Spending My Retirement In A Game

As if a wave of ice had shot outward from the center of the arena, it was now covered in solid flames that were rippling with a silver shine. Enveloped in the flames was the giants' young warrior, unable to move. The flames were clearly damaging her to a high extent despite the resistance to fire she had as a fire giant. Meanwhile, Selena stood in a capsule of her flames that slowly opened up after it had protected her from her own explosion. It wouldn't really be able to damage her, but it would still be able to restrict her movement, due to the nature of this magical element.

Slowly, Selena stepped forward, snuffing out the flames in a straight path in front of her all the way to the giant warrior. Soon, she stood in front of her, and held the tip of her wand against her forehead, "This is my win... right?" She said, and the giant warrior, grinding her teeth, simply stared back. In an attempt to escape, she tried to rip herself loose from the solid flames, but the moment she was able to push some of them away, new flames took the hollow space that she had created. In the end, the warrior was unable to free herself, as the damage from the flames was steadily accumulating.

"Fine! You win, alright?!" The warrior yelled out angrily, upset that she had lost this easily, and the fifth fight had quickly concluded. With a relieved smile on his face, Eisen watched as the Grandour was getting more and more nervous. The flames in the arena quickly disappeared, and the giant warrior was immediately treated by healers that were on standby, trying to treat the wounds that covered her body.

"Rudia, you're up next. Get ready." Eisen said confidently, knowing that nothing stood in the way of the ten victories anymore. If Selena was able to overcome her weaknesses like this, then he was sure that Rudia was capable of the same. And the fact that the other three dragon knights were great and one-to-one combat was something that Eisen was already greatly aware of.

Selena stepped up to the area where Eisen and the others were waiting, and was quickly congratulated by everyone. Although clearly, she felt kind of awkward being this much larger than the others in her group. Either way, that was going to change quite soon, as the other dragon knights would soon step into the arena as well. Rudia, standing confidently in the arena with her bow in hand, soon grew to a similar size, and immediately stared forward at the opponent that was stepping out of the arena's other entrance.

The audience cheered a particular amount for this one. It seemed like he was one of the more famous warriors of the arena, someone that was fighting quite often. These last five fighters that the dragon knights would fight against were the top five ranked warriors in the arena, after all.

Giant society is based around strength and physical ability. The stronger you were, the more respect you were worthy of. So of course, any fighter that wanted to be known to be worth a damn entered this arena to try and gain fame through combat. And this one was particularly popular. He was a giant mage, but as far as Eisen could tell, he wasn't a fire giant. Rather than that, judging from his stature and grey-ish skin, he was a stone giant. It was the first time that one of the warriors wasn't a fire giant.

"What a surprise that you would let outsiders fight for you." Eisen said curiously, but the Grandour scoffed, "Hah, he's not a true outsider. He's lived in our clan since birth. He may not be a fire giant by race, but he is one by honor." The Grandour said in a clear voice, absolutely confident in what he was saying. To the extent where Eisen couldn't help himself but chuckle. 

The Grandour was cocky, but he didn't seem like a bad person as far as Eisen could tell throughout all of this. He was simply somewhat conceited. But as long as he didn't throw some kind of fit upon losing, and accepted the truth that Eisen was the son of the first Grandour, then he didn't really care about the personality that he was showing off right now. More than that, Eisen was curious about the magic of a stone giant mage that grew up in the fire giant clan.

The staff that he was holding was made with the expertise of the fire giant clan. It was certainly of quite a high quality, and showed a lot of use.

The stone giant slightly bowed his head to Rudia, "I apologize, but I will be putting a stop to your winning-streak tonight." 

"Heh, we'll see about that." Rudia replied with a scoffed chuckle, readying her bow with confidence. And soon, the fight begun. Immediately, Rudia nocked an arrow and shot it. It didn't even take a second, and this giant, heavy arrow was flying at the stone giant. But with just a wave of his wand, the arrow stopped moving. It was suspended mid-air for a short moment, before just falling straight to the ground.

With a deep frown, the red half-dragon archer quickly shot another arrow, followed by a flurry of others. But no matter what she did, the same thing kept happening, the arrows stopped moving, just to fall to the ground in a straight line. It was unnatural. It seemed that this was the stone giant's magical element, however. At the very least, he had encased himself in a layer of elemental mana.

"Interesting." Eisen muttered quietly. Considering that the arrow fell straight down after being suspended mid-air, it wasn't like the time of the arrow was stopped. Did it steal the arrow's momentum instead?

"...No, then the arrow wouldn't stay suspended mid-air like that..." Eiro muttered. He made sure to watch closely as Rudia shot one more arrow. And then, Eiro noticed it. It was just slightly, but the arrow seemed to be able to move a certain amount into the mana, and then it just stopped. But while its forward-momentum continued for a moment, the rotation stopped a lot more quickly.

"Ah, so that's it, then." Eisen muttered with a grin on his face, while the Grandour looked at the old man, "What, you aren't trying to tell me that you saw through his magic already, are you?" 

Eiro chuckled slightly as he nodded, making his golden eyes flash slightly in his demonic form, "Of course, something like this is nothing for a man that lived a hundred thousand years."

The Grandour slightly widened his eyes, but immediately turned his attention back onto the arena, "Still going on about that, huh? We'll see if you are truly telling the truth!"

"That we will." Eisen replied, and also kept watching the fight in the arena. Eisen couldn't very well just tell Rudia about it. She had to figure a way around this magic herself. But it seemed like she herself was starting to figure the magic of this stone giant out as well.

Instead of grabbing one of her normal arrows, she grabbed an arrow made specifically to pierce through one's defenses. It had a drill-type tip and would rotate at incredible speeds upon being shot. Pulling her bowstring back as far as she could, she shot her drill arrow forward. It basically dug its way through the mana, and the stone giant even slightly flinched. But even then, the arrow still stopped.

With a slight smile, knowing that she was on the way to figuring something out, she instead pulled out a blunt-headed arrow, and shot it at the stone giant. However, just before she released, she jerked her bow up and down just once. This was a weird trick that she had learned after playing around with the techniques that Brody had taught her.

Eisen lightly smiled as he watched the arrow twist around. Like this, you shouldn't be able to control it, but that didn't matter. All that Rudia needed was the exact thing that happened. Instead of hitting the stone giant's mana at high speeds with the tip of an arrow, it hit it at slow speeds with the back of the arrow. And not in a straight line either. Instead, it was pointed slightly down.

The heavy blunt tip weighed the arrow down quite a bit, and slowly, the arrow slid away. It slid out of an invisible mass, and Rudia figured out what the secret to this guy's magic was.

The stone giants were particularly impressive in terms of their defensive abilities. As such, it made sense for a stone giant's magic element to be related to that concept as well, even if they grew up in the fire giant clan. As far as both Eisen and Rudia could tell, the element was quite simple. Upon impact with something, it solidified, and then released soon later. Like a non-newtonian fluid of sorts. It grabbed onto the arrows and slowed them down immediately, and when the arrow's force fully dissipated, the mana released and the arrow dropped to the ground.

It was quite an interesting element, though. If he had the chance, Eisen would love to grab a quick sample of it later. It would be great to have with him for some nice defensive items.

Either way, now that the element had been figured out, Rudia knew what she had to do in order to win this duel. Earlier, when the stone giant flinched, it was because one of Rudia's arrow penetrated deeper than he had thought. So clearly, this mana could be broken through with force. 

And so, Rudia once more prepared a drill-head arrow. But now, she didn't just do that, but also applied some magic to the mix.

Being the descendant of a dragon, Rudia of course still had a close connection to flames. It was why the elements of all the dragon knights were related to fire in some way, with their own unique twist. Xenia mentioned that they would probably grow out of the basis of the flames at some point when their elements evolved, so that they would end up with something more fine-tuned toward the other aspect of their magic.

Either way, Rudia's element was based around the manipulation of her arrows. Mostly, she used it to speed them up and add force onto them, as if she was giving a rocket boost to them.

And so, as flames gathered up around the arrow she was pulling back, Rudia grinned, ready to break through her opponent's magic.

The moment she released her arrow, it shot forward, deep into the stone giant's mana, but once more it was stopped. However, an instant later, faster than anyone could tell, Rudia had already shot another arrow. This time, a blunt-head arrow, using magic to not only speed it up, but also to create a small forward-facing explosion on impact. And so, the blunt-head arrow hit the drill-head arrow's back the moment it was released from the mana, just barely impacting with its end. And so, the drill-head arrow took on the momentum of the blunt-head arrow, and shot through the mana, and the arrow pierced the stone giant's mana. 

It was a successful attack.... however, it seemed like the stone giant would now move from defense over to offense after seeing his opponent's abilities.