Noah made his way to the arena after accepting Atlanna's challenge.
While declining the match would have been the best option for him. But if he did so, it would cause the effect of his previous wins to be undermined. The focus would then shift towards Atlanna being the strongest in the class.
Although he didn't have a solid reason to be the strongest amongst his peers, he wanted to clearly establish his competence and legitimacy of his position. There was no need to stay silent and be pushed around.
Standing opposite him, Atlanna seemed to have no reservations. While Nox and others who fought against him before had a strong desire to defeat him, Atlanna seemed fairly casual.
After tying up her light blonde hair with a scrunchie that matched the lilac colour of her eyes, Atlanna stood ready holding a whip-type training equipment in one hand.
'If winning this duel ends up upsetting her, this might become a huge pain...'
Taking the ice temple bow out from his inventory, Noah waited for Norman's declaration.
"Start!"
Without wasting any time, Noah started firing ice arrows one after the other while closing in on her.
Unshaken, Atlanna twirled the whip around her, knocking the arrows from their trajectory.
As the whip kept circling her, the water in the swamp started to rise. With her in the center, the water started to flow outward around her like a whirlpool.
While it was incomparable to an actual whirlpool, the water had risen enough to block long-range attacks while also stopping Noah from approaching her.
'It doesn't seem like she has contracted with a spirit yet,' Skadi assessed. 'Her control over the water element is beyond her age.'
'Any help apart from complimenting my opponent?' Noah winced.
'hmm.. her position is given away by her weapon. Her skill blinds her from seeing master as well. I think the rest can be figured out.'
Sighing, Noah leaped into the water current, letting himself be dragged to the center. The thick muddy water held and started to strangle him off the little air he had in his lungs while also slapping him across with rubble in the water.
Waiting for the right time, Noah kept himself submerged in the water while desperately focusing on the direction where the whip continued to push across the water surface.
Seeing his health dropping in real time, Noah finally jumped out towards Atlanna, freezing the water around him.
Just as Atlanna pulled back the whip to counter, Noah took out the spear from his inventory, coiling the whip with it.
With her weapon now disabled and victory in his sight, Noah planned to finish the fight without dragging it any longer.
Taking the Ice temple sword out from his inventory, Noah started to coat it with a layer of ice.
Letting go of the whip, Atlanna took on a bare-fisted fighting stance as she faced Noah's cold, ice-covered sword.
While covering the weapon with a layer of an element was not an uncommon skill, the sight in front of her shocked her.
Unlike Noah's previous fight with Nox, the ice covered the sword and his forearms while blue and black flames covered other parts of his body.
'What is that?'
Before she could counter, the sword slashed right across her, knocking her down. As steam covered the area around them, the pendant shone red marking the end of the duel.
===
Opening her eyes, she could see Noah's face right in front of her.
From the glow of the pendant on her body, she could make out the soft contours on the face of the boy on top of her in the otherwise dark surrounding.
'Is he unconscious?'
With his face plastered right on top of her, she couldn't see much except for the rising steam in her peripheral vision.
While the flames had already been extinguished, she could still clearly recall the bizarre skill Noah used at the end. She still couldn't believe that she had lost.
As her senses started to slowly return, she could feel her lips touching against his.
"aah," knocking Noah away, Atlanna quickly got up.
"Are you both alright?" Norman called out as the terrain in the arena slowly started to revert to its original state.
He the arena and checked both of them before announcing the end of the spar with Noah's victory.
From start to end, the spar was nothing comparable to the previous ones. Although the final exchange was difficult to witness from the audience stand, the thrill and excitement reached everyone.
As their peers started to rush towards them, Noah spoke briefly to Norman and soon started to leave the premises. Although she was being surrounded by others, her attention was focused on the back of Noah, while touching her lips gently.
'hmm.. blood?'
===
Hey guys,
Happy new year! Although a little late, I hope you all have a wonderful year ahead.
EtherWorld will resume today onwards. I will try to increase the release schedule slowly. On the artwork side, my digital sketches still need a bit more time before they are presentable. So, please stay tuned.
Also, I finally decided to open a Patreon account. While I am not confident that it will grow to a large number, I hope it can grow gradually.
https://www.patreon.com/_kamui_
Finally, as usual, please send power stones to help this novel reach a wider audience.
Thanks,
Kamui