“Team Triple M Slaughter Heroes is going up against….

…Two scales and a hair!

That leaves team “Orc strength” up against team “Simple”

It seemed like “Two scales and a Hair” had won up to now, strange for some reason I had expected to meet them in the finals, but apparently not.

We began walking towards our assigned arena. I noticed it was slightly bigger than the one before. They were making it more difficult to get out of bonds, uh?

(Commentator)” This time the teams will fight one at a time! Team Triple M Slaughter Heroes and Team two scales and a hair will begin!”

While the Commentator kept on doing his thing my siblings and I prepared to meet our next opponents. It was the same as usual: Martin went first and then it was Mathilde and at last it would be me.

Pov: 3rd-person

Martin Stepped into the arena.

In front of him was standing a male who was what appeared to be the “African” type of human, not “European” type like Martin.

When he had been younger he had for a short moment honestly believed they were a race of their own duo to their darker skin color, just like he had believed that wood-elf, dark-elf’s and High-elf’s, were separate races as well. Now he just felt like punching himself in the face for being that stupid.

The man had no weapons equipped – He was most likely a mage.

The circles started spinning again.

Martin acted fast this time: He threw his dagger towards the guy; maybe he could do something before he activated a spell. He had attached a fishing-line to the dagger, this way he could easily retract it.

The man grabbed the dagger with his hand, and then proceeded to rip of the Fishing line.

Martins head went blank for a moment: The guy had grabbed the knife, and then ripped a fishing-line apart, which all in all required strength, reaction speed, and a sure way of not getting hurt by it…

All of Martins inner alarms instantly turned on. This wasn’t a mage! It was a Martial artist, an Aura cultivator!

His realization came too late, before he knew it the guy had unnaturally quickly approached him and had him locked down in a position he couldn’t move from. Damn it! A miscalculation! A misjudgment! Had he guessed the guy was a cultivator he would have a different approach! How stupid could he be? Ugh.

Martin kept on struggling for a while and made a few silent curses before he relaxed and muttered:

“Fine, I got it. I surrender”

(Judge) ”David wins! David do you wish to proceed or forfeit?”

David let go of Martin:

“I wish to proceed”

Martin thoughts raced. David could potentially be a problem for Mathilde, and if he didn’t come up with a solution for Mathilde to use, he doubted that she would come up with something. Facing three persons would be too much for Matt.

Could the guy counter her [Light Emission]? Possibly not, but that wasn’t a solution.

Maybe if she used [Force emission] to shoot the dagger at him? Again: It was possible it would work, but that would require luck, and David would be aware of the dagger.

Then what about [Heat emission] and [Fire emission]? No. If David used the same grip he had used on him just a moment ago Mathilde wouldn’t be able to touch him with any part of the body, duo to her clothes blocking her from touching him…

That might be it!

(Martin, to himself)” I’m going to hell for suggesting this”

He rushed towards his sister who was already about to enter arena.

(Martin) “No! Mathilde don’t enter, I got something! Judge! We are going to use the 5 minutes prepare time we have the right to”

David and the judge seemed a little confused, what was there to discuss?, but his siblings instantly knew something was up. The judge approved of it with a simple “very well”. He was a man of few words.

(Martin)” Okay, this might sound stupid but I need you to...”

He began to explain his strategy, at first they were against it, but then they were cool with it, at least Mathilde, Matt had his troubles accepting the plan.

5-minuttes later she was standing in the arena again, ready with her weapons in the hand.

… Only in her underwear, which was plain and black by the way.

Mathilde was unaffected by it. What did she care? Either it was people she dint care about who saw her, or people that wouldn’t judge. Besides: her body wasn’t too bad! It was quite standard: it wasn’t overflowing with fat, nor was it skinny, and she had remembered to shave her leg, so that wasn’t a problem either. He body dint quite hit the Hour-glass figure, but it was well within the beauty standards!

(judge) “Are you sure this is what you choose to do?”

(Mathilde)”Yeah of course, else I wouldn’t be doing it idiot. Or would you like that I took some more off?”

(Judge)” uhhm….. no…. showing you private parts is not allowed in this tournament. If you are ready I will proceed to start the duel: ready? 3…2…1.. Go!”

The runic circles started spinning again, only this time there was a mage who conjured a light blocking spell. They didn’t want the same thing happening last time to repeat itself.

Mathilde started off by sending a bunch of flames towards the guy. He backed off, but quickly sensed they weren’t dangerous. He moved trough them. A blinding light meet his eye he quickly closed them and blocked of the light with his hand. He had to assign some of his aura to block the light.

Then there was a few minutes were he slowly pushed her back, he couldn’t get a good grip of her. She always evaded or pushed of his fists with her [Force emission], until:

With a quick sweep with his legs he managed to tackle her! He forced her into a position where he halfway sat on her back, a knee holding her into position. He held her right arm in an awkward angel, making it hard for her to move.

The judge began to count down, immobilizing for more than 10 seconds was a condition for winning.

“10…9..”

Mathilde remained calm.

[Heat emission].

“8..7..”

It began slowly, giving David time to notice the heat she gave of, and adjusting the aura to counter it. It was as Martin had predicted; that man knew of an unusual amount of different aura techniques.

“6..”

Then she turned it max-up. Having little to no time to react David panicked and used all of his recourses to withstand the heat.

“5..”

A mistake.[ Light emission]!, [Force emission]!

A blinding light filled his eyes, before he was pushed away from the force.

He stumbled around, blind. Mathilde leaped towards him. Her right hand hit him right in the chest. Flames and light erupted where she hit. She moved a few more steps before she stopped, stretched out her hand, and tossed him outside the arena.

The judge starred dumfound at the turn-around. There was a few seconds silence before he said something:

“Out of bonds. Mathilde wins this duel, Mathilde do you wish to continue or withdraw?”

(Mathilde) “I’ll continue”

(Judge)”very well, I will then ask Team Two scales and a hair to send in their next combatant”

A snake woman entered the arena. Her scales had a red/brown muster; the upper part of her snake-head was bright red while the underside was light-brown. He clothes were some kind of golden/brown color, and seemed way too classy for combat. She had 2 swords in her hands.

Mathilde, still in hear underwear, readied her weapons.

The snake woman was...Standing?... patiently in front of her. A random comment revealed her name to be Sasha.

The fight started.

Sasha began with stretching her swords out to the side and pointing the tips towards Mathilde.

To the left! Under the sword!

Sasha avoided most of it by hitting Mathilde arms with her sword. Fortunately it wasn’t a serious “wound”.

She leashed towards Mathilde again, and once again she managed to wound her, but this time Mathilde managed to hit her left hand with [Force emission]. Her sword was flung out of her hand. Sasha hissed and retreated a few meters, the force had numbed her hands.

Mathilde didn’t follow up. Two bright blue markings could be seen on her right arms, the swords had influenced some serious artificial wounds.

[Light emission]. Sasha was for some reason unaffected by the light. She couldn’t figure out as to why, but she knew that it was a huge disadvantage. She was after all only stupid if compared to her brother.

Fair enough, she still had her dagger and axe. She engaged once again in combat. Sasha managed to defend herself; they clashed a few times, only: The sword spit out fire! Mathilde retreated, some of her body was covered in a blue transparent shimmer, as substitute for actual burn damage.

Was it some sort aura technique? Matt and Martin could easily determine that it wasn’t, to emit flames without emitting mana required a tremendous amount of control, a control that you wouldn’t find on a person struggling to defeat a mediocre girl with a recently required high mana reserve. Mathilde didn’t know that, yet she somehow knew that it was a spell.

Mathilde was standing cautiously away from the snake-woman, trying to understand the new sensation she felt. It felt like the energies inside her body… Only outside! It felt similar to her [Flame emission] and [Heat emission] only it wasn’t a mix, and it was a little different. It had a more powerful felling to it, but it didn’t have anything to do with the amount of mana, it was simply more potent.

She had awakened her mana sense, also called the third eye.

Could she do the same? She tried to replicate the felling.

Failure, she send out some flames and heat, and the fire felt thicker somehow, but it was nowhere close to what the snake woman had done. A person wouldn’t suddenly be able to do something that required skill just because someone else showed them; it could only give an idea on how to do it. The same rule could be applied to learning magic.

That fire sword was a problem; she had to get rid of it. She tightened her grip on her axe in her right hand.

Another attack. It was as if Mathildes senses suddenly speeded up:

Sasha swung the sword towards Mathildes right side.

Flames began to emit from the sword.

Mathildes axe passed by the sword, the flames began hurting her arm.

The axe wouldn’t hit Sasha, but Mathildes hand was nearing the wrist of the snake woman. She let go of the axe.

The tip of the sword pierced the shoulder. Intense pain! The flames! The heat! Just a little more time...

Her hand hit the wrist, the hilt of the axe was still in the way but that wasn’t a problem. [Force emission]

The speed of the world turned back to normal. The axe and remaining sword was flung out of the arena. Sasha cried out in pain, her second wrist had taken damage as well.

(Sasha)”Bitcchhhss”

Mathilde laughed, although a little restrained. Her entire right arm was blue, transparent and hung like a lump of meat by her shoulders, signifying that had it been real life Mathilde probably never would be able to use her right arm again, at least not by natural means. It was a good thing she didn’t actually lose blood, or else the match would have been over by now.

She managed to ignore the pain:

(Mathilde) “(heavy breathing) I guess I win, I still got my magic left”

She let her remaining hand on fire.

Rage filled up Sasha, who did that pale naked human girl think she was!?

“Don’t think I can’t do such tricks myself!”

She moved her left hand around in a sphere; inside that sphere a attack spell was slowly being created. Her hand had recovered from the numbness.

Mathilde could with her newfound mana-sense determine that it was some sort of fire spell, except this time it involved some sort of “gooey” mana that held the other mana in shape.

She was still trying to cope with the pain, but that wasn’t the only reason she dint just attack, she was after all not the person to be stopped by a little…a lot of…pain.

No, that wasn’t it. She was confused: initially her arm had felt numb, now it felt...cold, but in a nice way. It was kind of like dipping the arm in cool water on an extremely hot day. She could slowly fell her senses returning to the arm.

Incoming [Fire ball]! By pure reflex she blocked it with her right hand! And she send out some mana. The [Fire ball] hit but it did no damage since her right arm already counted as “damaged”. Mathildes mana had also somehow left an air of cold.

The stadium was silent for a moment before there was an “OHHH” and it returned to be just as noisy as ever. The commentator shifted his attention completely and started rambling on about her:

(Commentator) “Amazing! Dueler Mathilde kelnen just moved her right arm! It should have been impossible duo to it being market! But..” – And so he continued.

Sasha just hissed and started making another [Fire ball]. She was clearly pissed off, and her emotions were reflected in the fireball spell. It caused it to be more potent and violent.

Mathilde looked at her right arm. She could now feel fell the mana flowing inside her arm.

Ice mana.

It wasn’t her mana. At least it dint fell like it...Her ordinary mana felt warm, like fire, light, constantly moving, overflowing, and like her, but compared to the Ice mana it felt weak, very weak. The ice mana on the other hand felt strong, cold, dark, and heavy. It moved slowly trough her veins. There was only a very little of it, but it felt many times more potent and powerful.

She tried to use some of the mana. It was hard to use so she could really only use it as it was:

[Frost breath]

A beam of cold wind, snow and ice particles was send out of her hands. It had a dark-blue hue to it. She had pointed it downward, were the particles hit the ground they grew to different sized ice shards.

(Mathilde) “Awesome”

Sasha had finished her [Fire ball] spell. This time it was a lot larger and more potent than the last one. Mathilde wasn’t concerned thou, as it came flying towards her se aggressively send out a steam of [Frost breath].

The spells clashed but the fire spell easily succumb to the Frost spell and dispersed as it hit the ice particles. The particles expanded in size and continued their path towards Sasha. A few of them simply flew past her, but some of them also hit her. Most of them bounced hard of her, one of them hit her left shoulder and shattered. Two were sharp and lodged themselves into her arm and upper tail respectively.

The Snake woman cried out in pain. For a few moments Mathilde felt a sense of victory. That was some action! Maybe the ice mana didn’t fell like her regular mana, but screw that, It kicked ass! It was until then she realized what she was looking at…

The shards landed outside of the arena.

Sasha’s shoulder was dislocated.

She was covered in bruises from the hit, there was a high possibility that some of them had resulted in some broken ribs.

Blood dripped from her.

The runic circles hadn’t been able to render the ice mana harmless.

The wounds were real.

(Mathilde)”…shiiiiiiiiit”

The runic circles stopped rotating. One of Sasha’s teammates, the argonian, rushed in and removed the ice shards embedded in her body, which was probably for the best, cause the shards were slowly shrinking while emitting an enormous amount of cold. Those who had landed on the ground were already creating a mist around them and the grass was frozen over.

Some medical people ran over to her with some healings potion.

A felling of guilt rose in Mathildes stomach. This wasn’t what she had intended. She knew that she was in deep trouble.

(judge)”Mathilde you have been using magic bypassing the effects of the runes, and thereby inflicted damage to your opponent. We understand that it is a special chase and unintentional but you should have informed us of it. I’m afraid I have to disqualify you from the tournament”

(Mathilde) “.. dude WHAT?! You can’t just disqualify our team! It’s yours fault for not having a prober enchantment”

(Judge)”I’m not disqualifying your team, I’m disqualifying you. Team Triple M Slaughter heroes will have to fight without you from now. “

Mathilde didn’t pursue it further; she knew that she could not hope for a better outcome. She looked towards Sasha. The bruises’ and wounds were almost healed, and the dislocated shoulder was almost fixed, but the broken ribs and frost damage wasn’t something that could be fixed as quickly. Well, with skilled magicians all over the place she would probably be ready to fight when it was her turn again.

She tried to reach out for her ice mana again. She couldn’t find it. Deep down she knew that it was there somewhere “behind” her regular swirling and overflowing mana, but no matter how hard she tried it always was right outside her grasp. Like a very faint and distant rainbow. She made a short growling sound of dislike, turned around and walked out of the circle.

(Mathilde)” Just go in Matt, I’m going to go put some clothes on”

She definitely wanted to brag about her ice mana later, but right now she was just frustrated.

pov-change, 1st-person, Matt.

I entered the arena. The trouble from before was solved and almost everybody was ready.

I had vaguely noticed that Mathildes Aura/presence had somehow changed during the fight, but I had dismissed it as my Imagination. That was of course until she suddenly decided to spray out ice mana. It goes without saying that I was rather surprised when that happened. From what I could see it was a somewhat advanced type of mana she had used, not something beginners would be able to create.

I tightened my grip of my sword; the argonian had entered the arena as well. He took a position with his sword ready, there would have been an opening to his left side, but the dagger attached to the tips of tail was floating ominously covering it. Is it normal for an Argonian to have such control over their tail?

Everything had sorted itself out. The signal for starting was given.

The Argonian didn’t move.

I circled around him, trying to find an opening. It was no use. Guess there was nothing to do but to try. I had a longer sword; it should give me an advantage.

The swords clashed!

A dagger from the side! I took a step back and avoided it. The process repeated itself a few times. Then he began attacking me. He was fast! I had no choice but to be on the defenses. Slash after Slash a dagger or sword would come at me, and when I blocked it the counterpart would too. When I took a step back he would take an even faster step towards me.

I simply wasn’t fast enough.

I swept his feet away. He landed on the ground. Sword right at his chest! He had already moved away again. He attacked me. I used all of my energy into the counter swing. [Outwards force]. He blocked it, but staggered backwards. He had lost his balance. A swing to his right!

(Argonian) [Force blast]

Most of the movement of my sword stopped midair, the rest was blocked by his bare fist, the one with the sword in.

For a moment none of us moved. He had used an aura technique outside his body?

His tail flew towards me. [Hardening skin]! All focused in one area. Wait, he moved his remaining hand too. I managed to block the dagger with my bare skin, but there was almost no force in it anyway. Instead it was in his hand and it bore right true my chest. His hand was sharp. My heart would have been destroyed.

(Judge) ”Fatal injure, Djaske win this round! Two scales and a hair advances to the finals. Team triple M Slaughter heroes can still compete for the third place”

The felling of losing was a painfull. Having come so far only to lose was disappointing, but I could accept it. Losing to that guy was no shame to me. I reached out my hands to shake and he took it. A short pause emerged as we exhausted stood in front of each other; somehow I was more exhausted than him. I used the opportunity.

(Me)”How are you so fast? What kind of aura technique are you using?”

(Argonian/Djaske )”I’m not, I’m using the Ki energy in the body. I see you are using a Ki-less battle style”

(me)” yeah, I do”

(Djaske)”Don’t do that, using Ki in combat is much more efficient . Using Ki-less styles really only exists for the traditions and its far too specialized. “

(me)”well, I’ve never used Ki before..”

(Djaske) ”shouldn’t be a problem, you are already using you ordinary mana. Try making it boost your natural movements, but then don’t and use Ki instead. It will make sense after you’ve tried for a while”

(Me) ”.uh ok I get it awesome, thanks!”

I didn’t get it at all, but hey: if I tried I might.

pov-change 3rd-person.

“The Rector” of the school was only loosely following the tournament. He had hoped that there might be some who knew how to fight properly, but no one of them proved the “Amateur” tag wrong. Sure, that one argonian might be above commoner strength but not worth anything. Trained warriors could easily be acquired if needed and he wouldn’t be a shining star among them.

A felling of disgust rose up in the man. The weakness of the people made him feel bad. No matter how strong they believed themselves to be, they always ended up disappointing him in some way.

That one girl was interesting thou. To think she had absorbed the properties of the pearl was quite remarkable. He had to study that trait of her. She even showed outstanding potential. With some manipulation she could be an outstanding pawn. That was of course provided he could figure how she had copied the power, without sacrificing her in the process.

Well, sacrifices had to be made; he couldn’t be bothered by it.

He turned around and faced a Dragonian woman. She had large blade on her back. It was clearly a powerful weapon.

(The “Rektor”) ”Has the preparations been made Karisha? “

(Karisha) ” Yes, your mages has finished the summoning circles. The sacrificial creatures has been prepared as well”

(The “Rector”) ”Excellent I will have a look at it myself. I Assume you understand your role as well?”

(Karisha) “Yes, we’ve practiced [Soul Transfer] before. I’m ready to do it. For the dragonian people!”

(The “Rector”) ”Yes, for the Dragonians. The artifact inside will be the deciding factor against the orcsish warlords.

(Karisha) ”When the times come it will serve them well. This cooperating will benefit the both of us. “

(The “Rektor”) “It will”

Karisha turned around and moved towards the summoning chambers. She felt joy, this would be the decisive blow towards those dam orcs!

The dark mage, role-playing as the rector, felt joy as well. His third eye could see the traces of his corrupting spell inside her. Nobody else could sense it, not even herself

Her mental fortitude was strong, but he had finally broken the first barrier to her mind.

She would prove to be an invaluable pawn.