It’s high noon and through the ever reliable game of rock-paper-scissors, it was decided that Irina will be the one to be partaking in the upcoming test. Although… this works out fine, I didn’t really want to fight anyways. But something about the way this fight is set up has a familiar feeling… nah it couldn’t be. Soon enough someone walks up onto a small hovering platform high in the air.

“Today we have a very special fight for all the citizens of West Lucia, as this fight is sponsored by none other than our King, Octave Dieudonné! And I, Laurent, will be your host for this special occasion. Now lets introduce our fighters!”

Walking out from opposite sides of the field are Irina and her opponent. As they enter Laurent flies down to greet them.

“First up we have General Alfred with his trusted Assault-Blade, a mechanised assault rifle capable of transforming into a sword. Is there anything you have to say in regards to your opponent General?”

“I heard that my opponent is a woman, but can you really call her one? She looks just as tall as me and I’m almost two metres, not to mention her chest is as flat as a board. Can you really call that a women. And look h— I mean she is unarmed, I can hardly call this a fair fight and I want to go easy on her, but I was told to give it my all so that’s what I intend to do.”

“This doesn’t look good,” I say.

One of the councilmen laughs. “What? Worried about your friend's safety?”

“No, I’m worried that your country is going to lose a strong soldier today.”

“Well, that’s quite the statement General. Now let’s see what your opponent has to say,” Laurent says as he draws his microphone back from Alfred.

“And as for his opponent, we have Irina Icrwl, a foreigner here under the good grace of his Majesty. Tell us, Irina, what do you have to say in response to the General?”

She is clearly upset over Alfred's words as the ground beneath her is beginning to freeze.

“I’m not as unarmed as I appear to be and… I’m gonna fucking kill the bastard till he wishes he wasn’t even born!”

And she was doing so well until now to hold her anger from visibly showing… well, maybe not with that ice at her feet.

Taken aback by Irina’s strong words, Laurent retreats back to his starting position, overseeing the arena.

“Ahem… now that the introductions are over, on my mark the duel will officially begin. Aaand… fight!”

Irina quickly materialises her weapon as she charges at Alfred, but it’s not her scythe that she pulls, it’s her spear. A spear made entirely of pure ice, it will freeze everything in a small area on contact. No one can even touch the spear without being encased in a tomb of ice, except for Ice Elementals like Irina. She’s seriously trying to kill her opponent.

“Not even 10 seconds into the fight and Irina is already in General Alfred’s face! She’s certainly a fast one. Just in the nick of time, the General jumps back, narrowly avoiding Irina’s spear thanks to a well timed parry! Oh, I’ve never seen something like this before. The top half of General Alfred’s blade is covered in ice.”

“What an unusual weapon. Just what are the mechanics behind such a tool? Do tell, Miss Eillim, what is the science behind that weapon your friend uses?” a councilman asks with sparkling eyes as he refuses to take his eyes off of Irina’s spear.

“To be perfectly honest I don’t know the specifics behind it but I do know it’s not science. Her spear is made from pure ice, a type of ice that can never melt and freezes everything it comes into contact with. While ice generated by it isn’t pure ice, it isn’t normal ice either since it can’t melt except under specific conditions.”

“A shame, I was hoping to replicate it and incorporate the technology into our military… say do you think she will let us over in R&D take a look at the spear after this is over?” the councilman asks, still eyeing the spear.

“I don’t think so, you would be covered in ice on contact. The only people who can hold pure ice are Ice Elementals, so just trying to touch the spear would probably kill you.”

Not to mention even if he could touch the spear it’s bound to Irina so no one else can pick it up anyways. But I think I’ll just keep that to myself, the councilman looks dejected enough as it is.

“Who would have guessed that our guest would put up such a fight!”

“Do tell, Miss Eillim, just how is she able to exert so much strength when Miss Irina doesn’t seem to have much muscle?” asks one of the councilman.

“Let me ask you lot, just how much do you know about Spirits?”

After spending a few moments to compile their information one of them responds, “We, unfortunately, don’t know much. I would say almost our entire population is human, save for some unaccounted other beings. As such our knowledge is limited to their existence and what we hear from his Majesty about this Akkre fellow.”

“So you all essentially know nothing and the little you do know is about Akkre so almost any information you do have is garbage. To keep it simple, a spirit’s power comes from the soul rather than muscles, unlike us humans. Of course, they can also increase their muscle mass to enhance their strength as well, but even if they lose said muscle mass, spirits will still retain their strength as it is tied to their soul.”

“So what about you? From the way you spoke, you implied that you are human like us. But the feeling you give off is closer to Miss Irina than it is to us.”

“I am human, but at the same time, I am different from regular humans. I can accumulate strength, like a spirit can, within my soul. But for all intents and purposes, I am a human. Furthermore—”

“I’m going to have to interrupt you all for now. While the rest of you were busy with all that scholarly talk, the fight escalated tremendously and General Alfred looks very close to dying,” said King Octave.

“How about I go and stop her, your Majesty. I’ve gotten a bit restless just sitting here talking after all. Besides it’s a good chance to show off my stuff after all,” I say responding to the King.

“Hmm… very well, Eillim go and do something about your friend before she kills off one of our better Generals. Someone go send word to Laurent that Eillim will be jumping in and when she does, get Alfred out of the arena,” says the King as he gives out his orders to the people around him.

Time to get moving. As I materialise the Schanzild, I quickly throw it at Irina right before she is able to pierce Alfred with her spear. Just like I thought she jumped back at the sudden interference.

“Now then, Spatial Movement, Warp!”

As I finish my incantation I find myself in the arena with the Schanzild in my hand.

“I just got word from the King folks! It would seem that our other guest has taken to the arena as well with permission from the King. Lets see what sort of fight is coming up next!” Laurent says excitedly as he addresses the audience.

“I only intended to stop you from killing the poor man, but it seems like the audience is looking for a fight thanks to that fool of a host. So how about we continue from where we left off a few days ago, Irina?”

“I’ll take you up on that. This time Rere isn’t here to end it prematurely, so this time I will finally get to beat you.”

“Quite the sore loser aren’t you, well you never have won against me after all.”

“I haven’t lost either, Rere always stopped us in the middle. But enough talk, lets do this.”

Irina takes the first move as she dashes towards me.

“Not so fast! Arise, Flame Wall!”

Using magic I create a wall of fire standing several metres tall blocking Irina’s path.

“Is that all you’ve got, Eillim! You should know that’s not nearly enough to stop me!” screams Irina as she jumps over my Flame Wall.

Just as expected she opted to jump over the wall. Swiftly I jump back revealing the sigils I implanted into the ground with my feet.

“Shit, a trap! *Hmph*”

Quickly realising her mistake Irina throws one of her daggers into the ground nearby.

“Arise, Ice Pillar!”

“Arise, Flame Pillar!”

Simultaneously, we both recite our incantations, launching a pillar of ice and fire into the air. I jump back anticipating it to come flying at me but to my surprise, nothing comes my way. Instead, the Ice Pillar collides with Irina, knocking her away and out of the path from the Flame Pillar. A smart move on her part, but she wasn’t able to completely come out unscathed, still taking the blunt force from her own attack even if she isn’t affected by the ice. With Irina knocked back by the pillar I should have enough time for that.

I begin to gather all my energy and darken the sky by sending my energy upwards as I start the incantation, “Oh great beast that illuminates the clouded sky, take my power and grant it form. Come forth and lend me your aid to smite my foe. As I call your name, Lightning Emperor!” as I finish the incantation, a multitude of lightning bolts come down and collide with each other. Giving my spell form.

“That spell, just how in the world did you get Amea to teach it to you!? The living magic, Lightning Emperor,” Irina says as she prepares several ice based protection spells.

Thunder roars through the arena, as the Lighting Emperor takes form. After the initial flash of lighting dissipates everyone is in awe of the sight before them. A large serpentine dragon, its body made entirely from lightning, gracefully floating in the air.

“Now go, take down those barriers!” on my command the lightning dragon opens its mouth for a breath attack. Once again the sound of thunder resounds throughout the entire arena as lightning spews forth from the dragon’s mouth, tearing through almost all of Irina’s ice barriers. All that's left is the Ice Cocoon and even that has largely been destroyed.

Irina steps out of the cocoon with her hands up and says, “Why don’t we call it quits here. I know it takes up a lot of energy to maintain that spell and I’m worn out after having to deal with it as well,” she finishes as she walks towards me with her hand out.

With my energy running out my spell fizzles, while I walk up to Irina and shake her hand.

Suddenly Irina’s grip tightens, “Psych!” she says as she lands a clean sucker punch to my stomach.

“I should have seen that coming, you shameless little…”

Just before completely losing consciousness I hear Irina yell out her words of victory, “Yes, finally! I’ve won!”

******

I wake up to find myself in an unfamiliar room.

“Ugh, my body still hurts.”

“I see you're awake,” says the woman sitting across the room from me.

“Who are you and where am I?”

“This is the medical bay at the palace. I am the head of foreign policy and I serve as one of the top military Doctors. My name is Annette.”

“Well then, Annette, it’s nice to meet you. So how long was I out for?”

“Not too long, only about an hour or so. Since your awake now I’ll take you to where everyone else is,” Annette says as she guides me through the palace.

“Your Majesty, I’ve brought Eillim here just as you requested,” she says as she opens the door.

“Welcome. You recover fast don’t you, Miss Eillim.” The King says.

With a big grin on her face, Irina walks over to me and says, “How you feeling Eillim? I’m sure that punch you took did a decent amount of damage.”

“Just you wait, Irina. I’ll get you for this someday.”

“Well, it looks like the two of you are doing fine after that magnificent fight. Unfortunately Miss Eillim, your payback will have to wait.” the King says trying to calm the situation.

“Yeah I remember, something about us negotiating with a dragon.”

“Yes, that correct. At least you remembered, unlike Miss Irina. So now that your both here I’ll give you the details. We want you to negotiate a deal for us where we can mine the mythril from the mountain with the Dragon of Light, Hiquahazull. The reason we are asking you two is because we have confirmed that Hiquahazull is not originally from this world. So we thought that you two, people who are familiar with other worlds, might have an easier time than we would.”

I turn to Irina and ask, “does the name Hiquahazull ring any bells? Unfortunately, I don’t know much about dragons.”

Irina furrows her brow with her head tilted as she says, ”It’s not strange since the dragon tribes tend to keep themselves hidden from everyone else. Although exceptions do exist, like with Akkre’s connection with the Ice Dragon tribe. But I’ve never heard of a dragon named Hiquahazull before.”

“Anyways, as what was mentioned the other day, we want you two to secure us a deal where we can mine the mythril in the mountain. Although, I say secure a deal… no one is expecting this to end peacefully. We fully expect this to come down to a fight. So I want your honest opinions, do you really think you can fight and win against a dragon?” The King asks.

“I’m not sure. I assume this is a fully grown dragon, in which case it could be difficult. A few years ago Akkre had taken me and a few others from the Military Training Program, Irina was one of them, and we went to go spar against some of the young dragons of the Ice Dragon tribe. No one had won their fights but Irina and I managed to at least bring it out to a draw. Of course, we are stronger than we were then, but those were young dragons. If we fought a fully grown dragon we would probably need some assistance.” I say.

“Very well. I will have a couple of the knight divisions follow. I shall have Annette go as well, she should be able to provide some medical assistance. Anyhow, you will be departing tomorrow morning. Sorry for sending you out so soon, but reports came in earlier about some movement from the east so we are trying to be quick with our actions.” The King says.

“No need for an apology your Majesty, but do you mind if I ask one more question before we head out?” I ask as we turn to leave.

“You can ask but that doesn’t mean I will answer.”

“You sound like Akkre with an answer like that. Regardless, I was wondering why you seem to hold him in such high regards? Sure he’s strong but is that really all you need to hold such a high degree of respect for him? To me, he just seems like a lazy bum who works people too hard and he doesn’t even try to do something with his absurd strength.”

The King stays silent for a moment with his eyes closed. He soon responds. “There is much more to him than just his strength. I have received much from him, but the most important thing I learned from him is his philosophy. Moreover, he is involved with the founding of Lucia, but I’ll just leave it at that for now, as this is a discussion for another time. Take this little time you have to rest up, you two have a lot of work to do tomorrow.”