Hunter Of The Forest I

Kies stood in the arena with his eyes closed, assessing the situation. The fight between him and Nyana had to start as the staff was cleaning up the mess from the previous fight. He sensed a little over twenty thousand people in the arena. Out of those twenty thousand, around a thousand were participants that made it past the first round... Still too big of a number to attempt individual fights which Kies didn't understand.

It looked like that this year had far more people participating than they could ever have imagined... And out of those one thousand participants, less fifty have gone, meaning that the organizers had plenty of contestants to pair him up against to try to get him and Sirks out, but now that he knew their plan, he wasn't going to let them have it their way...

"Ready?" Kies heard the referee ask and opened his eyes.

"Yes," he answered. Nyana also nodded her head and the referee lifted his hand, singalong the start of the countdown.

"Five, four, three..."

"Sorry about this," Nyana said to Kies apologetically. Although the tournament wasn't being fair to him, or rather, everyone on their team, she informed him on their way down to the arena that she wouldn't hold back as she also wanted to try to win the thing. The cash prize was something that she wanted for her village as it was in a disastrous state right now and she needed all the supplies she could get. The cash prize will surely help her out with that problem and so she couldn't hold back against him.

Kies didn't blame her for it since he also needed the cash prize for something.

"It's not your fault," Kies told Nyana, assuring her that this wouldn't sour their relationship and cause him to rethink his decision of helping her. The elf capital had something he needed and he was going to have to rely on her to enter that place so he was going to go with her either way, regardless of who wins the fight.

But... It would be great if Nyana could figure out how to cure the queen, then he wouldn't mind losing here for her. But either way, it was safer to win it since they needed the money to hire that stingy old woman in order to help the queen. Any leftover money, he might as well give it to the elf as she needed it more than he and the rest of his group did. But that was thinking too far ahead.

Kies shook his head and focused on the matter in hand which was the fight. The countdown was already over and the two of them were just staring at each other, waiting for the other to make a move. From her previous fight, Kies knew that she liked to look for openings. In other words, she wanted him to make the first move so that she could respond in kind and counter him. Kies' eyes went to the bow in her hand and the quiver in her back. She had her other hand behind her back and without a doubt, it was on an arrow. She was ready to nock it and fire the moment Kies moved.

Kies slowly paced around the arena, circling Nyana and looking for an opening. Nyana did the same, walking in the opposite direction and the two of them traded starting spots. Kies tightened his grip on his sword. He felt the hard smooth steel, which had become hot from the glare of the sun, reflecting its light off its silver body, creating a glint. The sand beneath his feet crunched with every step he took and the entire arena reeked of sweat and blood.

The mask made it difficult for Kies to see, as it basically caused him to tunnel vision on only the things in front of him so he had to be careful as Nyana was a very agile opponent. If she ever left his vision then he would be in trouble.

The crowd started booing at the slow pace of the battle since neither of them wanted to make the first move. After making a full circle and returning to their own starting points, Kies finally made a move and charged at Nyana. The elf responded by turning and running back, but she was not faster than him. Kies boosted his speed with his magic and he chased the elf down, gaining ground on her rapidly.

When he was just a foot away, he raised his sword, ready to strike down the elf, but as he did so, that's when Nyana made her move. She leaped up into the air, flying backward over Kies, and fired three consecutive arrows at him while airborne. Kies cut down the first arrow which exploded into a ball of leaves upon contact with his sword, blocking his vision for just a split second. But that split second proved to be fatal. The other two arrows zipped through the leaves, taking advantage of the distraction and hitting Kies.

The arrows hit his cloak and bounced harmlessly off into the sand. The good news was that he was safe, but the bad news was that one of his trump cards was now exposed. Nyana raised an eyebrow, surprised that her arrows just deflected harmlessly off him. She didn't feel any magic so she knew that it was caused by that, meaning that the cloak had defensive properties.

"Interesting..." she said with a smile, instantly figuring out what had caused her arrows to bounce off like that.

The crowd also saw this and started discussing among themselves what happened. There goes one of his secrets... It was only a matter of time until the crowd figured out what had happened and also learned of his other secrets... he couldn't let this fight drag on too long or else Nyana would end up revealing to them everything he had up his sleeves.

Kies called upon the winds, empowering his next attack. Kies stabbed the sword forward, sending an arrow-like projectile made out of wind at Nyana. Since it was already known that he could use some form of magic without actually using magic, there was no point in keeping it a secret anymore. The wind pierced through the air, making its way to Nyana.

The elf was unable to keep up with the attack with her eyes as it was too fast for her, and she couldn't sense it either since it didn't emit any magic. The entire thing felt like an invisible attack to her. Since she couldn't see or feel the attack, she had to rely on her own instincts and by sound to dodge the attack, barely avoiding it as it blew past her face, leaving a small cut.

Nyana placed her finger over her cut and felt something warm. "How scary..." she said with a chuckle. A soft green light appeared from her fingers and the cut quickly healed up. "I don't know how you're able to conceal your magic like that, but I guess that I need to be careful..." she said in a cautious voice. She drew an arrow and fired it at Kies.

Learning his lesson from before, Kies didn't take the arrow head-on and instead dodged it this time. Just like before, it exploded into a cluster of leaves, flying in every direction. The leaves surrounded Kies, trying to wrap about his body but his winds blew them away. "That won't work on me," he told Nyana. He saw what happened to her careless opponent and took precautions to not have that happen to him.

Kies slashed his sword a couple of times in front of him, sending a wave of Wind Blades at her. Just like before, these attacks were practically invisible but they were several times slower than the arrow one he shot. Nyana jumped and rolled to the side, dodging the attack well before it could reach her. She wasn't taking any risks. After getting out of the way of Kies' attack, she drew her bow and fired an arrow at Kies.

Kies stuck his hand out, calling the winds to intercept the arrow before it could reach him. They grabbed the arrow mid-flight, breaking it half and dropping it to the ground. "Hm..." Nyana looked at the broken arrow in the sand. "If that won't work then..." Nyana kneeled and placed her hand on the sand. Branches erupted from the ground all throughout the arena. Kies had to jump away as one of the branches shot out from right under him, almost hitting him.

The referees and the audience began panicking. The branches were taller than the walls of the arena and could reach the spectators. Everyone in the front seats got up and ran to the back and the referees all ran out of the arena, screaming for their lives. After the arena cleared and there was no one else other than the two of them, Nyana jumped high into the air and landed on one of the branches.

"Get ready... The hunt starts now." Nyana threw on her hood and raised her bow. Her magic turned the entire arena into a forest. They were now fighting on her turf and Kies needed to be on his toes.

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