rubs and pats the boy's back before getting up and leaving the rest to Christopher's siblings.

Christopher stews in his thoughts for a little before watching the rest of the match.

"Please surrender. I don't want to make you hurt, I don't want to make you cry." Kiana says.

"Eat my shit you whore!" Sarar yells.

"*sigh* Fine, I'll end this now." Kiana takes out one of her Katana's and plunges it deep into Sarar's left arm, then her other arm. Next, she dissects her legs, slashing both her knee joints with alarming precision. Kiana stops using her Pathokinesis and shouts to the announcer. "Hey, I win, she can't move anymore. Get her to a healing station before she bleeds out."

The announcer surveys the condition of the squirming Nekojin. Her tendons are completely torn to shreds. "Sarar has been incapacitated. That makes Kiana the winner!" The crowd cheer but a clear unease fills the air as Kiana makes her way back to the waiting room.

(Narrator) The next match is Jessica (a female orc) VS Josha Gu (a male ogre) this match was very uninteresting as it was just two brawlers smacking each other until the other went down. It took a while. Josha Gu won.

"I'm up next!" Heather says.

"Break a leg sis." Haider encourages.

"Knock 'em dead." Christopher smiles lightly, still a little shaken by Kiana's statement.

"Let's get right into the 5th match! On the left, we have another human! So many this year. Her name is Heather Longstaff, sharing Her family name with two other contestants!" The announcer takes a pause, waiting for the audience to calm down. "On the right, we have our first dragon newt of the tournament! His name is Heje Havik. Those scales are tough, and his ability to fly will make it hard for his opponent to hit him. But don't count Heather as a loser! She has three Affinites within her Attribute of Plant! Heje has the Ice attribute, making and manipulating his creations with high speeds."

"I'm sorry Heje, but you're just a worse version of my brother with wings." Heather states.

Heje's tone is fun and kind, even though what he says can be interpreted as hostile. "Is that so? So he's an Ice mage too. I look forward to beating him after I take you out of the running."

"You act a bit like him too." Heather laughs.

Heje fashioned two axes made out of ice he created.

"Even your fighting style is similar. I'm sorry Heje, this isn't meant as condescension but I'm not going to have any trouble against you." Heather says, putting her hands in her bag of plant seeds and pulling out a container of Ironwood corns.

"We will see hu-Heather." Heje mutters.

"Let the 5th match...begin!"

Heather immediately throws her Ironwood corns onto the floor as Heje starts flapping his wings to fly. Heather grows the seeds together into an oversized dragon and soulustriousizes it. The wooden dragon rips up the ground its roots were connected to and lets out a deafening roar. Everyone watching was stunned into silence. Only her brothers, father and Llamiryl were left cheering. Surprisingly His Majesty King Shavyk has stood and is now leaning in closer over the railing to get a better look at the action of this match.

With a funny, stunned expression on his face, Relov says, "What. In. The actual. Fuck Heather. You've been hiding a power like this up your sleeve?!" Relov slouches back in his chair. The kid next to him sees his expression, now viewing Heather as someone to look up to.

(Narrator) Looks like Heather has a few fans in the audience now. She's gonna be famous for sure. Christopher looks like a newbie next to her now.

"Now Willow! Snipe him out of the sky!" Heather shouts.

"Of course, she already named it." Heddwyn says, putting a few fingers against his temples.

Willow spikes up its scales made from Ironwood leaves and shoots its newly grown corns at speeds close to the speed of sound. With dozens upon dozens of corns flying towards him, Heje puts up his guard and counters and dodges as many of the corns as he can, however, the corns that he counters break his axes, flying directly into his midsection, knocking him out, plummeting of the sky, and ending the match before it could even get started.