People started gathering at the stadium in excitement, waiting for the games to begin, and Sylvia was sitting among the audience. She was looking around, confused, searching among the crowd for her friends.
Suddenly someone came from behind and covered her eyes; she instinctively grabbed his wrist with her right hand and delivered a strong punch to his stomach using her elbow.
"Thwack"
"Who the hell are you?"
"How many times... did I tell you... look before you act, huh?"
Sylvia heard a familiar voice. She let her guard down and loosened her grip as she looked behind at the one she just hit, a woman with a mature, grown body and big breasts. She was wearing a white tank top under a black hoodie covering her head and short jeans. She was wearing a mask, but her eyes were a bright pink with a jewel-like glow. She was clutching her stomach from the pain. She removed her mask slightly.
"It's me, you fucking idiot."
"Oh, so it's you?"
"Is that all you can say, huh?"
Seeing Sylvia's indifferent tongue, the woman who was already angry became furious at her attitude. She wanted to hit her so badly, but she backed off at the last moment and just settled with sitting down beside her, but that instantly started an argument between the two.
"Move aside, Sylvie."
"Huh, why should I? Go find someone else to bother. Why bother me?"
"Waaa, you are so mean, Sylvie...and I am still older than you; show some respect."
"Older my ass... big breasts are more like it. Did you forget to nourish your brain and instead focus on your breasts?"
"Aren't they good? At least better than a flat someone who gets jealous every time they see them, right?"
She fully zipped her hoodie, showcasing her great figure in front of Sylvia, making her even more furious. She finally snapped at her.
"I am not jealous; they're not small, they're still growing."
"Who said I was talking about you? You said it yourself."
"Fuck you."
"I really wish I could cut that tongue of yours."
"Try harder in your other life."
"What a cute little brat you are...would it really kill you if you didn't talk back for once?"
"Not happening."
"Tch…"
Both of them turned their heads to the opposite side; only then did they look around them and finally remember they were sitting in the middle of a crowd of people. Then they realized what they were just saying; embarrassment finally kicked in, but Sylvia was more embarrassed. She stripped that woman's hoodie and wrapped it around her, trying to hide.
"You realize it's no use, right?...They already saw your face."
"Shut up."
"Okay, okay...hide all you want."
"Shut up."
Sylvia realized she took her hoodie, and when she glanced around her, she realized people around them were looking at her inappropriately. When seeing such a scene, she felt utterly disgusted, so she decided to give her the hoodie back.
"Take it."
"What's the matter? You don't want to hide anymore?"
"Just shut up and wear it."
Sylvia gave a terrifying side-eye to the people sitting behind them, making that woman instantly realize what was going on; she was slightly happy at that moment.
"I won't be polite then, thanks, flatty."
She grabbed and zipped it back in less than a second, which stunned Sylvie to the point where she regretted giving it back for a second there, but she felt helpless in that situation.
"So what wind brought you here, Belladonna?"
Sylvia said, putting the jokes aside. As a result, Belladonna did the same and started talking seriously, but her tongue was quite sad.
"It's not my fault ... I also couldn't refuse his request when he asked me to attend."
"He?...Don't tell me you made another bet?"
Sylvia had a bad feeling about Belladonna's presence but was more afraid of the harm he might suffer this time because of her bet.
"What did you bet on?...Is it like every time? You do know that you already crossed the line."
"I know...and I am not playing around; this time is different."
"What's the difference...all I see is that every time you're involved, he is always hurt so badly he ends up in bed for weeks, even with a healer's help."
"..."
Her silence after hearing all this made her heart feel even more uneasy about the bet, especially because every time he gets hurt, she never helps heal him, even though she hosts one of the richest healing attributes, "Mariposa," even when he was only a step away from death...
"Just let me tell you, I will never allow him to get hurt this time, no matter the price."
"You're such a good friend of his, aren't you?"
"Am I supposed to take this compliment in a good or a bad way?"
"In a good way…a good way, my dear Sylvie."
Belladonna patted her head slightly after that. Although Sylvia felt something was definitely wrong with her, she couldn't wrap her hands on it, so she decided to just keep observing her for now.
"Oh...right, where did Mariana go?"
"I don't know."
"Weren't the three of you always together? Did you have a fight or something?"
"I was looking for her and Dan just now, but strangely I can't find any of them, and if we did fight, I'm sure you'll be the first to know; after all, one is your sister while the other is—"
"Stop talking; the games are about to start."
Belladonna cut her talk short as Lana, the hostess, descended from the sky with her artificial wings. This time she was wearing shorts and a different hair color; this time it was black and cat ears.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Cup of Glory. Your beautiful hostess Lana greets you on the second day. Let's begin with a brief summary of yesterday's election."
"As you all know, yesterday was the first day of the game. After a fierce fight, we ended up with 16 players divided into two groups, A and B. Please welcome our players to the center of the arena."
The players started entering one after another amidst the cheers of the crowd until they reached the center lane. Lana had a sly smile and shouted at the top of her lungs.
"BEGAN"
The ground started shaking violently as if an earthquake hit the ground. It started rising from the ground; most of the players panicked, and some even fell to the ground. Even those of them who were still standing could hardly maintain their posture.
When it finally stopped shaking and everything settled down, the players found the ground they were standing on was floating into the sky. As the ground under them started splitting into eight, the players naturally got separated.
"What's going on?"
"The hell I didn't sign up for this."
"U...ubleeegh, my stomach...I shouldn't have eaten that cake."
If you look closely at the original huge arena, you will find it's split into eight smaller ones, and four of them even activated a barrier around them. At that moment, Lana finally started explaining.
"Yesterday we instructed the players to register their names into the space rings we provided, and also the balls containing your group's name had a special signal sent to your rings; it added the group name automatically. When the arena recognized the number of the players and their groups, the barrier automatically activated to trap both of the players as opponents."
"But how exactly does it work? From what I see, the players trapped are mostly from the same group. Is there some kind of mistake within the system?" Syrous asked.
"There are no mistakes...originally it's each group fighting till the end, where only one player is left, and then they fight the winner of the other group, which of course has gone through the same process; it's a one-on-one till there is only one left."
"What about the rest of us who didn't activate the barrier?"
Everyone was anticipating what she was going to say next, but she shocked them with her answer.
"As for the rest, we will do it the traditional way."
She came up with two boxes and handed them papers to write their names on them, then shook those boxes in the air. After she was done, she asked them to select
"Now then, draw your lottery."
After all the players drew their loot, the matches were clear.
From group A, Eclipsa against Adam, Dan against Phantom, Syrous against Deric, and finally Baison against Manao.
As for group B, Ray against Jarvis, Titan against Balarc, Snow against Mira, and finally Shen against Venous.
The rules of this fight are simple: fight till one of you is down, but of course if the other party gives up, you automatically get to the next round. In short, there must be a winner no matter what. The rings on the players' hands will keep their vitals under check. Once the winner is decided, the barrier will receive a signal to go down, allowing the players to advance.
"When I say 'start,' the game will officially begin. Good luck, everyone...now without any further delay, let the game officially start."
The moment she said "start," Eclipsa tapped twice with her feet on the ground without moving an inch; as a result, the ground under her feet all the way to her opponent turned into cold snow, trapping her opponent. A straight line made of ice from her feet all the way to her opponent's. In just a few seconds, her opponent was unconscious and lost to her miserably.
The barrier set off as he fell to the ground, and the ice around him disappeared. Lana came running to their side to see with her eyes who broke a record for the first time; only when she saw Eclipsa standing and Adam was down did she announce the results of their game.
"It's a win for Eclipsa...unbelievable. For the first time in the history of the Cup of Glory, a game has ended in a record of less than eight seconds."
The crowd was still processing the beginning when there was already a win, then the crowd finally exploded after realizing what had just happened, while the medical team received Adam on the grounds under the arena already being treated.
"Waaaaàaaa"
"That was awesome; a match is already done."
"That was such great control." Sylvia was surprised, with wide-open eyes looking at the arena.
"She actually used the ground as a passageway for her magic. Nice move."
Belladonna said, but suddenly a voice came from behind, saying,
"Nice move?...What move? Did the game already start?"
When they turned around, it was Baial who came to the game shortly after leaving the nurse's office, but her face was still swollen. Since everyone was watching the cup, there was no one who could use healing magic available, so she had to endure it, and Sylvia was curious about that.
"What the hell... Class president, what happened to your face?"
"Don't remind me; I've met with a demon on my way."
"A demon?!"
"Don't mind me; I don't even want to remember.... So what were you talking about?"
"Apparently a game already ended within only eight seconds."
", if you noticed, she tapped the ground with her feet; I guess that was how she built the channel."
"Channel...what channel?!"
Baial asked in confusion as she forcefully took the seat beside them, pushing the kid that was sitting there. He tried to move her, but she gave him a killing glance that frightened him so much that he ran away crying. She was satisfied with seeing this.
"Don't mind him...so what channel?"
"A channel is simply like when you use magical artifacts; you need to let your magic pass through it first to make it unleash its powers. The process of passing through is what we call building a channel. Although it's not uncommon for some people to use this method since it ensures a wide range of attacks, it comes with the cost of wasting so much energy. I personally see it as useless."
"I agree with you, for transferring magic through the ground is indeed bound to lose a lot of magic, but here is where I disagree with you: it's not useless, or have you forgotten fifth-circle magicians?"
"I did not."
"I believe you...although I've never seen transferring magic that produces such results, and she is third circle at most. It's as if she cast a spell right in front of him."
Belladonna said, but she thought seriously about the move of using the spears to block his pressure points; it was something unexpected to be used by a magician who is no healer.
"...haha...she really destroyed their pride...her control over her magic is truly terrifying; she hit with such precision. I started to actually like her"
Belladonna said that, and once Sylvia heard her, she looked at her in disgust.
"You really have some serious violent tendencies."
"I do not ... I just see her as a person who's worth fighting for."
Belladonna kept looking at the floor under Eclipsa; the space that was frozen was so light and small, which is not normal since when normal people use such skill, the whole area around will be affected by the magic, and it's not this fast and never this precise. She really admired her control ability.
"You're a freak," Sylvia said.
"Am not"
"A healer who is obsessed with fighting is not a freak, so what, a saintess?"
"I am no saint."
"So what are you, a demon?"
"No comment."
"I really want to hit that smug face of yours."
"Try in your next life."
"Fuck you."
"Are you both always like this?"
Baial asked, but she was immediately shut down by both of them in one breath.
"SHUT UP."
After that she didn't dare make a sound, but she felt wronged inside as this idea crossed her mind.
'Why did I bump into this kind of situation again? First Serenity and now them. Do people change this dramatically nowadays...Mama, help me, please.'
At the medical team's site, Adam has just regained consciousness; he slowly got up, asking,
"Ugh...my head is spinning like crazy. What the hell happened to me?"
"You lost the match."
"Match?...what ma—"
He suddenly remembered what miserable defeat he suffered from.
Adam didn't even get the chance to process that the match had begun when it ended. All he remembered was a sensation: his feet were frozen by a huge ice crystal, and he was surrounded by ice spears that suddenly came at him from the ground. It immobilized his movements. He tried to break the ice crystal at his feet, but it grew even more when he struggled. Suddenly, cold rushed through his skin. The ice started entering his body. At that moment, all his senses got numb from the cold, and he lost consciousness, dropping the daggers he was holding in his hands. Next, he woke up here.
"Young man, you are lucky the dimensional ring announced her the winner. A second more with that cold aura within your body and you're a goner. Luckily, she used it just to make you faint; otherwise..." the healing doctor said, shocking the little boy.
His voice was trembling from thinking about what was going to happen if she didn't stop at that and continued with the freezing. A second later, and he was going to die for sure. He couldn't help but imagine the outcome if it was a fight to the death; he would die...
"Fair enough... I lost completely."
Seeing the kid like that, he couldn't help himself but say,
"Heaven above heaven and people above people... It's just the beginning of your journey; there's a long time ahead of you. Meeting people like her is what we call geniuses; she is just one of them. Don't give up from the beginning."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. I am only giving you this advice because I am also a teacher. I can't see a little kid going through this and say nothing—"
"SCREAM"
A loud scream suddenly caught their attention as it appeared to be a girl. The doctor then gave the order to prepare the potions. He lit a cigar in his mouth, taking one breath, and then looking at the flying arena above, saying, "Looks like we won't be having a moment of rest this year."
"Just give up already."
"N..Never"