[Amari POV]
"So, we follow the plan, guys." The leader instructed, looking around at his small group.
"Sigh, as much as I hate this, I can't say no." His friend muttered, nodding in agreement.
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, let the game begin!" The commentator announced, bells ringing in the background.
"Go." The leader ordered, turning around a second later to find his friends next to him, with half of the entire arena participating.
"Ugh, so that's the backlash." I grumbled. Upon observing my own arm, I realised the one I had used to cast the spell had transformed into a mere stump.
"It wasn't as powerful as I thought... Oh no, it was blocked." I whispered, noticing a second barrier in the arena with me trapped in the middle.
"Ah, what the fuck just happened!" The commentator shouted into his microphone, making me glance at the booth in annoyance.
'This is going to be a problem,' I thought, knowing that I was now a prime target with only half my mana left and one arm lost.
"Okay, the barrier did its job, boss. We can kill her for good now." Someone said from inside the dust.
"Don't tell me…" I muttered, narrowing my eyes at the smoke screen. My eyes widened as I noticed another barrier, smaller than the arena's.
'Can this barrier interfere with the time reversal barrier?' I wondered in panic before shaking my head to calm myself.
"Don't overthink it, Amari." I told myself, steadying my nerves. If it had, Kayda would have realised it and stopped the fight. There was no need to panic over stupid things.
"Oh, you're a calm one." the guy remarked as most of the smoke cleared, revealing him and others walking through the barrier.
"Hmm," I hummed, shooting out a fire javelin at him. It caught him by surprise, but he managed to dodge it. However, the three people behind him weren't as lucky and were killed.
"Hey now, don't be that aggressive." the guy said, laughing.
"Snap!" I snapped my fingers, and the guy who had been talking so much turned to dust, along with a few people around him.
"Shit, she's a sage!" The crowd yelled, panicking.
"Yeah, now you guys know why you don't get close to a sage, don't you?" I asked, grinning as I looked around. "Well, for the confused ones, it's because I can cast spells anywhere I want within a certain radius. And funny enough, all of you are in my range." I laughed before unleashing multiple spells, killing everyone within a 50-meter radius.
As I looked at the smoke cloud again, my grin faded, realising that the fight wasn't over yet.
'Fuck! It still isn't over!' I cursed, seeing at least fourteen people still standing.
"We can't leave her be." A guy said, walking up to me, knowing I had little mana left.
"Heh, to think you'd come closer on your own," I giggled, launching myself off the ground and closing the distance between us. Grabbing the guy's throat, I lamented that I couldn't crush it like Kitsuna could, but I could still break his neck with ease.
Crack!
"What the fuck!"
"Shit, distance yourselves!" Another guy barked, jumping back.
"Welp!?" the last guy yelled in surprise as I threw a corpse onto him. Taking the dead guy's sword, I stabbed the unfortunate fellow beneath the corpse, killing him.
"Twelve left. Hmm, assassin?" I mused, seeing Kunais on the guy's belt. Taking a few, I threw them at the six people closest to me. Two of them easily blocked the attack, but the other four, surprisingly, didn't dodge and were killed.
'Huh, they didn't dodge? Or couldn't dodge?' I wondered, confused.
"Amari, are you okay?" One of the kunai-wielders asked, walking up to me from the side.
"Yeah, I presume because of you two?" I replied, still puzzled.
"Yeah, my sister made sure they couldn't move," he confirmed with a nod.
"Huh, thanks, I guess," I acknowledged.
"No problem."
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, as boring as the start was, the end was at least a bit surprising," the commentator remarked, trying to hype up the crowd again.
"Woah!!" the crowd roared as the barrier activated to reverse time. Or so it should have, but none of the people around me or the kunai-wielders were being revived. My arm didn't come back either.
"That's not good," I muttered, noticing the other barrier was still active and that everyone outside it was reviving, but not those inside.
"Oh, it seems there is a problem." the commentator noted, prompting me to glare at him.
"What?"
"My kid isn't getting revived?" one of the spectators asked, worried.
"This is going to get hectic."
"Yeah, so let's get out of here," Kitsuna said, appearing behind us.
"Sis?"
"We'll talk later; Kayda should be able to fix this. First, you three need to get out of here," Kitsuna instructed before the scenery changed around us.
"I'll be back in a few. And Amari, stop your bleeding. We can heal your arm later," she said before disappearing again.
"Uhm, Amari, what's going on?" The brother of the Kunai-wielder asked, looking at me worriedly.
"Uh, well, there was a barrier put up to interfere with the revival process we have in place." I explained thoughtfully, not entirely sure if it was the truth or if it had merely interrupted rather than completely stopped the process.
"So, we actually killed people just now?" he said, looking down at his hands.
"Hmm, yeah. Oh, now I see why we needed to get out of there." I muttered, nodding as I realised why we would be the first targets since I had killed most of the people in the barrier, if not all of them.
'I hope Kayda can fix this,' I thought, looking down as I started to hear the two dwarfs emptying their stomachs in the corner of the room.
"Haah, I can't do this." I muttered, dropping my head into my hands, trying to shut out the noise.
[Kitsuna Clone POV]
'How did something like this happen?' I wondered, standing in the middle of the arena surrounded by corpses that hadn't revived. The stadium had already been forcefully evacuated, but at least no additional casualties had occurred for the moment.
"Kitsuna, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Zagan?" Kayda asked, looking at me with an annoyed expression as she walked up to me.
"Clone. I took Amari and the kunai-wielders away for now." I explained, giving her a small smile.
"Hmm, yeah, I saw. Did you take them home?" Kayda asked while inspecting the barrier.
"Home." I simply replied.
'It's funny how her attitude changed the moment I told her I was a clone.' I thought, giggling softly.
"Good, now let me fix this shit." she said, putting her hands on the ground.
"What happened?" I asked, still not knowing how this came to be.
"Someone created a second barrier inside the time reversal one," Kayda explained as she manipulated her mana in a peculiar way.
"Oh, so the barrier is stopping the other one." I observed, looking up at the sky for the barrier.
"Yeah, but can't you see the second barrier?" Kayda asked, a bit surprised.
"No, I can't even see the first one." I said, shrugging.
"The first one?" she echoed, glancing up at me for a second.
"Same, I can't see it." I yawned, shaking my head.
"Huh, that's a surprise."
"Yeah, but the real one should be able to see it."
"She can? Well, that's not important right now." Kayda said, returning to her work.
"Hey, what the fuck are you two doing? Can't you fix this shit already?" Some short guy yelled, walking up to us.
"The fuck are you?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at the guy as I stepped between him and Kayda.
"Ah, you don't know who I am!" The shorty shouted, fuming even more.
"No, should I?" I asked, tilting my head at him.
"Yes, you should. I'm running this fucking tournament." The guy declared, pointing at the early stages.
"The king is running the tournament." I corrected, making him even angrier.
"I'm the one who organized everything!" He insisted, his face turning red.
"Oh, so your head is going to roll, huh? Seeing as this shit happened under your watch." I said, grinning as I gestured at all the kids' bodies around us.
"You two, please shut up. I need to concentrate." Kayda interjected, clearly annoyed by our bickering.
"Yes, ma'am," I said, knocking the guy out with a chop to the neck and moving away to give her space.
Yo Author here,
So firstly, Happy Christmas! Hope everyone enjoyed it.
Next: Happy New Year! I hope you all reach your goals this year!!
Now for more news. Sorry for the disappearance for the last 2 or 3 months. My new work has been hecktic. I don't have much time for myself doing late shifts and all that.
Though I have been righting as we go, it is grusamly slow, sadly.
I will be trying to go back to once a week uploads again, but that will take some time in itself.