The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound

Gradually, the noise from the audience fell away; rather instinctively, they understood what would soon be beginning and didn’t want to miss a single moment of it. The referee had asked both sides whether they were ready, but then he stepped backward. And from the island in the sky, Randidly Ghosthound drifted downward. By the time his bare feet hit the arena, the audience had fallen completely silent.

Mrs. Hamilton glanced around at the people around her. Not just the Donnyton contingent, but even the representatives from Star Crossing and East End were unprecedentedly solemn as they saw the master of the Order Ducis move. The ritual of the tournament final had seized their attention. While inwardly sighing, Mrs. Hamilton turned back toward the arena to watch the spectacle along with the rest of them.

Rather than speaking, Randidly simply loosened his grip on his images. His limbs flexed and elongated, the muscles and tendons standing out in his skin. His left eye became filled with absolute darkness. His veins were golden and his hair was emerald like maple leaves in spring.

Perhaps it was because the audience had been constantly exposed to the potency of images in gradually increasing doses over the course of the matches, but this was the first time that the general populace had been exposed to the truth that had been obvious to the powerful for quite a few years: compared to everyone else, Randidly Ghosthound was on another level altogether.

His images physically clung to him in a way that Mrs. Hamilton had never seen in anyone else. It seemed that at any moment, the horrible specter of the Grim Chimera might surge to the fore and replace the humanity of Randidly immediately. And even though it was just a shifting specter around him, the amount of detail on the image was obvious. It was almost impossible to tell that this was just a mental projection. It was so vivid and present that it suppressed all other images.

Randidly Ghosthound could make images real. And as soon as the audience came to that realization, he restrained himself once more; the very human Ghosthound had returned.

Glad to see that you are becoming more considered about your melodrama, Mrs. Hamilton hummed to herself. And also good to see that your message to the Earth isn’t changing. ‘This still isn’t enough.’

In a way, Randidly’s image was the equivalent of a solar eclipse. In reality, nothing significant had occurred. But the alignment of Randidly’s image in the sky, casting a shadow and stifling all the images in the surroundings, made the people of Earth reflect on their circumstances.

“Welcome,” Randidly said with remarkable lightness for someone who just stood calmly before a massive crowd in silence for almost ten seconds. “For the final match, I’ll personally be the referee. I want the participants to be confident that they can unleash their full potential during the fighting without fear of injuring their opponents.”

A ripple ran through the audience; they mulled over why Randidly would engage in such an obviously targeted message. Paolo and Kayle seemed to take it in stride, simply waiting for the match to begin. But Mrs. Hamilton couldn’t help but laugh. Looks like Alana won’t take her time to warm up in this match. That’s unfortunate.

“So.” Randidly glanced between the two teams. “...Begin.”

And that was that.

While Kayle and Paolo lowered their stances and raced forward, an enormous orange-gold flower bulb inflated around Alana. She was the epicenter, the fuel, and the spirit of an expanding inferno. Then that bulb was ripped in twain by two enormous, shimmering ivory wings. The shattered remnants began to smolder with gold fire as those wings beat a few times and blew the debris into the surrounding area like the glowing remnants of a burned down library. Alana’s image of austerity surged to the fore, quickly gaining traction on the backs of those fleeting sparks. She spoke with the mandate of a higher power and spread its influence. Even for Mrs. Hamilton, it was becoming difficult to look directly at Alana’s person.

But in the face of that surging holy energy, Paolo laughed raucously. “Yes! It needs to be like this! Show me how much you- eh?”

In the middle of his wild challenge, the immense body of Wivanya smacked into the marble in front of him. Her sapphire eyes shimmered, her scaled body twisted with her enormous clawed hand held at the ready behind her. And in the second as Paolo recognized the threat, Wivanya whipped her claw downward and sheered through the arena like she was digging up loosely packed dirt.

Paolo rolled to the side, barely avoiding the strike. And then his hands sprung upward as he caught the treetrunk thick tail that smashed at his chest. He grunted in took a few steps backward, but Kayle was already spinning lightly in the air above Wivanya, with his long knives raised.

You need to be faster, Mrs. Hamilton thought reprovingly. You should know that by now.

“Sun Strike.”

Even from across the arena, Alana raised her spear and thrust it calmly forward from the core of the spreading inferno. A golden light that was only vaguely spear-shaped ripped forward and smashed into Kayle. His long knives whipped out in an X shape, dispersing most of the power, but he was still knocked away from Wivanya.

“The First Revelation: Advance.”

To follow up, Alana beat her wings and surged forward with golden-orange flames raging in her wake. Compared to the size of her wings, her actual body was easy to miss in the ambient light she released. But she shot across the arena like a shooting star, so quickly that an average human’s eye, even empowered by the System, wouldn’t have the time to make a wish.

But Paolo and Kayle were not average at all. Paolo heaved on the tail in his arms, shocking Wivanya when he possessed enough Strength to jerk the several-ton dragon a half step forward. Then he hopped up onto Wivanya’s tail and then leapt up in a beeline to intercept Alana.

Yet Wivanya was just as quick, extending her left wing and simply whacking Paolo back toward the ground. Kayle spun his knives across his fingers while he floated mid-air, his eyes locked on Alana. “You decided to go after me first? Thank you.”

Alana didn’t respond at all, seeming to simply be an avatar of light and holiness as she surged forward. In a move that seemed so natural that it appeared slower than it actually was, she once more thrust her spear forward and unleashed a wave of golden light. Kayle reversed his grip on the knife in his left hand and used it to nudge the thrust to the side while spinning.

He narrowly dodged the thrust, but Mrs. Hamilton’s acute senses picked up that his leather armor began to sizzle from the proximity of the attack. Alana’s powerful image warped the surrounding air with a holy energy that was followed immediately by a blast of heat. But then Kayle’s right hand surged forward in counter-attack, aiming a thrust toward Alana’s heart.

The light around Alana intensified. Fire roared around her as she beat her wings a single time.

Puh!

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Before Kayle’s could respond, Alana unleashed a brutal cross-counter with her non-dominant hand that smashed into his cheek and knocked him into the ground. Kayle bounced once uncontrollably before he spun and righted himself. He glanced down at the knife in his right hand; it appeared the entire blade had melted before it could reach Alana.

Kayle’s face spasmed in an expression halfway between a confused frown and an excited smile, but he had to quickly toss the melted blade to the side and produce another as Alana descended down toward him like an approaching cataclysm.

Paolo flipped up onto his feet and glared up at Wivanya. His fighting spirit churned the air around him. He jabbed his finger forward. “If you block my way, one more time-”

He abruptly pulled his hand back as the massive jaws of Wivanya clicked shut right in front of him. Paolo was taller than the height of Wivanya’s jaws, but only by a small amount. Still, that transgression by the Frost Dragon Broodmother appeared to be the last straw. Paolo clenched his fists and yelled Haymaker, but was tossed sideways when Wivanya’s tail whipped into his waist from an unexpected angle. He skidded across the arena and dug quickly into the ground between the arena and the stands.

“You…” Paolo became incensed and the crowd seemed to respond to the shift in his mood. They roared their shared fury, detesting the constant interference by Wivanya. Paolo’s image gradually began to push back against Alana’s slow spread of the golden inferno. For her part, Wivanya cooly regarded Paolo while flicking her tail back in forth with all the contempt of a cat considering its human roommate. Then Wivanya turned and rushed to assist in Alana’s fight against Kayle.

Paolo growled and sprinted back across to the arena while Kayle gritted his teeth and spread his own image out. In a vast sea of darkness, a single line of light separated the two sides. As Alana and Wivnaya both surged toward him he slashed forward, aiming for the space directly between himself and Alana. “Vast Divide.”

Then, he turned around and pounced toward Wivanya.

Alana calmly raised her spear. Her wings beat again, throwing off ivory feathers that sizzled and caught fire from the inferno around her. “Sun Strike.”

Her entire right arm seemed to ignite in her trademark gold and orange flames as her spear surged forward toward the boundary line that Kayle had drawn. That spear encountered that divide and space seemed to screech in pain. Like a buzz saw brought against sheet metal, there was a great grinding noise and sparks shot out in every direction.

But ultimately, Alana took a step back with a look of surprise on her face. The lapping waves of fire that she released lost a bit of their bite. Mrs. Hamilton didn’t miss the smirk on Kayle’s face as he ducked underneath Wivayna’s tail and rushed in to wound the dragon. Paolo vaulted back onto the arena and moved to strike at Wivanya from behind.

When another few whips of the tail proved ineffective, Wivanya howled toward the sky. “Absolute Frost!”

There was a strange keening followed by the howling of the wind as the rapid temperature drop around the dragon churned through the surrounding air. A wind picked up across the whole of the stadium. Paolo was immediately blanketed by several inches of ice and crashed to the ground, where his new popsicle form skidded forward several feet. But then he appeared to use brute Strength explode out of his chilly prison in a burst of mist. Once more, he moved forward to continue his assault. Meanwhile, Kayle cut forward with his long knife. “Sever.”

Ice shrouded his blade and crept up his right arm, but largely his Skill protected him from Wivanya’s defense. Shaking his arm to dislodge the remain frost, he rushed forward.

But Absolute Frost had slowed the duo. Alana’s eyes narrowed. “Solar Flare. Sun Strike, Sun Strike, Sun Strike.”

BOOOOOOOOOM!

With brute force, Alana tore through Kayle’s barrier and surged toward the battle. The walls of flame trailing in her wake were almost two meters tall. Wivanya whipped her bulk around, bringing her claw slashing toward Paolo. He ducked to the side and then hopped over her follow-up tail whip. She had used the same pattern one too many times to catch him with it right now.

While in the air, he raised both hands above his head and grinned like a maniac as he flew forward. Although she twisted, Wivanya couldn’t avoid Paolo bringing his hands down powerfully on her side. Several scales in the area were shattered by the force of the blow. The dragon hissed in pain.

Meanwhile, Kayle was forced to plant his foot and turn around as the shimmering waves of heat caught up with him. “You won’t make it in time, Alana. Vast Divide.”

This time he used both knives when he slashed, creating a barrier that was so thick that it was visible to the naked eye. Alana laughed lightly as she raised her spear. “The Fourth Revelation: Divinity.”

Alana was the edge of the horizon and dawn had suddenly arrived. The pure light tore through everything in its path and seared into Kayle’s body before he could respond. Even the flames in the surroundings were extinguished, suffocated by that pure white light that she released.

For a second, she was the type of existence that truly held power over all others.

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