The Everlasting

(Volume 4)

Treachery

Chapter 1: The ice princess

Oh that was awesome, she really did a number on that guy. Yuna was really great there. Managing to entrap that guy in ice was all that was needed to seal his movement. That Jibi guy was nimble and swift yet his error was that he neglected the ice that covered the platform. The second it was fully placed the game was already over. That made the entire platform her playground so catching him off-guard was as simple as it can get.

Her next opponent was guy with a short board sword and a round shield. He was bald and burly with squinty sharp eyes. His blade probably had the same metal that Jibi had as it shimmered slightly under the sunlight.

His shield probably had some of that same metal.

Apparently the ice was not removed from the platform as Yuna was considered still standing. Her next opponent will have to start with a disadvantage…this is very lucky for us as he will probably end up trapped the same way Jibi did.

Yet to my surprise every step he took dissolved the ice under his foot

The judge announced the beginning of the game

Almost instantly Yuna shot forward two bolts of ice followed by a whip of her hand that made spikes emerge from the frozen floor.

The warrior jumped back dodging the spikes and poised himself behind his shield. He was struck in mid-air by the bolts that dissolved into water the second they came in contact with his shield.

Yuna’s hands shimmered with a white light as she was chanting her next spell it did not take a long time to cast as she made a gripping gesture with both her hands, gigantic ice hands emerged from the floor.

She almost stumbled the second she casted that spell as beads of sweat were falling from her forehead…she was pushing it too far.

She crossed her hands while maintaining them in a gripping motion and at the same time the giant ice hands did the same. They were trying to squeeze the shielded opponent. The problem was that the hands were a bit slow compared to the agile warrior as he just had to jump backwards. To dodge them.

Feeling confident the man did a slashing motion to the base of one of the hands.

It cut through the ice breaking the hand from the base making it crumble.

At the same time I heard a loud scream.

Yuna’s right hand was bleeding from the wrist…those hands must be linked to her by magic…why did she use a spell with that weakness…that was stupid damn it.

The guy probably noticed too so he decided to land another hit on the other ice hand Yuna pulled her arm backwards so did the ice hand this time it was between her and her opponent.

I saw a small smirk on the face of Yuna when that position was taken.

She whispered again

“Heaven’s piercing javelin”

Particles of ice gathered and created four great spears in front of Yuna that immediately started to spin.

Yet that positioning….Oh my god she is a genius.

The way the ice hand is positioned is perfect to block the view of the warrior to what was happening behind it. The second he sliced the ice hand Yuna cringed a bit then pushed both her bleeding hands forward making the spears twirl and lunch at enormous speeds.

The second the ice hand crumbled the warrior was struck to the chest with the first spear that sent him flying. Before he could even land the other three struck at him in mid-air making him fly all the way to the outer ring and crashing into the wall.

Quite shrewd of her…she lured him into hitting one of her ice hands and loudly screamed to make him understand that they are linked to her…the way she pulled the other hand back was to make it look like that she didn’t want to receive another hit but that was the bait as he focused on damaging the ice hand and forgot about taking into consideration the fact that he didn’t have vision over his opponent the hand was between them and covering her position. She led him by the nose from the start of the game…what a genius.

Her next opponent was a girl she had brown hair made into twin tails. Her mouth was covered by a black veil she was the same size as Yuna as for her weapon it was a chained scythe that had a small morning star on the end of the chain she was spinning the scythe while walking up onto the platform.

Yuna however looked exhausted. I know for sure that she has a lot of Mana but I believe that using multiple High tier spells in rapid succession is taxing beyond belief most students would barely know of any A class spells and if they are diligent they would probably be able to produce one or two… so far Yuna showed more than five A class spells one after another which in its self is quite amazing. She is probably suffering from Mana poisoning.

The judge announced the beginning of the game that started the same way like the last one.

Two bolts of ice shot forward one was dodged and the second was met with the morning star end of the chain scythe shattering it into a thousand piece.

The girl ran forward to close the gap between her and Yuna.

Yuna still had blood pouring down both her hands yet she pushed them forward bloody and dripping she clenched them both and casted the heaven piercing javelins. Yet something seemed wrong I noticed that the amount of Mana used was far less that the other time she used this spell… the size was almost the same but the power behind the spears is weaker…is she going for a feint?

She whipped her right hand in front of her making the spears thrust forward.

The first of the spears was easily dodged by the girl who just side stepped it as for the second she gracefully slid on her knees bowing backwards making the spear pass right in front of her face.

Then instantly propelled herself in an almost impossible way she spun around herself like a top dodging the third spear and sending the morning star to shatter the fourth spear while she was still in mid-air.

Her attack didn’t finish there as she made a wide downward cut with the scythe side of the chain that was aimed directly at Yuna.

It was a very wide motion so she should probably be able to dodge it yet the second Yuna moved she dropped on her knees from obvious exhaustion.

The blade almost struck at Yuna but she miraculously erected a frozen wall that stopped the blade from taking her out. However her hit points were at an incredibly low level and were even decreasing by the second.

It was probably the bleed effect that was rendering her weaker and weaker.

The scythe lodged itself deeply into the ice wall while the panting Yuna tried desperately to gain back her footing.

The other girl ripped out the scythe making some of the ice shatter in the process before she landed then proceeded to spin the morning star side of the weapon while approaching menacingly.

Yuna was on her last rope. Clearly fighting exhaustion and mental strain she is probably going to lose this match…I hope she doesn’t push herself anymore she has done more than enough.

The other girl started hacking at the ice wall with both ends of her weapon, with every slash the ice melts and the wall grows thinner.

Yuna started pouring more Mana into her wall to reinforce it but to no avail. The wall crumbles little by little until only a small portion of it remains. Yuna who managed to get back on her feet was in no shape to finish this fight. But what happened next left me speechless.

Yuna cladded her hands in a thin layer of wind then pointed forward.

“BLAST”.

It was the first time that she used an air based attack since the fights started.

A small shockwave was propelled from her hand it was by no mean an A class spell but it still packed quite a punch. The blast disrupted the girl from swinging her weapon and pushed her back a bit

Another blast was sent forward but this time it was aimed at the warrior girl’s feet.

The girl jumped upwards to evade the spell but the collision of the air blast with the floor made some of the ice shatter and even some of the water splatter toward the girl.

Yuna then casted another spell

“Rising water dragon!”

The splash that erupted earlier shaped itself into a small wyrm like water dragon and rose opening its maw engulfing the girl that was in mid-air.

Before the attack finishes Yuna then casted another Blast that when it contacted the girl it sent her flying to the outer ring. She still had a lot of HP left yet she was out of bounds and Yuna was declared the victor of this match.

The fourth contender walked up the stage.

She was clearly burnt-out she even had droplets of blood coming from her mouth…

Why is she pushing herself this much does she have something to prove?

The next one was a guy with a katana. He had a strange hard leather armour, it was shaped to only cover the right side of his chest with a battle skirt for protection. He poised himself forward. But before the judge could announce the start of the game.

Yuna fell forward. Her HP dropped to 0 before the fight could even begin.

The judge seemed to be discussing something with someone as he was nodding alone.

He then spoke.

“The Contender Yuna Korima was deemed unable to continue the fight. Due to the fact that the game has not even started this case will be judged as a withdrawal from the fight and no points will be granted to the Astartian team. Let the next contender from Alsa step forward!”

Before I could say anything Vessma who apparently came from nowhere said this.

“You will go first…Shiki is our only chance to beat the girl that was rumoured to be stronger than Rica from the Astartian team…and if she was as strong as that Jibi guy I think we will need Shiki’s strength to take her down. Your objective is to beat this guy and try to wither her down as much as you can the remaining contender so that Shiki can finish him off.”

So she doesn’t think I am able to beat both of them…

“Why do you think that I won’t be able to beat both their contenders…not to brag but didn’t you know that I was able to beat Shiki back at Albion?”

She snorted then answered.

“Hah, that and this are two different things Shiki was forbidden from using his A class spells back then I know for sure you would have lost if he did so just do as you are told, and stop talking back to me…”

It’s true that he was not allowed to use all of his strength but even so being told this really doesn’t sit well with me…I should probably change the way people think of me.

I walked up the stage but right before the judge could announce the start of the game an annoying voice erupted from the speakers around the arena.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I will be the one to judge this game and commentate on it, it was really boring to watch games without a cheerful commentator like me to describe what was happening to the inexperienced audience so. Now Mr Asura please step forward. Mr Kagisa you too. GAME START.”