Freed wasn't that concerned with his opponent. Until he saw the steam powered armour he was wearing and then he had begun to think on his feet. Dodging the suit's pair cannons was tiring him out. He knew how they worked, a fire rune setting off the blasts from the oil tanks on the back, but knowing how they worked didn't mean he knew how to stop them. He would try to start a spell only to have to roll away from the flames again before he could finish it. One close call had created several smoldering holes on his robe.
'Do I drop my spell and transform? No! I hate looking like a monster,' Freed jumped backwards to avoid the claw that swiped at him. He saw the gnome's head cackling as it swung again. 'Only good thing to come of my mistake is that I have much more energy. Otherwise I would have never gotten this far.'
The gnome tried to fire on him again but it only coughed and sputtered.
Freed stood up straight and smiled. "Out of fuel eh?"
"Just you wait," the suit dropped the fire cannons and revealed a pair of large metal claws ending in hooked swords. He lept forward and swiped, trying to claw Freed. Caught off guard, Freed wasn't able to duck backwards enough to completely dodge the claw and felt himself being lifted off his feet as one hooked claw managed to hook the front of his robe.
The gnome followed through with his attack and began to spin in circles gathering speed like an athlete would with a ball and chain throwing competition. The robe fabric gave out and Freed was sent skidding along the ground, rolling several times until he came to a stop some 70 feet away.
Freed unsteadily got up coughing and trying to catch his breath. The entire left side of his robe was ripped open from his chest down to mid sleeve. Freed shook the remains of his sleeve off his arm, sucking in air through clenched teeth as the scrapes and bruises he'd received from his roll on the ground.
"Ok, I'm impressed," Freed smiled then winced from the pain.
The armoured hulk began thundering forward, closing the distance very quickly. But this time Freed was ready for him and had just enough time to cast a haste spell to increase his speed. As the gnome swung with his left claw, Freed sidestepped left and closer to the suit. The gnome tried to correct but the suit was much too heavy to quickly correct its momentum. And Freed shot a spike of ice into the side of the left knee joint and rolled away. The suit tried to straighten its knee but the magic ice held and it gave Freed the chance to possibly end this.
He used this to cause a small earth tremor to open up a rift and topple the 12ft tall suit over. As it tried to right itself, Freed sent a blast of ice into the suit, covering the whole thing. The suit's movement slowed and then stopped, leaving him trapped in a block of ice. Unable to move, Freed was declared the winner after a 10 count.
"Nice win Freed," Vesper slapped Freed on the back. "I'm impressed," Vesper started grinning, "that you kept your clothes mostly intact."
Freed gave a sarcastic chuckle and waited for him to look away. He whispered something and poked Vesper's arm, sending a small jolt of electricity into him and caused Vesper's hair to poof out from the shock. Everyone began to laugh as Vesper tried to get his hair to lay back down.
"Very funny," Vesper gave up on trying to fix his hair.
"Is Vect still sleeping off his wounds," Freed asked as the laughing died down.
"Yep, Mok caused a lot more damage than most people realize. Any longer and he might have had more serious damage," Sara answered.
"Yikes. The death ward around the arena prevents outright death, but I can only imagine how he felt."
"Speaking of injuries, shouldn't you be getting treated?"
"Nah, they weren't that bad. A quick potion and I'm fixed. And I didn't really want to walk all the way back to the dorm to get some new clothes. At this rate I'll have to buy a new wardrobe," Freed chuckled. "Celine still a no show?"
"No one has seen her since last night. She was gone from the dorm this morning before we woke up," Eva sighed.
"And no sight of her anywhere?"
"Nope. Hey here comes Mai," Eva waved her down.
Mai squeezed past the audience and sat down next to Eva and Vesper with an exasperated sigh.
"Sorry we missed your fight Mai," Freed leaned forward to look at Mai over Vesper's coils.
"Yeah we didn't even know about you being moved to the other arena until a few minutes ago," added Vesper.
"It's ok. At least you weren't there to see me get my ass handed to me," Mai cradled her head in her hands. "Ug, some guy named Stanley Zan-something demolished me."
"Zagan," Sara perked up. "Stanley Zagan?"
"Yeah that sounds right," Mai looked deep in thought and then her eyes widened. "Wait are you 2 related? To that jerk?"
"Jerk?" Sara asked concerned.
"Yeah, he started spouting out things like freak and other mean things to me."
"I'm sorry Mai."
"Just make Vect promise to give him a good beating in the quarter finals. I have no doubt they both will make it."
Sara just nodded. 'Stanley, what happened to you?'
[At Alyvia's shop]
"More tea," asked Alyvia.
"No thank you, I shouldn't fill up too much before my match," Celine smiled.
The pair were sitting in Alyvia's side room relaxing and chatting. Alyvia would have to excuse herself to attend to a customer every so often, but once she returned they would continue their conversation.
"So, any luck in your studies on a reversal of your situation," Alyvia sipped her tea.
Celine shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid I've exhausted all the sources I have access to. Only ones I haven't checked are in the restricted and forbidden sections. And only high year students and teachers have access to them. It looks like I'm spent." Celine felt hollow as she said those words, like she was accepting her fate.
Alyvia smiled behind her teacup, out of view of Celine. 'Just what I wanted to hear my dear.'
"I have something for you." Alyvia got up and walked to an ornate box on a desk. She pulled out an opulent looking dagger and handed it to Celine gently.
"Its beautiful. I sense some kind of magic from this, but it's nothing I've ever felt before. What is it?"
"Its a relic from some ruins I searched some years ago," she lied, "I've had it in storage for some time and started looking for it after you told me about your problem. It belonged to this group of people that liked to experience new sensations. It was their whole existence to find new experiences. The dagger has the ability to transfer a physical feature from one person to another. By stabbing someone the wielder can force a physical trait onto another. There was another dagger referenced in diaries that took from the victim, but it wasn't found. Interestingly enough, it doesn't cause any harm to the one being stabbed. There is one thing about it though. Once used on or by someone, it will not affect either of them ever again. That may be why it was found in what once was a storage closet instead of some kind of vault."
"Thank you, but why give it to me?"
"To give you some hope that if one way is blocked, then there are other paths available." She glanced at the clock. "Oh my look at the time. Your match should be close by now. You should get going."
"Oh right. Thank you, for everything miss Alyvia." She bowed and hurried off.
As Alyvia heard the door shut, she sighed. "I do hope the best for the poor thing," she smiled, "maybe I'm getting soft on her."
Alyvia shook her head and opened a communication orb.
"Ah, Alyvia. To what do I owe this unexpected call?"
"I offer my thanks to you Lord Raphael," Alyvia bowed. "The girl has the dagger and I believe she is almost ready. I'm going to give her the opportunity to join in 3 days, just before we begin our operation. I have no doubt she'll join."
"I am always glad to render assistance when needed. Good luck with your part of the plan. Mine is almost ready."