Eventually, the break ended and it was my turn to enter the stadium. I hadn’t expected my entrance to be met with quite as much excitement as it was, though. As the announcer called out my name, people started cheering it. I even saw an improvised sign that spelled my name being held up by some people. Reana entered and received just as much attention, maybe even more, which made it clear that everyone really expected this to be a close battle. A moment later, the announcer confirmed my analysis when he shared the betting odds.

“...the odds for this match are 1.5 to 3 in Arthur’s favor. Hedge your bets now, folks! Now then, are you ready for the first match of the quarter finals?! The match begins in… 3…2…1……..start!”

A familiar calmness that I had grown used to at this point returned and washed over me, muting all sounds except for my own heartbeat and the displacement of air as I drew my sword. Surprisingly, Reana had the exact opposite reaction. Her glare had been deadly since the moment she stepped into the arena, but now her fury became so apparent that even the audience would pick up on it. Her face was twisted in anger and she had forgone any kind of warmup, instead directly charging in my direction the moment the match had started.

As she ran, roots sprung from the earth and propelled her further across the arena. The living plants quickly started to conquer all of the available space and joined their mistress in a combined assault. All of this had happened in just a few seconds, leaving the audience stunned by the rapidly developing situation.

In an attempt to remain calm and time my answer to her attack correctly, I focused on my breathing. In… out. In… out. In… NOW!

Right as Reana crossed into my imagined territory, all of my gathered mana whirled into action, forming a large, dome-shaped barrier made up of tiny black blades, each sharp enough to tear through flesh and bone. Reana’s plants were shredded as they hit my skill, while Reana herself flinched and reeled back right before she would’ve been torn in half, though a part of her arm was still covered in several dozen small cuts that were bleeding profusely.

She backed up and held my stare, gritting her teeth as she clasped her bloodied fist around her wooden sword and most likely felt the stabbing pain I had inflicted on her. Then, after a moment, her angry glare turned into a sneer.

“Is hiding all you can do, coward?” she taunted.

I didn’t give her taunt the dignity of a reply, but felt my anger simmer all the same. It was true that I like to use my maelstrom skill, after all. It had never let me down, though it did make my style rather predictable, at times. Normally, I would’ve shrugged her comment off, but after seeing Emeri use her skills so elegantly, I felt a pang of jealousy when I considered that I couldn’t do the same. Not yet anyway. Despite this, I felt it best to wait her assault out, since her stamina and mana were limited.

Angry that I showed no reaction to her taunt, Reana enlarged her wooden blade and slammed it into my barrier repeatedly, shouting in between each swing.

“Stop! Hiding! You! Selfish! Coward!”

I wasn’t a coward. She didn’t know me, so it was easy for her to make such subpar taunts. After another minute of her antics, she ran out of energy.

“You’re still the same, after all these years. Still putting yourself first and others second… You’re not deserving of the love your parents kept giving you.” She said snidely, before finishing in a whisper. “You’re a coward, art…”

I didn’t abandon my parents. Who did she think she was? I grit my teeth and pushed down the anger I felt, deciding to ignore the uninformed statements she was making. She continued to slam her weapon into my maelstrom, tiring herself out as her weapon rebounded when I increased the density of blades.

“So you’ve made some friends now. Are you going to leave them behind when it suits you, as well?” she asked quietly. I heard a sad undertone in her voice, though that might have been my imagination.

“I don’t abandon my friends.” I said through gritted teeth, my anger now well past its boiling point.

She shrugged and chuckled. “Whatever, art. I hope you really think that’s the truth.” she finished with a bitter smile.

Strangely, that particular look on her face brought the shadow of a long forgotten memory to the forefront of my mind. Before it became clear, though, her attitude changed again. She backed up a few steps.

“That being said, I really need to win this match.” she murmured under her breath.

Her demeanor changed as a cruel smile appeared on her face. She cackled madly, before speaking in a snide, loud voice.

“Your parents have a bakery don’t they? I think I should pay them a little… ‘visit’…” she announced for the entire arena to hear.

From that point on, I understood she had left me with no choice. Not only did she threaten my parents to my face, she brought their occupation to the attention of the wider world, which was not the type of attention they needed.

None of this logic mattered to me, though. The moment I heard her threat, I saw red. I would hurt her for her arrogance, and she would regret those words. That was the only thought on my mind as I gave myself up to the rage, the pride inside of me. I didn’t even care that I was being influenced by my affinity anymore. She would pay.

I dropped my maelstrom and let the barrier fizzle out, before charging out of the bubble in a blur, going straight for my target.

“Finally the rabbit leaves its hole…” Reana murmured, her own anger toward me spiking to match my own.

“You’ll regret luring me out, ant.” I replied. As I said it, I heard how weird and childish that sounded, though it didn’t feel strange in the moment. Drunk on the power of my mana coursing through my veins, I decided to lean into it even further.

As Reana charged towards me with her shield raised and her sword aimed for my neck, I used one hand to guide its blade towards my chest, where it pierced straight through my armor and sunk into my ribcage. The wood sprouted vines, which dug back out of my flesh, tearing through flesh and bone as they did so.

With my other hand, I wielded my sword. Dark-affinity mana gathered along its blade, turning its metal pitch-black. I raised it to the sky and smiled.

“Your resistance is futile. I am all but immortal. The likes of you can’t do any lasting damage to me.”

I saw her grit her teeth and noticed her trying to twist her blade in an attempt to free it, causing me to smile widely.

“I don’t think so, girl. Now that you’ve given me this gift, you can’t take it back.” Then, I felt my flesh shift. It somehow wrapped around the sword and its vines, growing around them and holding them in place in a way I had never considered possible. I was missing half a lung and a bunch of ribs, yet dark form had been guided to think this was the correct way to heal me? How? Slowly, I started to notice that I was taking more and more of a back seat to my own actions, but my curiosity kept me from intervening. I wanted to see what else was possible if I gave in to my affinity, my unnatural side…

Reana cringed at the gory sight of my body twisting to keep her weapon in place. As a result she was only barely prepared for the greatsword that was now fully charged. The black blade came down with intense pressure and rammed into Reana’s hastily raised shield. The mana-infused wood buckled and broke under the force of the blow. More and more mana rushed into my arm, reinforcing my physical strength far beyond what I thought was possible. Had I always been able to manipulate [Dark Form] this freely? Had I underestimated its tier 5 capabilities?

As I asked myself this question, Reana’s knees buckled under the weight of my blow, though she managed to hold on. In a panic, she retreated to the center of the arena, where she stuck her shield into the ground and quickly started to form her Treant. My arrogant self simply stood and watched as the behemoth came into being, the sword still thoroughly buried into its… my? chest.

Finally, Reana finished her work and grinned manically as her treant let out an ancient call of the forests. Her grin winded further as both the treant’s arm and the surrounding giant roots all headed towards me with frightening speed.

Facing this attack, my brain told me to create a maelstrom to block all these incoming sources of danger. Unfortunately, my fury and pride told me differently. To thoroughly crush Reana, there was only one path. Forward and through.

The overloaded mana around me skyrocketed as I made my conviction. Facing danger head on… there was something about the idea that… appealed to me…

I watched in awe as all of my gathered mana coalesced on my weapon, while I supplied the weapon with pure dark mana as well, the tier 4 sword bathing in the mana it was made to use greedily. I used overloaded sword in conjunction with mana-intrusive swordsmanship and used dark form to enhance my muscles themselves, repeating what I had done instinctively a little earlier. Then, I swung my weapon, trusting my power to overcome Reana’s.

Instead of a normal sword-arc, a wave of dark mana erupted from the weapon. The wave had two layers, one chaotic overloaded mana, the other pure dark mana. The two forces clashed with one another, somehow causing the wave itself to expand and cover the full 180 degrees in front of me. They washed over the roots, causing them to shrivel up and die, before slamming into the treant’s arm. The two sources of mana clashed for a moment, but my own wave of dark mana overcame the treant’s wood-mana. The overloaded mana rushed past the treant like a gale of wind, before destroying the treant entirely with one giant black explosion.

Reana was thrown off of its back and the treant itself had turned into a blackened chunk of dead wood, its wounds still bubbling with dark mana. Even Reana’s body was giving off the eerie black smoke.

When she didn’t recover after a few seconds and remained laying still on the ground, her body was whisked away by the teleporters.

Breathing a sigh of relief that it was over, I pulled her wooden sword out of my chest with some difficulty. I felt my anger recede and regained my control, still confused by the strange ways I had used my skills during the match. Each would warrant proper research and exercise, in hope of replicating the effect without needing to turn all evil and stuff.

Finally calmed down, I heard the announcer's voice ring in my ears.

“Arthur ends the match in one blow, showing that he not only has frighteningly powerful defenses, but attacks as well! Reana will take some time to recover from that blow, I’m sure! Let’s give him applause, every…”

I ignored the rest of his speech in favor of escaping the arena as early as possible. I was left feeling confused by the entire thing. Hidden skill-properties, my affinity still being so strong after all of that meditation… I had a lot to work on in the future. Hopefully, my uncle or the guildmaster would have answers when it came to that last part…