There was only one person left in the waiting room, Edora, draped in her usual black garbs without a trace of blood or hardship on them.
"Hey, it's just us now."
Rain had watched her previous fights and seen how she easily eliminated her opponents. But other than that, there was no valuable information. He knew she hadn't revealed the full breadth of her hand as there simply wasn't enough competition.
Other than perhaps an exchange of physicality for speed and dexterity, he didn't see any flaws in her strengths. She was fast, technical, with a deep pool of mana like himself. She wielded her daggers as an extension of her body, winning many of her fights with little mana and sheer technique.
To Rain, she was like an endless ocean yet to be explored; this fight would be the highest mountain he had to climb yet.
Edora looked back at Rain, slightly surprised by his performance. She had never taken him seriously in the beginning, thinking him to be another one of the clowns that often expressed themselves too much, but now, she had a bit more respect in her eyes.
Still, she would win. He was cunning and powerful, but there was no one that could compete with her. Even Alan, she knew she could beat easily.
Rain would be the same, just another stepping stone on her way to revitalize her fallen kingdom and restore honor to her lineage.
Sitting down now in front of her, Rain perched his chin upon his hand and looked at her with lightly closed eyes.
"What?" she looked on, confused, "you won't win."
"Awh… why so cold, Miss Edora. And we never know until the battle is fought. Maybe I'll be the one to come out on top." Rain flashed her a more intimidating stare while maintaining a serene smile.
"I'm stronger than you, and it will show in an hour," she said, shooting back a similarly intentful gaze filled with her mana.
It was dark and corrosive like his. It felt like his skin was burning, rotting away under the pressure.
Before walking away to recoup his energy, Rain took one more glance at her and smiled. No response.
An hour passed by quickly in his meditative trance, and the sound of the referee's calling was just now echoing down the waiting room halls.
With some tension he walked out to the stage where Edora was already awaiting him, standing still with one foot forward, tilting her body just a little to the right.
She threw off her dark cloak revealing a slim and toned body covered in white training wraps. The semi-translucent lines of runes could be seen glowing from her forearms and bare lower back.
Her black hair, as dark as the starless night cascaded down to her shoulders with whispers of wind passing through lightly like the passengers of the weary rivers in the underworld.
Her fair-colored skin radiated the light of the low-hanging sun, the shadows marking muscles that were subtle yet presently there.
She drew her twin daggers, their sheen dulled from blood and battle–it was evident that she had killed before, and not just animals, plenty of humans too. It was a mystery where she came from. It was a mystery what her life had been up until now.
Rain simply stared at her ethereal figure, readying himself, studying her every twitch, knowing that the battle foreseen would be the greatest hill yet to climb.
"Ready!" Came the voice of the vice-master. She would be the adjudicator of this finale.
"Begin!" she projected again, using a mana voice technique to bolster her soft speech.
As soon as the words left her mouth, Edora disappeared into the light.
Hm?
Rain could barely sense her, but it was odd. She wasn't really where he thought she was.
And his instincts proved him right.
He had felt Edora stealth into the dimming sunbeams, but he knew that someone who had such a strong killing aura could not be so easy.
In that moment, he sensed an aura rushing from his right. Instead, the blade came from his left side.
It was a low strike.
She was fast and he wasn't prepared, receiving a light cut across his chest as he dodged backwards.
Edora looked at him, surprised. 'How did he know?'
The pressure was on Rain now. Her mana signature was not at all where she actually was. If his instincts were any duller, that knife would have plunged deep into his side, piercing his chest cavity.
His breath quickened. His heart beat faster. This is a real fight!
But he couldn't let his emotions get ahead of him. He had a disguise to maintain above all else. And as much as he wanted to unleash, he knew that any gap in his transformation would get him killed instantly… or worse, much, much worse.
Edora had now disappeared back into the refracted light.
And as soon as Rain felt something approaching him, he sent out a wave of frost all around, stepping back again to avoid the overhead strike that was a possibility.
He was right. Edora avoided all the ice and plummeted from the sky, hitting the ice below.
But still, he didn't know where she was when she became invisible. Her technique was impenetrable, and she had never shown so much skill in her previous fights.
There has to be a gap somewhere… Rain knew that no skill went flawless. He was just missing the piece.
But before he could meditate on his thoughts, Edora came again, and again, and again, each time returning to her hiding.
Rain sustained cut after cut, not being able to completely avoid the oncoming onslaught–it would be death by a thousand cuts if he didn't figure something out soon.
…!
Avoiding another strike, Rain stepped to Edora's starting side of the arena and waited for the next strike.
This time, he dodged perfectly. He saw her trajectory and counter attacked with his own ice-imbued blade that penetrated cleanly through her right shoulder.
"Ah!" She screamed before tumbling back in a hurry.
"How did you know?" She asked while gripping her frozen shoulder with the other hand.
Rain didn't tell her but the realization soon dawn on her–she wasn't ignorant to the weaknesses of her technique after all.
'The sun'.
The sun had begun to set, and it barely peeked over the Arena walls, lighting up only half the battleground.
Her mastery over the stealth art she had was immense, but in between the time it took for her to switch from light to shadow, Rain could see her for just a glimpse.
'That must be it…'
It was smart from Rain, and he had landed a crucial strike that had shifted the status quo.
Seeing this, he rushed forward to press on his counterattack, but before he got there, an immense pain overtook him. His chest tightened and a splurge of blood came out of his mouth.
He knelt to the ground with one knee and pressed his open hand against his mouth.
His mouth tasted of iron and a slight hint of allium.
Poison.
"It's my win, still." Edora picked herself up and walked towards Rain slowly, preparing to finish the fight.
But Rain wasn't easy to give up. He circulated all his mana and began to drive the poison out of his body, standing up to meet her attacks which came in full view this time.
He was weak. He was getting pushed back as the poison did its damage on his system, but he continued to fight, one parry after the next.
But it soon came to a stop as he began to give out. Seeing his weakness, Edora feinted a stab into his left shoulder and plunged her dagger into his stomach, filling his innards with the venom-laced blade.
It burned.
However, he did not relent. As she tried to pull the knife out of his chest, he grabbed her hand, catching her in place. And pushing all his mana into his blade, pushed it into her side, causing an explosion of frost that slithered like myriads snakes upon a heather.
They fell to the ground, spent, life hanging by just a thread.
The Vice-master flew down, encased each of them in a hexagonal barrier and carried them away.
"The results of the battle will resume tomorrow!" She shouted, before teleporting away.