The opponents stood facing each other at a distance of about fifteen meters and, at the Rector's call, they began their attack.
Katrina swung her hand behind her back and suddenly thrust it forward, releasing a massive bolt of lightning towards her opponent. But a couple of meters before reaching the target, the bolt unexpectedly dissipated into thin air.
"What?!" Katrina couldn't understand what was happening. She released two powerful lightning bolts in succession, but they also dissipated in the air. "What's going on?"
She continued to throw lightning at Grain, who effortlessly dispersed all her attacks. Gathering electric charges at the tips of her fingers, Katrina spun on the spot and unleashed ten small lightning bolts in different directions. Some of the bolts arced towards the earth mage, but six of them shot towards the stands. At first, the spectators gasped, but the bolts, not reaching them, rebounded from an invisible barrier and, changing trajectory, headed towards Grain from behind. At the moment of impact with the barrier, several hexagonal plates appeared in the air, reflecting the spell. Less than a second later, the lightning bolts struck Grain.
"Gotcha!" Katrina made a triumphant gesture, but her joy was premature. Grain remained unmoved in his spot.
"Hmm, did I imagine it, or did the air around Grain flash for a moment upon impact?" I scrutinized the mage; he didn't just stand there, he was preparing something more significant.
"Kurone, can you somehow zoom in on the image?" I attempted to check my theory by reaching out to the commentators.
"Rector, can we zoom in on the screen?"
"Well, in principle, yes. Focus your sight on one point, and the crystal will show it. If you strain your vision, it will enlarge the image."
"Krito, what do you want?"
"Zoom in as close as possible on Grain, preferably so I can see his hands."
Rector observed our conversation, seemingly not surprised that we were communicating from different ends of the Colosseum.
The camera zoomed in on the mage; he stood with his eyes closed, one hand covering his face, and the other hand lowered to the ground. He seemed motionless, but that wasn't the case; with his second hand, he was moving his fingers, causing the ground beneath him to tremble slightly. However, something tiny, barely noticeable, was swirling around him – transparent, but occasionally glinting in the sunlight.
"Is that sand?" I wondered.
"Especially pure sands can conduct electricity excellently," Aileen heard my musings, "it's cleverly devised. Due to friction, the sand becomes slightly electrified and is attracted to electric charges. All he has to do is connect it to the ground, and all the lightning will be grounded. But there are also some downsides to this."
"Your sand defense weakens with each absorbed lightning," Katrina also grasped what was happening and drew the right conclusions, "with each discharge, your defense slows down, and eventually, I'll break through it!"
"Maybe, or maybe not," Grain broke his concentration on the spell for the first time during the battle, "the question is, whose mana will run out faster."
"But I'm not just capable of shooting lightning!" Katrina took a deep breath and filled her entire body with lightning magic. Electric charges covered her body and ran through her muscles, tensing them to the limit, "In close combat, your barrier is useless!"
The princess leaped, accelerated by lightning, almost dissolving in the air, and in the next second, she appeared before Grain. Extending her right hand with golden claws, which flickered with lightning, Katrina attempted to strike, but she stopped at the last moment. Right in front of her hand, the air flashed, and an almost invisible wall made of transparent sand began to form. In the next moment, a huge boulder burst from the ground between the opponents and flew towards the girl. With lightning-fast reflexes, Katrina leaped back ten meters.
"That was dangerous. You have quite a reaction," Grain remarked.
"Oh, come on, the electrified sand is not only a defense but also a warning mechanism. It gathers on its own where a powerful discharge is approaching, and all I have to do is strengthen it in time," Katrina replied.
"What an unpleasant ability. I won't be able to get close, it seems. Although," Katrina smiled playfully and instantly released ten lightning bolts in different directions. The lightning arced towards the earth mage along twisted trajectories and collided with his defense one after another. Utilizing the delay of the barrier, the princess suddenly accelerated, bypassed the mage from the right side, and attempted to strike.
The lightning scattered against the barrier, and Grain stopped her hand with his own, holding a stone that protected him from the discharge. In the next moment, a wave of sand appeared in front of the girl, attempting to ensnare her, and simultaneously, a wall emerged behind her, hindering her escape.
"No, you won't catch me like that!" Gathering a charge in her foot, Katrina pushed off from the electrically immobilized sand wave in front of her and elegantly somersaulted over the wall. As she touched the ground again, rocks shot out from the wall in front of her, attempting to surround her. However, the girl skillfully leaped back, twisting over her head. Landing on her hands, she noticed something unusual in front of her.
"Do you think I'll fall for that?"
Gathering a powerful charge in her hands, the girl released it in front of her upon landing and propelled herself as far as possible to the very edge of the arena. During her flight, the earth beneath her seemed to come alive, attempting to grasp the princess, but she had no intention of touching the ground. Creating a semblance of an arc from lightning, the girl clung to the nearest statue and magnetized her palms to hold on to it.
"Eh? Rector, what's happening? Why does Kat keep retreating? I know for sure she's stronger!" Vina couldn't understand what was going on.
"It's simple. In these conditions, Grain has an undeniable advantage. The whole arena is his weapon, and it's quite challenging to defeat an earth mage on his territory," the Rector explained.
"Are you saying that the main contender for victory will lose in the very first battle?"
"Not necessarily. She can win if she figures out how! She quickly realized how to use these statues," the Rector turned away and muttered with a sad undertone, "I spent two years thinking about how to deal with him until I came up with the idea of placing bronze statues around the perimeter."
"Did you say something?"
"No, nothing. The main thing is that unlike the walls, the statues are not cut off from the arena by the Сhrysalis. Therefore, while sitting on them, the princess is relatively safe."
"But he can simply destroy the statues!"
"It's not that simple. The statues are protected just as well as the audience. But sitting on them, the princess is practically within his grasp."
"At the same time, she can't attack Grain, only defend herself."
"Correct, it's all a matter of tactics and strength; whoever outsmarts the other will win!"
"So, you won't attack?" Grain stood in the center of the arena, about a hundred meters away from Katrina, but it was an acceptable distance for him.
"No need to waste my energy. I'll wait for you," she replied.
"As you wish!" Grain made a couple of lunges with his left hand, and several stones burst from the ground in front of Katrina. The princess couldn't deflect them all, and the rocks hit the statue with force. Strangely, there was not even a scratch on the statue, but the debris hit the princess painfully and tossed her into the air. She flew to the side and, to avoid getting caught in another hail of rocks, unleashed a lightning bolt at another statue and pulled herself towards it. "Running is useless!"
Grain continued to shower Katrina with a barrage of rocks, and after taking a few hits, the girl skillfully leaped from one statue to another. Soon, the entire arena was churned up from the constant use of magic, and the princess had already completed a full circle, returning to the first statue. During the attacks from both sides, the barrage stopped, and both mages stared at each other, catching their breath.
"Hmm, the battle becomes quite monotonous. Rector, if it continues like this, the audience will soon lose interest."
"Ho-ho-ho, you are giving up too soon, young lady. Everything up to this point was merely preparation for the final attack, and I think we'll witness it now!"
"So, something even more powerful is coming?"
"Exactly!"
"And who will win?"
"That will be decided by the final attack."
Grain took a deep breath and began to act. Widening his stance, he extended one hand forward and the other backward, smoothly rotating his body, tracing a perfect circle with the tips of his fingers. From a distance, it looked like the mage was doing some warm-up exercises, but in battle, there were no futile movements.
Katrina kept her gaze on the ground, preparing for a new attack, but the arena before her remained still. Following the earth mage's movements, the stones at the center of the arena began to describe a smooth circle. After the small rocks, even larger boulders followed the trajectory, and then the entire ground beneath the mage's feet began to spin in the same circle. Slowly, the circle expanded, and soon the entire arena followed suit, rotating in sync with the mage.
"Now I'm ready," Grain said mysteriously, folding his palms together. With a sudden movement, he turned, and the entire arena shifted in a circle in one direction, creating a massive earth wave. As if grinding millstones, Grain repeated sharp movements, raising the wave higher and higher. The loose earth, under the centrifugal force, started to rise at the edges, getting higher and higher, approaching the bronze statues. In just a moment, the sand wave would sweep the statues away, along with their uninvited occupant. "You've lost."
Making a final abrupt movement, Grain created a tall sand wave that circled around and covered the statue on which the princess was sitting. But at the last moment, she disappeared!
"Rector?! What's happening?? How is he doing all this?!" Vina asked in astonishment.
Ah, Lady Vina, it seems you don't understand the advantage of an earth mage. Inside this dome, all the earth is under his control. All the previous attacks were just to loosen the ground. Now, like flowing water, he can manipulate its flow. If the princess doesn't find a suitable foothold, she will lose."
"What?! - At that moment, the wave covered the statues, and the princess disappeared from sight. - Where's Kat!?"
"I would assume she's where it's most difficult to reach her."
The camera rushed upwards towards the top of the dome.
Gathering all her strength, Katrina pushed off from the statue and headed for the top of the dome. It was the only place to take cover, but halfway to the crystal at the top of the Colosseum, the princess felt the weight of an insurmountable force barrier. Quickly regrouping, Katrina turned in mid-air and landed on her feet right in the center of the dome, which split open in hexagonal segments around her. Following the princess's movements, the earth mage prepared to attack, gathering all the earth of the arena into a single pillar and directing it towards the center of the dome.
"Now it's my turn!" Katrina released twelve lightning bolts, connecting herself to the bronze statues she had recently interacted with. The lightning acted like ropes, tying the princess to the statues. As soon as the last lightning bolt touched the statue, they began to grow and intersect with each other, creating a massive network. The discharge net, something that she couldn't do before, now covered a vast area: "Get ready, Grain! You won't like this!"
Pushing off from the barrier, the princess extended her hands forward, using an electric wall as protection against Grain's earth pillar. The earth mage tried to trap the princess in a sand trap, but the electricity rendered the ground unresponsive, making it fall to the ground and stick to the arena floor. Realizing his position, the mage jumped to the side, and in the next moment, the girl, surrounded by lightning, crashed into the center of the arena.
"Just as you blocked my lightning with your sand, I can block your earth with electricity!" Katrina exclaimed, taking a deep breath, as she rose to her feet and stood before the young man. Grain attempted to lift even a pebble, but the electric discharges, spreading from the princess's feet, magnetized the arena floor firmly to the ground. "Well, since you're not giving up, there's only one option left."
The girl bent her knees and, in a low stance, rushed towards the mage.
"I'll never give up!" Gathering all his magic, Grain stomped on the ground with force, and a stone block rose before him. But it didn't stop the girl. Wrapping her right hand with lightning, she broke through the wall with tremendous speed and touched the mage.
As soon as Katrina touched Grain, the outcome of the battle was decided.
"What a battle!! Who would have thought that a fight where the winner seemed obvious from the beginning would become so interesting!" Vina, caught up in excitement, continued to fuel the crowd's interest: "Princess Katrina, whom eighty percent of the audience was sure would win, snatched victory from Grain with great difficulty. Who knows, if he had faced a weaker opponent, maybe Grain could have made it to the finals. But the rules of the tournament are the same for everyone: whoever loses must leave the arena! By the way, Rector, what will you do with the arena? It's a bit... damaged after the battle."
The arena looked pitiful, with huge boulders, furrows, and concentric circles creating an unforgettable relief.
"Well, indeed, the condition of the arena is dismal, but that's where Professor Levris comes in. You won't help us, will you?"
"Okay," Levris got up and extended her hands towards the arena. With a gentle movement, she smoothed the surface of the arena: "I hope I won't have to do this too often."
"Well, there are still many exciting battles ahead. Everyone should have equal conditions. Isn't it time for us to choose the next battle?"
"Let our participants rest a bit first."
Katrina helped the earth mage to his feet. The discharge hadn't been too strong, so he regained consciousness after a minute.
"Ah, damn it!!" Grain sadly lowered his head, "and I was hoping to make it to the second round at least."
The mages started climbing the stairs.
"Don't beat yourself up like that. It was a magnificent battle. I could barely defeat you."
"No, you were stronger, and also smarter than me. If I had understood what you were aiming for earlier, I might have been able to stop you, but it seems I don't think quickly in critical situations."
"But what you did on the arena was amazing, really. I'm glad to have such a powerful mage in my guild."
"Yeah, I'm glad too. If not for you, I wouldn't have gone to Koroldayne and wouldn't have found a worthy teacher for myself. I think it should be that way - the Guild Master should be the strongest; otherwise, it would be rude on my part."
"You're such a sweetheart," Katrina affectionately hugged the mage, and he blushed, "I'm glad to have such a friend."
The princess laughed joyfully and ran up the stairs.
"I don't want to miss anything!"
The mages quickly rushed to the balcony to hear the familiar voice from above.
"Oh, how interesting! Looks like the next three battles before the break will be exciting for martial arts enthusiasts. And in the second half of the day, we'll have battles between the strongest mages! Let's see what awaits us after such a brilliant first battle!"