Chapter 13 - Entrance Exam(Part 7)

Hm, he's making a conscious effort to avoid getting too close to me, he's been circling around me across the arena, but he's kept his distance while attacking with his crossbows, and presumably setting Trap Spells all across the arena.

His Magic isn't at all suited for direct combat, honestly if some his previous opponents had been smarter and acted more cautiously, they probably could've defeated him. And if I didn't know what his Magic is capable of, there's a pretty good chance that I'd have lost this fight.

But I know what he can do, both his physical and Magical abilities, and I'm using that knowledge to ensure that I don't give him an opening. I'm more than happy to wait things out, until he has no choice but to force this fight into close range.

He's almost out of arrows, he's firing them less and less frequently now that he's only got a few left. He's also down to one blade, having flung the other one at me after I dented it with my grappling hook.

Meanwhile, I've been hiding behind my shield, rotating it across continuously as he keeps trying to race around it, but at his current distance, I have more than enough time to react and adjust the shield.

But this also means that I'm currently stuck on defense...I don't plan on using my guns, and throwing weapons would be wasted given his agility, speed and reaction time, so this has kinda devolved into a battle of attrition.

Arrows are completely ineffective against my shield, his Trap Spells are useless so long as I don't step on any of them, so his only remaining option is to force a close range fight.

And if and when that happens, I'll have the advantage.

Suddenly, he came to an abrupt halt, a grimace on his face as he paused before raising his arms up at an angle, triggering his crossbows and firing out his last two arrows up into the air...ah, I see, he's trying to get the arrows to drop down towards me.

As he began zipping in my direction, staying low while holding his blade out in front of himself, I swiftly pulled the shield out of the floor of the arena and raised it above myself, one of the arrows pinging off the shield while the other missed completely...hm, I see, I get why he didn't try this before, his accuracy is low when shooting like this.

I swiftly drew out a katana from my Item Box as I put away the shield, right as he closed in on me and slashed at my knees. I sprang back to evade his slash, being careful not to jump back too far...I don't have a whole lot of room to work with, he's almost definitely set Trap Spells all around the arena, so I have to stay within the range of the space he avoided stepping onto.

I then planted my feet and got into my stance as he shot towards me, his lips moving rapidly, before abruptly halting as he closed in on me and jumped back...

"[Manual Trigger]!" He exclaimed, my eyes widening in alarm as I quickly sprang back, an intense explosion bursting out from the spot he'd stepped onto before jumping back.

While I evaded the blast itself, the force of the explosion struck me and knocked me off-balance as I landed, causing me to stumble back as he shot through the cloud of smoke caused by the explosion, racing towards me with a determined look in his eyes.

Damn it, the more he moves around, the less room I have to work with, every single spot he's stepped onto potentially has been set with a Trap Spell...I can't let this go on for much longer, or I'm screwed.

Without bothering to regain my balance, and before he could close in on me again, I rapidly chanted and took out an object from my Item Box, dropping it onto the ground the instant I took hold of it.

A wary look appeared on his face as he quickly halted and leapt back, right as a massive burst of smoke exploded from the object I'd dropped, a smoke bomb. As the thick cloud of dark smoke spread out across the area, I quickly took out my goggles and put them on, switching to thermal vision mode, finding and locking onto his position as the visibility in the arena disappeared.

I then shot towards him, grabbing the sheath of my katana as I closed in on the spot where he'd last stepped onto before I dropped my smoke bomb, and used the sheath to vault myself straight towards him with all my strength to ensure that I wouldn't step onto any of the Trap Spells he'd set.

He began to react as I closed in on him, likely having picked up my presence through his naturally sharp senses, but it was too late. As he started to try and race away, I grabbed the left side of his collar and gave it a sharp tug, using the momentum of my jump to exert as much force against him as I could generate.

I spun him around to face me before grabbing the right side of his collar and pushing my weight onto him, causing him to overbalance and fall back with a startled yell.

His back slammed onto the floor of the arena, before he let out a sharp gasp as my right knee landed on his solar plexus, before my left knee struck his waist.

He began to swing his blade up towards me, before I swiftly struck his wrist with the base of the handle of my katana, causing him to lose his grip over his blade, which hit the floor with a loud clang and slid away, as I moved the edge of my katana against his neck, letting the blade nick his skin slightly, drawing out a trickle of blood.

"I'd rather not kill you, so give up...if you insist on continuing this fight, I'll have no choice but to kill you, don't want you setting off a suicide bomb with one of your Spells and attempting a 'if I'm going down, I'm taking you with me' kind of thing, after all," I remarked as the smoke began to clear, pressing my blade a bit more firmly against his neck while driving my knee into the middle of his torso with more force.

"I-I give up. I know when I'm defeated...and I value my life too much to blow myself up with one of my Spells just to take you down with me," He replied with a wry smile, before adding with a pained grimace, "So, could you take your knee off my torso? The spot it's pressing into really hurts and I feel weak, like I can barely move..."

Right, I guess this world wouldn't know the science behind aspects of human biology, huh?

"Sure, in a sec...the ref didn't hear you, so declare your surrender louder, and get rid of all the Trap Spells you set across the arena," I instructed, watching him closely...if it looks like he's about to chant, I'll slice his head right off.

"Wow, you're pretty distrustful, aren't you? Well, not that that's a bad thing. Okay...I surrender!" He called out in a loud voice as he glanced at the ref, before adding as he turned back towards me, "Alright, I've gotten rid of the Spells I planted."

"He's telling the truth, the traces of his Mana all across the arena just vanished. His Spells are gone," Arkiela informed me as she flew out of my hood.

"The winner of the first semi final is...Jaedfern Meraled!" Announced the ref, as I got off my opponent and helped him up.

Like I said, his Trap Magic fascinates me, and I think it'd be worthwhile forming an association with him. Gotta do whatever I can to make sure he doesn't hold any hard feelings towards this defeat...though, he doesn't seem to be particularly resentful...

"Aw, man...this is the farthest I've gotten in one of these tournaments, and I really thought this year would be different too!" He sighed wryly as he stretched his arms up, adding as he met my gaze, "Guess I've still got a whole lot of room for improvement, you were holding back and still won with barely a scratch on you."

Yeah, this fight would've been a lot easier if I hadn't actively been trying to avoid killing him. Still...

"I'd say you're on the right track. A lot of these people lack creativity with their Magic, but that's not the case with you. You're rough around the edges, but with a bit of polish, I bet I could make great use out of you," I remarked as I narrowed my eyes at him.

"U-uh, not sure I like how you put that, but...thank you?" He responded in bemusement.

Hm, maybe I was a bit too blunt.

...

"This fight will determine who your opponent in the final will be. Well, it's very likely that Aura girl will end up winning this match, her Mana Pool, Mystic Pressure, and not to mention her Magic Class itself, are all vastly superior to that of her opponent's. But you never know what could happen, if there's one thing I've learned about mortals, it's that they can be very unpredictable at times," Said Arkiela, as Aura and her opponent stepped onto the arena.

Her opponent is an archer who uses Barrier Magic, he won his previous match by enclosing himself inside a powerful barrier and forming small gaps to shoot arrows out of. He used an arrow tipped with a smoke bomb in his previous match, before hitting his opponent with an arrow that was laced with some kind of knock-out or tranquilizing drug.

It's not a bad style of fighting, I suppose, but it is kinda predictable and relatively easy to counter, just avoid the arrows and look to force a close range fight.

"Her physical capabilities are also easily superior to every other participant, myself included. She's faster and more agile than I am...that said, her movements could be more efficient, and her technique is on the amateurish side, which is understandable for this world. That's the only real edge I've got over her in terms of physical prowess, so she won't be easy to beat," I replied as the ref began the countdown.

"That's kinda optimistic. I mean, from my perspective, you're very much at a disadvantage against her...for one thing, she hasn't yet shown the full extent of what she's capable of with her Magic."

Yeah, true. Let's hope her current opponent can force her to display a greater extent of her power than she's shown in the tournament so far...he's one of the four who weaseled their way into the competition before the semi-final round, and the only one of those four to win his first match.

"Three! Two! One! Begin!"

As the countdown ended, Aura swiftly took aim at her opponent and fired out an intense, rapid lightning bolt at him. He formed a dome-shaped barrier around himself in response, the lightning striking it and inflicting several cracks across the front of the barrier but failing to break through.

"Hah, it's futile! You can't break through my barrier so easily!" He exclaimed, forming a small hole in the barrier as he took aim at her with an arrow, the barrier growing thicker as he locked his sights onto her.

Hm? There's a slight gleam on the arrowhead...it must have been dipped in some kind of drug or poison.

As he fired it out at her, she didn't bother dodging, instead sidestepping at the last second and grabbing the arrow out of the air, tightening her grip to snap it in half before dropping it onto the floor, tilting her head across as another arrow came shooting towards her, the arrow nicking her right cheek and drawing out a trickle of blood.

"How careless, I might've overestimated her," I remarked, as she touched at the blood before wiping the side of her face with her sleeve, her opponent firing out another arrow at her with a triumphant look on his face.

"Hahaha, it's over for you! That arrow was coated with a concentrated paralysis toxin, strong enough to knock a Wyvern flat on its back! I am the winn-...huh? N-no, im...impossible! H-how can you still move?!" Exclaimed her opponent in disbelief, as she deflected the arrow with her metal claws.

"Whatever that arrow was laced with, it doesn't matter. She's got the Total Immunity Skill, which makes her immune to heat, cold, lightning, illusions, hypnosis, and most relevantly to the current situation, poisons, or any forms of toxin, unless she chooses to suppress it. Which she did when you first met her at that bar, so that the alcohol and weed would actually have an effect.

Oh, and since she's got Lightning Magic, regardless of the fact that it's the Arcane Class version, the fact that she's got Total Immunity, which includes Lightning Immunity, she can fire off much more powerful Lightning Spells than Lightning Magic users who don't have Lightning Immunity, as they'd receive an extent of backlash to their bodies, despite having a degree of resistance towards it. But she doesn't have to worry about that," Arkiela explained, as Aura continued evading the arrows shooting towards her with ease.

Ah, I see...that explains why she didn't bother putting too much effort into dodging the poisoned arrows.

"This is really annoying...no, that's not quite right. This is really boring...yeah, that's the word I'm looking for," Remarked Aura in a loud, disinterested voice.

She's clearly trying to provoke her opponent, not the most subtle or witty attempt...but I think it worked.

"You arrogant little bitch...!" Snapped her opponent, firing out more arrows at her.

His quiver is absolutely stuffed with arrows, so running out of arrows won't be a concern unless this fights drags on for ages...but that seems unlikely to happen.

"How rude...and after you weaseled your way into the tournament because, clearly, you're not strong enough to have made it this far by actually earning it," She scoffed tauntingly, before a sadistic smirk spread out across her lips as sparks of dark, green lightning crackled around and she added menacingly as another arrow came shooting towards her, "Why don't I show you? I'll take this seriously for, let's see...two seconds. Yeah, that should be enough, more than enough. Now, [Emerald Black Lightning Cloak]!"

A massive burst of lightning exploded across her entire body before coating her from head to toe, her hair standing up on end as streaks of lightning crackled all around her, right as the arrow got within an inch of her face.

And then, as a vicious spark and crackle burst out, I lost sight of her, the arrow hitting the floor of the arena and a thick plume of smoke bursting out as the arrow got turned to ash ...before the smoke got almost entirely blown away in the blink of an eye by an eruption of wind pressure.

That's when I caught sight of her again, a rapid green flash of electric light, with a black outline surrounding it, shooting towards her opponent at a blinding speed.

I just barely followed what happened next, not daring to blink because I'd miss it if I did. Her opponent's barrier broke apart and shattered almost instantly as she closed in on him, barely even slowing her down as she burst through the thick defensive wall.

Her opponent couldn't even begin to react, the flash of electric light barreling towards him and reaching him, before shooting past him, all in an instant. And as I finally blinked, a massive spray of blood met my gaze as I opened my eyes again, following by a deafening howl of pain.

Oh, wow...she tore a sizeable chunk of flesh out of her opponent's right side, a crimson fountain of blood bursting out of it and splattering across the arena as he screamed in agony, stumbling across the arena with a horrified, excruciated look on his face.

"Y-you fucking whor-...!" He snarled in a frenzied rage as he spun around and shakily reached for an arrow, before abruptly cutting off and letting out a gargling wheeze of pain...as she shot forward and pierced her metal claws straight into his throat.

"I don't appreciate being insulted, you half-wit fuck...you should've just accepted your loss and stood down instead of running your mouth and provoking me, asshole. It's like you were just begging me to kill you, and that's something I'm more than happy to oblige," She scoffed, before yanking her claws back out with a sharp twist, quickly stepping aside to avoid getting splattered as a massive spray of blood burst out of his neck.

He stumbled back while clutching at his torn-apart neck and collapsed onto the ground, his writhing body going limp before long as he bled out and choked on his own blood.

"The winner of the second semi final is...Aura Lunabell!" Announced the ref, following a brief, stunned silence.

Fuck, that was hot. Not sure I've ever been so attracted to someone before...

Ahem, anyway...with that, my opponent for the final has been set. And I might be in trouble. I mean, how the hell am I supposed to counter that level of speed?

It took everything I had just to follow her movements with my eyes, and even then I could barely keep up, it was little more than a blur as far as I could see.

Honestly, I'm surprised that I was able to follow her movements at all, that's how fast she was just then. Hm, maybe this body has naturally sharp eyesight?

Or maybe it's the lack of technological screens to stare at...I was on my phone and laptop pretty often in my previous life, maybe that deteriorated my eyesight back then, but that's not happening in this world since such devices don't exist?

Anyway, back to the matter at hand...she's been holding back right throughout the tournament, so I don't even know the full extent of what she's capable of, she's definitely got more tricks up her sleeve that she's yet to reveal.

Yeah, this is gonna be rough. Hm...I don't think I have a choice. If I want to defeat her and win this tournament, I'm likely going to need to bring out the big guns...

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