The World of Emns 2: Arena

Chapter 16: Semi-finals

The sign had changed again. Now, it said;

Round 1: Steven Kaynes Vs Ruhnim Ragni Wilkers

Round 2: Reyna Vs Olivia Denter

But Olivia didn't care much for the sign. Her arms were wrapped around Steven's body. She could feel his hand land on her hand. It was warm and soft. Careful and caring.

"Good job," he whispered softly. "I'm proud of you. Sorry that you had to go through it."

"What happened," Ruhnim asked, butting in.

Steven gave him a nasty glance. "Don't worry about it."

"No, it's alright," Olivia said as she pulled away. She didn't quite feel good again, but she felt a lot better now. "I've had a really bad experience where I almost died while being in complete darkness. Since then I panic when I'm in the dark. This one was especially bad... Though in the end I guess it helped me win the fight."

Ruhnim stared at her for a few moments. Then he nodded. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. Let me know if there's anything I can do."

Olivia nodded back. "Thank you. I doubt it, but yeah, I'll let you know." She could feel he was genuine.

Ruhnim smiled at her. Then, he got up from the bench and slapped Steven on the shoulder. "I believe that it's time for us to go down to the arena, young master Kaynes."

"As I said before," the lightning mage groaned. "Call me Steven, please."

"My apologies, Steven."

Together, the two mages approached the arena and took their places. On the way, each of them offered to move to the other side of the arena, as they both entered from the same side, before Steven lost the debate and Ruhnim crossed to the second red circle.

Steven pulled out his sword and held it tightly in his hands, while Ruhnim simply stood with his staff in front of him, looking confident as ever.

"Ready, set... go!"

Steven's feet were immediately grasped by earth crawling out from the stone tiles, attempting to hold him in place. Ruhnim sprinted forward, tapping the floor here and there with his staff. With each tap, a clump of dirt shot out from the floor and towards the lightning mage.

Lightning crawled up around Steven's body, and with a jolt of energy the shackles around his legs shattered. He ran forwards as well, either parrying or cutting through the projectiles Ruhnim tossed his way.

"Trying to keep me in place," Steven teased as a wall grew in front of him, and blocked him from going forward.

Ruhnim grinned as he pushed against the wall, which shot forward, and attempted to push the lightning mage out of the arena. Steven grasped his sword even tighter, covered it in lightning, and slashed through the wall with a single blow.

"We all know you beat Kyzer by increasing your magic over time," Ruhnim replied. "So the faster I end the fight, the better."

Steven pushed forward again. Right before he could hit with a lightning-covered punch, he covered his hand in earth and blocked the blow, cancelling out the lightning as well. He threw Steven backwards, which surprised Olivia until she took another good look at his physique. Then the arena started trembling. Not a moment later, a huge mage made of earth walls sprung out from the ground and formed across the entire arena.

Steven looked around for a few moments. Then, earth pillars started protruding from the walls around him and attempted to crush him, or at the very least hold him down.

Seemingly without a direction to go in, Steven jumped around through the maze. Olivia was thankful the spectator stands were a good bit above the arena, or she wouldn't have been able to see. Ruhnim was standing in the middle of the maze. He was using hand movement to control all of the pillars, moving walls, and dead ends that were now a hindrance to Steven.