Chapter 63: Tournament Day 1 (Part 5)

[Raise my spirit's and quicken my steps, slow my enemies in an endless quagmire! Bottomless Pit!] - Aerin

[Woah well that's unexpected!] - Edgar

[I was going to allow you to walk away from here mostly unharmed, call it pity if you wish but I didn't want to hurt anyone other than my target.] - Aerin

[Well that's mighty nice of you but it's-] - Edgar

[However, I've changed my mind. You're not leaving this Arena intact! Burn the sky and Boil the Sea's! False Primordial Fire!] - Aerin

Edgar was surprised, no one had ever lasted this long against his Limit Release and it wasn't even because of his nasty habit of playing around to enjoy a fight for longer. The person in front of him, this Elf, was powerful. Amazingly so. Even after landing a full blow against her she was still in fighting shape and while he could tell he'd done some damage it wasn't nearly enough to put her out of commission just yet as evidenced by what happened next.

Raising her arms to the sky as mana radiated off of her body Aerin called upon the spirits to assist her magic. Edgar, excited about what she could possibly be doing, waited for her to finish her spell but even he was surprised by the outcome. The Arena, once a floor of solid bedrock with a small amount of dirt on top, was now giving way to marshland as tree's sprang out of the ground and pools of water appeared everywhere. It was suddenly like the two of them had been transported to the middle the marshland directly to the West.

This little lady was strong, not at the level of his master but certainly stronger than anyone he'd seen so far in this Tournament. He didn't know who exactly she'd come to find but whomever it was he wished them the best, they'd need it. Just as he was thinking that the little Elf girl finished her next spell, yet another one that he had no knowledge of. And one that looked exceedingly dangerous as a ball of fire began to grow above the middle of the Arena. The heat, already starting to blacken the leaves of the conjured tree's, was gradually growing hotter and the ball of flame seemed to be growing in size slowly.

[Welp it looks like this battle now has a time limit if I had to guess.] - Edgar

[Wow so trash like your race CAN actually use their brains every once in a while? Who'd have thought it.] - Aerin

[Hahaha! Listen here little lady, I don't know why you hate humans and honestly I don't care. But, underestimating us as a result of that is just asking for trouble. Take this as a bit of advice from your senior in life experiences. Although now that I think of it you're probably older than I am huh...?] - Edgar

[Looking down on me?!? Still looking down on me? When will you people be satisfied?!? How arrogant can you-] - Aerin

[Let me stop you right there, I don't particularly fancy being a Roast Human so I'm gonna start off okay?] - Edgar

[Y-You bastar-] - Aerin

[And... Here. I. Come!] - Edgar

The oppressive heat beat down on the combatant's, baking the muddy ground into bricks and reducing the grasses into blackened husks. Even the tree's were starting to smolder as the heat continued to increase. The only one not affected was the spell's caster, Aerin. To her it felt like a cool breeze, as another function of the spell was pulling the heat from directly around the caster and feeding that into the spell itself to both speed it up and keep the caster safe.

That wasn't to say she was comfortable though, in fact she'd become increasingly uncomfortable over the last minute or so as her opponent continued to harry her with faster and faster strikes. Her earlier move that had messed with his center of mass seemingly completely overcome she was no longer able to completely deal with his powerful blows and was weakening quickly.

But she couldn't give up, she had to win. Her pride demanded it. Her sanity couldn't handle losing here, not after embracing her teacher's belief's. Losing to a "lesser" race was unacceptable. As such she fought. She fought harder than she'd ever done before, ever closer to the limit that she never realized she was fast approaching. She was a child afterall.

[Hahahaha! Take this! What's the matter are you finished already!?! Hahahahaha!] - Edgar

[Guh!] - Aerin

Sweeping her legs out from under her Edgar went for a finishing blow but only succeeded in gouging out a massive chunk of ground as Aerin rolled to the side and jumped back to her feet, panting with exhaustion plain on her face. Edgar's excitement, at a high from the elongated fight, sobered slightly at that image. It seemed that Aerin's body couldn't hold up for much longer, her age limiting her ability to continue.

[Hey... You should surrender. You're about done already and I'd rather not have you hurt yourself continuing. I don't know what you went through but throwing your life away isn't-] - Edgar

[You're right! You don't know what I went through! I trusted your race! I thought the Elder's were wrong, stuck in their ways! And you betrayed me! You all betrayed me! Well I'm not going to let it happen again. AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!] - Aerin

[Tch! So she had one more card to play huh.] - Edgar

Edgar was done with this fight, he'd won, as far as he was concerned it was pretty much over and while competing against a healthy fighter was something he loved above all else he wasn't in the habit of picking on the weak. And given that she was about to keel over right there she certainly qualified. He needed to convince her to drop out before she really hurt herself, or else.

Unfortunately his attempt failed, instead of coaxing her into giving up he'd pushed her into using what he assumed was her final card. A pill of some kind that she swallowed before starting to scream in pain. Whatever she'd just done he guessed it wasn't exactly a safe option so it seemed he would have to stop another person from making a stupid mistake in this Tournament. It was starting to become a habit at this point.

Thump Thump! Pain. Thump Thump! Her body was wracked with excruciating pain. Thump Thump! But below that pain was a power she'd never felt before. Thump Thump! The pill she'd swallowed, a powerful Alchemic creation, was designed to unleash the latent power in the user. Thump Thump! She'd been told it was a last resort, only to be used in case of imminent death, and that she needed to cleanse herself afterwards as soon as she could. Thump! Otherwise, she'd die. Thu-

Edgar was in shock, before his eyes that little Elf girl, the one that barely came up to his waist, was maturing at a rapid pace. Her body growing in every way as it became more curvy and adult. Within seconds she'd gone from looking no older than 3-4 years old to looking nearly 15. However, throughout her transformation she'd never stopped screaming in pain, even as her body matured and her voice deepened she continued to cry out. He wanted it to stop, for her sake if nothing else. And suddenly. It did, the artificial sun sputtering out as her screaming did.

An eerie silence pervaded over the Arena stands, whatever had just happened had stunned the audience into complete and utter stillness. The only sounds present was the powerful thumping of what sounded like a heartbeat, and it was emanating from the collapsed body of the Elf. Edgar edged forwards slowly, keeping his eye on the still form of what used to be the loli Elf. Now though? Her body was nearly double it's original size and from every inch of it spread a implicit threat. Don't come here. Turn back now. Even in his Released state every fiber of his being told him to run as far away as he possibly could and to not look back. His instincts saw nothing but death in her form. And he loved it!

Suddenly she vanished, the place where she'd been laying showered with dust from the sudden explosion of movement that he barely caught. Spinning to the right he attempted to use her momentum against the approaching Elf but instead felt pain blossom in his lower stomach. He was airborne, blood trailing behind him as ruptured organs mixed with torn muscles and flowed out of his wound. His regeneration however, sealed up the open hole in his stomach mere seconds later as he gasped from the sudden pain. She'd suddenly powered up immensely, her speed, mixed with her thin, thrusting weapon, made her a dangerous opponent.

[Kof Kof! Ow... That hurt you know... That form...? It's dangerous isn't it? For you I mean? Are you sure you wanna risk it for a stupid competition like this?] - Edgar

[...] - Aerin

[I see, well come on then. I'll save you too.] - Edgar

Edgar didn't know exactly how long that little Elf girl could hold on at the rate she was hemorrhaging mana, he guessed that it would end sooner rather than later. And if he had to guess even further he doubted that she'd still be living by the end of it. Unfortunately he was also on a time limit, one that was quickly approaching as well. This fight, it will be over within the next 4 minutes max. Time to get to it I guess.