Chapter 121 The One-sided Duel

Several hours later, Evernya awoke to familiar but elusive mana in the arenas. She opened her eyes to find the hundred fifty arenas merged to make three giant arenas coupled with a 30-meter long display split into three sections, allowing the spectators a better view of the duels.

Her eyes instantly gravitated toward the central arena where her elusive multi-tailed mate was about to face off against a confident-looking brunette girl of nearly grade 6. For the first time, Evernya got a clear look at her mate, gasping in surprise at what she saw and sensed. When did Aya have nine tails? Not only that, but how is she nearly ascended stage!? At least I think she is. Her mana feels a little different from before, kind of like my mana jugs. Did she go through an evolution too? Is that why she’s avoiding me?

Kya explained, guessing her host’s thoughts, “your mate benefited greatly from your Draecath evolution. I noticed during your evolution a quarter of the mana you absorbed flowed through the bond to your mate, rebuilding her mana system. I don’t know what happened to her before your meeting, but I’m guessing somewhere along the line someone destroyed her mana nodes, severely weakening her potential and efficiency. What you are sensing now is what a mana system should feel like. As for the tails, I don’t know, my knowledge on Kitsune stops at their basic physical appearance.”

She was so happy when I gave her tail ups, so what changed? Shouldn’t she be ecstatic with her multi-tail up and mana grade boost? Did I accidentally hurt her? Aside from a gloomy expression, she doesn’t appear to be in pain. Dammit, if only she would talk to me! Any further thoughts fell away as Aya turned her ruby gaze toward Evernya just as the judge announced the start of the dual.

Without even glancing at her opponent, Aya launched fireballs from all nine of her tails high into the air, just barely missing the display hanging dozens of meters above the arena. Midair, the nine fireballs multiplied into hundreds as they began their descent toward the wide-eyed girl frozen in terror. In a panic, knowing there was no way the flimsy barriers on the suits could handle a barrage of hundreds of fireballs, the judge called the match in favor of Aya. Just as the fireballs reached the terrified girl on her knees with a noticeable dark spot between her legs, the hundreds of fireballs vanished as if they never existed, leaving the original nine, which fizzled out before reaching their target.

Evernya, along with everyone in attendance, stared down at the arena in shock. Holy shit, I couldn’t even tell it was an illusion! If that was grade 4 illusions, then what can she do at full power? She would destroy me in a fight. The worst part is she can probably make me feel like I lost without even touching me. No wonder most fantasy worlds try to control illusion magic just as much as mental magic. But why can’t I see through it? I had no problem finding Maylin or seeing Aya’s true appearance. Did my ability to see through illusions weaken?

But that doesn’t make sense. As far as I can tell, all my senses sharpened. So why would one weaken? What else weakened? I feel stronger and my hearing and sight, and mana sensing abilities are probably double what they used to be. Also, aside from my complete lack of control of my psionic magic, I think it’s drastically stronger. To be fair, I’ve never tested my telepathy or teleportation, both of which I don’t trust myself without messing up. While Evernya’s thoughts spiraled, Aya glanced at her mate with a saddened expression before teleporting away, leaving her opponent in a crumbled, teary mess.

A few moments later, a ding resonated from her suit computer, knocking Evernya out of her thoughts. Evernya looked down at the screen on her right forearm displaying ‘Duel 3823, arena 3, 5-minute warning.’

After chugging a mana jug, Evernya hopped off the railing, silently landing on the now much emptier stands populated with those who passed their duel, as very few duels remained. She ignored the gasps of surprise from several grouped up teens near her perch as she descended the stands while keeping an eye out for her opponent. She spotted him descending with a confident stride from the opposite side of the 50 meter long stands. Recognition flashed in Evernya’s glowing sapphire eyes as she watched the teen reach the floor without even bothering to scope out his opponent.

He’s made a lot of progress since the mage testing. He was nearing grade 5 with lightning sorcery way back then. Now he’s over grade 6, maybe even 6.5. Though it won’t matter since we will both be grade 4, still, talent like that probably means his control is decent. I mean, with all my genetic advantages, I was only grade 6.5 before my Draecath evolution. Evernya thought as she trotted toward the far arena near the spectator stands.

After a few seconds of scanning the spectator stands, Evernya’s eyes landed on Meira and Maylin seated near the front center, giving them a perfect view of her duel. Meira gave her an encouraging smile with a thumbs up while Maylin had a subdued smile. At least my Elven family supports me. I can’t say the same thing for my AWOL mate. Evernya commented mentally as she returned their encouragement with a smile of her own.

Buoyant from her big sister’s encouragement, Evernya stepped through magical barrier bordering arena three trotting to the square she saw previous participants stand. Unlike duels in the smaller arenas, both participants had their own judge to explain the rules while a middle-aged woman explained the responsibilities to a petite black-haired girl who was probably the perspective healing student.

As the judge explained the rules to Evernya, she feels an uncomfortable pressure as the suit attempted to seal her mana to grade 4. Her skin heated as the suit strained to its limits, sealing Evernya’s potent unstable mana.

After several minutes her opponent became impatient, causing his indifferent expression to crumble, revealing his true thoughts on his opponent. “What’s wrong, animal? Afraid of fighting a real mage?” The teen sneered.

Evernya clenched her fists while trying to keep her smothering discomfort bordering on pain off her face, refusing to look weak in front of the racist teen. Calm down. He’s just a stupid racist kid, no need to get worked up. Evernya chanted mentally as her Draecathian pride reared its ugly head.

Annoyed by his target’s lack of reaction, the teen continued to prod. “what’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?”

Evernya visibly shook, trying to hold herself back as her mind fought a civil war against her nature. How dare he look down on me! A lowly human like him should know his place! Whoa, what the hell am I thinking? He’s just a stupid kid. Why do I feel like tearing him apart?

Like a typical idiot, the teen assumed his target’s shaking meant she was scared, egging him on, “don’t worry about losing, I’m sure my father would offer you a job as a servant.” His sneer turned lecherous as he ran his eyes up and down Evernya’s body before commenting, “if he doesn’t, I’m open to granting you the honor to provide services to me though I’ll have to deduct pay until your body develops more.”

Unable to contain her anger any longer, a low growl rumbled in her throat. Seething in rage, Evernya tensed her legs up to pounce, but instead of propelling herself forward, her legs gave out severely weakened by her now awakened grade 6 mana.

Now on her hands and knees, her opponent looked on smugly goading, “exactly where your kind belong, on your knees bowing to their betters.”

Refusing to remain on her knees, Evernya flooded her body with as much mana as her rapidly sealing mana system would allow. After thirty seconds of struggle, Evernya pushed herself upright on shaky legs, glaring defiantly at her opponent.

Meanwhile, the judges and healers communicated with each other via earbuds, trying to figure out why a minute long sealing process was taking over five minutes. The healer pulled up Evernya’s suit readings, also worried about the apparent weakness of her charge, but only became more confused as all readings came back low but in-line with the girl’s readings on file.

While this went on, Evernya continued to glare at her racist opponent while questioning Kya, “what’s wrong with me? I feel worse than when I had my mana sealed to grade 1.”

Kya scowled at her host’s dueling suit as she explained, “Your body can function at grade 1 for short periods though, at a severely reduced strength. That’s not the issue here. The problem is how this primitive suit seals your mana. Instead of sealing just your mana core like the seals keeping your true mana grade at bay, this suit smothers your entire mana system, interfering with your mana cycle. From my readings, your body requires at least awakened grade 9 mana cycling through your system at all times to maintain your baseline physical capabilities. Fortunately, aside from a few hiccups, the corrupted mana in the air provides just barely enough after filtration. However, this primitive suit doesn’t know how to seal your entire mana system properly, especially your mana nodes causing disruptions on top of limiting your mana cycles to under awakened grade 5 nearing grade 4.”

“Wonderful,” Evernya commented mentally before gritting her teeth as one disruption caused a stabbing pain near her right shoulder mana node.

With excruciating slowness, another five minutes passed full of insults. Even the crowd booed but barely able to keep herself upright, supported by mana from her core, all Evernya could do was endure as her anger and resentment built.

Finally, after full fifteen minutes, her mana system sealed to a volatile grade 4. At this point, the suit could cook an egg, but somehow it valiantly held Evernya’s mana at bay.

After receiving a nod in confirmation from the healer, the referees turned toward their charges. “Miss, are you ready?” Her referee, a woman in her 30s, asked.

Evernya nodded while staring at her opponent, rage-filled eyes promising retribution.

A moment later, a buzzer sounded, announcing the start of the duel.

Fueled by overwhelming anger, Evernya pumped as much mana as she could into her legs as she shot forward or would have shot forward if a disruption in her right hip mana node hadn’t happened. Instead of dashing forward, Evernya’s right leg seized up, causing her to face plant into the rubberized less than a meter away from her starting point.

In a panic from sensing mana growing from her opponent, Evernya flushed mana through the disrupted node, clearing it, returning control to her right leg. Again she pumped mana through her legs, this time springing to her feet just as a small lightning bolt shot toward her.

Evernya hastily erected a force shield just as the lightning bolt reached her. Her unstable shield shattered an impact but blocked the lightning bolt at the cost of a mild backlash. Momentary clarity from her rage allowed her to shoot back a force blade of her own, but in her compromised state, she only managed a weak Grade 2 force blade easily dispatched by another lightning bolt from her opponent.

With a flick of his wrist, the teen sent three arcing lightning strikes toward Evernya once again, giving her little time to react. On instinct, Evernya dove to the left, dodging the lightning strikes by a hair’s width.

The teen’s ever-present smirk grew as he launched five strikes toward his prone opponent.

Evernya’s eyes widened in panic, erecting another force shield only for all five lightning strikes to bypass her shield, protecting her torso and head to target her limbs instead. One lightning strike hit each of her unprotected hands and feet while the last impacted her tail, causing a burned fur smell. Unblocked by her suit’s shields, electricity coursed through her body, causing it to seize up, preventing any movement.

While twirling electricity around his fingers casually approached his stunned opponent. “Give up, I’ve already won.”

Evernya glared defiantly, refusing to give up as she fought the electricity. With her mana, Evernya reinforced her entire body. After a few seconds, she regained control, though numb. Unfortunately, as soon as her opponent noticed movement, he sent another five lightning strikes. Sluggish from the previous attack, Evernya only managed to crawl a meter before painful electricity again assaulted her body.

The teen used his foot to flip his opponent onto her back with a disgusted expression, as if stepping in poop. “Give up before I cancel my generous offer of employment. You’ll never amount to anything more than a servant with your lack of talent and race. It’s truly disappointing. At first, I expected at least some fight from someone mated to an incredibly talented Kitsune and guardian of the legendary Meira.”

He waited a few seconds to give his opponent one last chance to give up before he shook his head and turned away. As he turned away, he flicked his wrist, launching the biggest lighting strike yet directly at Evernya’s unprotected chest.

Paralyzed, all Evernya could do was widen her eyes before her entire world turned white as the lighting strike made impact.

The thin barrier on her suit protected her from injury, but the goal of the strike wasn’t to injure. As soon as the attack made contact, her picture on the overhead display grayed out. “Winner, Marcus bolt!”,

Little reaction happened from the crowd as most lost interest long ago. However, what followed left everyone stunned in horror.

Meanwhile, in Evernya’s head, a storm brewed. I lost? How? Where am I going to go now? Do I have to go on the run? No! I refuse! No lowly human shall defeat me! I will show him a real predator!

Cracks formed on the first layer of seals holding her turbulent mana in check, leaking low ascended mana into her mana stifled body, instantly washing away any residual paralysis. Evernya sprung to her feet with crazed, rage-filled eyes.

She turned her enraged attention to the suit, suffocating her with ire as the first layer of seals shattered open, releasing its payload through her body. With a pop, the suffocating dueling suit exploded off her body, leaving her naked in front of thousands. Uncaring of her current state of attire, Evernya directed her attention to the cause of her rage.

Unaware of becoming prey, the teen nonchalantly walked toward the barrier bordering their arena. He stopped a few meters away, confused by the sudden silence. Upon turning around, he spotted his previous opponent stalking towards him, causing a bulge in his dueling suit at his crotch.

The teen lecherously ran his eyes over the naked body of the approaching enraged Draecath, disregarding the animalistic look in her eyes. Thinking with his dick, the teen offered, “If you spend the night with me, I’ll make sure to put a good word in with DIOM. Who knows, maybe they will accept you.”

Without warning, his body shot backward, smashing into an invisible wall a few meters behind him. Before he could process what happened, he rocketed forward into the outstretched hand of the enraged Draecath.

With a smacking sound, his throat impacted the small hand of the wronged predator. Too short to hold the two-meter tall teen in the air with her hand, the girl stared up into his disoriented eyes with increased anger.

With an expression flashing between rage and disgust, the girl flung the teen over her shoulder as if throwing away trash. Her thin arm sent the teen ragdolling behind her into yet another invisible wall.

A blink later, the girl appeared in front of the broken teen yet again, flinging him to the right with telekinesis, refusing to touch which she considered a piece of trash.

However, when she turned toward her prey, two mages blocked her. While disregarding the powerful mana auras directed at her, the girl ordered with a hint of growl in her tone, “move, I need to teach this piece of trash the consequences of insulting his betters.”

The tall pointy eared blonde in front of her frowned as she reasoned, “calm down, Evernya. You proved your point. I doubt he will disrespect you ever again.”

The girl held firm, ordering, “move.”

After they defiantly held their ground, Evernya launched the most powerful force blast yet, easily smashing through the air and telekinetic defenses of her barricade. The blast sent them flying into the same invisible wall as the broken teen.

While ignoring the shocked faces of her barricade, Evernya telekinetic grabbed the teen’s limp, broken body, sending him shooting back toward her. Misjudging her strength, Evernya side stepped the body -shaped bullet, allowing it to impact an invisible wall five meters behind her with a grotesque splash as any remaining bones shattered.

The girl trotted toward her utterly defeated opponent, unaware of the thousands of pairs of eyes stunned into silence. With a bored expression, the girl nudged the deformed body of the once handsome teenage boy as she commented, “whose pitiful now? What a disgrace I thought a high and mighty human could at least put up a fight.”

Bored with the toy, the girl sent one last explosion of force pulverizing the body, raining blood down on her naked body as she turned back to her much more interesting barricade. The once two-person barricade multiplied into dozens surrounding the blood-covered girl.

Her attention gravitated toward a middle-aged man dressed in a robe with a mana grade slightly higher than the worried blonde pointy-eared woman to his left. “Evernya, please surrender.”

The blood-covered girl surveyed the surroundings, finding the stands devoid of people, annoying her slightly. Unafraid of the surrounding humans gathering magic, Evernya said, “how about no, I’m not done playing yet. You humans need to understand your place.”

After her proclamation, the girl took a step forward as if ready to pounce, only to freeze as her breath stilled. Refusing to show weakness in front of inferior humans, the girl pushed more and more mana through her body, only to make the problem worse.

Within a few seconds, she lost feeling in her legs, causing her to collapse onto the bloody floor. Against her will, black encroached into her vision as her senses dimmed until her world disappeared, unable to sustain consciousness any longer.