Lukas kept punching, his entire vision narrowing to her torso.
Kaida kept trying to suck in a breath, her guard all but gone, and with her back pressed into the barrier, with nowhere to go.
Her eyes were wide, trying to find a way out of her predicant, but there was none. None except her most powerful ability.
Fwoosh!
She lit herself on fire, the temperature around her rising in an instant.
The fire was intense, spiralling all around her without any direction, just a wall of heat focused on burning everything around her to a crisp.
Lukas flinched, feeling the heat not just on his knuckles and forearms, but also his torso and his face.
"Raaarrgghhhh!" He yelled, before gritting his teeth and kept punching.
He could feel his skin blistering, albeit slowly, as his Constitution kicked in, trying to resist the flas, but it was not enough.
His fists burst into flas, the fire burning up his shirt, and moving to the skin across his entire torso.
His skin began to peel as the seconds dragged on, the spectators cheering the carnage they were looking at.
His vision swam slightly at the edges from the intensity, and he could feel that if he kept this up any longer, he would cause almost irreversible damage to himself.
So he pulled back one last ti and drove his fist up into the underside of her jaw.
A loud crack filled the arena as Kaida was launched into the air, blood spraying from her mouth as she finally landed, bouncing on the arena floor.
Lukas was breathing hard as he stared at her, but she didn’t move.
The staff imdiately called the fight. It was Lukas’ win.
The nearby healers imdiately rushed onto the arena, the majority going to Kaida, assessing the damage on her and began working on fixing it.
As for Lukas, one of the healers broke off towards him, placing a palm against his forearm.
He could feel his body warm up as vital energy flowed into him, rging into his skin and began healing the damage.
He was guided off the arena floor, the healer maintaining contact and keeping the skill active as they walked.
By the ti they reached his chair, the blisters were gone, and the peeled skin had closed. His hands felt normal.
He flexed his fingers once, checking.
It was as good as new.
The healer gave him a brief assessnt, guiding him in various movents of flexing his fingers, checked his forearms, and nodded.
Then after telling him to rest his hands for the remainder of the day, they moved on to the next person who needed attention.
Lukas watched them carry Kaida off the arena floor on a stretcher, her pink hair loose around her face, the healers still working on her as they moved.
For a mont, he wondered if he’d gone a bit too far, before discarding the thought.
This is what was expected from the tournant. Even Kaida herself had almost burnt her previous opponent to a crisp in one of their battles.
If she couldn’t handle this, then she shouldn’t have signed up for the tournant in the first place.
Besides, this was what the healers were here for. She would be fine.
He leaned back against the chair, exhaling. His body relaxed, releasing all the tension he hadn’t even noticed he had been holding.
He stared at the sky for a mont, watching the clouds go by. Soon, he focused back in the matches.
Hours passed, and the remaining matches wound down one by one across the eight arenas until the last fight concluded and the stadium was left with the spectators discussing the matches among themselves.
The translucent red barriers separating the arenas flickered once and disappeared.
Then Rollo descended from his position above the floor, landing softly at the center of the arena.
He looked up at the packed stands, raised one hand, and waited.
The stadium slowly went quiet, until everyone was focused on him.
Then he opened his mouth and spoke.
"To every participant who stepped onto this arena today in order to prove yourselves before the people of Havenheart... thank you."
He paused, turning to stare at the competitors. They all stared at him attentively, feeling his eyes on them almost like a physical weight.
"You fought with grit. You fought with determination. And whatever the outco, you gave the people in these seats sothing worth watching, and that is not nothing."
"Stand tall and stand proud. For you are prodigies of Havenhart."
Enthusiastic applause rang out from the stands, and so of the competitors couldn’t help the smile that ca upon their faces. Even Lukas had to admit that it felt good, having a crowd of more than a hundred thousand people clap for you.
Rollo raised a hand again, and the claps slowly faded away, the crowd listening once more.
"However," the man continued, "this is a tournant."
"Not everyone can advance, and sentint has no place in the rankings."
He clasped his hands behind his back.
"As you fought today, your performance was calculated in real ti. Your wins, your losses, how long you lasted, and how you fought. Every variable was accounted for, and every match assessed."
He looked up at the cube above him, then back at the crowd.
"The ti has co to reveal who moves forward to the next stage."
He spread both hands out in a flourish.
"Ladies and gentlen, I present to you, your first sixty-four."
The cube above his head went dark for half a second, then it flashed, and a list of nas began appearing on its surface.
Lukas’ eyes imdiately snapped to it, along with everyone else in the stadium, and they began reading.
The mont his eyes landed on the first na, he paused.
1. Morgana Le Fay.
He frowned. He could tell that he’d heard the na before. That it was sohow familiar, but he couldn’t rember what it was.
But he was completely certain that this was a na he’d heard sowhere back on Earth, but he’d long since been ignoring the fact that his mories of earth were slowly getting hazy.
He knew one day the mories would be like looking through a foggy window, but he didn’t care. He didn’t have much to rember about it anyways. He’d rather forget his whole ordeal back on earth.
His eyes flicked to the next na as he continued reading.
2. Liam Walker.
3. Rashka Lightfoot.
4. Belle Aurielle...
He scanned the list, until he found his own na.
9. Lukas Valentine.
He’d placed ninth. He smiled at that.
He’d perform well enough to not get lost on the list, but low enough that he hadn’t really drawn that much attention to himself in the grand sche of things.
That was perfect.
He continued down the list, then his eyes landed on a familiar na.
17. Kaida Steele.
He smiled at that.
She’d made it through despite the beating she had taken in their match.
That showed her first two performances had been strong enough to carry her into the first sixty four regardless.
He respected that.
He leaned back in his chair, wondering if they’d et again for a rematch in the knockout stages.
Either way, the knockout stage was going to be interesting.
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