Chapter 39: Rowen vs Daniel

The judge called both participants to come towards the stage

Rowen stood at one side of the stage, Daniel stood at the other side.

Rowen wore light armor covering only the most important parts of her body. It was clear that she wanted to rely on her speed for this match. On her left arm was a small circular shield, on her right hand a thin single edge sword. The sword curved quite a bit as similar to that of a scimitar.

Daniel on the other hand was quite opposite. His body was fully covered in heavy dark armor. He looked like a miniature fortress. Only a few small slits for the eyes and mouth could be seen. The armor seemed very expensive as there were several inscriptions written on it. He carried a large heavy sword and no shield.

It looked very heavy, as if he was prepared to take any brunt of damage that Rowen could deal. He knew that in terms of speed, he really could not compete against Rowen, but if he had this enchanted armor, he should not use too much Qi. In a battle of exhaustion, he would not lose.

'I really have to thank the headmaster for lending me this armor' He thought to himself.

The armor was a treasure of the academy. Without the public knowing, the headmaster allowed Daniel borrow it so that the Rizon family could enter into the top 3, possibly second place. This was because of that very important visitor who came to spectate the yearly ranking. This visitor was the old man who came from the Imperial city.

As for the first place, the head master did not have much hope. That person was a monster, no one could compete with him, not even the second place from last year.

Many academy elders who knew about the armor did not say anything about it. This was because the academy has always been controlled by a member of the Rizon family.

The armor had several inscriptions in both sides. The inscriptions inside increased the durability of the armor and allowed the armor to absorb earth elemental energy around it to increase its density. The inscriptions outside were used to lighten the armor. Both inscriptions were carved into the armor so that these inscriptions could not easily be damaged. The armor looked heavy, but in fact it was very light. It didn't impede Daniel's speed at all. He was planning on using this to surprise Rowen.

His sword was also covered in inscriptions. The metal was also made with earth elemental powder so the inscriptions were carved straight on the sword. It also had a weight lightening inscriptions around it but did not needed any durability increasing inscriptions as the metal was made of black iron. A very expensive material that is 10 times denser and heavier than regular iron.

The audience who were chatting about before the start of the match quickly became quiet.

Teo, Lia and Windle watched very closely, afraid to miss out anything. Teo of course wanted his sister to win but most importantly, he didn't want his sister to get injured. Although she won her first few matches with just speed, the matches became harder and harder as it went on.

"Let the first match of the semi-finals commence!" The judge shouted

Unlike her previous matches, Rowen did not quickly rush down her opponent. She started circling around him like wolf circling its prey.

Daniel did not move from his spot at all. He slowly rotated to prevent her to get to his back side

He started gathering earth energy which instantly fused with the armor.

Rowen also condensed some metallic energy. Although it did not fuse with her sword or armor, it rotated around her metallic sword and armor, slightly enhancing it.

After a few more moments of circling, Rowen stomped her foot and quickly vanished from Daniel's line of sight. Although he tried to rotate to prevent Rowen to get to his backside, his armor itself minimized what he could see. He used earth energy to strengthen his defense as much as he could and also sent a few earth energy onto the stage floor.

He did not need to see where Rowen was to know where she was!

The earth energy on the stage transmitted any vibrations on the ground, telling him the exact location where she would be.

He could tell that she was quickly approaching him and prepared a sword slash when she got close enough.

As he detected that she was nearing closer, he slashed his large heavy sword to where he predicted she would be.

The slash was extremely fast for a heavy sword

The audience was shocked by how fast he swung it.

"!!"

But when Daniel looked, his sword hit nothing but air.

He could only see Rowen standing from afar watching his movement.

Rowen initially wanted to rush towards Daniel, but with the strange inscriptions on his armor, she became wary. She did not know much about inscriptions, but she knew what most common types of inscriptions can do.

She set a trap to see if her hunch was correct

Daniel dumbfounded by how fast Rowen retreated. It should be physically impossible for Rowen to be this fast and cover such a great distance in a few seconds.

He quickly looked at the ground and saw small shiny particles.

He understood that they were metallic shavings, a small piece of metal thinly shaved as thin as a leaf. Daniel quickly figured out how Rowen "move" so fast. The metallic shavings was controlled by her metallic energy to act as if it was Rowen who was moving.

It was a feint for someone who can use the technique he just used

The small bag around Rowen's waist became empty. As she moved around the stage, she spread the metallic shavings across the stage so she could use this to lure out what Daniel was hiding.

The common techniques for elementalists were widely known, but to execute them were very difficult for students. It is because some techniques needed precise control and creativity to accomplish.

Like Daniel's 'Earth Sense' technique, it combined both the extreme sensing stage and manipulation stage. Rowen's control of the metallic shavings was a combination of the movement stage and manipulation stage. By combing some of her Qi to the manipulated metallic shavings, she gave an impression to Daniel that she was actually the one moving.

For students in the academy, they were considered 2 high level techniques. Of course there were other more powerful techniques, even some that could kill but they did not use it. Not only that killing was not allowed but also some of the other techniques used more Qi than normal. Both sides used their Qi to the minimum so they would not ran out of it too quickly.

When Rowen saw Daniel's sword swing, she knew that it was an inscription that made its weight to be negligible. She also assumed that the armor itself was of similar nature.

Rowen charged towards Daniel, she immediately assume that Daniel's speed was as fast as if he was not wearing armor. Although it was fast, Rowen who specialized in speed was still very much faster.

She threw a barrage of attacks, hitting certain points of the armor.

Rowen was testing the waters. She wanted to see if there was any weakness to the armor. She also tried to destroy the inscription on the outside of the armor, but the defensive capabilities of the armor was too strong. Even with her sword which had metallic energy surrounding it, it could not put a dent on it. She would require to constantly hit it on the same specific place, but why would Daniel let her do so?

Daniel swung his sword but could not hit anything. Although he kept missing, he did not panic, he hardly used any Qi at all. He was just using his brute strength at the moment and a very small amount to gather the earth energy. The armor itself would automatically used the gathered energy so there was no need for him to meld any more of his Qi into it.

He did not need to strike her at all, he just needed to buy time.

The exchange of strikes lasted for 10 minutes. Suddenly, for some reason, Rowen's movement slowed and Daniel quickly took advantage and swung at her.

Daniel originally only wanted to buy time, but when he saw this opening, he was sure to take advantage of it.

Rowen blocked the heavy blow with her sword, but Rowen still flew a few meters from the hit. She laid on the floor, unmoving for a moment.

"SISTER!" Teo shouted as he worried.

It was the first time Rowen had been struck so strongly throughout the tournament

It was the perfect chance for Daniel to strike her down. The end of a match would usually be determined in a single moment of carelessness.

"Its over"

"I can't believe she is gonna lose"

The audience started talking about what had happened

The audience expected Daniel to rush over and finish the match but for some unknown reason, Daniel stood still.

Rowen also laid there unmoving. Even if she was hit so heavily, she would have moved by now.

The crowd became confused

'What happened?' a majority of them thought

The judges who were overseeing the match knew exactly what happened

Under everyone's gaze, an unseen smile emerged

"I finally got you"