Mythshaper

There were more eyes on this duel. Simply put, the notion of a Shaper displaying their mystical capabilities held many of the audience at the edge of their seats. Even I felt some of that as a sense of excitement gripped my heart.

"Melina Merriwind, of House Merriwind," the girl announced haughtily.

She was not particularly tall, fair, with a gorgeous oval-shaped visage, brimming with an elegant air desirable to many in the empire. She was lithe, draped in the light blue shaper robe, her dark hair finely cropped to meet her shoulders. However, the raging current of essence surging in her channel evidenced that she spent far more time sharpening her skills than tending to her looks. As for her cold, uppity manner, well, Rosalyn was twice as haughty at her age, if not more.

"Arilyn Arcis O'Ryon, of Karmel," I announced, unsheathing my blade.

The whistle blew and, as soon as the duel commenced, a number of essence threads sprang from Melina to stick to my blade.

The audacity of this girl. She wanted to end the duel instantly by claiming my weapon with telekinesis. No sooner had the threads made contact with my blade than a razor-sharp aura flashed, cutting away her weave.

A keen look surfaced on the shaper's face, but otherwise, she did not display any sense of worry. Holding her staff aloft, she called upon wind shaping. Sharp gales manifested and concentrated into spells of windblades one after another. Moreover, her mastery over the element was sound enough that the spells were barely visible to the naked eye.

She seemed to like the look on my face, as her lips curved upwards, and she hurtled them all at me.

I sprang into motion, evading the first windblade, then the second sliced at my shoulder. The unnamed blade flashed, surging with cutting force, rupturing the spell into listless wisps of wind. The next few I evaded where I could, while my blade neutralised a couple.

"Impressive aura control," my opponent commented, as some interest finally surfaced in her eyes. "I hope this won't be as disappointing."

That makes the two of us. Without giving her free time to prepare her spells, I sprang into motion, dashing at her with the blade held high, the aura of sharpness rising higher.

Melina floated up as gusts of wind swirled about the duelling ring. She held the staff in both her hands, giving rise to a whip of cutting wind four metres long. She lashed it once against the stage as a warning, leaving an inch-long crack in the concrete. With that, she slashed the translucent whip of wind at my approaching figure.

My blade met her attack head-on, giving rise to a slow keening echo. The whipping wind split against my aura as more cracks began to appear on both sides of me. A fraction of the fissured force grazed my left shoulder.

"1 point to contestant number 33," called the referee.

Unable to help myself, I shot a sullen gaze at the referee. That much force could not even have drawn blood, even if it had landed on my bare skin. The judge of the duel, however, maintained a stoic expression.

Well, mistakes could be made by anyone.

My foe took that moment as a lapse in my judgment and capitalised on it. Her razor-edged wind force twisted around my blade on its way to strike my chest.

But I was not so daft as to lose all my concentration in an important duel. My aura manifested in its fullness, rattling the wind on all sides of me as I took a step. My figure blurred and appeared to her left at an alarming pace. The blade, surging with boiling white aura, flashed in a high arc, the bladelight aimed to penetrate her defences.

The shaper, despite her initial alarm, knew that this was the only direction an attack would wind its way if it did. Swiftly, a gust of wind swirled around her, carrying her higher, the bladelight missing her by only a hair's breadth.

Shards of concrete and dust flew as a fissure larger than any crack she had inflicted appeared where she had been hovering a moment ago. Her eyes finally contracted. The audience cheered, finally beholding something worthy of their tickets.

Dismayed, I retracted my aura, still maintaining the stance of Whispering Gale. Although I had invested almost all of my aura into the attack, my swordsteps were simply not fast enough without the boots. This could easily have been three points if not.

The girl was taking the duel far more seriously now. She was shrewd enough to maintain her levitation a dozen metres in the air and began shooting windblades again. She even commanded the wind to cage around me, making my movement and breathing difficult. Surely, her essence seed was not a gift from the Oracle, but something she had worked tirelessly to build.

With Fractal Sight enabling me to see her region of Influence, I bolted to her blind spots, forcing her to readjust her Influence and Weight with every spell she cast. If her plan was to strain my aura, I would see to it that she ran out of Essence first.

The Windshaper's capabilities were nothing to scoff at, either. She seemed to use only a few weaves, but she implemented them masterfully. Now, I did wonder if she had any capabilities in the field of Lightning, because that would be too much to contend with using only my aura.

Once again, she prepared whips of lashing wind, extending her essence threads to chase after me. With my aura, I could clearly defend against them all, though I feared the referee giving her points for any stray spells brushing me.

Using the swiftness of Whispering Gale, I raised my pace and evaded the whips of razor wind. The duelling stage was already in its most unrecognisable state.

Without giving any sign, I lunged, the rising aura launching me forward as my blade swung in the arc of Tidal Wave. Not even a single drop of water manifested, but a surging force of white aura charged at the shaper floating ahead.

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Clearly, even with aura strengthening my jump, the elevation was not fast enough, giving Melina enough time to evade. She fled further up into the air, grinning back at me.

"Your display is already impressive," she said, "but it's about time you give up. Against a shaper, you—"

Before gravity could take hold of me, my levitation boots surged with kinetic force, hurtling me straight at her. Taken aback, the girl swiftly cast arrows of wind. With Haste, I avoided them all and blurred to her right. Without waiting ceremoniously, my blade fell, not in any way powerful enough to break her Ward, but enough to gain a couple of points.

But I was itching for more. My aura surged with the returning arc, a swordlight shooting forth to claim additional points. Regrettably, her wind force allowed her to move aside, only for the force to strike the lower body of her fleeting figure.

"3 points to Number 188."

Her face was ashen. Not in pain, but unable to fathom that she had just conceded three points.

This time it was my turn to grin. Well, since it had become serious enough that I had to utilise my boots, I did not hold back anymore. Returning to one-handed swordsmanship, I chased after her. The third acceleration of my levitation boots seemed even with her flight, but she could also surge with further acceleration, as I could with Haste, now that the element of surprise was gone.

She flew outside the bounds of the duelling stage as I chased, the referee running after us. Melina cast dozens of windblades to impede my advance. My blade cut through them as I shot after her like a streaking arrow.

The crowd was ecstatic, whichever direction we flew. The other duels had to be paused to give way to us, as any stray spell I evaded might have impeded them. The referee was probably already cursing his luck, and yet the duel was nowhere near its end. Now it was akin to a glorified game of tag.

Perhaps I could have ended it early by implementing a few Rune Imprints, but I was saving those abilities for later. For now, I would let her run wild and expend all her essence.

However, the opportunity arrived much earlier than I had imagined. While maintaining a lead of barely twenty metres, Melina fished out a small vial of potion from her waist, intending to drink it. She still had enough essence ready to carry her around a couple more laps easily, but it would take a while for the recovery to take effect. She had already intended to go all out in this duel. But how could I let her have a free drink in the middle of our duel without harassing her?

As Haste cut the distance, the girl immediately tucked away the vial and grinned. Her essence, which had been woven in intricate wind weaves, immediately shaped into something far more dangerous. Something that, if I had seen it even a fraction of a moment too late, would have handed her all the points needed to win the duel.

My opponent shaped lightning.

I dashed immediately, not to flee but to cut the distance and let my blade aura neutralise the weave. Thankfully, her mastery over the element was nowhere near my aunt's and perhaps even lower than my own. Once the blade severed the weave, only a flicker of illumination appeared and faded away, and I surged forth unimpeded.

The look of astonishment had not faded from her cerulean eyes when the blade pierced towards her. Melina, despite her mastery over Wind and Lightning, was still unjaded and instinctively shut her eyes. Her ward impeded the blade, though she was jerked sideways. There was still one more point to victory, so I gave chase.

Melina finally opened her eyes and found another strike plunging towards her face. Her eyes shut themselves involuntarily once again, yet to her surprise, no attack fell. It was only when her eyes opened that the blade fell upon the top of her head in a pat.

"Number 188 triumphs with a lead of 7 to 1."

The crowd cheered, many even jumping to their feet. My gaze darted to the stand where my family were seated, and I noted Mum gesturing something to me. It took me a second to realise that she was asking me to raise my sword.

I duly obliged, and the cheers magnified.

A little awestruck, I swiftly came down and left the stage. The battle had certainly been more eventful. It seemed I would not have much luck if I wished to battle with my aura alone, if the opponents continued to be so hindering.

We returned to the resting area swiftly as the duels continued. I remained on the periphery, having a good view of the duels, but soon my sight was obstructed by a huffing figure.

"You!" the patrician girl glared at me, her chest still heaving with unrest from the exertion of the duel.

I faced her and quickly moved aside, perhaps a little wary of a verbal confrontation. Not to mention, there were dozens of my peers waiting with bated breath for it. Surely, the girl was in no mood to let me off easily. Once again, she stepped before me, the glare in her eyes mystifying.

Should I apologise first? I wondered. After all, my last attack had been a little humiliating for her. Well, not as much, considering she was not a swordsman, but still it had been before fifty thousand people.

"I only did it because you gained a point unfairly," I said.

The shaper exhaled. "Was it my fault that the referee called wrongly?"

"Maybe not, but you could have said something." Instead of gloating at my loss.

As though unable to explain herself, she grunted angrily and stormed off.

Relieved, my attention returned to the battle. Yet not even half a minute passed before an arm snaked over my shoulder, the gaunt face of Cassius grinning at me.

"Girl problem, brother?"

I was unsure what to say, but the youth evidently did not need any response to continue.

"Don't you worry, brother. I'm going to teach you a fine trick. It works on any girl of any background or age."

"I don't even know her," I said, scrunching my nose.

"Well, you know her now," he said, clasping my shoulder tightly. "Just try it the next time you see her, and I'm pretty sure she'll be coming back in no time."

I shot him an incredulous look.

"Don't believe me? Well, you'll learn soon enough. But before that, wouldn't you want to know the ancient wisdom, something my father was enlightened with after dozens of battles with my mother?"

I arched an eyebrow. "If it gets me beaten dozens of times, I'd better not learn it."

"The wisdom is so that you don't get beaten up, brother."

It seemed the gaunt youth was going to share it anyway, so I obliged.

"You see, whenever there is a girl displeased with you or anyone for any reason, even when the fault lies with her, you just agree. No matter what she says, do not, I'll repeat, do not ever get emotionally involved in an argument. Just agree with whatever she says, and disagree with her disagreement. Do not listen, do not try to get into the crux of the matter, do not try to debate. Feign attentiveness and nod your head like a pecking chicken, and you'll be good."

The more I listened, the more my brows wrinkled.

"It looks like you did not get it yet," Cassius said, slapping my shoulder twice. "But that's good too. Looking at you, I can tell you'll get it after only a beating or two. In the grand scheme of things, that's nothing."

"Umm, thank you?"

Cassius showed his crooked teeth. "You're most welcome, brother. It's my privilege to guide young wanderers. Ohh, it looks like she's back."

True to his words, I found the slender figure sauntering back towards us with the same impetuous expression. Cassius immediately withdrew and merged back into the crowd.

"How did you neutralise my shaping?" Melina Merriwind asked. "Especially the last time when you did not even let me cast my lightning."

My gaze drifted back into the resting area to find Cassius giving me a thumbs-up. I sighed in exasperation. That was not one question I could get away with just nodding.

"A warrior's intuition," I said.

She studied my face and huffed. "Next time we battle, I'll begin with lightning."

A retort came to mind instantly, but I suppressed it and worked through the fine trick I had just been taught. I gave her a nod.

That seemed to infuriate her further. Perhaps the fine trick was not as fine as Cassius made it out to be, and perhpas it might have been one contributing factor for his father to get beaten up so many times.

Thankfully, she did not go into a tirade about whatever was wrong with how I fought despite her displeasure, and silently watched the duels.