Chapter 82: Unraveling Reality
The colosseum was going wild after the semi-finalists were announced, but Valerian didn’t hear any of it.
All the noise around him was tuned out, and his whole focus was on the spatial disruption high in the air.
Thanks to his attunement with Space, he could feel that there was something up there, but what exactly, he couldn’t tell. But his instincts were telling him that he was watching.
’I will get to you.’
There was only one goal, and it wasn’t to become the rank 1 to show the others how great he is, he didn’t need to tell them. Instead, it was to gain an opportunity to squeeze everything the principal knows out of him.
But to do that, Valerian had to win first.
"In the first match, we will watch as the elven prodigy Seraphine Luna Verdantia will go against the dark horse Arthur von Pendragon!"
Selene did her job as announcer and declared the first match of the semi-finals.
Valerian felt himself be surrounded by space mana, and his form disappeared from the center of the colosseum and reappeared in the stands where he sat before the tournament started.
Lucian Frost, too, was teleported away, leaving only Seraphine and Arthur in the ring.
The two of them locked eyes, crimson met crimson-magenta as both prepared themselves for the fight.
Arthur felt Seraphine’s rank and the way the mana was hugging her. His face turned into a serious expression as he took out his twin daggers.
’She’s strong, let’s see.’
’[Analyze]’
[Name: Seraphine Luna Verdantia]
[Age: 16]
[Titles: Pride of Eldoria, Princess of Verdantia, Loved by Mana]
[Race: Royal Verdant Elf]
[Bloodline: Verdantia World Tree Matriarch]
[Physique: -]
[Core: Rank A]
[Affinities: Wind, Water, Fire, Earth, Light, Darkness, Solar, Life]
[Attributes]
[Vitality: A-]
[Strength: B+]
[Agility: A+]
[Dexterity: A]
[Intelligence: SS]
[Mana: S]
[Charm: SS]
[Unique Skill]
[Reality Weaver]
’God damn it, she even has more mana than me. And she is [Loved by Mana], this could get annoying.’
Paired with her eight affinities and high intelligence, Seraphine was clearly one of the strongest of their generation. And even though her rank is below Arthur’s, her mana control would be able to somehow make up for it.
’And this [Unique Skill]... it sounds dangerous.’
[Description]
[Unique Skill: Reality Weaver]
[Allows the user to perceive the threads of existence and reweave them at will. By imposing the user’s will directly onto the fabric of reality, the user can distort physical laws, manifest conceptual phenomena, and sever established causal connections. What is woven becomes absolute truth; what is unraveled ceases to exist.]
’Fucking shit, that sounds way too strong. Why does everyone have more protagonist energy than me... first Valerian and now this girl, Seraphine. Wait...’
A sudden memory came to Arthur’s mind, and his expression turned into a grin.
The thing he remembered was back when he and Valerian were talking in the cave after they met, and Valerian was telling him about a girl he "just barely kissed", and would you believe it, the girl was standing right in front of him.
’Damn, he got taste.’
Seraphine’s SS Charm was clearly displayed, with her silver hair fluttering behind her. Her face looked like a perfect doll, and her crimson-magenta eyes burned through reality.
’Would he be mad if I beat her?’
Arthur was deep in thought when Selene was announcing the start of the fight.
"Everyone get ready for the first fight of the semi-finals!! Are you ready!"
Arthur put the thoughts about Valerian to the side and stepped forward, showing that he was ready. Seraphine did the same as she took out two longswords from her spatial ring.
Up until now, she could defeat anyone without a weapon and just relied on her magic, but she could feel Arthur’s rank and knew she couldn’t win with just magic.
’Two longswords? I kinda expected a bow.’
While Arthur kept his racism towards elves to himself, Selene began to count down.
"10!"
"9!"
"8!"
Seraphine lowered her stance, pointing her two longswords at Arthur. While she was primarily a mage, since she was an expert at mana control, her physical enhancement was several times more effective than other people’s. Making her not only a devastating ranged attacker, but also a strong melee fighter.
"7!"
"6!"
"5!"
Arthur readied himself and prepared his core to push out his mana the second the battle began.
"4!"
"3!"
"2!"
Seraphine focused on Arthur, tuning out the whole colosseum and the deafening cheering around her as her core hummed in anticipation.
"1!"
"FIGHT!"
Mana burst through Seraphine’s veins as she called upon her Wind affinity. The gales hugged her body tightly, removing all the air resistance around her. She kicked off the ground to dash towards Arthur.
But Arthur’s form disappeared from his place over 10 meters away.
Seraphine’s eyes widened as she sent out her mana sense to its max to try and find him. She didn’t have to search long, as she could feel his presence behind her, as well as the lightning mana that was practically flooding out of him.
She channeled her mana through her Light affinity and created a bright flash of light behind her.
As Arthur raised his dagger to strike her down, the bright light blinded his eyes, but he didn’t back away and just struck blindly in front of him.
But his daggers met empty air as Seraphine’s form disappeared through her shadow. Her form reappeared from behind Arthur, with one of her longswords covered in a layer of orange flames.
The fire blade was aimed directly for Arthur’s neck, but he managed to pivot away and save his neck. In one fluid motion, he turned around and kicked Seraphine in the side with his foot enhanced by lightning.
Seraphine barely managed to protect her body by moving her blade to the side, but the force behind the kick and the lightning enhancing it threw her away while the lightning burned her skin.
Her form was catapulted to the side at high speeds, as smoke came off her body.
Arthur didn’t let up and enhanced his body with lightning and wind to close the distance.
He reappeared next to the still horizontally flying Seraphine and cut down with his dagger.
Seraphine lightly brushed the stone ground under her with her hand, and a gale of wind appeared under her, pushing her out of the way of the blade.
From the place her hand touched the stone ground, spikes came out, aiming for Arthur.
But the spikes were too slow to pose a threat to him as he moved out of the way easily. He turned in the direction Seraphine was thrown by the wind, but her form disappeared from his sight.
When he couldn’t see her, a nervous feeling crept into him. With her intelligence, large arsenal of affinities, and this overpowered [Unique Skill], Arthur was nervous about what she would plan next.
He expanded his mana sense to search for her, but it came up empty, and he now realized that he had fully lost her.
’Fuck. This isn’t good.’
Every second that he spent alone in the arena, his nervousness increased, and it didn’t seem like the match would be over or canceled just because she was hiding for now.
’Damn it!’
Finally fed up with the hiding, Arthur gathered fire in his hand. The flame was a bright orange, and the heat of it was enough to distort the air around it.
Arthur punched with his fire-covered fist into the ground, and the arena below him exploded in an inferno.
The stone floors exploded and melted under the heat of his fire; the area in a 100-meter radius around him was destroyed or melted by the fire.
He didn’t really worry about the students watching, if the principal is strong enough to create thousands of mini dimensions, then he can also create a spatial distortion to make the fighting ground bigger.
But even though Arthur destroyed such a large area around him, he still couldn’t find Seraphine.
That was when the shadow underneath him began to move unnaturally. Arthur noticed the movement and tried to dodge, but before he could, tendrils made from pure darkness left his shadow and moved around his limbs faster than was normally possible.
’Fuck, she was in my shadow?!’
A part of his shadow separated from the rest and moved independently away from him. From the pool of darkness, Seraphine’s body appeared. But it was no longer the regal form of the elven princess.
Her skin was charred and her hair was burned; her breathing was heavy as the pain from the burns was clearly visible on her face.
A soft green light surrounded her, and her burns started to close slowly as the expression of pain lessened.
Her crimson-magenta eyes lit up as the green light around her took on a light crimson hue, and the healing accelerated.
Seraphine’s [Unique Skill] was maybe one of the most versatile there was. [Reality Weaver] had offensive, defensive, and supportive uses, as she used it to increase the potency of her Life affinity.
Arthur struggled against the tendrils, but somehow, no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t break them. That was when he saw that the tendrils weren’t pure black, but had a deep crimson color to them.
’She’s using her [Unique Skill] to heal herself and keep me tied up.’
Realizing that he couldn’t break the hold [Reality Weaver] had over the darkness, he activated his [Skill].
[Lightning God’s Descent]
And the tendrils burst apart in an explosion of blue lightning as the second round of their fight began.