False Hero

(Kylie's POV)

He lied, he is definitely a pure mage class!!

With a single swing, he knocked out Dusk. The speed at which Dusk dashed towards Grey caused him to crash on the ground, rolling four times his body moved towards me. 

Readying the water sword that has frozen solid till now, I swung it towards Dusk, finishing him off.

Commentator 2: What happened?!!! everything froze up!!! how ----- how?!!!!

Commentator 1: was there any ice typed mage inside the ring?!!!

Commentator 2: Only person that can perform ice typed spells is Grey!!! but how did he perform a spell of this degree?!!

Commentator 1: When I thought it was over for him, he froze up the entire water!!!

Commentator 2: By taking a direct blow from Grey and Kylie on the face, dusk is now eliminated!!! which leads to only Grey and Kylie against each other.

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(Third person POV)

Grey turned to look at Kylie who was looking at him rather furiously. Her expression hardened as she readied the frozen sword in her hand.

"Are you making fun of me by not going all out on me?"

Grey summoned an icicle blade as he spoke "I am not making fun of you but I would rather avoid showing all of my hands to the world,"

Kylie chuckled as she said "I see, you consider me not worthy enough to use all of your cards. You consider me weak right?"

"No, I think you are pretty strong. But I don't ----"

Her expression became tenser as she summoned various water summons, but this time the summons was only her clone and all of her water clones were standing next to her. There were around twenty of her clone.

"Shut up!!! and fight me!!!" she exclaimed as she dashed towards Grey with all of her clones. 

Readying his sword, Grey slashed through on her clone but rather than turning back into the water. The clone again regained its shape, continuing his swing Grey drove his sword through another clone, but there was no damage to the clone. It regained its shape. 

Before a clone could slash its sword through Grey, he caught the sword, freezing the clone and sword at once. Eventually Grey froze up the rest of the clones, now the only remaining person was Kylie herself.

Commentator 1: Will Kylie be able to beat at least one Hoffmann?!

Commentator 2: Grey's ice magic is the worst enemy for Kylie, it was her bad luck that she had to face against an ice magic-user.

Commentator 1: it is an easy victory for Grey into the finals. He is lucky to be fighting against ice mage and hopefully, he is lucky enough to not face fire mage in the finals well there is also Eira Hoffmann, can he beat Eira?

Kylie couldn't help but laugh as she said "Even though I am still standing here, they have already decided that I have lost.", she wiped the water off her face as she spoke, "They don't even acknowledge your strength, they say that you are 'lucky', isn't it funny?"

Kylie dashed forwards towards Grey, clashing her sword with hers, Kylie continued "That's what they do, they don't acknowledge you. As long as they have flaws to look at they will never fucking acknowledge us, they don't even give you chance to prove them otherwise, they are fucking hypocritical pieces of shit!!!"

Dodging the incoming swing from a water clone, Grey spoke "do you want to be acknowledged?", in an instant, he froze up the clone. 

She again swung her sword only to be blocked by Grey, "No, no I don't."

Grey took a step back as he spoke  "It doesn't matter to me. In everyone's mind, there is a favored and non-favored, the fact that I am non-favored is because they project their insecurities as the reason my winning. Rather than directly acknowledging someone people usually link their success or the fact that they are better to things like 'luck', 'his opponent was too weak.'. 

No matter what you do, people will rarely acknowledge you, that's how it is and that's how it will be. I am a hero, I will do everything for my people even if they don't understand me, but I will still keep doing the thing I am doing, even if I am called several names. I am a hero of my people, being called various types of names won't affect me."

"Huh?".

furious, she asked, "are you calling me names?", she swung her sword again only for it to be shattered by Grey. 

"Just like everyone else ------" anger took over her face as she kept getting redder and redder. She formed another Water sword before swinging it at Grey.

"Just like Everyone else!!!!!!!!" 

She kept swinging her swords with each of her swings getting blocked by Grey. 

"Just like Everyone else, you are calling me names!!!!" 

Every time her sword kept getting frozen up due to Grey's ice magic. 

"I am not ugly!!" 

Her sword kept getting weaker and weaker.

"I am not bad luck!!!"

The brittle icicle sword broke apart.

"I am not dangerous!!!!"

Her breath was getting heavier and heavier. 

"I don't have anger issues!!!"

She struggled to speak,

"I am not cruel or evil!!!"

She let out a chuckle. Rather than summoning a sword, she used her own fist "I didn't ask this black hair!!!!" before she could even swing her fist, Grey caught her hand. 

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(Kylie's POV)

I don't want to be alone anymore, it's getting more and more suffocating.

Dad, you said that someone special will come into my life that will understand me. But where is that person? I couldn't help but let out a chuckle. 

I raised my hand to hit him, "I didn't ask for this black hair!!!!", but before I could even move my hand he caught it.

I thought he would continue with some follow-up attack since I was wide open, there can't be a better chance to get me, but he didn't.

Why won't he ----

The way he held my hand was gentle, there was no force in it.

He sighed before saying "The thing that I was trying to say is ------ all you can do is to believe in yourself and your capabilities. You are you, you can't expect anyone to understand you.

You are the only one that can understand yourself, you are your own ally. You are the only one that knows you the best, so trust yourself and have some pride in it."

That's what mama used to say...

He smiled as he looked at me. His smile----- it was beautiful. 

"Don't break apart okay? keep going and someday there will be someone who will directly look at you for the person you are and if you get bored of finding that person, you can come and hang around with me. We both have very bad personalities so we can be best of buddies, heck we can even be brothers."

"..... but I am a girl."

"Eh? girl and boy can be brothers in arms." 

What is this warmth... I --- 

"Why are you kind to me?" I asked.

"Eh? I don't think I am kind to you." He rolled his eyes before saying "Well, to be honest, I see myself in you and I ---- I want to start loving myself again. I am only being kind to you because I want you to know that you don't need to be hard on yourself. You can be vulnerable, and even if everyone runs away, I will never abandon you and myself, because I see myself in you.

I can't abandon myself, I need to keep going." 

This feeling ----- he is looking directly at me. His eyes it's ------ it's beautiful. 

I am staring at him and yet I can't stop looking at his eyes. It's weird Kylie look away ----- but I can't stop... 

As I was looking at him, He brought his finger near my forehead before flicking it----- ouch!

"Ouch!"

After flicking my forehead, he gave me a soft smile as he said "Don't overthink okay!!" 

Even though he is saying it to me, I know that he is saying that to himself too. But still --- but still!!! I grabbed his hand as I bit him tightly. 

"Ouch!! you are definitely dangerous!" 

"Shut up!! you are the one the flicked me first and ----" 

Shit!! shit!! shit!! my eyes, it's getting warm. I can't contain it anymore, I need to ---- I need to, 

I got up as I spoke, "This is my loss, I couldn't beat you, Grey Hoffmann." 

I hastily walked away, I didn't want anyone to see my cry. 

But before walking away, I turned to look at him once more. At this point my eyes have already teared up, how many years has it been since I last cried?

I smiled as I said "Thank you for looking at me... Grey.", tears flew down my cheeks but the smile I wore was a genuine one. 

I turned around again to continue my walk out of the arena. 

I wanted him to see my vulnerable side.. I wanted to show this side to my one and only friend.