Chapter 368: Event Again

———Lynda———

<9: 23 am>

It’s unsurprising that we are here again, but the voice of the crowd makes it clear that very few actually believed it would be held again so soon. They are as excited as they are concerned about what is going to happen next.

“About as we expected, and from what we had discovered, the individual rewards are at least very valuable.” Kroin said as we waited for the official opening of the event. Now would Emmie reprise her role or will someone else do it?

“Hmm…” Histon mumbled to himself, probably wondering if he should participate or not. Last time around Luik was the strongest one to challenge the king of the arena.

“Hopefully no one leaked that out. Imagine the chaos that would be stirred online.” Trener said, just keep the conversation going to kill time. It would act as a very strong incentive to fight, but then again, there is going to be quite the conversation if you try to think about it too hard.

“I doubt it, if that were the case it’s going to be on the local news, most likely.” I replied. Luik is definitely not the type to brag, and she’s the only one who gets the two pricey rewards. I also haven't said this to anyone besides Glery, and she’s even less of a talker than her. “This means it’s going to remain a surprise for a while. It might be best for us to cash in early.”

“Easy to say, the stage fright is getting to me just from you saying it.” Trener said, gritting his teeth. We would be looked at by… what, over five hundred people give or take? It’s a very big school with a ton of people from the students to teachers and whatnot. You’d think this is a university or something with this scale.

“Better to shake those off just in case they suddenly decide to discontinue the event. You want the fat bag, right?” I said with a small smirk on my face.

“I don’t even know if I could perform that well…” He said, certainly not feeling the drive.

“<Test… test…>” The speakers rang out with Rico’s voice. “<Alright everyone! Are you all here? Looks like most of you are, at least! Bet all of you are surprised by the sequel to our last Monday! I know all of you are thinking of how well you’ll do against the king of the ring, the champion of the arena! Some of you might suspect that this venue will be used again! Either way, we are going to do something a teeny bit different today!>”

Suddenly the playing area down below began to shift, creating new terrains with tall hills, rivers, and trees. Not the first time this particular scenery has been constructed, but why now?

“<Last time we showed you the footage of a one-sided slaughter, one that many of you lack the gall to replicate, which is fair enough, and perhaps that doesn’t stir up the fighting spirit as much as we would like to see.>” Why was that even a possibility in your mind in the first place!? The hell do you think we are!? “<This time we’ll go for something more traditional! An exhibition match! Get that blood pumping for the main event! Let’s start off with our two warriors!>”

**Zoom**

Two fighters were teleported onto the two tall pillar-like hills on opposite ends of the arena.

“<On one end of the field, we have a familiar face from around here. The enigmatic girl with fluffy ears, Navi!>” Rico starts introducing. I have seen Navi a couple of times by now, but te white-haired girl is a different story, standing there with a rather mundane blue tunic and a large pauldron on her left shoulder.  “<On the other end of the field, the one with many titles to her name already! The Monster Wrangler, The Lightning Blade in Blue, and the Devil’s Bride. Many of you will know her by her online moniker, TerryJoker!>”

“A famous face here in the arena. Interesting.” Luik remarked as the two glared at each other with their right hand on the handle of their weapons. “Three titles, that definitely isn’t normal.”

“Coming from someone like Rico, those titles have weight to them.” I pointed out. Even Navi gets nothing in comparison.

“<Soon the blades will clash and the arena will shake! Let the battle…>” Rico said as she dragged out the final part of the sentence with the two fighters ready to unsheathe their blades at any moment. “<...Begin!>”

**Leap** **Crack** *Clash* **Zip** *Clash* **Leap** *Clash*

The level of power is already completely different within the first few seconds of the battle. The moment both of them jumped off their respective starting pillars, it broke under the pressure that launched them right towards each other.

Both of them can not only move at high speed, but they can also just straight-up fly. Their movements are smooth and don't seem to be bogged down by ground friction or gravity. At least not enough for any of us amateurs to be able to tell.

The crowd is cheering at the sight of such high octane action. They might not be able to catch most of it if the special glasses weren’t helping, but they can really tell that this is a battle between two veterans.

*Crackle* *Slash* *Blast*

One sword swing from the girl in blue sent a streak of electricity that fries nearby simulated plant life and Navi barely dodge it. It was launched through the air like those laser cannons in films… or perhaps those energy blasts in Japanese shows would be a better comparison. Those feel weightier.

“I didn’t realize she was this strong of a fighter…” Trener remarked as the battle rages on and more of the set dressings are being torn apart.

“She has been doing dungeons solo for the longest time. She is naturally very strong, and clearly well-connected.” I said in response. If just one of her monsters alone can brutalize one of the more infamous warlords out there, then the person commanding it must naturally be quite strong as well. “A powerful swordswoman in her own right, it makes you wonder if the whole monster taming business was just a gimmick.”

“Probably not with how strong they are, right?” Kroin spoke up. “She’s clearly stronger than us, and no doubt the monsters under her command might also be… No, some of them definitely are. Something tells me that the giant bird from last week was hers to command.”

“That thing that looks like it could wipe out an entire city?” Trener said in surprise.

“I have an inkling about it, but with her being present it’s clear she’s involved somehow.” Kroin said with the level of confidence that certainly makes it hard to argue against. He’s a smart guy, so there’s no reason for us to doubt him on that front.

*Clash* *Parry*

The two of them continue their onslaught on foot, each time their blades connect it creates a force that pushes everything back like an explosion just occurred, destroying more of the terrain.

*Leap*

Navi then jumps away to get some space between herself and Terry, probably wanting to break the stalemate they are in at the moment.

*Splash*

She raised her katana up as the water in the area suddenly floated up and dispersed into mist.

*Chill* *Breeze* *BLOW*

Suddenly a bunch of ice crystals formed all around the arena and she pointed her katana at Terry, causing wind to fiercely move towards her with many small ice pellets raining down on her, forcing her to be pushed back as the assault continued.

*Grab* *Stab* *Spark* *Sizz* *BURST*

Terry grabbed a nearby broken tree and stabbed her sword into it, lit it on fire and caused a massive burst of flame to melt away the blizzard attack and act as a massive wall of flames once she amplified and controlled its growth with mana.

*Kick* *Slash*

She dropped the burning wood and kicked it towards Navi who had stopped controlling the movement of the wind and slashed away the burning log.

*Leap* *Swing* *Block*

Navi then jumped towards her and swung her katana down only for it to be blocked by Terry’s sword, the force from the two blades connecting caused Navi to be pushed back instead of awkwardly falling to the ground, naturally creating distance between them once again.

*Dash* *Clash* *Clang* *Block* *Parry*

Instead of giving her the time to completely recover her footing, Terry ran in and started throwing out many sword swings for Navi to intercept, pushing her back more and more with each strike.

*Shine* *Burst* *Leap*

Navi then suddenly let out a burst of energy that disoriented Terry for long enough that she had the time to reposition, jumping on top of one of the surviving hills.

*Swing* *Blast* *Swing* *Blast* *Swing* *Blast*

She began throwing out energy blades that rained down on Terry and forcing her to keep dodging, moving around the arena and waiting for a good moment to strike.

*Crackle* *Spark* *Slash* *Crumble*

After enough time and getting slightly closer to the hill Navi is standing on, she imbued her sword with power that is presented as electricity covering it and making it look even bigger, slashing the hill clean in half and causing it to begin collapsing, forcing Navi off it.

“I’m surprised they keep themselves grounded for this long.” Trener remarked.

“It’s probably just for the sake of variety. Air combat isn’t exactly the most interesting. It’ll only marvel you for a while.” I answered that particular question. “A lot of things that make combat interesting for us don't really apply when gravity is not much of a concern anymore.”

*Clash* *Dash* *Clash* *Leap* *Clash* *Clang*

The more these two fight, more of the environment gets destroyed, they keep moving and they keep swinging their blades at each other.

Soon enough we can even see the original platform beneath all the rocks and dirt.

*Crackle* *Chill* *Throw* *Swing* *Crack*

Navi conjured an icicle spear and threw it at Terry, making her cut it down.

*Spark* *Crackle* *Slash* *Block*

In response she swung her sword down to the ground and created a visible wave of electricity being sent toward Navi and forcing her to block it.

*Lift* *Grip* *Launch* *Slash*

Navi then levitates the portion of the ground and compresses it into a giant cannonball before launching it at Terry, who like last time cut it down quickly.

*Launch* *Slash* *Launch* *Slash*

Navi did this a few more times before even more of the original platform can be seen as more of the terrain has been stripped away as the fight continues.

*Spark* *Swing* *Crack* *Crash* *Rumble*

After being pelted more times than she would probably like, Terry swung her sword with a massive amount of force behind it, causing even more of the terrain to be destroyed and even pushed Navi back despite there already being quite the distance between the two.

Neither of them are standing on dirt at this point, all of that has been quickly stripped away or pushed to the side.

The two fighters are now standing on opposite sides of the arena just like at the beginning, both of them have abused the set pieces to this point despite the battle lasting no longer than five minutes. The arena is massive and the terrain generated were no small set pieces either, and for the most part they didn’t even directly target these things.

*Shine* *Spark*

Both of them hold their blades up high and each of them are charging it, ready to let out a massive burst of energy to overwhelm the other.

“A beam clash…” Trener remarked as the two continued to gather in power and the brightness of their blades became harsh and hard to look at even from all the way out here.

**SWING** **BLAST** *BOOM*

“Aaaah!?” Many people in the audience panicked at the sight of the beam clash causing a massive explosion that blinded everything.

It feels like many of my senses are being overwhelmed and that’s making it hard for me to feel composed as well. It’s as if a nuke suddenly dropped right in front of us!