The next two days Kyrie spent researching Dollace Brewborne. If Furorin expected him to win the tournament for her, then he should be an adequate fighter. And being an adequate fighter, he would have records. In the library.

  Kyrie groaned as she looked up at the library in Karzasham. There were actually three libraries in Karzasham. The first one was the royal library in the palace. One of the Ori brothers could have gotten Kyrie access to that but she did not want to go there. It somehow did not feel right to Kyrie.

  The second library was inside the second mountain and Kyrie did not want to go there either. So, she was standing on the steps of the third library, the smallest library, which was in the area outside the mountains.

  Kyrie walked up the steps and went through the doors. A dwarven receptionist greeted her. Kyrie made her query regarding Dollace’s records and the receptionist nodded. It seemed that such a type of query was a general query and the receptionist got them on a regular basis.

  The receptionist directed Kyrie towards a private reading room as per Kyrie’s request and told her that someone would bring Kyrie Dollace’s official records. The receptionist also told Kyrie that she was not allowed to take the records out of the library but could make a copy of them if she wanted to.

  Kyrie thanked the receptionist and made her way to the private room. The room was small, consisting of a couple of chairs, a table and a lamp on the table. There was a pen and pad and the room seemed to be illuminated with magic as Kyrie could not see any windows letting in light.

  Kyrie settled down on one of the chairs and waited. After a couple of minutes there was a knock on the door. Kyrie told them to come in. A dwarf entered carrying a blue slate. Of course, the file would be in the form of a slate. He deposited the slate and asked Kyrie if she would like some refreshments. Kyrie refused for now. She had had her breakfast quite recently. She was neither hungry nor thirsty at the moment.

  The dwarf left shutting the door behind him. Kyrie sat there for some time looking at the slate on the table. Then she gave a resigned sigh and picked it up.

  It was not that she did not enjoy reading. However, reading for research was not what she enjoyed. She wondered how Marcus did it but then she remembered that Marcus actually enjoyed it. She smiled. She sent a message to Marcus about how he was doing. She was not expecting a reply and none came.

  Kyrie started to read about Dollace. It was dull and a long read. After about an hour of reading Kyrie groaned and gave up. She copied all the information about Dollace and returned the slate back to a passing librarian. Then she exited the library.

  Once she was out of the library, she took a deep breath, “Freedom!”

  Okay, it was an exaggeration but Kyrie felt good. She looked at the time. She had spent about an hour and half in the library for research purposes and she felt completely drained, mentally. She wondered how Marcus could keep this up for days on end.

  Kyrie thought she should have an early lunch. Then she would slowly tackle the information on Dollace and come up with a strategy to defeat him. It took her two days but she finally went through all the information the library had on Dollace and had assimilated a neat summary. Marcus would have been proud of her.

  Now all that was left was to wait for her match. She felt prepared for dealing with Dollace. Dollace was a berserker type fighter who fought with two greataxes in each hand. He hardly wore any armor and had a very aggressive style of fighting. Moreover, his track record of fighting against other adventurers and non-adventurers was quite good. He had a win rate of 83% which Kyrie considered to be acceptable.

  Her match with Dollace was in two days and she spent time practicing and spending some time with Ori brothers, Ledia and Rella. Kyrie was pleased to realize that Ledia and Rella had become her very good friends, apart from the Ori brothers. It was good to spend some time with other nymphs, even though they were not water nymphs, they were excellent company.

  The two days passed quickly and it was finally her match day. She was excited for her match. She wondered what sort of an environment would be created for her match. Only one match to go and if she won this then she would be in the quarterfinals.

  No. She would win this. She was going to be in the quarterfinals. This was no time to start doubting herself. Dollace was strong, but Kyrie was sure that she would prevail if she gave it her all.

  Kyrie had finalized the spells for today’s match. They were [Summon Water Elemental], [Water Whip], [Field of Ice] and a new spell that she brought from Leven’s shop called [Force Push]. It was one of the spells Marcus had and Kyrie was sure that this spell would aid her in today’s fight.

  [Force Push]

  Hits the enemy with a force which would push him back. The distance the enemy gets pushed back depends upon the weight of the enemy. Does not cause any damage. Mana cost of 10. Cooldown 30 seconds.

  When Kyrie stepped into the fighting platform, the roar of the crowd vitalized her. Shouts of Shiningstar were heard across the stadium but Kyrie could see that they were not as much as the cheers Dollace was receiving. Dollace Brewborne’s reception was met with a cheer so loud that Kyrie felt deafened by it. It seemed that he was amazingly popular amongst the dwarves of Karzasham.

  The announcer for her fight against Dollace was Loring Gloomtooth and Kyrie was surprised to see him. Loring was grinning at both Kyrie and Dollace, alternating between looking at them and giving them a nod of acknowledgement. He gestured to both of them to come closer to him and Kyrie stepped forward with a confused expression on her face. Should she not be taking her position for the match as Loring made the announcements?

  When the crowd had quietened down and Dollace and Kyrie had stepped near Loring, Loring shouted, “Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to yet another match of the Succession Tournament. Today’s match is going to be very exciting. On one hand we have our favourite water nymph who has won round after round and became one of the favourites of the crowd. Kyrie Shiningstar!”

  There was a cheer when her name was announced. Loring continued, “On the other end, we have a dwarven warrior loyal to Princess Furorin and loved by all the dwarves of Karzasham. Dollace Brewborne.”

  There was a roar with the announcement of his name and chants of Brewborne echoed throughout the stadium. Kyrie did not let the overwhelming support towards her opponent dishearten her. Instead, she felt excited. This was definitely going to be a fun fight, if nothing else.

  Loring shouted to the audience to calm down and they did in a few moments.

  Then Loring said, “Today is going to be an interesting match. There is going to be a change in the format. To explain simply, there are four advantages in today’s match and each player is going to get two advantages each. The order of selection of advantages would be selected by a coin toss and the categories of advantage would be decided by a spinning wheel.”

  Loring gestured to his right and Kyrie saw two dwarves lifting and bringing a spinning wheel with a pointing arrow. Kyrie could count about twelve categories of advantage on the spinning wheel. Kyrie and Dollace exchanged looks of surprise. It seemed that even Dollace was not expecting this. Kyrie somehow felt this was Furorin’s meddling but she could turn this in her favour if she considered this an opportunity.

  Loring was now saying, “I will spin the wheel to demonstrate.”

  He did. The wheel stopped on the category, ‘Enhanced Armor’.

  Loring said, “This means that the participant which got this category would have an armor which would increase their physical and magical defense to a great level. Isn’t this exciting?”

  The crowd cheered. Dollace looked unimpressed. Kyrie could understand his reaction. He fought without armor after all.

  “One more thing to add. Each of these categories can be used only once. It means if Dollace gets Enhanced Armor in his spin and Kyrie gets the same in her spin, then she needs to spin again to get a new category.”

  “Now to decide who will spin first, we shall have a coin toss.”

  Loring asked them who was going to call and Kyrie gestured that she was okay if Dollace called. Dollace shrugged and said he would call the coin toss. Loring tossed the coin and Dollace called Heads. The coin landed on heads. Dollace had won the coin toss and the crowd cheered. Kyrie simply shook her head.

  Dollace spun the wheel. The crowd cheered as the wheel spun. It finally came to a stop.

  Weapons.

  Loring said, “Dollace gets to choose the weapons for the fight. It means whatever weapon or weapons Dollace chooses, only will be allowed during the fight.”

  Dollace was looking thoughtful but a dread was growing inside Kyrie’s mind. She only knew how to wield a longbow. She did not have proficiency with any other weapons. The honorable thing for Dollace to do was to select the longbow and greataxe as weapons for the fight but Kyrie remembered that this was an advantage. Dollace could easily select only greataxe and leave Kyrie with a major disadvantage.

  Finally Dollace spoke, “All melee weapons allowed.”

  A chill ran through Kyrie’s spine. No. This was not fair. She did not know how to fight well with a melee weapon. This fight was not going to end well for her.

  Next it was Kyrie’s turn to spin the wheel. Kyrie spun the wheel. The crowd cheered as well for her spin but it was all muted to Kyrie. She was waiting with baited breath with the category she would land on. Finally the wheel stopped.

  Weather.

  Loring said, “This means the weather in which the fight will take place. The scenario decided will be random and the weather of the scenario will be decided by Kyrie.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Kyrie thought for a moment regarding the advantage she had been given. She could use it.

  She said, “Continuous rain with stormy weather throughout the match.”

  She looked at Dollace who gave her a nod of respect. It seemed that each of them had a distinctive advantage in the fight as of now.

  It was Dollace’s turn to spin the wheel now. He did so.

  Armor.

  “Dollace gets to choose what type of armor the two fighters will wear during the fight.”

  Dollace did not even need to think about it. He simply stated, “No armor whatsoever.”

  Kyrie understood. She lost her health regeneration advantage but she would make do. She had been fighting without armor all this time after all. The loss of her circlet would be felt though.

  She asked, “Wait a minute. Without my circlet, I lose my spell slots. So will my circlet be allowed?”

  Dollace shook his head, “No armor.”

  “But I already am losing my two spell slots by not using my longbow. Now I can’t even wear my circlet which has spell slots?”

  “I did not say you couldn’t wear any accessories.”

  “I am a water nymph. This armor is too much for me to wear. Accessories would be a further hindrance to me.”

  “I am sorry, Kyrie but no armor.”

  Kyrie sighed and said, “Alright then.”

  She was not going to have to use any spells for the fight. This was going to be bad. She spun the wheel for her turn.

  Magic.

  Loring said, “Kyrie will decide what sort of magic will be allowed in the fight.”

  Kyrie grinned, “No magic allowed.”

  “Are skills magic?”

  “Do they go in spell slots?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then yes. No magic allowed. If you can cast skills or spells without using spell slots, then it is okay but no magic which would make the use of spell slots allowed.”

  Dollace gritted his teeth but accepted Kyrie’s decision.

  “Well isn’t this fabulous”, said Loring, “The fighters have made their decision. Now please take your positions. The fights will start soon.”

  “Oh yes”, Loring snapped his fingers when Kyrie and Dollace started to walk towards their respective corners, “Kindly equip and unequip according to what has been decided during the spinning of the wheel. Your inventory would then be locked.”

  Kyrie unequipped everything and put it back in her inventory. She did not wear her tank top and shorts. She would need full movement in this fight and she was sure that they would hinder her movement. Kyrie found out that as she walked towards her corner that the crowd had suddenly gone very quiet. She turned around to see Loring and Dollace gaping at her.

  “What?” she inquired.

  Loring cleared his throat and said, “You are not wearing anything.”

  “I am a nymph. We are most comfortable not wearing anything. And I do not have clothes without armor which would not restrict my movement during a fight. Hence, I am comfortable fighting like this. Is that okay or is it against the rules?”

  Loring looked at Dollace who shrugged and started walking towards his end. He wore only paints and hefted two greataxes on each of his shoulders. Kyrie could see no accessories which meant that his rings and necklaces were responsible for providing him spell slots.

  The crowd had started to cheer again and Loring seemed to be having a conversation with the referee. Finally he declared that Kyrie can fight however she wants. Kyrie simply snorted at that declaration.

  Finally the opponents were on each side. Now was the time to fight.

  ***

  Dollace looked at his opponent standing in the corner opposite to him in the fighting arena. She looked calm and relaxed. She had been angry during the spinning of the wheel but she seemed to have calmed down.

  Dollace, however, was a different matter altogether. Even though he was smiling on the outside, he seething from the inside. He was still angry, not with Kyrie, but with Furorin. He still remembered his meeting with the heir a few days ago when she had told her that she had made some changes to his fight and skewed the advantage to his favour.

  The spin was always going to land on Weapons category the first time Dollace spun and she had advised him to pick Greataxes to give Kyrie a major disadvantage. They had argued and he had said some choice words to the person who he was fighting for and they had settled on a compromise. All melee weapons for the fight.

  Furorin did not mind. She was sure that Kyrie did not have any proficiency with melee weapons and she was not going to use her bow as a quarterstaff as it would not qualify. And she had been right. Looking at Kyrie right now, it seemed that she was going to fight with her fists.

  Dollace was not happy with the decision but he had no choice but to go for it. Considering Furorin and Gorin, Furorin was definitely the lesser of two evils and a good candidate for the throne of Karzasham.

  Dollace wondered how Kyrie was going to fare against him. He gritted his teeth as he could imagine Furorin laughing at him for being right.

  The surprise had been the armor part. And seeing Kyrie right now Dollace felt a certain emotion awaken in him. She was definitely a looker. He shook his head. There was no time to think like that. He needed to fight and that was what he was going to do. He would not let Kyrie’s nudity distract him.

  The referee was explaining the rules to both the fighters. They were standard rules, nothing new. Then the referee warned both the fighters reminding them of their advantage and disadvantage and what would lead to disqualification.

  Dollace had understood clearly. Using a weapon other than melee weapon would be disqualification. Wearing armor of any sort would be a disqualification. Casting spells using spell slots would be a disqualification. Only the Weather category did not have a disqualification condition.

  The referee stepped out of the arena and blew his whistle. The crowd cheered loudly at the start of the match. Dollace felt the disconcerting sensation as he shrunk down and the terrain of the arena changed with magic.

  Dollace found himself in a flat terrain with a mixture of tall and short grass. He could see some rocks scattered along the plain. He looked around and could see no end to the plain. Only green flat area till the horizon on every side.

  Dollace could see the sun in the sky and he could feel the wind on his face. He looked straight to see Kyrie standing about a couple of hundred metres away from him. She seemed to be looking up. He could not discern the expression on her face.

  He wondered what she was waiting for when the sky darkened. Thick grey clouds covered the sky and thunder started to rumble. Lightning flashed across the clouds and it started to rain. First slowly, then it increased in intensity.

  Oh yes! Kyrie had asked for stormy weather. As the torrent increased, Dollace readied his greataxes and looked towards Kyrie. She had not moved from her place and had her arms outstretched. Was she feeling the rain for some reason?

  Dollace started to move. He needed to finish the match fast. He pitied Kyrie. Even with such torrential rain Dollace was confident he could defeat Kyrie fast. He picked up momentum as he ran towards Kyrie.

  He grimaced as he got close to her. She had not moved and was now looking at him intently. Dollace did not hesitate. With a primordial roar he closed the distance between them and attacked.

  His attack passed through Kyrie but she did not waiver. Instead her form shimmered as if his greataxes had passed through water and she smiled.

  “Oh gork-”

  Dollace could not finish as Kyrie’s arm shot towards him. The momentum of his attack was carrying him forwards. Before he could completely stop himself, he was punched with strength he had not expected.

  Dollace flew back and crashed into a rock. The rock crumbled beneath him. He swore as he got up but found face to face with a whip like tentacle which smacked him across the face. It did not hurt much but it did distract him from the other tentacle which had grabbed his leg and pulled.

  Dollace fell down. Hard. His head hit one of the rocks which was sharp and he felt his health points decreasing. He rolled away from the spot and got up. This time he was ready for the tentacles but what he saw shocked him.

  Kyrie had changed. From a nymph she had transformed into a water-like creature with whip-like tentacles for hands and thick watery legs which slid across the wetland. The ground was becoming muddier with the rainfall and the limited visibility due to the gray skies was now affecting Dollace.

  He put both of his greataxes in front of him in a crossed position to block further attacks and it was effective to a bit. Kyrie changed her shape and the next moment she disappeared into the ground.

  Before Dollace could realize what was happening, the puddle of water beneath him started to rise. It took the shape of Kyrie who gave him an uppercut, somersaulted over him, landed and disappeared back into the ground.

  Kyrie started to come out of puddles from random places and kept on punching Dollace. He gritted his teeth. He was taking the hits because he knew Kyrie was not making a dent in his health points. Even after all this attacking, he had lost only about twenty percent of his health. He just needed a few good hits. This was going to be a fight of patience.

  Dollace oriented himself, his greataxes ready to defend any attack as he looked around to see where Kyrie was going to come from. He felt her from behind and brought his left greataxe to defend himself from Kyrie’s attack. As the tentacle whipped against his left greataxe, he brought the right greataxe down on Kyrie.

  Dollace felt some resistance before Kyrie’s form shimmered and became water like again. Gorking Alright. Dollace was confident he had done some damage. As Kyrie disappeared into a puddle in the ground, Dollace waited again. Few more attacks. He was definitely going to get Kyrie.

  He could feel her attack again. This time it came from the right. This time his greataxe encountered greater resistance before Kyrie became water like. He could also hear a hiss from her.

  Kyrie escaped and materialized some feet away from him. She did not seem to be disappearing into a puddle on the ground and attacking him. She was staring at him with a strange expression on her face. Dollace recognized what it was. It was excitement. She was feeling excited while fighting him.

  Dollace gave a bark-like laugh and raised his greataxe pointing at her. Then he gestured to her to attack. He could see the grin on her face as she disappeared back into the puddle.

  Dollace wondered what she would do next and readied his greataxes. Nothing happened for some time. Then he felt a strange sensation near his legs. He looked down. The water in a ten feet radius around him seemed to be rising. It felt as if he was on the bottom of a huge bowl and the water had started to rise.

  How was Kyrie doing this? Magic consisting of spell slots was not allowed. And this did not feel like a spell. More like water manipulation. Dollace shook his head as he was struck by a thought. Kyrie was a water nymph after all. All these attacks made sense.

  Dollace started to walk out of the area which was continuing to fill with water and he found out that the area was moving with him. Dollace swore and he started slashing the water in panic hoping he would hit Kyrie. He had no such luck.

  The water started to rise and soon engulfed him. He knew how to swim and he kept himself floating. However, the next moment a strange pressure came on his arms. A knock of water and both his greataxes dropped out of his hands. A small wave rose and pushed him in the water.

  Dollace tried to surface but could not. An unknown force was restraining him, suffocating him. He started to laugh. He had thought he would have an advantage in this fight but Kyrie had turned the entire thing around by changing only the weather.

  As he blacked out, Dollace thought that Furorin was going to be highly pissed and he gave a laugh which made him inhale more water. Dollace struggled for some time and then there was only the darkness.

  ***

  Kyrie looked down at the passed out form of Dollace. He still had one point of health remaining. She took a rock from the ground and smashed it on his head. Dollace disappeared in a burst of light.

  The rain stopped. The plane turned back into the arena and Kyrie felt herself growing. The tumult of the crowd hit her and she grinned. Loring was shouting something but Kyrie could hardly hear it.

  Her eyes found the royal section of the arena where she knew Furorin would be sitting and found her silently seething in rage. Kyrie raised her arm and gave her a thumbs up.

  Then Kyrie raised both her arms in the air and gave a primal roar of triumph. The crowd echoed her. The final thing Kyrie heard as she was escorted off the stage was her name on majority of the audience’s mouth.

  SHININGSTAR!