"Three." A softly determined whisper harbored from the breath of air, stale from the faint scent of sheared metal and lingering body odor. In preparation for the work ahead, the soldier's long pair of quality knives gleamed with the scattered sunlight breaking in through the height of the tunnel opening. They don't mind the noise out there; these blades are built for chaos.
"Two." This isn't even a real mission. They don't know what they're doing anymore. Standing just before the edge of the large arch-opening, the certainty of victory is already melting into all thoughts. They don't need me to do this. But as long as I'm here...
"One." Blades will remain firm in hand and away from their holsters now. This is the time for battle. "Hah!" Verita exhaled confidently, ready for the next chained match. This area of land is now region owned property, but at least they decided to do something with it. Who's to say nobody could notice?
The ground everywhere, hardened with sandstone drained this place of color, but all of the people here today transformed the entire stadium into a gathering spectacle. Beyond this stone archway lies the open circular field of challenge.
Only two miles north of Blue Port Town, this superstructure of ancient design has been constructed from the ground up. The region officials initially estimated years to finish its construction, but the city council pulled more resources and crew together, promising expedited construction of this magnificent arena. In just two weeks after the grand opening, thousands of people are gathered here today, for the same reason people gather anywhere in Sprawn Valley.
Leray battles. "It's time to face off the final contesting teams!" Verita could hear the announcements projecting towards the center of the field beyond her tunnel, and she would be next again to face off another team in the official tournament. The Leray Arena; that is what people are calling this event. Challengers from all over the country are called to test their abilities versus other Leray wielders. The tournament builds up into a contest while the people safe in the circular stadium watch with their trained eyes. The winner of the tournament gets a modest prize and televised notoriety. There is just one problem.
"On team one, we have the three soldiers who have blitzed their way through all of their challengers with expert teamwork. Let's hear it for team Tri-Fang!" At the end of the small announcement, the ambient noise level outside from the crowd quadrupled, though the hype made all of this highly expected. Anyway, back to that problem with the arena... That would be the pathetic worms they're calling Leray wielders. Each and every one of these challengers so far couldn't even pass a simple test from a gradyent with several attempts. They're all weak, pathetic failures with no future ahead of them, with nobody to guide them in the end. Yet the people running this stadium and its channel are giving them so much false credit. False fame; false glory, tainted with deceit and evil; these are the elements which make up Leray magic.
"On team two, comes the lone wolf wielder who has shown no mercy against her foes. Being outnumbered will mean nothing for this fighter. Here comes, Verita Szeer!" Marching forward on cue, Verita swept past her own dangling hair, presenting herself to the thousands of eyes before her. Her own eyes were only fixated on the three targets she would need to defeat soon. They got one thing right so far. Being outnumbered means nothing here, and neither does all of this premium armor and metal. Team Tri-Fang won't know what hit them. This might be too boring.
All three of the men wearing white fabric outfits took their time observing their final challenge. It's a tall middle-aged woman, her face partially concealed by her own metallic armored helm. Those holsters with handles sticking out from them - she's a small blade master, dual-wielder too. She doesn't look all that threatening, but she is here at the finals after all. The same strategy has been working so far just fine. No reason to quit now.
By the time she was in range to initiate a Siriean dome, Verita slowed her pace and drew her blades to each hand. She calmed her thoughts before drowning out the noise of excited spectators. The three of these idiots can certainly work as a team, but it will never be enough to challenge the powers of her organization. With a simple open-liner, she threatened the three of them promptly. "I'm not holding anything back. You boys better not put me to sleep with your armature techniques." A short pause passed with nothing shouted back in return. They weren't intimidated by her at all.
"And now let's get this battle started!" By the time everything was ready, an artificial Siriean dome began to form within the entire field of the arena. They were sure to get every last inch of the room they'd spent money on. With this much space, there would be no way to feel cramped up. Now at last, this little test mission can begin!
As soon as the surrounding dome shield was generated, Verita and the other three contestants used what little focus was needed to generate the holographic status bar reports above each person. The holographic neon displays quickly became partially transparent to prevent distractions for the pending battle. Verita however waited patiently, giving the white dressed team their moment to go first.
Chapter Theme Shift:
"Alright then. Let's add some heat to start things off. Triple Fire!" Tri-Fang member-A was their team leader, and when he shouted the chant of the Triple Fire spell, he was really giving them a separate command at the same time. All at once, the three of them quickly charged their MP energy, creating a single red-colored holographic glyphring rotating slowly around their wrist. This glyphring belongs to the Fire Bolt spell. Though each member was only prone to launch a single bolt of fire, all three of them working on the same spell at the same release time would work together to create this energy efficient triple Fire Bolt action. This should do a modest amount of heat damage.
"Pathetic!" Verita shoved her knives back into their narrow pockets, kicking force off her feet and leaping into the air with a rough spin, transitioning into a downward slide through the dirt. Dodging Fire Bolts doesn't take that much stamina, and they aren't even high power level yield spells either. Verita proved her worth easily in the next split second, jumping back up and flipping to her left to dodge the second Fire Bolt. Her timing remained flawless with every little movement she made; a necessary quality since Fire Bolts have character homing properties attached to them, but in her last effort to dodge the final Fire Bolt attack from Tri-Fang, Verita was beginning to breathe a little heavier.
Successfully evading all of the damage and putting surprised faces on her dimwitted opponents, she began charging her own MP energy, one of a higher capacity than what was thrown at her so far. Invocation was naturally faster for her given the years of training. "Storm Build!" Aiming her glowing hands at the sky, Verita unleashed a delayed weather changing spell, which would affect everything outside of the dome shield in a kilometer radius. Neither one of them have dealt any damage so far, but this was all about to change.
Conversing with their team leader among the clarity of their dire situation, the soldier made his decision, tactical and careful as opposed to the usual plan. "Standby. Directional attacks won't work on someone who has that speed. Shadow Wave!" The leader of Tri-Fang launched a standard Shadow Wave attack, heading quickly for Verita. There must be more to this chick than what's been revealed. Anyone who can dodge homing bolts like that typically has excellent skills, but she'll leave herself open dodging something that isn't even much of a threat.
They're trying to buy time with that lazy excuse of an attack spell, forcing Verita to dodge the incoming Shadow Wave while they brainstorm a more effective strategy. So predictable! There are too many ways to dodge and strike back in the same moment. "Flashpoint!" This is the spell that gives the user an incredible speed boost aura. Verita used it to her advantage, first by dodging the Shadow Wave spell at the speed of light, then by rushing into the center of the enemy team just before switching to a different aura spell. "Knight Dance!"
Verita immediately surprised all three of them at once before landing a single blow, simply by announcing how she shifted positions in the blink of an eye. With her blades now ready and glowing with a faint blue aura, she began slashing at the wielders who were suddenly on high-alert. Verita added several kicks and punches between each combo. The idiots bunched up closer to her in an attempt to surround their target and overwhelm her.
Despite Verita's quick breathing and rapid pulse, she was too quick and accurate to be handled by all three of the men put together. Comparing spell power levels so far, nothing was different. The female warrior knew how to move, and countered every dodged physical blow the soldiers unleashed in her direction. It quickly became evident how different the training and experience is between the two teams early into the battle. The crowd would be excited either way since this is one hell of a show, but this was just short easy work without mercy for the lone wielder.
By the time Verita was done, she took a quick glance at energy scopes, realizing she has already done just more than 15% HP damage to every single enemy on the field so far. Now it will be time to finish this fast and kick things into overdrive. A simple matter transference action bought Verita a large distance between the team and herself, though they were surprisingly quick to recover.
The howling of echoing thunder now reminded everyone that a storm was building in the skies above the arena. The weather spell is working quickly for Verita, but this storm isn't fully ready just yet. "Time to end this," Verita chanted, while launching two separate Electro-Ball spheres high up into the air, almost to hit the top edge of the Siriean dome. Time to get ready!
"Everyone get ready," the team leader shouted. He began charging energy quickly, relying on his teammates to carry out what was practiced several times earlier; the finishing blow! "Tri-Attack!" He and his helpers chanted the spell at the same time, forming a very unique Tri-Attack that could only be perfected with three people in synchronicity.
He started off by sending a Firewall spell, generating a quickly advancing wall of pure fire bound to the earth while it approached Verita from a distance, though that is just one of the surprises. "Shotwhirl!" Tri-Fang member-A simultaneously switched from a Firewall spell into Shotwhirl, a difficult to master spell that requires the use of dagger blades and an excellent practice with the Flying Guillotine skill. After throwing both glowing dagger blades to form what would normally be a Flying Guillotine, the circular arc of damage soon brightened up with additional magic, pending its destructive payload with a power level of 9.
"Earth Glave!" The other two Tri-Fang members both initiated the same earth elemental spell at the exact same time, but changed the initial starting location of their attack spells in the distance, hoping to surround Verita and cut off her escape route. Even before any of these combined spells got close to Verita, she reacted immediately.
Using little amount of magic to create a generation glyphring, Verita soon had a long estoc saber in her right hand. Despite noticing the Earth Glave from her front about to smash into her, Verita infused non-elemental energy into her blade while charging forward towards the danger. The timing here must be perfect for this. "Ragh!" With a winding blow from her saber, Verita smashed through the Earth Glave with brute force, causing the entire earthy structure to collapse and the spell to fail, but the incoming circular disk of damage was also more threatening to her current objective.
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It doesn't matter if the fighter is still coming, because this isn't the only thing Tri-Attack can do. "Meteor Strike!" Tri-Fang member B launched the final payload of the spell, Meteor Strike, hoping to hit Verita even if she could dodge all of the previous spells. An area attack as large as that would give her no chance!
I have to do this! Everything I've been training for leads up to this battle. Everyone in this world suffers in fear of their government, as they should! They've blanketed the truth about Leray magic with lies, tainted murderous lies! It has to stop here! "Now!" she ordered to herself. Verita knew they might try something like this, trapping her into a massive combination team-attack. An easy spell would make short work of this. "Mako Speed!" Launching a narrow blue beam of energy from her long blade, Verita quickly shot up into the air, in a way which normally defied gravity against her body weight.
Jumping high over the Shotwhirl and Firewall was easy enough, but getting down in time to avoid that oncoming Meteor Strike won't be easy. Verita's eyes opened wider once she noticed the two Electro-Balls she shot upwards earlier, heading down straight for her. She quickly held up her metal saber, allowing the projectiles both to clash into the metal, which immediately charged the weapon with electrical elemental energy. Instant projection infusion, a rare skill that gave Verita the edge in this situation. Casting Electric Blade would have taken longer and expended too much energy, but this method yields a different result. It also seems now like Storm Build is reaching its maximum potential. Now, all electrical damage dealt on the field will be improved. Just have to avoid Meteor Strike.
"Flashpoint!" Verita tried something she still had yet to perfect in practice, spinning around her body in mid-air while keeping her eyes aimed on the enemy combatants below. The Flashpoint aura around her body should be used to accelerate and control her descent down towards them, like a speeding bullet of light. With a few more spins, it finally happened.
Against what any of them have seen before, Tri-Fang leader had to hold up his backup saber to the lady above him, who shot downwards like a projectile, narrowly avoiding the meteor shower just after charging her blade with electrical infusion energy. It was like something out of the movies, a move that seemed to defy the laws of physics. But even now, his senses were sharpened in an effort to block. "Nagh!"
Verita's blade slammed against her target from her descent, failing to break through or do any damage. The men were already close to their limitations against her tactics. "Electric Fury!" Noticing the surprised expression in the fighter's face, Verita made short work of all of them using her customized tactics. Switching her skill into a close combat combination sequence, Verita used her natural speed to advantage while slashing open wounds into the solider in front of her. Other Tri-Fang members closed in fast to try and defend their leader, but they only got in the way.
Verita launched more cuts and strikes against the untrained men around her, performing backflips and kicks off their chests for support. It was now that she proved how well her training has benefited her from before; nothing at all can touch her. Several more strikes here and there put large dents into the health factor of her enemies, showing up on their energy scopes quickly.
But all while her charade continued, her chain of constant attacks was finally interrupted by Tri-Fang Member-C, who kept a level head against all of the frequent painful stabs. Holding his hands together with a slight twist aimed outward, he unleashed stored MP energy in Verita's direction, who predictably tried to block what she would expect to be an ordinary magical attack. Out came an invisible force of energy, launching Verita off her feet and several meters backwards in a single instance. She should know not to underestimate the ability of a Push Wave. Not only did that stop her from dealing any more damage, but it also caused her temporary sword to fade away too. Her enhanced weapon will need to be regenerated again.
That Push Wave also gave the other member the time needed to charge up a spell of his own, though it was only enough to do little damage on Verita given the ordinary power level of the spell. "Lightning Strike!" A simple thunderbolt of electrical energy with a long range and perfect accuracy was sent on Verita while she was down. Though Storm Build above was passively causing electrical energy to have a small boost in power, the total damage alone wasn't enough to push her HP any lower than 91%. Still was it worth the shot.
Grumbling in her own short failure, Verita pushed herself back to her feet as quickly as she could. Other than that lone Lightning Strike, the Tri-Fang team wasn't currently attacking her... It's still working. Presenting her skills early on has them all locked in a vice of fear. They won't make any sudden moves against her anymore, because they realize how dangerous she is. The fools should have kept going after that Push Wave. Now it's over. "Electro-Sheet!" Having practice with electrical spells, Verita charged and released the MP energy for her spell instantly, causing the entire floor under her enemies to spark and explode with electrical arcs and live current. All three of them took damage over time, the shock painful and draining to their stamina. But why stop there?
"Blitz!" A thin green aura quickly surrounded Verita, who would now have instantaneous invocation time on all of her spells to an inspecific limit. She started by throwing her two knives in a cross formation, the spinning blades picking up speed while turning into Flying Guillotine, aimed for the Tri-Fang leader. With her hands now free, Verita expended more magic, creating the spell Uplift on the other Tri-Fang members at the same time. Uplift shoots a long stone geyser from the ground under the target location, quick and forceful enough to launch then into the air. It doesn't do that much damage, but it does make them vulnerable. Controlling two Uplifts at the same time, Verita also invoked two Creshendo spells at the same time right after, forming in mid-air, and closing in with a massive slamming force against members B and C.
All of them just took another massive blow to their HP, and Verita whipped out her knives again, all while charging more electric energy into them the normal way this time. Storm Build is still at its maximum effectiveness, and it would be wasteful not to make the most of this moment.
But against Verita's plan, Tri-Fang member-A wasn't too badly hurt from that last slashing attack, so he was now in range to hit her from a distance. "Median-Flare!" Using the same hang gesture technique his teammate used for the last Push Wave, he let Median-Flare's bright light flush from his hands, ramming right into Verita from this position.
Verita naturally held her blades and hands to her face while shielding her eyes, trying to block the damage as best as she could, but her skin began to burn the moment that light-screen affected her. Her HP dropped even further, but it wasn't a massive drain to her energy... "I see now why these guys made it to the final battle. But you're all too pathetic to win! Downstrike!" Maximizing the use of her Storm Build spell, Verita combined her electrical payload to create a barrage of multiple lightning bolts coming from the storm itself, electrocuting all of the Tri-Fang members over and over indiscriminately, but Verita knew this alone won't be enough, and she entered phase two of her combination spell. "Dark Strike!"
Just like that, Verita entered another phasic aura that enabled her the ability to fly through the air at the speed of light. She zoomed from point A to point B, slashing her knives into the Tri-Fang leader as soon as she made the pass. She then teleported to the other side of the field while retaining her auric state of light speed, slashing again and again dealing massive HP damage to each Tri-Fang member in the process. Dark Strike version 2 is what people call this now. It's always been possible, but the stunts that girl was pulling on the championship battles brought this gifted power to light.
When Verita exited from the attack aura, her body felt weaker, and the soldiers out there seemed to be dealing with their painful crisis. The fight isn't over until it's over. This spell takes a lot longer to invoke successfully, but they're all out of time and too stunned to react. "Pulsar!" Upon releasing the energy needed for this massive area attack spell, Verita's total MP reserves fell down to 21%, causing her muscles to feel weak and her fatigue to catch up to her quickly, but without losing any focus on the spell or the battle at hand, she unleashed a massive barrage of dark photonic bolts, nearly invisible to the eye given high transparency. They shot forward like the wind, and drilled through the soldiers in battle like steel rain. The shock to their bodies instantly sent them to the ground on their knees, with the other two members fainting and passing out, dry on health energy.
To his dismay, the leader found his helpers passed out on the ground just like that. Verita ended all of them with just one incredible spell combo, and now he was about to fail too. Who is this armor-masked woman? "Very well. If we're going to try instant knockout spells, there's no sense in me holding back either." His words caused Verita to grab onto her blades again, though she didn't take any immediate action. She's much lower on MP energy, so she'll be getting tired soon. "Shadow Copy!" Plenty of people know how to use the spell Shadow Copy. Here's how it works:
The Tri-Fang soldier increased the MP consumption to his personal aura, and from that, a dozen other projections were made instantly. At the same time, he teleports and trades positions with one of the copies, as to not out himself too early. Now there are twelve Tri-Fang members on the field, each perfectly synchronized with the actions and noise level of the original. Perfectly identical, this spell enables the user to project false copies of himself all over the field, a trick for the eyes to ensure the enemy has trouble choosing the real target. Right now, it seems to have Verita confused.
"I'm finishing you off with this!" He held his hands back aside to his waste, slowly generating a massive amount of his remaining MP energy, and creating a powerful glyphring around both of his wrists. "Mega Bolt!" Mega Bolt is a single homing energy bolt much faster than other predecessors, and it has a power level of 10 on the scale. This should drain Verita of her health dry!
Verita got to watch some of the most amazing spells coming out of this lone warrior, who would still be fighting against the odds even if he were by himself. In team battles, only one of them has to win to be victorious in this arena challenge, but his tactics are completely pitiful. He must have forgotten that longer charging spells can be interrupted easily. Just because there are twelve of him on the field doesn't mean he is immune to damage. Area attacks are the quickest solution to this little problem. Verita knew she wouldn't ever have the speed to dodge Mega Bolt. She's tried it before and failed. So instead, "Quake!" was unleashed into the field, causing a powerful earthquake beneath both of them. The spell Quake is not powerful enough to deal a good amount of damage, but the seismic disturbance is plenty enough to cause interruption in spells. It seemed to affect all versions of the Tri-Fang leader, though he was keeping all of the shadow copies alive through this. Luckily for her, the spell nearly blew up in his hands, his MP charging sequence failed.
Now it is time to end this. Another area attack will finish the job, but for Verita's sake, it would have to work, as this will drain the last of her MP energy. With a solid spin down her front, Verita unleashed the MP energy with malice. "Rotation!" Generating the final massive vortex of wind elemental slashing damage, the vertical tornado scoured the field in front of her, growing in size and engulfing everything in its path. Every single version of the Tri-Fang leader got caught up in this tornado, even though only one of which is the real one. The slashing damage lasted for a lengthy period of time, leaving Verita in wait while she estimated whether this was a successful battle, or a failure in her mission.
Once the wind cleared up, all of the copies faded away with pixilation effects, until only the man standing in the far left corner was revealed to be real. Only, he wasn't standing anymore. Verita caught him just falling to his stomach, unable to feel the agony of defeat since he too was now passed out on the sandstone.
Verita kept her posture steady even though it was very stressful to maintain right now. That fight took more out of her than she initially estimated. Not only that, but her MP was completely empty. Her health was fine, but she ended up taking a couple of stray magic hits. It may only be a scratch, but... Master might be very upset to see that I took any damage at all. It was expected of her to win this fight without taking a hit.
Chapter Theme Shift:
"And there you have it folks. Verita Szeer wins the final battle by a landslide!" The crowd had been going wild with their loud chants and cheers for the entire battle, but upon the victory of that impressive show, they grew even wilder. The Siriean dome around the arena collapsed on its own, proving that all dangers were now over with. The battle has been decided, with Verita the winner. "Her name will now go into the top rankings of this week's scoreboard!"
"Tch!" she spat. "Too bad for them, Szeer is not my real last name." Verita knew she could admit as much openly, since there are no nearby microphones. She would be expected right now to exit from the arena's fighting ring, and head to the prize counter to claim the top reward. It's mostly just money and a bonus item, but master would want to keep all of it in order to fuel the resources of their operations.
Verita examined herself and her current situation on her way to the counter. There is a reason her real identity is a secret. These idiots will accept anybody without cross-checking credentials. Her entire license card is technically a pretty fake, and that bit about being a successful wielder immigrated from the Chez Republic, it was too easy to be inconspicuous about that. Oh well. Verita Klear will just have to go down in arena history as a one hit wonder. Verita Szeer on the other hand has a long way to go...
"This battle is a test of my progress... But is wasn't good enough. I'm still not capable enough to fight our enemies, master." Verita knew nobody could hear her talking to herself, as nobody was around her, still reaching the exit archway. Her body ached of minor battle damage and sandy dirt going everywhere into her dress sphere, but the significance of this small mission rang louder in her head. "I fight, so that the people of Sprawn Valley don't ever have to live in fear under the rule of the government, the same government who lies each passing day about what magic really is, and what it is used for. I fight, so that people won't have to live in a world with fear ever again. The people I'm fighting with, they all understand this, and they all want the same things. So shall I continue to train until nothing stands in my way. I will keep on growing, until I have deleted all Leray magic from existence, as it should have been before. It's time to return to my real family, the Scarlet Syndicate."
For everything that exploded on the battlefield of the arena floor, as well as all of the action of the Leray match underway, every visual sight and sound became captured and frozen in her thoughts. The reflection of the events bounced off in a crystal view of her dilated pupils. She could see everything unfolding on the wall mounted screen in front of her in the bar of Ebel's Diner. When it was over, a buzzing sensation was left growing, her fingers and toes twitching, her mind racing, and her heart itching for some action of her own. "That was so awesome!" Like a child witnessing a hero right in front of their eyes, Jane's heart captured the entire battle unfolding there.
"Heh," Danny exhaled. Now she'll never calm down.