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Both Bjornulf and Nao walked into the arena for the battle of strength vs. speed. Who would win?
Bjornulf vs. Nao.
Both of them were standing on the arena ground staring at each other.
Bjornulf had his arms crossed as he crowed triumphantly, like he had expected to already be victorious in this battle. Bjornulf then laughed loudly.
"I wish us a swell fight! I hope you do the same."
Nao stood there seeing this giant of a man—she knew that he was furiously strong, but seeing him up front in battle just made the fact all the more intimidating. But despite being intimidated, she shook her head, signalling a nod as a rather crooked grin was forced onto her face.
"Me too, big guy."
Then suddenly, like that, Nao disappeared from all sight. She was now moving so fast that it looked like she was teleporting to the crowd; the only ones being able to see her movements were Sloane, the knights with her, and Bjornulf, Slace, and Vira.
Nao was seeking an opening to attack, but each time she saw one, she saw a version of Bjornulf knocking her unconscious with a single attack.
Because of her fragile body, if she got hit even once from this monster of a human, she would get demolished in seconds.
Finally she found an opening to Bjornulf with his back open as she leaped, slicing his neck with her scythe. She was not trying to hit his armour, the reason being an ineffective attack.
But as she cut his skin with her scythe, she wasn't expecting the cut to be so shallow; she thought it would be shallow but not of that magnitude.
Bjornulf turned, swinging his axe down at her. Nao dodged but also jumped, scurrying away to the side because of a simple reason.
The downward swing hit the ground; the immense wind pressure from Bjornulf's strength made Nao get smashed into the wall of the colosseum; if she hadn't jumped back, the impact would've killed her.
Bjornulf lifted his axe as he made his way to Nao at a rather slow pace; he was doing this on purpose. Bjornulf had tons of energy, and if he kept it stored by doing as little as possible, the scythe couldn't steal as much as it wanted to.
As he walked closer, he rubbed the cut on his neck, seemingly somewhat bothered by it.
"The reason your cut was so shallow is because of your magical energy; your presence is weak, so naturally your body is also weak. But it's not just because of that."
As Bjornulf walked to Nao ever so slowly, he began to flex, showing his immense muscles; they were huge.
"It's also because of how strong I am; my body is at a point where it doesn't need enhancement magic to stop a blade from cutting deep into me."
Nao listened but didn't utter a single word; she then regained herself, getting out of the broken wall back onto the Colosseum floor.
Bjornulf knew she wouldn't give up that easily; that made him even more ecstatic to fight her.
He hoisted his axe. He was so far away from Nao that she wondered what he was going to do.
As she cautiously stood there, Bjornulf swung his axe with massive force. A huge gush of powerful wind came at Nao like a tornado of force.
With no way to dodge the force of wind, Nao began spinning her scythe rapidly, which lessened the pressure of the attack, only making her step back a bit.
Bjornulf then threw his axe at Nao; it had a great spin, and she could also tell he had great precision.
She rotated her body to the side, effectively avoiding it as the axe struck into the Colosseum wall, making it collapse.
The wind pressure alone created a black hole-like pull, forcibly drawing everyone towards it.
Bjornulf then glanced at Nao.
"I call this move Wind Vortex; you're worthy of experiencing it."
———
At the VIP seats, Slace plunged his blade into the ground, effectively stopping himself from being pulled.
Vira, who had a broken blade from earlier, clutched her arms around Slace's arm, holding onto him tightly. Slace spoke with bitterness, irritated by Vira's act.
"What in the endlands do you think you're doing..?"
The Endlands is a place but was also a word, for a reference to our real world of how it would be said: Endlands = Hell. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" "What in the endlands do you think you're doing? When used as a swear or in any other way other than as a place or related to magic, it is not capitalized.
Vira simply stayed quiet and monotone as ever, seemingly not caring that she was practically using Slace's arm as a harness.
Slace groaned exasperatedly.
"You're lucky this is a life-or-death situation, or I would have killed you for this."
Herald used an arrow tied to a rope; Herald had plenty of types of arrows to assist in various situations. He flung this arrow at a wall, embedding it inside as he secured the rope around a chair, effectively saving himself.
The remaining spectators who weren't in the VIP lounge were grasping onto the ledge to avoid being pulled, a luxury the VIP section didn't have. The audience were frightened, well, some weren't.
———-
Back to the battle, Nao was being pulled into the Wind Vortex, but then an expression of confidence appeared on her face.
She began running in perpetual motion, trying to fight the gravitational pull of the Wind Vortex.
As he kept going at a more accelerated pace, she outran the pull, suddenly beaming with speed straight at Bjornulf.
Before Bjornulf could even react, shallow cuts had appeared all around his body.
Bjornulf turned his body, glancing at Nao, who had almost crashed into the wall but stopped herself with her scythe by digging it through the ground.
The Wind Vortex then dispersed, the audience sighing a breath of relief.
Bjornulf questioned Nao.
"The downside of that amount of speed is that you can't control it, no?"
Nao, breathing heavily after exerting so much energy, smirked crookedly; it was almost creepy.
"Right on the money…"
Bjornulf took out his second axe, getting ready for Nao's next move.
Nao was losing way more energy compared to Bjornulf. But to her, she couldn't find any weak spots; he must at least have one, she thought.
She closed the distance, getting closer as she swung her scythe at him in rapid succession in a barrage of attacks.
She was desperately trying to find an opening, a weakness, anything to win against this titan of a man.
Bjornulf simply parried each attack, seeing that Nao was getting sloppy.
He used that to his advantage, striking her scythe with his axe, knocking it out of her hands in the air.
He gave her a punch directly to the gut, causing her to cough up blood and fall to the ground.
Bjornulf then spoke in a disrespectful tone, looking at the battered, worn-out Nao.
"I haven't been using my full strength since this whole battle…"
He lifted his axe abruptly, pointing it directly at Slace glancing at him.
"Because I've been saving it for him."
Slace simply ignored him.
While Bjornulf was talking. Nao remembered something, a crucial but small detail.
Compared to all the cuts he had now, he only ever reacted in displeasure to the cut on his neck.
She came to a conclusion: Bjornulf's neck is his weak spot.
She slowly got up, blood dripping from her mouth. Bjornulf turned to face her as she went at him, leaping up and kicking him in the neck.
But Bjornulf caught her leg, slamming her to the ground as she yelped in pain.
He let go of her as he looked down at her, her vision fuzzy looking up at him.
"You lost because you used too much energy; that's the gist of it."
Bjornulf then smiled valiantly as he proudly complimented her.
"It was still a great fight! So thank you for your effort!"
Bjornulf's representative walked out as he handed his axes to them, the one in the wall and the one he was holding.
Bjornulf then walked away back to the VIP seats as Nao fell unconscious.
The knights came to get her medical attention, taking her somewhere else.
The winner of this round is Bjornulf.
————-
Bjornulf had a 10-minute break to rest up from the earlier fight; his wounds weren't severe, so that's why the rest time was short.
Eventually the ten minutes passed, and now Slace and Bjornulf were in the arena.
Ecals vs Bjornulf.
The battle everyone had been waiting for, the audiences anticipation eating at them
Bjornulf spoke, expecting great things from Slace.
"I'll show you my strongest; I hope you do in return."
Slace ignored him, just getting ready to fight.
Bjornulf looked at Slace once before he took out his two axes, starting right away.
Bjornulf charged Slace, swinging both of his axes.
An earth wall came up as Bjornulf sliced straight through it.
Slace was directly behind Bjornulf; as he stabbed his blade directly into Bjornulf, it didn't stab deep, but it stuck inside Bjornulf.
"You really are sturdy… annoyingly sturdy."
Bjornulf rotated his body in a swish swinging his axes down at Slace.
Slace leapt through the gap of the axes, narrowly avoiding the attack as he utilized earth magic to produce a rising pillar that struck his own sword, causing it to soar in the air and remove a chunk of Bjornulf's flesh.
Slace stepped back to where his blade had fallen, kicking it up into his grasp. Bjornulf then looked at his wound, figuring out what Slace did.
"You could've tried to go for my neck; after all, I know you figured out that's my weak spot, but instead you created your own weak spot."
Slace replied apathetically.
"That's the coward's way out—to use a weakness that already exists; it's pathetic."
Bjornulf held a huge grin on his face; he was excited.
"You really are a warrior, friend!"
Bjornulf pounded his axes into the ground, causing the whole surrounding area to rumble like a powerful earthquake.
Slace attempted to use earth magic, but with such an unstable grounding, he was unable to concentrate.
Bjornulf threw one of his axes directly at Slace, who used his sword to deflect it, using the split moment to avoid it, the axe penetrating through the Colosseum wall.
The axe was thrown with such force that it forced the wind to drag back the axe like a boomerang towards Slace.
This was also the moment when Bjornulf hurled his other axe at Slace.
Both of the axes came at Slace, and because of the rumbling, it was difficult to maneuver around, so he chose to jump over it.
Both of the axes clashed, ringing out loudly for the whole kingdom to hear, creating an even more spectacular wind vortex than before.
Before the Wind Vortex had the chance to create a gravitational pull, Slace struck himself with a powerful blow from the fuller of his blade, knocking himself back away from the vortex.
The audience was clinging tightly to the ledge, while Vira and Herald were just gone from their VIP seats, like they anticipated this would happen.
While Slace was in midair planning to drive his blade into the Colosseum wall, Bjornulf leapt up towards him, seemingly undeterred by the rumbling of the ground and pull of the vortex.
Bjornulf then punched Slace straight in the face. He sensed it; Bjornulf would knock his head straight off with this attack if it hit.
Slace raised one arm, his blade behind it, the impact of the punch shattering Slace's earth arm to pieces, the sword being completely fine despite making contact with the impact.
Both Slace and Bjornulf landed as Bjornulf remarked on Slace's blade, the rumbling and wind vortex subsiding.
"Your sword is pretty durable despite its length and height; it's odd."
Slace ignored Bjornulf as earth magic pillars came at Bjornulf, him attacking through the onslaught with his axes.
It was all a diversion now with Slace at Bjornulf's side as he drove his blade into Bjornulf's wound he had created earlier, stabbing into it twisting his blade back and forth.
Slace was about to use his fire magic, but he decided against it since it was acting out.
When the sword pierced into Bjornulf, he felt a sting of sharp, searing, excruciating pain; he hadn't sustained an injury like this in a while.
Bjornulf yelled in agony as he turned his body, swinging down at Slace with his axes. Bjornulf was going feral
Slace ripped his blade out of Bjornulf, jumping back in the nick of time. Bjornulf then placed his palm on his wound, staring down at Slace.
"You are strong, and I like that, but I haven't experienced pain in a long time, so if you keep going, I might kill you."
Slace replied, looking up at Bjornulf with a look of disappointment.
"You really are a beast; that's why you need a beast tamer, you animal."
"I was expecting something more human."
Bjornulf bursted into a hefty laugh as he grinned with pride; he wasn't offended by Slace's words; he found them to be flattering.
The Colosseum began to give way, tumbling down; the entire Colosseum fell to the ground, everyone falling but surviving.
The only section of the Colosseum that didn't collapse was the spot where Sloane was, as he just watched silently from above.
Slace looked around while speaking, his tone clearly monotone.
"Let's end this…"
Bjornulf nodded, agreeing.
"Let's make this final fight the best."
Slace leapt towards Bjornulf as he tossed his blade upwards. Slace attempted to kick Bjornulf on the side of the neck, but similar to Nao, Bjornulf caught Slace's leg.
"Idiot." Slace muttered under his breath.
An earth magic-like-pillar advanced forward and struck Slace's blade while it was still airborne; the blade was then propelled towards Bjornulf as it pierced deeply into his wound.
Bjornulf loosened his grip for a single moment because of the pain as Slace used that to escape Bjornulf's grip, landing on the ground.
Bjornulf, in a fit of pain-fueled anger, swung both of his axes towards Slace. He dodged by swiftly stepping aside as he then stepped on Bjornulf's lowered arm, using it as a boost to jump upwards and twist his body, repositioning his body and landing a kick to Bjornulf's neck.
Bjornulf, getting kicked in his weak spot, staggered backwards falling to his knees, grunting in discomfort.
Slace landed right behind him, and before he could even say anything, Slace approached his wound, ripping the blade free from the wound, making him fall to the ground unconscious.
"I was lying about someone using an existing weakness making them a coward, because I use existing weaknesses all the time…"
Slace was the victor of the tournament. The whole audience erupted in cheers, applauding as Bjornulf was taken somewhere else for medical attention by the knights.
Slace exited; it felt pointless for him to be here anymore now that Livia was the one who had to claim the prize anyways.
———-
There were Vira and Herald, who went out to purchase food for the match, and also because they knew it would get chaotic.
They were right as they came back to the colosseum in ruins.
Herald sighed, resting his palm upon his face.
"They really upped the ante on that battle, didn't they?"
Vira listened as she just watched the audience leave, eating sweets.
She then simply nodded.