[ROUND: 8]
[CONTESTANTS REMAINING: 2]
There was a brief pause in between rounds seven and eight, when everything in the arena, dueling rings and all, sunk beneath the sand. The arena was almost perfectly flat. A glittering line of golden sand snaked through the arena floor, creating a large circle near the center, and showing the contestants for the finals of the tournament.
[CONTESTANT 1: QUELLE]
[CONTESTANT 2: ENDAIN]
[BEST YOUR OPPONENT]
[TAKE THE THRONE]
"Guess the Bloodmage was a solid bet!" Vasai grinned towards Gilt, "Endain looks pretty strong though, so it's still going to be a coin toss!"
"Says the guy who's picks didn't make it past round three!" Gilt laughed, "But I'll have to agree with you that Endain seems like he might be an actual matchup against The Bloodmage."
"I'm with Gilt on this one," Kaos chimed in, "Endain has done really well, but Quelle seems to be just as strong and definitely a lot more versatile."
"These guys better be fourth years." Nolly groaned, shaking her head, "If this is what we're trying to go up against, I'm not so sure we got a shot."
"Nah," Gilt scoffed at the idea that the two finalists were first years, "Quelle The Bloodmage is finishing up his third year, and I'm not super sure, but I think Endain is in his fourth year."
"Just throwing everybody in the mix together huh?" Kaos said mostly to himself, "It's just nuts that they have some of these tournaments with no different divisions. How are the first years supposed to compete?"
Then the sandy golden words became lines and patterns, fully illuminating the arena floor in the dark night. This was Kaos's chance to see what the top of the Dek class looked like.
Two individuals blasted up through the ground. The first was wearing light leather armor, and had a wooden lyre on his back. This was Endain, who used his wish to amplify and manipulate various vibrations. From what Gilt had said, the reason he used the lyre was to get more precise vibrations to manipulate, but it still seemed a bit like pure showmanship to Kaos.
The first time he noticed Quelle the Bloodmage, Gilt had to point out who he was. Kaos had expected some somber looking cultist in a black robe, but Quelle's appearance was quite the opposite. His short hair was dyed light pink, with pants to match, and a white short-sleeve shirt. Altogether, Quelle looked more like a pop-star than Bloodmage, but his dramatic flair kept the matches interesting, so Kaos still wasn't complaining.
These two definitely seemed to know each other as they didn't immediately attack and instead walked forwards to shake hands before the match. Endain laughed at something Quelle said, but the cheers of the crowd had drowned out whatever it was.
Neither of the two seemed extremely muscular, but Endain was definitely a bit taller and more muscular than his seemingly frail opponent.
Then the two of them jumped backwards and the match began.
Quelle drew a small dagger from his side,
while Endain plucked a few notes on his lyre. These notes had been different from how he played earlier. These notes sent out shockwaves, shaking the arena, and blasting the spectators with gusts of wind from the shock.
As soon as he plucked the first note, Quelle had made a small cut on his arm, from which, glowing pink light began to gleam. The light shot from his arm, and formed a magic circle in front of him, completely nullifying the impact of the shockwaves.
Next he made another cut on the same arm, but this time, the pink light instead wrapped around his dagger, which he swung at his opponent who was nearly twenty feet away. Some of the light flung itself off of the blade, and directed itself towards Endain who deflected it with the strum of his lyre.
There was still more pink energy on the blade which Quelle launched at his opponent with a few more remote slashes, all the while advancing a few paces at a time.
While Quelle's attacks were quite fearsome, they came at a price to himself, but Endain seemed to still be completely fine after a few more deflections. Endain then plucked a series of strings quickly, and emitted a much quieter popping sound, which Quelle somehow anticipated and dove to the side. What Endain's attack was, or how it was aimed, Kaos couldn't tell, but he guessed that Quelle had trained with Endain before enough to know that it was dangerous.
For the next while, Quelle was on the defensive, only managing to dodge and occasionally block Endains flurry of invisible attacks, all the while sacrificing his blood to do so.
"Still think he's got it?" Nolly questioned, elbowing Gilt.
"Yeah," he nodded, eyes glued to the match, "He could throw out much stronger attacks, but he would have to be a hundred percent sure they are going to hit to warrant that amount of blood."
This changed Kaos's perspective on the match, while Endain was able to throw out powerful attacks nonstop, Quelle probably had the ability to launch an attack that would instantly win him the game, but he had to be sure it would hit.
The only indications that Endain's attacks were actually doing anything was the sand that was blasted out of the way in lines or spirals when Endain plucked his lyre. Quelle had been able to block and dodge all the attacks… until now.
Endain had shot another one of his beam-like shockwaves, which Quelle had tried to dodge, but hadn't dodged entirely. Endain fired another as he was off balance, but he conjured a stronger shield to give himself some breathing room. He glanced towards his left arm which had been hit and noticed that it had been completely blown off from the elbow down.
He didn't look panicked though, in fact, he looked like he had been through this before. He looked around for a moment and noticed the other half of his left arm on the ground. After blocking another one of Endain's attacks, he dove from behind his protective shield and picked up the arm with his right hand, dropping his dagger in the process.
As soon as he touched it, the severed arm vanished into a brilliant pink light that began to arc all around him. With one motion from his remaining arm, the coil of pink light shot at Endain, who dove away, but evidently not fast enough. That one hit was all it took to put a large hole through his chest.
Endain's wound glowed a dark purple, and as he fell down to his knees, the purple light arced back to Quelle's severed arm, wrapping itself around the missing limb, and then fading away to reveal the arm completely restored.
Quelle's opponent turned to sand, and sank into the arena's floor. He looked up with the smile of a celebrity, and waved to the crowd before as the patterns of golden sand once again converged in the center of the arena, swirling around him in glowing letters.
[VICTORY]
[YOU HAVE TAKEN THE THRONE]
[MAY GLORY BE ALWAYS IN YOUR FUTURE]
Kaos looked at this enrapturing spectacle, but rather than cheering for the victor like all the other fans, he had just one thought:
"I want that."