The next few moments show me why these two’s fight was so highly anticipated. But it doesn’t take long for me to notice that since he began using his Phantom body, PM had been actively avoiding every one of Jade’s attacks. Almost like he is scared of them. Jade notices it too and he uses it to press on, forsaking defense as he focuses all his focus on attacking, and instantly putting PM at a disadvantage.

“Why does he keep dodging?” I ask Drew, talking about PM.

“Because Jade is taking advantage of his weakness. PM’s Phantom body is powerful, but there’s a limit to the amount of energy it can teleport. Once it passes a certain threshold, the pyli shatters. It didn’t really matter much before but now that Jade is using his third eye, his flames contain a whole lot more energy than before.”

I nod for a moment before my mind catches on to something Drew just said. “Third eye? What third eye?”

I turn back to the stage but no matter how I look at it Jade clearly has only two eyes. Unless…

Lathia snorts. “Can’t you see his eyes are glowing? What do you think that is? Special effects?”

“Why the heck do you even call it the third eye when in the end it’s still only two eyes you’ll have? I always thought some kind of vertical eye or something will open on the forehead, but instead, your eyes just glow?” I ask disbelievingly. “That’s just disappointing.”

“Such is the way things are,” Lathia says, imitating the air of someone wise.

Drew shakes his head. “Unless Jade can find a way to attack everywhere at once, he’ll never be able to get PM. It doesn’t take much for PM to just teleport away.”

On the stage, Jade seems to have realized the same thing as Drew. He abruptly stops his attacks, raises his hands, and claps. The simple clap is immediately eclipsed by the massive omnidirectional explosion that follows. For a brief moment, I think a mushroom cloud will form when the explosion reaches the shield surrounding the stage and collapses.

I close my eyes to protect them from the light from the explosion. A few seconds later I open my eyes and make out what is going on on the stage. PM’s Phantom Body is gone and he is partially surrounded by his pyli which forms an incomplete dome around him. It is not hard to guess what happened. PM had somehow used them to shield himself from the explosion.

Jade on the other hand is charging toward PM, obviously intending to take him down once and for all. He pushes out with his hand, summoning his flames as he does so. But something is wrong, his flames are somehow weaker than all the others he has produced so far. Judging by how his attack slowed down a bit, it is obvious he also thinks the same.

I hear murmurs of surprise as people around me wonder what is going on. Then all of a sudden Drew exclaims, “Oh my…”

Unlike the rest of us, PM isn’t as surprised, almost as though he expected it. His remaining pyli converges on his body once more as his Phantom Body is recreated. The only difference is the fingers on his right hand, which have grown to resemble knives. He dashes towards Jade, throwing caution to the wind as he raises his hand to strike. All of a sudden he blurs as he accelerates. Jade doesn’t stay idle either as a familiar-looking noer makes an appearance once more. The one Keldin had used to finish me off.

A golden beam shoots from his hand towards PM, who simply raises one hand to tank the attack as his Phantom Body visibly thins out. His pyli converging on his hand to protect him from the beam. All except those on his clawed hand. The next moment is a blur. PM speeds up once more then disappears, reappearing a few meters behind Jade. A loud sound reveberates throughout the Arena and Gabe’s familiar voice speaks out. “The winner is PM!”

I stare blankly at the stage, wondering what went on in the last few seconds of the fight. Jade’s sudden weakness, PM’s decision to abandon all defenses then disappear?

“What just happened?” I turn to a smiling Drew, who is staring at PM with a twinkle in his eyes.

“PM is a genius. Plain and simple.”

“You still haven’t told me what happened.”

“Oxygen. People who study the Elemental trump, flame elementals, require a lot of oxygen to fuel their attacks. They can use magic to do it all, but to save Uua, they prefer to start an initial fire and manipulate the oxygen in the air around them to do the rest, while also using their magic to boost the heat. The shield around the stage partially keeps out air, but it isn’t enough to make much of a difference normally…”

At this point, I am beginning to get an idea of what happened on the stage. Knowing that their powers were mostly derived from oxygen and that the stage partially prevented it, PM must have been trying to figure out a way to get rid of the oxygen around them to weaken Jade.

“When Jade saw that he couldn’t get PM with targeted attacks, he decided to use the only alternative. Area of effect attacks. But flames of that magnitude will quickly consume the oxygen around them, creating a temporary lack where there is none.”

I finish Drew’s little speech for him. “So when he saw that Jade was weakened he took advantage of the temporary lack of oxygen to launch a final attack before air flowed back in. Smart.”

On the stage, Jade stares at PM in disbelief. “That’s cheating.”

The whole Arena goes silent as he speaks. Cheating? Anyone with two working eyes could see that PM won the match fair and square. And he calls it cheating?

“Cheating?” PM asks incredulously as the glow in his eyes dies down. “I’m cheating? How the hell did I cheat?”

“You wouldn’t have won if not for the barrier preventing air from flowing back quickly enough.”

PM snorts. “That’s just me making good use of the environment. It’s in not cheating. Instead of spouting rubbish why don’t you find a better excuse for your loss.”

Flames begin to lick around Jade’s fist as he stares angrily at PM. Then he punches, unleashing a torrent of flames almost comparable to his explosion from before. PM whose pyli had been used up defending against Jade’s last attack is left defenseless, but his calm expression shows how little he cares about it. The next moment I hear a snap.

Jade suddenly transforms into PM and his look has hardly turned into one of surprise when his flames slam into him. Then PM, who had taken Jade’s place, starts to scream. All of a sudden things revert back to how they had previously been when Jade had attacked PM. But there are two differences. First is Jade who is now on fire, and then Gabe who is standing in front of PM, hand outstretched and eyes glowing white.

He makes a sharp downwards motion with his hand and the flames on Jade are immediately extinguished. Gabe drops his hand and gives Jade a long look. After a few moments of silence, he opens his mouth to speak, his voice reverberating through the Arena, despite him not showing any signs of raising his voice.

“Jade, when I was assigned to the Arena it was because I was trusted enough to make sure every fight that happens here remains fair. And now you accuse me of cheating? Do you think our Teachers were dumb when they put me here?”

Silence fills the Arena. Then Gabe turns to the stands, his face expressionless. He gives a slight bow. “Thank you everyone for attending this bout. I’m sorry to say that the Arena is closed now.” For a moment nothing happens, then quietly, one by one, everyone begins to leave the Arena.