Arthur let out a small sigh. Thankfully, things weren't too different in this timeline, and Alina did triumph over Ratimir once more.
With Arthur's currently low understanding of time, and his miniscule attainments in the law of time, as a once Fae Immortal, Arthur understood some important notions, regarding the manipulation and changing of time.
There was room for comfort, so long as major events stay the same.
A famous Fae Immortal that specialised in time attributed fae, once tried to reverse time so far, that he would end up in the era of the
With Arthur's non-existence abilities in the area of the law of time, Arthur was unable to see key events in his own timestream which needed to remain the same. If not, his plans for his future, may go awry.
If Ratimir, instead of Alina were to win this fight, then perhaps nothing really would change in the scheme of things.
However, to make sure that nothing too drastic changed without him knowing it, he tried his best to mitigate the changes to his own timestream to drastically.
It wouldn't matter if most of the benefits within Parachenko Village went to Arthur, seeing as this region never had too much of an impact on the entirety of the World. However in the future, there were some Fae Immortals that took it upon themselves to correct certain events.
So that some things occurred, and others didn't.
In his previous life, Arthur had never met these individuals, however, their existence was undoubted amongst Fae Immortals.
'These people may watch over the timestream, but do not rule it, or control it in any way. My reincarnation might not be that too big of a deal considering no-one has come after me by now'.
Time attributed fae were rare in the first place. Not many people knew the Fae Formula to create them, and those that did, definitely wouldn't give them up without some sort of ample benefits.
Arthur sighed, throwing those thoughts to the depths of his mind.
"This doesn't matter right now. The Winter Solstice Salamander can't be used right now either. If I use its ability, either of its abilities I'll die. For the time being, all I can do, is not interfere in to many things until I gather enough strength to oppose those who try to stop me. When that happens, even if I want to destroy the timestream, who can stop me?".
Arthur smiled, his intent a mystery to those who tried to see beneath his fabricated exterior.
It was the beginning of the semi-finals and the main stage had to be fixed as much as possible, so that the previous battle didn't affect the next one.
Alina and Ratimir were both Fae Masters with potential, and with sizable backgrounds behind them. It was only natural that their fight was at a higher standard than the previous ones.
They were both recognized as descendents of Elders, and thus had much deeper waters supporting them both. If their fight wasn't more entertaining than the previous ones, then the audience, the villagers of Parachenko Village, might get ideas about the difference between them and their Fae Masters.
So basically, it was important to show off.
It was a power play. One that emphasized the strength of their new generation, as well as one that kept the future generations of non Fae Masters in check.
But at any rate-.
"The main stage has been repaired! Would both Arthur and Borik come up to the main stage! The winner of this fight will then fight for first place in the grand final!".
One of the referees glanced at both Arthur and Borik before heading back to their positions.
Without even missing a beat, Arthur stood up and headed towards on side of the stage. Never once had he looked towards one of his opponents before a fight, and never did he do it for Borik either.
The huge, brawny young man, whose height far exceeded two metres tall, smiled savagely as he gazed towards Arthur.
Borik was similar to his older brother in many ways, with the sole exception of Borik being more wild, and less intelligent.
Borik possessed a fiend worm fae as his Origin Fae and a bear arms fae as his second.
The fiend worm fae was a relatively rare fae within the Winter Rain Mountains and increased the strength of the Fae Master be three times. It didn't increase stamina or agility, but only pure strength, making it optimal to fight barehanded, so as to avoid their excess strength offsetting their techniques in battle.
The bear arms fae was a perfect supplicant for the fiend worm fae.
It did exactly as the fae's name stated.
It transformed the Fae Masters arms into that of bear arms. Giving their arms, not the strength of a bear, but the appearance of one. It increased the Fae Master's durability, due to the thick coat of fur on their bear arms, as well as thick padded hands and claws which they could use to grab their opponent, or strike at them with their claws.
For a muscle head like Borik, such a combination of Fae had very little origin expenditure, and as such, he didn't need to worry about things such as his origin essence limit, as his opponent would more than likely be dead by the time he reaches his limit.
'His Grandfather probably told him to pick the bear arms fae. Otherwise, I couldn't see Borik, being able to pick one fae out of so many'.
Arthur arrived on the newly flattened main stage. The remnants of the past battle couldn't be seen, even with Arthur's perception, indicating the use of a powerful earth attribute fae.
Arthur nodded slightly glancing around the arena.
It would be impossible to win this without using origin essence. Too risky as well.
With Borik's physique and enhanced strength he would be an easy opponent for Arthur to slowly whittle down. However, with the two fae Borik possessed, only another Fae Master would be able to defeat him.
The combination of both black smog fae and camouflage fae would be good, however, both would only increase his origin essence expenditure and not do any real damage to Borik.
This trump card was supposed to be for Randolf, and despite his "best attempts", Randolf would triumph over him and win first place.
He couldn't use the bloodseeker leaf fae, because that would expose it to the rest of the Village. He couldn't use the Winter Solstice Salamander either, because it would kill him, along with half of the village at the same time.
And the water leaf tree?.... Nothing needed to be said.
Arthur took in a deep breath.
"I'll just use the moonsword then".
Arthur glanced towards Borik, who stood opposite him on the other side of the stage.
Unlike his previous opponents, Borik stared at Arthur straight in the eye, glaring at him with an unwavering stare behind his gaze.
Arthur could feel the desire to battle come from Borik, and despite his own glare usually freezing his opponents in place, Arthur could feel Borik's desire to fight grow even stronger.
'So this is what Zoya was talking about....'.
Borik felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise slightly.
'That sensation.... That feeling of been looked at by a predator.... So this is what Arthur was hiding....'.
Borik felt something growing inside of him.
Unlike the others, it wasn't fear, but desire.
A desire to fight. A desire to battle. A desire to kill!
His eyes glowed with an ominous light.
'If I want to win against Arthur, I'm going to have to go at him with the intent to kill him! Otherwise, anything else will just end up being exploited by him!'.
Borik's smile grew. Becoming wild. Becoming savage. Becoming mad!
He wanted to fight! He wanted to battle! He wanted to kill!
And Arthur would give it to him. Whether he wanted too or not.
Neither participant looked towards Niklos, but the Clan Leader could see the looks on the two participants faces.
Both were like sleeping dragons, dormant, but by no means unaware of their current situations. At even the slightest provocations, both of them would awaken and soar into the heavens doing battle regardless of the wishes of the Heavens and the Earth!
He sighed before turning towards the Third Elder, who showed a slightly wry smile on his face.
"My grandson.... is a bit of a jokester Clan Leader. He enjoys fighting more than anything else".
His grandson never did care about literature or the arts of war, but instead loved to fight more than anything else.
To supplement his grandsons desire, as well as to protect him in the future, he told Borik to pick the bear arms fae from the Clan Reserves, which increased his strength by several fold.
It was up to his grandson to feed them, as was the case with any Fae Master, but the Third Elder had planned several other Fae to increase Borik's strength in the future. All that was needed was both time, and the patience to temper his grandson a little.
Niklos sighed for a moment before glancing towards Arthur.
Despite his son's appearance, he couldn't help but feel worry for Arthur.
Borik's strength amongst the competitors of the tournament were probably in the top two, if not the top place.
Randolf had the advantage of origin essence, but needed to put distance between him and Borik in order to secure first place. The flamespike fae would protect him from the rear, but from full-frontal assaults, nothing would stop Borik from smashing Randolf's chest with a single blow.
Niklos just stared at his son's figure for a moment, gazing at the small smile marring his face.
'He seems fine. So I guess I'll just trust him for the time being'.
The Kovacs Clan Leader cleared his throat and gazed at his people.
The time was now.
"The first match in the semi-finals, between Arthur Kovacs, and Borik Kovacs will now.... begin!".