As I walked out into the arena, I noticed Ceriion waving at me from across the stands. He was seated in a wide booth that held all of the remaining participants of the tournament, save for two: John and me. The organizers had taken a different approach this time and allowed us to spectate every match we weren’t a part of ourselves. This would allow us to plan ahead, but it also limited our own hidden cards. They would only stay secret until we used them once, this time.

Seeing John stretch before the start of the match reminded me of his reaction when this round had been announced.

When he had heard that he was going to be facing me in the first round of battle, he had simply grinned in my direction, uncaring of his low odds of victory. Considering his imminent loss, he seemed quite cheerful. Perhaps that was just how he was. Always prioritizing irrelevant things like honor and valor over victory. This quality of his also made him likable, though.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Royal tournament’s tier 2 finale! In this series of matches, the kingdom’s strongest tier 2 classers will face off to determine who deserves to be called the strongest!”

“Please welcome our first two competitors: Arthur and John! Those of you that watched the last round will remember that they are already acquainted with one another. In a distinctively rare upset, the odds at the betting booths are 8 to 1 in Arthur’s favor. Will John’s whirlwinds collapse under Arthur’s overwhelming darkness, or will he manage to create a miracle and emerge victorious?”

“Without further ado, let’s begin the match in 3… 2… 1… start!”

As I switched focus from the announcer’s speech to John’s figure, the noise from the arena was drowned out by my calm breathing, by my beating heart. I sized John up and noticed how he matched my calm state. He stared me down, methodically following my movements. If what he had told me was true, John was a veteran. A person that had fought for survival for years on end. In a way, he was the most dangerous opponent I had faced yet.

The sound of my sword leaving its sheath pierced through the apparent silence.

The sound of our feet hitting the ground as we took the first step followed the previous sound.

With a sudden gale of wind, John launched himself into the air, twisting to maintain his momentum. I left a crater in the floor of the arena as I rose up to meet him, but he dodged out of the way. I made another foothold, which blew up the moment I let my weight sink into it, launching me in the path of his trajectory. Unfortunately, John had foreseen my sudden movement. Either that, or he was so maneuverable in the air that I might as well have tried to swat a mosquito with a stick.

Over the next few minutes, I continued to chase him, building up more and more mana to keep in reserve. I was getting nowhere, though. Each time I got too close, John would trounce my mobility and change course so swiftly I could hardly follow him with my eyes, let alone my blade. When he regained his distance, he would throw random air-based skills at me, as well as windy sword arcs. Considering that his sword arcs cut straight through my armor if I wasn’t careful, it was clear he had mastered the skill, much like Cerion and I had.

A few minutes later, I had had enough. The situation hadn’t changed, and John was continuously pressing his advantage and backing up anytime I got too close. Any damage he had dealt to me was superficial, but it still stung my pride. Evidently, his strategy was to fight me in the air, since he knew he could outmaneuver me there. That wouldn’t work if I stayed on the ground, though. Unfortunately, John knew that too, so he tried to block me from landing and created whirlwinds that lifted me in the air when I got too close to solid ground.

The thing was, I could be creative when I needed to be. All of a sudden, I started using [Aura step] like a madman, ascending higher and higher into the skies, until the arena was only a small ring down below. Just Like I had hoped, John hadn’t bothered to follow me all the way up. That meant that it was time… to go back down.

I twisted my body and somersaulted so that my feet pointed towards the sky, used aura step and jumped downwards. Or, you know, ‘fell’ downwards slightly faster than normal. I kept accelerating more and more as I used my skills to propel myself. The tiny dot that had been the arena quickly turned into the colossal complex that I knew it was. As I flew, I kept my mana close at hand. I deliberated crashing into John when I reached him, but figured he would probably dodge out of the way in time, so I settled for my next best option. John would’nt be able to dodge, if there was nowhere to dodge to, would he?

As I approached his height, I started to weave a figurative ‘net’ of sword arcs in the air, that traveled at the same speed I did. Because they never left my [Overload Aura] skill’s range, I could keep supplying them with mana. Their number grew quickly, until John would have to dodge outside of the confines of the arena to escape unharmed.

A moment later, what must have looked like a giant black spiderweb to the people down below crashed into the ring, with me at the center. I hit the ground feet first, and winced as I felt my bones splinter. I thanked Helios that I was spared from the pain. The dust settled, and I heard John’s voice.

“That’s not enough to knock me outta’ the sky, fella.” the veteran that was pushing thirty said. He looked a little frazzled and had a wound on his arms, but was fine otherwise. It looked like he had succeeded in blocking whichever sword arc that had been in his way.

I couldn’t hear any hint of him mocking me in his tone, but his intent was obvious. Contrary to his expectations, I just smiled.

“I know, but that will be.” I replied, pointing at the wound on his arm. It was seeping black smoke, invisible to the naked eye. A sign of a curse mark, and mine were particularly nasty, in their own way.

I laughed as I sent an armada of ranged skills his way, all of which flew at his wound as if they were sharks smelling blood in the water.

[Curse mark(guide)] was a skill that was easy to underestimate, at your own peril. While I didn’t put much effort into the individual projectiles that were chasing John down, their sheer volume made up the difference. Quantity was a quality all its own.

The look on John’s face as the black trails and balls veered off course and followed him when he tried to dodge would have made a loss with it, on its own.

“What in the bloody hell is goin’ on?!” he said as he tried to dodge more of my attacks, and as they once again turned around.

“A curse mark is going on, John. Ever heard of them?” I teased, silently thanking whatever god had granted me the skill upon my class evolution. If there was one major advantage dark-affinity classers had, it would be their unusual, almost unfair skills that supplanted expectations. That, and my supernatural healing.

John cursed beneath his breath and tried to lead some of my attacks into the walls of the arena. Some were destroyed as they lost strength when they made contact with the walls, but most were slow enough to veer out of the way before they hit the wall.

On top of that, everytime John tried this tactic, I could rush at him sword first and hope he would still be there when I arrived, limiting his movement options.

Using skills to defend himself wasn’t an option either, because John had a limited amount of mana. He wouldn’t know that I could go on infinitely, but he knew enough to realize I could outlast him if necessary.

Slowly, John accrued more and more significant wounds. Cuts and lacerations rand down his limbs, his chainmail not nearly strong enough to withstand my attacks. Maybe he realized that he would have to change tactics if he still wanted to win, or maybe he, too, was tired of this game of cat and mouse, because eventually he landed on the ground with both feet and lifted both hands in the air.

“Stop, stop!” he shouted.

Either my curiosity got the better of me, or my pride did, because I did as he asked without question.

“What?” I asked stoically.

“Listen, this is goin’ nowhere. What do you say we have one final clash, my best against your best?”

I nodded wordlessly, confident I could win a fight like that.

The skills we had thrown around the arena had all dissipated by now, so only a deathly silence was left as we both drew in mana for our attacks.

I decided against creating an unstable overloaded orb like I had used against Cerion, because I was scared John wouldn’t survive an attack like that. Instead, I went with the tried and true method of creating two, separate, normal orbs, before chucking them at John and running ahead of them with Aura step.

On John’s side, wind had grown and coated his body to the point that it became visible to the naked eye. In contrast, John’s eyes were closed as if he were in a state of dreamless sleep.

I ran to the other side of the arena and used my mana-intrusive swordsmanship with the intent to end this match in one final blow. Instead, my sword stopped dead in its tracks the moment it touched the wind-barrier around John’s body.

Then, my opponent's eyes opened, and the wind came to life. With a furious howl, the barrier expanded and threw me back, tearing the earthy floor of the arena into the sky as it did so.

Before my very eyes, a true tornado came to life, no doubt expending every last drop of mana that John had left.

Unfortunately for him, that was also the moment my overloaded orbs made contact.

As if to chastise the wind for its arrogance, two black explosions rang out and silenced the newly formed storm, forcing the wind to dissipate as if there had never been a tornado there in the first place. All that was left was John’s unconscious body, which dropped to the floor with a quiet thud.

With the match finally over, the announcer’s voice drifted back into my ears.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a winner! After a valiant effort by John, who truly astounded us with his display of power, Arthur comes out victorious after all! He will move on to the quarter finals!”

Applause rang out and the crowd cheered my name, as if they had never doubted my victory. Something about their excitement was infectious. I tried as hard as I could not to, but gave in in the end and waved at the crowd, smiling. There, let’s see what story you can spin about that, reporters… I thought, slightly bitter as I headed to the participant’s booth. As I took a seat a few minutes later, I heard the announcer’s voice appear above the clamour of the crowds again.

“Now let’s move on to the match which will decide who Arthur will face in the next round… Please welcome adventurer-extraordinaire Reana and the mysterious X!”