Will and Alea turn at the sound of the new voice.

  Will curses to himself. Cities are fun, but it’s difficult being completely aware of your surroundings when there are just so many people here. His lack of aura control continues to be a burning pain.

  The speaker is a younger looking guy. Maybe a year or two older than they are, and slightly taller. He’s decently built, and seems fit. Whatever element this guy has, he keeps himself in high level of physical condition to utilize it. He has grey eyes, a full head of short brown hair, and Will guesses would be considered handsome to most girls.

  As Will looks at him, he realizes that he instantly doesn’t like him. He knows judging a book by its cover is a bad idea, but even this guy’s presence just rubs him the wrong way.

  “Did we ask for your opinion?” Alea says to the new comer.

  “Oh you got a mouth on you. Should have expected that after your fake win against my friend.”

  “Oh you mean that lame gravity user that couldn’t even beat someone a realm below him?”

  Will thought that would strike a nerve with the guy. But he kept a cool smile on his face.

  “I did warn him he needed to up his control. It’s his own fault for being weak.” Before Alea could agree or disagree, the man spoke again. “However, you didn’t win. You used trickery and deceit to win on a technicality.” He said the last word with scorn, showing what he thinks of winning by the rules of the competition. “Which makes you a sorry excuse for a cultivator.”

  Alea’s face got red and Will felt the air around them begin to rise in temperature.

  “It makes sense that you hang around with the likes of this one.” He jerks a thumb at Will. “Arrogant cultivators looking down on their competition like that. Only a coward hides his element instead of honoring his opponent with showing everything he can do. What a truly despicable and pathetic display.”

  Will raised an eyebrow. What did he ever do to this guy?

  “There a point to all this?” Will said.

  For the first time, the man seems to show some irritation. Alea smiles at him and looks back at the rude man.

  “The point, boy.” The way he said that last word would have bothered Will in his old life. But he has spent too much time around Amos’s calm and steady personality to be manipulated by a fool’s terrible attempt at getting a rise out of him. It is an aspect of his master that he’s glad is wearing off on him. “Is to offer this beautiful woman a real man to spend her time with.”

  Alea rolls her eyes so hard you could practically hear it. “And let me guess, this real man will show me such a great time?”

  The man seemed to grow angrier. “I will show you what’s it like to be with an honorable man, one who has real power unlike the chump here. Someone who can show you the proper way to fight. Come now,” his smile turns slimey, which Will is sure the guy thinks comes off as charming. “Every beautiful woman needs someone strong to protect her. If you’re lucky, I’ll even consider becoming your master.”

  The man raises his hand to cup Alea’s cheek. Immediately Will starts rotating his Qi and prepares to forcibly remove his hand from Alea, when he learns why Alea is the last woman who needs protecting.

  Right where the man’s hand touches Alea’s cheek, orange fire in the exact shape of the guys hand forms.

  He pulls it back in a flash, holding it against his side and hissing in pain. “You stupid whore! This is what you do to a man trying to extend an olive branch?!”

  “Is that what is standing in front of me? My apologies, it was my understanding that only little boys don’t know not to touch something hot.”

  Will cringed internally at the taunt. It wasn’t the best, but then again, it doesn’t seem to take much to get to this guy.

  “You’ve messed with the wrong man! Do you have any idea who my family is?!”

  “Uhh, you came over to us.” Will says.

  “I try to extend my hand in friendship and this is what I get? You will both come to regret this.” The petulant man sneers at them, turns heel and stalks away.

  “Well that was interesting.” Will says. “Apparently there are bullies no matter where you go.”

  “Yea…” Alea says.

  “You okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You sure?”

  “…It’s just that if that guy really does have an influential family in this city it could cause problems for us.”

  Will frowns. “Even if he does, I’m sure it’s not something that our master’s can’t handle. Besides, that was like a two second interaction. I doubt someone will cause problems over a small argument.”

  Alea looks at Will oddly. “Maybe. Our masters are strong, and even a little influential, so maybe you’re right. I don’t know how much experience you have with nobles but pettiness basically comes with the job.”

  “I’m feeling another but in there somewhere.”

  Alea shrugs. “But our masters aren’t the only cultivators at their level. Especially when dealing with nobles. Even in a smaller city like this, there could be others. Just don’t be surprised if we end up having to make a quick exit out of this place. People like that idiot hold grudges.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  They spent a while longer looking at what the other stalls and stores had to offer, but the interaction had left a bad taste in both their mouths. They ended up going back to the inn a short time later to meet their masters for dinner.

  The next morning they made their way to the arena with their Amos and Taleya walking along with them. They parted at the entrance as they have every morning and the two combatants make their way through the tunnel and to an open observation box.

  This will be the third fight for Will, and the second for Alea. There’ll be sixteen fights today for each division, making three rounds of fights. The same two fighters came onto the main fighting stage and announced that to keep it to three even rounds, the final of the three rounds for the Spirit and Mind Realm fights and the second of the three rounds for the Core Realm fights will have a sixth fight that will be held on the main fighting stage.

  Will and Alea both looked at each other in excitement. With that much more room to move around, it would make the fight a lot more fun and exciting.

  As the first fights were announced for the Core and Spirit Realm, Will looked up and noticed he wasn’t on them. Neither was the sand user though. He had a mix of feelings about that. A part of him was upset because he wanted another opportunity to study the elf’s fighting technique and find a weakness. But a part of him was glad because it meant there was still a chance that he would get to fight him today.

  The first round of five fights came and went quickly. Will kept a close eye on a water user who was especially skilled that he had first noticed in the fights the day before. He would be another tricky fighter to face. The boy seemed to specialize in breaking his opponent’s stance and sending them flying through the air and outside the ring. Also his use of a staff along with his water techniques was down right a work of art.

  The second round of fights was soon announced and Will found his name on the board.

  His opponents name is Sigzil.

  Wait..isn’t that the name of…

  Right as Will is about to leave his booth, he sees the silver haired elf walking towards the ring that Will noticed is designated for his fight.

  A huge grin splits Will’s face in two as he sees who his opponent will be.

  Finally.

  Will steps out of the booth. Alea may have said something to him as he is leaving but he’s so focused he’s not sure. He makes his way over to his ring, his eyes never leaving the opposing fighter. To face this cultivator without his lightning would be a challenge, and he was ready for it.

  There were a few fighters, the water user included, that Will noticed he would be hard pressed to fight against with the handicap of not being able to use his lightning.

  He had run through scenario after scenario in his head, trying to figure out a way to face them and give him even a chance at victory. He had come up with only one.

  Will faces his opponent, both staring at each other intently, as the ref finishes going over the rules. Will and Sigzil both nod their acknowledgment and the ref jumps back, signaling the start of the fight.

  Will could only come up with one strategy. Attack head on, close and fast, and use his skill as a fighter while hounding his opponent to limit his ability to use his sand.

  He blitzes the other fighter with every ounce of speed he can manage. Pushing himself to his absolute max. He grits his teeth as he doesn’t manage to get inside Sigzil’s guard, but he manages to get right up against it.

  Will drew his long daggers right as he blitzed Sigzil, now using them to combine combination after combination of attacks. Backhanded slash with the left dagger with an uppercut with the point of the right. Flowing from that into a tight turn to bring another backhanded slash. It’s risky taking your eyes off your opponent, but Will is going for speed, ferocity and pure skill to try to win this.

  He keeps going with his attacks, trying to get inside the elf’s guard.

  …

  From the onset of the blitz, Sigzil was put on the back foot. He knew the cultivator who refused to use his element was fast, but this was faster still than he had seen him use so far.

  From the very first slash of the shorter man’s daggers Sigzil was sent into a backward walking retreat. The onslaught of attacks keeping him on his heels.

  Every time he tries to bring the full might of his sand to bare, the other cultivator would increase the speed of his attacks and flow even faster into another combination that cuts right through Sigzil’s attempt to regain the momentum.

  He has a defensive layer of sand forming a slight blade along his forearms, and a condensed layer of sand around his torso and sides to protect his vital areas. Muscle only worked so well against a blade.

  And a good thing he took the precaution. A few of the shorter man’s attacks managed to slip through Sigzil’s guard and attack his organs. None penetrated past the sand, but the mere fact that he was even able to land hits against him without even using an element astonished Sigzil.

  He hated to admit it, but the boy was a better fighter than Sigzil was. However, that didn’t mean he was more powerful, nor more of an intelligent fighter. It wasn’t only the strongest opponent that won the fight, most times it is the smartest.

  After the shock of the initial attack wore off, Sigzil realized he needed to bring more of his abilities to bear. Once he started to deflect the other man’s daggers, he started pouring some of his sand into the ground around him. It’s a good thing they weren’t on the big stage or this strategy wouldn’t work.

  He used his sand to turn as much of the surrounding dirt, in and around their ring, into sand. He didn’t have much time in this fight so he couldn’t make much, he just needed more than he had available in his gourds. Luckily for him, a decent amount of the stadium floor was already sand.

  After five or so minutes of back and forth with the other cultivator, him barely giving Sigzil room to breathe let alone properly retaliate, Sigzil is ready to strike back. He puts as much Qi and power into this next attack as he’s able to.

  He finally manages to send out a couple spikes of sand flying at the dagger user. The boy manages to somehow deflect the fast spikes with his knives instead of dodging them. Which doesn’t allow Sigzil as much time as he would have wanted, but in that millisecond of breathing room, he brings up a massive wall of sand behind and around himself. It only reaches to about five feet above him and only about seven or so feet to either side of him, but bigger isn’t always better. This might not be the biggest sand wave he could create, but being smaller allows him to push and move it faster.

  Unbelievably the boy is already responding, charging back at him, his daggers leading the way.

  Sigzil doesn’t waste any more time, and heaves with everything he has and every ounce of power and speed he’s able to put into the attack. The sand wall passes around him and heads for the fighter.

  Sigzil dashes behind the wall of sand, jumps, pulls back his fist and slams his fist forward, sending a much smaller second wall of sand on top of and down in front of the first.

  Just in time to. After seeing the boy’s last fight he knew how crafty and athletic he is. Sigzil was taking no chances against him.

  Sigzil feels the impact as his second wall strikes the boy back down into his main attack after he must have tried to jump up and over it. Sigzil makes sure to curve and elongate the sides of the first wall of sand, doing everything he can to keep the boy trapped.

  In seconds the attack is up to and then past the ring of bricks making up the circle of their fight.

  It goes about ten feet farther before Sigzil cancels the attack and sags slightly. Smaller wave of sand or not, he put as much power behind that thing as he could.

  As the sand falls away, he sees his opponent, bloody and smiling. He had managed to stay on his feet and had pushed through half the sand wall before being pushed outside the ring.

  Sigzil stands in amazement. If they had been in a bigger ring, the boy might have managed to withstand the entire attack. Undoubtably then taking advantage of the opening and laying into him with his daggers.

  He sighs in relief that it did not end that way. Sigzil had won..barely.