-Sarii-

[An Alten word, meaning any of “bring,” “to bring,” and “bringer.”]

Sarii threw off her uniform robe, allowing it to fall in the pit next to the platform. Underneath, she was wearing a simple black tank top that fit her tightly, and black pants that were more spacious, but still made her legs look thin. She then drew a thin, long sword from its sheath, which hung from her waist.

Arel pulled a simple longsword from his waist as well. He was wearing a variation of the uniform robe that seemed more geared towards combat, and instead of the white-focused color scheme, his was black with a golden trim. “You know, Lady Rel,” he began speaking loudly with a smile on his face, “If you’d simply accept my family’s offer, we could help you get the promotions you’ve been fighting so hard for.”

She rolled her neck, and flourished her weapon, falling into a combat ready stance, “I’ve already told you, both an hour ago and a year ago, I’m not interested,” she spat. “And even if my family was interested in the deal, I’ve already decided to earn my way through. I will not allow myself to simply be carried to the top anymore.”

“Very well,” Arel shrugged, taking up a relaxed stance, “Let’s end this quickly then.” He beckoned her to approach with a lax hand wave.

Sarii took in a sharp breath, and launched herself into the air, moving toward him with an explosion of fyrun. While in the air, she thrust her free hand toward him, and mouthed a two syllable phrase. From her outstretched hand, a beam of light shot towards Arel, creating a massive flash of extremely bright light around him. Looking at it was almost like looking directly at the sun, I could only imagine what it was like for Arel there.

After the explosion of light went off, Sarii flipped herself in the air so her legs were pointing up, and her sword was pointing directly at Arel. She then created another explosion at her feet, and quickly flew towards her opponent. A split second after she dipped into the ball of light, a sharp noise rang out.

A whirlwind of darkness cleared the light, revealing Sarii, whose sword was caught in a bubble around Arel, who still wore the same cocky smile. Sarii’s feet landed on the bubble, and she pushed the sword further in. Suddenly, at the tip of her blade, another blast of fyrun went off, shattering the bubble from inside. It would have been a devastating blow to Arel, had he not created another bubble shield closer to his body.

As the bubble shattered, Sarii jumped off, performing a backflip and landing on her feet. She didn’t let up there, and quickly resumed her attacks, not giving Arel a single moment to recover and prepare. Though from what I could tell, he didn’t need it, as he still looked confident and relaxed, despite the pressure.

As quickly as Sarii approached, using another blast of fyrun to propel her forward, Arel took down his barrier, and created a transparent shield around his free hand using the same spell.

I’d end up asking between fights, and according to Oroske, the incantation is “anur,” and means shield, or barrier, and was classified as a “simple aspect.” Which is a type of spell that’s not one of the elements, but is simple enough that it’s very close, and can be someone’s elemental affinity, albeit rarely, and is more often their aspect affinity.

Sarii’s next move was a simple series of very fast thrusts. Her speed was impressive, it almost looked like there were multiple blades thrusting at the same time at points. While I struggled to follow her movements, Arel seemed to be able to not only follow them, but even predict them, as he deftly dodged each and every stab with ease.

He allowed her barrage to continue for a few seconds, before slamming her blade upward with his magic shield. She managed to hang on to her weapon, but was left open for Arel to counter attack. However, for some reason he didn’t follow through, and instead let her recover.

“Come on, Sarii,” He jeered with a smug look on his face, “Let’s give these people a proper show. Make your next shot count, hit me with all you’ve got.” He then leaped over her, with the help of a burst of wind, landing in the center of the arena, finally moving from his starting position near the edge of the circle. He turned to face her, and beckoned her once more.

Having regained her composure, Sarii flicked her sword downward and heaved a heavy sigh. She turned around slowly and dramatically, clearly taking the advice of “giving us a show.”

“I do wish you’d take this fight more seriously,” She said, pointing her sword at him, earning her a sarcastic shrug from her opponent.

She then threw her sword into the ground. She stuck her hands out, palms open and facing the pommel, and closed her eyes to focus. A small circle of light formed at the base of the weapon’s handle, similar to the circles I had seen Kared and the Necromancer use. The circle quickly moved down the length of the sword, the five pointed star within rotating slowly. Upon reaching the tip of the thin blade, it disappeared. Just as it did, over a dozen circles like it began circling around her, at a slight angle. From those circles, copies of her main weapon emerged, made entirely of a golden light.

After picking her weapon back up, another circle appeared, directly under Arel. I couldn’t make out any details within the circle, as just as quickly as it appeared, a massive pillar of light burst forth from it, stretching all the way through the ceiling of the arena.

The light swords shot out from their orbit around Sarii, and began to orbit around the pillar of light. Then one by one, they began shooting into light, quickly replaced by new copies, resulting in an endless barrage of light blades.

After a few rounds of the blades shooting into the light, Sarii suddenly disappeared in a flash of the same light. A small line of light shot from where she had been standing into the pillar, which had begun to fade.

A loud ring, much like the one heard earlier when Arel blocked Sarii, rang out once again. This time however, no whirlwind of shadow followed to clear the light. Probably because it wasn’t needed, the shockwave from Sarii’s blade slamming Arel’s shield was enough.

With the light cleared, it was revealed that Arel had crouched down, and placed one hand on the ground. Surrounding his hand was a blue circle, and from the edges of that circle, a transparent barrier formed around him. He had a wild smile on his face that reminded me a lot of Oroske when he was fighting.

Dissatisfied that she hadn’t broken through Arel’s shield, Sarii launched herself into the sky. High above, mere feet away from the ceiling, she created a platform of light for her to stand on.

Arel maintained his shield, probably unsure of what Sarii would do next. At that moment, I expected her to just barrage the shield from above.

Instead however, a small thread of light shot from her hand down to Arel. She flicked her hand up, and suddenly Arel was thrown up into the sky, brought just beneath her. Her weapon became enshrouded in fire, and she jumped off her platform. If not for her sword, she would have been diving headfirst toward Arel and his shield. Upon contact with his shield, the flame on Sarii’s weapon shot forward, creating a large explosion. The explosion sent her upward, and Arel fell quickly to the ground. She hung up in the air, waiting for the moment Arel hit the ground with a loud thud, sending up a cloud of dust from the crushed stone from the platform.

As soon as he did, the small thread appeared again, but instead of bringing Arel up, Sarii shot downward at incredible speed. In reality, she landed less than a second after he did.

Or rather, she would have, but she was met with yet another shield. Instead of the sound we heard earlier, it sounded more like glass shattering. Upon closer inspection, it seemed like he brought up multiple layers of the shield. There were two layers remaining upon impact, but it seemed like Sarii still had some force as one of them shattered seconds later. It seemed however, it was not enough to break through the last layer.

She seemed exhausted, as she fell to her hands and knees on the barrier. It almost looked like she was floating above Arel.

The shield began to curl around her, and formed a bubble, trapping her within. Arel pushed it away from him, and stood up. “That was much better,” he said with content in his voice, as the bubble tightened around Sarii, binding her body. “Now, if you’ll just surrender, we can end this without any injury. Or we can do it the hard way, your choice.” The shield binding her forced her to the ground in front of him, and he pointed his sword at her face as he spoke. He wore no expression, while Sarii was visibly uncomfortable and upset.

“Fine,” she said after a moment of silence. Her voice was filled with sadness and frustration, “I concede, you win.” It sounded like she was trying her best not to break into tears.

Arel raised his sword, pointing toward the sky, as though celebrating his victory.

The same chime sound echoed throughout the arena, and a voice rang out “And the winner is, Arel Anur! Sarii Rel put on a good show, I think it’s likely she’ll finally get her well deserved promotions, but we won’t know until the end of the night! And for our next match we’ll see-”

My attention was taken away from the announcer by Oroske speaking up, “An impressive fight, eh?”

“Indeed,” Kared agreed with a nod, “Though I must wonder if that girl is aware of just how much her opponent held back.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, leaning forward so I could see her past Nadred and Jarou better.

“Based on his attitude towards the fight, as well as the fact he was purely defensive throughout the entire fight, one could assume he held back quite a bit,” she gave the first part of her explanation, “In addition, at the end there he revealed he is capable of very high level magic. And while it’s in his name, I doubt Anur is his affinity or his aspect. Meaning, if he were to use magic he has latent talent for, it should be much stronger, and at that level, nothing Sarii used would have even come close to his power output.”

I just kinda looked at her dumbfounded. I understood what she was saying, but that she could say stuff like that confidently was just another reminder of how much there was left for me to learn.

“Still though,” Nadred spoke up, “Anur huh? Think there’s any relation there, Kared?”

Kared pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance, “Ugh, maybe? Hair and eye color match, and his physical and magical strength seem high enough to be. I wouldn’t be too surprised, that woman would have kids with just about anyone if it meant having a strong child. Though if I’m honest, it doesn’t really matter to me.”

“Who are you talking about?” Jarou asked before I got the chance.

“Don’t worry about it, just someone from my past, they’re not important,” was the only response Kared gave. Nadred protested saying there’s nothing wrong with him knowing, but she wouldn’t budge. Whoever it was, I got the impression Kared had some sort of grudge against them.

During our conversation, the next match had started. Unfortunately, I missed the names of both contestants. This would happen for pretty much every match until the end, though occasionally I’d catch one of the names, and I still watched each fight with great interest. Something about each of the fights, however, just wasn’t as interesting as that first battle. Perhaps because there wasn’t really an underdog narrative to any of the fights?

Between the fights, we’d make small talk and comment about the fights. Through this pattern, the night flew by quickly, and the final match was soon upon us.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” The announcer’s voice rang out once again, “The final battle of the night is upon us. Those in the know likely aren’t surprised about the contestants, as they’re commonly referred to as the school’s strongest! We are of course talking about Arel Anur from Tower 15, and from Tower 16, the ever mysterious ‘VX!’ These two have been hard at work the past year researching new techniques and advancements in magic and technology, all of which culminates here and now! We’re in for quite the treat, I think.”

As the announcement finished, the contestants approached the stage as usual. Arel Anur needs no introduction, but VX does. VX was quite an eye-catching contestant, not only did they go by their initials instead of their actual name, they also hid their gender, and everything to do with their appearance. From what the announcers said in their earlier matches, VX supposedly is never found without their signature armor, a heavy looking outfit of dark plate mail, the various plates lined with a red trim. The helmet especially looked cool, as it was mostly a large black visor, with red horns or wings adorning the sides and going off the back.

After hearing these two are commonly considered the strongest in the school, I decided to give my all to watch the fight.

And once again, the buzzer rang, signaling the beginning of battle.