Shi entered the winner's room, leaving the cleaning crew to remove the body he had left behind. He walked in to see someone healing the woman who had been injured in the first match. Shi quickly activated his mana senses and studied the healer's mana flow, copying it.
Shi walked away as the man continued healing the woman. Shi made his way to a corner away from the others and sliced open his thumb. He used his copied spell to heal the wound, making subtle improvements to it as he did.
Shi ignored the matches going on as he continually sliced open the palm of his hand and healed it. After he got used to healing his hand, he made two cuts on his palm and tried to only heal one of them.
After a while, someone came in and called out the woman who had won the first match and one of the winners who had come after Shi, a heavily muscled bald man holding a sword. Shi healed the cuts on his hand before going to the room's window to watch the fight with the others.
The woman twirled her staff around as the announcer did his thing, testing her range of motion after her injury. The man going against her stood still, staring at the woman. After the announcer finished, the man charged the woman, firing off a couple of fireballs at her as he did so.
The woman ducked under one of the fireballs, spinning around another while launching a barrage of wind blades back at the man. The man didn't slow, raising a ramp of earth to block the wind blades as he ran up it, leaping at the peak of the ramp to slash down at the woman.
The woman rolled to the side to dodge the attack, launching a fireball at the man. The man brought up a wall of water to block the fireball, before leaping up and over a wind blade the woman had sent towards him.
The man landed and ducked under another wind blade before spinning around into a horizontal slash aimed at the woman's midsection. The woman leaped back, the sword's tip grazing her stomach. She then launched a barrage of wind blades at the man, retreating as she did so.
The man raised an earth wall to block the wind blades, before leaping over it to follow the woman. The woman launched a fireball at the man, forcing him to bring up a wall of water to protect himself.
As the man fell, the woman brought up an earth wall right underneath the man, the wall slammed into the man's torso, knocking the wind out of him and breaking his ribs with a loud crunch. The man's breath seized up as his rib punctured his lung, giving the woman an opening to send a wind blade through his neck, ending the fight.
The woman walked back to the room where Shi and the others were, sitting on a bench to get her cuts healed. The old man and a thin, rat-faced man with slicked-back black hair holding a spear walked out to the arena.
The rat-faced man twirled his spear around in front of him while the announcer made the introductions. The old man just stared at the other man, his muscles tensing up in anticipation. After the announcer finished, the rat-faced man charged in, slashing horizontally at the old man's midsection.
The old man stepped in close to the rat-faced man, swinging his right arm out into the rat-faced man's elbow, breaking his arm. The old man then raised his finger to the rat-faced man's forehead, sending a tiny burst of water magic through his skull and into his brain, cutting off his scream of agony. The old man turned and walked back to the winner's room, leaving the rat-faced man's corpse where it fell.
Shi was called out next, with his opponent being a short man with long spiky black hair, falling around his black eyes. Shi and the dark-haired man both grabbed swords and walked out into the arena.
As the announcer did his thing, Shi tensed his shoulders, cracking his upper back, before staring at the man across the way from him, watching him stretch out before the fight. After the announcer finished, the short man charged Shi, coming at him with quick slashes, keeping his sword ready to defend himself while he attacked.
Shi flowed around the strikes, content to sit back and see what the man had to offer. The man feinted a slash before leaping back and launching a large fireball at Shi. Shi encased it in water magic, quenching the ball before it reached him.
The man tried to take advantage of the steam caused by this, but Shi sensed him and avoided his attack, before kicking the man hard enough to launch him to the other end of the arena. The man stood up, before launching three fireballs at Shi, then following them up with a barrage of wind blades.
Shi raised earth walls to block the fireballs, then weaved around the wind blades, conjuring earthen barriers to block those that would be more difficult to avoid. The man then charged in at Shi, covering his blade in lightning.
Shi stepped back to avoid the man's slash, then as the man came in again Shi stepped in, spinning around the man so that they were back to back. The man leaped forwards in response, trying to get away from Shi.
As the man leaped, Shi gave him a kick that added to his momentum, sending the man flying to the edge of the arena once again. The man stood up shakily, before conjuring a ball of lightning between his hands.
Shi let the man go about his attack, waiting patiently as the man compressed the ball of lightning more and more. After a few seconds, the man launched the lightning as a bolt directed at Shi's chest.
As the lightning bolt approached, Shi calmly held out his right hand and waited until the last second before absorbing the lightning's mana the moment before it reached his hand, before launching a lightning bolt of his own through the man's forehead, killing him instantly.
Shi walked back to the winner's room as the body fell, ignoring the looks of the other contestants before resuming his place on the bench so he could continue to practice his healing magic.