After the long and hard battle between the greatest land beasts, the lion and the wolf, there would still be another pair that will shake the core of the whole academy.
"For our last battle of the competition, the match you're all been waiting for.. on the left we have.." The commentator spoke.
A man with a slender stature and puffy pink iris eyes walked out. His brown hair was on a low taper side, and he held an asiatic composite bow in his grip.
"The man who participated in the subjugation of a red dragon, and placed 4th in last year tournament, Viscum's greatest adventurer… John Tendereeee"
*Rrrahhhhh*
"Oh my god, senior John!! He's so cool!"
"Of course! He's one of the third years golden treasures after all. Including prince Cercis, and golden boy Amon, the three of them are definitely the future of the rising sun!"
"Further than that, they're all drop dead gorgeous…"
"Man… if senior John wasn't a guy, I would have court for him…"
"And that's stopping you from doing so? Weakling."
The court was filled with John's fan boys as his features are tilting more towards the feminine features because of his blood that is half man and half elf. In this world elf and other races made up only 10% of the world's populations so mixed blood are rare cases. In John's case, he may not be a true half blood, but his ancestors truly were half elf.
John Tendere? Huh that's weird.. I thought Tendere was a woman? Maybe I remembered wrong.
"Now.." The commentator spoke.
As the audience gaze shifted to the other tunnel, a young girl wearing long white puff sleeve blouse with black leggings matching her corset came out. Her silver hair was tied into a ethereal updo with knee-high laced boots. Undo the blazing sun, she is surely shining against the heat of it..
"The flower which rose from the hill of thorns and bloomed into one of the greatest talents of the Viscum's Academy, the blooming witch herself.. Irene Briarrrrrr"
*Rrrahhhh*
"Oh that's the commoner, right? Irene Briar?"
"Yeah. She's pretty isn't she?"
"Pretty? Dude she's looking better than most of the noble woman here, so she's ain't pretty, she is drop dead gorgeous!"
"Huh and I hate to admit it, but she's absolutely amazing. Her skills… she's a monster of a talent."
"What? She's that great?"
"You seriously haven't seen her matches? Out of all the contestants, she had to compete in the most matches and she has won all of them?! Freaking 7 win-streaks man!"
"On top of that, rumor has it.. that she's even slayed a wyvern!"
"What?! That couldn't possibly be true?!"
All of their talks weren't false. Through out this entire Academy's battle, she has fought the most foes and came out standing as the victor each round. Usually, if you were to win 3 matches executively, you would already be placed in the semi final rounds, but for someone like her… they abused their status and put her in a pool of endless feuds.
She is crazy strong, that I know, but eventhough I'm seated from here, I could see that she's totally worn out.
"Irene…" Kannavis muttered under her breath.
"Without further ado, let the last Viscum's Champions match… BEGIN!!"
*Boom Boom..*
I don't know if it was the orchestras team making that drum's sound, but my house was beating out of my chest watching this.- Kannavis thought.
"It's an honor to be able to duel with you, Irene the blooming witch." John said.
"You're too kind, sir Tendere. I should be the one thankful to have a chance exchanging blows with you. Please go easy on me." Irene said as she bowed to him.
"Hahaha! Then I must be a fool to do that." John laughed as he lifted his bow up aiming at her.
Immediately, Irene whipped out her wand and chanted a quick energy blast at John which he swiftly dodged to the side. During that quick motion, John shot two silver arrows at Irene which half way in, split into four pieces that went around her.
The directions of the arrows confused Irene for a moment, but as she realized the intent of it, it was too late. She tried to lift her hand up and the splitting arrows shoots out crossed woven rope, connecting to each other like a net, wrapped around Irene's body, immobilized her to the ground.
John took the chance and tried to get close, but suddenly on the ground emerges a straight line sigil across the platform. In a matter of seconds, a blaze of blue inferno bursted out, creating a wall of flames at least 3 meters high between them.
John's visions were concealed from the other side, and the flames inhibited him from approaching further. The oblivion from not being able to know what's going on at the opposite side put him on guard and suddenly, a sword made of condensed energy flew straight to his face, but luckily he dodged it.
Oof! That's a close one!- John thought as a single drop of sweat formed on his forehead.
"You're incredibly fast." John said as the flame wall slowly unveiled, revealing that the net that trapped her was burnt away with traces of blue fire and around her were three magic swords forming mid air and were ready to be fire out again.
Her continuous attacks of swords send the whole arena into a shock. How could she cast so much spells at the same time!? Because of this, John was placed into a bit of a corner of defense. He kept dodging and rolling trying to evade her attacks, leaving no room for John to retaliate.
It seemed to be that Irene had the upper hand at first, but the fatigue was catching onto her. Before Irene could blast out another set of swords, all of sudden her visions got blurries and unconsciously tripped on her ankle, almost collapsing over.
*Swoop!, Boom!*
In that brief moment, John took his chance and whipped out an arrow from his leather quiver and did an explosive throw at Irene with his bare hand. Irene regained her balance and tried to guard it with her wand, but as of surprised, the arrow didn't reach her and instead turned into some sort of gas explosion right infront of her face.
*Boom!*
"Cough Cough…! This!" Irene said as her eyes got heavier and heavier after inhaling those smoke. In that moment, she realized it was slumbering fog.
"You should take a rest, Irene. You've done great." John said as he rushed towards her.
Irene, upon seeing John's marched towards her, she continued to chant her barrages of swords at him, but the firing rate was decreasing and the chant out spells was getting increasingly slower than before.
Within seconds, John closed their distance and pulled out a dagger from his belt's pocket, swinging it at her.
"Woah, seems like senior John made a comeback from that."
"Yeah, he's slowly wearing her out, isn't he?"
"John is a professional fighter you see, after all he's a certified monster hunter."
From the corridor above the the stage-
"Hmph she's good, but John's more experienced. Right now, she wouldn't stand a chance." Amon said as he watched from the sidelines.
On the other side of the arena-
"Hmm he's taking advantage of her condition, what a shameful move." Hedera spoke with irritation in his voice.
"…" Kannavis wasn't able to say anything, but inside she was on the edge of her seat.
*Swing! Whoosh!*
Irene stumbled around while trying to avoid John's dagger. Her arms were slashed all over and the area was smeared with her blood.
Irene groaned at her injuries, but John wasn't stopping and with his final thrust, he was going for her face.
*STAB!*
"!"
There was silence, then what came next was shocked. At the sight of it, Irene stopped dodging the dagger and used her hand to pierce straight into the knife.
Not just John, but everyone at the competition were bewildered!
"Haha! What a crazy move!" Wolf said as he watched from the viewer seat.
*POW!*
John tried to pull the knife back, but Irene got a tight grip on it and immediately pulled John close and gave him a good Knuckle to the face, planting him to the ground.
The sight of Irene taking deep breaths while looking down on John with her hand stuck to a knife and blood's dripping all over was such an ominous scenery that it got the whole field's cheering and getting goosebumps under their spines.
Despite all of this, the battle has not come to an end. Irene plucked the knife out of her hand and aim it at John who was on the ground. With his flexible body, he rolled back out while also kicking away the dagger from Irene's hand, sending it across the other side of the stage.
John's face was red and blood seemed to be dripping out of his nose. He quickly created a distance between them and held a tight grip to his bow.
"I was trying to make it easy for us, you know, but I guess you're not going to back down." John said as he pulled his bow string aiming at Irene.
Irene on the other hand, looked as she would collapsed anytime soon, but she continued to hold on, getting ready to counter John's attack.
At the moment John started to chant, and his bow started to glowed golden. He didn't used his arrows but instead, as he continued to chant, an arrow made of magic started to form and it glowed golden like the rod of the sun.
Meanwhile Irene tried to move, but couldn't. Underneath her feet seemed to be some kind of barrier sigil that was planted right when John was close to her.
"Do you like the rain?"John asked before aiming the bow back to the sky. As he shot the arrow up, the sky turned into a flash, then all of a sudden, hundreds of golden arrows started to fall back down, illuminating the whole stage and coming down on Irene.
"Irene!!!" Out of Instinct, Kannavis yelled out to her.
In that split seconds, Irene heard it and turned her gazed to the seating area where Kannavis was sitting. The moment she saw Kannavis, she let out a smile and murmured something under her breath.
"You've come, my lady."