After Yvi and Liliana returned, Daimon waited for a moment before saying.
“Is Leslie okay, the shockwave behind that tiger’s paw wasn’t light at all and she isn’t a knight?”.
Yvonne sighed remembering the three claw marks which were still bleeding on Leslie’s back before they
“She will be fine, the flames of the women of the fire crane race are affected by strong emotions, pain and anger are like fuel for them… if it weren’t because she got practically her counter in the form of a water attributed knight and the time limit, she could have won with just “Phoenix Dance” without relying on “Feather Massacre”.
Daimon agreed with them, that battle technique which resembled some kind of dance, focused on graciously redirecting the attacks of the enemies and take advantage of the momentum to launch a counterattack.
And that wasn’t all, she condensed all the flames she could manipulate into those streams that swirled around her body like gymnastics ribbons, the heat generated by all that fire condensed in such little shapes was enough to burn through Daniel’s battle aura and damage his armor.
‘That dance should have required quite a lot of practice to take it to a real combat state, if Daniel didn’t have water affinity, she could have easily dealt with a three-star knight, and with those flame wings she should be able to at least stall a fourth star ranked’, concluded Daimon.
He couldn’t help but praise Leslie for taking the attack of the paw on purpose, dispelling the protection of the fire wings just enough to receive the damage she needed to increase the power of her flames.
This time the referees did the selection process and a moment later the next participants were selected.
“Rank number 5, Liliana Risha”.
“Rank number 9, Jason Jolbaris”.
“Another idiot who forced his advance”, mumbled Daimon as Liliana was going up the platform, making sure she heard it.
Originally Liliana should have the advantage as she is an early stage two star ranked mage, while Jason used to be a middle stage one star ranked mage, but just like Daniel, Jason pushed his advance with some pills.
On the other hand, judging by Liliana’s expression she wasn’t worried about her opponent at all, from the very beginning she took out her weapon of choice, a rapier, for this fight she was using sport leggings below her skirt which had a few straps hanging from some of the pleats, a blouse and on top of that a light metal armor which protected her chest, arms and legs while leaving space for her to maneuver however she wanted, besides that, her usual emotionless expression was now slightly tinged with anger.
“You’ll pay for Leslie’s wounds”, she said as she pointed her rapier at Jason.
As for Jason, his weapon was a spear and was wearing a green robe with leather armor, a normal choice for mages since most of them didn’t have a high physical strength, he rolled his spear a couple of times creating a current of wind as he answered Liliana’s gesture.
The referees gave the greenlight and the match started, not even a second later ice spiked raised from the ground aiming at Jason’s legs, mobility is all for wind mages, to it’s a standard move to aim at their legs.
‘Humph, I’m not as stupid as Daniel’, thought Jason as he used his movement spell to easily avoid Liliana’s ice spikes, but as soon as he landed, he hurriedly crossed his spear in front of him, barely blocking Liliana’s rapier.
“Clang!”, a loud chirp produced by two metals colliding filled the arena, Jason’s face paled although he blocked that attack, he was pushed back a few centimeters, but that wasn’t what was worrying him, but the fact that he didn’t see how Liliana suddenly appeared near him.
Without giving Jason a chance to rest, ice spikes raise from the ground making Jason jump backwards to avoid them, but then a whistling sound left him deft for a split of a second as he moved his head sidewards barely avoiding the tip of Liliana’s rapier.
Even then, a small cut which immediately froze appeared on his right cheek, Jason’s pupils contracted as Liliana retracted her arm and then thrusted forward, this time Jason properly used his spear to block the rapier and again felt his hands trembling a bit due to the impact.
“Clang~Clang~Clang”.
Lilia used a barrage of thrusts to force Jason back again and again, loud sounds of metals colliding at a really high speed made some of the weakest students cover their ears.
Daimon on the other hand was quite surprised that Liliana was so fierce, she wasn’t leaving any time for Jason to cast a spell, and since her rapier was lighter than his spear, although he was blocking her thrusts, Jason had no time to swing his weapon.
“God damn it!”, Jason noticed he was getting closer to the border of the platform and after blocking one last thrust from Liliana, he jumped sidewards while casting a spell, once he landed, he swung his spear and a wave of sharp wind was shot towards Liliana at a close distance.
But then Jason’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, and he wasn’t the only one, the spectators went crazy as they saw Liliana using her hand to block the wind blade.
“Boom!”, the wind clashed against her pale hand and besides making her step back a bit, nothing else happened, after a close inspection everyone noticed a layer of transparent ice covering Liliana’s hand like a gauntlet with spiky finger protections, little shards of ice separated from the part which blocked the ice blade a sign that the gauntlet was damaged due to the impact.
“No way!”, Jason was baffled, metal and wind have the sharpest properties and yet she dispelled a two-star spell just like that.
Suddenly a laugh from the benches drew the attention of not only Jason but the first years among the spectators.
“Without impurities ice can be even stronger than metal, it seems your class is lacking some basic knowledge”, said Calvin with a ridiculing voice.
Unfortunately, the signs of reverence that some of the first years started to develop towards Calvin after he “shared” his wisdom with them, immediately disappeared as they heard Michael saying.
“You only said that to excuse yourself from that time you gave up without fighting Liliana”.
While those two started arguing, Yvonne smiled seeing Liliana being merciless as she assaulted with a continuous series of thrusts, from time to time the rapier bypassed Jason’s defenses leaving a little puncture mark on his leather armor.
Daimon was more interested in the movement technique she used, ice mages don’t have movement spells, instead of that after using the ice spikes to distract Jason from her, she created an ice trail on which she slid as if she was ice skating, her movements were swift and well calculated so the previous would unleash the next.
“Another dance type style”, he mumbled making Yvonne giggle.
“The ancient battle techniques of the Risha family were developed by women, and while my Night Sparrow race is a sister race of those two, they are slightly closer to each other, even if their elements are totally different, both of their styles are based in graciousness and agility… well in a fight head on Lili is the strongest out of the three”.
Daimon couldn’t help but softly laugh.
“I don’t imagine you “dancing” on the platform like those two, Yvi”.
The corner of Yvonne’s lips trembled, luckily the technique of her family wasn’t like that.
…
Back at the platform Jason was slowly going crazy, each time Liliana bypassed his defenses, the tip of her sword just sightly pierced the armor and his skin barely making him bleed, it was like being punctured by countless of needles.
Still, he noticed a sudden opening in Liliana’s attacks and he took the chance to jump out of her reach, even before he landed on the platform, gusts of wind gathered around his body creating a ball of rotating sharp air.
“Claw Scythe!”, he shouted as he jumped towards Liliana, now that he activated his best close combat spell, he felt confident in fighting head on against Liliana.
“Humph”, Liliana stomped and spiky icebergs raised from the ground and clashed against the ball of wind blades, the wind rotating at such a high speed was basically a slicer, so as soon as the ice entered into contact it was sliced and crushed into little snowflakes, creating a pretty sight which didn’t combine with the current serious situation.
Although the ice slowed Jason a bit, he still advanced slicing everything in his way, he confidently swung his spear at Liliana only to be stopped by two rapiers, one made out of metal and the other condensed with ice.
Sparks and little shard of ice flew due to the impact, the razor like wind that formed the sphere was also slightly dispersed making Jason frown as he added more mana to his spell accelerating the wind blades once again.
“Tsk, I really didn’t want to use it, but if I don’t utterly destroy you, how am I going to face that crane girl later”, mumbled Liliana, a huge amount of mana leaked out of her.
This time Jason noticed things were different, his instincts screamed that if he didn’t protect himself, he could actually die, so without any hesitation he poured all his mana into the wind sphere making it rotate so fast that his figure was hidden from time to time.
Ice blades condensed on the straps that were hanging from Liliana’s skirt, and the same happened at certain spots of her arms, if you connected the blades, the resulting shape would be the wingspan of an eagle.
Before Jason could react Liliana’s body spin, then a rain of thrusts fell on his wind sphere.
“Clang~Clang~Clang!”.
Starting from the ice blades on her arms which shattered into ice shards as they fulfilled their purpose to cut open a space in the wind sphere, then the blades on her skirt bypassed the wind protection slicing the leather protection and lastly the ice rapier pierced Jason’s chest.
Every attack was perfectly chrono metered and executed, she looked like a majestic eagle diving to hunt a helpless prey.
“Aghhh!!!”, but that wasn’t all as Jason screamed but tried to get away to cast his spell again, he realized his feet were attached to the platform with ice.
Then blood was expelled from his mouth as a second rapier pierced his body… followed by a third, a fourth and series of ice blades that also cut his body, it was like a rain of slashes without any opening, the last rapier barely dodged his heart but there was no time for Jason to relax as he was kicked on the face making him fly out of the platform.
The people on the stands were terrified by Jason’s “pincushion” appearance, he had so many cuts that it was hard to find an unaffected area, surprisingly he wasn’t bleeding, but it was because each cut was sealed with ice, causing a huge amount of pain to Jason, enough for him to faint.
“Now you understand how I felt when Leslie was wounded earlier”, Liliana’s words made the people on the stands to feel a chill running down their spines.
The referees approached Jason and even they couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the result of their inspection, spleen, lungs, liver, gallbladder and pancreas perfectly penetrated by the rapiers, the only reason as to why Jason wasn’t suffering massive organ failure was that the ice was also sealing the wounds, but that didn’t mean it was a long-term solution, if there is something fire and ice have in common that is that exposing to them causes burns.
Still, the wounds weren’t lethal due to Liliana’s rapiers so there was nothing wrong, she cruelly but efficiently immobilized her opponent before throwing him out of the platform.
“The winner, Liliana Risha”.