Two red-haired women now stood opposite one another in the arena.
Brynhild, whose hair was the darker of the two, was calm and had a confident expression as she looked at her opponent.
Her adversary, on the other hand, didn't seem to hold the same confidence in her eyes.
The reason for her uncertainty stood in front of her.
She would be facing not just any noble, but her kingdom's princess.
And not just any princess, but the Blazoria kingdom's most talented royal.
She could tell that this match wouldn't be as easy as her first one.
But just like how Vehron had fought until the end, she held the same determination.
'I'll show everyone what a Solaria can do.'
"Begin!"
Both fighters reacted as soon as the referee signaled for the match to begin.
Brynhild formed flames at the palm of her hand and turned them into an arrow that she fired towards Ember.
|Fire Arrow|
Ember retaliated with an attack of her own.
|Fireball|
The flaming arrow collided with the ball of fire and cancelled each other out.
But the battle had just begun.
Soon, more fire arrows and fireballs were fired, and the arena became covered in flames.
In this competition for fire supremacy, one side started to gain the edge.
Brynhild, whose comprehension of fire was higher because of her higher prowess, held the advantage in this comprehension.
She formed her arrows faster, and her control over her flames slightly surpassed Ember's.
These advantages continued to stack on top of one another as the battle progressed until the match went in her favor.
This manifested in the way Ember had to constantly dodge and focus on defending more than her adversary did.
Though another matter worried her.
With Brynhild's higher prowess, her attacks should be slightly more powerful than hers, but it seemed she was limiting the power she put into her attacks.
She instantly realized the princess's intentions with this tactic as she had seen her use it before on her first opponent.
Brynhild was trying to make her exhaust more of her energy as she conserved hers.
Brynhild's stamina was naturally higher than hers, and she was exploiting this advantage to her benefit.
Brynhild didn't need to put in more effort than she needed to—just attack from a distance and exhaust the enemy.
And it was indeed working.
Add that to Brynhild's intelligence, reading her moves in advance, and always striking the right place at the right time, forcing Ember to not only continuously dodge but also put her in a defensive position.
She constantly found herself relying on her flames to form a cloak to defend against Brynhild's attacks.
Seeing that if things continued as they were, she would sooner or later suffer defeat, she decided to unleash her trump card in an effort to turn the situation around.
As Brynhild continuously fired her blazing arrows, she soon noticed that Ember had stopped attacking temporarily, as she was hit by two of her arrows.
Ember forcefully endured Brynhild's attacks with her defensive ability, as light gathered at her palm, and then she unleashed an attack with it.
|Beam of Radiance|
The concentrated beam traveled at incredible speeds, heading straight for Brynhild, who quickly responded.
|Fire Art: Firewall|
A wall of flames was formed in front of Brynhild, momentarily blocking the attack before completely extinguishing.
But it had served its purpose.
It had bought enough time for Brynhild to move out of the way and safely dodge the light attack.
She knew that wall of flames wouldn't hold out against Ember's light-based attack.
After all, light was a medium-tier law. An offensive move from a medium-tier law is naturally stronger than a low-tier one.
So, light naturally trumps fire.
Not to mention that light is extremely fast, making it very difficult to dodge.
But faced with this kind of attack, she didn't panic and changed her strategy to adapt to the changing situation.
As Ember was concentrating light qi, ready to fire another attack, Ember moved around the arena, not wanting to be a sitting target.
But that's not all she did.
As she moved, she kept on producing and manipulating what appeared to be wind in one hand and fire in the other as she moved around.
When she did this, the wind began to burn and produced smoke as she defended against Ember's light with firewalls as she did.
Ember naturally found this quite strange as she didn't know Brynhild's intention in employing this strange tactic.
Brynhild didn't even try to attack even once as she did this, and only defended and dodged when necessary.
Slowly, by slowly, smoke started to accumulate and began to fill the arena, surrounded by a barrier that kept the smoke from escaping.
'T-this...' Jarek was inwardly surprised at this unexpected tactic.
'Why have I never thought of this before?'
He naturally knew what Brynhild was doing and the thought process required to develop such an ability.
She was essentially mirroring what happens when fire comes into contact with limited oxygen to produce smoke.
But she was now achieving the same results with both fire and wind produced by qi.
'It seems that this world isn't as backward as I thought it was.'
Brynhild intended to limit Ember's visibility.
She then dived deep into the smoke, disappearing from Ember's sight, but still didn't stop generating it.
As Ember stared in the direction where Brynhild had vanished and her surroundings with caution, moments later, a sudden attack flew towards her from another direction.
She was able to narrowly dodge a fire arrow, barely.
Her eyes were filled with tension as she scanned her environment and noticed she was surrounded by smoke in all directions.
She became even more worried as she tried to think of a countermeasure.
But Brynhild wouldn't give her the chance to do so, as Brynhild launched attack after attack from different directions, different angles, making them incredibly difficult to dodge and defend.
Ember had to continuously use her defensive cloak of flames to resist these attacks.
This was all she could do.
Even if she wanted to attack, where would she do so? She can't even see her opponent.
And Brynhild wasn't going to give her enough time to react to the situation.
Ember's energy was rapidly depleting, and her defeat seemed imminent.
Jarek felt the same and couldn't help but praise Brynhild's tactics. 'A truly clever strategy. Using both fire and wind for concealment.'
As someone from the 21st century, he could see Brynhild's intelligence woven into this ability, as she also seemed to have a solution to a problem he had yet to discover.
'How can she see through the smoke?'
In truth, while this ability might appear quite powerful, it has a major flaw.
Just like how Ember can't see Brynhild's figure through the smoke, the same thing should apply to Brynhild as well.
She indeed created the smoke, but the ability to see through it is another matter altogether.
However, she had found a way to overcome this drawback, as she seemed to have no problems seeing through the smoke.
And so Jarek's mind worked hard to find the missing piece of this puzzle.
As the battle progressed, Ember's defeat grew even more certain as her energy continued to diminish.
She eventually ran out of energy, and the battle ended with Brynhild's victory.