Chapter 205: Power of One
———Lynda———
<2: 11 pm>
“...Well, we won. Now what?” I asked, not expecting an answer. The blue team won with a scant few monsters left alive. They are now despawned and dissipated into light. Blue team is victorious, whatever. Now what?
“<Hah! Looks like blue is superior this time.>” Coach Wana said with a sense of pride in her tone. Gee, can’t possibly think of a reason why.
“<Get off your high horse, the next match is coming up soon.>” Rico said with displeasure. Certainly not pleased that the orange team lost. “<We’ll be starting in roughly five minutes. Please be patient. Also, the terrain is locked this time around, no need to wrack your brain.>”
I think I can make out a sound of struggle after she said that, did they get into a fight again?
“Well that whole thing was hard to watch.” Trener remarked, not looking super impressed. It was hard to tell what each monster did with how many of them were there. It was getting kinda suspenseful at the end at least.
“It’s definitely chaotic. I wonder if they got any replays?” Fiss asked. That’s a good question, actually. I wouldn't be surprised if they have some cameras recording everything happening. Though I’m quite doubtful that they’ll publish these out to the public, since they didn’t do that last time and just let the students and others record them on their phone, which didn't catch much since everyone was so damn fast.
“Oh! Two people on the field.” I called out as I saw one person in a black cloak and another in a white cloak on the different side of the field that is slowly changing. The scenery became what looks like an abandoned city that has been bleached completely white. “Looks like they’re changing back to the usual stuff for the last one. Hm?”
Despite both of them having their figure obscured, something about them feels strangely familiar. Maybe it’s their weapon choice or something else? That’s the only thing that I can make out right now.
The one in white cloak took it off and revealed her. And here I thought we’d be putting the powerful ones on the bench this time around.
The crowd grew louder once they realized who stepped onto the stage. Now who is going to be her opponent? I don’t think either of those two will be involved this time around.
The other person then removed their cloak and showed a fox woman that all of us had seen at some point. That katana-wielding mystery woman who showed up in Karra’s big stream and also was around during that snake incident.
“<Alright everyone! For the grand finale, it’s the battle between the two enigmas… Pfftt!>” Rico can barely hold her laughter for whatever reason while the two combatants simply stared at each other. “<On one side of the field is everyone’s favorite ‘who and what the hell are you!?’ Wiina! And on the other side of this bleached battlefield, is Navi! Give it up for our last battle here in this arena!>”
The crowd grew loud as everyone clapped and cheered. Some of us were definitely more vocal than others. I don’t really feel like cheering on.
“<This is one final and extremely high octane action to be remembered. Our final two contestants don’t really have an opinion piece on each other, if that’s what you guys want. They’re standing on business today!>” Coach Wana chimed in as the two changed their stance and got ready for battle. “<Will they go all out and cause the end of most of you? Hopefully not! That’d be a real shame!>”
“<Stop scaring them. Anyway, no surprise countdown this time. Three…>” Rico said but also suddenly started the countdown with no real warning.
Suddenly a strong gust of wind surrounded the entire playing field and caused the cold air to swirl around inside the stadium, as if it wasn’t already cold enough as is. The two cloaks that were dropped on the ground were picked up by the storm and even shredded into nothing.
Freaking terrifying, just what kind of force is needed for that to happen? If I was in there would I have been turned into a red mist?
“<Two… One…>” Rico slowly counted down and the storm calmed, leaving nothing but suspenseful silence. “<Go!>”
*Dash* *Swing* *Clash* *Evade*
Both of them quickly ran in and started swinging their blades at each other. The speed of the fight is already on another level and if it’s not for this special headset enhancing my vision greatly it’d be impossible to follow. They move around like there is no friction or gravity, moving around smoothly and reacting to incoming attacks like they can predict any incoming attacks.
*Grab* *Swing* *Smash*
Wiina grabbed Navi by her fox tail and swung her around and smashed her against the bleached pavement, each slam causing the road to slightly crack each time.
*Zap* *Blast* *Leap*
Navi then blasted her with a lightning blast and a fireball, causing her to lose her grip and allowed Navi to escape and then jumped away to get some distance, landing on the rooftop of one of the buildings.
As the smoke cleared it showed Wiina not looking like she had even been scratched or burned by those two spells.
*Dim* *Crackle*
Navi puts her katana away and starts charging a spell between her two hands, the color is dark and dim, making it a bit hard to make out besides what seems to be electricity coming out of it.
*Blast* *Block*
She then creates a massive energy blast going straight towards Wiina, who simply holds her hand forward and blocks the beams of energy as she slowly walks forward as the dark energy flows past her as it cannot push her back, hitting the environment and the invisible walls causing small cracks in the former.
*Dash* *Leap* *Punch* *Crash*
She ran past and jumped through the beam and punched Navi right in the face, causing her to crash into one of the taller bleached buildings.
*Zip* *Swing* *Parry*
Wiina then flies towards the fox woman being sent flying at high speed with her rapier in hand and swinging at her, but Navi manages to see it coming and parry the attack with her katana and stop her momentum as well.
*Zip* *Clash* *Zip* *Clash*
They then started flying around the entire playing field and swinging their blades at each other, neither side seemed to be letting up.
“...Weird.” Glery suddenly spoke out as the match kept moving.
“Why? Is something wrong?” I asked while making sure I keep my eyes glued on the fight itself with how fast these two are moving. It felt like I would’ve been torn to shreds just being near them, they could probably run through me and turn me into an unrecognizable paste with their speed, probably not even noticing my existence.
*Swing* *Blast* *Swing* *Blast* *Block*
Navi started swinging her katana around and launched a bunch of sword beams towards Wiina who simply cut and destroyed all the attacks coming her way.
“Power disparity is too high and yet they’re acting like they are more equal than they actually are.” Glery explained. “...Or maybe it’s something else?”
I guess the power level has been pretty even this time around, all the matches have the two sides in a similar ballpark.
*Shine* *Clank* *Zip*
Wiina summoned multiple chains of light that were sent towards Navi who quickly retreated and avoided being caught by them. The spell is very persistent and looks like it would endlessly pursue her if nothing is done.
“Haaaah!” I can hear her screaming from here as she let out a burst of energy that dispelled and shattered the chains. The power I felt from that was tremendous, even the other audience members went silent for a moment from the pressure.
*Zip* *Clash* *Zip* *Clash*
And once more they returned to moving around the entire place and swinging their weapons at each other, each strike seemed to cause the surrounding area to shake slightly, as if an earthquake occurred with each strike no matter where they were on the field.
*Grab* *Smash* *Crash* *Throw*
Wiina managed to grab Navi by her neck and ram her through an entire building that is among the tallest on the field, then throw her down to the ground and creating a tiny crater on impact.
*Lift* *Throw* *Slice* *Leap*
Wiina then cut the damaged building from the point where both of them ram through it, and lift up the top half and throw it at Navi, who cut it clean in half before jumping towards Wiina who is still floating in the air.
*Swing* *Fade*
Wiina swung her rapier at the fox woman directly jumping towards her only for the attack to hit nothing but air. Was that all just an illusion? What was that?
*Kick* *Block*
She seemed to quickly realize what was going on and turned around to barely block the incoming diving kick from behind. She doesn’t seem to be damaged by the sneak attack but the force behind it did leave her getting pushed all the way back down to the ground.
*Dash*
Navi ran towards her and there are suddenly five Navis running around Wiina, who seems quite calm and can deduce what is happening.
“Illusions?” Fiss muttered while the rest of the crowd were also talking out loud and confused.
“Seems like it.” I said before taking a sip of milk.
*BOOM*
Before we could really commentate further about that ability, Wiina suddenly released a massive wave of explosion that destroyed more than half of the playing field and reduced it to just the base of the playing area. Guess she wasn’t having any of that illusion stuff, but that explosion was insanely scary. I can feel the pressure from here and it’s grim to think about.
They kept fighting on the ground like normal after that, not seeing any flashy moves outside of some elemental spells being flung around. It is quite clear who has the power advantage and who needs to be a lot more mindful of her positioning and planning.
“They have similar eyes.” Glery quietly commented as the fight moved on with neither of them showing any sign of getting tired.
“You catch that? I can barely see anything as is.” I can’t help but said, but also wonder if that’s true. It’s hard to tell when both of them keep moving around the part of the bleached city, scaling up the walls, jumping around, flying around. “By the way, what do you think about their power level? I mean, we have seen them a few times already, but maybe we got a better look now?”
“Still absurd. I can’t really fathom it as it is right now. Maybe I never will.” She said, clearly still unable to grasp the clear scale. “We don’t even really know if either of them are fighting at full strength right now. With the others their rapidly dropping stamina and mana makes it clear they weren’t going easy, at least.”
I guess we might never really understand it. The nebulous goalpost. Not that such a goalpost is something we could ever realistically achieve in our lifetime from the looks of it.
*Crash* *Slash* *Slice*
Another occurrence of Navi being thrown into a building, but this time Wiina cut through it a few times with the fox woman still inside, causing the whole thing to quickly crumble as she observed from the sky.
*Shine* *Slash* *Blast*
Suddenly a massive ball of light from Wiina and a slash of blue light from within the rubbles clashed with each other and caused a massive shockwave that quickly caused the environment to crumble.
“T-This looks really scary right now!” Fiss commented as it feels like the whole arena is shaking. Even a slight shake is a rather big cause for concern when it feels like the many mechanics of this stadium should keep everything in check.
*BOOM* *SHINE*
“Argh!” The two attacks detonated at the same time and caused a massive explosion of light and blinded everyone in the audience.