Final Showdown III

"Ice magic... This isn't yours, is it?" Kies asked. From what he knew, humans couldn't use ice magic, but there were always exceptions. However, Rui's magic was giving off an unusual feeling. It was somewhat like his magic. Although the magic power came from her, something else was acting as a medium for her to access the ice magic.

Rui's face remained expressionless but her voice was a little surprised when she asked, "You can tell?"

"Is it a spirit?"

"Sorry, but I don't know much about it myself."

"Sounds... Complicated." Kies didn't ask Rui any more questions about her magic. Respecting her privacy and the match, he was going to find out what she could do by experiencing it himself.

"It is... And I can see that your identity is the same. In any case, watch yourself, or you might get hurt now."

"Thanks for the warning." But let's see if her warning was really for him... Who knows, she might end up taking her own advice.

Kies put away his weapon. Rui raised an eyebrow but didn't question his decision. Kies didn't like how the floor was coated in ice and used his magic to break apart the ice around him, creating an empty space of sand. But there wasn't really a point in doing so as the ice just crept back to the spots where he got rid of it. There was no use doing this. He would have to fight in her territory.

It was a bit disadvantageous for him, but he will have to make it work. Kies held out his hand and created a vacuum in front of him. If she was going to fight him by using the environment to her advantage, he would do the same. The wind inside of the dome of light gathered together until almost all of it became part of the tightly packed condensed ball of wind.

Rui saw what Kies was doing but by this time, it was already too late to do anything about it. She opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out of her mouth. No, something did come out of her mouth, words to be exact, but due to the lack of air, the sound had nowhere to go.

Now... This was more like it. Kies put Rui on the edge with this spell. There wasn't much oxygen in the space and Rui was having trouble breathing. The royal guard that didn't tire even after taking on all his attacks was now gasping for air. Admittedly, it was a dirty tactic because he was using the barrier of light to keep more air from coming in. If there weren't a barrier, then this wouldn't have worked since there was no way that he could empty all the air in the kingdom. But since it was there, he might as well make full use of it.

Rui wagered her options. She was caught off guard by Kies' spell and didn't expect that he would do something like this. She looked at the condensed ball of air in his hand. Kies saw where her eyes were and moved back. His goal right now was to play for time. Rui had limited air to work with and as long as Kies can last long enough, she will faint, while he, on the other hand, didn't need air to survive. As long as there are magic particles around, he'll be fine. Of course, he wasn't planning on killing Rui. The moment she made a gesture to indicate her surrender or the moment she lost consciousness, he would release the air back into the arena.

Rui opened her mouth and said something. Although no sound came out, Kies was able to read her lips and got the message she wanted to say to him. "You're playing with fire."

Kies didn't say anything and nodded his head at her, taunting her and telling her that he was ready. If she wants the air back then she will have to take it back from him.

Rui wasted no time. Well, she didn't have the time to stand idle anyway. Every second she spent doing nothing was harmful to her in the long run. Kies' magic wasn't powerful enough to suck in all the oxygen in the air, but he got most of it. Rui needed to be careful with her movements and not waste any of the precious oxygen left in the space.

Kies watched Rui cast a spell on herself. All of the sudden, Rui's movement slowed and she looked very tired. Kies didn't know what she did, but if he had to guess, it was probably a spell to slow down her bodily functions to conserve oxygen. It was a smart idea but it was also dangerous. Slowing down herself meant that her senses would also slow down and she wouldn't be able to react to things as fast.

But in hindsight, Kies wasn't as fast as people either. Just like Rui, there was a drawback to his spell. Since he condensed almost all of the air in the arena into the palm of his hand, he had no way to use his magic anymore. He couldn't use the air he condensed or else he would risk it bursting and going back into the environment. The ball of air was highly unstable and looked like it was always on the verge of exploding. He needed to keep it away from Rui at all costs.

Rui also knew his plan and waved her hand free, summoning a wall of ice behind him. Columns of ice shot out from the ground and blocked his path. Kies ran to the side to avoid the ice but more appeared on either side, blocking all his escape paths. There was only one way he could go was straight in front of him, where there was a royal guard standing in the way.

'If only I could still use my magic right now...' Kies grumbled silently in his head. Although Rui was a lot slower now, he was sure that he still wouldn't get past her even in this state. This... This was a problem.

***

Sitting in the midst of the crowd near the middle rows of the colosseum, Iris, Wompa, and Sirks were watching the fight play out. Or rather, Iris and Wompa were. Sirks was in disbelief by what he saw earlier and still couldn't believe it.

"He's that old!? I thought he was a kid like you two!" That was his first remark when he saw Kies' face for the first time, and it was his only remark since then. Sirks has been quiet the entire match, mind-blown by the discovery. Iris was also shocked since he didn't look like this before, but she already knew that he wasn't human so she wasn't as stunned.

Lastly, Wompa, who knew as little about him as the other two, was for some reason unfazed by what happened. Although she couldn't speak, her face was the same as always, with not a hint of surprise at all.

"And he really is a mage too..." Sirks finally said something after a long time. Iris turned to him. He still looked somewhat confused about everything, but he recovered enough to talk again.

"I thought we knew this already," Iris said, thinking back to all the times that hoodie showed off his magic. This was not the first time they've seen it so why was Sirks acting like it was?

The middle-aged man pressed his brows, tired from the events that transpired the past few days. "I thought it was his weapon or one of his artifacts which allowed him to use it," he said. "Ah, whatever, I'll just ask him about it when he comes out."

Sirks sighed, and returned his focus back to the fight. The barrier was designed to be invisible so that the spectators would be able to watch the fight clearly without magic fogging up the arena, but one of its downsides was that the sound couldn't pass. Well, nothing could pass the barrier, not just sound.

It hasn't been long since the two started fighting with magic, but currently, it looks as if Rui has Kies on the ropes. But due to the lack of sound, they have no idea what is actually going on in the arena. While the rest of the audience was cheering for the royal knight as she was in a favorable position right now, Sirks couldn't help but feel that something was off.

"Hey," he called out to the two girls, getting their attention.

"What?" Iris asked, not sure what he was going to say or ask this time.

"Something doesn't add up here... Do you feel it too?" he asked.

"I don't get what you're saying..." Iris shook her head, not understanding what Sirks was trying to ask them.

"I'm talking about the Iceblade. Her movements... How do I put this? They're... A bit sluggish, don't you think?"

"They what?" Iris was so fixated on Kies the whole time and was worried about him since he was facing one of the strongest people in the kingdom. Well, that and another reason that she rather not think about right now. She couldn't bear to look him in the face right now after that incident. Whenever she tried to, she ended up shying away.

Wompa, her sister, noticed her unusual behavior but didn't question her about it. Digging into other people's lives was not her hobby, even if it were her sister's, or sisters'. No matter how important they were to her, she considered doing that as rude and controlling.

After hearing Sirks point out something odd about the Iceblade's movements, Iris and Wompa watched her closely to see what he meant.

"Huh? Wait... You're right..." Iris saw it too now. The Iceblade was a little slow. Did she get injuries during one of the previous sword exchanges? No, it couldn't be. They were all watching closely and they all saw that neither party got hit.

"Is it fatigue..." Iris wondered. No, it couldn't be that either. The Iceblade once went and sparred against all of Otane's top soldiers, which was around five thousand people from what she heard. The Iceblade came out on top without breaking a sweat or receiving even one blow. "This is weird..."

Does it have something to do with the ball in hoodie's hand then? It was unclear what he did earlier with his magic, but a ball of wind suddenly formed in his hand, and it was then that Rui started acting all strange. Whatever happened, only the two of them who were down there fighting really knew. But whatever the case, Iris hoped that hoodie would pull through this fight. There was a lot at stake right now. This was their only opportunity to earn enough money to hire the old cranky herbalist.

"You can do this..." Iris put her faith in hoodie. "No, you have to win this..."

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