Arthur shifted in his seat uneasily when he saw Emma's partner walk toward the arena. He wasn't worried about his win, but his friend's. He was confident about his abilities, but he had never seen Emma inscribe runes. She also didn't have outstanding achievements in the earlier rounds.
Emma's partner was a girl with long hair. Arthur didn't know who she was, so he was about to look it up when Yurirl told him who she was.
"She's from Janea," Yurirl introduced. "She's the daughter of a prominent potions family."
"Doesn't that mean she's not a combat type of person?" Arthur frowned slightly. However, Yurirl shook his head as he munched on the raisins. Arthur thought he must have liked them.
"That's what one would think," Yurirl threw another raisin into his mouth. "But potions require materials from dangerous areas."
Arthur nodded in understanding as no more was needed for him to understand. As he looked back, the girl with wavy blue hair seemed confident against her opponent.
The staff counted down with the audience again and Arthur sat on the edge of his seat. What were the abilities of the granddaughter of a grandmaster? He wanted to know.
The fight began and the opponent threw a runic card in the air. It turned into a blade of flames and the opponent controlled it to attack the girl with the wavy hair, who was called Tin Rasan.
Tin was still as confident and took out a single card from her belt. As he looked at the screen, Arthur realized that there was only a single card in her possession. He gaped before standing up quickly and rushing outside.
He wanted to see what kind of card Emma created that took a full hour. The staff said something about staying in his room, but Arthur rushed ahead without replying. The staff stood there for a moment before Yurirl came out as well and told the staff to tag along to monitor them.
Luckily, the arena was close to their room and Arthur reached it after twenty seconds. He stepped into the sun and heard the audience roar at the top of their lungs. His ability was like an itch that pricked at his consciousness with the emergence of a rune he had never seen before.
As Arthur looked at the arena, Tin has already activated the card by now. A giant ethereal bird stood parched on her shoulder as it deflected the sword with its wings.
"A summoning rune." Arthur laughed with excitement. "It's a summoning rune."
There were all kinds of runes out there in the world. Like the flaming sword had a specific rune that allowed it to condense flames in a single blade that was more destructive, there were also unique runes like summoning runes.
Summoning was one of the most controversial topics in the world. No one truly understood where these creatures came from, but there were many theories regarding this topic. Some said that they came from the other world, others said they came from different dimensions. Regardless of their origins, summoning runes worked like a portal to teleport these creatures here.
Each portal would link to a specific creature and summons it to the world. That's to say, there were different types of summoning runes. Depending on the rune, a different type of monster would be summoned.
It was like describing your package to a mailman so that he would recognize it and bring it. A rune would be your description, and the package would be the summoned creature. That's why summoning runes were so rare.
Even the tiniest mistake could make the summoning fail. Emma must have worked most of her life to learn this rune and she had succeeded, despite it being merely an ethereal creature.
The eagle screeched and mana waves spread in the arena, shaking the flaming sword and its user. The opponent threw several other cards as four more elemental weapons manifested to fight on his behalf and protect him, but the summoned monster spread its wings and prepared to fly.
With a flap of its wings, the eagle disappeared and appeared above the arena. It majestically looked at the weapons coming in its way before spreading its wings and flapping them, creating azure wind blades that flew toward the weapons.
The elemental weapons broke down to the amazed cries of the crowd. Arthur clenched his fist with excitement as he looked at the eagle that was trying to fade. The wind blades carried on in their way toward the opponent before disqualifying him completely.
There was a moment of silence before the crowd stood up from their seats and applauded, roared, and chanted the name of their next queen. Arthur looked at their feverish faces and knew that Emma had succeeded in making a name for herself.
"How are we going to beat that?" Yurirl's voice came from behind him and Arthur couldn't help but wonder about it himself.
"I don't know," Arthur shook his head. "But I'm not losing." He turned and walked back as Yurirl looked at him in the eyes. Amid the cheers of the crowd, Arthur heard Yurirl's whisper as he walked past him.
"I know you won't."
He didn't stop and continued forward, albeit questioning Yurirl's word for a second. However, he treated them as encouragement and returned to his room. He sat on his chair as he listened to the staff telling him that he can't leave his room.
"Please follow me now." The staff said and Arthur followed him with a sigh. There was another inspection where Arthur was searched and scanned for any runes or artifacts. This procedure has already happened before and Arthur had to give them his storage artifact to ensure he wasn't cheating.
After he returned to the room, he found Yurirl already sitting there eating his raisins. Despite his serious and handsome face, there was something childish about the way he ate his food.
"Do you like them?" Arthur pulled his cheer and sat down, grabbing a handful of snacks too. The two munched together as they watched the duels.
"Mm," Yurirl made a sound like he was thinking about it. He examined the raisin closely before throwing it into his mouth. "I've never had them before."
"Never?" Arthur asked with shock. "Why not?"
"I was too busy,"
"With what?"
"Training, mostly." Yurirl thought for a bit and answered. Arthur stayed silent and nodded.
"My dad used to love them too," Arthur said. "That's why we always have them at home."
"Is your dad here today?" Yurirl asked without pausing his eating. Arthur glanced at him and didn't know if Yurirl was feigning ignorance or simply hasn't looked him up.
'Well, he's one of the world's genius awakeners. Why would he care about my past?' Arthur admonished himself for being too self-conceited.
"No, I haven't seen him for three years."
"Oh."
"Yours?"
"Died."
"Oh."
There were no words of sympathy between the two. They kept eating and Arthur offered Yurirl another pack of raisins since he looked like he was about to finish the one he had.
In the ninth round, Roy's turn came. He arrived before Arthur and Emma in a few days because he was with his master. In the end, Roy won by a semi-runic circle created by throwing five identical runic cards. The semi-circle created an earth golem that the partner controlled to achieve victory by a slight margin.
In the last round, Arthur only recognized Nera and the thin young man. Luckily, they weren't fighting against each other. Nera's runes were not that powerful, but the control they allowed over mana was finer than the rest. Her partner used a card that created mana arrows to achieve victory.
The thin man also won in an unusual way. His runes, once revealed, made even Arthur frown. He created runes that reflected the damage they sustained. This way, the opponent was helpless. In the end, the man's partner used an offensive rune to end the fight.
"The next round will start in two hours." An announcement came and the audience began to leave. They headed toward the interior compartments of the coliseum where restaurants and entertainments were provided. The announcer also mentioned something about betting stands inside.
"Yurirl," Arthur smiled. "Why don't you bet on us?"
"I don't bet," Yurirl said with a frown. As if this idea was too bizarre, he continued seriously. "I never underestimate people's capabilities."
"Uh," Arthur was taken aback. "You said that I won't lose earlier, so it's free money?" Despite his odds being high making the return rather negligible, it was still free money.
"I know you won't lose." Yurirl shook his head. "But that doesn't mean what I know is right. It's better that I rely on myself for money."
Arthur went silent and studied the man in front of him seriously. He didn't want to admit it, but this young man's charisma was off the chart. He looked like the perfect protagonist of a novel that Arthur liked back in the days.
"Why do you think I won't lose? You've seen the runes other people used." Arthur was curious.
"Well," Yurirl looked away for the first time as he answered. "Just a feeling." Arthur looked at him and mused to himself.
This man didn't know how to lie.