Armour type fae were pretty rare, especially in the Azure Envy Continent. It was mainly the Fae Masters that came from the Golden Sloth Continent whom specialized and researched armour type fae, so seeing a relatively complete collection of armour fae surprised Arthur greatly.
They were fae that needed origin essence to activate, and would usually regenerate at the cost of more origin essence. But other than that, their expenditure was relatively low in the scheme of things.
With Alina's newly enhanced origin essence sea size, she would definitely be able to keep up such an expenditure, so long as she used them in conjunction with something like wood essence fae, or moon essence fae.
A few of the other Elders turned towards Elder Zarek, who just stroked his beard while smiling at the other Elders knowingly.
"Don't worry, I didn't take any Fae from the Clan Reserves. Alina told me that she scavenged the corpse of a Shadow Flight Eagle that she had killed and obtained some of these Fae".
The other Elders nodded.
Vladya narrowed her eyes before activating her own Fae.
'If Alina wants to hide behind her turtle shell.... then so be it!', the thought.
Vladya placed her hands on the ground, before activating a fae and causing an immense cold to billow outwards from beneath her palms. The stone platform beneath them both started to tremble slightly, before a thin layer of frost started appearing on said platform.
Arthur again raised an eyebrow.
"Winter Fae.....".
That was his "Origin Fae".
Or at the very least, the one that he let everyone believe that he had.
The Winter Solstice Salamander hadn't left his origin essence sea, and was still greatly injured from using its secondary ability. Said ability needed immortal origin essence in order to be used, so for the time being, Arthur just let the Immortal Fae rest within his origin essence sea.
Seeing its Rank 1 counterpart here in front of him, Arthur couldn't help but nod slightly.
"Winter Fae is pretty common near the Falling Snow Famous River, and using other Ice Attributed Fae in conjunction with it will strengthen their abilities. It is the most basic of basics, regarding complimentary fae".
The thin layer of frost covered the entire platform, and the air around Vladya and Alina grew colder and colder by the minute.
Letting out a breath of air, Alina noticed the whiteness of her breath.
She was cold, given that she was covered in her shadow armour, but she knew that this would affect both her mobility, and the strength behind Vladya's attacks.
The girl narrowed her eyes before raising her shadowstream fae and charging forward.
The Fae that she had activated earlier, the Shadow Copy Fae, created a formless, transient copy of herself that was almost indistinguishable from her normal self.
Almost being that this shadow copy didn't create sound or noise, or even have its own shadow. Getting surprised by it was one thing, but it was a Fae that was usually best used at night.
Alina and her shadow sprinted towards Vladya, constantly swapping positions trying to confuse the girl about who was the real one.
Vladya blinked a couple times before activating her fae and sending another barrage of ice spears towards Alina.
Even though her tactics and abilities were relatively high in the scheme of things, unfortunately, Vladya was much too inexperienced.
Alina weaved through the oncoming wave of ice spears, flicking her arms out and sending another wave of shadow spears towards Vladya.
The dirty blonde once more blocked with another wall of ice, pushing her back further and further towards the edge of the platform.
Alina noticed this and smirked slightly before taking in a deep breath. The girl deactivated her shadow armour before raising her arm up, summoning an extremely long shadow tentacle out from underneath her.
The size of which exceeded the limits of a Rank 1 Fae.....
Randolf's eyes widened as he saw Alina bring the massive shadow tentacle down, smashing it against the ice wall that blocked her path. Vladya was forced to dodge, and right there waiting for her was-
The sound of Alina's fist burying itself in Vladya's gut caused some of the mortals to scrunch up their faces. The air from her diaphragm and chest was forced out, causing Vladya to fall to the ground wheezing.
Her expression was pained, but she wasn't an idiot.
The girl quickly turned towards one of the referees before shaking her head, feeling the touch of a blade against her throat.
The male Fae Master nodded slightly before raising his arm and gesturing towards Alina, holding said blade.
"The winner of the first match is.... Alina Kovacs!".
Just like last year, their was a faint pause in the air before the crowds started screaming Alina's name.
Despite the fact that she had used quite a number of moves to close the distance between her and Vladya, the fact that she defeated her in a single punch was reminiscent of what Arthur did a year ago.
Most of the younger Fae Masters had never experienced what it was like to fight with an injury. Getting winded, or having wound that would've normally incapacitated a person wasn't something that they were used to.
Arthur could carry two grown men with only a single hand. He was prepared to walk all the way back to Parachenko Village with both of them, but found Leon before such a thing happened.
One needed to be able to fight even with injuries, or be able to fight through the injury in order to kill their opponent.
The body of a Fae Master, despite being stronger than a regular mortals, still possesses the same weaknesses as a normal human body.
.... Of course, for Fae Immortals things are different, but Arthur was thinking about Fae Masters.
"Attacking the neck, eyes, chest or pelvic regions may seem low, but its not about being the most honourable during the fight, its about winning".
Many others thought the same way as well.
Vladya adjusted her breathing before standing up, cradling her stomach slightly.
She was about to turn away, before she saw a hand get extended towards her.
The ice fae user lifted her head and raised an eyebrow as she noticed Alina smiling at her.
"You're pretty strong you know. Maybe we should spare again sometime?".
Vladya was slightly taken back at the sudden forwardness of Alina's words, and felt the little spark of hatred in her completely disperse as she gently nodded.
"Yeah. Maybe we should".
The two girls walked back towards the participants seating area ignoring the gazes of the numerous young men around them.
Arthur just sat there quietly, waiting for the announcement of the next match.
He was quite interested in the contents of this match after all....