Final Showdown IV

It hasn't been even a minute since they started fighting with magic instead of swords and the arena was already chaotic. Unfortunately for Kies, it didn't matter if he sucked everything out of the air since magic broke all rules. There was no water vapor in the air but a Rui was still somehow able to create ice.

However, Kies still had the edge over Rui at the moment. His opponent couldn't move fast and he could wait here and think of a way to buy time as she tried to get to him. But, like always, nothing goes according to plan for Kies.

Rui may not be able to move quickly, but that didn't mean that she didn't have other ways to reach Kies. Why bother trying to get to him when she can force him to come to her? Icicles rained down on him from behind, forcing him to move towards Rui in order to not get hit by them. The icicles moved fast and they moved across the ground at an alarming pace. The distance between Kies and Rui closed as the icicles continued to chase him, seemingly without any sign of stopping.

Fifteen meters... Ten... Five... Three... Kies was almost within range of her blade and he needed to dodge her attack at all costs. Taking even a light hit from her sword would disrupt his flow of magic and cause the release of the magic back into the environment.

To make things more difficult, the ground here was covered in a layer of thick ice. Kies may be good at fighting, but he sure as heck wasn't skilled at running across slippery ice while carrying fragile cargo.

When Kies got close enough for Rui to swing her sword at him, she did just that, without a moment's hesitation. The blade came swishing at his wind sphere. Whether it was through crazy luck or extreme reflexes, or maybe a bit of both, Kies saw the trajectory of the sword and moved the sphere away, causing him to lose his balance on the ice and slip.

Kies fell backward on the ice and slid past Rui, leaving her trying to figure out what happened. Kies recovered quickly and got back on his feet, holding the sphere which was still safe in his hand.

Kies almost couldn't believe how he managed that. Even though Rui is moving several times slower than before, it didn't seem to apply to her sword. The speed of her swing was the same.

'What a scary person...' Kies backed away from Rui, putting distance between them again so that he had more space to react to Rui when she did something, and luckily it looked like Rui was short on time now. She was breathing heavily despite only moving once. It seemed that she exhausted a lot of her oxygen with that one strike.

'So that's how it is...' At most, Kies estimated that she could swing her blade at full speed one more time before she was helpless. All he needed to do now was avoid her next attack and it was likely his victory. But if he didn't he always had the second plan ready to go.

Rui slowed, turned around, and looked at Kies. Instead of a desperate or even a stressed expression which he expected her to have, Rui was still keeping her composure. The fight wasn't looking good for her and they both knew it. Everything could end here if she failed and missed her next attack. But even with that fact hanging in the air, Rui was calm, and this had Kies a little concerned.

These kinds of enemies were the most dangerous. Ones that remained cool in all circumstances. It was impossible to tell what they were thinking...

Kies hunched his back and got ready to jump out of the way for when Rui did something. This was it. The fight either ended here or it didn't. He had one task, and one task only. Dodge the attack and it was his win, as simple as that. Don't think about anything else. Avoid the next attack, period.

Kies would take out his sword and try to block the attack with it but it was too risky. If he or the orb gets hit by anything then Rui was free.

Rui took a step towards Kies. Then a second. Then a third. Then another. And another. No sound could be heard, but Kies heard her footsteps in his head. Things were getting tense. Kies' eyes shot from her hands to her legs, keeping a close eye on her every move, ready to react to anything that might happen.

Rui didn't make any threatening gesture or move for whatever reason. However, she was getting uncomfortably close. Kies decided to move back a little to put distance between them again, but when he tried to lift his feet, he found that it was being weighed down by something.

'What?'

Kies looked down at his feet and saw that they were covered in ice up to his knees. He didn't feel anything at all. 'Since when?' No, there was no time to ask questions.

With his free hand, Kies punched the ice in an effort to break it, but it was useless. The ice was too hard.

'Sh*t...'

How was he so careless? Kies should've known that Rui didn't need to use her hands or mouth to cast her magic. She was a mage that was on par with him.

"I'm an idiot...'

Kies looked up again to see how close Rui was and how much time he had left to free himself. His opponent was still a couple of meters away from him. He had at most twenty seconds. Wasn't her air supposed to be running out by now? How was she still holding on with no oxygen? Kies didn't understand. E had been expecting a magic attack since there shouldn't be enough oxygen for her to move this much.

Wait... Kies glanced over at the wind sphere in his hand. Some of the air was leaking from it. Why was this? No, wait again... The ice... It was the ice! Kies looked down and saw that most of the ice around the arena was gone. Before Kies cast his spell to suck in all of the oxygen, Rui froze some of it in the ice they were walking on. And what's more, the ice that froze his legs was slowing the flow of his magic to the sphere and was weakening his hold on it.

Kies looked back at Rui and saw that she was smiling now as if she were saying, "Checkmate."

'Not bad...' Kies mouthed to her. He had to give it to his opponent. She was truly a fearsome fighter to be able to pull something like this off.

Kies really wanted to end the fight here but it wasn't possible. Relying on such a cheap trick... Just how much did he underestimate his opponent? Kies closed his eyes and made the decision. Should he release the spell right now or see it through to the end? The choice was obvious.

Well, there goes plan A. Plan B it is... Kies opened his eyes and released the spell. Upon being freed, the winds exploded in every direction, blowing Rui back. She created a wall of ice behind her to act as an anchor but even that wasn't enough to keep her from being blown away. "W-what force..." Pieces of the ice broke off little by little until there wasn't enough to hold her weight and Rui was blasted into the barrier at full speed.

"Ack!"

The force of the impact was so strong that cracks formed along the barrier and the spectators behind her all panicked, getting up from their seats and moving away from the front of the arena, fearing that they might get caught up. Even the people who were far behind them were afraid and also got up from their seats, ready to evacuate in case the barrier broke.

All around, staff ushered the audience, telling them to sit back down and that everything was safe. They tried to persuade them by telling them that the barrier wasn't fragile and could take a lot of beating before breaking.

"Even our top mages of the kingdom couldn't break it easily if they wanted to!" one of them yelled, trying to get everyone to calm down. However, the effort was in vain. People were too scared and weren't listening. That, combined with everyone's voices on top of each other made it impossible for any single person to be heard. Even the ones who did hear the staff ignored them.

"If the barrier is really that durable then why the h*ll did it crack!" Chaos and panic ensued in that area of the colosseum, but the two contestants were lost in their own world. Rui got up and rubbed her back. It would've broken anyone else's spines.

Kies was surprised that she was able to get up after taking a hit like that. And the most amazing thing of all? Rui looked completely unharmed by the attack. Although she was rubbing her back, she was standing straight and tall with no other clear signs of injuries.

"That hurt a little... But just a little," Rui said in an amused tone, giving Kies a smirk.

"And people call me a monster..." Kies shook his head in disbelief. Whatever. The match was still on. It was time to put plan B into action.

Since Rui didn't look like she was hurt, Kies decided that he didn't need to hold back. It had been a while since he had a serious fight.

Kies gathered his magic and called the winds to his side. They spun and soared around his body, turning him into something like the eye of the storm.

"Hm... You're not planning to do that again, are you?" Rui asked, frowning. She was confident that she could deal with it if Kies chose to suck in all the air again, but wanting to deal with it and needing to deal with it are two very different things. Rui only experienced that magic attack once in her life and she wanted to keep it that way.

"Why would I?" Kies had no reason to try the same trick a second time, especially now that Rui was prepared for it.

"Good, then does that mean we're having an actual fight?"

"If you can handle it."

"Oh..." Rui liked the daring tone of Kies' statement. "I'll take you up on your challenge."

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