Elemental Zodiack

Chapter 25: The Tournament, Part 4

"~And with this, the first round of this tournament is over! We'll start with the second round, the semifinals after a short break!"

--- Slowly walking back to her seat, Diana gave a quick look towards Solaria, which responded in the same way.

"Ho?" quietly mutters Solaria to herself after noticing Diana's gaze

"Why are in this tournament only really talented individuals! It's not fair! I want to fight as well!" shouts Yoso after witnessing, yet another strong new participant in the sixth battle.

"I wouldn't have thought that D.A was actually a woman... We might have two female Zodiacks for the first time after this tournament..." mutters Laure

"Shouldn't you be more worried about the next fight?" says Saki with a somewhat worried expression.

"Yeah, I know where you're coming from," says Yoso

"Shimada is going to fight against that woman. I can't tell which one will come on top..." says Laure

 Even though he had still a bit of time left until the match, Kein got up from his seat and slowly walked towards the middle of the arena. You couldn't tell if he was stressed about the fight, or just bored, giving a mysterious vibe to his surroundings.

 Noticing his behaviour, Solara followed his example, and just before getting called in the middle, she went to the arena as well.

 Standing in front of Kein, she looked down towards him and said:

"I hope you can give me a good fight, unlike the last one... Mister Wind user."

"... I don't think I'll be able to meet your expectations," says Kein after a slight delay.

"Hmph... I see..."

"~ And we are back, with our participants for the first battle in the second round being as fired up as ever! In the arena we have, the winner of the first battle, Kein Shimada!"

 The crowd was going wild hearing Kein's name. He got even more attention after flawlessly winning his first battle.

"-And the winner of the second battle, Solaria Tay!"

 Unexpectedly enough, many people started cheering for Solaria upon witnessing her power, and also many men were standing close to the edge cheering for her as well.

"Lady Solaria! You are the best!"

"You are so beautiful!"

"I am sorry for you..." says Kein after looking at the wild men crowd with a dumbfounded expression.

"Yeah... I am sorry for myself as well. I should've followed that girl's example and choose to wear a mask," says Solaria while staring at the crowd.

"You know that wouldn't have worked with you anyways..." says Kein

"Yeah, that might be true..."

"~Without further ado, let the first battle of the second round... Start!"

 Taking the first move in this battle, was Kein that attached his Chain of Fate to Solaria, gaining the movement speed boost he totally needed to dodge her attacks.

"Oh! Good! Let's see what you can do, boy!"

 Solaria charged towards Kein, just like in her battle against Ryuuen, preparing to punch him. However, he evaded the attack by a slight margin.

"Huh... If I hadn't used 'Chain of fate' I wouldn't have dodged that..."

"Nice reflexes! I wonder how much you'll be able to keep up!" shouts Solaria

 She continued to attack Kein mercilessly, and Kein couldn't do much but try to dodge all her attacks while staying in the radius of the chain. He gained movement speed while approaching an enemy, so he couldn't run away from her.

"So this is how you fight... In that case!" saying so, Solaria closed the gap between herself and Kein and used her magic for the first time in this fight.

"Sun Style Original Skill: Regulus Enchant!" After using this skill, Solaria's speed got an enormous boost, which she used to propel herself right in front of Kein, then after charging her fist with solar power, she attacked Kein.

 A white light blinded everyone on the battlefield, making them think that it was already over.

 However...

"Wind Style: Tornado Barrier..." Kein was engulfed in wind, that was circling around him at incredible speed, creating a shield that covered his entire body.

"Hoo? So this is how you play! Good! Entertain me more, Wind Zodiack!" shouts Solaria, which then, starts raising the level of heat emitted by her Regulus Enchant Skill.

"Oh god... If I wasn't a wind user I could die just by standing near you... This is hotter than Yoso's jacuzzi!" says Kein

"Hah! Let's see how long will your jokes last!" shouts Solaria, and then starts to punch through Kein's shield with her incredible power.

 Even though the high-speed rotations of Kein's shield were keeping Solaria's hands outside the barrier, her heat entered his shield with every fist she gave the shield.

 Then out of nowhere, Solaria raised her power even more, and finally penetrated Kein's barrier, grabbing him by his collar.

"This is the end for you! You were pretty good for a support type, but this is everything that someone with this role can do in a real fight... You held up well, kid!"

 Looking straight into her eyes, Kein then channelled his Life force and cast yet another skill that he hadn't used until that point.

"Original Wind Skill: Dance of the Wind God..." as of calling this skill, six blades of compressed wind that could be visibly seen floating in the air, appeared before Kein, one of which tried to cut Solaria's arm.

 "Hoh?! So you still have some fight left in you, mister support!"

 To avoid her arm being cut, she knocked away Kein and backed a few steps away.

 Kein then grabs his rapier, and with the six wind blades floating around him, he casts yet another skill.

"Life Force Channelling: Remastered!"

 The rapier together with the wind blades started glowing the light green nuance, just like in the fight with Ye Cai, this meaning that Kein was preparing to face Solaria head-on, in a close combat fight.

"Come!"

 After letting out this shout, Solaria grew her heat level once more and propelled herself towards Kein, which did the same, running in the direction of the chain at high speeds.

 Kein was able to give Solaria some clean cuts with his six wind blades, but his main weapon, being the rapier was blocked every time. However, this wouldn't be an impediment, since he was still able to snatch away Life force from Solaria in this way.

  "What in the world is happening?" mutters Kein

 The fight was still going on after five minutes of exchanging blows with each other, and yet, Solaria didn't seem to lose any power. She wasn't even out of breath, which made Kein feel unsure about what was really happening in this fight.

"To be honest, I feel like I will lose if we're going to keep it like this..." says Solaria after grabbing Kein's rapier in her hand, snatching it away from him. Blood started to drip slowly from her palm after taking Kein's blade from him by force."

"Crap..." witnessing Solaria's inhuman power once again, Kein chose to back off a few steps.

"I might not get exhausted physically, but I will lose my Life force if this were to be dragged for like... thirty more minutes..." says Solaria while staring at Kein with a serious expression.

"Th-Thirty!? I took down Ye Cai, which is also a Zodiack with this skill in about two minutes upon activation!" thinks Kein after hearing Solaria's statement.

"So I think I'll end it now..." mutters Solaria, just before making anyone in the arena give up on the idea that she was actually human. 

 She let out such heat, that could melt you if you were to get close to her. The Life force she emanated could be seen with the naked eye, and she was losing Life force constantly to keep this form stable. Her hair's colour changed to a white with red stripes, and her eyes were also changed to a bright red colour.

"How much Life force would you need to be able to achieve this... Leave aside losing this fight... I might even die here!" thinks Kein

"Mister Laure... Do you remember when I said that she might be on equal footing with me?" asks Yoso, that immediately caught Laure's eye

"I think I would die if I were to fight her..." he continues

"Here I come... Mister Support!"

"Well... I think it's time I lose this with style..."

 A bright shine surrounded the battlefield once more, temporarily blinding everyone. And after that... Everyone was astonished by what they witnessed.

 Solaria had a huge wound on her abdomen, in the form of an 'X', while Kein was standing completely unharmed, in the place where a huge explosion seemed to have happened.

"Welp... My rapier broke again... It's the second time today, but I can't help it since 'Life Force Channeling: Remastered is a Legendary skill'..." says Kein with a pretty disappointed expression on his face, while looking at the remains of his sword that were standing on the ground, with most of them being reduced to ashes...

"How?" asks Solaria while staring at Kein

"I've lost this fight... I have zero Life force at the moment, and probably can't even open a door," says Kein

 Then raising his sword towards Solaria, he showed everyone that his hand passed right through hers...

"Is mister Kein perhaps... A ghost?" asks Yoso dumbfounded

"This is... His downside... It means that he deliberately chose to use his downside in his favor, using all his power in a final attack, without using his catalyst. This allowed him to dodge her attack, and also attack her with his last powers. This is where her wound is from..."

"Kein's downside is that he turns into a ghost?!" asks Yoso while staring intently at Kein, realizing that he could see through him.

"His downside is that he... Turns into wind... So he is like a ghost for a while and recovers after a few hours," explains Saki

"Oh, that's cool..." says Yoso

"~ The judges have spoken! Due to not being able to fight anymore, Kein Shimada loses this fight! Thus, the winner of the first battle in the second round is... Solaria Tay!"

 Solaria couldn't help but look at Kein with a dumbfounded expression while listening to the announcer's words. For her, this didn't sound like she won at all... She got hurt, and she can't even damage Kein anymore, which means that she used an incredible amount of power, for nothing...

"You..." stopping Kein that was slowly walking to the place Yoso was at, Solaria spoke again.

 Kein couldn't help but gulp once and ask quietly what the matter was...

"She's going to kill me later..." thinks Kein

"You... From now on, you are mine!" shouts Solaria

 Everyone present was watching this scene at a loss for words...

"H- Huh?" asks Kein that wasn't even able to comprehend what he heard a second ago.