The loud explosion sent waves of air everywhere, pushing the weaker onlookers to the ground. As the spell died down, an enormous cloud of dust covered the battlefield, making it impossible to see what happened between the two parties. The dirt kept getting in everyone's throats, making them choke; the power of Alice's attack was way beyond what even Charles expected.
The entire crowd waited patiently for the dust to settle. Curious about what had happened in that instant.
"I couldn't even see her movement. She just disappeared. One of the gizmo course students whispered.
But one of the swordsmen who stood next to him heard his remark. "You're good with machines, but when it comes to real combat, you're out of your depth." He belittled him, but in fact he could barely follow her movements himself. "She closed the distance in two steps and cast a fire spell at Richard. I doubt he will come out of this unscathed. He clicked his tongue, clearly unhappy that an underclassman who is a mage, mind you, not a swordsman, is more skilled than him.
People began to gasp as the dust settled, revealing a shocking sight. Richard was still standing still, without any injuries, although he stood in a different spot.
That was because one of his teammates stood in his place now. He stood there with a smirk.
"It seems there was no danger afte-" He vomited blood, falling to his knees. He pressed his hand against his chestplate, finding a gaping hole in his armor. He could feel his burned skin through his glove.
"Rhazes!" Richard called out to his third teammate.
"On it," Rhazes started casting something that neither Tania nor Alice could make out.
The dryad decided to act quickly on her feet and entangled him in roots. The vines dug from under his feet and climbed into his armor, holding him above the ground. Like a snake finding its prey.
Alice followed it up, dashing towards him with the intent to knock him out. But she started seeing things double; she could barely keep her eyes open as her vision started getting blurrier. She went through with the attack, but the pressure of the fight and her lack of sleep caught up to her.
CRASH!
She opened her eyes to find herself in a wall made out of roots.
"Alice, keep it together!" The dryad screamed at her.
She was right. She couldn't just stop now. "I have to keep going." Alice stood up, her body heavy as she took step after step.
Richard took the opportunity created by Alice's dispersion and hurled his longsword in her direction. Getting a clean hit on her, leaving a nasty slash wound across her back. The ground behind her was painted with a red color.
"Alice!!" Tania tried running towards her but was stopped.
"Cid, I won't be able to do it again." The entangled swordsman exclaimed to his teammate.
Cid stood in front of Tania, his burns now gone and blood no longer coming out of his mouth. He carved through her roots.
"I've got to admit, this rant is plenty annoying." The dryad could barely keep up with his slashes, creating new walls barely fast enough to not get caught in one of the swings. "But you are still green in other aspects." His slashes began becoming thrusts, each one making a cut into Tania, tiring her out and making her lose focus at timing the walls.
Tania knew she had to do something, anything, to get to Alice and support her in the fight. She couldn't think of anything else than an attempt at replicating flash step. But she knew that it would be her last Hail Mary.
She poured most of the remaining mana into a last plant wall, with enough leftover to use flash step and not become exhausted.
"Oh, I don't think so!" Cid tensed up his muscle to throw a lightning-quick attack. But Alice's casting was faster.
Tania looked around; everything seemed to slow around her. "I did it! I really did it!" She felt so proud of herself for successfully pulling it off. But it was short-lived.
THUD!
She tripped on the sleeping Jasper, falling over and landing outside the arena.
"Tania is out!" Charles shouted.
The dryad was extremely frustrated. She has just pulled off the spell Alice tried to teach her, and she messed it up by not watching her surroundings better, especially since she could just feel Jasper being there with her dryad rend.
Jasper soon followed as he woke up and went outside.
"My stomach hurts." He touched the spot, which Tania kicked by accident.
"Jasper is out!" The prince exclaimed.
Cid walked over to the edge of the arena and whispered to Tania, "I'm sorry for what Richard said." He had a pitiful expression on his face.
At the same time, on the other side of the field, Alice was standing and trembling. The pain pulsed through her and rang in her head. "So now it's a one versus three."
"You see, stupid plant person has no way to beat me, even if you are lucky like before." Richard started laughing as Cid and Rhazes walked to him. Now all three surrounding Alice.
"Oh come on, guys. Three big dudes against one small girl?" Her snarky comments provoked Richard even more.
"Not so tough now that you don't have the upper hand, huh?" He mocked her. Ignoring her remarks.
Alice watched as Richard's wrist started shining purple; she stared behind her at the sword in the ground. It was shaking, and the grip glowed the same way as his hand.
"It must be telekinesis." She waited for the sword to start flying towards his hand, the three of them getting closer and closer to her. blood flowing down her back as she had to somehow clutch this fight.
The moment Richard's sword popped out of the ground and flew to him, Alice grabbed its grip, flying towards her enemy, who wasn't able to stop his telekinesis in time.
Alice kept building up her speed. The pain from her injury kept her senses sharp, filling her with adrenaline. Her brain started thinking faster, making an outline of a plan.
Richard tried to punch her when she got into his range of motion. She barely dodged his powerful fist by changing her trajectory mid-air, all thanks to her expertise in air magic. Alice kept pumping herself full of mana, compacting it as much as possible.
CRACK!
She landed her attack perfectly, shattering his armor and using the incoming blast as a trampoline to propel herself towards Cid and Rhazes. Her continuous training increased her mana capacity so much that, even after two powerful attacks, she still had a lot left over. She decided to end it once and for all.
She exhaled heavily, her warm breath forming a visible vapor in front of her.... The air around them grew cold....