To Break A Mountain

A laugh broke out in the arena and everyone turned towards it. It was the hooded man. He was still standing in the exact same spot, not having moved even an inch since the fight started.

"What are you laughing at!?" the contestants demanded. "If you find it so funny, then why don't you try fighting him!?"

"Oh, I'm not laughing at that," the hooded man explained. "In fact, you all did pretty well fighting against a mage despite all being melee," he complimented them. "But..." his voice changed as he pushed himself off the wall that he had been leaning on. "There's no point in continuing this fight is there? You can't all fight him at once since there isn't enough space, and if you fight him in small groups, you'll end up losing anyway," the man pointed out.

"...Then are you suggesting that we give up?" one of the contestants asked him, sounding quite displeased about what he said.

"Well, yes and no. You can continue if you want, but you all already know the result. So instead..." The man reached into his cloak and pulled out something long and shiny. It was difficult to figure out what it was at first, but as the entire thing came into view, they saw that it was a sword. The man pulled the sword out of the sheath and held it up to the sun, showing off its beauty. He then swung it down and brought it to his side. "Why don't you let me try?"

The contestants looked at each other and nodded their heads. They silently agreed to the man's request and all backed off, giving space for him and Kies to fight. As much as they hated to admit it, what he said was true. If they continued fighting with Kies, it would just end in his victory. It was better to let the two of them duke it out instead.

"I want to see how good you are since you refused to help us and stood back and watched," one of the contestants commented. The other contestants agreed with him. They all wanted to see what he was capable of.

"Well then... What do you say?" the man turned and asked for Kies' permission on the matter. Was he willing to fight him?

Kies shrugged his shoulders. "Why not." The fight with other contestants wasn't going anywhere, especially when they refused to get close to him, and he will eventually have to fight the hooded man anyway. The order didn't really matter, but it would make him feel a little safer if Kies fought against him first since that would mean taking care of the biggest threat.

"Okay, I'll let you have the first attack then," the man told Kies, spreading his arms out, showing that he was being serious about what he said.

"Don't take me lightly," Kies warned him, but still, he took up the man's offer and attacked first. He held his hand out, calling the winds to gather in it. "Break." A powerful torrent of wind rocketed from Kies' hand and flew towards the man. It was fast and even if the man was prepared for this, he shouldn't be able to move out of the way in time... Or so Kies thought...

The man sidestepped away from the attack, just barely enough so that the wind would brush by his cloak, but do no damage to it.

The Wind Cannon hit the arena wall far behind him, exploding and taking chunks out of it.

The man glanced back at the destruction that small ball of wind did and was impressed by it. "Fast and powerful... What a lethal combination."

"Apparently not lethal enough," Kies said. If the man could avoid it then his attack was lacking. The speed wasn't fast enough...

Anyhow... "Since you already attacked..." The man readied his sword and charged at Kies. "I won't hold back, so I hope you won't either!" The two clashed blades and Kies was immediately pushed back by the attack, surprising him. He didn't expect someone with such a small figure to have so much strength. But then again, he shouldn't be the one talking considering just how big of a punch he packed with his small body. Of course, the reason for that was because he wasn't human.

The man continued to pressure Kies with his attacks, pushing him even further back. Kies didn't understand why he was being overpowered. All the other contestants who fought with Kies were also shocked to see the man doing this. Even though Kies is using the winds to aid his attacks, he could barely block the strikes. He was far more powerful and faster than Kies when it came to the sword.

Kies continued to lose ground and was pushed back about a quarter of the distance of the arena, Kies finally retaliated with magic and created a shockwave around himself, sending the man flying back. He landed a moderate distance away from Kies, sliding across the sand as he did so. It was clear now. Kies wasn't going to win against him by only using the sword. The man's techniques were far better than his. He had years of experience and Kies had no way to match that unless he used his own sword, but that was one of his trump cards and he couldn't show it yet.

Instead... "I thought you said that you wouldn't hold back," Kies said to the man, trying to push him to go all out. He didn't want to give it his all until he saw what the man was capable of.

But the man only laughed and said, "Same goes for you. I told you not to hold back, and yet, here you are, getting pushed back by me since you refuse to play your hand first."

",,,"

Looks like Kies didn't have another choice. He was at a disadvantage fighting like this and he would have to be the first one to 'play his cards,' as the man put it.

"Oh, looks like you're getting serious," the man observed. Kies brushed his hand across his sword, masking it in a layer of wind. This was not normally an attack he would use, and that was precisely why he was using it. He was going to bait his opponent's moves out first and counter with what he normally used.

After completely coating the blade in magic, Kies thrust it into the sand. He didn't know why the man let him finish what he was doing, but it didn't matter. Whether it was curiosity or something else, it was too late to regret it now. "Go!" Kies shouted. The winds from the sword left and dug deeper into the ground.

"What was that?" the man asked, looking around at the floor suspicious, unsure of what to expect. The other contestants were also wary and were looking around, expecting something to happen. But they didn't wonder for too long as the ground beneath the man suddenly erupted.

"Oh!" the man yelled in surprise. The explosion sent him airborne and in this state, he was completely defenseless. Kies wasted no time and called the winds to wrap around his ankles. He crouched and launched himself at the man. He swung his sword at the man who somehow twisted his body midair and blocked the attack. But even if he did block it, the force caused him to fly towards the wall.

"Not bad..." the man smirked. He was about to crash into the wall, but he wasn't concerned about that. He was quite calm in fact. "Five meters... Three... One... Now!" The man was less than a foot away from the wall when he suddenly took his sword and turned it backward. The metal sliced into the hard wall like it was butter and he also angled his body so that he would hit the wall with his feet.

"Now then... My turn!" the man launched himself from the wall, the same way that Kies did. But he didn't put enough force into it and from what Kies saw, he would only be able to reach a fifth of the way to him. But regardless, Kies readied his sword in case he would somehow made it the full distance.

As Kies expected, the man already knew that he wouldn't make it the full distance, and was lacking by a ton. As his momentum slowed and he began dropping to the ground, he raised his arm up and the ground began to rumble again. Something appeared from under the sands, shooting up almost in an instant. The man's feet touched the object and he propelled himself off it again. Another one appeared in front of him and he did the same thing again... And again... And again.

Before Kies knew it, the man was almost on top of him and it was only then that he figured out what happened. "Magic..." Kies jumped back as the man crash-landed on the spot where he was just standing, slamming his sword into the sand. "You're a mage..." More specifically, an earth magic user.

"Indeed I am, and so are you," the man pointed out the obvious.

"I see..." No more fooling around then... Kies really did need to give it his all.

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