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“Hey, Alice?” Tafel asked, turning her head to face the guild master. The two were standing in an arena across from twelve people. Around them, hundreds—maybe thousands—of spectators were viewing the arena from seats on the wall of the coliseum-like building. Outside of the venue, images were projected on the coliseum walls and crowds of people were gathered in the streets, clogging the roads while vendors shouted and waved their products in the air.
“What?” Alice asked back. She was busy polishing her shield with a handkerchief. She blew on the mirror-like surface and nodded to herself.
Tafel furrowed her brow. “Aren’t the matches supposed to be party against party?”
“Yes.” Alice nodded and took a step away from Tafel. The sword on the demon’s back was inching towards her with green drool leaking from its edge. The red eye on the blade with a pitch-black iris and pupil was staring at her.
“So why do they have twelve people in their party?”
“They’re the Elemental Tempest,” Alice said. “An S-ranked party composed of six elementalists.”
Tafel tilted her head. “An elementalist? That sounds like someone who controls elements.”
“You don’t have elementalists on your continent?” Alice asked. “They form contracts with elementals, spirits composed of the various elements in nature. The elementals consume their elementalists’ mana in exchange for their power.”
“…How is that any different from black magic?”
“Well, for one, holy dragons don’t frown upon elementals,” Alice said. The referee was droning on in the background, but neither she nor Tafel paid any attention. “And elementals can act independently. A black mage has to concentrate on their target, but elementalists can leave spell casting to their elementals while doing something else.”
“So half of those people over there are composed of spirits,” Tafel said, squinting her eyes at the party across the arena. “Isn’t that a bit unfair?”
“Tamers can use their pets, and they won’t count as an extra body. It’s part of their class,” Alice said and rolled her eyes. “If you want to comment about extra party members, maybe, you should address your sword. It’s really creeping me out.”
Tafel’s sword hissed at Alice.
“…It’s cute,” Tafel said with a nod. She took it off her back and held it in front of herself. “Who’s a good girl? You are. Yes, you are.” The sword purred as its eye closed halfway.
Alice frowned. “You know, I thought this when I first met you, but there is something wrong with you.” She glanced at the floor which was dissolving from the green liquid pouring from Tafel’s sword. “It’s just not right.”
“Let the match begin!” The referee’s voice echoed through the arena.
Tafel raised her head. “Alright, sword. Show me you’re worthy of a name.” She narrowed her eyes and inhaled, holding her blade out horizontally. Six people charged forward, reaching halfway across the arena. As Tafel took a step, she paused and turned her head towards Alice. “What happens if I bisect an elemental?”
“It’s not against the rules to kill them. They’ll revive anywhere from a day to a few months depending on circumstances,” Alice said as she readied her shield. A massive blue fireball flew towards her and Tafel, but she easily batted it away by enlarging her shield.
“Great,” Tafel said. “And the elementals are the shiny people, right?”
“Yeah.”
Tafel nodded and pursed her lips. A second later, she vanished and reappeared in front of one of the elementals. His eyes widened as Tafel’s blade stabbed through his chest. The elemental’s arms reached towards the blade before falling limp at his sides. Tafel’s sword made gulping noises as the elemental vanished, turning into a puff of flames, causing his elementalist in the back to turn pale and collapse.
Tafel raised an eyebrow. “Beat an elemental, and the elementalist collapses as well?”
Wind blades, icicles, rock fragments, and lightning bolts flew towards Tafel, but her horns glowed silver and dozens of portals formed in the air around her and the remaining elementals. The projectiles entered the portals beside her and hit her enemies instead. Tafel swung her sword as four of her horns glowed green, and a blade of wind sliced a blue elemental in half.
“When an elemental dies, their elementalist loses mana equal to three times the cost of summoning them,” Alice said as she arrived at Tafel’s side. “If they’re not careful, their mana pool will empty, and the result is as you see.” She gestured towards the two twitching elementalists on the ground. “Don’t you feel bad for bullying people weaker than you?”
“It’s twelve against two,” Tafel said and blocked an icicle with her sword. “It’s fair… kinda. And we don’t have a healer.”
Alice snorted. “Like you need one.” She shook her head and sighed. “Can you beat them by yourself? I know I can.”
“Forget what I just said. That’s not very fair for the competition,” Tafel said with a frown.
“You’re the one who wanted to join! I told you it wasn’t worth the effort, but no, you insisted. You even obtained a strong weapon before it started. Isn’t that the only reason you wanted to join the competition?” Alice slapped Tafel’s back with her shield, causing the demon to stumble.
“What is this? Friendly fire?” the referee asked. “Tafel’s movements were too fast for me to keep up with earlier, but I’d be a failure as a referee if I couldn’t comment on the berserk librarian’s behavior! It seems like the rumors of her beating everyone indiscriminately were true! No wonder why she only has one other party member; I know I wouldn’t stick around if my party was trying to sabotage me all the time.”
“Shut up, you damn referee!” Alice threw her shield at the announcer’s stand, shattering the magical barrier that prevented attacks from reaching the audience. The referee’s face paled as Alice’s shield embedded itself into the wall beside his head, rotating like a grinder. A second later, the shield flew backwards and returned to Alice’s hand like a boomerang.
In the instant that everyone was distracted by Alice’s returning shield toss, Tafel had disabled three out of the four remaining elementals. The last elemental crumbled into dust before she could do anything, and the only standing elementalist raised his hands into the air, signaling his surrender.
Tafel sighed and placed her sword on her back. She didn’t even have to use the leviathan armor’s barrier. “I hope the next people we fight are stronger.”
“There won’t be a challenge until the final,” Alice said, shaking her head. “There’s only one triple-S party other than us who’ve signed up.”