Life Hunter

In block D, Aria and Rehard, the "paladin", were facing each other.

"Are you ready!" James said "3, 2, 1. Fight!" And the fight started.

Aria kicked the ground first and charged at Rehard, the latter raised his shield which gave out an almost blinding white light.

"[Icicle]" Aria used an ice magic to counter the shield. A dozen of icicles condensed in mid-air and flew towards Rehard. As the icicles were coming at the same speed and direction, Rehard waved his shield to alleviate the impact and clear all the ice in one go. At that moment, Aria swung her two meters long spear at him and Rehard had to counter it with his longsword "[Light pillar]" He chanted, his sword glowed, and a white pillar directly fell on Aria from above.

"So, this guy uses light magic, huh? He is looking more and more like a paladin" Arima observed the fight while eating "He has a good defense and a good crowd control; this guy is more suited for warfare" He ate his last candy "But he"s no match to her" He casually said.

Night nodded in agreement.

On the stage, the temperature suddenly dropped. Ice spikes sprout out from the ground and pierced the white pillar in countless places before it froze and broke in fragments. In the crystal spectacle, Aria struck at Rehard with her spear enveloped in a blue hue. This time, when she hit, the ice transformed into water and pushed back the paladin by pushing him like a tide.

"[Ice pole]" Aria chanted, her spear froze completely and she threw it. It planted on the ground in front of Rehard. The ice spread and trapped his legs in ice, he felt a numbing sensation rising in his whole body. Before he could say or do anything, Aria was in front of him. She placed her palm on his chest "[Ice coffin]" She chanted and Rehard continued to freeze until he became a block of ice in the form of a coffin.

Aria let out a breath which crystallized due to the cold. She swung her spear one more time and crashed the coffin with the shaft. Rehard was freed and fell on the ground, unconscious.

"It"s over" Arima yawned "I"ll go to sleep" He jumped off the wall with Night. A short while after, James announced the victory of Aria and the next fight between the latter and Arima.

***************************************************

Finally, the next day, the final came.

On the stage, one more time, Arima was facing Aria. This time, Night was beside him, he was excited that he finally could fight.

"Ready!" Like always "3"

Aria clenched her spear "I"ll do my best. Sentio" She called a name and a huge snake appeared beside her. He was as big as an anaconda back in the old world. But this serpent was a bit unusual, he was light green in color with a few darker scales at some places, he had two little horns on his head, his eyes were green and had slit pupils. And the actual dexterity of this snake allowed him to stand on his tail if he wanted.

"2"

"Oh, a snake?" Arima was a bit surprised "(Well, it"s a cold-blooded animal so it kinda suits her)" The snake in question turned to look at Arima and Night, when he looked at the former, he didn"t react but when he saw Night, he pupils narrowed even more and he unintentionally moved back his whole body.

"1"

Arima smiled and nodded his head to Night. The latter laughed and activated his magic. It was only returning back to his original body, so it wasn"t that hard. Night turned back into a dragon in front of everyone, cracked his neck and slammed his tail on the ground "Finally" He said.

The spectators were silent. Aria was shocked "(I actually pet him!)"

Even James forgot to finish the countdown. But n.o.body waited for him. Aria decided to attack first and charged, she was pretty fast and wielded her spear to strike Arima, on the other hand, Sentio jumped on Night and wrapped himself around his arm and tried to bite his neck.

"[Karma]" Arima called his sword and easily blocked Aria"s spear.

"[Fire scales]" Night used his fire magic to ignite his scales. Black flames covered his entire body. Sentio hissed and hurriedly backed off. He glared at Night and chanted "[Water rain, Ice rain]"

Water condensed above Night and clashed against the flames, it weakened them, then the water froze and attacked Night directly with ice shards. Within a few seconds, the whole place became filled with steam. The vein-like red lines on Night"s body glowed, he deployed his wings, blowing away the steam and charged at the snake. He chose to attack in close combat, maybe because he took it from Arima, but he seemed to be skilled in martial arts.

Though it was awkward to see a dragon giving kicks and punches.

Sentio was forced to stay on defense. Originally, he is not a soul beast who fights in close combat at all.

"[Scintillam ferram] (Wild spark)" Arima sped up and slashed with Karma from a different angle, Aria was fast too and blocked it with the shaft of her spear "Your spear is pretty tough. But that"s not enough. [Sunt robore]" He used more strength and slashed the spear.

Arima frowned, he wanted to continue the momentum and attack but his hand and arm were frozen. Aria took the opportunity and placed her hand on his chest "[Ice coffin]" Then what happened next was the same as before, Arima froze until he became a block of ice, a lot bigger than with Rehard.

Sentio smirked while fighting with "Looks like your friend lost" He said in mockery. Night glanced calmly at the ice coffin for a second. The red lines on his body shined even more and some flames escaped through his teeth. He opened his mouth and roared.

A ma.s.sive flame erupted from his throat and burned everything in a straight line until the wall of the coliseum. Sentio was struck directly but managed to avoid life-threatening injuries thanks to a magic shield.

When Aria was about to rush to help him, she heard a voice "[Fulgur]" Thunder rumbled, the ice coffin cracked and black lightning exploded from inside. Arima walked out totally unharmed.

Aria was shocked, he didn"t even look agitated or tired, he didn"t suffer any injuries, not even a scratch. Actually, the enchantments of his clothes activated automatically and he didn"t even need to use magic.

"[Spaera](Sphere)" Arima waved his hand and conjured a dozen of small spheres above his palm. Like previously, a complex circle formed but this one was red and orange. He threw the marbles in the circle when they got out, they were filled with fire and electricity and flew toward Aria. The latter waved her spear and created a strong cold wind, freezing and blowing away the marbles.

The spheres exploded in the air and released an explosion of black flames and lightning. Aria looked at that and gulped, those attacks were a lot more destructive and powerful than the ones with the wind.

Arima smiled "You got it easily, of course, if you blow away those marbles, they won"t harm you, but you shouldn"t lose your focus"

"What?" Aria suddenly heard the sound of flapping wings and a falcon landed on her shoulder and her eyes narrowed. The falcon had a marble with black flames in his beak. Aria instantly tried to move away from that bird but Arima was a step ahead.

He smiled "[Lacero](Break)" The sphere broke in the bird"s beak. And the explosion engulfed Aria"s figure. Aria covered herself in ice and barely resisted the biggest damage.

With some of her skin still frozen in ice, she retreated to Sentio"s side and gave him a healing potion to help him a bit. Arima walked calmly and stopped beside Night.

Aria looked at him "Say it honestly, either of you can beat us alone, right?" She said. Sentio raised his head and looked at them.

Arima shrugged "About Night, I don"t know. His fire magic is extremely strong but I summoned him not long ago, so his body is only around the low-mid cla.s.s of level 7. But for me, yes, I can win against you two easily" He said naturally. He knew that he shouldn"t lie about that.

"I see" Aria stood up "Let"s go, Sentio" The snake nodded. These too released their aura and mana at the same frequency and a mysterious circle formed on the ground, surrounding them.

"[Resonance]!" The two shouted at the same time. Sentio became a blue ray of light which shrouded Aria. The latter"s figure changed at that time. After the light disappeared, Aria had light green hair, her eyes became like the ones of the snake and some faint scales appeared on her arms and face and she grew two fangs like a vampire.

She smiled softly "Please fight with me seriously"

"Well I"ll go to the maximum level in which I won"t kill you" Arima said.

Aria helplessly smiled "That"s good too"

"Night" Arima looked at Night "Let"s go". Like the two others, they released their aura and the same magic circle encompa.s.sed Arima and Night, though some runes were different.

"[Resonance]" Night changed into a black light and flew toward Arima. When Arima was still glowing in a black light he chanted something else "[Draconicis est anima mea] (Draconic soul)" A red light mixed with the black one.

At that moment, a suffocating aura spread around the whole coliseum and even outside of it. The spectators immediately turned silent, they couldn"t say anything. They felt like a single move would kill them. Even Aria could barely breathe.

After the resonance, the aura was restrained and Arima"s appearance was revealed. His arms were covered with strong black scales which even destroyed his coat"s sleeves, his hands also became as strong as the claws of a dragon. His pupils became red like a dragon and his sclera turned slightly silver and his hair became a bit longer. And the most marking change was the pair of wings on his back.

"What did you do?" Aria spoke a bit weakly "Your resonance was strange, the circle was different and your actual strength now is at least two times stronger, this should not be that powerful" She said

"I just changed the process of the resonance a bit, I realized it was quite flawed so I changed it. With my version, the boost of strength change from 1.5 times to 2 times and it lasts until it"s willingly released" Arima explained like it was normal.

"{No, it"s not normal, you know? Do you realize that you just perfected an ancient technique of this world that even scholars can"t modify}" Night retorted while he was fused with Arima.

Aria was dumbfounded, she couldn"t believe it.

"Well, are you ready?" He asked and Aria trembled. She clenched her fists, her surroundings turned terribly cold and she released her aura, she took out a new spear from her spatial storage and applied ice on it.

Arima smiled, his body began to heat up and burned the ground with flames, lightning gathered around him "In this form, my fire magic reaches the same affinity as my lightning, and my mana and magic output greatly increases. So..." The heat and the lightning calmed down and were replaced by a cold air "I"ll use this, I won"t use Karma, I wouldn"t want to kill you"

Aria didn"t respond and charged at Arima, she circulated her mana to the max and was even faster than Arima with his usual "Wild spark". Aria gripped her spear with both of her hands and swung it vertically from above.

Arima moved naturally and caught the blade with his now claw-like hand. The backwash crushed the arena behind and covered it with ice in the next instant.

"Well, let"s end this" Arima condensed his aura in one direction and pushed back Aria, he broke the spear in his hand and pointed his palm to her "[Glacians aestus] (Freezing tide)" It only started as small crystal and then it became bigger and bigger and washed over the whole arena until the wall of the coliseum, leaving then, a colossal purple ice block.

Aria was caught inside and fainted, her resonance was ended forcefully and broke a part of the block of ice. Aria and Sentio were both unconscious.

"The champion is Arimane Blade!" James loudly said. All the spectators cheered.

Arima canceled his resonance and Night reappeared at his side, the former was gaping "...Why is it purple? This doesn"t make any sense" He said "Even though it"s f.u.c.king gorgeous" He paused "...If I can make an everlasting ice magic, I could sell it at this point" He admired a bit.

Then after that, he healed Aria and her soul beast before waking them "Get up" He helped her stand up.

"Thanks for healing us" She said with a soft smile but she had a great resolution in her eyes after she saw her opponent"s true strength.

"Don"t mind" Arima answered.

"Mr. Blade, to receive your reward, come to the hall" James suddenly said.

Arima heard him and moved to the exit "See you" and said that to Aria.

"Ah, right" He realized his sleeves were torn because of the resonance "[Rest.i.tutio](Restore)" He chanted and his sleeves were restored like they were growing back.

Then he headed to the hall of the coliseum.