Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

"[Ventus: Wind Blade]"

She quickly cast her Wind Blade spell as a horizontal slice and retreated in the opposite direction she sent the spell. It was hard to tell if it struck anyone, but she simply needed to create an opening. Directly behind her though, was a group of fighters in a melee with one another. There was no clear way around them, so she elected to go over them.

"[Lux: Enhanced Leap]"

Light magic swirled around her legs and she jumped over the warriors and landed safely on the opposite side.

"Rargh!" a woman with an axe charged from Rena\'s left side, crying out in anger and revealing her position. "[Axe Arts: Heavy Slam]"

The woman\'s axe burned with golden light as the weapon came down on her, however before Rena could react, she saw the light vanish and the raging woman collapsed in a heap with an arrow sticking out of her back. Glancing in the direction of the shot, Rena caught a familiar smile from a kind-looking elven girl. The same one who wished her luck before.

Rena gave her a nod and then shot off another spell. "[Ferrum: Spike Wall]"

She squatted onto the ground while spinning around completely, everywhere her hand touched the ground, metal spikes with dulled edges erupted upwards and smacked into a handful of fighters rushing towards her. While still empowered from her Enhanced Leap earlier, she jumped over the wall and ran from the spot.

Since she had no Arts to assist her physical weapon beyond some Light Magic enhancements, it was best for her to keep moving so the other fighters did not pin down the mage.

By this point, most of the other mages seemed to be out as those that were still in the fight were all using some kind of weapon art. Rena felt her breath starting to become slightly ragged from all the physical exertion. Her magic reserves were still more than fine and she could likely keep up this pace for the remainder of the battle.

Looking around, out of the original one hundred contestants, they were already down to seventy. Mostly mages had been taken out since this type of battlefield was not suited to them thanks to magic being taught in the academy for long-range use.

"[Ventus: Gust]"

The wind rushed from her fingertips towards a bunch of enemy fighters with their backs faced towards her. They each were occupied with their opponents, but the sudden burst of Wind Magic threw them off balance enough to create openings for the other fighter.

As a mage, she would run the risk of burning through her magical reserves quicker than she wanted if she relied on single attacks strong enough to knock someone out alone. Discover more content at m,v l\'e-NovelBin.net

With that in mind, she instead opted for a trickier approach. If she was unable to take them out head-on consistently, then at least control the fight. It was a tactic she learned from Lucius when he was too weak to fight head-on. He instead relied on battlefield awareness and clever tricks.

"I still use the lessons you taught me every day, my love," Rena said with a smile. "[Aqua: Gush]"

Rena sent a torrent of water across the surface of the battlefield creating a somewhat slippery terrain. Water mixed with blood along the ground which created a gruesome painting along the surface.

Rena rushed out of the middle of the battlefield, trying to gain a little space for another barrage of magic casting. Around her people fell in battle. She dodged the occasional spell and ducked beneath and beside blade and axe swings.

With several more castings of Gust and Wind Blade, she finally managed to carve out a small safe area for herself on the edge of the battlefield and was able to take a short breath.

Beside her, another person had created a space for them away from the battle. It was the elf girl again.

"Nice to see you again." She giggled, shooting another arrow into a crowd of people.

Rena was able to see that the bow had a strange shimmer to it. Every few seconds, a small flash of green would run down the length of the weapon.

"Is that enchanted?"

"It is!" The girl said, wiping off an absurd amount of sweat. "It takes a lot out of me, so I can\'t use Magic or Arts, but it has a paralysis enchantment. Doesn\'t work on Advance Rank or above though."

Rena was impressed. It sounded like quite a powerful weapon in all honesty. She was about to say something when she saw someone slowly sneaking up behind the elven girl with a dagger in their hands. "[Ferrum: Iron Spike]"

A large, blunted spike of metal shot out of the ground beneath the would-be attacker and slammed into the underside of his jaw. The force lifted him a foot into the air and he fell onto his back, unconscious and missing a few extra teeth.

"Thanks!"

"Returning the favor."

After that, both girls decided to team up and face the remaining participants together. Slowly, but surely, the competition dwindled to only fifty, then thirty, then finally, only ten remained. Among those ten, it seemed everyone had formed teams. There were two teams of two and two teams of three. Together, they were all at an impasse.

The ground was littered with unconscious fighters who could not be moved, so they needed to be careful not to cause any deadly blows that severely limited Rena\'s options… so instead she pulled out her wildcard. She wanted to save it for later but now was the best option.

She and the elf came close together and pulled further from the other groups, allowing them to fight it out. All of them were melee fighters, leaving Rena and her partner as the only ranged attacker. Unfortunately, everyone remaining was an Advance Rank, so the archer\'s bow was out. Rena launched the occasional metal spell and water spell, peppering them with tiny impacts from a distance.

One warrior with a mace and shield powered through a team of three on his own, leaving the other three-person team and his ally. When those five started to fight, Rena readied her mana. She got a little excited and was on the verge of running out, so she focused on recovery and concentrating on the mana she needed to pull it off.

"I need you to trust me, okay?"

"Got it."

The man with the mace roared at his victory over the final group of three, leaving Rena, the elf, the man with a mace, and his partner who seemed to be using a longsword.

"[Ventus: Air Step]"

Rena felt Wind Magic coat the bottom of her feet and she jumped into the air while pulling the elf into her arms. Rena continued to jump, taking five more steps until they were a few stories into the air.

"Oi! Get down here!" The man with the longsword shouted. The mace wielder simply stared at Rena and her partner for a moment, then swung his mace at the back of his ally\'s head.

"And that\'s it, folks! With only fourteen minutes left on the clock, we finally have our final three! These three fine warriors will be entering the ten-person tournament that will begin in a few short hours! Please allow our fighters to rest and recover, and make sure to return to your seats before the next round of fights begins!"