Chapter 117: Chapter 117: Breaking Point

As Max had promised, every opponent I faced in the arena forfeited their battles. I just had to show up for them to do so.

Because of that, my days went by easily. There was a week of division battles and I didn’t have anything to do for any of them. My energy wasn’t spent and thus I was able to spend my free time training.

None of my training deviated from what I had already been doing, even in the Auric department. It didn’t take much energy on the part of my knights who were responsible for catching me, so they were able to continue training with me despite their battles, to say nothing of the benefits to their Aura that they wanted.

Like that, a few days passed and the final rounds came around. That’s when the battles finally got interesting, and so my focus was on my squad who were fighting for their lives.

……

The arena was no longer divided into two, but completely dominated by just one so as to better draw attention to the match.

I sat within the suite, Vetsmon, Feiden, and Tana beside me looking down through the glass.

On stage we could see Umara standing across from her opponent.

She had two battles left, and those who had made it this far were all Elites.

Umara was currently the top warlock in the Elites. I had no doubt that she would win, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be hard-fought.

I was curious to see how she would handle it.

Our scientific discussions had yielded fruit over time. Umara was enlightened in the air element, which meant that any and all spells or techniques that utilized that element came extremely easy to her. That made it easy for her to create new ones or modify existing ones.

And she utilized the knowledge I gave her to do so. Our discussions, while often running off tangents, largely focused on concepts she could use. I taught her all about how the various states of matter interacted with each other, the properties of whatever elements I could recall information for, as well as special concepts she could take advantage of.

There were so many topics we had gone over that the booklet she kept with her of all my scribbles and written text was at least 6 inches thick. I was thinking that I’d need to get her one of those Orbs to stuff information into.

However, no matter how much I helped, it was up to her to apply it. I couldn’t make the spells for her, even though I wanted to. So all this time she had been solely devoted to doing just that. This would be the place where its value finally saw the light of day.

I looked down from my seat, my eyes zooming in until I could see the individual strands of her ashy gray hair. The ability, despite the few weeks I had to get used to it, still held an element of unfamiliarity to it, and so brought a smile to my face.

“Three, two, one, match start!”

The countdown for the start of the match blared through a magical speaker in the suite, silencing conversations and drawing everyone’s attention to the pair of contestants in the arena.

Once the referee’s hand went down, I zoomed out and saw Umara’s opponent conjure a barrier. Umara did the same thing, and both simultaneously started forming spells.

Right now, Umara was best with the air element. She had been training her fire element but hadn’t quite been able to advance to Authority 6 yet. Meanwhile, her opponent’s fire affinity had been perfectly developed.

Spell circles appeared in the air as they held their staves. Each element had its own unique markers within the spell formations, but I was still studying those with Umara’s help, so I couldn’t quite differentiate them just based on that.

Soon enough, fire bloomed forth from the opponent’s spell circles. As for Umara, she conjured an invisible dome around her. I could just barely see some of the dense vapors around her with the help of my magical sight.

Six fireballs accelerated at Umara and her dome of air. She simply stood there, watching them as they crashed toward her with explosive momentum.

Flames swallowed her dome of air when they made contact, washing over it entirely and holding for a few seconds before dissipating into smoky embers and floating off with the wind.

Umara was left behind, unscathed and unamused.

She suddenly smiled a bit, nodding to her opponent.

“Come on, I’m testing a new spell. Keep going.”

“...”

Her voice echoed, her opponent baffled by her audacity, the audience reflecting his shock.

I looked at him as he started to grit his teeth.

“Fine then. Here.”

He raised his staff, another spell circle flashing into existence

This one was far larger, reflecting the efforts and time he put into it. Umara simply watched as he spent almost a minute adding formations and pouring mana into it.

When it finally activated, a massive amount of fire started to congeal, being crushed down by mana into a massive lance of blue flame. It was clear that this singular spell was his best — his face was dripping with sweat, and his brows furrowed in concentration.

Umara tilted her head and tapped the butt of her own staff on the floor, a spell circle flashing beneath her feet, connecting to the dome around its edges. I couldn’t possibly discern what she had cast.

Her opponent smiled, teeth gritted together in concentration. His tensed hands suddenly relaxed, and the spear of fire streaked toward Umara.

The silence throughout the arena was suffocating.

The tip spun, leaving behind a spiral of flame as it flew. For a second I was honestly worried a bit. Umara was probably using vacuums to her advantage against the fire, something we had discussed when she started a grease fire in my kitchen. But flame was still a gas, consisting of matter with mass. A lance like the one hurling toward her would easily punch through a vacuum barrier.

Of course, I’d like to believe that she’d never make such a stupid mistake as to not factor that into her defense, but I couldn’t be entirely sure — not out of doubt for her own intellect, but uncertainty in my instruction.

Still, I could only watch as the lance collided with her barrier.

And to my great surprise, I had no reason to ever doubt her.

When the lance made contact with her barrier, the barrier’s movement was finally exposed. The lance’s tip was sliced away by powerful winds, being carried away along the length of the dome as it spun like a hurricane.

Of course, the lance contained so much fire that the barrier was soon engulfed. The winds of the barrier carried all that flame like a star, turning Umara into a ball of fire.

But all that flame was redirected, being snuffed out while simultaneously being blown away from her.

After about 10 seconds, the last of the flame disappeared, expunged with the smoke by a rather theatrical blast of air. Umara appeared behind, completely unphased.

She was smiling.

“Hm, it works really well.”

“Heh.”

I chuckled a bit from the suite. I could tell how excited she was even while holding it back in a public place.

After that, she flicked her finger, sending a bolt of air toward her enemy. It crashed into his barrier, shattering it before launching him a few feet away.

Like that, the battle was finished. Vetsmon laughed from the side.

“Like she’s toying with a child. Since when was she so powerful? What’d you do to her, John?”

“Making out with your girlfriend makes you stronger. You should get to it lest you get left behind.”

“H-How preposterous.”

“Since when?”

Feiden eyed me as Vetsmon turned away flustered. I just rolled my eyes with a laugh.

When Umara arrived back at the suite, we all got up to congratulate her.

She gave me a kiss before suddenly explaining what happened.

“I used that vacuum stuff you told me about.”

“I saw that. Effective, right?”

“Mm. Vulnerable to heavy attacks like that lance though. So I changed the barrier to redirect all the flame with pressurized wind while using the vacuum to insulate against heated convection currents.”

“How ingenious. Any issues?”

“A bit. It got kind of hot inside. All of that radiation still got to me so I had to duck under my robe a bit. Besides that though, it worked wonderfully.”

“Your Pure Barrier didn’t block the heat?”

I asked curiously. Umara had told me about the different kinds of warlock barriers, and the Pure Barrier was supposed to be the ultimate fallback.

Mana had different elements, but warlocks still had access to the pure mana within their bodies. It was what they cultivated, and the process of gaining elemental affinities was merely the process by which they understood the different parts of mana so as to better utilize it.

Pure Barriers were barriers of Pure Mana. They were generally difficult to create, but here, at the Magisterium, they were the standard — the best protective measure for the best of the Warlocks. They protected against any and all forms of magic. The only downside was that it took more energy across the board to defend against anything.

Doing what Umara did and utilizing the properties of air to defend against fire was efficient and specialized. Using Pure Mana, however, was like using all four affinities to defend against fire. It didn’t have any weaknesses or loopholes, but it was far less efficient.

Regardless of all that though, Umara said that the radiant heat of the fire had gotten to her. Which, if she had been using a Pure Barrier, shouldn’t have happened.

Of course, then, the answer to why that happened should’ve been obvious.

She scratched her head.

“I put the barrier down.”

“Why not?”

“I just wanted to see how well it would work. If I don’t have to waste a huge chunk of energy to create it, then I don’t want to. But now I know that I still need at least a weak barrier to protect against the radiation. What would block the radiation, by the way?”

“The best thing is a solid material. But for fire, all you need is something that light doesn’t travel through, even if it’s a liquid.”

“Alright. I’ll keep that in mind.”

She nodded as we went to sit down.

Just then though, Feiden stood.

“I have my battle coming up.”

“Oh. We’ll be watching then. Who is it against?”

“Me.”

Tana suddenly stood, my brows rising.

I then smiled.

“Hell yeah.”

“I’m already going to lose.”

“Well, with that attitude, you are!”

I stood, Tana looking at me with a less than enthusiastic face.

I grabbed her shoulder, pulling her to the side a bit.

“Hey, why so down? You haven’t even fought yet.”

“The outcome is obvious. I was thinking about forfeiting so Feiden doesn’t waste his energy.”

“What? Fuck that. If you want to be all realistic, then fine, let’s be fucking realistic.”

I looked her dead in the eyes.

“You’re gonna go out there and do as much damage as possible. You might not have Feiden’s speed, but you’ve got much more stamina than he does. That means you’re going to be able to wear him out and whittle him down. You’re going to push him to his fucking breaking point. He better be drenched in blood and sweat by the time you’re done with him. And even if you come out with a loss, then at least you can look at his sorry ass getting carried off the arena and know that you earned your fucking spot.”

“...What if it affects his other battles?”

“Who the fuck cares?! If he’s that weak, then obviously he couldn’t handle you! The most important attribute of a knight isn’t their speed, but their tenacity. So go put his to the fucking test! Go!”

I pushed her toward the door, her determination rising with every step as she left and didn’t turn back.

Feiden walked over, my hand grabbing his shirt.

“You better make her work for that shit.”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. Fight hard.”

I smacked his shoulder, letting him leave.

When I walked back over and sat between Umara and Vetsmon, I smiled.

“This is gonna be a great fight.”

“Tsk, I thought you were dead serious for a second there. Did you rile them up just for the show?”

“Hey, two birds with one stone. Tana stops acting like a pussy and we get to watch a great battle.”

I shrugged at Umara, making her smirk as Vetsmon hummed.

“That’s my future girlfriend, you know.”

“And that right there, my friend, was called tough love. I don’t know what the fuck she was thinking talking about forfeiting, but I don’t have no bitches in my squad! Besides, if she were really a quitter, then she would’ve been kicked off the squad already. She just needed some motivation.”

“Kicked off?”

He asked with a bit of surprise, making me nod.

“Of course. The Puppet Master wanted to kick her off at the beginning of the year when I almost died. But I told him to let her stay and get better. And sure enough, she trained her ass off and earned her spot. So she’s got the strength and talent. She just needs to get out of her own head.”

“Hm…”

He nodded a bit, looking back out to the arena.

I suddenly looked over at Umara.

“So you know how making out makes you stronger? We should train.”

“...This is a public area, dear.”

“That’s never stopped you before.”

“No, that’s never stopped you before.”

“You’re right. Just a peck.”

“Ack!”

She curled her neck as I plastered myself all over her face and collar. When I pulled back, she was bright red, and I was satisfied.

I smiled while looking down, seeing Feiden and Tana stepping up to the arena. My smile had practically become perpetual at this point.

They were both dressed in their normal armor, facing off against each other with the entire arena as their playground — Feiden with his spear, Tana with her sword.

I watched both of them intently, wondering how they would handle this fight. I knew both of them would give it their all, especially Tana. But I wasn’t sure how much experience either of them had fighting people. I could only assume Feiden had more based on his background.

Well, I would know soon enough.

“Match start!”

The hand went down, and the two lingered for a second before darting off like arrows at each other.

The first strike came, Tana slashing out and being parried by Feiden’s spear. He then moved in with his momentum, his spear snaking toward her.

She dodged with lithe agility, retracting her sword before kicking off his body and creating distance.

They had a moment of reprieve before continuing.

Tana knew her strengths pretty well. Her stamina was her best asset and provided the most value to our squad. However, because she didn’t excel in strength or speed, her combat power was relatively low. That meant that any enemies she faced, she would have to chip away at.

This required her to kite her opponent, diving in and out without getting hurt in the process. This naturally required a great level of agility as well. That was one of her strong suits.

Unfortunately, Feiden used a spear which was basically built to keep an enemy at a distance, close enough to attack, far enough to make counterattacks a mistake. Tana only used a sword so she was at a range disadvantage.

But she knew how to handle herself. During all our battles she was always on the outskirts, observing and planning before striking. She could read the flow of battle and the people within it. She knew how to find opportunities and exploit weaknesses.

That went for her own squad as well.

Tana watched everyone, and she knew her own team well. That meant that she could read Feiden like a book, as she could Vetsmon and Umara. Perhaps even me.

So she knew how to handle Feiden. That was shown clearly as Feiden received knicks in his armor from her blade, while she remained entirely unscathed.

Minute by minute passed. Compared to all the other battles before, this one seemed to drag on as five minutes of hit-and-run attacks passed. They were fighting, but there weren’t many exchanges and no wounds.

Five minutes turned into 15. Tana continued to bounce around, diving in with greater frequency as Feiden was forced to fend off all of her surprise attacks. Although she didn’t seem to be capable of doing anything to him, Feiden was also incapable of going on the offensive. She would just slip away, and the flow of battle would be dominated by her once again.

Of course, Feiden tried to make some bigger moves every so often, expending energy and utilizing his speed in an attempt to pin Tana down and deliver a decisive blow. But she always snaked away from them, always able to evade and retreat. And every bit of extra energy that Feiden spent was another advantage for Tana.

And finally, the first to land a solid strike was Tana.

As she dove in, Feiden was caught off guard as she burst out with her full strength and thrust her sword into the gap between his armor plate around the leg. A long slice was left behind, blood splattering across her sword and the ground.

But Feiden was a quick thinker, using his elbow to deliver a blow to her overextended body, knocking her to the floor and bringing down his spear.

Before the blade could reach her, Tana rolled out of the way, jumping to her feet like a startled cat and scurrying away.

Tana sucked in a long breath, the two at an impasse for a moment before Tana dove right back in.

She couldn’t let up. She couldn't afford to let Feiden gather himself. She would need to press every advantage she got.

She continued diving back in, the battle moving in her favor as the wounds continued to appear. Feiden couldn’t utilize his energy whenever he wanted. He needed to wait for an opportunity that Tana rarely presented. It would only happen when she finally got tired, so until then, he had to be patient.

Of course, that meant he was on the defensive the whole time. Even when she overextended to deliver a wound, Feiden was unable to do much. She was too agile, and with her Aura, she could read him better than he could read her. It made it all the more difficult.

As 15 minutes turned into 30, the audience started to grow bored. With Tana whittling Feiden down, it almost seemed like the winner was decided. Feiden wasn’t landing any hits and was only accumulating wounds. Eventually he would fall.

But over time, Tana started to get tired. They were both losing Vigor with every exchange. Vigor was no different than Psyka or Mana. Every magical thing a knight did cost Vigor, just like how every spell a warlock cast consumed Mana and every summon a summoner brought out consumed Psyka.

Tana was definitely consuming more than Feiden was. He was just stalling, she was trying to inch her way toward an impossible goal.

From the suite, I could see Tana reaching her limit. Maybe not her physical limit, but her mental limit. Although she was encouraged by my little speech, that didn’t mean she liked the situation. I could tell that comparing herself to the rest of her squad was a sore spot for her. Maybe she had carried that all the way from the beginning of the year when the Puppet Master had blamed her for my near-death.

And she knew that she couldn’t win against Feiden. He was smart like her, so although he might not have her stamina, that didn’t mean he couldn’t win. The perfect course of action was to do exactly what he was doing, which was to let Tana wear herself out and strike when she couldn’t avoid him. That time was coming, and they both knew it.

That kind of helplessness was no doubt suffocating. And from the suite I could see the exact moment that Tana finally gave up.

I stood.

“Let’s go down there.”

I didn’t wait for a response, running out of the room and heading down the stadium stairs.

As I did so I could hear the audience starting to cheer as Tana started battling Feiden head on.

That was a recipe for disaster, but she didn’t care.

Instead of diving in and out, Tana dove in, wounded Feiden more, but stayed. She started to try and fight him on equal grounds, pushing forward with all her might.

She might not be as strong nor as fast, but with her Aura, she was able to predict Feiden’s behavior and adjust accordingly. It allowed her to compensate, and for a minute, Feiden was actually suppressed and beat down.

Whether it was elbowing or kicking, utilizing her spare knife, or deflecting his spear with her sword, Tana used all avenues available to her in order to get in close and stay in close. She didn’t do anything that would let Feiden create distance.

However, right as we got down the stadium and arrived at the side of the arena, Tana’s advantages went up in smoke.

I watched almost in slow motion as Feiden let out a breath and lifted an arm, deflecting one of Tana’s kicks and diving in, driving a fist straight into her gut.

I saw his eyes through the thin gap of his helmet. RIght now, he was treating Tana like a serious opponent, which is exactly what he should be doing.

But that meant that when Tana was thrown away, he was able to ready his spear.

After that, it was over.

He thrust his blade forward, Tana noticeably panicking as the spear sliced through her armor and opened up a large wound on her leg.

She tried to jump away, but Feiden didn’t allow her to. He jumped in and continued delivering blows with his spear that she was forced to either evade or block with her sword.

It was overwhelming. His training became evident as each move he made flowed together in a way that Tana simply couldn’t fight back against. Her armor was almost stripped entirely off as Feiden’s spear ripped it apart. She was avoiding his blows by an inch at most, pushing her Aura’s predictive ability to its max, yet was still suffering wounds.

Blood had already dyed the white arena floor red, mostly from Feiden. Most had already dried by now, the minute quantities not holding enough fluid to stay that way for long. However, it now received a fresh dose as Feiden’s wounds opened back up and Tana’s own started to bleed profusely. Vigor had a nasty effect on the body that didn’t allow wounds to heal in any way, constantly degrading them. I had experienced that personally: the scar above my ear would never truly heal.

We watched from the side as Tana continued to get overwhelmed. Of course, Feiden wasn’t much better off. His energy was leaving his body far faster than Tana’s ever did. It meant that Tana could do nothing but sustain injuries.

It only took a minute after that for her to fall.

With a knee to the chest, Tana was thrown a distance away, tumbling across the arena floor. She couldn’t even recover, coughing up some blood.

I saw tears run down her cheeks. She was more frustrated than in pain, that much was obvious.

At that moment, I heard Vetsmon yell.

“Get up and fight! Come on! Stand up!”

His voice roared even over the audience. I recoiled from the sound, his demands ringing in my sensitive ears.

Still, I watched as Tana pulled herself to her feet.

I couldn’t know what was going on in her mind, though knew she was definitely in a lot of pain. I had been in that situation a few times and knew what it felt like, even if I didn’t know about the conflict within herself.

She had wanted to quit before, just letting Feiden roll on through so she wouldn’t waste his energy. Now, she was feeling exactly why she had wanted to do that.

But as I had convinced her, it was a matter of principle. She’d feel even worse if she had done that. At least now, she knew that she was earning her spot, even if it wasn’t at the top.

Feiden took a breather as Tana stood. And once she was steady, he dove back in.

It was already over, and this was the nail in the coffin. Feiden only had to fly over and make one last exchange with her before kicking her sword away with his foot and placing his spear against her neck.

She stood there, defeated and in pain, before falling to her knees.

The judge stepped forward.

“Match over! The winner is Feiden Desmus!”

The match was called. And as soon as it was, Feiden dropped to his knees, blood dripping down his armor in exhaustion.

All of us jumped up onto the arena and ran over. Vetsmon went straight for Tana, as he should, and wrapped her up in an embrace while she cried.

As for Feiden, I walked over and slapped his helmet.

“Good shit dude! Other than your reflexes. You couldn't catch her for shit.”

“Ugh… yeah… fuck…”

He cursed while coughing. It was clear that, just as I had predicted, Tana would push him to his breaking point.

His breath blasted heavily against my leg. He couldn't even hold himself on his knees, falling to the ground a few moments later.

Thankfully, there were always medical personnel on standby. A group ran up and took both of them away.

We followed, the Puppet Master appearing along the way.

He pulled up to my side and asked.

“I thought she was going to forfeit.”

“I convinced her otherwise.“

“Well, that’s quite unfortunate for Feiden. His next battle is supposed to be against Vetsmon in 3 hours. They would fight to face Ponteck.”

“Well, Feiden met his match. It’s nothing Tana is obligated to worry about. Seems like Vetsmon is going to be fighting for the championship.”

“Mm, I suppose.”

He shrugged. Something like this was normal in these tournaments anyway. Tana forfeiting would be abnormal.

After that, we got to the medical room and watched everyone get treated. Vetsmon had one more battle, but that wasn’t going to be anything eventful.

So with that, we moved on to the final phase of the Division tournament.