Leona versus Thialha

Like yesterday, the first match is between two A rank adventurers. Since we are now in the semifinals, there are only 4 contestants in each division. Either Leona will be chosen to fight in this duel or the next.

When the judges call out the first contestant, it is indeed Leona. I was not able to see her yesterday, so today I will pay extra attention. For the other contestant, the judges call out, “Thialha Mirahorn, of the elven Senate Guard!”

I look over and see a white-haired elven woman show up. Her armors is mostly made of leather with some blue finishing, and for her weapons she has a short sword as well as a huge bow as long as she is tall.

“This is probably your first time seeing her, since you left yesterday before her duel.” Kiara tells me. “Thialha is an adventurer who works for the elven senate. She came over here to play in the tournament to celebrate her 100th birthday.”

“Oh, I thought this tournament was only for people who live in the human kingdom.” I tell Kiara.

My words make Kiara snicker. “If all participants had to be from our kingdom, it would be impossible for foreign S ranks to come here and show off their skills. That would make the S rank duels very stale. No, foreigners can join, it is just not very common. Lower rank foreign adventurers don’t consider the prize money worth it so they simply don’t show up. Some of the middle rank foreign adventurers could consider signing up for the tournament, but they tend to only do so when they happen to be here anyways. Like between quests. The high rank foreign adventurers can sometimes be seen making the long journey specifically for participating in the tournament.”

I see. And this specific elf is celebrating her 100th birthday. If at my 100th birthday I am still as fit as her, I would probably do a world tour myself.

“So, which guild is she from?” I ask Kiara.

“She is not affiliated with any guilds.” Kiara continues explaining. “She is with the Senate guard, which is the elven equivalent of the Royal Guard we have. See, the elves don’t have an absolute monarchy like we have. They have a constitutional monarchy instead. Their king presides over a collection of senators, who are all elected by the people. Since their royal house and senators are so closely linked, they have a Senate Guard for the protection of both.”

“So, they don’t have guilds?”

“They do, but they limit themselves to 1 guild per town or city, and each guild must have a senatorial representative.”

I am sure Kiara could tell me much more about elven politics. However, Leona and Thialha are in position now and their duel is about to start. Leona has her sword drawn and her shield in front of her. Thialha has nocked an arrow onto her bow but hasn’t drawn yet.

When the judges hit the gong signifying the start of the duel, Leona rushes forward as fast as she can. Thialha just as quickly draws her bow and lets her arrow fly. Just before she lets loose though, the arrowhead catches on fire. That must be because she has the [Fire Arrows] skill. It is fairly common among archers. But what surprised me is that when this flaming arrow flies towards Leona, it suddenly burst out in a bright white light. It is so bright it nearly blinded even me. What was that arrowhead made of? Magnesium? But for Leona, who saw the arrow coming straight at her it is worse. She was able to block the arrow with her shield, but upon impact the arrowhead shattered, showering Leona with small pieces of burning metal. The light messes up her sight so much that she can’t see for a bit. Fortunately, there is a decent sized boulder serving as an arena obstacle for her to hide behind while her eyes readjust.

Thialha however doesn’t take advantage to push forward. Rather, she retreats towards a pillar in the arena. This pillar too is one of the many objects littering the arena to make the duel more exciting. Like the fountain I often made use of during my previous fights. When Thialha reaches the pillar, she starts climbing it. The pillar is merely as tall as the height of 2 tall humans, so she reaches the top fast enough. By that time Leona has recovered her eyes enough and is able to resume her approach.

I am slightly worried it might already be over for Leona. After all, Thialha has the high ground. But Leona can’t win if she remains hunkered down behind that boulder. So, she gets from behind the boulder and runs straight towards the pillar. Not something I would do. I would approach it with a spiral path to make it harder for my opponent’s arrows to hit me.

While Leona approaches Thialha, the elf nocks another arrow on her bow. When she lets the arrow fly, it doesn’t catch on fire, so Thialha is not using her [Fire Arrows] skill. Leona quickly gets her feet in a stable stance and raises her shield to defend against the arrow. I notice the arrow seemingly heading towards Leona’s feet, but when it gets close to Leona the arrow changes its trajectory to head towards Leona’s shield instead. I’m not sure if archers have a skill like that. I’ll have to ask Kiara about that later. But when Thialha’s arrow makes contact with the shield, it suddenly explodes. Ah, the good old exploding arrow trick. I’ve seen some of those arrows being sold at weapon stores. They are quite expensive, though. Fortunately, Leona has her feet firmly planted to the ground. While I’m sure she felt the shockwave of the explosion through her entire body, for us in the audience, it appears like she just shrugged the explosion off like it was nothing.

For her next attack, Thialha pulls two arrows from her quiver. Then she uses her [Dual shot] to fire two arrows at once. For me, this is where Thialha shows herself a skilled archer. She doesn’t in fact shoot 2 arrows directly at Leona. She made it so one arrow flies to Leona’s left and the other flies to Leona’s right. At first, I am curious why she would shoot her arrows to places where her opponent isn’t. But as these arrows fly, both of them start curving towards Leona’s direction. Leona can’t defend from 2 directions at the same time. She has to make a choice. She chooses to raise her shield to the arrow coming from her left and defends against that one. The arrow coming from right however slams into her side. Leona wears full plate armor, so I’m sure she’s fine. But she will be having a bruise where the arrow hit her. Not that it will stop Leona. She has the [Endure] skill which increases her resistance to pain.

Leona seems to be really frustrated with Thialha now, for she aims her sword to somewhere above the pillar and casts a [Flare] spell. A ball or light travels from Leona’s arm, across her sword and shoots out to where she was aiming. There Leona’s [Flare] starts radiating light in all direction while slowly floating down. This greatly impairs Thialha’s ability to shoot more arrows. The light from the [Flare] spell makes it impossible for the elf archer to take aim. That was smart from Leona, giving the elf some of her own medicine. And now she no longer has to worry about incoming arrows. At least not for as long as Thialha remains on that pillar. Thialha seems to realize this and abandons her spot on the pillar. She lets herself hang from the edge, opposite the side where Leona is coming from, and then lets herself fall down to then jog backwards.

As Thialha abandons the high ground, I see that she is using the situation to her advantage. Leona’s [Flare] spell not only makes it hard for Thialha to see Leona, but also hard for Leona to see Thialha. Even though the elf is no longer standing on the pillar, Leona is still approaching it. When she gets close, she jumps. To get her closer to where she expects Thialha to still be and casts her [Divine Chains] spell. This spell should bind Thialha close to her with a chain of light, but Thialha is no longer there, so the spell has no effect. Leona already becomes confused before her feet touch the ground again. She even looks up to the pillar, confused as to where Thialha might have gone.

Thialha for her part sits on one knee to steady herself, ready to shoot another arrow. She flips her long blue dress aside to reveal a set of 3 arrows. If she keeps those separate, then I’m sure they are special. She takes one of them and nocks it on her bow. This time, when Thialha pulls at her bowstring, she has great difficulty pulling the string back. That’s odd. I have already seen her pull her bowstring with no issues before. Furthermore, she is an A rank. Adventurers of that class have a significant strength boost. Even so, Thialha needs to exert such **** this time that her face turns red and she even bares her teeth. This can’t be as the result of her using a different arrow. The tension on the bow must have changed. Could it be bows can be crafted with a mechanism inside to change the tension strength? Suddenly, I notice a glint of light reflect from Thialha’s arrow. Arrows are made of wood. Wood doesn’t reflect light. Or is this particular one made entirely of metal? Why would an archer want a full metal arrow?

When Thialha let her metal arrow fly, Leona was just in time to hide behind her shield, but instead of bouncing off the shield, the arrow outright pierced it. Is that really the power of a full metal arrow?

I expected for Leona to pull the arrow out or something. Instead, she starts fiddling with the vambrace of her shield arm. Then she grabs the arrow and throws it away. Shield and vambrace both attached to it. Wait, did the metal arrow pierce her vambrace as well. By the goddess, Thialha has some real piercing power on that bow of hers. And she has already nocked another metal arrow.

Leona has noticed it and starts running towards Thialha, ignoring the blood coming from her shield arm. Thialha again has great difficulty drawing her bow. Could she have a mechanism in that bow of hers so she can switch it from regular to extra powerful?

This time when Thialha fires her arrow, she shoots it at Leona’s legs. But this is when Leona uses her trump card. She activates her [Sentinel] skill and her body becomes as hard as diamond for 3 seconds. Thialha’s arrow hits Leona’s right shin and pierces the chausse armor. But with Leona’s [Sentinel] skill active it can’t pierce her skin. The **** of the impact does make Leona almost stumble. But she catches herself and continues her charge, ignoring the arrow which is sticking out of her chausse.

Thialha looks surprised at Leona ignoring the arrow in her leg. Leona is also almost upon her, so she no longer has time to nock another arrow. Thialha throws her bow aside and pulls her short sword. I guess an archer like her needs to have that in the event melee combat cannot be avoided.

To Thialha’s credit, she is actually quite good at using her sword. Well, she probably has 80 years of experience. Normally I would assume Leona to have no issues when it comes to swordplay. But in this case, she not only lacks a shield, she is also fighting with only 1 arm. The one that had the first metal arrow in it must hurt too much to use.

But then Leona uses her [Divine Chains] spell. With all the arrows, I had already forgotten about that spell. Once she’s got Thialha tied to her with that chain, Leona wraps her leg around the chain of light and gives it a good jerk. This pulls Thialha out of balance and causes her to fall. Leona immediately takes advantage of that and sits on her opponent. Her shins pinning down Thialha’s arms and her sword aimed at Thialha’s face.

At this point everybody expects Thialha to accept defeat and yell out that she yields. Which she does. Many people in the stadium cheer. Including everybody in my guild, myself included. Clerics from the Knights Hospitaler guild walk over to both Leona and Thialha to offer some healing. Leona certainly needs some on her arm. After she has been healed, she takes off the chausse with the arrow in it and collects her shield and vambrace. I guess we now have to find a way to get those arrows out and get those armors repaired.

After the people have vacated the arena, the judges call out the contestants for the B rank division. Since these are the semifinals, I will be called either now or next time.