Otherworld Adventure

Cecil quickly activated Mana Burst and kicked off the ground, dashing towards Eli. He hadn't activated a full-powered mana burst so his movements were still visible to Eli's and the audience's eyes.

Elizabeth had already got some information on Cecil's combat style from Lucia so she had predicted that Cecil would dash towards her and engage in a melee.

Elizabeth stabbed her rapier into the ground and multiple magic circles formed in the area in front of her. After doing so she dashed backwards and began chanting.

After she quickly finished her chanting Eli waved her hand and quickly fired her spell at Cecil.

"Blazing Sword!"

A large flaming sword formed in front of Elizabeth and she directed the sword to shoot towards Cecil who had avoided her wind mine spells.

The magic circles that formed in front of Cecil had prompted him to switch directions and take a roundabout way towards Eli only to be met with another obstruction in the form of a large flaming sword the size of a car shooting towards him.

She immediately began conjuring more flaming swords and promptly firing them at Cecil all the while she began chanting another spell, but instead of an attack spell Eli had decided to use a body enhancing spell.

This spell played a large part in her becoming the youngest 'Sword Maiden'.

"Shukuchi! Overheat!"

She had simultaneously used two intermediate ranked spells. Shukuchi which was a body enhancing spell, to enhance her speed and agility and Overheat, an enchantment spell, to add flames to her sword attacks.

On Cecil's side he had either evaded the flaming swords fired at him or he parried them with a wave of his mana covered hand. He had broken through Eli's spells while still dashing towards the girl.

After the flaming swords' bombardment, Cecil was surprised to see Eli take the initiative to dash towards him and engage in close ranged combat.

Cecil smirked and met her flaming rapier with his mana covered fists.

Eli's swordsmanship had consisted of multiple thrusts and slashes. With her body enhanced with Shukuchi, her thrusts and slashes were sent towards Cecil at blinding speeds. Eli had not forgotten to keep chanting and would occasionally send a fire bolt or flame lance towards Cecil.

Cecil was constantly activating and deactivating Hyper-sensitivity and speeding up his thought process in order to anticipate Eli's movements and predict where she would send her attacks.

'Throat, rib, chest, shoulder, chest, eye, waist, flame bolt left, wind sickle above, a sweep, stomach'

Using Hyper-sensitivity this way enabled Cecil to fight at a leisure pace, he didn't overexert himself and only used the right amount of force to parry or dodge Eli's attacks.

He didn't forget to send a punch and jab while he was evading and parrying her moves. Eli was surprised seeing how accurate Cecil was able to evade and parry all her moves. Even while doing all that, he still had the room to send a few punches and kicks her way.

'M-monstrous... just like Lucia said he'd be!'

She continued slashing and stabbing at him, the battle still flowed in her rhythm and she hadn't seen Cecil use a spell yet. She had to keep the pressure up and make sure that Cecil had no time to cast a spell.

"Kuh.... AHHHH!!!" With a spirited shout, Eli upped the speed of her attacks.

She even started firing original spells at Cecil. Her originals were weak unlike Lucia's originals, but it did serve as a headache for Cecil since he could no longer predict what spell Elizabeth would use since she stopped chanting.

With only 30 percent of mana burst activated, he didn't have the room to look around for the spell formations while dodging Eli's accelerating attacks.

'Tsk... good for you Eli, you've actually forced me to use magic.'

Cecil roused his mana and a mana bolt formed in his palm. Eli who was attacking at a blinding speed was still closely observing him, so the small golden ball that abruptly formed in his hands didn't escape her vision.

Eli widened her eyes and quickly started chanting. She slashed one last time at Cecil and kicked at him.

Cecil saw the unexpected kick and quickly blocked it, Eli used him as a springboard and kicked off of him and flipped away from Cecil.

Eli had shortened her chant and quickly put up a fire wall separating the two, but in the next instant a large hole was formed after she had landed. She had to throw her body to the right to avoid the mana bolt that was aimed at her.

After tapping the ground lightly, she landed back on her feet and gazed back at Cecil who was still in the same posture when he had blocked her kick.

"Heeh, nice reflexes" Cecil had a small grin on his face seeing Elizabeth dodge his unexpected attack.

"..."

Cecil got into his form again and raised a hand beckoning for Eli to come at her again. It was a light taunt, but Eli didn't fall for it, remaining in her place while closely observing him hoping to find an opening.

"...you sure you don't want to come? If you're not coming, then I will!" Cecil upped his mana burst to 50 percent and kicked off the ground. His speed was blindingly fast to Eli and everyone else. It seemed as though Cecil had disappeared from where he was standing. Eli could only trust her instincts and dash backwards in a hurry.

It was a good move since when she finally saw Cecil reappear; he was already sending a fist slamming down at her previous spot.

BOOOMMMM

The arena quaked at Cecil's attack and the ground ruptured at his punch.

"Oops, sorry my bad, I got a little excited there." Cecil said with a smile. He lowered his mana burst back down to 30 percent and lightly said, "I'll be attacking now."

Eli began sweating inwardly. She couldn't believe her eyes at the devastating effects of Cecil's 'casual' punch. She gulped and refocused her mind when Cecil lightly said that he would be attacking.

Eli saw that Cecil was taking the same posture as before, she prepared herself for Cecil's dash and began chanting a spell, but she had to quickly stop and dodge away from her spot when she saw Cecil not dashing towards her, but thrusting his hidden left arm at her.

PWING BOOM

"Heh. Take this!"

PWING PWING PWING PWING PWING

Cecil had started firing off mana bolts from both his palms, he even kicked up the debris from the ground he had ruptured with his fist and kicked them at Eli.

'Damn! So the punch wasn't just to scare me!' Eli inwardly cursed.

Just like Lucia said, Cecil's attacks all had a purpose behind it. He didn't just crush the ground with overwhelming force to intimidate Eli, but he also did it to create large, ready to use projectiles that he could fire at her.

Elizabeth could only use her rapier to slice the debris in half or use small spells to direct the flying debris away from her. She couldn't stop moving however since Cecil was also firing mana bolts her way even while kicking large and small rocks at her.

Now it was Eli's turn to experience what it was like to dodge projectiles of varying sizes. Cecil wouldn't hold a grudge, but payback was still payback.

He fired off mana bolts and kicked the debris towards his friend. He wasn't aiming them at Eli however.

Cecil aimed to cut her off from evading any further so he was kicking the debris and arranging it to form obstructions in her path.

"Checkmate Eli~" Cecil abruptly said playfully.

"Oh noooo!" Lucia who was spectating abruptly cried. Fina who was seriously observing the fight next to her was startled. "What's wrong Lucia?"

"Eli lost!"

"Huh?"

"Look! Cecil's surrounded her!"

"What?" Fina quickly moved her gaze back to the ring and when she looked around, it was indeed as Lucia said. Their friend Elizabeth was surrounded. She was surrounded by the broken debris that Cecil had kicked towards her.

"!"

Back on the ring, Eli had widened her eyes in astonishment.

'How?!'

She didn't think any further however. Eli didn't want to admit defeat even when she was trapped. So she decided to fight Cecil head-on. Just as she was about to turn towards Cecil and confront him, she saw that he was in the same posture only that both his hands were brought back to his waist.

"KIN."

SZZZT SZZT SZZZZT

"RYU!"

"What the?! CEL?!" Lucia who finally looked up and saw Cecil's posture shot up from her seat in disbelief.

SZZT SZZZZZZT

"GI!!"

"ELI RUN!!!" Lucia shouted at the top of her lungs.

Elizabeth had also sensed the danger from Cecil's technique and forgot the notion of confronting him. She instead turned to the side and started kicking off the debris, trying to get away from the encirclement and from Cecil's attack.

"HAAAAAA!!!"

'I ALWAYS WANTED TO DO THIS!'

The condensed mana bolt that was crackling in Cecil's palms was fired at the debris that was trapping Elizabeth. Cecil himself knew that Eli could sense the danger from his technique and would take evasive actions.

He also gave her time to dodge and deliberately charged up his Kinryugiha longer than what was needed. After making sure that Elizabeth was away, he finally fired off his mana wave.

Unlike his usual mana wave, this time's mana wave was condensed to a degree where even the sounds of crackling and buzzing rang in the air. When the condensed mana wave hit the area in the middle of the debris...

BOOOOOOOMMMMMM

A large explosion and a pillar of golden mana rose from the targeted area.

The aftershocks of the attack had reached Elizabeth who was already far away from the area, the aftershock sent her tumbling further away and she could only stare back in a daze at the absurd attack.

"What the... what the..." She could only mutter in disbelief.

Lucia who was at the stands slumped down into her seat, "Phew..."

Everyone was gazing at the beautiful, but deadly explosion and pillar of light that was caused by Cecil's technique.

Cecil was already regretting it since his attack had somewhat affected the other rings. It was a good thing that Cecil had dragged his fight on, testing Eli's combat standards which made their fight the last match that was still ongoing in the arena. The other 4 matches had already finished and the participants were spectating Cecil and Elizabeth's match on the side.

After finishing his technique, Cecil dusted himself off and sauntered towards the dumbfounded Eli.

"Are we continuing?"

"Huh?" Eli snapped out of her daze hearing his question.

"Are we continuing?" Cecil asked again.

"N-no... I surrender..."

"Okay!"

With a bright smile he saw off the dazed Eli and turned his eyes towards Lucia who was slumped in her seat. Feeling his gaze, Lucia perked up and looked back at him.

Cecil smiled and tilted his head, gesturing for her to come down.

Seeing this Lucia's eyes was lit ablaze.

"HMPH!"

She stomped her way down to the arena and passed by Eli who was a little downtrodden.

"Eli!"

"...Lucia."

"I'll get back at him for us!"

Eli smiled and brightened up a bit. Then she said encouragingly.

"Wipe that frustrating grin off his face for me Lucia!"

"Yeah!"

Lucia quickly made her way onto the ring and confronted Cecil.

"I'm winning today and this'll also be payback for Eli!"

Cecil smiled and stayed silent. Then he turned around and walked off the ring.

"HEY! Where are you going?!"

"Uhm... Lucia..."

"Huh?"

Instructor Jin who would be acting as the referee for their match had spoken up from behind her.

"Y-yes instructor?"

"We still have to fix the stage, and we have to make it bigger since it's a fight between you two. So... could you walk down from the ring first?"

"Eh? AH! Sorry!" Lucia's face reddened and she quickly ran down the ring. She ran up to Cecil and started bashing him when she saw him covering his mouth and holding back his laughter.

"Idiot! IDIOT!"

"Ouch, haha, sorry, haha! You just looked so serious so I didn't wanna ruin your mood!"

"IDIOT!"

The bashing continued and so did the reparations of the arena.