At times, I believe it necessary to ask myself if what I am doing is actually worth it. If I should really be proceeding with my options, and if I should instead be doing something else.
Now is one of those times, as I am currently participating in a tournament hosted by Draila, one which I once believed would be impossible to even try and sign up for.
However, not only am I participating in the tournament with my new companions, we have gotten to the semi-finals, an achievement to be sure. In fact, we're currently battling lower rank members of the Magic Knights, who have proved to be tough opponents to be sure.
However, I almost feel bad for the opponent I ended up with.
He's strong, yes, but overly cocky of his own strength. As such, pretty much every time he casts a spell or sometimes goes for an attack using his sword, he leaves himself wide open. I've yet to attack him really since I wanted to see if he's making some sort of joke or something, but it's all the same.
"What? is dodge all you can do? You're starting to get on my damn nerves!" He rushed in for a slice with his sword whilst also casting a water spell of which appeared above me, "Water Magic: Waterfall!"
I can see several ways to counteract this all. Seeing how he's rushing in with no sense of his own spell hitting him, I'll simply move behind him in time and kick him into the area of his spell.
I do so... but stop at the time of me kicking him into his spell. I can't do that, it would be like attacking a child... a tall, technically an adult by Draila's standards, child.
"You-- are you toying with me?!" Oh, that seemed to just make him angry. I'll give him one thing, you don't seem to see a lot of Magic Knights that use swords or anything, so that's something.
He goes for some attacks using his sword, but I simply dodged out of the way of all the attempted slices. This is just becoming sad... do I just defeat him now without prolonging this all? Perhaps I should, but that would just feel like putting an injured animal out of its misery.
Fine, I'll just do it.
"Fire Magic: Fire Arrow." I take out my short-bow, a flaming arrow appearing around the nocking point. I pull the string back, and fire"
"What the-- Water Magic: Water Veil!" Around him appeared a somewhat thin layer of water reinforced with extra mana, allowing for a particularly strong defence against fire, but also physical attacks.
The arrow makes contact but was protected against by the spell he cast. I'm actually impressed, he managed to cast that fast enough to defend against me.
"Who do you think you are, huh? Attacking a noble like me?" He spoke, contradicting his former statement.
"You told me to stop dodging earlier, so I did," I stated the obvious, but that had no effect on him.
"I don't care! Someone like you, a mere commoner shouldn't lay a finger on me!"
"I didn't, my spell did." I once again spoke what was the truth, but that seemed to anger him more...
"Stop trying to change the subject!" And with that said, he charged at me once again, casting a different spell from earlier, "Mist Magic: Deceiving Field of Mist!"
Appearing around him in a large radius that enveloped even me was mist, which seemed to mess with my senses... it seems he's getting serious now.
There's one thing I can give to him, he knows a lot of spells, but just knowing a lot of spells isn't enough. His swordplay is sloppy, he leaves himself off guard all the time, and he's unaware of his own magic. Overall, he's failed in my opinion.
Now, if he's getting serious, I will as well.
Using Thread Creation, I create thin threads all around the mist. With these, it won't matter that my senses have become almost useless since they'll alert me of any movement he makes. And right now, it seems he's behind me.
With some sort of yell, he attempts to stab me with his sword. However, I simply dodged the attack, grabbed the wrist of his left arm, and cast a spell.
"Fire Magic: Ignite." In an instant, flames appeared on his wrist and began to spread. He began to panic, trying to pad the flames out with his hand, which merely caused them to spread faster.
This is almost painful to watch... he does realize he can use water magic, right? This probably wouldn't even have happened if he didn't deactivate Water Veil to conserve mana.
"Use your water magic." I remind him of the existence of his first attribute, and he soon creates some water to put out the fire.
"That was a dirty move!" He got closer to me, frowning.
I can't handle this anymore, I'm just going to end this now.
With some threads that are still active, I use Thread Manipulation to both make them thicker as to not break, and to trap him.
So, I do so, threads rising from the ground wrap around his legs, completely limiting his movement.
"What is-- Hey, get these off of me!" He yelled out at me, but this time, I chose just not to respond.
5... 4... 3... 2... 1.
"Contestant Rait Izint is out! As all five have lost, the winner of this round is Team Dest!"
Oh, we win.
-Side chapter, end.-