A fight between two Fae Masters was different from a battle to the death.
When two Fae Masters fought to the death, neither one held back in their origin essence expenditure. They gave it everything they had, using up every last droplet of origin essence they had to ensure that by the end of it, their opponents heart would stop beating.
In a battle to the death, their would be only one victor, one winner.
The loser was killed. That was inevitable.
In terms of who had the overall strongest battle strength, and who possessed a better sense for both combat, and origin essence manipulation, was decided during non-fatal combat. Like this tournament for instance.
Ratimir and Alina were both rookies in regards to killing opponents, as well as controlling their origin essence.
Both of them realised that this fight may be their last, but they also realised that they might not possess enough origin essence to fight in the next round.
Neither one was willing to give up, and both of them wanted the rewards for second and third place.
But, it seems that they realised their conundrum, and fought each other with everything they had.
Alina dodged an overhead blow from Ratimir's bone sword fae, swiping out with her own shadowstream fae, causing a thin trail of blood to splatter out onto the main stage.
Ratimir looked down at his chest, narrowing his eyes slightly as he gazed at the slightly elongated shadow blade in Alina's hands.
"So.... your blade can grow by becoming thinner. So what?".
The male competitor slashed out furiously, swiping at Alina dozens of times, hoping to land a single hit on her smaller frame.
Alina dodged them all, mimicking Arthur's moves as beads of sweat constantly dripped off her face, and onto the ground.
She wanted to glance at Arthur, in order to show her classmate a look of confusion, but restrained herself, opting to focus on the other classmate who was constantly trying to bisect her.
The roars of the crowd echoed in both of their ears.
None of the fights before this one showed this much intensity, this high-quality. Of course, to some of the Fae Masters, this type of fight was relatively simple. But for newly awakened Fae Masters, just over a month old, this type of fight was.... impressive, to say the least.
"Yeah! Get'em Ratimir! Show'em whose boss!".
"You can do this Alina! We believe in you!".
"Come on Ratimir! I've got my money riding on you!".
The two competitors panted heavily, before rushing forward, their weapons in hand.
The sound of shadow colliding against bone echoed throughout the arena. The pair danced around each other, evading attacks and launching their own, hoping to land a hit on their opponent.
Arthur smiled gently as he gazed at the two weapons in their hands.
'How suitable. To think the former Bone Shadow Immortal would be witnessing two juniors use his own speciality against each other. Is this some sort of karma? Or fate, I wonder'.
Arthur crossed his legs, placing his hands in his lap.
An amused expression could be seen on his face.
"Ah! Stop moving!".
Ratimir's bone sword fae got stuck in the stage once more, causing him to have to lift up his shield, and deflect more blows from Alina.
The girl rolled her eyes, before slicing at his wrist, blood spurting out like a fountain.
"You wish Ratimir! I'm going to win this fight! No matter the cost!".
A glint appeared in Ratimir's eyes. He let out a groan, before lowering his shield arm slightly, dropping his guard
Alina noticed this sudden weakness, and leaped forward, both hands on the shadowstream dagger in her hands, raised and ready to strike at Ratimir.
Her opponent smirked, letting go of his bone sword fae, letting it turn back into a large praying mantis.
His right hand glowed a bright vapour quartz colour, and the sound of shadow, smashing against water filled the air.
Alina's eyes widened as she gazed at the similar looking water blade in her opponents hands.
"Is that a-".
Ratimir's smirk grew exponentially, his weight now fully pressed down on Alina, as he gripped his dagger with both hands.
"Yes! Yes, it is! It's a stream fae! Just like your shadowstream fae, it condenses water to form a sharp dagger sized blade whose length can be extended at the cost of thickness!".
Ratimir, not limited by the length of his bone sword fae, let go of his bark growth fae and let out another flurry of strikes, much faster than his previous ones. His strength seemed to fade due to fatigue, but his speed somehow increased despite Alina's decrease in speed!
Her legs ached, burned from overexerting themselves by using Arthur's footwork technique.
'If this keeps up', she thought, 'I might end up actually hurting myself from overexertion!'.
Her speed might be quicker than Ratimir's but her stamina and strength were definitely not. This battle, one that she didn't want to turn into a war of attrition, has now suddenly turned in her opponents favour!
She felt cuts appear on her arms, taking a few steps back as the sound of blood dripping could be heard all over the arena.
She sighed.
She wanted to win.
She didn't want to lose, but....
Her origin essence sea was only at 10% of its 232% maximum.
Ratimir's maximum origin essence sea was 229%, so he probably had less than she did.
'.... wait a second, could it be?'.
Alina narrowed her eyes for a second, trying to remember what her Grandfather told her.
'Bone sword fae don't cost that much origin essence, but their special ability is that they can be repaired with origin essence, unlike other similar fae. Bark growth fae is the same, but-'.
Unlike her, Ratimir had been using two fae for almost the entire fight. She did use her silent butterfly fae at the beginning of the fight, but only once, before only using the shadowstream fae.
Unlike her Ratimir had used all three of his fae, throughout the entirety of this battle.
The hidden shadow fae wouldn't work in such an open environment, and her origin essence wouldn't allow the use of the hidden shadow fae, in addition to the already active shadowstream fae.
'Is Ratimir out of origin essence yet? Reaching zero would result in a Fae Master passing out, so theoretically he shouldn't be at zero yet but....'.
He definitely had less than her, she thought.
It was impossible for him to have more than her.
Her eyes lit up for a second, before she gritted her teeth, angling herself as he legs screamed out in pain.
Alina could taste blood on the inside of her mouth.
Ignoring the screams that he legs gave off, Alina shot forward, shadowstream fae in hands. Her expression wild and her demeanour savage as she raised her arms again, ready to strike.
Ratimir noticed her sudden surge in morale, biting his lower lip for a moment before raising his stream fae ready to meet her attack head on!
The second that their two fae collided, an explosion of both water and shadow appeared on the main stage.
One side, covered in water, clear as day and as blue as the sky above.
The other, blackened. Black as ink and with as much visibility as a cloudy night sky.
However-.
Only one was left standing.
"And... the winner is.... Alina!".
The crowds roared, screaming out her name.
The fifteen year old girl smiled for a fraction of a second, before the whole world went black.