Hmm… A man with a big axe against a priest, who will win? I’m not really sure, I didn’t really pay either much attention. Considering how powerful the priest’s magic is and generally above average in terms of power, I think he has a good chance to win, the guy on the other side seems like one of those generic bald guy in the novels and such anyway, they’re strong but barely ever at the top of the totem pole.

“Begin!” The referee called out and immediately both sides reacted immediately.

*Dash*

The axeman quickly ran in with his axe in hand, it seems his opponent being someone of high status isn’t an issue in his eyes.

“[Shield of Light]!” The priest chanted as a shield made of light manifested in front of him, compared to the one I used it’s much less impressive, but in the eyes of everyone else it’s probably very impressive.

*Block*

The axe swing of course came in contact with the hard light and is reflected.

Practically speaking one must use more mana than usual to give the shield of light a more tangible form, after all light isn’t exactly something with a solid form to begin with, I doubt anyone is this era are aware of that fact though, while I only use it because it’s the element of my choice, earth magic is by far the most practical for defense while light is much more offensive oriented, wind have high utility, water isn’t particularly impressive in combat most of the time unless paired with the also dependent element cold, while dark which included both the manipulation of place without light and dark matter can be use for a few niche situation, life is about manipulating the productivity of living tissues when it comes down to it while death is the opposite of that, and what one might call a poison spell belong to the death element as well, though with how some illness work some of them belong to the life category as well, which is rather ironic. The most basic form of magic is the manipulation of something that exist in physical form already, while more advanced magic can manifest all kind of concepts relating to the particular element, really the way magic work is actually more mundane and down to earth more than one might expect, even reality turn something fantastical into something that sounds way more mundane and disappointing, but that grievance aside there’s really nothing I’m really mad about the magical system in reality. Mana is a strange building block unseen to the eyes of many in the modern world and reacts to extrasensory factors which is why it can interact with the imagination of others and other more conceptual stuff, and can be moulded into all kinds of elements. Why is such a fundamental part of fantasy has such a scientific-sounding explanation behind it… why must Kaa-san forsake me with such knowledge, I never get to complain to her about breaking my world like that.

“Maova what the hell are you spacing off about?” Rosia suddenly said bringing me back to reality, I really should break that habit once in a while. I really shouldn’t be so pessimistic on something that is actually not that big of a deal since it’s not like people need to be a science nerd to use it anyway. 

“Ah it’s nothing important” I said before looking at the match again.

*Shoot* *Parry*

The priest launched a bullet of hard light toward the axe-wielding man, who while managed to block it still received damage from the aftershock of the spell, he doesn’t have anything that can really deal with magic it seems.

“One who is not destined to be the Hero… Begone! [Judgement]!” The priest chanted, as a large blast of light came the axeman’s way.

*Boom*

And with that the man is knocked out, he’s a strong magic user alright, but obviously nowhere near my level of power, not that he’ll be fighting me anyway, he’ll be get rid off by Rosia soon enough, speaking of which.

“Hey Rosia it’s your turn next isn’t it?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ll make sure to not end it too quickly” Rosia said as she stood up and walked away. Not really sure about the conviction in her words to be honest, not that I mind her doing things at her own pace as long as nothing went wrong.

Two people on different sides of the arena, one is of course Rosia, while another is a boy with spiky dark brown hair who uses a sword, I think I saw him somewhere before… right, I beat the crap out of him when Rosia was away doing something else. I wonder if she knows him at all. The guy looks somewhat cocky if still clearly serious in going through with it and trying to come out as the victor.

Both of them hold onto their sword tight, Rosia holding the sword in both of her hands and glare at her opponent, who grip his sword tight one handed with a slightly loose stance.

“Begin!” The voice rings out and immediately and-

*Dash*

Both sides immediately rushed in and began swinging.

*Swing* *Block* *Swing* *Parry*

Rosia’s opponent swings his sword wildly which Rosia quickly blocks or parries, swinging wildly in many directions and even then Rosia nonchalantly counters them all. Rosia moved around and swung her sword in retaliation, which her opponent can barely stand his ground in return, losing his balance and began being pushed back despite the initial aggression from his side. 

“Dammit! This can’t be… happening!” The boy complained as he began losing balance and pushed back more and more. Rosia is doing this slowly and she still overwhelmed him within only a minute or so.

*Clash* *Slash* *Swing* *Parry*

Rosia got a hit in on the boy but it wasn’t a game ending blow, with the situation flipped against him much to his bewilderment, at this point he’ll get pinned to the wall and good as done. Throughout all of this Rosia doesn’t look tired at all and her expression doesn’t change at all, having the same serious expression just like always.

*Swing* *Evade*

Just when it seems like he’ll take another hit he actually managed to evade the attack and run away and have a breather, if only because Rosia jerked her arm in menacing but very much slow and awkward motion.

“Don’t you dare think I’ll go down so easily!” The boy boasted as he pointed his sword toward Rosia who didn't react to the taunt at all.

*Dash*

“Wha!” The boy cried out as Rosia silently but quickly flash-stepped and caught him by surprise.

*Swing* *Clank*

Rosia disarmed him in an instant much to the boy’s shock and horror.

*Kick*

She then kicks him away which makes him fly away and crash onto the floor, he still managed to stand back up however despite such use of force.

“Daring to make me dirty like this! [Fireball]!” He staggeringly stood back up and launched a ball of fire toward Rosia.

*Sizz*

Which Rosia just nonchalantly takes to the face as the crown all gasped.

“Hahaha!... W-What?” The smokes clear and stand there is a Rosia completely unaffected by the attack. It’s a natural reaction of course, it’s common sense that fire burns people, when it didn’t then something wrong is going on.

“H-How?” Someone in the crowd muttered. 

“Who is she?” Another muttered.

Rosia ignored the crowd muttering and pointed her sword at the boy who is still shocked by the ineffectiveness of his attack. Even if one’s magical resistance is significantly higher than the attacker’s magical prowess, if someone is susceptible to the elements like say a human catching on fire when coming into contact with one, the reaction will still happen, sure it will be less catastrophic but still way too dangerous for one to tank head on, Rosia have no such problem, she’s the demon of the highest tier, I made sure of that, so the elements will barely have an effect on her, and with her power added on top of that she’s even more absurd in terms of resistance. She’s a juggernaut in terms of fighting capability, her stats are high and she’s full of combat talents and instincts, unlike myself who have it artificially inserted into me, and both her and I have yet to reach the threshold in which one’s power spiked, so who the hell knows what that will entail.

*Slash* *Beam*

Rosia made a slashing motion toward the boy in an instant, with the beam of light immediately launched from the sword and flying toward him. It hit him and he’s immediately knocked out, and something tells me she did that with a small touch of malicious intent, but I won’t pursue her on that front.

“...The winner has been decided!” The referee after recovering from his shock, announced the obvious winner of the match, with Rosia dismissively walking back up here while others watched in amazement and fear.

I have to say both of us have garnered a lot of attention so far, if it weren’t for the fact that we make a quick change in decision to get into the spotlight then we’ll probably try to be a lot more conservative, which we still are to some degree, it’s just that we’re way less inclined since we’re going to put ourselves in the spotlight.

“From the looks of it you’re not exactly entertaining the guy” I commented.

“Why would I? He’s someone who doesn’t know his own place, and I’m not a type of person to humor others anyway, I couldn’t be bothered” Rosia replied, guess she doesn’t have a good opinion on the guy so she doesn’t feel like doing anything special. That’s fine with me really, that guy was a pain in the ass anyway. 

Hm? Have other people been looking at us? Well that’s not exactly polite of them now is it?

“Excuse me? But can all of you direct your stares at the match at hands?” I asked with a tint of malice in my voice, I really don’t appreciate this crushing amount of attention, what a bother. Thankfully all of them comply.

Now who against who? Ah it’s Yuuna’s brother against a guy wearing blue who uses a dagger, maybe some sort of ranger or a thief? 

“Start!” The referee yelled out as both immediately rushed in.

*Block* *Parry*

Yuuna’s brother rapier has a much greater reach than the guy’s dagger, so he can only go on the defensive for the time being, ducking and shifting his stance to block or parry in the incoming attack.

*Lunge* *Evade*

He then lunged in after one successful parry, taking Yuuna’s brother by surprise a little but managed to move his body to the side and dodge the incoming thrust.

*Swing* *Parry*

The rogue as I’ll call him now immediately followed up by swinging his dagger to the side where Yuuna’s brother leaned back, but Yuuna’s brother barely parried the attack in time, and ended up causing the two to stagger away from each other and create space between them.

Now there is space between them again and the air becomes heavy as both stay on the defensive, then Yuuna’s brother rapier begins burning brightly.

“[Blade of Flames]!” He chanted as flames appeared around his rapier, no doubt anything it touches will burn if coming into contact with it. When it comes to flaming enchantment one must be conscious of not letting the fire hitting the equipment itself so it won’t be disfigured by the heat, usually one must need a layer of mana as an insulator to make it even slightly practical, earth magic once again wins out in this aspect, manipulating the metal of the blade, changing its shape or even temporarily adding more density to it for more sturdy equipment, inserting and converting mana into more mass inside the item. Earth magic is ridiculous, that much I think everyone educated enough on magic and elements should realize. Let’s be real here the only reason why fire enchantment has even one positive aspect is because of the mana surrounding and slightly solidified around it like a crystal make the blade slightly more durable, and even then every other element does the same thing with better benefits than making the surrounding slightly hotter. Wind enchantment reduces and manipulates wind resistance which while isn’t a lot at least it does something, it’s more exponential in its effectiveness. Light is also basically nothing at low level, while darkness is some gravitational stuff I guess. Though to be fair all elements at high level can be obscene. Fire enchantment at high level can cause anything coming into contact with it to superheat and break down. Water enchantment and it’s essentially a chainsaw with water jet around it. Wind enchantment is also similar to water in that respect if less so due to having a less condensed foundation...

*Parry* *Block* *Parry*

Ah right, they’re still fighting. The rogue is now on the defensive again, using his dagger to block or parry the incoming attack, while I just dissed the effectiveness of fire enchantment just now the fact that his weapon is so short it means he’s exposed to the flame around it more, soon enough his dagger might actually began deforming and heating up if he doesn’t turn the table in time.

Now where was I? Oh I forgot the cold enchantment, it’s a more dependent element so it won’t do much, unless you went overkill and made it inflict absolute zero or something. Lighting is also dependent on the opponent’s equipment as well, and if high voltage and energy means it’ll burn stuff easily as well, and of course manipulating the electrical current so it’ll actually do something in the first place. Life basically does nothing unless with medical equipment. Death is… well… deathly. Light is pretty strong since lazer sword and all that. Dark with the gravitational power of dark matter might be powerful, I'm not really sure about that. Space and time? They’re obscenely overpowered of course, think attack once and it becomes three, all from different angles, toward one target, manipulating the dimension and the axis of the world and other complicated study I can’t really cram into my head.

*Kick*

Huh. The rogue kicked the guy from the side and forced him away. From the looks of it the rogue is in a rough spot, a part of his clothes is burned and his hand looks slightly burned as well, though on Yuuna’s brother's side it seems he already exhausted his mana reserves already, looking a bit too worn out despite keeping up the offensive advantage for a long time. Yeah the net gain from that enchantment isn’t that great.

Both of them stared at each other again, perhaps knowing full well neither had that much energy left to waste, and the next clash will be the deciding factor.

*Clash*

Immediately both of them went in and strike, clashing against each other, but it’s clear that in such a one-on-one confrontation Yuuna’s brother will obviously win, despite losing a great deal of stamina and suffering mana fatigue he’ll win this head-on clash.

*Turn* *Slash*

Unexpectedly the rogue quickly withdrew and slash Yuuna’s brother’s side. 

*Slash*

Unfortunately for him that just wasn’t enough to put him down, so he gets cut down instead in turn, ultimately concluding the match. 

“The winner has been decided!” The referee shouted as the crowd cheered, the rogue slowly standing back up still exhausted and hurt, while Yuuna’s brother already walked back up to the stage clearly fatigued. I wonder if I should help out in this situation. Might as well.

“Here. Drink it” I said as I gave him a mana potion from my [Item Box], his eyes widened no doubt realizing its content, potions in general are wonder drugs that need complex understanding of alchemy as well as magecraft, not to mention rare and valuable ingredients involved. Kaa-san has a workshop for it because she’s a cheat, so she has plenty.

“What? Why would you give me something so valuable?” He said in shock while a few others either clueless as to what’s going on or equally at shock as well.

“What? Do you not expect a lady from a faraway land to have something valuable with them? Just drink it, it’ll be a disappointment if you ended up losing due to not being able to give your all” I said walking back to my seats leaving people bewildered. After this is all over the explanation will seem simple or rather can’t be bothered to think about such a thing anymore.

“Start!” Oh the next match is starting, a dual wielding swordswoman against a spearman. If we talk about simply by design then those with cooler but less practical fighting-style will probably win, but I jest, this is not a novel after all, anything could happen, and I do not know for certain who will win.

*Block* *Block* *Block*

Immediately the swordswoman went in with an offensive approach, swinging her swords wildly at the spearman, the swordswoman wield two sabres and is quite fast relative to her opponent. The spearman isn’t anything special I would say.

*Swing* *Evade* *Swing* *Block*

The spearman swung his spear in retaliation which the swordswoman simply ducked under and attempted to swing her sabres in return, only for the spearman to block it anyway, reacting quickly and using his spear to block the incoming slash, then pushing her away and allowing some distance between them.

*Lunge* *Thrust* *Evade* *Lock*

The spearman lunged in to hit the swordswoman, but she stepped side quickly and locked the spear in place with her arms. The spearman quickly pulled his spear away as the swordswoman let go of it quickly, only for her to rush in to attack.

*Block* *Block*

A swing from the left, a swing from the right, both blocked by the spear.

*Block* *Swing* *Smack*

Another wild swing toward the spearman, with him blocking it. He quickly changed his stance from a defensive one to an offensive one, swinging his spear again but this time actually hitting his opponent, almost knocking her completely off balance, instead just pushed her a few meters away to the side.

*Dash* *Block* *Parry* *Block* *Block*

The swordswoman movement is wild, fast like a beast and furious like one as well. She’s definitely not the most graceful in terms of combat compared to the rest of the participants remaining. The spearman so far managed pretty well, remaining somewhat composed and staying well defensively.

*Kick*

She kicked the spearman away with the shock clear on his face, with some people in the crowd gasping as well. A move that came out of nowhere that put the spearman on edge, seems he wasn’t expecting the woman who seems so insistent on doing one thing and one thing only to pull a move like that. 

*Dash*

Her minty hair fluttered in the wind as she quickly closed the distance between the two again.

*Kick*

Going in for another kick, it seems after figuring out what works she decided to stick with it.

*Dash *Spin* *Kick*

Another gap-closing step and a spin kick, knocking the man to the ground. In contrast to her rather cute and graceful look she fights wildly, and this time that mentality works. A lot of raw intuition and power, but rather unskilled and can’t be bothered to create a plan of attack. Yuuna’s brother will have a lot on his hand going up against him. For all I know he might actually lose, but that just had to be seen to know for certain.

*Slash* *Slash* *Slash* 

She quickly tears into him with her sabers, slashing wildly with him struggling to not get hit at all sleeping on the ground like that.

“Stop! The winner has been decided!” The referee announced, and the round is over, Yuuna’s brother will have a lot of problem on his hands that’s for sure against this woman.