Lord of Charm

Nina was breathing heavily and her sweat dripped from her body to the floor, while Lara's spells were losing their might gradually.

Lara suddenly had an idea; she stopped the air blades and generated her dragons again. They were flying toward Nina who used her boulders again to explode the dragons. However, this time the dragons exploded first and created a large wave of water.

The wave overwhelmed Nina and threw her to the ground, making her stop casting her pillars too. Lara canceled her sphere of water and stuck to using one spell; she could use the spell's full might instead of two weakened spells.

Nina groaned and tried to get up, yet once she stopped moving it was difficult to start again. She coughed out water while still on the ground, and slowly struggled back to her feet.

Unfortunately, Lara didn't plan to give her the chance to do that. She cast a water canon spell which sent a powerful jet of water to Nina's chest. Although Nina was an immobile target now, she could still cast her spells.

She raised two walls of stone and blocked the jet. She was mentally exhausted and couldn't compress the mana well, making the first wall unable to bear the water jet.

Lara felt frustrated; water spells were best for defense, and stone was a strong counter to the water's offensive spells. She started casting air blades one after another, cutting through Nina's stones, and walked toward her. Nina couldn't stand up; she just sat on the floor and cast her spells.

Each air blade cost two walls, and Nina's mana started draining quickly. Soon Lara stood in front of Nina and used her water sphere. The current sent away every wall and put out any fire spell Nina tried to cast.

Soon the sphere touched Nina and carried her in the current around Lara in circles. Nina was losing focus as she drowned and was ejected out at high speed and crashed on the ground, losing consciousness.

The crowd clapped excitedly and chanted her name as she was placed on a stretcher and taken out of the arena for treatment by the empire's mages. Although she lost, she earned their respect in her fight against someone stronger.

"Lara is the fight's winner. I didn't expect it to be so close, yet Nina gave a solid fight and we cannot remain indifferent to her efforts!"

The crowd applauded again, this time for Lara, as she staggered out of the arena to the waiting room in exhaustion.

The round continued and soon came to an end with 14 mages remaining and 2 magicians. The next round offered another interesting fight; Dion was facing the genius from Igrebah Kingdom and might be disqualified from the tournament before the semifinals.

"Now prepare for another rush of adrenaline, here comes Dion from the Miyena Kingdom on one side, and David from the Igrebah Kingdom! Dion showed us her explosive fire spells, and David showed a unique shadow affinity. Both are 35 this year and are famous geniuses in their respective kingdoms. Get ready!"

The judge counted down and the fight began. Unlike the rest of David's opponents, Dion had some experience against the shadow element thanks to Gale. Although Gale's affinity was weaker, she wasn't as overwhelmed as David's previous opponents.

The lighting in the arena was dimmed slightly specially for making it fair for David, and he vanished the moment the countdown reached 0. However, fire opponents had a good way to counter shadows if prepared.

Dion cast compressed orbs of fire which shed light all over her surroundings, making it impossible to ambush her from close range. She closed her eyes and concentrated to feel the mana around her.

Suddenly, she felt a ripple in the mana behind her and she instantly jumped to the right and raised a sphere of fire around her.

One of the reasons David was considered a genius was because of his sub-elements. He had two of them. One was wind affinity which complemented his shadow element by providing swift attacks, while the other was earth affinity, which provided him with a defense that most assassins didn't enjoy.

This time he specially used wind magic; he threw a dagger at Dion and boosted the throw with wind magic to make it faster. Dion was just as versed in dodging as Nina, and her vigilance helped her dodge the dagger with only a cut on her shoulder. She cast fire on her skin and burned it with a groan, ceasing the bleeding.

"You might lose your bet on our kingdom claiming two spots in the top three."

Gale told Lena next to him.

"No, my bet was on point. He had only one chance."

Next, he tried again from her right. This time Dion knew what was coming and the moment she sensed it she ducked and dodged the dagger completely, rendering this method useless. Although the daggers were fast, he had to throw them from 50 meters away to remain hidden from the light.

She suddenly sent 4 orbs of fire in 4 different directions and David was caught unprepared. Luckily for Dion, she managed to predict his route and sniff him out. He was revealed out of the shadows and Dion showered him with fire spells instantly as all the orbs around her were shot at him.

David quickly raised a stone wall to block the orbs, yet Steve's comment wasn't random; Dion's spells were explosive. The orbs exploded on contact with the wall, making it crumble and send debris everywhere.

The rest of the orbs crossed and almost hit David, but he was a mage for enough time to learn dual casting with different elements simultaneously. Although it was a perk of the more talented mages who advanced early, none of the participants in the tournament wasn't a genius, thus making it seem standard.

He cast a wind spell to generate a strong wind that carried him away from the orbs, and the explosions happened over ten meters away from him. Although he dodged the fire, he didn't dodge the shockwaves, and he lost control of the wind and was thrown back.

Before touching the ground, he already felt a sense of danger; a pillar of stone was coming from the ground and would impale him to death if he couldn't respond on time.

He quickly cast a shield around him and the hit turned into a blunt crash. Although it was preferable compared to being impaled on a large skewer, it was still crashing. His body was extremely flexible thanks to the shadow and air strengthening, and durable thanks to the earth strengthening.

The flexibility helped him disperse the hit all over his body rather than taking it in one place, and although it hurt as hell, he wasn't out of the game yet.

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