Chapter 235: Mage Royale [II / Bonus - ]
The howling gale of displaced air and pulverized dust was still swirling through the stadium when the remaining eight Mages snapped out of their shock.
They weren’t weak civilians at all.
They were trained combatants living in the ruthless Sovereign Realm under Silas Graves and his commander.
Seeing first, Calia and now Morrigan get blasted out cold in the opening five seconds didn’t make them run... it made their instincts kick into overdrive.
"She’s out of her fucking mind!" Valeria yelled, her short-cropped red hair whipping violently in the wind. "Don’t let her set her footing! Take her down first!"
FWOOSH!
Valeria didn’t hesitate.
She thrust both of her palms forward, and two massive superheated fireballs erupted from her hands, roaring through the air like twin miniature suns.
The radiation melted the falling dust in mid-air, scorching the dirt track beneath as they hurtled straight toward Kadi!
At the exact same microsecond, Lia brought her wooden focus staff around in a sweeping, two-handed arc.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Three crescent-shaped blades of razor-sharp wind tore through the air, flanking Valeria’s fireballs from the left.
The wind blades caught the tail end of the flames, fanning the fire into a roaring, combined inferno that engulfed the entire center lane of the arena.
"HA! IS THAT ALL?!" Kadi screamed, her unhinged grin stretching so wide her cheeks looked like they were going to tear.
STOMP!
She slammed her left heel down into the dirt.
RUMBLE!
A curved, ten-foot-thick wall of solid bedrock erupted out of the earth directly in front of her once again.
BOOM!
Valeria’s fiery combined blast slammed flush into the stone barrier, exploding in a towering mushroom cloud of black smoke, orange fire, and shattered rock splinters.
The heat was so intense it scorched the wooden stadium railings twenty meters away, but Kadi’s earth wall held firm.
ZIP!
Out of the rising black smoke, Morrigan, the Shadow Weaver, materialized directly behind Kadi’s back.
’I won’t do the same thing again...’
In her hands was a singular sword woven from pure condensed darkness, aimed directly at Kadi’s kidneys!
"Ah once more? You really don’t learn your lesson..."
Kadi dodged her slash and her hand began to vibrate as she was prepared to slam it into her however...
BOOM!
Kadi and Morrigan were forced to step back as some crazy had launched lightning right in the middle of them.
"Don’t give her room!" Seraina roared, her boisterous laugh echoing as she jumped straight over the smoke!
Blue crackling electricity surged across her arms and shoulders like wild serpents as she brought her fists together above her head, channeling her Lightning aura into a dense vibrating sphere of high-voltage arc power.
"Take this!"
KRA-THOOM!
Seraina drove her electrified fist straight into the top of Kadi’s defensive stone wall!
The wall shattered into a million exploding cobblestones as the lightning shockwave burst downward, scorching the dirt floor black with voltage arcs spider-webbed in every direction.
BANG!
Kadi was forced to leap backward once again, her boots scraping across the dirt track as blue sparks singed her sandy-brown hair.
Unfortunately the same thing could not be said for Morrigan as she was caught in the cross fire with the explosion knocking her out.
"Sorry, Mori darling but I need to get that position!"
"Eat this, crazy!" Eliora screamed, stepping up from the right flank.
The stern Ice Sculptor thrust her crystal orb forward and the ambient moisture in the hot morning air instantly froze into hundreds of razor-sharp ice needles hovering in mid-air.
SWOOSH!
With a flick of her wrist, the storm of ice needles shot forward like a gatling gun, aiming to impale Kadi’s arms and legs.
’They’re actually doing very well... Spending time with me can’t be that motivating, can it?’
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Kadi didn’t even bother casting an defensive spell as she threw her body forward into a wild roll, avoiding the primary arc of ice needles.
Three of the sharp ice shards grazed her shoulder and thigh, slicing through her tunic and drawing bright red blood, but she didn’t even flinch.
She sprung off the ground like an untamed beast, closing the distance on Eliora in a fraction of a second.
THWACK!
"No you eat!"
Kadi didn’t use magic as she drove her fist straight into Eliora’s jaw.
A sickening crack echoed through the stadium as Eliora’s head snapped back.
The stern looking ice mage went limp immediately with her crystal orb falling from her numb fingers and shattering on the dirt as her body collapsed sideways onto the ground, completely knocked out.
"SHE’S THROWING HANDS?!" Venma gasped in utter shock from the back lines!
"THIS IS A MAGE ROYALE, NOT A BRAWL!" Thalia yelled, her quiet demeanor vanishing as she stomped both boots into the arena floor.
Thalia, the Earth Shaper, raised her arms, attempting to override Kadi’s control over the dirt!
RUMBLE!
The ground beneath Kadi’s feet turned into liquid mud, sinking her down to her knees!
"NOW! JUMP HER!" Aurelia shouted!
The tall elegant Light Weaver didn’t waste time with long incantations.
She charged forward alongside Thalia with her hands glowing with blinding solid-light daggers!
Two Mages tried jumping Kadi simultaneously while she was trapped in the mud pit as Aurelia thrust her solid-light daggers toward Kadi’s chest, while Thalia swung a heavy stone-coated gauntlet straight at her head!
BANG!
CLANG!
Kadi’s unhinged grin only grew wider... While she was trapped in the mud, she ducked her head low, letting Thalia’s heavy stone fist graze the top of her skull, tearing skin and sending blood trickling down her forehead into her eyes!
With her eyes stinging with blood and brown earth mana, Kadi reached up with both hands, grabbing Aurelia’s wrist and Thalia’s arm simultaneously.
"GOTCHA, SWEETIES!" Kadi cackled.
THUD!
Using pure, raw physical momentum and reinforcement magic, Kadi violently slammed both girls’ heads together with a brutal, bone-crunching impact.
CRACK!
Aurelia and Thalia’s eyes rolled up into their heads instantly.
Their spells dissolved into fine dust as both women collapsed face-first into the mud beside her, completely unconscious!
Up in the viewing box, Silas leaned forward against the wooden railing, a low whistle escaping his lips.
"Damn," Silas muttered, watching the sandy-brown-haired girl wipe blood out of her eyes with her forearm. "She’s not just a caster... She’s a straight-up pit fighter. Is she perhaps related to Brida?"
Beside him, Morwenna took a slow sip from her wooden mug with a wicked approving smirk spreading across her sharp face.
"I like her, Captain. She’s got pirate grit. She doesn’t give a damn about proper form... she just wants to cave skulls in."
Eluned, still clinging tightly to Silas’s right arm, sniffed indignantly, though even her divine eyes flickered with surprise. "She’s far too chaotic... but her earth density is surprisingly pure for a mortal."
"Regardless, Morwenna. Our mages are glass cannons, weren’t you teaching them physical coordination or something?!"
Morwenna’s cheeks redenned.
’I-I forgot...’
Down in the arena, the battle reached a boiling point.
Out of the original ten contestants, six were already unconscious on the dirt.
Only four remained standing: Kadi, Valeria, Lia and Seraina
Kadi dragged herself out of the mud pit with her sandy-brown tunic shredded, her arms covered in cuts, and blood dripping steadily from her head down her cheek.
Yet her brown-glowing eyes burned with an unholy light.
Valeria, Lia, and Seraina backed up into a tight triangular formation, their breath coming in heavy gasps.
"We can’t fight her one-by-one!" Valeria spat, blood trickling from her lip where a stray rock splinter had hit her. "She counters direct physical ground attacks so I’m wiping the whole ring!"
"Valeria, wait!" Lia gasped, holding her wooden focus staff with trembling hands. "Your mana output—"
"SHUT UP AND COVER ME!" Valeria screamed!
Valeria planted her boots wide, throwing both arms straight up into the sky.
BOOM!
A massive, terrifying surge of crimson mana erupted from her body like a volcanic pillar. The air inside the stadium instantly spiked by twenty degrees as the melting snow outside the arena walls evaporated into white steam before it even touched the stone channels!
Hovering fifteen feet above the center of the arena, a colossal, terrifying fireball began to condense! It grew from five feet... to ten feet... to a massive twenty-foot sphere of churning superheated flame!
The heat was so intense that the wooden bleachers in the stadium began to singe and smoke.
Valeria was attempting to summon a massive fireball over ALL of their heads to knock out everyone in the ring at once!
"DIE, YOU CRAZY BASTARD!" Valeria shrieked, her face pale from mana exhaustion as she brought her arms crashing down.
The massive sun-like fireball plummeted straight down toward the dirt floor, threatening to incinerate the remaining contestants and blast the entire arena to ash.
"SERAINA! LIA! DO IT NOW!" Kadi yelled, her voice cutting through the roaring flames. It would take all of them out for sure...
For a split second, the remaining two mages didn’t attack Kadi... they reacted to the incoming apocalyptic fireball instead.
Lia thrust her focus staff upward!
SWOOSH!
A massive hurricane gale blasted out from her wand, creating a temporary air-cushion beneath the falling giant fireball, slowing its descent by a fraction of a second.
Seraina charged forward, leaping off the ground and channeling every last drop of her lightning mana into a spear.
KRA-THOOM!
Seraina’s lightning spear impaled the center of Valeria’s giant fireball, causing the condensed mana structure to destabilize mid-air.
BOOOOOM!
The massive fireball detonated prematurely ten feet above the ground!
An explosion of roaring red flame, shockwaves, and superheated wind exploded outward in every direction as the force of it all blasted Valeria, Lia, and Seraina off their feet simultaneously.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
All three women were hurled through the air like ragdolls by their own combined elemental backlash, crashing violently into the arena’s wooden boundary walls.
They hit the timber barriers hard and slid down into the dirt, completely unconscious with their mana reserves utterly depleted.
The smoke cleared slowly.
The center of the arena was a scorched, smoking crater of melted rock and burnt dirt.
Standing right in the center of the crater, covered in soot, third-degree burns, and drenched in her own blood, was Kadi.
She had survived the mid-air blast by pulling a dense cocoon of stone around herself at the last second.
The stone cocoon crumbled into fine dust, revealing her battered trembling form.
Kadi stood alone.
All nine of her opponents were scattered across the ring, completely knocked out cold.
The stadium went dead silent.
Kadi let out a long wheezing breath with the brown glow in her eyes slowly faded, returning to her normal sandy-brown color.
Her knees buckled under the weight of physical exhaustion and blood loss.
THUD!
Kadi lowered herself to her knees in the middle of the scorched crater.
She was bleeding quite a lot with deep gashes lined her arms, her head wound was dripping red onto her collarbones, and her mana core was completely empty.
Yet, as she knelt there in the dirt, a wide euphoric smile spread across her blood-stained face.
She raised her head toward the Lord’s viewing box with her breath coming in ragged gasps.
"I... I won..." Kadi wheezed softly, her voice raspy. "My Lord... I won..."
Up in the viewing box, Silas watched her kneel in the dirt, a proud satisfied grin breaking across his sharp face.
"Aeliana, drop the barrier," Silas commanded smoothly.
Eluned, seeing the girl’s severe injuries, didn’t wait for an order.
The Nature Goddess raised her delicate hands into the air from where she sat beside Silas.
FLASH!
A breathtaking, radiant wave of emerald-green divine light washed over the entire stadium.
The gentle, soothing nature aura enveloped all ten mages simultaneously.
Instantly, the deep gashes on Kadi’s body closed up, her bleeding stopped, her third-degree burns vanished, and her pale cheeks regained their healthy color.
Across the arena, the other nine unconscious mages let out soft sighs of relief as their injuries were completely healed by Eluned’s divine touch.
Silas didn’t use the stairs.
He stepped right over the wooden railing of the viewing box and vaulted down twenty feet, landing lightly on his boots in the center of the dirt crater beside Kadi.
THUD!
Silas walked over, looking down at the sandy-haired Mage who was still kneeling in the dirt.
He reached out and gently patted her head, a warm, genuine smile on his face.
"Congratulations, Kadi," Silas said, his deep voice carrying clearly across the arena. "You put on a hell of a show. You fought with true grit and showed me very true potential today so you earned this."