Jarek walked out of the arena, achieving an overwhelming victory.
With Jarek now having won his match, only four participants remained.
There were Jarek, Astrid, and two others.
As for the other two, they lasted this long due to their skills, but also because they were incredibly fortunate.
Any one of them wouldn't have made it this far if it weren't for Jarek and Astrid eliminating Velkrith, Asvald, and Brynhild.
They were aware of this fact, and so they made a wish so that their luck might continue.
'Please just pair those two with one another.'
They wanted Jarek and Astrid to be paired together.
If such a thing happened, then there was a chance that one of them had a chance to reach second place.
Whether the victor would be Astrid or Jarek didn't matter.
They were satisfied with second place, knowing it was impossible to place first.
Sadly, such fantasies remained what they were, fantasies.
They ended up being paired up with the human and the dragon.
And their loss was a miserable one at that.
Now only two people remained.
A woman with long chestnut brown hair, with a long spear, now stood on one side of the arena, and on the other a white-haired man with a sword.
These two were, of course, Astrid and Jarek.
The audience was buzzing with excitement, wondering who would emerge victorious in this clash.
Some supported Astrid and others the tournament's dark horse, Jarek.
Who would emerge as the winner, they didn't know.
But what they did know was that this match was going to be a spectacular one.
"Begin!"
Even after the referee's starting signal was heard, neither fighter moved.
Their eyes locked onto their opponent, observing the other party.
For a moment, there was only silence.
That was until Jarek chose to break it by dashing towards Astrid.
Astrid responded by quickly firing earth spears towards the approaching Jarek.
But Jarek, just like how he had dealt with the ice phoenix's ice arrows, just slashed at the earth spears, destroying them with relative ease.
But he didn't stop at just that.
|Heaven's Fury|
Jarek released a powerful lightning attack afterward aimed at Astrid's retreating figure.
|Earth Art: Fortress of the Land|
A fortress wall made of earth was quickly formed.
Jarek's lightning hit this formidable fortress wall, but the effect was much to be desired.
After all, the earth element counters the lightning element.
It took two more lightning strikes for the wall to be brought down.
But an unexpected yet familiar scenario once again occurred, and Astrid was nowhere to be seen.
Jarek's eyes narrowed slightly as he realized that Astrid wanted to use the same tactic she used to defeat Freya.
Astrid was wary of Jarek's shadow manipulation ability in the same way she was about Freya's mental attacks.
Unless there was a significant gap in strength between her and Jarek, Astrid didn't dare face Jarek head-on.
That would be a foolish move.
Right now, she was creating a path underground heading in Jarek's position.
And the unaware Jarek was observing his vicinity with keen eyes, his vision focused on the surrounding earth.
He knew that Astrid would appear at any time to strike an unexpected blow to him.
It was only a matter of when.
So, he needed to be on high alert at all times.
Suddenly, as if sensing something, Jarek immediately moved to the right, dodging a small earth spear that came from behind him.
When he turned around to look at the attacker, he saw Astrid once again disappearing into the earth.
Her face also contained a trace of surprise, clearly not expecting Jarek to be able to react to her attack.
But this was just the beginning.
She tried over and over again, appearing at different angles and firing her attacks at Jarek.
However, somehow, every time, Jarek was able to sense her the moment she emerged to strike.
'How is he doing that? Does he also cultivate the earth element?' Astrid asked herself.
And she wasn't the only one who was puzzled by this.
"Hey, how is he reacting to her attacks that easily? Does he have eyes at the back of his head?"
"Maybe it's space laws?"
"No, I don't think so. Are you telling me that Jarek knows space laws?"
Many speculations were being thrown up and about, but in truth, Jarek was using a simple ability.
|Sound Sense|
Every time Astrid moved beneath the earth, she produced sound that Jarek could perceive and determine her rough position.
When she is about to emerge, the sound is at its loudest, and thus, he can know from which direction she will attack.
As a powerful cultivator who also practices sound laws, Jarek's hearing was on another level.
This tactic was destined to never succeed in the first place.
It took about twenty tries for Astrid to come to this conclusion.
She also couldn't use this ability indefinitely.
She surfaced from the earth, no longer finding her original strategy viable anymore.
Once Jarek saw Astrid, he started moving towards her at high speed.
But just because one of her tricks failed, it didn't mean she didn't have others.
|Fire Art: Dragonfire Torrent|
Astrid unleashed a torrent of dragon-like flames from her hands that flowed in a wide arc.
|Wind Art: Spiral Tempest|
With the aid of the wind, Jarek rose high up into the air, avoiding Astrid's powerful flames as they passed below him.
But he wasn't satisfied with just evading.
While he was high in the air, he fired an attack.
|Heaven's Fury|
Lightning fell from the sky like divine punishment, heading straight for Astrid, who was once again burrowed into the earth to avoid it.
She might have given up on using this ability as a sneak attack, but who said she couldn't use it to avoid troublesome attacks?
Once she had evaded Jarek's lightning, she surfaced again only to be met with another lightning strike.
She repeatedly dived into the earth, dodging every strike.
Jarek, who was looking down, couldn't help but wonder inside, 'Why does it feel like I am playing Whack-a-Mole?'
Indeed, when Astrid popped out, he would strike only for her to disappear into the ground again, dodging his attack.
It was a rather annoying tactic.