Victoria's carefully observed her opponent. He wasn't a seeded contestant but for some reason she felt threatened. He had jet black hair and eyes and skin that was so pale that it was almost sickly. He wielded a black scimitar. His name was Trent.
'A dark horse?' Victoria had her guard up as the count down started.
"3... 2... 1 Go." The countdown ended and Trent charge forward first. Black mist surrounded the edge of his sword and he slashed towards Victoria.
Victoria like usual covered her fists in flames and prepared to meet the attack head on. However, when she punched forward, her fists hit air.
Suddenly, Victoria felt the back of her neck tingle. He was behind her.
"What's this!? Just when Victoria and Trent were about to clash, he suddenly appeared behind her. How come he didn't do this in the previous fights? Was this a trump card?" The commentator sounded genuinely surprised as he was also caught of guard by the change of events.
As the blade closed in on her neck, Victoria reacted swiftly as she began to lean forward while a small water barrier covered the back of her neck. At the same time, the fire in her hands morphed into a sword and she swung it backwards.
Trent saw this and didn't retreat and instead pressed on with his attack. All the while a black barrier covered the area where the sword would land. All of this happened in a few seconds.
*CLANG CLANG*
Two clangs resounded as both weapons landed. The scimitar broke through the water barrier but it gave enough time for Victoria to completely dodge the attack while her attack hit Trent, but due to his barrier and how close he was, she wasn't able to do proper damage.
However, she reacted accordingly as she suddenly spun her body and threw a kick. She covered her leg with condensed water while using fire to boost its speed creating a scary attack.
But once again, her attack hit nothing but air and she got the same feeling from before, he was behind her again, and because she was in the air when she threw the kick, she couldn't dodge. So she didn't.
*BOOM*
Her body turned orange red briefly before a large explosion shook the arena. She very quickly covered herself with her fire element and made it explode.
Victoria backflipped gracefully out of the explosion and landed while Trent was slammed into the astral barrier.
He coughed on his knees and turned just to see a fist rapidly enlarging in front of his face.
And one again, she hit air. However, no one noticed the small water spike rapidly enlarging at her back.
*PUCHI*
A stabbing noise was heard behind Victoria as Trent walked into a trap and got himself stabbed by a water spike.
"H- How-?" Trent collapsed as his abdomen began to bleed out.
"You kept using shadow transfer over and over again, I was bound to figure it out eventually." Victoria said with a shrug.
The barrier was remover as the staff in front of treatment swiftly put Trent on a stretcher and carried him away while Victoria went straight to her room.
In truth, despite knowing the spell Trent used, Victoria was actually able to time ber trap properly due to Gideon teaching her the basics of sensing astral energy. So when she sensed the astral energy converging behind her, she reacted swiftly. Gideon who was in the crowd nodded in approval.
'Her talent is scary. No wonder the world wants me to take her with me.' He thought before inconspicuously leaving the audience to enter her room.
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"You did really good, I didn't expect you to grasp what I taught you yesterday that quickly, and with such little time as well." Gideon praised without holding back and Victoria giggled.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to show you yesterday." Victoria said with excitement as she opened her palm and a purple vortex that looked like a mixture fire and water formed and slowly rotated above it.
"Honestly insane." Gideon muttered in amazement. Even though the world's consciousness told him what it was, seeing it himself was way better.
"I still don't know what to call it though." Victoria said with furrowed eyebrows.
"Hmm, well it's a fusion between water and fire so we'll pick between ware or fiter." Gideon mused, but Victoria looked at him in horror.
"What? Is there something on my face?" He inquired.
"No, just never name anything again."
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The second round of battles began and Victoria faced her next opponent. Green hair and eyes and a figure far too bulky for a ten year old with an axe resting on his shoulder. His name was Niyuh.
"3... 2... 1 Go." Victoria as usual took the initiative and charged straight at Niyuh. This time her fists were wrapped in water while she used fire to boost herself.
Niyuh also charged towards her, although a few milliseconds late. Poisonous liquid dripped from the axe blade. When the two got close , they clashed
*CLANG*
A shockwave blasted outwards and Victoria took a few steps backwards. Niyuh kept his charge and swung his axe vertically at her head.
Victoria sidestepped the blow and attacked Niyuh's exposed body.
*BAM BAM BAM BAM*
Victoria's fists flowed like the water that surrounded them as she showered Niyuh in punches. Water didn't have the same explosive power of fire. But it was one of the most flexible elements out there.
Even with his strong build,. Niyuh felt himself weakening as the particularly focused on his vital areas.
" ARGH!!" Niyuh abandoned his axe and covered his fist in poison and punched Victoria who managed to cross her arms before the attack hit.
She flew all the way to the barrier, but as she was about to impact it, she suddenly became horizontal and her feet hit it. She hit it with so much force that it looked as if she was standing sideways.
*BOOM*
A mini explosion sounded below her feet as she shot towards Niyuh like an arrow. Niyuh had already picked his axe back up, and when he saw Victoria shooting towards him, he poured his energy into his axe and a deadly green glow shone on its surface.
He swung it at Victoria just as she swung her fist. But just as they were about to clash again.
*BOOM*
A small explosion sounded below Victoria's center of gravity, and it had just enough force to push her above the axe head causing it to miss by an inch.
Meanwhile, Victoria with great effort managed to rotate her body, and with fire on the back of her foot, she used it to land a devastating blow right on top of Niyuh's head.
*CRACK*
A low but obvious cracking sound was heard causing everyone to cringe, that was a concussion without a doubt.
Niyuh lost consciousness instantly while Victoria landed on the floor not so gracefully. She stood up immediately, though her face was a bit pale. Perfectly timing those explosions and forcefully rotating her body to hit Niyuh at the right moment definitely was stressful.
She released a breath as she walked down the arena, second day of the tournament finished successfully.
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Thank you all for reading my book, I really appreciate it.(. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)