Chapter 9 - Bullet

Jinny managed to defeat that thunderbird in just 11 seconds. Truly amazing.

"Great job, Olexia and Jinny! Are you two ready for the next round?" Both Peach and Illy said.

The holographic screen appeared shortly after.

"Yes!" They both yelled out in synchrony.

Jinny, with this newfound power, was feeling completely untouchable. And Olexia knowing that Jinny's power won't last long, wanted to get over with the next round as soon as possible.

"Alright, then let's roll the dice!" Peach exclaimed.

The black holographic one-hundred-sided dice appeared again.

"Good luck." Peach said mischievously.

"I don't like the way you said that Peach..." Olexia mumbled to herself.

The dice started rolling and after just a few seconds it stopped on the number '65'.

"A sixty-five! Oh, how great, you get to fight a Darklord of the Shadows!" Peach announced happily.

"I really do wish you good luck..." Illy added in a saddened tone.

The holographic screen vanished.

"Why'd you say it like that... Now you're making me worry." Jinny said.

And after just a second a dark spot on the mirrored floor appeared.

From it came an amalgamation of black tentacles that could barely be seen, an ever-shifting form that resembled every living creature at the same time, with as many small red eyes as you could count. 

With just its presence the whole arena became darker and by looking at it Olexia and Jinny were instilled with fear.

"Go kill it?" Olexia said, questioning if that thing could even be killed.

"Are you out of your mind?? Look at that thing!" Jinny yelled.

The creature's tentacles started moving, one of them even whipped right towards Olexia.

She managed to move to the left just in time before the tentacle hit her, the tentacle hit the ground and with an extremely loud snapping sound the floor was dented.

The tentacle's movement alone created a gust of wind and a gloomy 'aura' could be felt from them.

Olexia, although shocked by how strong one out of an uncountable amount of tentacles was managed to swing her scythe and cut it off.

The tentacle quickly returned to the rest and another one was whipped towards Jinny.

Jinny managed to cut the tentacle with the rapier, although it was mostly a thrusting weapon.

***

"Peach, are you sure you're still sane?" Illy asked ironically.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Peach replied.

"You just made Olexia and Jinny fight a darklord. In what scenario would that be considered normal?" Illy asked again.

"They'll be fine, I just need to make Olexia realise what kind of power her mana sparks have. Besides, now that Jinny has felt mana in her body it should be way easier for her to also use mana. This is all going according to plan." He explained. "Besides, we have a good amount of viewers on this channel, we also have to make it entertaining for them right? The more stakes, the greater the reward for us and for Olexia and Jinny." Peach added confidentiality.

"I hope you haven't forgotten that Olexia and Jinny aren't immortal in that arena." Illy reminded him, actually concerned about Olexia and Jinny.

"With my control over the rules and my ability to manipulate probability, they're almost close to immortal." Peach explained. "Getting this much progress on the first day of the game is valuable." Peach added.

"For a Devil, you're more rational than you seem." Illy noted.

"Why are you acting like we haven't spent a few of our lifetimes together?" Peach asked.

"Have we? My memory of my past lives isn't that great." Illy added.

"It really is a shame you don't remember... But at least I can say all the dumb jokes I've said before and make you laugh with them." Peach added, content with his idea.

"I doubt you can make me laugh but you may try." Illy responded.

***

"Jinny, you need to learn to use mana! You've already felt it, you just have to give your mana sparks the intention of something!" Olexia yelled, dodging and slicing any tentacles that came her way, it was manageable for now but the whipping of the tentacles was getting faster.

"My mana sparks? What does that even mean?! I legit have no idea what you're talking about!" Jinny yelled back, dodging and slicing the tentacles.

"Try to remember what you felt when you had all that mana in and around your body! Remember that feeling, think of what you wanna do with the mana sparks in you or around you and simply do it! I'll try to do something as well. Just give it your best shot!"

"...Alright! I'll do it!" Jinny said, believing in herself.

Jinny and Olexia still did their best to avoid the tentacles, but as they were getting faster and whipped more at a time some started to make cuts along their clothes and skin.

`Even though I said I'd do something I have no idea what I should do... Maybe infusing mana into the scythe and trying to do some kind of magic with it? But my sparks are simply too dense, if I don't send them into that 'thing' then any kind of mana simply won't reach it...` After some thinking, and dodging the tentacles, Olexia came up with a great idea to hopefully kill the darklord so she started executing it.

First, she gained more distance from the darklord to have space to do what she had in mind.

She focused her mind, and a spark was sent out in the direction of the darklord, the spark was fast and because of its great density, it made other sparks orbit it. The spark and many others around it were clumping together, creating bullets as that was what Olexia thought of when sending out the spark.

The mana was slicing through any tentacles that tried to get in its path, and by the time the mana reached the darklord, the sparks had formed into many different mana bullets, all in various sizes and orbiting speed with one large one in the middle, the one that was carrying Olexia's spark and the one that the intention to all the other sparks.

The bullets collided with the darklord, and upon impact, a giant black explosion insisted followed by many smaller explosions varying in colour and smoke.

And although it was incredibly destructive it was also amazingly beautiful.

At the same time, Jinny managed to learn the usage of a spark and although her sparks didn't have much density that would mean that she could send sparks using the tip of her rapier.

So that's what she did, before the smoke had even cleared, in the span of a few seconds at least a hundred little icicles made from mana were sent out into darklord.

The arena's atmosphere changed, and the gloominess in the air vanished in an instant.

And the holographic screen reappeared.