I laughed as Orion tried to goad me.
"Huh?" Orion asked, stepping back.
I smirked. That was smart of him to do. I raised a hand into the air, forming another light-green sphere. Launched it into the barrier above. Streams of glowing string rained down the battlefield.
Orion formed a water shield. He gritted his teeth as the spinning barrier drew all of the webbings toward him, blurring his view of the outside. If he lowered his defenses, he would be mine.
I pushed myself up from the mud and called back my lingering bees and spiders. The best insect I had for the task of shattering his barrier was none other than the same one I had used at the end of my tournament run last year.
Hopefully, things wouldn't go the same way. No, I knew that they wouldn't. Orion wasn't as adept as Xue.
"Come on forth, queen of the bees!" I yelled, clapping my hands together several times. "Come before me, my strongest!"
Orion gasped. Even if he couldn't see, he had to have known what this entailed. After all, he had helped me find her when we were kids.
A light green sphere formed from hexagons manifested above me. A ten-foot-tall bee with giant wings emerged from the beehive of energy. Several normal-sized bees buzzed around her.
"Here you go, girl," I said as I gave her my prana. "Now, if you desire more, defeat that boy!"
A gale from the flap of the bee queen's wings tore through Orion's barrier, blowing away the water making up Orion's barrier, and tearing through the webbing around it.
My eyes widened as I found myself buried in the ground. My bee was pinned on the floor. Water lances had pierced her wings and kept her firmly in place.
I looked over my shoulder and saw Orion standing behind me with his hands against the ground.
"You used your time magic after all, huh?" I asked with an anguished smile.
Orion fell to one knee and held his hands forward. "Aqua Tigris!"
Water in the shape of a tiger rushed at me. I screamed as all of the liquid making up the tiger barreled into me. It felt as if I were deep underwater, thanks to all of the pressure exuded on me in that small instance.
I huffed as chills ran up my body. My eyes widened as the tiger remained, and it turned around.
Suddenly, water lances struck the ring's barrier, but they didn't come from Orion.
Orion gritted his teeth and glared at my queen bee as she swooped in. Water went in all directions as my bee's stinger punctured the tiger.
"Damn it, should've formed better binds," Orion said.
The bee buzzed angrily toward him.
I laughed. "You went ahead and made her mad. Didn't you learn never to make a woman angry from your father?"
Orion shut his eyes as my queen bee rushed at him. He opened them after a while and saw she had stopped.
"H-huh?" Orion asked, blinking.
I pushed myself up as a swarm of ants finished digging me out of the ground. "She won't hurt you, idiot. You did find her for me after all."
The queen bee buzzed and petted Orion with her antennae.
Orion laughed. "Yeah." He lowered his head. "Sorry about that, Queen Bee. I didn't want to hurt you, but I saw no other way to stop you."
My bee's wings buzzed. Orion smiled as he saw her wings were healing as I poured my prana into her.
"Well, it seems that I won again," I said, putting a hand on my hip.
My childhood friend nodded. "Y-yeah. I still have a ways to go before I can overcome you."
I frowned. "You're really going to give up like this?"
He closed his eyes and fell sideways. "I wish... that I could continue... but I burned up all of my... prana."
"The winner of the sixth match is Ayawamat Zihna!" Marina yelled.
I walked over to him and picked him up from the ground. "You idiot. You and Hikaru can't seriously suck this much at prana control."
Orion laughed weakly. "Seems we can."
I rolled my eyes. "Not meant as a joke."
"I know." He went silent.
I sighed. Why did he keep falling asleep on me? First during our joint team match against Lei, then during the games, and now this. Even when we were kids, he would fall asleep while playing.
He did look like a kitten while sleeping, though. Sometimes, I wondered whether he was similar to the nekomata members of the Kyuu Hyaku clan.
"Nice match," Lei said, grinning as soon as I made my way to the nurse's office.
I averted my gaze. "You saw it?"
He nodded and pointed to his phone. "Yeah, Kun's camera is still recording."
I scoffed as I passed him. "That so? Watch the match closely. You might learn a thing or two from it."
Lei crossed his arms. "I planned to without you telling me."
"Good. Be sure not to lose to anyone else. Otherwise, I won't get to defeat you in the finals."
He huffed. "Like I'll lose to you again. You'll be going down soon. You'll see!"
I laughed. "Like I haven't heard that one a thousand times!" Thus far, he had only been able to win against me once. Though, technically that was the abysmal controlling his body.
"Next up are Nyima and Sarah. Got a special battlefield ready for them," Marina said with a smirk. She snapped her fingers, causing streams of water to pour into the ring.
Twin metal platforms rose out of the water, one for each side.
Why did she give us our unique battlefield? Was it because we were both water mages?
"Let's go," Nyima said, smiling at me.
I nodded.
"Good luck, Sarah!" Lidia said, grinning. Huo gave me a reassuring smile of his own.
I blushed. If only I could've thanked them.
"Think she wants to say thank you," Nyima said, smiling.
I nodded.
"Good luck, you two!" Lei yelled as he ran up to us.
Nyima gasped. "You came back to watch our match?"
Lei grinned. "Yeah. Yen's watching over Kun. Plus, Kun needs me to control his drone." He glanced up at the sky where an orange device floated in place.
"So that's it..."
Poor Nyima, getting her hopes up.
"I'll be sure to catch your good side," Lei said, winking.
Nyima turned away. "Y-you sound like Iah!"
"Huh? I didn't mean it like that!" he said, wriggling his hands around.
She sighed. "Whatever. We're going now." My soon-to-be opponent formed a bubble around the two of us and floated us over to the battlefield.
"Looking forward to your match," Marina said as she descended from the air.
I smiled. If I could've spoken, I would've said, "I plan to."
Nyima put a hand on her hips and gave our one-time tutor a slight smile. "I plan to. Sarah probably does too."
I nodded in agreement.
Marina clapped her hands. "That's what I like to hear! Good luck, may the best mage win!"
Nyima and I stared at one another before we entered the battlefield.
Water spun around both of us, lifting me up to the metal platforms.
"Thanks," I mouthed at Marina, who had made herself a front row copper seat.
The angel smirked and waved at us as if to say, 'don't mention it.' She formed a whistle and blew into it, signaling the start of our match.
Nyima smiled as she let out bright light from her hands. Did she plan to rely on light magic for this? I had outmaneuvered her during our match during the games, forcing her to rely on her secondary element. Guess she had retained that lesson.
"Lux Angelus!" Nyima yelled.
My eyes widened as the light in Nyima's hands rose to heavens and took the shape of a beautiful woman. This spell was based on the Archangel of light, who happened to be the wife of the first Magus Maximus.
I pulled up my rapier, which I had set on my wheelchair. Raising it over my head, the water spun around me like an upside-down funnel.
'Angelus Aqua!'
The water glistened and took on the shape of a woman who looked a lot like Nyima's angel of light.
Her angel formed a scepter of light and launched multiple yellow lasers at my water angel, which absorbed them into her gelatinous body.
I held my hand out, triggering my spell's reflection effect. Nyima jumped into the water as the light beams flew back at her at twice their original strength. The platform crashed into the pool, creating massive waves.
My eyes scanned the water. If only I could touch it, I would have an idea of where she was.
I clapped my hands, calling upon my familiar. My manatee appeared in the water and looked around.
"S-so many people," she said before going underwater.
'It's alright, Macie. Go underwater, don't focus on those watching us. Your only focus should be Orcy's partner,' I said, hoping she'll receive my thoughts through our familiar link.
"Okay! That I can do," Macie said, diving deeper. It didn't take long for me to see a rainbow beam fire from her mouth. The water below rapidly froze, but not before my platform shattered. Something had struck it.
I reached a hand out as I dropped into the water. My wheelchair sunk along with the crushed metal. Golden chains covered in ice latched on to me. They led back to Nyima, now covered partially in ice.
Nyima gritted her teeth and turned the ice on her right arm back into water.
"What?" Macie said.
Nyima yanked on the golden chains, drawing me toward her.
I smiled at her. So, she wasn't lying about taking me seriously. That was good. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
Macie swam over to me and fired another beam at the chains. This time, they shattered as they froze entirely. The resulting chunks of ice floated toward the surface.
I grabbed on to Macie, and she brought us up back to the surface.
I took a deep breath. 'Thanks, Macie.'
"It's nothing. Though, I'm surprised that girl can revert ice into water."
'Seems that she can only do so for small amounts. She struggled against your ice back on your island."
"That's handy to know!" Macie dove back into the water.
'What are you doing?'
"It's best to fight that girl head-on. If we don't, she'll pull us back down while we aren't looking."
'Right, she did trap Vermeil and me with those chains when we weren't suspecting them back in Rios.'
"Good, you have some hands-on experience. That should help us out."
"I can hear you two," Nyima's voice echoed in my head. I turned and saw her riding on top of a full-sized orca.
"Macie!" Orcy said.
"So, we meet in battle again," Macie said nervously, looking at her friend. Being friends with one's natural predator had to be complicated.
"Yeah, but no hard feelings. Okay?" Orcy said.
Macie yelled as the two of us were suddenly lifted out of the water. My body wouldn't budge. Orcy had sealed our movements with her telekinesis.
Damn it, I wasn't going to lose to a psychic again!
I spread my hands out and raised my rapier into the hands of my water angel above.
Nyima leaped out of the water and had her light angel rain light beams at us. My water angel took the rays for me once more and sent them flying back at her.
My opponent stopped them with her light magic instead of dodging them. "Thanks for the power boost!" Nyima said as she shaped the light into a sphere. "Lux Draco!" Out of the globe came out a rainbow dragon.
'Nymphae Nouchali!'
The water below wrapped around my sword, forming a giant version of it. Blue water lilies also developed behind my angel. Thrusting the giant version of my rapier at Nyima, my angel sent petals in all directions.
Nyima formed a barrier of water, absorbing the bombardment of water petals.
I shut my hand, causing the barrier to close in on her. She winced as the tightened water and petal flung her around like a ragdoll.
Aida might've weakened my power, but I wasn't done!
Nyima raised her head and smiled victoriously.
My eyes widened. Why was she happy?
"L-look out!" Macie yelled.
I looked down and saw the angel of light coming at us. How had it gotten there? Wait, had Orcy teleported it over to me? Then, I noticed a sphere of light where it once was. There were more such spheres around me. When had she formed them?
My eyes widened as my familiar fired an ice beam at her, but it went right through and froze half of the pool below.
The angel of light flew close to where it had been initially. It was an illusion...
Nyima broke out of the watery cage and dashed at us.
Macie fired another beam of ice at her.
My opponent spun around, avoiding it in midair, and shot another golden chain. Macie grunted as we crashed into the water.
Orcy swam up and slammed us with her tail, sending us into a tailspin. No pun intended.
I rubbed my head as we crashed into the frozen side of the pool.
"I'm sorry, Sarah," Macie said. "I failed you."
I patted her head. 'It's alright. You tried your best. Go and rest. I'll take care of things from here."
My familiar vanished, returning back to her island.
Nyima sure was relentless. But at least I still had my water angel.
I gripped my left arm. It ached a lot, but nothing compared to the hurt Aida had put me through. Using my good arm, I commanded the water around me to propel myself back to the surface.
My eyes widened as Nyima's angel of light slashed my angel of water in half using her scepter as if it were a sword.
My rapier plummeted into the bottom of the pool.
Nyima smiled as she stood on top of Orcy's back. "Finally, that's taken care of. Now, to handle Sarah and Macie."
"Macie left a moment ago," Orcy said. Her eyes turned to look at me. "Only the princess is left."
My opponent nodded and transformed her black wand into its pudao form. "Sarah, wish to give up or continue? I don't wish to hurt you more than necessary."
I leered at her and pushed as much water as possible into her and Orcy. The killer whale raised herself and her partner into the air.
Great, a flying whale, but that won't stop me.
I raised my hand up, shooting the water straight at them.
Nyima stopped the geyser with both hands, sending it crashing down, producing multiple smaller waves.
I winced as I was pushed against the glacier. My prana was running low. If only my Magicum Organum was back to its former state, I would've been able to have formed another Aqua Angellus and more.
I lowered my head and recalled my rapier back into my hand. 'Nymphaea Nouchali!'
Water lily petals once more rained down at Nyima. Orcy stopped the petals and dropped them into the water below.
My eyes closed. Didn't think that would've done much, but it would've been nice if they had at least hit their target.
The gap between me and the others remained as wide as ever, if not more so. It made me understand Iah's frustration at plateauing a little better. Not that it made his choices and action any better.
"The winner is Nyima Taiyang!" Marina announced.
"Sarah!" Nyima said as I slid down the glacier as the water receded. She grabbed hold of me. "Are you okay? I didn't hurt you too much, did I?"
I moved my finger across her arm, telling her that I was fine. Physically.
Nyima let out a sigh. "That's good. But, just to be sure. I'm taking you to the infirmary, alright."
I nodded. Though, no infirmary would take away the sting of yet another defeat. No, I couldn't allow this to get me down. No amount of self-pity would amend things nor make me stronger.
I just had to bounce back up again, regardless of how many times I got brought down. Plus, I couldn't let Lidia and Huo see me looking so down.
**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter ^^. Thoughts? Predictions?**