“The tournament starts”

A few days later the tournament began.

The first rounds were all battle royales, killing or making one unconscious were allowed. After that only 8 people remained.

Number 1-5 of the country, myself, the girl that had not just changed in mindset and strength but also in those 5 days her body aged around 6-7 years she had full control of her magicules now.

"Hello can all people hear me? Today we are here to determent the countries strongest and just 8 people remained after the battle royales"

"Those next matches will be 1 vs 1 until just one winner emerges!"

"The first fight will be this countries 3rd strongest Joede Saiba, a fire mage with exceptionally high talent and his challenger is the 5th strongest of this country, the lightning mage Arui Atome."

Joede Saiba is a fire mage of the house Saiba. They are a royal family that has existed for hundreds of years. Every 5 years this tournament is held, it is his second time participating. The members of his family have always scored 2nd or 3rd place for 1st place, they were not good enough.

Arui Atome the only woman currently in her lineage, the others died of deceases, it weren't all woman but 85% of those deaths were, therefore her lineage has nearly gone extinct.

"The fight begins in 5 minutes please come to Exhibition place one"

5 minutes later…

"Thank you for gathering here and now let's begin the fight!"

"Arui Atome when was the last time I fought against you in a duel?"

"That would be like two years ago at the exhibition match for the magic knights."

"Yeah, that's right, so I now want to test you if you're worthy of the title"

With that the duel began.

"Fire Fist"

"Lightning Sword"

That battle concluded within 3 minutes.

Arui Atome won that fight do to her enhanced reaction speed and through her lightning element.

The other rounds also passed until that girl I found in that back alley was going against Arui Atome.

Apparently, her name is Ruby Shino, but in what I was more interested in is how much she has grown through the ability mana manipulation that I achieved. Someone can alter all and everything nothing is excluded even the soul, mind or other things but for that I have not enough skill, what am I even thinking about, skill doesn't exist it is all just hard work the adaptability to your surroundings, persons that form someone, interests and desires. If someone has an interest in something that individual will have a will to learn, that interest turns into desire the more someone focuses one that the more likely it is to achieve.

So now back to the fight, so from what I see she has grasped the fundamentals of mana manipulation, she is strengthening her body with the ambient mana because there were some fights before there was plenty in the air. In nearly all worlds there is mana, simply said you can put it into two categories pure mana and elemental mana, pure mana is something you can learn to control, but elemental mana isn't something you can control without a blessing, you can block or nullify it of course with enough practice.

"The fight Arui Atome vs. Ruby Shino shall begin"

Without a second delay Arui ran towards Ruby invoking her lightning to make her reaction speed faster. One and a half seconds had passed since Arui's fist hit Ruby's stomach. The smoke unfolded in the air covering the two it cleared within the next five seconds but there was a person lying on the ground. It was Arui and Ruby didn't even have a scratch.

"Oh, she progressed quite well"

She is considered extremely talented, at least among humans she used the ability to nullify the magic and then overwhelm her, with her mana. She is strong yes, but against those monsters I fought against she wouldn't even survive a second, so I need to improve on my mana manipulation ability.

She won the semi finals without much of a challenge, so the final match is me against her I am going to see for myself how much she has grown and if she isn't strong enough relieve her of her burden.

I went on to the sparring field where she was already standing. She glared at me with a look of happiness and envy.

"It hasn't been that long you've progressed quite well"

"Yes, I know that and I what to see that bottomless strength that you have"

"It isn't bottomless"

"Okay then, then I just what to see where that bottom is"

She walked slowly towards me, taking possession of the ambient mana in the air. It was pointless, I took control over that mana, her face twitched.

"Not bottomless you liar, taking control over the ambient mana while I was in control that's just absurd"

"With enough practice and time everything is possible"

"Okay then let's fight with fighting techniques, because I now know I can't win against you if we use mana and of course It wouldn't be fun" She grinned happy with those words said.

She threw a punch at my stomach, at my heart in the hope of piercing them and at last she tried slicing through my neck.

"Worthless Attempts"

After those words I hit her light at the neck, she collapsed from pain. The fight was over in not even 30 seconds.

I won the tournament, got the prize money of 10 platin coins and went back to my place.

©obersterSturm