The World of Emns 2: Arena

Chapter 15: Lost in the dark

"Time to show you what a proper Fynlone mage can do," Alexander boasted as he walked down a few steps, towards the arena.

"You say that as if there isn't a Fynlone mage that has already made it to the semi-finals," Melissa said, to which Olivia swore this is the first time she heard her talk. It was also the first time she saw her, Hugo, and Conner all sitting together side by side.

"One, yes. But a half-elf," Alexander scoffed. "But the rest of the mage squad all got beaten in the first rounds. I could say the same for you plebes from the Dorean kingdom. I've heard of the three of you. Aren't you supposed to be part of Captain Tulfer's royal knight squad? Pathetic."

Hugo shook his head. "We didn't come here for the kingdom, unlike your mage squad probably did. We came here to have fun with the three of us, which we did."

"Even if I didn't get to do anything myself," Melissa followed up, "watching the fights is more than enough for me. Having my name on the list of participants is an honour in and of itself. If we really wanted to win this competition for the kingdom of Dorean, we would have brought Shey Themsmith with us."

Alexander scoffed and kept on moving. Olivia was surprised both human kingdoms seemed to have a group of their magical or royal knights in the tournament. Too bad she didn't get to see more of the Dorean warriors. To be fair, Steven was from the Dorean kingdom as well, way back in the day. Perhaps Ruhnim as well? She wasn't sure where he was from.

Olivia gave Steven a quick hu. Steven seemed to be caught off guard but went in on the hug, before she pulled herself loose and hurried down towards the stone arena. Why did I do that, she thought, getting a slight blush. Why did I hug him?

The crowd was going wild as Olivia stood down on the red circle. On the other side was Alexander. She knew a bit about illusion magic, as much as Nyx told her, but it was also clear that Nyx was a mere novice compared to her uncle. He managed to trick a seasoned warrior by making them walk off the stage, at least.

Alexander was enjoying the attention from the audience, as he was flaunting around. Taking bows in multiple directions. Some women in the audience yelled in high-pitched screams as he looked their way. Olivia couldn't quite understand it. Then again, they might not quite understand her, so it was pointless to think about.

Something Olivia knew for sure is that she should stay far away from the edges of the arena in case Alexander tried to pull the same trick he pulled on Conner Viper. Besides that, icing over the starting area might be good, since he didn't move in his first fight and let his illusions do all the work. She couldn't think of much else of a strategy. Maybe she should have taken Steven's advice for this fight. But at that point, all she would do is rely on him, but he should try to think about his own upcoming fight against Runihm. If it was really true Steven could only see his brother by winning the arena fights then he shouldn't be bothered thinking about her right now.

"Ready, set... go!"

Alexander ran to the side of the arena and walked across the edge. Olivia stomped her foot forward and froze the ground right in front of her, which shot forward until a huge line of ice that crawled up to about her waist covered the arena, and crossed straight through the other red circle.

"Too bad, kid," Alexander laughed. "As much as I would have liked to, I'm not stupid enough to stay there again."

His voice came from multiple directions. That meant that the Alexander she was seeing right now was probably not the real one. Or it was and he was duplicating his voice somewhere else on purpose. The longer she thought about it, the more obvious it became to Olivia she was woefully underprepared for this. So busy with spectating the others she forgot to worry about herself.