Chapter 753: Finals (1/2)
“A battle to the death would’ve likely ended differently as well,” Catelyn said as they watched the two groups leave together.
Shadows and Sentinels, Ilea thought as she watched the nobles return to their discussions within her domain. We have both firmly on our side.
“Healers tend to be good at surviving,” she said to the fox.
Catelyn glanced at her with dancing flames in her eyes. “Indeed. I have seen it first hand.”
“You’re not quite so bad yourself, fire fox,” Ilea replied.
Ilea leaned back and summoned a meal for herself, the fight having served as a bit of a distraction from the events out of town. She hoped for no more annoying little surprises, at least until Hector faced Kyrian in the finals. The man seemed like someone who thrived on causing annoying surprises. She watched the performance of a dancing and juggling group as she ate, the pauses between fights longer now as they reached the end of the tournament.
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Lily stayed seated, having bought tickets to the last few fights of the day. She was silent as the performers danced through the sand with expert movements, music playing through the enchanted devices in a manner that she hadn’t heard before coming to Morhill. It wasn’t what kept her still however.
Not even a minute.
She had barely been able to follow the fight. Three Sentinels fighting against four Shadows. Their levels were high, yes, but she had defended herself against Edwin, had fought against a near level two hundred Sentinel herself. The finals of the pre two hundred tournament were nowhere near what she had just seen. It did make her feel a little better about her earlier loss that Celeste went on to win.
These groups however had been in an entirely different league altogether, teleporting around, coordinating spells, timings, angles. What she had managed to grasp was incredibly impressive, and the rest was simply too fast, or obscured by the various spells they used.
Absolute chaos. But they stayed focused until the end. Maybe not the pinnacle of single humans or users of magic, but certainly the pinnacle of coordination. She felt bad for the dancers that had to follow up that fight. Their movements seemed almost crawling. As if slowed down, now that she watched them. She glanced up to the terrace, most of the people already gone and returning to whatever they had been doing up there before. She did spot Ilea sitting at the corner again. The woman had left at some point earlier, though she didn’t know why.
She ordered some food to eat while the performers continued to entertain the crowd. More showed up later, some doing magic shows with various elements. The duo using burning smoke and water to cut through the various clouds looked the most interesting to her but Lily really just wanted to see the finals.
The suns slowly moved over the horizon, shadows moving over the arena, cast from the mountain tops closest to Morhill. She drank from her new canteen when the announcer finally started.
It was time for the main tournament finals. Lily had to stand up to see something, the people around her starting to talk and cheer, getting up to see the contestants. She had seen the Cursed fight before but not the Destroyer. Both of them she had seen down in the preparation hall but neither were there for long or spoke with anyone.
She watched them step away from the elevator, the Cursed clad in heavy metal armor, perfectly linked together without a visible weakness. A few choice spikes adorned his helmet, shoulders, and thighs, the look alone more intimidating than most monsters she had faced. It wasn’t just that however, something about how he moved. It made her feel on edge. As if she watched a dangerous four mark… one that was far more intelligent than the ones she had seen.
The Destroyer in comparison walked around in an almost aloof manner, twirling once as he spread his arms and looked at the crowd, quickly losing interest and focusing on his opponent. The spectators went quiet when he started talking. “You’re the one from that restaurant,” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “No Lilith here to save you now.”
The Cursed glanced up to the terrace and then pointed. “She’s right there.”
“You know what I mean,” the Destroyer said and sighed. “You’re no fun. Come on, let’s show these poor fucking people what true power looks like.” He spread his arms, water flowing onto the ground from seemingly nowhere.
His opponent didn’t reply, but instead started floating, six flails appearing around him. They exploded into shards of steel, his hands raised as the storm of needles flew out, entirely ignoring his opponent.
Half the arena ground was already covered in liquid, the Destroyer raising one hand before a broad torrent of water shot out with blinding speed.
Lily took in a deep breath. It looked like the man had just summoned an entire river. She watched the water slam into the floating armored mage, most of it crashing into the barrier a few dozen meters behind. The torrent became smaller, more pressurized, finally as thin as a beam of light magic from the previous fight. A dome of water exploded out from where the spell impacted the shields of steel.
She looked at the ground, the entire arena now covered in half a meter of water, the metal shards having moved down below, sometimes reflecting bits of light as they cut into the stone ground. She knew the curse mage used runes to cast some of his spells, but under water?
The pressurized beam stopped, all the fluid still in the air around the Cursed floated and encased him in a sphere of water.
Lily watched it slowly get smaller, the Destroyer moving his open hands closer together as he himself was elevated by a wave, to be at the same height as his opponent, a broad grin on his face and his eyes glinting with joy. She could see the curse mage’s movements slow down but his metal didn’t seem to be affected in the slightest.
His head cocked to the side ever so slightly, a pulse of magic released from his imprisoned form.
The Destroyer looked around, moving his arms to his chest before he too was encased in a sphere of water. Green light pulsed from below the now meter high water covering the entirety of the fighting grounds.
Lily fell back into her seat when a wave of curse energy slammed into the barrier covering the arena, the pressure pushing her back despite the defensive measures. Most everyone else watching experienced the same, green light now shining from the runic field covering the entire floor of the flooded space. The Curse mage moved his arms, splinters of steel returning to him before they formed rotating plates around him, pushing against the water until he was freed.
The Destroyer grinned within his sphere, torrents added to the floods as he sent beams of pressurized water to the ground in an effort to get rid of the runes. An effort which didn’t seem to make a difference. The runes still glowed, even with stone being cut through. He looked to his left where a massive chunk of spiked iron slammed into his defensive barrier, the thing was held by a chain connected to the Curse mage. It was slowed but not entirely stopped, three more flails entering the sphere and slowly pushing in, towards the center and where the Destroyer was hiding.
Metal spears shot out at the sphere but failed to get more than a few centimeters deep into the water. Instead they returned back to the Curse mage. His armor moved as metal was added to it, a wedge of steel forming in front of him as magic surged around the floating man.
Lily saw a group of Sentinels land behind the barrier where the Curse mage would likely move if he could get past the Destroyer. They talked to the spectators and started moving them out of the way.
They’re scared he’s getting through the barrier? Lily watched as a single form clad in ash appeared next to the Sentinels. Lilith. The woman waited in a relaxed manner, the few people who had remained vanishing instead.
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Ilea planted herself against the ground. Kyrian wasn’t the best at aiming his wedge attack and if the Destroyer dodged away, she didn’t know if the barrier could keep him inside.