Luck's Cold Shoulder

The two contestants went down to the arena where they stood facing one another. On one side was Wompa, with her two daggers in hand, and on the other side was her opponent, decked out in royal guard armor.

"Unbelievable," Sirks couldn't believe his eyes. "This has to be rigged!" Wompa was facing no other than Rui, also nicknamed the Iceblade. There was no doubt now... The organizers were trying to set them all up to lose. Starting with Kies' opponent who was one of the top one hundred the previous year to Sirks, who was in the one hundred as well, to Iris and Wompa's opponents, who were both on a whole other level... The tournament staff was doing whatever they could to make sure they all got eliminated.

"This isn't going to end well..." Sirks mumbled. The only way that Wompa could win this is if the royal guard let her win. Though Kies couldn't see what kind of face the middle-aged man was making underneath his mask, he knew that it wasn't a pleasant one, and the same went for Iris, who couldn't stop fidgeting. She was worried about her sister and didn't know what to do.

"Maybe she will go easy on her..." Wompa said hopefully, but she knew full well that it wouldn't happen. Rui had beef with one of the other contestants and wasn't going to lose to anyone along the way.

The two contestants readied their weapons as the referees started the countdown. The four anxiously listened as the number went to zero, signaling the start of the fight. Wompa immediately leaped at her opponent, both daggers held out in front of her. Rui parried her attack and quickly disarmed Wompa, knocking both of her weapons out of her hands. Kies thought the fight would just like that right there, but Wompa reacted quickly to losing her weapons and did a cartwheel backward, retrieving one of her daggers.

Rui chased after her and swung her sword down. Wompa slid back across the sand, lifting her dagger up just in time to block the attack as it came down. She kneeled down onto one leg from the weight of the attack, requiring her to hold her dagger with both of her hands in order to hold back the attack. Since she lacked the strength to push the sword away, Wompa could only redirect the sword to the side. When it was far enough away from her, Iris rolled in the opposite direction of the sword, letting the blade hit the sand.

With a soft 'pfft,' the sword dug into the sand, giving Wompa a chance to attack Rui's open back. She raised her dagger and got ready to plunge it into her back but Rui shifted her body and caught Wompa's arm before she could. Without a second wasted, Wompa tossed the dagger to her other hand and continued her attack but Rui blocked it with her sword. The two of them backed away from each other.

Wompa slowly backed off to where her other dagger was lying in the sand and cautiously picked it up, keeping her eyes on her opponent the entire time. She then spun it around in her hands until she was satisfied with its position.

"You're tougher than you look..." Rui said to Wompa who couldn't say anything back so she just responded with a nod. Rui smirked and readied her sword again. "Alright then... Here I come!" Rui charged forward, thrusting her sword like a spear at Wompa. The princess jumped up and bounced off the blade, shocking the entire audience and Rui who was expecting her to dodge sideways and not by jumping up. Wompa flipped behind Rui and spun in a circle, slashing at Rui with both of her daggers, her red hair flying through the air with her, almost like it was on fire.

Rui turned around and brought her to her chest, putting it between Wompa's daggers and herself. The blades collided and sparks flew. Proceeding with her spin attack, Wompa had her back turned to the royal guard and did a backflip, kicking and knocking the sword right out of her hand. She quickly turned back around to face Rui and started going wild on her. Since Rui didn't have a weapon anymore, the royal guard had to resort to defending herself with her hands.

Following this turn of events, the crowd went erratic. They all began to cheer for Wompa despite just having been booing her a minute ago for being on a team. It was their first time seeing a royal guard getting pushed back like this. But even though Rui was unarmed, she was still pretty hard to deal with. She was trained in martial arts and knew how to stand her ground against an armed opponent. Despite having two weapons, Wompa couldn't land a single hit on Rui. She would always dodge the attack or push it away from her by hit Wompa's arms or wrist.

This continued for another minute or so. Rui cleverly moved the fight closer to where her sword got kicked to until she was right on top of it and quickly picked it back up. She then turned and slashed at Wompa with her weapon, forcing her to move back or otherwise receive a cut to her stomach.

"Phew... You had me running for a moment there..." Rui said, brushing her silky white hair that got on her face, away. Wompa waited for Rui to finish fixing her hair. To the audience, it just looked like she was showing courtesy, but unknown to them, Wompa was actually tired and needed time to catch her breath. Rui didn't have even a bead of sweat on her forehead while Wompa was already soaked in sweat. Furthermore, the mask wasn't exactly helping with her situation and only made breathing harder for her.

How was this possible? There was a pattern here so far. Everyone who won in the fights so far didn't sweat at all. As for why this was the case, Wompa had no idea but she knew that she wasn't going to win this fight unless they got very lucky. She clenched her hands, burying the metal hilt of her weapons into her skin. There was only one win for her to win and that was to go all out. It was a reckless strategy as it meant tiring yourself out which would leave her vulnerable, but since this was a one-on-one fight, she didn't have to worry about other people coming in and finishing her off. She could afford to be reckless.

Wompa charged at Rui. Although she exerted a lot of her energy fighting her already, Wompa still had a lot left. Hopefully, it would be enough to take down her opponent. She began attacking Rui as fast as she could, not caring about the strength put behind each other. It didn't matter how hard she hit if Rui was going to parry them all. All that mattered is how many attacks she can land. Even if there wasn't much force put behind them, with daggers this sharp, it was bound to deal at least a bit of damage.

The arena erupted with the sound of metal clanging against metal. Rui skillfully blocked most of Wompa's attacks but she only had one weapon compared to Wompa who had two. Rui couldn't keep up with her attacks in terms of speed and took a few blows to her armor. However, it didn't matter as the attacks deflected off her armor since they were so weak.

As the fight continued, Wompa felt her strength giving out. Her fighting style was not made for long battles and this was starting to extend far too long to her liking. It was only a matter of time before she tired out and couldn't fight anymore. Rui knew this too and all she needed to do was continue defending until Wompa exhausted all her energy.

Wompa's attacks gradually slowed to the point that Rui was easily able to block all of them with little effort. The force exerted behind each of the attacks was also weak to the point where Rui could just block them with her bare hands by grabbing it and tossing it aside if she wanted to. Eventually, Wompa's sluggish attacks stopped as she couldn't even lift her arms anymore.

The princess dropped onto her knees, unable to keep going. She dropped her weapons and they also plopped onto the sand next to her. She wanted to take her mask off so that she could breathe more easily but knew that it wasn't a good idea, and therefore didn't. She sat down on the sand, gasping for air.

"I guess it's over, huh?" Rui walked over to Wompa and stood right in front of her, towering over her in height. Wompa was too out of breath to say anything, and even if she wasn't, she couldn't anyway. She just nodded her head and slowly held up one of her arms, struggling to lift it. The referee saw her shaky arm, which was her signaling that she was surrendering, and called the match.

The fight was over. Wompa didn't have the energy to continue the fight, and even if she did, it wouldn't mean anything. Rui didn't even break a sweat during the entire fight and it would take a whole lot more than that if Wompa wanted to win against her. Furthermore, Rui didn't even use her magic either which she was famed for. If she took the fight seriously then Wompa really would've stood no chance against her.

Wompa tried to get up but her legs refused to listen to her. "Do you need help?" A hand appeared in front of her. Wompa looked up and saw that it was Rui. She hesitated but took her hand and flinched when she touched her skin. It was freezing cold. Rui helped Wompa back onto her feet. She felt a wave of cold air surround her, causing her to shiver. Rui noticed the discomfort that she was causing Wompa and quickly let go of her hand.

"Oh, I'm sorry... I can't control it..."

Wompa made a gesture with her hand to tell Rui that it was fine. Rui bent over and picked up her daggers. She then handed them back to Wompa would gratefully accept it. Wompa then turned and started limping out of the arena. Rui frowned as she watched Wompa. She wanted to help her but according to the rules, contestants were not allowed to touch each other. She had to leave through the other side. Rui turned around and started walking away. She saw the other contestants coming down and after taking a few steps, stopped, and turned around.

No, the rules didn't matter. She didn't care about them if it meant abandoning someone. None of the referees were willing to help Wompa because she was on a team, violating the unsaid rule of the tournament. The crowd watched in hysteria as Rui went over to Wompa and put her arms around her, surprising her since she didn't hear her footsteps. Rui slowly picked Wompa up and held her, carrying her out of the arena.

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