Fantasy System 273 Warm Tears

The two clashed once, twice, a dozen times every second, leaving behind craters everywhere around the battlefield.

By now, everyone had found an opponent to fight. Those left with no enemy stood on the sidelines and watched anxiously, yet at the same time, they were astonished. A dozen battles took place at the same time, and each one was more breathtaking than the previous.

Akira, who was forced to promise, by Arthur, to stand back and remain in the sidelines in order to protect their allies in case of a hidden force of Blood sect, watched, full of worry, as his son and his comrades fought with their blood and sweat. A burning sensation of rage and disappointment raced around his flurried mind; he wanted to be on the frontline fighting. But, a promise was a promise, and to back down would sully his precious pride.

Hayato and his enemy stared daggers into each other. His opponent was one of Johan's teammates, which accompanied him in the tower when he first met Ed. He was a tall man with reddish-brown hair and a herculean build. His eyes were brown and his visage gave the impression that he didn't smile a lot. He carried a mace. The shaft was made of pure wood, glazed with steel to make it easy to hold, while the head was made of Mythril, and several spikes protruded out of it.

The two of them made a move at the same time, and the result was as expected…Hayato drove his enemy's head into the ground, cracking it. However, as if nothing had happened, the man stood up right away.

Similar battles were happening all over the place, with Alicia, Ellie, and Leon fighting the rest of Johan's teammates.

Emilia, however, had another goal in mind. Ed had planned on avoiding such an outcome, but it came to be this way. She stood in front of Sarin, a fire burning at the pit of her stomach, yet her ice magic felt colder and deadlier than ever. The Poison sect master bit on his molars so hard, cracks started to form on them. They dared to use his existence as a way to attack the master; they tarnished his name and made fun of him. They humiliated him. He stared at his hand, as a purple liquid started to ooze out of them. His magic returned to normal, but why did it malfunction earlier? The question plagued his mind. He didn't know that Ed had set a rule on the dimension that he created. Fire magic would transform into Poison magic, and vice versa. It was all in order to make the transformed Gobuta appear more believable.

Of course, he had the choice of summoning the Kraken, but Ed was worried that the Blood sect master would notice the difference between an Avatar summoning, and a normal summoning.

"Edward Avalon won't even face me this time?" Sarin spoke as he sent half a look towards Emilia. "He sends his late night wh.o.r.e to entertain me, is that it?"

"You should be careful," Emilia stated. "His ears are quite sharp, and if he were to hear you, he'd chop you up into pieces."

"That's quite the confidence. I failed to see it last time when I pumped him full of poison," Sarin smirked and said. "I wonder how he survived. Did he get you to suck it out for him?"

"No not really," Emilia, still maintaining her cool, answered Sarin, but her cold gaze never left him. "He simply overcame your poison. Right now, you're no longer a threat to him if I dare presume. That's why I'm here. I'm more than enough of a match for you right now."

"Ha…HAHAHA!" Sarin broke into a fit of maniacal laughter. "I fail to see how you'll survive my poison, little princess of Aaragon!"

Sarin thrust his hand forward and poison surged out like a torrent. It didn't take long for it to surround Emilia's whole body. But, soon enough Sarin started to notice how it got less dense as if it was being sucked up.

"I never said I was going to fight you alone," Emilia said from within the poison mist. Soon it disappeared and she emerged spotless from within, right above her head, a golden slime sat. "We're far past the point of fair fights, am I right?"

Her Qi spiraled around her, creating a field of icy mist. Her silver hair fluttered in the wind and Suika jumped up and down her head. Quickly, the area around her and Sarin turned into a snowy plain.

Sarin didn't take the hint from before and started to attack from a distance with his poison. But, each and every time, without failure, Suika sucked up everything. Emilia took the chance to counterattack with ice pillars, which punctured the ground under Sarin, or ice spears which followed him like homing missiles.

Emilia created an ice arena, which surrounded Sarin from all direction, leaving him with only one way out, above him. He realized that it was a trap, but noticing hundreds of ice spears and arrows surrounding him, he had no choice but to fly up. There, he was met with an ice hammer, the size of a small house, hurling towards him. He used his poison to melt it almost immediately, but he noticed the colossal figure of ice golem approaching him.

"Impudent!" Sarin screamed as he released his poison magic in a sphere that formed around him. The golem which ran toward him dissipated into nothing almost immediately.

Sarin realized that he wasn't going to get far by using ranged attacks and thus switched to close combat. He rushed almost immediately towards Emilia, who managed to dodge his poison infused fists by a close margin. It was thanks to her daily training against Ellie that she managed to foresee the attacks' direction before they hit.

But, Sarin was much stronger than her, and it was only a matter of time before he could connect. Emilia was retreating further and further, every time, Sarin grazed her closer. It reached a point where she tripped, and as she was falling, Sarin accelerated until he was mere centimeters away from her.

Just as he thought of how he was going to finish her, he noticed the lingering sensation of Qi on the ground under him, and before he could even react, he felt dozens of areas all over his body burn up. Sarin looked down, but it was too painful to move his neck. He felt a liquid rush upwards, and couldn't hold it in. he puked blood all over his clothes. It was only then that he realized what had happened.

He stepped into a trap, which caused over twenty different ice weapons to pieces his body. On top of that, his hands and legs were bound by Ice Mountains.

The crimson red blood dripped all over the beautiful ice sculptures, and Sarin's hazy eyes focused on Emilia who started to approach him. In her hand was the most beautiful weapon that his eyes had ever seen. It was the same weapon of the strongest ice user that he encountered…no it was the second strongest now.

"Do you have any last words?" Emilia asked him out of courtesy.

"Heh…" Sarin struggled to produce any words, but he forced himself to look up, right into Emilia's cloudy eyes. "You look just like your mother."

Emilia could feel that her rage was slowly leaving her body. Maybe it was a pity, or maybe it was because she knew Ed would share all of her burdens, but she no longer hated the man in front of her. She looked him right in the eyes, and in one fell swoop, her rapier pierced his head. His warm blood froze on the cold edge of the rapier.

But, no matter how cold the rapier was, it couldn't change the warmth of the tears that fell from Emilia's eyes.