Darx versus Monica

I have to listen to Helena suggesting sexual positions to myself and Kiara throughout the D and E rank duels. When the next A rank duel starts, we can pretend that we are more interested in the fight, but even then, Helena comes up with a few suggestions. As soon as that fight is over though, I get up and walk over to the judges.

On my way there, I hear my name being called, as well as Monica’s. I hand over my adventurer card and wait next to the judges for Monica to show up. I don’t have to wait long. After she hands her adventurer card to the judges, both of us head to the center of the arena.

“Congratulations on getting to the semifinals, by the way.” I tell Monica.

“Thank you. You did a pretty good job yourself.” Monica replies. “But just because I know you, doesn’t mean I’m going to hold back.”

“You shouldn’t.” I reply. “If I win because you held back, my ego will be quite upset.”

“Ah, you want to earn your victory.” Monica smiles. “Sure, no problem. But I expect you to give it your all as well.”

I turn to Monica and say, “Obviously.” Then I shake her hand and we separate to take our positions.

This duel is not going to be easy. In previous times, I have often kept my distance and relied in my water magic to help me out. This time I am facing a mage. Someone with greater skill in magic than me. If I am to win this, I will need to get close to Monica. Fortunately, I have studied her enough during her previous matches.

The gong goes off, signifying the start of the match. The first thing Monica always does is cast [Rend Earth] in front of her opponent. This forces her opponent to run either left or right and thus keeps them away from her. I already jumped over it while she was still casting it. At the same time, I cast [Water Barrier] to keep me safe from the explosion coming from Monica’s spell.

Next, she is going to use [Earth Spike] to change the terrain to her liking. Each spike has the shape of a cone and is the height of a person. There is a short change in the terrain, rock building up before it shoots a spike upward. This allows me to predict where it is going to happen. I move left and right avoiding the spikes while Monica walks backward.

When I get too close to Monica, she suddenly casts [Earth Spike] without a buildup. This is her using her [Quick Cast] skill. With it, Monica can cast her spells instantly, but she does it at twice the mana cost. As a mage, she has a lot of mana, so she can afford to spend that much mana. But even she has her limits.

Monica instantly casts 5 [Earth Spike]’s in front of herself, creating a wall that I can’t pass. I need to go around it. I move to my right and just as I am about to round the corner, Monica instant casts a [Rend Earth] in front of me, which throws me back. That is different from her usual method. Good thing I had my [Water Barrier] on, if not I could have been seriously injured. I need to distract her.

I reach with my free hand under my pauldron and touch the [Migraine] rune. I activate the rune and then cast the spell on Monica. As soon as the [Migraine] takes effect, Monica reaches for her head in pain while I continue my approach. But as I get past the wall of [Earth spike]’s and jump over the hole left by the [Rend Earth] spell, I see Monica holding an amulet. The amulet glows for a moment, and then Monica appears to no longer be affected by the [Migraine]. That amulet must be able to cast [Dispel] on her. I quickly prepare a [Ball of Water] to throw at Monica, but thanks to her [Quick Cast] she is faster and casts an [Earth Spike] under herself. It is a slow-moving spike, but Monica grabs the tip of the cone shaped spike as it grows in front of her and lets the spike push her up. Since she continues casting the spell, the spike keeps growing until she is quite the distance above me. It is almost like she made her own little tower. I have never seen Monica do something like this before, so I am quite surprised. For a moment, I don’t know how to respond, so I hesitate.

Once her giant [Earth Spike] has been cast, Monica creates a little platform for herself to stand on. Then she aims the unstrung bow she uses as a staff at me and suddenly I notice the signs of [Rend Earth] spells appearing left and right from me. I need to run left and right and dodge explosions all the while the audience is cheering on Monica. This is bad. I can’t dodge these explosions forever. But Monica also can’t cast them forever. I wonder which of us will get exhausted first.

Suddenly, the explosions stop. I look up and see Monica grab a mana potion from her pocket. Yeah, she’ll have enough mana again soon. She can outlast me. But right now, she can’t cast spells while I can. I prepare a [Water Spear] and aim it not at Monica herself, but at the part of the spike right below the platform she has created for herself to stand on. I then throw the [Water Spear] and it strikes exactly where I want it to. The stone tip comes loose and Monica is just in time to grab her hat before she starts sliding down. As Monica is sliding down the large cone, she uses her magic to make a smooth surface for herself and even curves it to the side so as to slide away from me. I start running around her cone-shaped tower and hope to get to her in time. All the while, the audience is cheering and I don’t know whether they are cheering for my [Water Spear] or Monica’s sliding response to it.

As I hurry to where Monica’s slide is ending, I recast [Water Barrier]. It took quite a beating from the [Rend Earth] spells from just ago. When I am closing in, Monica is still sliding down. This long slide of hers brings her close to the edge of the arena. To the part of the audience where coincidentally the members of the Singing Bluejays guild are sitting. When she gets there, she first fixes her hat. This gives me the time I need to approach. But suddenly we both hear a loud scream from the audience.

“Monicaaaaa!!!”

Monica and I both look at the audience where the scream comes from. I see her older sister, Lacey, practically hanging over the edge. Her head and torso are practically in the arena and her hands next to her mouth.

“Use some goddamned fire, you slut!”

Wow, I didn’t expect Lacey to talk to her younger sister like that. Monica’s reaction shows that she is not used to it at least. Then Monica looks at me and squints her eyes. I have a bad feeling about this.

Monica aims both her hands at me. At several spots in front of me the ground suddenly starts to melt. The molten hot earth starts to form bubbles and I recognize it as [Lave Rend]. It is similar to [Rend Earth], except with burning hot lava now instead of rocks. I manage to whisper “Oh shit” just before I start to run away. Shortly after I escape from Monica, the bulges of molten earth explode and magma is sent in all direction. My [Water Barrier] gets hit again, this time taking a heavy beating. I need to recast it again.

As I look back, I see a large ditch in between myself and Monica. It’ll be harder to get to her now. Monica then waves her bow shaped staff and on the tip appears a [Fireball]. When she swings the staff in my direction, the [Fireball] is launched. I succeed in dodging, but then new [Lava Rend] spells are cast all around me. At the same time Monica raises her left hand and aims her palm at me. Five [Fireball]s launch from it in quick succession. She is [Quick Cast]ing again. The [Fireball]s fly past me as I try to dodge all the lava exploding left and right from me. That little liar promised to go all out on me, but was actually going easy before Lacey motivating her to start using her fire magic too.

With all this fire being unleashed on me, I need to rethink my strategy. I need to do it quick too. With every [Lava Rend] Monica casts she creates another hole in the terrain, which makes it difficult for me to dodge the next one. This is when I decide to summon my [Water Elemental]. As soon as the elemental is formed, I tell her to catch the [Fireball]s for me. The [Water Elemental] uses her body as a shield and absorbs any [Fireball] coming for me. Eventually, Monica needs to take a break from casting spells to drink another mana potion. This is my chance.

I start running towards the ditch made by the first 5 [Lava Rend]s and when I get to the edge I jump. The speed of the dash carries me through the jump and I land on the other side. I do lose my balance and meet the ground for a second. But I quickly get back up. The [Water Elemental] follows closely behind and makes it across the ditch again.

When Monica finishes the mana potion, she aims her hands to the ground next to her. She makes 2 spots on the ground turn into lava, one to her left, the other to her right. Then she points her staff at me and balls of lava start launching out of the 2 lava pools she created. My [Water Elemental] again uses her body to block me and catches the [Magma Orb]s. When the orbs enter the elemental’s, the water that makes up her body starts to boil. Small pockets of steam **** the magma orb to separate into smaller pieces and when they cool down and harden, the elemental is left with small pieces of igneous rock floating inside her. This causes her body to be polluted. Elementals need the purity of their element to exist. A few rocks inside her will permit her to remain whole, but with every [Magma Orb] Monica throws into the water elemental, the more difficult it becomes for her to keep her body together. Eventually, it becomes too much for her and she breaks down. Fortunately, Monica has run out of magma to use as ammunition for her spell and I am also almost upon her.

I raise my sword, intending to hit her head with the handle, but Monica aims her staff at my sword. The blade starts to quickly heat up until it suddenly catches on fire. The fire burns my hand and I need to drop my sword. I also quickly summon some water from my ring and bathe my hand in it. She must have used [Ignite] on my sword, but since it took a while for the sword to catch on fire I can assume she didn’t use [Quick Cast]. With me being so close, I would have assumed she would cast that spell as quickly as possible. She must be low on mana again. Then I see Monica turn more of the ground into magma. She’s going to use more [Magma Orb]s. [Water Barrier] will only cool that magma and cause me to get hit by a warm rock. [Water Spear] takes too long to charge and [Ball of Water] is too inaccurate to hit all the [Magma Orb] she throws at me. I only have one choice.

I summon a lot of water from my ring and guide it to my right hand. Then I let the water rotate quickly while having it take the shape of a Lance. I finish casting my [Water Lance] just at the moment Monica casts new [Magma Orb] spells. When Monica’s orbs get close enough, I swat at them with the lance. The lance’s rotating current causes the orbs to be thrown aside. I can do this, but I have to move fast. This spell drains my mana like crazy and I have already used a lot of it.

I rush forward and swat aside another 2 [Fireball] spells. Monica casts an [Earth Spike] in between us to stop me, but my [Water Lance] cuts through that one. She steps back and casts another [Magma Orb] at me. I swat it aside again. Now I am finally close enough and I stab the lance into the magma pool Monica uses to cast her magma spells. The violent circulation of the water causes the ground to burst open in Monica’s direction, which causes her to fall.

I advance toward Monica as she lies on the ground, with her large hat lying next to her. I place a foot on her shoulder to keep her down and aim the [Water Lance] at her head, ready to strike. I am obviously not actually going to do that. I just need to show that I have won. Monica first looks at my lance, then into my eyes. Then she whispers, “Good job, young dragon.”

Then Monica takes a deep breath and screams, “YIELD!”

The gong goes off, signifying my victory just as my mana runs out. The [Water Lance] loses its cohesion and harmless water splashes in all directions. Some of it landing on Monica’s face. When she finishes wiping the water off, she finds my hand extended to help her up. Monica rolls her eyes, but accepts the help anyways.

When Monica stands again, rather than pick up my sword, I pick up Monica’s hat and return it to her. Monica then picks up my sword and returns that to me. As we walk back to the judges, Monica grabs her wet hair and wrings the water out.

“I really did not expect that [Water Lance]. Good job in keeping that spell a secret during this whole tournament.” Monica compliments me.

“I was planning to use it in the finals against Url.” I tell her. “But I did promise you I’d give it my all in your duel. Also, you made me work for this win, so I figured you earned it to see my [Water Lance].”

After we collect our adventurer cards, Monica grabs me by the shoulder to get my attention.

“Url is not going to be an easy opponent.” Monica warns me. “I think I could take him on with all of my expertise in earth magic. But you have to do it with water and a sword.”

“I know.” I tell her. “I’ll try my best.”

“And I’ll be cheering you on.”