"I hope we can have a good fight."
"Me too, don't hold back or you'll regret it, Lucius."
Both finalists had an excited grin, ready to fight to the fullest.
"Start the finals!" announced the referee.
Both disappeared in a flash and appeared an instant later with their weapons colliding with sparks and a loud clang. They exchanged hundreds of blows in a few seconds before they both unleashed their qi. Maxwell's qi destroyed the arena beneath his feet causing a small depression around him.
They both unleashed strong techniques. Lucius unleashed a giant tornado fire that covered a fourth of the arena and Maxwell retaliated with a slash formed with dark qi.
*crack*
Cracks spread through the air, quickly growing in size before the space shattered like a glass, spraying shards everywhere that destroyed the ground before disappearing.
The tornado was sucked into the broken space before it mended itself naturally. Maxwell then took the opportunity to unleash a flurry of blows reinforced with qi at Lucius, who caused a giant flash with a blinding technique and moved away quickly. Lucius then unleashed a torrent of fire balls that made everything bright. The fireballs were extremely quick so Maxwell teleported 10 metres away with a spatial technique.
"You are good with space qi."
"Well thank you."
'An opening. It might be bait.' Maxwell noticed it and went to attack it, only for Lucius to spring the trap on him. Maxwell was prepared for the trap and quickly change the direction of his attack. Lucius could not protect himself in time and got stabbed in his left leg. The cut was very shallow, and the spear sucked in a lot of blood so it was dry. It left Lucius slightly disabled and unsteady. He adjusted to his injury rather quickly and continued to fight back. The audience were all stunned by the fight. Maxwell was evenly matched with Lucius even though he was 1 stage below Lucius. Lucius had weaker qi than Maxwell, but his techniques were practiced to a high degree of proficiency.
Lucius went to slash Maxwell across his chest, but Maxwell defended and quickly countered with a stab to his right shoulder. Lucius spun around to dodge it and used the flat part of the blade to block the spear from slashing him.
'Both of us are becoming slower, I have to change things up.'
Maxwell was slowly being worn out with his qi being wasted due to his lack of unblocked meridians. He had teleported multiple times and the precision and thinking required to teleport had drained him of his mental power greatly. He had made the fight look even for a majority of the time to not stand out too much.
Although Maxwell was also slowly getting hurt, his body seemed to grow stronger with every injury and it healed quickly.
'I'm almost out of qi, I guess it's time for the little dragon. He won't expect me to use it when I'm almost out of qi'
Maxwell brandished his spear with increased vigor and took the initiative to assault Lucius with stabs and slashes. Lucius was tired and was having a hard time defending against everything. He was panting.
'He's very tired now, even if he's not yet out of qi he can't defend properly.'
Maxwell then unleashed the lightning dragon with a space shattering stab. Lucius could not defend himself with any techniques as they would all get absorbed. He could only try to escape in the little area left for him and use his remaining qi to form a shield of wind. Lucius made a multi layered shield but as soon as the dragon touched it a layer broke. The dragon charged through, shattering all the shields with loud sounds that resounded through the area.
Maxwell used his spear to hold himself up as he was out of qi and very tired. With every breath he took, he drew in small amounts of qi that he then used to spread wood qi to every part of his body to rejuvenate him. It helped him greatly since his wood qi had stronger healing powers than that his body needed.
Lucius threw out all his defences in vain. The dragon sent him flying against the barrier of the arena and returned to Maxwell, knocking the air out of his lungs. In front of him the arena had been destroyed by their fearsome battle.
"Cough, cough." Lucius coughed up blood.
"Ha… I win." Maxwell said, in between large breaths.
"I hope we can fight again later." Lucius said after drawing in a large amount of air.
"Maybe, but I probably will be much stronger then."
"Maxwell Windsor win the finals!" The referee shouted and the crowd cheered for Maxwell. There were a lot of shouts for Maxwell.
"A new prodigy!"
There was applause from everyone for both the finalists after the nearly even match. Maxwell dragged himself off the arena and started to return home with swarms of people congratulating him. He was joined by Orphelia and once they were a good distance away, he clutched his head in pain.
"Ugh, my head feels like it is about to explode."
He then suddenly fell and was quickly caught by Orphelia.
"Why did you push yourself so much?" Orphelia spoke to herself as Maxwell was already out cold in her arms.
Maxwell woke up groaning with a piercing headache. He opened his eyes to see Orphelia's blue eyes staring at him.
"Hello, Orphelia."
"Good morning, Max."
"How long has it been?" he asked.
"Only a couple of hours."
"You were waiting here the whole time?" Maxwell asked after finding himself in his room.
"Yes, there was nothing to do anyways."
"What about the awards?"
"You will get it tomorrow in the awards ceremony."
"Oh," Maxwell then groaned after a burst of pain in his head, "Ow, I have to endure this for at least a day before it goes."
"Nobody told you to drag the match out so long so you could show all your moves. You could have ended it much quicker if you wanted to," Orphelia said while looking at him worried.
"Are you worried about me now?" Maxwell asked while chuckling.
"Why would I be worried about you?"
"C'mon you don't have to be shy." Maxwell replied while rubbing her head.
"Hey! Stop that."
Maxwell's stomach rumbled while he was teasing Orphelia.
"Oh, I didn't realise I was hungry because of my headache."
"Here, there's some food for you." Orphelia said while placing a meal consisting of a whole roast animal and various vibrant side dishes. It was all warm from being stored in the spatial ring.
Maxwell quickly downed the whole meal and was satisfied.
"It was delicious, who made it?" Maxwell asked Orphelia, who was sitting there watching him.
"I cooked it.," she responded proudly.
"You did?"
"Yes, I did, do you not believe me?"
"No, I was just amazed at how good it was."
"Thank you," Orphelia said while smiling.
Maxwell had healed his minor injuries already and his body was in an almost perfect condition other than his splitting headache. He had no idea why he was healing so quickly even without his wood qi flowing through his body.
He had noticed during the fight that his wounds were closing at an abnormal rate and his body felt stronger wherever he had gotten hurt. He slept after a short conversation with Orphelia.
The next day, he woke up groggy. He had a wholesome meal and left to meet Orphelia before collecting his prize.
Orphelia was waiting for Maxwell in front of the inn she was staying at. She was dressed in a short white dress, her pink hair dazzling in the bright sun. She was getting looked at by most of the pedestrians who passed by her.
Orphelia and Maxwell went to Gordon's restaurant to talk quietly.
"Hello! Oh, it's you two." They were greeted warmly.
They ordered a light snack and informed Gordon about the test the previous day and the spectacular result.
"Congratulations. Since you have spatial affinity make sure to get me a beast with spatial affinity to cook for you. I haven't ever cooked one before because of its rarity but I will try my best to match it to your taste."
"I will. All your dishes bring out the elemental qi in the beast corpses fully without any wastage, there's probably no one in this kingdom who can process their meat to the fullest like you."
"You don't have to flatter me, I'm not so great."
"You are, I have gone to many top chefs, but none have cooked as well as you." Orphelia responded.
"I'm just a humble chef, I can't match them with my age."
After a few rounds of trying to convince the old man of his skills they gave up, appalled at his humbleness. Orphelia then brought out the map she had bought in the auction previously.
After examining the map thoroughly, they discovered it bore familiarity to the forest they had adventured in together in their childhood. They planned to use the map as soon as they had an opportunity to return back to Azure Forest Town, their hometown.
They then ate some light snacks and left for the prize ceremony.
Orphelia went ahead as she was supposed to be in charge of the ceremony.