Scarlet

The remaining of the five minutes goes by in a flash, and soon enough a loud bell echoes throughout the dome with the vice-headmaster’s voice following right afterwards, “The tournament will now begin.”

And almost immediately, I feel someone’s hand on my shoulder, making me twitch slightly as the loud dome gets even louder. Then a dinging sound echoes from my earpiece, following which a robotic voice says, “Will you accept William Brown’s challenge?”

I quickly turn around to find a rather large man of about the same age as me standing next to me with his hand on my shoulder. The man has black hair and a slightly tanned skin color likely marking his region of origin to be closer to the East – an ethnicity I think used to be called Asian or something – rather than the West that we’re in. He has on a simple set of silver armor that you’d see a gladiator wearing in one of those Guardian Fighting Rings, with a clear metal making up its base and an obvious lack of armor plating around his stomach and legs. And judging by his mana, I’d say he should be about the same level as me.

“I should mention that your mana capacity capability is Tier B, so you will have more mana than most people at your level,” Tar says before I can accept the challenge. “Meaning he’s probably a little bit above your level.”

Oh? Interesting.

Although it doesn’t matter much right now.

I accept the challenge before immediately feeling my eyes closing, following which I find myself standing in a field of pure stone. Nothing else. Just stone. But only seconds later, I find the guy who challenged me appearing on the other side of the battlefield of stone as well.

After glancing at each other, we both look around for a few seconds. Then a large number 5 appears at the center of the magical reality in between us. And it quickly begins to count down, so I narrow my eyes and widen the gap between my feet and hands slightly to enter a combat stance.

Looks like we’re jumping right into this then.

I quickly use partial shift on my right arm, transforming it into one of a werewolf with black fur streaked with crimson the color of blood, seemingly startling the guy slightly in the process. But he retains his cool and then uses some sort of skill that appears to turn his fist to stone.

Matching me skill for skill, are you?

Interesting.

The countdown reaches 3. Then 2. And finally, 1.

Then we both sprint towards each other as soon as the ding echoes throughout the magical reality, signaling the start of the match.

Back at the Dome

Anthony wasn’t sure what to think of the other students around the same mana level as he is. Because half of them were either rather private or they were from an entirely different region, while the other half were too well known around here and it was hard to get a good judgement of just how powerful they were.

So he decided to cloak himself and hide in a corner to watch the first round of duels to find out. And it just so happens that he decided to start out with watching the wolf girl everyone’s been talking about.

And it looks like I’m not the only one.

Anthony thinks this while glancing at the many people watching the wolf eared girl – who he believes was titled ‘Scarlet Wolf’ or something like that? Although there are just as many people watching the other ten or so students at the same level as he is.

It’s still a little astonishing to see this many people around level fifty already, since everyone here has to have only been a Guardian for a couple of months at most.

The man turns his attention back to the screen again. The screen itself is separated into dozens of smaller video feeds, but it’s rather obvious that the stronger and more important matches are given priority over the other ones since they have larger feeds. And each feed has large numbers counting down to zero on it before the numbers fade and the feed begins to move around, constantly in search of the best angle to view the fight from. Meanwhile, one of the three biggest matches shown on this particular screen amongst the four screens is – of course – that of the Scarlet Wolf and the man he thinks was called Titan – another Guardian that should be around his level.

Let’s see how strong these two really are…

Both the Scarlet Wolf and Titan immediately rush at each other once the timer is gone, one with her forearm transformed into something that looks akin to a werewolf with pitch black fur streaked with bits of blood red, and the other with his forearm transformed entirely to some type of smooth stone. And neither of them appear to be slowing down as they make their approach with their hands raised, the Titan’s balled into a fist, and the Wolf’s spread out with her claws shining in the light of the chamber they’re in.

Whispered conversations rise from all around him, a combination of the weaker students and a very small number of the stronger ones having stayed back without entering a duel just to size everyone up first.

“Why’s she going for brute force?” “Shouldn’t she rely on magic?” “Titan should clearly be the stronger one physically here…”

Anthony just continues watching, knowing better than to judge a person’s strength by their size or gender. Even if he still wants to say that Titan should be stronger at a glance, he still knows just how many incredible things the girl’s done.

And his thoughts are confirmed the moment the two collide and Titan is pushed back, his feet digging into the ground as a brutally shocked look spreads across his face at the realization that he was overpowered in strength.

Seeing this alone shuts up every last whispered conversation about the duel without pause.

But it gets worse from there, as the girl – who can’t be any older than eighteen or nineteen years old, probably a year younger than Anthony at the least – just tilts her head slightly while still pushing the man back, only to smirk and begin closing her claws, digging them into the man’s fist as claws of blood begin to form around her already transformed claws, making blood begin to drip out of Titan’s fist as the claws pierce into the stone.

Anthony ignores the people around him who are beginning to bring out their phones to take video of the battle as he simply taps his feet and watches, just waiting for the two to start using more skills against each other.

And then it happens.

Titan’s eyes begin to glow with an orange light before the light begins to spread around the rest of his body, soon enveloping his fist as well as he begins to push the girl back ever so slightly, surprising her for a moment.

Then something happens that surprises Anthony.

The girl starts grinning.