The very earth of the arena trembled under the catacylsmic clash of mana unleashed by Learna and Xerxes. It was a pure exhibition of magical warfare at it's finest.
Witihin the heaving crowd, onlookers began to practically climb over one another for a clearer view of the aftermath. It had practically become taboo to bite nails and stay silent when observing Xerxes' battles.
After all, no contendor had managed to elicit such a degree of intensity other than him within The Eclipse tournament.
Even the unflappable Daryul had fell silent. His commentary halted to observe the situation unfoldinh. Daryul didn't announce a clear victory or defeat from any of the parties, as he could not tell.
The clash of mana at tier 5 created an explosion which was representative of a tier 4 attack. It was power that Tristan had only displayed till now, but could there be more like him?
That thought was likely shared by the crowd and perhaps even Tristan himself. Instead of having the cold and calculating expression he usually donned, it was replaced and pinched with curiosity.
A low chuckle escaped from the battlefield. Cleo was crumpled and stuck to the floor, exhausted and bested by Leiya. Yet Daryul didn't even announce her defeat, for what befell the centre of the arena seemed infinitely more pressing.
Learna's distinctive witch hat layed upon the scorched stone, her staff lost from her grasp. Her upper body was riddled with wounds and her hands bore charred flesh.
She spat blood onto the ground, which slightly sizzled. Despite that, she gathered herself and painfully rose.
However, Xerxes' state couldn't be deemed as fortunate as Learna's. He was clad in an armour of blood that trickled from countless cuts in his flesh.
He remained standing, his head jolted back, starring at the burning sun and whether his consciousness remained present was an entirely different question.
Airi's voice, strained and thick with concern, bellowed within the confines of Xerxes' mind, pleading for a response, for any sign of him being there.
However, he offered none. She was as silent to him, as she was to anyone else. However, a pulse surged within the battlefield, not one belonging to the orb but to Xerxes.
She could sense it. She could sense his life force indeed. It was there and strangely, thrumming more prominent than it had ever done before. Despite that, his mind was unreachable, it was as if a fortress sealed it away from her.
"I have not taught you to do that, so where are you Xerxes, what's happening within your soul!" Airi asked worriedly.
Cleo, as if answering everyone's question for what had happened slurred words before succumbing to her enforced slumber. "I knew it...I made the right decision. Thank you Ray you held the orb to the very end and ran as close as you could to Xerxes. You weakened him and his spell, whilst strengthening big sis Learna..."
A weak, bloody smile touched her lips. "Take that, Embered Flames.." With that final salt rubbed into the wound, she fully faded from consciousness.
Ray who had been caught in the crossfire of the attack had been eliminated from the tournament, alongside Cleo who faced the might of Leiya.
The only two who remained was Learna and Leonard, both exhausted and utterly drained of magic. The light of their situation was now a bit better at the very least.
They had secured 3 points from the orb, however Xerxes' team had been awarded the point for taking out Cleo and Ray, which put them at a lead of 6, whilst Axel's team had none.
Axel was yet to pay any mind to what had happened. He was high on the freedom to engage in a brutal contest with someone who was similar to him, who was as destructive as him, Thornfum Furdia.
Although Claudia couldn't help but feel a need to observe what was happening. Fighting Axel alongside Thornfum was the only way to hold him back, not win, but hold him back.
She could already feel the power of her curse slowly seeping in, taking a hold of her, as her eyes slowly felt drowsy, alongside her power beginning to weaken.
Learna, now supported by Leonard, who had quickly made his way over, winced as he barraged her with multiple question. "Big sis, are you alright? Can you fight? Can you still go on?"
Her focus, however, wasn't intact her gaze was just locked upon Xerxes. She called his name, her voice rasping. "Xerxes, it's over. You can rest, you can. I admire what you fought for, but it's over. We've both expended our magic an-"
In a blur of motion too fast to follow, Xerxes extended his hand forward, closing around her throat and lifting her from the rubble. "We both expended our magic?" he asked, his voice a distorted, almost alien thing.
Something was profoundly different.
Learna gasped for air, her hands clawing desperately at his iron grip. "W-what the hell." Leonard watched, his face a mask of fear and desperation.
"After all her efforts, the blood she had shed, the tears, after everything, you take your hands off her you bastard!" he cried, charging forward with all the might he could muster.
In the next moment, the crowd gasped, as some looked away. The arena wall crunched, as Xerxes had nonchalantly released a blast of fire mana, but one extremely more powerful, something that was alienated from his tier 5 power.
Learna's head slowly turned under the pressure, witnessing Leonard as he held his ribs that were likely broken.
"Get a hold of yourself, your not the same as you were before..please Xerxes." Learna reasoned.
She noticed his grip slightly get looser, as his eyes were almost shaking back to reality and as she waited for seconds that felt like minutes, he shook his head and with what seemed like restraint, she was knocked out by a punch within her sternum.
Learna fell to the ground, as Airi's voice reigned within the silent prison of Xerxes' mind. "What in the six kingdoms are you doing, Xerxes? Wake up! For God's sake, WAKE UP!" But they were once again useless.
She began to seriously contemplate whether she had to end this farce herself, but that would mean revealing her identity and she wasn't sure if she was ready to do that yet. It was against her own and Xerxes' wishes.
His body turned slowly, his detached, empty eyes scanning for his next victim who would challenge him.
Daryul's voice was low, yet it carried across the silent arena. "This doesn't happen too commonly, though there are precautions if it does, anyone who is not at least well within Tier 5 is not allowed to initiate combat with Xerxes Draedon, from what my eyes tell me, he has just broken into Tier 4."
Everyone's voice exploded into murmurs, "Tier 4? I heard he is only 12?" Others made the comparison between him and Tristan, "That would put him on Tristan's level, he's qualified to join the army at that Tier."
But they were all overshadowed by Axel's raspy laugher. He used a heavy, brutal slash to force his way past Thornfum and Claudia.
His focus now irrevoacbly locked onto the new threat. "Watcha' say, Daryul? This little man is now a tier 4? It does explain this state he's in."
He laughed, a harsh, barking sound, whilst pointing his two axes directly towards Xerxes, "but let's see if he still has that surge of power till the end of our battle?!"
The gesture did nothing to insult, or provoke Xerxes. The only thing it had confirmed was Xerxes' new target.
His gaze, devoid of all recognition, swept to the left and found Morningstar resting upon the floor. He picked it up, gripping the hilt. It felt strange, unfamiliar in his hand. 'Needs more weight,' he thought, a cold, clinical assesment.
Axel then began to charge, ravaging across the battefield. He used an explosion of earth mana to propel himself forward, his two axes held in parralel, ready to strike with utter mercilessness.
An attack that had once seemed overwhelmingly threatening now appeared slow. It was not that the world had slowed, but that at Tier 4, Xerxes had become, at a minimum, ten times stronger, ten times faster, ten times more aware and ten times more potent.
Xerxes called the fire, which clearly burned with a strange hue of purple to reinforce his movements and with a single, devastating slash downwards, he struck with an unsettling purple sway.
The two axes immediately lodged themselves deep into the earth and Axel's face was a portrait of sheer shock. He couldn't recall the last time he had been so utterly overwhelmed.
It was as if there was a whole different person in front of him, it was rare enough to see someone break into another tier as it was unprescedented, but to combat with someone who was in the stages of passing onto the next tier, it was entirely different.
Xerxes then drove his elbow into Axel's sternum, with a piston-like force, making the barbarian regurgitate air and blood whilst sending him flying backwards. Then, Xerxes recalled the weave of Learna's spell.
He envisioned the wind: how it plucked at leaves, how it carried mana, how it could rage without end.
With a silent incantation, he spoke a single word, that someone else had spoken. "Uproar". The wind obediently swirled around Axel's feet, seizing him and propelling him upwards into the sky, leaving him airborne and disarmed.
This time, instead of crafting a singular arrow, the very same one he used at peak tier 5 mana against Learna, he now conjured five.
"Scatterbow," he spoke. The arrows released, homing in on Axel as if he were the bullseye. All of them found their target, detonating in a firework display of pure mana and barbarian blood.
Axel's body then began to fall, unnaturally slow, as he finally dropped, he too defeated with an effortlessness that wasn't synonymous with Xerxes at tier 5.
With the other two members of Axel's body not permitted to fight, The Embered Flames had tallied a total of, 4 points from Axel's team, 4 points from Learna's team and 3 points from the orb. They led with 11 points, just one point away from victory.
Although, that point was not needed as Daryul immediately declared the team as the winners.
Leiya immediately ran over to Xerxes, as he slowly began falling to his knees. Daryul even descended to the battlefield, "I need medics and the mages from Indonyia to monitor Xerxes, he's experiencing backlash, an extreme amount of it!"
Xerxes then released a blood curdling scream, as the white in his eyes were turning a blood shot red, his body temperature burning to the point it felt like it was on fire.
But in Xerxes' mind, he was somewhere else, he was face to face, with the voice that spoke from the purple crystalline stone within his soul core.
"It has been a while, Xerxes Draedon, are you ready for my next warning."