TBATE | Fates Intertwine

Wins and Losses | Chapter 20

I just realized that I'm writing about a bunch of nine-year-olds in a tournament slitting each other's throats open and thousands cheering them on. 

AND IF NOT TO MAKE THIS WORSE, THEIR OWN FAMILIES ARE WATCHING THIS HAPPEN!!!

Kizan Strung an arrow in place while moving around the arena. Claire had her rapier out, and had augmented it with fire. 

Kizan was the first to make a play as he let go of his dulled arrow. Clad in water it zipped through the air as it made its way to Claire. By the time it had reached her, Claire slashed right through it then kept on running. Both competitors were moving quickly, one faster than the other. 

Claire was gaining ground on Kizan but he made up for his disadvantages with pure skill; with a flick of his wrist, an earthen column rose just below his feet, elevating him in the air.

Now the tone of the battle has shifted and Claire is the one with a disadvantage, because unless she can destroy that column, Kizan will have the height advantage. But I know as well as her that Master had taught us both well that when fighting an archer with a height advantage, it's best to make your movements even more unpredictable than they already are, since the best archers are able to read the patterns in a person's movements.

As if reading my mind Claire started to move diagonally; and in short distances, shifting the direction of her strides. This didn't seem to have any effect on Kizan at all as his arrows were more than just simple small projectiles, he was able to make AOE attacks with them and cause a lot of mayhem with just a couple of arrows. 

Kizan sent three arrows at a time her way, she managed to zip past two of them and the third one managed to graze her left arm, but no injury too serious. All three of them caused massive explosions that threw her off balance. 

I wonder how he did could do such a thing, was it the way he formed the fire perhaps? Or a new deviant that I didn't know about?

These questions were unfounded of course so I stowed them away for a later time. The battlefield became littered with several craters, differing in size. Claire had trouble getting close to where Kizan was, who undoubtedly, has completely outmatched her.

Claire then conjured 3 fire embers around her as she sprinted toward her enemy, it seemed that she's starting to adapt to the name of the game, because she was starting to predict when the arrows would hit her and the explosion that hit her.

Claire was no more than about 20 feet away from Kizan. Both started to look visibly winded, Claire took small breaks every now and then between, each dodge slowed her down and her breaths began to become visible to us. Kizan was panting, sweat lined his forehead at the excessive use of mana; his firing rate has slowed, and the complexity of his spells has become more basic. 

Out of the two Claire seemed like the one to be the most exhausted.

Kizan stood up and took out his dagger, he clad it in lightning as his entire body wreathed in wind. Claire held her rapier high, ready for Kizan's advances. Closing the distance Claire doused herself in a blazing fire that made me convinced she would nearly be out of mana.

She swung her blade in a diagonal swoop, as Kizan blocked it with his dagger close to his face. Its length was no shorter than a simple kitchen knife and longer than a short sword. Ducking underneath, catching Claire off guard, Kizan took that chance to send a jab toward Claire's ribs, she dodged that but barely, leaving only a long line of blood across the left side of her abdomen.

 She clutched her side, grimacing in pain, Kizan held his dagger to her throat and muttered a few words. Claire relented and dropped her rapier at the same time raising her hands, indicating a surrender.