Chapter 197: Game and Frugal
———Lynda———
<9: 58 am>
“<Alright! Sorry for the earlier inconvenience. We’re now back on schedule. Those two will be on timeout for a while so they don’t cause more trouble.>” Principal Mana said while looking quite tired. Must’ve sucked to have both of them worked for you. They’re a scary bunch. I don’t even really know what really caused them to work under her like that. They probably have quite the history. “<The first exhibition match will come in just a little bit. I’ll be taking over as the announcer for the time being. Please wait patiently.>”
She said before… just flying away to the commentator booth. Of course she can also fly…
Let’s order another glass of milk and another tray of snacks while we wait for a minute or two. We have no idea who is actually involved. All we really got is that neither Rico or Wana will be involved this time around.
“<Ah, right. Before we forget. Everyone, please vote for a terrain for the upcoming battle. A simple plain and flat field wouldn’t be fun, would it?>” The principal said as suddenly something popped up on the screen in front of me. How many terrains are there? The scroll bar is so freaking tiny! Let me just pick… whatever. Let’s just go with a rocky cliff. Get some obstacles going. Is anyone else even putting a little bit of thought into it or are they just picking randomly.
“<One minute left.>” She announced. Would it even matter that much aside from changing the scenery? I guess abusing the environment to your advantage is a thing, but outside of the Fantarban Realm thing, I haven’t had any experience with fighting out in the open with a bunch of natural terrain. “<Looks like we got our answer, but first. Let’s introduce the first match’s participants! Two brave warriors descended on the stage. Give them the cheers they deserved!>”
The crowd grew louder as two fighters came into view and walked into the playing field.
On one end as a guy with rather colorful hair, red on top and slowly fades into blue, and the big fluffy dog ears also reflect that color choice, same with the fluffy tail on his back, and his eyes seem to be orange in color. He has a big dark purple jacket, it looks a bit bulky and wider than his body, and he is accompanied by a massive scythe. Kinda reminds me of someone I know.
And on the other side of the field is a lady with rather dull blonde hair, like it has faded in color and brightness, a pair of green eyes, what look like white sweaters, and a long black coat that seems to fit her body outside of the bottom half flowing in the wind. She has a large sword, and it feels like I have seen her somewhere before, but it could just be me jumping the gun.
“<And with the result coming in. This match will start with a waterfall stage! Let’s get to it!>” The principal said. She seemed to be forcing a more energetic tone that the other two can more comfortably maintain. She clearly didn’t quite expect to actually fill in the role while those two cooled off.
And the field began shifting and changing as the elevation of the playing field went up and rock formations began to form, some large stone towers having water coming down and simulating waterfalls and rivers formed down below. It’s crazy impressive how they managed to create stuff like this out of thin air and only in a couple of seconds.
The two fighters are on top of the two tall cliffs with water falling down, each on the opposite side of the field and are staring each other down before the match starts.
“<Alright everyone. Hope you are all glued to your seats and got that device strapped onto your head. The match will begin in a few seconds, you wouldn’t want to miss anything. Also, try to not play on your phone with the glasses on at the same time, it could get disorienting.>” The principal said as the crowd got louder and everyone was still talking and getting excited.
“It’s still so surreal…” Fiss muttered.
“At this point, you really gotta stop saying stuff like that even if it’s true.” As much as I would like to say that we should get over it, in the grand scheme of things this is still extremely new and confusing and hard to comprehend. For most people their worldview has been turned upside down and now they have no idea what to do next in this brand new world… I do wonder what the kids who don't know if those fairy tales are true or not are thinking right now…
“<Like last time, the fight ends when it’s clear one side has a clear advantage and the other lose the will to fight or heavily injured. Last time our fighters were way too durable and took too long to wear out, sorry about that.>” Ah, so that’s why those two don’t participate this time around. They basically never ran out of gas even when the entire runtime was used up.
…I still don’t think we got a good idea of how strong those two are for fighting at that high of a level for about an hour, no drop in speed at all.
“<We’re starting once I said ‘now’...>” Seems like they want some suspense as she doesn’t bother with a countdown. “<Now!>”
**Leap** **CRACK** *SPLASH*
Both of them jumped from their platform and left an impact that caused the two hills to crack at the top and let the water ponds that were gently trickling water down to burst open and slowly flood the surface at the bottom of the playing field.
*Clash* **Land**
They both swing their weapons and repel each other, leading to them having to fall back and land down on one of the lower platforms while the surface is being flooded. There seems to be an invisible barrier causing the water to not leak out of the playing area despite having no clear sign of walls or anything to prevent stray attacks from hitting us.
*Leap* *Swing* *Block* *Leap*
The dog guy jumped towards the blonde lady and swung his scythe only to be blocked and he was forced to retreat back before he could be countered.
*Leap* *Swing* *Leap* *Swing*
Both of them started jumping around on the rock formation and other large mound of land poking out of the rising water level and trying to hit each other with their weapons. It looks more like they are navigating through an obstacle course more than them actually hitting each other. They still got a lot of room to work with, and outside of the initial leap that clearly used up a lot of power to send them flying at insanely high speed, they are more conservative with their energy as the fight stalled out and they are looking for an opening first and foremost before actually attacking. It’s pretty hard to tell when they’ll actually start throwing out big attacks.
*Slash* *Kick* *Crack*
The swordswoman slashed one of the rock hills and kicked it right towards the dog guy, and he tanked through it.
*Zip* *Kick* *Grab* *Throw* *Splash*
She zips through the air and kicks him right in the stomach after he tanked the giant rock coming his way, catching him off-guard and causing him to stagger before grabbing him and throwing him into the flooded surface below.
*Leap* *Splash* *Swing* *Evade* *Kick* *Block*
He quickly jumped out of the pool below and swung his scythe towards her that she easily dodged, and he moved in with a kick that she blocked with the flat part of the giant sword.
*Swing* *Evade* *Kick* *Swing* *Evade*
She swung her sword at him and he dodged and kicked the sword to stagger and loosen her stance for him to move in for a counter attack that she still managed to dodge out of the way.
All of this is being done while he is still suspended in the air. So it looks like they can both fly as well, and more than a short burst. I have seen those guys from the Perfect Class try flying, and outside of a few they can only stay suspended for a very brief window of time before gravity takes the wheel. I think only Emmie, Kenni, and Jennla are the only ones in that crowd that can fight in the air reliably. I haven’t seen Karra doing something quite like that, but I think she is also in that camp.
Both of them retreated and gave each other some room. I can’t really quite tell if that exchange even does anything substantial. They move and react so fast it’s quite hard to follow outside of the general approach and any big hits.
*Blast* *Evade*
The dog guy shoots out an energy blast from his left hand that she easily avoided and hits one of the rock hills, causing it to explode and crumble.
*Leap* *Shine* *Swing* *Bounce* *CRASH*
In retaliation she jumps towards him with a sword swing, only for him to erect a barrier that bounced her back violently, looking like she hits a trampoline rather than a hard surface. She hits one of the large hills with water pouring down and crashes into it, causing the whole structure to collapse.
That definitely wasn’t a normal barrier made for blocking attacks. I know about reflection spells in video games and comics, but seeing it in real life… yeah, that looks unfair to deal with.
*Crackle* *Spark*
He then summoned multiple balls of lightning, surrounding the area she had landed into. She looked to be buried in a bunch of rocks and dirt at the moment.
*Crash* *ZAP*
The moment she got out of the rubble, she was immediately zapped by the large amount of lightning spells homing in on her location and causing a massive burst of lightning sparks.
*Leap* *Slash* *Kick* *Crash*
He quickly jumped towards her and slashed her with his scythe before moving around to behind her and kicked her right in the back, outright causing her to crash past one of the hills and even right into the invisible walls.
That surely gonna be the end of it, right? In most cases it feels like the match would’ve been over by now. Heck, I’d probably be in a coma or worse if I got hit with something like that.
*SLASH*
Suddenly a line was cut through the entire playing field, creating a massive gash that cut the playing area in half and hitting the dog guy straight on. It was a massive shockwave that looked like it was comparable to a massive guillotine cutting through the field. I can see a brief glimpse of the afterimage of that slash that has taken everyone by surprise. It looked like it covered the entire arena and almost looked like it creeped past the invisible walls that were meant to keep all attacks inside and stopped it from reaching us.
*CRASH* *CRACK*
He was sent flying and the arena and the environment the arena simulated were broken apart and became more chaotic and erratic as the entire playing field started to flood violently from the small remnants of the waterfall hills before it also collapsed.
The water level quickly dropped after the layout of the field was wrecked, probably to stop the match from taking place in what looks like a massive fish tank.
Both of them are soaking wet and part of their clothes are torn up, showing that there was real damage being dealt and not just a slap fight like the previous iteration.
“Where the hell did they get these people…” Trener muttered, seeing how much power was put in each attack and how terrifying it seemed.
“<Uh oh. It seems like the competitors have destroyed the environment completely, leaving only them the ground to work with!>” Principal Mana commented. The ground in question is filled with piles of broken structures and holes and gashes in the ground. It looks like you could easily trip up if you aren’t careful.
**Dash** *Clash* *Swing* *Evade* *Block*
Those two quickly ran in and started attacking each other, going into a rhythm and not using any strong attacks.
It’s really hard to tell from how fast they were moving, but they are clearly being more conservative with their energy this time around. Perhaps they only have enough energy for one or more attacks? It’s hard to tell at this point.
Despite the big attacks before launched, it doesn’t look like this match is gonna end quickly, even if it looks like there will be something conclusive in the end outside of a tie.