Dimensional Descent

Aulina fluttered onto the stage with her heart nearly beating out of her chest. She seemed quite delicate and frail despite her more than average height for a woman. But, this was just an unfortunate part of being born and raised on the Moon. Her bone structure was more fragile than normal and she had to compensate with her use of Force.

Luckily, thanks to the Metamorphosis, a lot of her deficits had been made up for. But, at the moment, she was at yet another great disadvantage.

Of the Forces, Water Elemental Force was probably the most fickle. The density of it varied wildly depending on how close to a water source you were, how long it had been since the last time it rained, and what sort of climate there was.

As a person whose most powerful tool was her Water Elemental ability, Aulina today was much weaker than she had been on the ocean’s surface that day. However, Elthor’s performance had given her courage. Who said she couldn’t win just because she was weaker than those around her?

Very quickly, all those called upon found their place in the ring. After the first battle, the nervous air was several times greater than it had been before. All those here were keenly aware that their lives might be forfeit at any time.

Aulina calmed herself, steadily accumulating the Water Force in her surroundings.

Suddenly, she felt several sharp gazes land on her, causing her brows to wrinkle. She looked up to find several individuals wielding bows looking right at her. It didn’t take her a genius to realize why it was they were giving her such looks.

Aulina immediately went on the defensive.

”Begin.”

This time, the battle didn’t start instantly. Wary eyes looked around, inching toward the edge of the arena to ensure that they couldn’t be stabbed from behind. Unfortunately, some unlucky souls realized that they were surrounded from all sides and couldn’t’ easily retreat. They kicked themselves for being so careless in stepping onto the platform so casually.

This lull, though, only lasted for just a moment.

On the sidelines, Leonel’s brow knit. There were less Arundo family members in this bracket, just three, compared to last time. However, if they insisted on targeting Aulina like this, it would be a problem.

Aulina wasn’t some spring flower. She had fought two wars and had been on the frontline of the battle against Earth’s oceanic creatures. The issue was that she was outclassed by Dimension Tier here, and she was outnumbered.

A low and delicate shout left Aulina’s lips, her accumulating Water Force erupting to form an enormous sphere of blue around her. She immediately surrounded the sphere with twin rivers of water, lashing out against the oncoming arrows.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Aulina’s expression paled as she slid backward, large amounts of her Water Force dispersing. She quickly refocused her attention, diverting one portion toward the accumulation of more Water Force and another toward monitoring her surroundings.

Aulina knew that she had a weakness in movement technique, but she was very good at control. With this came a powerful Internal Sight, though not as exaggerated as one might expect to find with a Luxnix. Still, splitting her attention into two like this wasn’t a problem.

Unfortunately, what she quickly found was that her only enemy wasn’t the Arundo. The Arundo were only one of the major families Elthor had offended with his killing spree and it was no secret to anyone in the arena that Aulina was tied with him.

A youth approached Aulina from the side, swinging toward her sphere of water.

Aulina reacted quickly.

While it appeared to be a sphere, the reality was that a portion of it had sunk into the ground. Taking advantage of the cracks and the flexibility of water, Aulina had set up a spiderweb trap of sorts in the ground around her. Unfortunately, she hadn’t had enough time to make it as powerful as she could, but it would have to do for now.

The youth was completely caught off guard, howling in pain as a spike of Water Force drilled through the sole of their feet.

Having had their mind blinded by the torturous wound, the youth couldn’t even react as a whip of water blasted them from the arena.

At that split moment of Aulina’s attention being taken, though, several arrows had already appeared before her.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Aulina couldn’t react in time to use her rivers, resulting in the arrows directly colliding with her sphere of protection. Panic colored her features as the arrows tore through, but her shield was just thick enough to slow the arrows to a crawl.

They fell to the ground with dull clangs. However, Aulina had been completely shaken. Of the three arrows, one had been aimed right for her forehead, another had been aimed right for her heart and the last had been aimed right at her womb.

Each was more sinister than the last and it made her feel that her life had been sucked dry. By the time she realized her shield had been just barely enough to block them and she snapped out of it, she was horrified to find that several more attacks were coming her way.

Another attack came from her left, this time wielding a glaive. Her right side, which she had just cleared, had already been filled by yet another. And, right down her middle, a chorus of three more arrows sliced forward, right toward the holes in her water sphere that had yet to heal.

’I’m finish…?’

Aulina was at a loss for words. She had hardly been able to fight the battle she wanted to fight. She had just managed to drum up her courage to face these behemoths, but how had things ended this way…? Maybe she wasn’t one of the lucky ones after all…

”FALL OFF THE STAGE!”

At that moment, Leonel’s voice seemed to cut through all the noise. Like a pointed roar, it shook her psyche awake.

Not everyone could remain calm in the face of death, and they might even forget solutions they could easily think of in any other situation. Aulina had completely forgotten she was so close to the edge of the stage.

But by the time she registered Leonel’s words, it was too late. Even if she fell back now, those arrows wouldn’t be stopped, they would still strike true… There was no way to survive this.

’Dammit.’

If Aulina could see through this in her flustered state, how could Leonel not? When he yelled out, he had already moved.

However, it was then another booming voice descended.

”You dare?!” Orinik’s voice cast a shadow over the arena.