The World of Emns 2: Arena

Chapter 11: Return to sender

Olivia's heart was beating in her chest as she stood in the red circle. The arena looked so much bigger and grander from down where she was now compared to up in the stands. It felt like the amount of spectators was also way more, but she tried her best to convince herself that was just an illusion. Of all problems she could encounter during the arena, she did not expect sudden stage fright to take over.

She slapped her cheeks and tried to focus. Right now, there was only one thing she should be focusing on. Diana, the opponent in front of her, belonged to the Fynlone mage squad as well. Luckily they were easy to identify by the capes. It was the woman with short blonde hair, blue eyes, and a fit figure. Her showing her legs quite a lot almost made Olivia blush, but she tried to shake it out of her head.

Diana didn't seem worried at all. She adjusted the small round shield that was attached to her left arm a bit. Then, pulled the thin, rapier-like sword out of the scabbard attached to her hip and took a stance which made it seem like she was going to sprint straight at Olivia.

C'mon, Olivia thought to herself. You trained for a good few weeks with Steven. You can do it! Help him get to his brother!

"Ready, set... go!"

Indeed, Diana sprinted towards Olivia. She was fast. Really fast. Maybe not as instant as Reyna, but as fast, if not faster than Steven.

Olivia slammed her foot down, as ice quickly spread across her half of the arena. It was a much wider area that she usually covered. Was it because it was just a thin layer on the floor instead of a wall? Maybe because she was panicking slightly? Or maybe she really did get stronger.

Diana stopped running and moved her body sideways, sliding around on the ice so as to not slip. It didn't stop her, but at least it slowed her.

Olivia waved her arm up, and multiple ice spikes flew towards Diana. The ice mage knew these wouldn't be as strong as if she would have charged them with a large amount of mana, but she didn't really have the time to do that right now. Regardless, having them be a lot weaker would mean that at best these could scrape Diana instead of puncture her. After all, killing or serious injuries weren't allowed.

Diana seemed to have realised this too, as she held up her left arm, waited for a moment, and then perfectly smashed the spikes away with a wide swing. She then slammed her heel onto the ground to stop herself and smirked.

"I know you can do better than that, ice girl!"

Olivia waited for the next move, but the next move didn't come. Diana simply waited.

"What are you doing," she yelled out, feeling embarrassed by the two of them standing still in the arena.

"I told you. You can do better! So hit me with your best shot!"

Olivia tried to think. Surely this was a trap, right? But if Diana was underestimating her, it could be a good way to get the upper hand quickly.

Olivia folded her hands together and tried to charge an ice spike. One not any larger than her hands, but one clearly powerful enough to not be swiped away like that. With one fell move, she pushed her hands forward, and launched the spike across the field. It flew at breakneck speed, and looked like it was about to hit Diana. That was, until she moved her sword in front of her body.

For a moment, the spike stopped and floated in front of Diana. A small metallic sound was heard, implying it properly hit the sword. Then, the spike was launched back with an incredible force. It must have moved at least twice as fast as when Olivia originally launched it. So fast, in fact, that she barely managed to dodge it.

Out of reflex, Olivia flicked another spike towards Diana, to which quite the same happened. A small metal sound was heard, after which it flew back towards her. Olivia snapped her fingers, to turn the ice into water, yet, she was so fast, the spike turned to water, which started falling, and then back to ice, which fell to the ground, and shattered.