Gwendolyn took a deep breath and calmed down her racing heart. She had lost the first round, but she didn't have any plans to lose the second one.
Although it was never said, they both knew that the person who used his/her ability first would lose the first round. The first round was all about how skilful you are without any abilities.
Gwendolyn lost in that.
Lex didn't cheat in the first round, as he didn't even use his first ability, Focus. Everything he did in the first round was something he had honed in all those years.
Round two would show who was more skilful with their abilities.
Gwendolyn again raised her sword as the ice began to form around her. Lex also played around with his only dagger left as flames began to erupt from his body.
And as if they had decided beforehand, they both made their ability let loose as ice and flames shot from their bodies and filled the hall.
The temperature began fluctuating as the wind started to roar even though the hall was closed and underground. But no damage happened to the walls of the hall as it was specially made for enduring deadly abilities.
Lex then imbued the flames on his dagger and smiled. Fire erupted from his feet as he shot towards Gwendolyn at an insane speed.
Gwendolyn didn't move from her position and instead waved her hand as several icicles popped from the ground. They were all in the way to slow down Lex.
Gwendolyn had considered freezing the whole ground, but Lex's flames were melting the ice, making it impossible and futile.
Seeing the ice spikes, Lex just sliced the empty air with his flaming dagger as a flaming wave shot from his dagger towards the ice spikes and destroyed some of them.
He continued shooting those flame slashes as he kept getting close to Gwendolyn. But the spikes did their work, which was to slow down Lex, even if a little bit.
So as Lex, after finally clearing the ice spikes, reached Gwendolyn, He found a big ice snake staring at him. It wasn't alive, that he was sure of, but he felt like it was looking right through his soul.
Clicking his tongue, he increased the intensity of flames in his feet, which increased his speed even more as he shot towards Gwendolyn.
But as he expected, the giant snake came in between with its huge mouth open, and its teeth, like Stalagmites and stalactites of a cave, shined bright. But Lex knew that every single one of those teeth could tear his flesh apart easily.
That's the reason he sped up even more.
The moment Lex and the snake were about to meet, Lex ducked down and stopped his flames. Then, he slipped on the ice formed by the snake on the ground and escaped its deadly teeth.
But that wasn't his goal for doing this, and Gwendolyn also realised that as she looked at the direction Lex had slipped to.
Lex once again set his feet ablaze, stopped himself from going any further, and held the handle of the second dagger he had thrown earlier.
He tried to take it out, but the ice was too thick around it and trapped it so tight that even after using his flames, Lex wasn't able to take the dagger out.
He could have taken it out if he had been given more time, but why would Gwendolyn give him that?
Lex had to jump again as several icicles landed on the ground he was crouching on. He thought, 'This girl is really good. Should I use Focus?'
[Just use your second ability, and I'm sure she'll be dead in seconds.]
'Bruh! This is just a practice match; I don't wanna kill her. Besides, That shit ability could kill me, too, so I ain't using it here. Also, using that ability in this situation is like using a nuclear bomb in an MMA fight.'
[I was just giving a piece of rational advice.]
'Yeah, no thanks. I'm happy being irrational.'
[So you're going to use Focus?]
'Nah, I'll have some more fun before I use that. If I use that now, the battle would be over pretty quickly, and I don't want that.' Lex replied to the system as he had made some distance between himself and Gwendolyn.
Using the flames, he hovered in the air and looked down at the giant snake and Gwendolyn. For some reason, that snake was irking him. He felt like using Focus and flames together to blast that thing off.
'Never mind that, time to try something else.' Lex thought as he got ready to go once again. For now, he was just thankful that the hall was big enough to hold this level of battle.
Gwendolyn just silently waited for Lex; she had no way to target Lex in mid-air. Maybe she could have used icicles as a machine gun and shot down the flying Lex. But she was already focusing all her concentration on the snake and occasionally making some small ice items.
That's why she was simply waiting. She knew Lex would come, and he did.
Lex once again shot at the snake at an insane speed and held his daggers tightly.
The moment he reached the snake, he made himself fly a little higher and escaped its mouth. Using the momentum he already had, he thrust his daggers into the ice scales of the snake.
But the scales were too hard for the dagger to break, so Lex even used his flames; he flared them up as the whole surroundings lit up in crimson red.
Finally, he landed a little distance away as the flames resided back. He took deep breaths as he looked at the still-intact snake.
The only thing this attack of his had done was to make some scratches on the hard scales of the snake. Nothing more than that.
'Damn! This snake's defence is just too much. Do I really have to use Focus?' Lex cursed and thought.