Chapter 55: Finals

Unlike most of my previous fights, Chyzu doesn't have a strong advantage over me, but she is very experienced and knows my abilities. She's probably put just as much thought into defeating me as I've put into defeating her.

So if I were Chyzu how would I beat me? Traping me doesn't help, I have spells and skills that can counter. No, if I were Chyzu, getting close is the best way to defeat me, she doesn't know that I've spent my points so she's probably thinking of rushing at me in a physical brawl, and she knows she can catch me.

My previous plan won't work as I assumed Chyzu would play traditionally as a mage, but that's what would make her lose. This isn't the dojo, I can use the sand to make cover, I have ways to use my skills to make an advantageous situation for myself.

In any case, if Chyzu plays the mage I have my first plan but if Chyzu doesn't I need this next plan. How do I deal with a physical confrontation from someone with more strength and mass than me? Even though I put stats in my physical stats my base is lower and thus my points used count for less.

I need a buffing spell first. But should I go agility and speed or strength and endurance? I can't do both as one is lightning or water and the other is earth, they repel. For speed, I play at a distance but Chyzu may have a way against that. What about strength? Chyzu has years to develop some martial knowledge, she beats me no matter what. I need to be able to enhance my strength and also my speed.

What if I buff just my legs for speed and my upper body for strength?

I test out the idea, watching the ectoplasm in my body hold the buffing mana. There's more to this, the more I watch spells and enchantments the more I feel like mana and magic are two separate things.

I move my body to test out my new speed and strength, feels like a seventy percent increase. It still doesn't help the issue of a lack of mass but it certainly will throw Chyzu in for a loop. Instead of running away, I think I'll meet her head-on. If I just focus on speed and agility and use my clone to attack from two sides I might just be able to win this. I don't need strength I just need to hit her with my fairies.

Also now that I am thinking about my increased stats my wisdom has increased, I have around five hundred wisdom, which means I can have up to ten clones or familiars out at the same time unless the more I have the more it takes but even then I can still account for seven familiars or clones. She'll of course know which is fake with her [Sense Mana] but her eyes may cause her to hesitate.

Chyzu plans to throw me off by acting completely out of character, by acting like a warrior and not like a mage. I plan to throw her off too but [Acting] like a close combat mage or perhaps even a ninja. [Acting] doesn't make me great at something but it'll close the gap even more.

"Yakana wins! Now onto the semifinals. To start it off is Chyzu versus Alysara!"

'Teacher and student, will the student surpass her mentor or will she schooled!' Seriously, if I can do a better job you need to be replaced.

I walk down the steps, watching Chyzu descend on her end, she seems confident. I saw her pacing in thought before, I saw her come up with an appiffany. I have remote viewing so I didn't even need to be close to her. I was just checking on her I swear I wasn't planning to cheat, stop looking at me like that, Intel is a part of strategy!

"Ready, Aly?" Chyzu says, looking determined.

"Yup!" I nod with a smile.

At the signal, I immediately buff myself feeling the surge of speed fill me. As I had thought Chyzu ran towards me, water covering her arms.

Ninja mode, activate! I grin, assuming my [Acting] role and charge, fairies next to me as five clones appeares by my side and two familiars that start launching their attacks.

I see Chyzu falter for a heartbeat, seeing my readiness to meet her head-on. As we get closer Chyzu shots a bolt of water that I dodge, aided by my boosted reflexes from [Graceful Movements] and [Acting]. I feel some beauty mana being used up to help me look graceful with my variant skill, my hair fluttering behind in such a way as to make me look elegant. The skill schooling my face in a calm and classy expression.

Bewildered by my movements and elegance even in the heat of battle Chyzu's focus wavers. I take the moment of hesitation and with a wave of my hand send several fairies at her gut. Chyzu grunts and recoils. My familiars and clones follow up, aided by my second mind. Littery surrounded by me, myself, and I, Chyzu is bombarded by attacks.

Chyzu retaliates with a wave of water but I jump over it and release a mist of fog as my ninja smoke screen fills the air. It was mostly useless but the randomness threw Chyzu off again, plus it helps me get into the [Acting] role of a ninja.

"I know I said that you shouldn't be predictable but this is just crazy!" Chyzu complains.

"You have only yourself to blame!" [Echos of Reality] spoke for me from a clone, causing Chyzu to turn her head in a double-take. She knows where my real body is through her [Sense Mana] but both her eyes and ears are telling her different.

"You've learned so fast," Chyzu says with a proud smile.

I effortlessly dodge Chyzu's thrown punches and shot water bolts, aided by my skills. I retaliate with fairies, placing them like caltrops, throwing them as if they were shurikens. It mattered not that they were the real thing, [Dreams of Reality] help my role by making illusions of the actual thing, further distracting Chyzu.

"I yield!" Chyzu suddenly says, holding her hands up. She was fine on vitality she could have continued. Chyzu then looks at me. "I know when I'm beat, I haven't landed a single hit on you. I'm not a warrior and I don't have a skill like your [Graceful Movements] to help me in this. If I were a warrior I would have a very high chance but I'm a mage. It was too late to change tactics and try for a normal mage battle" Chyzu explains.

"Alysara is the winner!"

Ting! Graceful Movements has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Graceful Movements will now continue leveling past level 60!

6th Breakthrough: You've learned to increase your speed essence to move faster. This will help you react to faster speeds.

Ting! Graceful Movements has obtained level 44!...Ting! Graceful Movements has obtained level 46!

I must have done that subconsciously, cause I don't remember doing that, I used a spell, yes, but I don't think I did it through the skill.

Ting! Acting has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Acting will now continue leveling past level 60!

6th Breakthrough: You've acted even in the heat of battle, this will help you become better at acting in combat.

Ting! Acting has obtained level 50!...Ting! Acting has obtained level 53!

Chyzu follows me up to my staging area. "You've learned a lot and improved a lot today. You went from hiding and relying on tricks and unconventional means to fighting head-on and showing yourself proudly in the last two fights. You're slowly overcoming your weaknesses. I think you'll win this Aly." Chyzu's words fill me with warmth and I couldn't help but smile. "Still, how did you know what I was going to do? How did you know my plan?"

"I only thought of how you would try to beat me. I put myself in your position and I realized your greatest chance at beating me was through a direct physical confrontation" I answer.

"I see, instead of trying to plan out how to beat someone, you planed how to beat yourself and covered that weakness. That was exactly what you needed to learn how to do. You had oversight of that. Yes, you played defensively but that doesn't mean you covered your weaknesses, just that you didn't let those weaknesses be exposed. Still, you never trained in hand-to-hand fighting, how were you so skilled considering your experience?"

I grin. "It's [Acting], it helps me be not bad at something. It can't make me good but I won't be a complete beginner something"

"I see [Acting] seems like a great coverall skill, you should train with it more. Let's see who you'll be up against" We join the village in the stands.

"That was so cool! You like 'Woosh!' then 'Swoop!' and you looked so beautiful while doing it!" Yafel and Yafe waves their arms exaggeratedly. Stars gleaming in their eyes.

I sat down next to them and pat their heads

"Next is Klora versus Olio!"

Klora is a warrior with an earth bond and strength essence class and race. She has a massive steel bow in her hands and blunted lightweight bamboo arrows. She probably has to use lightweight arrows so she doesn't cause too much damage.

Olio is a sound mage with a wind bond and sound essence and class, much like Chofel. Olio has a flute in her hands, the high pitch sounds it can produce is probably a good weapon with her magic.

The fight starts with Olio blasting Klora with a sound loud enough to force Klora to cover her ears in pain, the flute producing a very high pitch sound to attack Klora's sensitive ears. To Klora's praise, she didn't drop her bow but Olio then uses some wind blades to attack Klora. Klora uses her bond to have the sand move and cover her but has a hard time controlling the sand as the vibrations from the sand cause it to shift and bounces off the archer.

The battle continues with Klora trying to act defensively. Klora settled with raising a mound of sand and hiding behind it, she ignored the pain in her ears and loosed an arrow at Olio who dodged. They continue trading attacks but Klora eventually got a lucky hit on Olio's arm and judging by the sound of the crack her arm is broken or at least fractured.

Olio screams and holds her arm, dropping her flute in the process. In her moment of weakness, Klora shot another arrow at Olio's leg, a second crack resounds over the arena. It is over, unable to dodge effectively, and injured Olio surrenders.

"Klora wins!"

The crowd cheers as I stand up and walk to the staging area. There'll be a short break to let Klora recover and be healed.

I'll defiantly need to increase my speed to dodge the arrows. I'll turn invisible but I expect Klora to have a good sensing ability, if not, then it's my win.

I notice Klora doesn't have a backup weapon, which means she's either good at hand to hand or relies on staying away. I can test her but it's a risk, and just because she stays away doesn't automatically mean she is bad at hand to hand. Meanwhile, if I stay away I can dodge but one wrong move and I could lose.

How could Klora beat me? Trapping my feet with sand, prevent me from moving. She specializes in high power attacks so she doesn't seem to have too much versatility but she'd have been taken out by a speedster by now if she didn't have some way to inhibit movement. She didn't do so against Olio and since she doesn't have backup weapons I'm beginning to think it's a proximity entrapment, get too close and I'll get stuck.

I could counter with [Mana Manipulation] but let's not resort to that first thing. Raising barriers and sand mounds will protect me and those blunted arrows will have a hard time punching through the sand. She could use her bond to weaken my defenses so I should preemptively prepare [Mana Manipulation] in case that happens. Using my clone to get closer and launching fairies from them should be how I attack.

With my strategies formed I wait to be called.

"And now for the final match, it's Klora versus Alysara!"

Cheers from the crowd continue as I walk all the way down to the sands below.

"You're going to be a tough one, I already know that much" Klora says.

"You're pretty formidable too," I say with a nod.

The gong rang and I immediately put my plan into action, raising a thick mound of sand and turning invisible. I sent out my clones and launch fairies. Klora ignores the illusions and runs closer to the sand mound to get a shot at me. I didn't quite expect this but it was such an obvious course of action I mentally smack myself for overlooking it. However, a sudden idea causes me to smile. Using an earth spell I cause the mound to keep its shape as I fill it with water from a spell, quickly turning it into quicksand.

Once Klora reaches the dune's summit, she has her arrow trained on me, but she had fallen for my trap and had already begun sinking.

I dodge the arrow shot with speed essence prepared from my core production and from an enhancing spell. Being so close to Klora I feel sand move to trap me, but as with the Aydomr, I stop it. I retreat further and raise another mound. Klora struggles, she uses her bond to move the sand away but her weight only caused her to sink further and further. Eventually, with a surge of mana, she causes all the sand to blow away and runs toward me, all the while being pummeled by my fairies.

Ninja mode activate! With [Acting] boosting my ability to dodge as well as my combat prowess I charge Klora, I rolled out of the arrow trajectory that Klora shot and tackle Klora I couldn't take her down with my mass but in the confusion, I grab her heavy bow however she doesn't let go. Instead of fighting for her over it, I instead grab the arrows in her quiver and make my escape.

Klora reached for another arrow but found none. I reveal myself holding her ammo and smile.

"My win" I continue pummeling Klora with Fairies but she didn't give up, Instead she formes arrows out of the stone below the sand, reaching down to pick them up, and shoots them at me. I dodge them with my added speed and retaliate with my fairies.

Klora continues attacking but soon falls to her knees as the vitality in her body thinned too much to sustain the movements in her body.

"Alysara wins!"

I let out a sigh as the entire coliseum cheers, my village cheering the loudest. My plan failed halfway through the battle due to a simple oversight, yet I won anyway. A combination of quick thinking and tactics helped me out tremendously. I have a lot more to learn but next year I won't make such mistakes. I'll be a lot stronger and I'll beat Esofy.

The Priestess Storm Warden made her way to me, her blindfold matching mine, it too had become a magical item, giving the wearer [Sense Mana] just like mine. She carries a true gold medal with a ribbon of beauty silk and decorated with creativity mana silk. The medal has the numbers three hundred to four hundred on it. The priestess places the medal around my neck.

"May Myrou smile upon you!"

"Thank you" I reply.

I walk back up the steps to the staging area where my family is waiting, even Nyam and Aunty is waiting there with them.

Yafel and Yafe jumping up and down in excitement and Mom and dad are smiling brightly. My grandparents just arrived as I reach the top step, everybody congratulating me.

"You won! You won!" The twins chants excitedly.

With the fighters tournament over we all made our way to the baths. A few other coliseums still have their tournaments going on but most will be finishing up shortly.

I was the star of the show as everybody from the village came to congratulate me.

As we left the bathing area Uloru came up to me.

"I'm sorry for what I said. It was inconsiderate of me. Not only did I disrespect you but I also disrespected those who gave their lives defending your village" Uloru bows apologetically.

"I forgive you, you didn't know," I say.

"How did you get so strong? I trained my hardest for years yet in just a couple of months you got above level one hundred, how did you do it?"

"My level isn't above one hundred, it's in the low nineties, but I killed monsters, killing monsters or more accurately the danger they present to your life is the best ways to level up, The higher the stakes, the more levels you gain"

"Little Domrs don't give a lot of levels and the large ones are rare, how did you find strong enough monsters that you can beat?"

"They found me, it was just a coincidence that the monsters showed up at the right time, but we won't have to wait for them to come to us, there's is a place I recently found out about where we can hunt and test ourselves against monsters"