My first week of tournament training passed by in an instant. Between the aura training with Sirius, combat training with Lilith, magic training with Vasavir, I’ve been up to my neck in constant fights in an effort to grow stronger. Currently I’m in Vasavir’s workshop training my control over magic as I hold a solid black orb in my hands.

“Haaa, haaa, haaa, Old man, how much longer do I have to keep doing this? I feel like this orb’s about to explode in my hands if I lose control,” I exasperated.

“I’d say about 5 more minutes from now should be good. Once the orb turns red you can stop. If it explodes you have to start all over again,” Vasavir instructs.

“This is insane, do you know exactly how much energy this thing already has, do you want to blow up part of the castle?” I asked.

“Don’t worry if it explodes, I'll teleport it to the outside before you die. Remember the point of this exercise is for you to be able to control a larger amount of magical energy than before. Keep condensing mana inside that orb for as long as you can. This exercise will give your magic attacks quite a bit more oomph to them once you get the hang of it, you’ll see,” he assures me.

This grueling task takes all of my mental effort to perform. The more energy I draw into this thing the more effort I have to put into to keep it from exploding. It's like having a full trash can and pushing down the trash in order to fit more inside the container. The black orb feels like it's beginning to heat up as it turns from black to a purplish red color. Vasavir turns his back to me as he begins to read some magical book and I can even see glowing letters floating out of the book. Unbeknownst to him the orb in my hand finally starts to turn red and I think this thing could explode at any moment. I need to release this energy soon or else this whole workshop is going to explode. Hmm, while I know this won’t work, Vasavir isn’t particularly paying attention to me right now so I have an idea. I silently draw the energy from the orb into myself and

point my open hand straight at his back.

“Take this you stupid old man! WIND CANNON!”

All the magical energy I’ve been condensing for the past 15 minutes is unleashed in an incredibly dense blast that heads straight in his direction. However before the blast hits him a blue portal opens up which sucks in the blast and I can see from the window that another portal opens outside where all that wind explodes. The energy from the blast is enough to cause the castle to shake and slightly crack the windows of the workshop.

“Nice try, but you're a thousand years too young to kill me, but it was impressive you manage to convert that much energy into an attack even without me telling you to.”

“Damn one of these days I’ll show you,” I cursed.

“It seems we can call it a day on magic training for now. You said you wanted to see Vulcan to get your armor repaired right? Well I have time now so let's go,” Vasavir says as a portal opens up in the middle of the room.

We enter through the portal making it to the shop entrance of the legendary elven blacksmith. In front of the shop there’s a gallery of weapons on display on several weapon and armor racks. There’s a small elf boy at the counter serving customers who are buying weapons.

“Arwen is Vulcan here, I’m here to see him,” Vasavir calls out to the small elven boy.

“Go on ahead, he's in the back smithing as usual,” the boy replies.

“Why didn’t we just teleport in like before?” I ask as I walk into the forge in the backroom.

“Because Vulcan tells me there’s been some weapon theft that occurred through the use of spatial magic so he’s set up barriers to prevent people from teleporting in here. Don’t tell him this but I could easily break through those spells if I so desired. I’m just doing this as a courtesy,” Vasavir informs.

As we enter through the room we see the elven smith hammering away on a new weapon and as a bonus he’s actually wearing pants this time. He’s so engrossed in the task that he fails to notice our presence.

“Greetings my friend!” Vasavir says right after teleporting right behind Vulcan.

“ARGH!” the smith yelps in surprise as he almost drops the hammer in his hand.

“Ugh, Vasavir didn’t I tell you to use the door this time?” Vulcan interrogates.

“I did, you simply did not notice our entrance,” he replies.

“Hmm, so what are you here for, has your new book come out yet or are you here at the boy's request?” Vulcan prods.

“I only have a draft as of now, but rest assured it will be complete and for sale during Westphalia’s tournament. But we are here for the latter,” Vasavir answers.

“Umm yeah I kind of need you to repair this before the tournament starts,” I say as I drop all the armor out of my pocket dimension onto the floor.

The smith quickly examines the extent of the damage on my armor and then quickly turns to me.

“Bullet holes, slash wounds, massive blunt damage at some point and traces of explosive damage, I was expecting more monster bites given what you do,” he says as he looks over the armor.

“Yeah so far it seems that actual humans are more dangerous to me than demons at the moment,” I tell him.

“That would be the case given that the demon wave hasn’t started yet. Ah, did you happen to lose two fingers at some point?” Vulcan asks as he looks over the gauntlets.

“Yeah but they got stitched back on real nicely. It's as if they were never cut off.”

Vulcan finishes assessing the damage and places the armor pieces on a nearby table.

“You're not getting this back any time soon. There’s enough damage here it would be better to just reforge the whole thing or make a new set of armor,” he claims.

“How long would that take?” I asked him.

“Given how much work I have, I can get it to you in about a month or so,” Vulcan answers.

“A month?! The tournament starts in 3 weeks, can you hurry it up just a little bit?” I pleaded.

“I’ll see what I can do, in the meantime feel free to select any armor you see here,” he tells me.

I look around the shop and eventually settle on some lightweight leather armor that seems like it would help. Although if things get drastic I’d probably rely more on my aura to protect me than this stuff. It is at least dense enough to take an arrow or bullet to the chest.

“By the way boy, have you been taking care of your sword, let me take a look at it real quick,” Vulcan commands.

I take the sheathed sword out of my pocket dimension and toss it over to Vulcan.

He inspects the blade looking over the condition of the weapon.

“No signs of rust, shows you’ve at least been cleaning the blood off the blade. It seems you’ve been making good use of the blade given how much energy lies in this weapon, but…. Come here for a moment and show me your arms,” he orders.

“Okay?” I say as I walk over to him and take off the leather gauntlets.

He places his hands on my arms and squeezes tightly as his brown aura envelopes him. He continues this assault for about 5 more seconds before releasing me and looking back at the blade.

“OWW! What was that for? It felt like my arms were about to break again,” I complained.

“Again? Along with the increased bone density in the arms. You’ve been misusing your swords’ enhancement ability greatly injuring yourself in the process,” Vulcan assesses.

“I had no choice, the people I’ve had to fight are so strong that my normal attacks don’t do much damage. I needed to use aura reinforcement on the weapon or else everyone would die,” I argued.

“With the way you fight you’re a one and done fighter. You’d then be useless for any upcoming fights. Brute force is not always the way to win a fight, take that old man with you for example. He’s defeated more people without lifting a finger than anyone else I know.”

“It's more accurate to say people have defeated themselves trying to fight me, but I digress,” Vasavir says.

“All I’m saying is to find a less self destructive way to fight from now on. Use no more than 3 times your strength. I’ll do you a favor and sharpen your weapon a bit so go out and do something while I work,” Vulcan orders as he starts sharpening my sword against the grindstone.

“Is that little sparing area you have outside repaired yet?” Vasavir inquired.

“That area for testing weapons? Yeah it should be as long as no one’s fired any explosives recently. People tend to have little restraint these days,” he exasperates.

Vasavir leads me to a little outdoor area outside the workshop where a few metal dummies have been set up. There’s also a few arrow targets lined up next to them.

“So I’ve decided that you really need to change up your fighting tactics. When fighting stronger opponents it's commonplace to think the only option is to go with your strongest attack, but that’s not always the best course of action,” Vasavir lectures.

“That’s easy for you to say, you're not the one who’s weak. I swear isn’t spatial magic supposed to be extremely powerful, all it's good for is sending opponents' attacks back at them and running away,” I complained.

“Hmm, if that’s how you feel then how about I demonstrate truly how powerful control over space truly is. Therefore I’m suggesting that we spar and if you can land a single hit on me then you win. To make it fair I’ll only use magic that you already know; portals and limited telekinesis,” Vasavir tells me.

How arrogant is this man, to assume I can’t even land a single hit.

“Fine it’s time to let off a little bit of steam,” I say as I get ready to fight.

Sparring Theme

I don’t have my sword in this fight but there’s a few training weapons in this area that I can use. I grab a wooden sword and charge right at Vasavir. I start off the fight rapidly swinging as fast as I can as he steps back dodging every strike. He continues backpedaling as I move forward, not giving him a chance to rest.

“If all you’ve thrown at your opponents have been halfhearted attacks like these then it's a miracle you’ve managed to survive this long,” he taunts.

“Oh yeah well I’m not… DONE YET!” I yelled.

I open a portal behind him as he walks back into it and I open another portal behind me where I strike at his head with a diagonal swing of my wooden sword. He dodges the attack by ducking under the sword then closes the distance between us as he grabs my wrist. He then twists my wrist while also simultaneously throwing me to the ground causing me to drop the sword. A blue portal opens up beneath me causing me to fall through and afterwards I immediately get kicked in the stomach causing me to fly back a few feet.

“You’re too predictable and you choreograph your strikes far in advance. Come now, focus on fighting me like your life is in danger,” he instructs.

He picks up the wooden sword and drops it into a series of connecting portals where the sword falls endlessly. As it continues falling through the portals its speed increases dramatically as it approaches terminal velocity.

“You can have this back.”

Finally a portal opens up in front of me and I barely have time to summon my aura. I cross my arms as the wooden weapon hits me causing me to fly into a wall.

Ow that jerk, I thought spars weren’t supposed to be that painful. If he wants me to vary my attacks then try this.

I open a dozen portals through the sparring area and I fire a massive barrage of wind bullets at him. The wind bullets circulate through the area as they fly through the portals creating an unavoidable attack.

“Ah I see you're using your head for once, but they don’t seem to be hitting me now do they?” he insinuates.

He’s just standing there in the middle of the barrage of wind bullets. Every time one appears like they’ll hit him they suddenly curve around him. What the heck is going on?

It seems he is slightly altering the bullet's trajectory with his telekinesis, and only using a minimal amount of energy to do so.

Damn him, it seems like I don’t have the speed or skill to hit him directly. So it’ll have to be a wide area of effect attack that encompasses this whole area.

I focus on recalling that feeling from this morning, condensing as much magical energy into my palm. Don’t let a single bit of it leak out. It won’t be as powerful as before if I charge it for only a minute but it should still hit him. While he’s preoccupied with all the wind bullets roaming around I’ll hit him with one big blast.

“Try and dodge this old man! WIND CANNON!”

I attempt to unleash the enlarged wind blast, but right before it comes out the ground beneath me sinks and I accidentally fire the blast into the ground as I trip forward.

The force of my own attack sends me into the air about a dozen feet before I land flat on my back.

“Alright that’s enough Will, anymore and we might end up destroying this place,” Vasavir says, ending the fight.

“What the heck was that?” I complained as I lay flat on my back.

“While you were busy charging that attack I opened a portal underground removing the ground beneath you causing a sinkhole to form,” he explains.

“That’s cheating, I can’t react to something I can’t see,” I argued.

“You would have sensed it if you weren’t so busy charging that wind attack. You need to gain more battle experience. Therefore I have a homework assignment for you to do,” Vasavir begins.

“Can I skip this one, I feel like I earned enough extra credit dealing with the Ayana rebellion,” I say sarcastically.

“That bit of credit won’t be enough to pass my class. This next assignment is worth 25% of your grade. By the end of the week I want you to pick at least three fights with people you don’t usually train with. After all, experience is the best teacher, especially with that ability you told me about,” Vasavir instructs.

“Wait, I'm not gonna go around attacking people for no reason!” I argue.

“You don’t have to, given this time of the year and the fact that the tournament hasn’t started yet there should be plenty of rowdy people itching to throw their fists. Ah I just remembered, make sure one of them is Armstrong, I owe him a fight, but I’m sure he’ll take you in my place since you're my protege,” Vasavir tells me.

“Wait no, anyone but that guy, he’s way too strong for me to handle. How about I just beat up 3 fledglings from a neighboring guild, that counts right?”

“Nope the people you must fight have to all be stronger than you for you to learn anything useful.”

“Ugh, fine I’ll try to die while I’m at it,” I say sarcastically.

We walk back inside Vulcan’s workshop as he’s just about finished sharpening my sword.

“You know I’d consider this sword a twin to one of the weapons I made a few years ago. Based the design of your sword off of its sister sword,” Vulcan states.

“What kind of sword was it?” I asked.

“It was a silver katana of similar length to yours, but its enchantment was a bit more devious. Instead of enhancing a user’s strength it would absorb the energy of its surroundings and opponents' attacks. It would glow red as it consumed the aura of its opponents. I would consider that blade to be the 2nd most powerful weapon I’ve ever made and its user was a sight to behold. A girl with long pink hair came to me with the blood of a vampire she slayed when she requested to have that sword made,” Vulcan says.

“Vampire? I thought they all went extinct after the Vampiric Wars,” Vasavir mentions.

“Apparently Emperor Studemeyer didn’t get them all, but I wouldn’t worry about them now. Probably hiding in the deepest parts of the demon world so you’ll probably never see one again. I’m not particularly concerned,” Vulcan says nonchalantly.

Given the context I can only assume humanity has committed genocide against vampires, which doesn’t particularly bode well for the kind of things I may be forced to do in the future.

“Here boy take your sword back, and you can leave the payment for that leather armor at the counter in the front. Oh and good luck in the tournament, try to make it to the end so I can at least see my weapon be used,” he says before hammering away at another weapon.

“Thanks but no promises,” I say as I deposit the sword back into my pocket dimension.

Before Vasavir takes us back to Colonus I end up paying for the leather armor and weapon maintenance. I really hope no one in the tournament will be sporting any weapons from this shop, although it is highly unlikely that anyone would have weapons from an elven blacksmith so I should be good. Vasavir opens a portal back to Colonus, taking us back to his workshop.

“Is training over for today? I need to take a long nap,” I say as a feeling of laziness washes over me.

“The day is not over for you yet, you have to start on your homework,” Vasavir reminds me.

“Ugh just give me an F already and let me sleep,” I complain.

“I’ll give you a D for Dead since that’s what you’ll be if you don’t take things more seriously,” he replies.

Why is it that the people I end up fighting get progressively stronger? Why can’t I fight progressively weaker people as I get stronger?

“Ok I think I’ll start off with the worst of them all. If I’m lucky my fight with Armstrong should allow me to move back into my hospital room,” I joked.

“If you don’t mind I’ll come observe your fight as I have things to pick up in the city,” Vasavir mentions.

“But I do mind though,” I attempt to argue.

“Too late let’s go,” Vasavir says as he picks me up and tosses me through a portal.

As I flew through the portal I get sent to the town square in front of Dragon’s Descent and crashed into an unknown person.

The person has orange colored hair with blue eyes. Their face is a bit on the softer side but seems mostly androgynous, and to top it off they’re wearing a standard black suit so I’m just assuming its a guy.

“Ugh, sorry about the flying into you thing Mister, it was a dumb old man’s fault. Are you ok?” I say to the stranger I landed on.

“Ah yes I’m fine, do try to watch where you're flying from now on,” they say in a soft, eloquent voice.

As I stand up I notice a bunch of people in the center of the town square around two people that seem to be making a scene. A man wearing a bright yellow extravagant suit and a woman wearing a light blue dress stand in the center of everyone. Vasavir shortly walks through the portal behind me also witnessing this situation.

“Oho what seems to be going on here?” Vasavir says as he appears beside me.

“That’s what I want to know- ack!” I coughed.

Man I think I just inhaled glitter, where the f*ck did this stuff even come from.

I’m also getting this really nauseous smell of rose perfume coming from somewhere.

“Please forgive those two for what’s about to happen and here use this,” the stranger says as he gives me a handkerchief to blockout the smell.

“Thanks.”

“I see Unicorn’s Wonderland has arrived in Colonus, this’ll be good,” Vasavir says as he takes out a notebook and a pen.

Oh boy, hearing that name already puts me at unease. The stories I’ve been told about those people from just about everybody indicates that anyone from that guild is abnormal or off their rocker in some way or another.

“And who exactly are those two, might I ask?”

“I recognize them, those two happen to be very famous adventurers from Oclana and the rumor is they happen to be madly in love with each other, but they don’t know it. Their hinted romance is something that drives their male and female fans mad with a burning passion to see them get together. I can sense the very heat of their passion from here simply from them staring into each other’s eyes. Will, we must get closer, this is golden material right here,” Vasavir says as he drags me further into the crowd.

We finally get close enough to where we can hear what the supposed couple is saying.

Suddenly Dramatic Ost

“Jacob, what was it that you so earnestly needed to tell me?” the young woman asks.

“Violet I-” the man begins.

“You-” the woman picks up.

“Oh my gosh is he finally going to confess,” another woman enthusiastically says near us.

“And so it begins, the dramatic tension in the air intensified as the man’s powerful cold gaze pierced the woman's eyes. His words seek to invade the very depths of her soul,” Vasavir says as he starts narrating.

I simply blankly stare at the not-couple with a deadpan look on my face.

“I want to fight you in the finals of this tournament. If our bond has truly become strong enough then it would truly be destiny for us to meet there. And that is why I challenge you to a rose duel!” the man declares as he dramatically throws a rose at the woman’s feet.

This sudden declaration causes the entire crowd to scream in glee with such intensity that windows break.

“A rose what?” I say as I cover my ears.

“A rose duel, the man with burning passion challenges the beautiful young woman to one of the empire’s oldest traditions. A common practice between an incredibly strong man and woman fighting it out to see if the man is truly deserving of a woman’s hand. It is as dramatic as a love confession can be,” Vasavir continues.

“Yes this is truly a sign of a blossoming relationship, the power of true love is in the air today. I can only send my support for this man in garnering a girlfriend,” someone familiar says, continuing Vasavir’s narration.

I look over to who just said that and I see Luther standing there with a very passionate aura surrounding him. I do not understand what he’s doing here or why, but I guess the man can sense all the powerful passion these two are emitting, that or the obnoxious smell of rose petals. I don’t know why but if I could see through that helmet I’d bet there are tears in his eyes right now.

“Very well I shall accept this invitation to duel. In the finals of the tournament we shall express everything to one another!” The woman claims.

The woman then picks up the rose, throws the rose in the air and suddenly rose petals begin to surround the entire area flying in a circular pattern.

“I will win this tournament to show that I’ve finally become strong enough. And when I do that’s when I’ll finally tell you the truth!” The man declares.

“I’m predicting this will garner a lot of support in the tournament for these two as they unleash everything in a final bout during such an emotional duel,” Vasavir claims as he starts furiously writing in his notebook.

“Yes indeed, with all the powerful contestants this year it would be a miracle for both of them to arrive in the finals, but I believe in miracles,” Luther says.

The couple go on saying really dramatic lines as Luther and Vasavir continue to narrate the situation. While they're distracted I slip away through the crowd as I make my way to the guild building. Ugh, if that’s what people from Oclana are like then I dread meeting people from the other guilds.

I enter the guild building and immediately notice that the usual crowd is different. There’s still fighting and constant drinking happening, but the difference is who’s doing it. I see a bunch of people who I don’t know going at it in unusual outfits and I’m assuming they’re from different guilds. It's a little crowded here with more people than usual but I’m able to make out different groups due to their distinct outfits. Judging from the smell of rose petals I’m assuming the people wearing dresses and flashy suits are from the Unicorn guild, the people wearing business suits must be from the Basilisk guild. One group appears to be wearing exoskeletons or is that a mecha suit, the latter would be cooler if that’s the case. The group that’s currently doing the most fighting are the people from our guild and a group of buff people wearing sleeveless leather armor. I should try to ignore getting caught up with any conflicts here since I need to save my energy for Armstrong, but as I attempt to walk past them I overhear their conversation. The man has brown hair and an X shaped scar that goes down his face. He’s also really big as he’s about 7 feet tall.

“Where the heck is the first hero! I’ve heard the stories going on about his strength and I want to fight him. I need to get revenge for what he did to my village!” one buff guy carrying a spear yells.

Oh boy that’s no good, especially when the person in question is standing right behind him. I quickly look for my big nosed glasses disguise but I can’t find it. Plan B I pull out my second disguise which is just a large burly fake mustache. From here on out I am Jose.

The man takes a step back and bumps into me.

“Huh, watch where you're going punk. Little guys like you are bound to get crushed as you get close to me!” the man says aggressively.

I attempt to get away from the man by saying a bit of spanish to confuse him.

“Esta es biblioteca?” I say as I slowly back away.

“What! Did you just swear at me in Dwarf language you little punk?”

Clearly this isn’t working and apparently bibliotheca counts as a dwarven slur, who knew? I’m just going to have to deal with this quickly, I’m not in the mood for stupid right now.

“I said you have a bit of dirt on your armor, here let me clean it off,” I say as I get close.

“Oh I see now, you're just some peasant that yields as soon as he meets someone stronger than them huh,” the man accuses.

I’m going to make sure this guy regrets that comment. Using the pretense of cleaning the guy's armor I place my finger on his chest and use what Sirius taught me.

“Mini Wave Explosion!”

I use a tiny aura explosion to make the guy stumble back into a portal. If he’s gonna be a jerk then he's gonna get treated like one. I wonder how he’ll be treated when he lands right in the center of that dramatic love confession going on outside.

I use the chaos to quickly make my way to where Willow’s desk is so I can ask for Amstrong’s whereabouts.

“Will, why are you wearing that mustache?” Willow states bluntly.

“Shh, I’m going as Jose right now so shut up. Do you know where I can find Armstrong?” I asked.

“Okay then Jose, um around this time I think he should be downstairs in the underground arena torturing- I mean training Quincy. I can take you, no I will take you there so I don’t have to deal with these idiots,” she decides.

She walks me over to behind the bar counter and opens up a door on the ground revealing some stairs. This underground passage is strangely reminiscent of something.

“Hey this underground arena wouldn’t happen to have a Valantir in the center of it would it?”

“A what?” she says clearly not knowing what a Valantir is.

“Ok just checking.”

She leads me through a final door revealing a dirt arena where Quincy is running around while Armstrong is doing one finger push ups.

“Ok here we are, I don’t know what you need with him but try not to die whatever it is. Next time try a transformation potion if for a more convincing disguise,” she tells me.

“Thanks, but due to Azura I have a traumatizing fear of potions so no thanks,” I say as I put the mustache away.

I jump down into the arena and approach Armstrong. I wonder how effective a sneak attack would be against him, it would probably just piss him off though.

“Will what are you doing here, come to see Quincy in his journey to becoming buff,” Armstrong says as he switches to doing a one finger handstand.

“As fun as that would happen to be, but sadly I’m here to fight you. Vasavir told me to pick fights with as many strong people as possible before the tournament. Vasavir also said he owed you a fight and here I am as his substitute,” I revealed.

“But boy your strength doesn’t even compare to even a hundredth of that man’s power. But since you insist I’ll try… maybe just a little bit. Quincy keep running, you don’t get to slack off just because I’m having fun. You have to run 70 miles today,” Armstrong commands.

“Try not to die Will,” Quincy haggardly yells while running.

“If I do die you’re not speaking at my funeral. I don’t need a eulogy full of history quotes,” I respond.

Armstrong pushes himself off the ground into the air with just his finger and lands on his feet as he gets into his stance. His left hand makes a fist while his right hand is opened. I place my hand on my unsheathed sword and prepare myself for a beatdown. The tension in the air gives me the same feeling as when I fought Archer, a life or death battle, at least for me.

A Mismatched Rumble

“COME!” he commands.

I’m going to have to go all out from the beginning if I’m going to give him more than a papercut this time.

Reinforcement Magic: 3 Times

The purplish aura around me flares up as energy rushes to every part of my body. My muscles strengthen as the veins on my arms appear.

“A Reinforcement Technique huh, it's certainly impressive, but can your body handle the strain?” Armstrong says analyzing my power.

“You’ll see soon enough,” I respond.

I quickly draw the blade and strike at him in one motion with a quick dash.

The hit connects, but isn’t enough to cut him due to his aura, so I follow it up with a series of carefully aimed strikes. I won’t make the same mistake as before and I won't let him grab my sword this time.

He counter attacks with a swift incoming kick with his shin. I jump over him and attempt to slash the back of his neck. The hit connects but due to his aura it feels more like a blunt strike.

“I see you’ve gotten a little faster since our last fight, maybe this will actually be fun,” Armstrong comments.

He turns to me and quickly throws a punch with his left hand, but I’m able to dodge to the left due to instinct. He follows it up with a straight punch with his right so I rush left, but it turns out it was a feint as I’m hit with a sweep of his left leg. The blow is heavy enough that I get sent flying right into the wall. That hit left me dazed but nothing’s broken so I’m relatively okay. Armstrong charges forward prepared to punch me while I’m still down so I open a portal right before his fist hits me so he stops.

“HA, I won’t be hit with my own attack again, did you really think that would work a second time?” Armstrong taunts.

“No, I DIDN'T!” I yelled.

As the portal in front of him closes I blast him with my new wind technique with enough power to launch him back to the center of the arena.

“Ha you’ve got some spunk in you for what it's worth,” Armstrong compliments.

Despite the powerful blast I just hit him with, he dismisses my attack as he brushes the dust off of his leather vest.

“Maybe it's time to show a few monk specialty attacks,” Armstrong says right as he stomps the ground.

“Uh no you don’t have to do that, I think we’re fine with regular punches and kicks,” I say as the ground rumbles.

I can feel something coming as it feels like an earthquake is happening. I instinctually jump back right as a pillar of red aura erupts at the point I was previously standing. Armstrong continues stomping the ground creating more earthquakes. All the earthquakes are even affecting Quincy who stumbles as he runs around the arena. In response I ran towards the imposing monk narrowly dodging the powerful aura pillars that threaten to swallow me up. I leap at him preparing a strong vertical strike, but he stomps the ground one last time causing an aura pillar to erupt diagonally towards me. I try to slash the dense amount of energy before me, but it's too strong. The attack catapults me up into the air as I collide with the ceiling that’s about 200 feet in the air.

“Damn then how about this,” I say as I wipe a bit of blood from my mouth.

I create a few tornadoes of wind on my back to serve as wings as I hover above him. I rain down a barrage of wind bullets as he crosses his arms to prepare for the impact. The sheer amount of wind bullets causes so much dust to rise up I can barely see Armstrong, but I can still sense his powerful aura. I can’t tell what he's physically doing but I sense a dense concentration of aura being gathered in the dust. Two seconds later and a red ball of aura races out of the dust heading straight for me. I unleash a burst of wind to dodge to my left thinking that the attack is over, but the ball curves and heads back in my direction.

“What the heck is that attack? Since when does aura have a mind of its own,” I complain.

“That ball locks on to an opponents’ aura tracking them wherever they go,” Armstrong explains.

Gah I’ve seen this attack in many manga before and I know just how to deal with it. I evade the orb once more and make a mad dash right at Armstrong. Just before I collide with him, I open a portal to send me out of the way and his orb collides with him.

“Yes, I’ve done it,” I celebrate.

The dust clears and I witness Armstrong holding back his orb with his own two hands as it pushes him back.

“HRAH!” he yells as he pushes the orb upwards and it explodes.

“As expected of the pupil of the man who specializes in hitting people with their own attacks. Although I would rather be fighting him right now,” Armstrong comments.

“Yeah I wish it was him fighting you instead of me too,” I say, agreeing with the large man.

Damn this man can take everything I throw at him and while I can keep pelting him with wind bullets to no avail it does nothing but stall for time. All his aura attacks are problematic and I’m definitely not strong enough to take those to the face. However I do know an attack can temporarily subdue an opponent's aura although I don’t know if it’ll work or not. Only one way to find out.

“Alright Armstrong I’m going to throw everything I have at you, so prepare yourself. Actually no, don't prepare yourself, it’d be easier for me to attack that way,” I tell him.

“HA, I’m getting real fired up now if you excite me too much I might not be able to stop,” he threatens.

I begin to open a portal beneath his feet causing him to jump up into the air just as I planned.

I quickly pull out my book on wind spells and cast a less powerful version of my tornado spell.

“Encase my opponent in a fury of razor wind

WHIRLWIND”

A vortex of rapid air surrounds Armstrong, keeping him a float. I don’t expect this to do any damage since the spell itself isn’t that strong but it should immobilize him for a few seconds. Just enough time for one attack. I place both hands on my sword and channel wind magic through it as the black blade is now surrounded in a torrent of air. I waste no time unleashing a powerful vertical strike through the air that cuts the Whirlwind in half and colliding with the monk inside. That whirlwind threw so much dirt in the air that I can’t tell if it worked or not.

Suddenly Armstrong rushes out of the dust like a cannonball and grabs me by the throat, pinning me against the wall.

The Theme of My Demise

“HA! Not a bad attempt I’d give you a 6/10 for your efforts,” Armstrong says as he cocks back his right hand for a final punch.

I futilely try to strike back by punching him in the chest. It doesn’t do much, but I’ve made contact.

“Come on what was that, I’ve seen toddlers hit harder than that,” he says in a disappointed tone.

“Yeah well what toddler can do this. AURA WAVE EXPLOSION!”

The entirety of my aura floods to a single point before exploding at the center of contact. All my aura is visible for a brief second as it flares out covering half the arena. The force of the attack causes Armstrong to let go of me as he gets sent flying to the other end of the arena.

I put every bit of my remaining energy into that attack so it better have done something.

“How… was…. That...” I coughed as I could finally breathe after being held by Armstrong’s vice grip.

Seeing Armstrong get blasted away causes Quincy to stop running in shock.

“Dang what was that attack?” Quincy asks.

“It was a technique one of the reapers taught to me,” I responded.

“Akane?”

“No, the other one.”

“Thief?”

“God no!”

“Ah then you stole a technique from Archer while he was kicking our asses.”

“I wish but no, that was called an Aura Wave Explosion and I learned it from Sirius,” I tell him.

“Oh Snickerdoodle, I remember you telling me about that guy,” Quincy comments.

“Yeah and if I performed it correctly Armstrong shouldn’t be able to use aura for a good minute,” I informed him.

“That’s if your opponent isn’t a monk, did the person who taught you that technique forget to mention that,” Armstrong says as he jumps right back in front of us with his red aura flaring higher than ever.

“Ah crap! Why the hell did Sirius never tell me that,” I swear.

“He probably never knew that attack isn’t as effective on those who have mastery over aura, although it stunned me for a few seconds. It would have worked on someone like your friend though. HA! HA! HA! I haven’t been hit with a wave explosion since I last fought the guild leader of Kraken’s Deep! I am so fired up now, I’m going to go all out and show you a real special move!” Armstrong announces as he jumps back into the air.

Armstrong charges all of his red aura into his fist, and all the incredibly dense aura around him is making him levitate in the air. The sound of all his aura rushing into his fist makes a loud audible crackling noise that changes into what sounds like a Dragon’s Roar.

“Will I think you’re f*cked, oh and I remembered I still have 10 miles to run, so I’ll go finish those somewhere else that’s not here!” Quincy tells me before running out of the arena.

“Thanks for the moral support Quincy!” I shout.

Ok Will it is now time to surpass your limits. What am I saying? That shounen bullshit ain’t gonna work here it's time to run away. I try to open a portal but I don’t even have the energy to right now. I am completely and utterly f*cked.

“It’s time! Are you ready boy! This is one of my signature techniques! GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” Armstrong roars.

“I am not ready. I am not ready. I am not ready. I am not ready. I am not ready,” I desperately chant.

“DRAGON’S DESCENT”

A large red dragon of pure aura is unleashed from the palm of Armstrong’s hand. The sound of a dragon’s roar reverberates through the arena with an intensity that it could probably be heard by everyone in Colonus.

The enormous red dragon crashes into me as I futilely put my hands up to receive it. I’m sorry Vienna I didn’t think this would be the way I go out. I know I don’t have anything left and even if I did it wouldn’t be enough for this attack. But still I won’t die this easily. The only choice left is that…

Life Energy.

The bits of power I have left are multiplied exponentially as everything is put into my hands to hold the dragon back.

“Stop that you fool,” someone says as I get chopped in the back of the head causing me to pass out for a few seconds.

I open my eyes and I’m being held over Vasavir’s shoulder as I notice we’re outside North Point nearby the tournament’s arena. I glance over to see Armstrong a dozen feet away breathing heavily after performing his technique.

“What just happened? Am I dead? Where’s the dragon?” I frantically asked.

“To answer those questions. I teleported everything in that arena out here, you’re not dead just stupid, and for the dragon look up,” Vasavir points.

I stare at the sky as I see Armstrong’s Dragon fly away into the atmosphere.

“Now Armstrong I can understand getting hyped for a fight, but using such an attack on a weakling like him is simply overkill. Besides, killing the first hero is a national crime and then how would we deal with the demon wave,” Vasavir lectures as he addresses Armstrong.

“I’m sorry I got a little carried away, a real nasty habit of mine,” he replies.

“You could have killed me and probably everyone in the guild too, you muscle headed oaf,” I yelled at him.

“HA! But it looked like you held back the dragon for a few seconds, that just shows the boundless potential you have,” Armstrong complements.

“Yes with life energy and he was quite stupid to try to take on that attack. If you were going to resort to life energy then couldn't you have used it to make a portal to get away,” Vasavir tells me.

“Um, yeah in hindsight that wasn’t really the best idea,” I say, aware of my own stupidity.

“It's been a while, but I am actually angry that someone almost killed my student. Usually they kill themselves, so Will, I’ll finish your fight for you,” Vasavir says.

“Oh so you're finally giving me the fight I’ve wanted for a while now,” Armstrong says getting hyped.

“This won’t be that fight given how much of aura you used with that attack. I’ll only use one attack.”

“One attack it seems you underestimating me a fair bit there old timer,” Armstrong says.

“Will stay behind me,” Vasavir commands as he drops me on the ground behind him.

Armstrong charges forward with speed that makes my fight with him child’s play. Although before he reaches Vasavir, Armstrong is trapped within a cube of blue energy. Then a blue portal appears inside the cube filling the entire structure with fire. When the fire stops and the cube dissipates I see Armstrong is left kneeling as his entire body is covered in scorch marks.

“What.. was that?” I say, amazed by what just occurred.

“That was a spell called Absolute Cube, capable of absorbing any one attack no matter how powerful it is. Then it was simply a matter of opening a portal to the planet's core,” Vasavir elucidates.

“Ha, ha, ha, you got me you old man. Damn, the planet’s core is hot, hotter than any fire magic user I’ve ever faced,” Armstrong says before passing out on the spot.

“Should we do something, is he ok?” I asked.

“He’ll be fine, he should be walking by tomorrow, I’m sure the emperor will do something since we left his body outside the arena. Now eat this,” Vasavir commands as he gives me a yellow cube that looks like gelatin.

“Uh what’s this?”

“Ambrosia is a special kind of healing item, commonly nicknamed the nectar of the gods. Should restore you to full condition in about two days,” he explains.

“This isn’t going to destroy my insides or anything like Azura’s remedies?”

“No, her remedies only cause pain because she’s an inexperienced healer. The legendary healers in the upper echelons of the guilds can make flawless remedies and perform powerful healing spells that rival a demon’s regenerative abilities. The few healers who are that powerful tend to be around the rank of messiah. Items like that are usually reserved for the emperor so be grateful, although I do suppose you're next in line,” Vasavir contemplates.

I stuff the gelatin in my mouth expecting to immediately be hit with a stomach ache, but instead I feel fine. I feel as if my injuries are washing away and my spirit is filled with vigor.

“Now I suppose it was a bit out of character for me to get angry like that so what say you and I head back to my workshop so you can read my completed book,” Vasavir suggests.

Given that he’s saved my life and prevented me from suffering from Azura’s treatment I am obligated to go with him. This day has been extremely stressful and I am not looking forward to the tournament, but as long as I don’t have to face anyone as strong as Armstrong in the tournament I think I’ll be ok.