As I soar through the air, I wonder to myself. Why do I let things like this happen? Why do I not think before I rush in? I am now realizing that no matter how many times I am proven wrong, I still have this notion that I am stronger than the person I am fighting. But here I am after one clash flying through the air like a leaf caught in the wind.

—

Moments earlier…..

“Faith, are you ready?” Gesel asked me as she readied her massive sword. She looked very excited to be having this battle with me. And to tell you the truth, I was also very excited right now. I mean, I do not get to fight people as strong as Gesel every day. Just the thought of the two of us clashing seemed fun, but at the same time, I could also try to get a grasp of Gesel’s strength before the tournament.

I held my own sword and nodded my head. I could already feel that this was going to be a tough fight. But I was ready for it. “Let’s do this!”-.

“Then begin!’ Gesel yelled out. As soon as her words finished, I shot forward, and well, this brings me back to my current predicament.I sighed as I flapped my wings and flipped my body around, only to see Gesel once more swinging her huge sword at me. Since I can not block the attack head on, I will need to parry the attack. I flew to the side and ran my blade down the side of her giant sword. Sparks flew between our blades as I swung towards Gesel’s neck. I knew I was using a killing move, but I had no choice. If I did not act in this fashion, I was sure to lose.

From what I understood about Gesel so far, she was one of those types that would not flinch in a fight no matter what was going on. Even now, as my sword was heading towards her throat, she is still smiling. As my blade was just about to arrive at her neck, she bent completely backward and kicked up with her foot while using her free hand to do a handspring and flipped her body away from me while trying to kick me back to make more room.

Luckily I was already ready for such a move, so I managed to dodge the kick and landed back on the ground gently. But this did not mean I was going to give Gesel any time to rest. My eyes glowed as hundreds of fireballs appeared in the air around me. “Go!”

Gesel eyes sparkled with a bit of surprise, but she soon licked her lips and readied herself to defend. “Good! Keep it coming! This is what I expected of you!”

I could only shake my head. Gesel was a battle maniac. Since she was enjoying the fight, I will just have to make it more entertaining. “Wind Rush! Colossal Strength! Acceleration!”

My body began speeding up at an insane speed as I raced around in a circle of Gesel. My eyes were still lighting up as I used both fireballs and confusion mist. With confusion mist up, I switched my view to detection in case Gesel pulled off anything weird. I could see inside the mist, but Gesel could not see me. My fireballs were firing from all sides, and I could see Gesel frowning as she blocked the attacks with incredible speed.

“This is why I hate you damn mages!” Gesel yelled out, and without warning, she ignored her defense, raised her huge sword above her and then slammed it tip down into the ground by her feet.

<strong>*Boom!*</strong>

The ground exploded, and Gesel was launched skyward. The ground crumbled in all directions as a huge crater formed. I had no choice but to retreat as well or get caught up in the aftermath of the attack. To be honest, seeing the huge crater she formed really was amazing. She was so young, yet she could create such a huge crater with her strength alone. Not that I should talk about age…“Haha! Where are you looking!?” I heard Gesel’s voice from above. I got so caught up in looking at her handy work I forgot about her! I have no idea how she did it, but she adjusted the directions he was going in mid air and was now heading towards me. I could only guess that she knows a magic spell like air walk.

Gesel’s sword was heading right for my head. I quickly bent backward and drew a magic circle with the tip of my boot. “Earth wall!”

<strong>*Bang!* </strong>

“Stupid mages!” Gesel cursed as she was sent skyward again. I am so glad I learned how to draw magic circles with my feet. While I can do this with my eyes as well, I still need to see where the spell will take place, which is why I used my foot, to get that mental image and feel for the distance, so I can write the point of origin a few inches away from my foot. Only by doing this can I keep myself out of range of my own magic spell. I mean, if I were to use my eyes just then to do the magic spell, the spell would have spawned under me, and I would have been tossed in the air along with Gesel. While I could have used detection, it would have been harder for me to adjust the distance.

With Gesel now airborne once more, I got a better look at how she is adjusting her descent from the sky. And to my amazement, she was actually using a method of airwalk, but I could not see any magic fluctuations. This was very intriguing. I will have to ask her how she was doing that after the battle. I mean, yes, I can use both airwalk, and my wings to fly, but it was different when it did not deal with either of those. This was why I found it so interesting.

But I also had a problem because it looked like she was about to send another huge attack my way. I quickly created multiple fireballs and, like a machine gun, set them off, one after the other. While those were firing away at her, I made some distance and tried to think of my next move.

I was not sure what I could use against her to stop her in her tracks yet not hurt her too badly. I have always only ever used certain spells that could instantly kill people. I looked around at my surroundings and went over everything I had seen so far in the battle, and only one thing came to mind. “Restrain her so she can’t move….”

My eyes lit up as I floated up into the air. At the same time, large walls of one hundred foot thick ice shot up from the ground surrounding Gesel on all sides. When the walls of ice reached a certain height, they began moving in on each other, merging into one another. I could see Gesel’s face sink seeing this. I just hoped she did not have anything else up her sleeve. Gesel knew what she was doing. Her combat ability was way above mine, and if I did not take this chance to trap her, she would definitely have a way to deal with me.

Luckily I did not have to worry too much as I heard Gesel let out a sigh and yell out: “You win!”

I let out a sigh of relief and waved my hand, getting rid of the ice as I floated back down to the ground. Gesel landed and hugged her body as her teeth chattered. “Faith that was just evil! That was cold as can be!”

“Sorry, I figured ice would be better than dirt. I didn’t want you to get a face full of dirt.” I really did think this way. I would have felt bad if she had choked on a bunch of dirt.

“Yeah, I guess that is much better. Anyway, you won this time. But do not think you can win against me during the tournament.” I couldn’t help but chuckle as I saw Gesel pout a little.

For some reason, I do feel that she will have a big surprise waiting for me when we meet in the tournament. I will have to be sure that I do not allow her to pull a fast one on me. Since I am entering, I really do not have any intentions of losing. I will fight with everything I have. Well, within reason. I think I will keep grand fall and heavenly rain out of it. I do not want to destroy the city after all. Unless I can change the spells a bit before the tournament… Now that I think about it, I have not really made any new spells as of late. I guess I will see if I can put anything together before then. If I can, then I can use these massive spells on a smaller scale.