Lily dashed forward to the left side of the dragon. She held her magic sword out and slashed along the side of the dragon’s long neck as she continued to move quickly towards Ledia. The dragon moved its head out of the range of Lily’s blade and slammed down at her with its massive claw. Lily let out an explosion at her foot pushing her away from the dragon’s hand. She did a flip before landing on her feet some distance away from the dragon. Lily looked at the dragon’s neck and noticed hot steam coming from bubbling skin. It healed fast. She didn’t have too much time to think before explosive orbs screamed towards her. Not only did Lily have to contend with the dragon, but she was also facing Ledia, a magician quite skilled on her own. Lily used her energy magic to absorb the explosions that landed near her and used the momentum to throw her back towards the dragon.

  “[EXPLOSIVE RIFT]!”

  Lily was already in the air from Leida’s explosions, but she used her own explosions to cartwheel her above and over the dragon.

  “[INERTIAL SHIFT]!”

  Lily halted her own movement and redirected her kinetic energy downwards, towards the dragon.

  “[FLAME DASH]!”

  Using her built-up energy she let forth a massive flame from her sword. The entire arena filled with a glowing white pulse of heat as Lily slammed down onto the dragon’s head at a speed so fast that one might have thought she teleported. Lily nearly lost her grip on her sword from the massive reverberation. However, even with all of the energy that she had built up, she only managed to chip the thick scales of the dragon’s head. Lily gritted her teeth. Just as she was about to retreat, several explosive orbs slammed into her from the side. She only just managed to shield herself from the damage when she suddenly found herself in the shadow of the dragon’s mouth. She only had moments to find a way out of her current predicament.

  Lily decided on a plan and ducked into the dragon’s mouth, carefully dodging its teeth. As the dragon slammed its jaw shut Lily enacted her plan.

  “By the movements of heat and the will of the world I bring thee to a crescendo. [GUST HOLD]!”

  Lily fired a sphere of air surrounding a vacuum down the dragon’s throat. Dragons may be fearsome, but they are living organisms. While a dragon may be nearly fireproof on the inside, its lungs were made to take on air. The air bubble forced its way into the dragon’s lungs before collapsing. The vacuum space packed inside of the air bubble caused the dragon to have an involuntary response, opening its mouth to take a breath of air. Lily used this biological response to quickly dash out of the dragon’s mouth and down onto the ground in front of Leida.

  Before Ledia even had a moment to fully react Lily’s sword let out a massive flash of light and then began glowing blue and white. Lily homed in on Leida and let out a final slight movement of her hand. Lily flashed across – and through – Ledia. A prismatic light let way to purple lightning as Lily came to a stop at the edge of the arena. Lily turned around. She could clearly make out the dragon which was currently looking at both her and where Leida was. The dragon stood on its hind legs and let out a wind blast, clearing the arena of the smoke and debris that were kicked up by Lily’s attack.

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  What Lily saw made her instantly let out a sign of frustration. Standing completely unharmed was Leida. A summoning portal closed in front of her. It was a rather annoying tactic, but summoners could open their summoning portal and use it as a spatial shield. It was typically not used because it could harm the contracted being inside of it, but with Ledia, who only tamed dragons, it was likely that Lily’s attack only scratched the armored beast within. Ledia turned around and faced Lily. She wore a smile on her face as her dragon joined her. Leida’s body started to shimmer before she disappeared. She had once again used her light magic to become invisible. The dragon – taking the cue – lunged forward towards Lily.

  Lily drew in a deep breath. She knew that in a war of attrition she would lose. She decided that she would go all in. She would put everything into her next attack with the goal of wounding the dragon enough that Leida would have to return it to the pocket realm that she summoned it from. With the dragon out of the way, even if she was low on magical power, she felt that she could take Ledia on in a one-on-one battle. The most powerful quick slash spell she knew would be extremely draining and would cause some blowback that would wound her. Lily took one more breath, accepting the future that was about to occur. Lily anchored her feet to the ground and drew in as much ambient magical energy as she could.

  “Long has man doubted the building blocks of life, snap now, show us the power of the connection of nature [NUCLEAR STRIKE]!”

  Lily’s magical power rippled out into a beautiful prismatic fractal pattern. For just a moment one could even make this pattern out with their naked eye. The audience gasped at its beauty. The sorcerers in charge of the arena’s inner shielding took the moment during Lily’s chant to maximize their shielding. Being experts in defensive magic they all immediately recognized the chant and winced at the explosion that they knew would imminently occur.

  The magical fractals that had spun outwards from Lily retracted and then, silence. For a moment it seemed that time had stopped before a sudden flash of painful white light filled the arena. Not a shadow was left as light filled every crevice and unkept corner of the arena. Nuclear Explosion Magic was a type of magic that was nearly exclusive to Magical Swordsman. It was an interesting quark of magical dynamics, but if one attempted to use Nuclear Explosion Magic from their inner source they would simply self-destruct. However, Magical Swordsman, having their source – or soul – outside of their body, were uniquely able to use the magic without instantly dying. That wasn’t to say that they wouldn’t be wounded though, and Lily would certainly be wounded in exchange for using such magic.

  A roar like that of an angered devil raged from the white light as the magical shields of the inner arena creaked under the immense pressure of the explosion. The roar dimmed as the white light morphed to an orange hellscape. The audience could now make out the pawns of the arena floor. Lily was on the opposite side of the arena now. The dragon was gone, and Leida stood unmoved from where she was before. Lily breathed heavily. Sweat dropped from all over her body. Her eyes stung from the sweat. Blood mixed into the sweat as her ragged clothes began to turn a soggy crimson. Her leather chest piece had been blistered and had fallen off revealing her white shirt underneath. Lily pierced the arena with her sword, leaning on it and turning around to face Leida. Lily was still panting hard. Ledia was standing looking at Lily with a smile on her face.

  “Good job, Lily.”

  Ledia moved her hands in front of her, forming a triangle with her fingers. Lily felt an aura surge next to her, but before she could react, she felt a massive pressure slam into her. After that everything went black.

  “THE CHALLENGER HAS BEEN DEFEATED; LEDIA IS THE WINNER!” the announcer enthusiastically yelled out.