Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

The girl had beautiful red hair and striking green eyes. Though she was trying to act calm, Aliana recognized the same anxieties in her as she did in herself. So, as a kindred spirit, the elf girl saddled up to her and started a conversation. It went about as well as she expected, but the girl did at least acknowledge Aliana was there.

In the end, she even wished her good luck! As thanks for that, when she saw an opening, she shot an arrow at someone who targeted the girl, whose name she found out after the fact, was Rena.

Near the end of the fight, Rena fought side by side with Aliana and they managed to become one of the last three fighters standing. Though she would have been among those defeated and soaking in their blood without her, Aliana had truly made it.

Now she stood in the arena again. This time, there were two raised stages in the circular coliseum. From what the announcer said, until the final fight, matches would be held on these smaller stages two at a time. The one to lose is the first to lose consciousness, be knocked off the rectangular battle area, or concede.

.net

Aliana glared at her opponent, bowing at the ready. She was confident she could beat this person. He was one of the pre-selected fighters, which meant he was a representative of one of the countries. She already knew who Aedrider\'s representative was, so that narrowed down the options, but it did not matter in the end.

What did matter was that this strange fighter had no presence. There was no emission of mana at all as if he were not even a Ranker. If that were the case, likely, he\'s just very proficient at the arts. The figure had summoned a strange spear that seemed to have a constant layer of frost over the blade.

"I see we both have enchanted weapons. May the best fighter win." Aliana called out.

The other fighter simply nodded and got into a ready stance. She found it strange, but he was wearing a flat, black mask with no defining features. She could see pupils through the eye slits, but not much else.

"Fighters. At the ready!" The announcer shouted. "Begin!"

"[Bow Arts: Multi-shot], [Bow Arts: Pierce], [Bow Arts: Phantom Arrows]"

She quickly activated her triple threat combination of arts and then flooded her magic bow with the mana needed to empower the enchantment. The figure on the other end of the arena started slowly walking towards her but showed no signs of rushing. He was letting her get prepared.

"Arrogant…" she growled and released her shot. The arrow glowed with golden light and split into multiple copies of itself. Some were real, others fake. Each one that was real was enhanced by the Pierce skill and the paralysis enchantment from her bow. The figure continued to walk towards her slowly as nearly a hundred arrows bore down on him. They converged in an explosion of light and dust.

The crowd \'oh\'s\' and \'ahh\' in surprise at the sudden light show. However, when the dust cleared, her opponent was not there. Feeling like something was wrong, she went to turn around, but felt someone picking her up by the scruff of her armor, like she was a puppy or a kitten.

"Because Rena seems to like you, we will end it this way." The man mumbled. Before, he didn\'t seem like a guy or a girl, but his voice was that of a man.

"What do you…" she started to ask before he walked her over to the edge of the ring and dropped her outside of it unceremoniously.

"Winner of Ring B, match one is… Titan!"

Aliana sat there and blinked, unable to process what just happened to her. However, she looked back at the ring and saw a glimpse of the man\'s true power leak out from behind his mask. He allowed her to understand his true strength, so she did not have to feel bad about the way she lost… and when she felt that, she was very glad he decided to take it easy on her.

"That man is a monster…" She shuddered. "I should still have time to place a bet on the winner. Make me some money Titan." She mumbled, leaving the arena and returning to the stands.

******

Though her match had started, Rena and her opponent with the mace found themselves distracted by the one next to them. The speed at which the masked person, Titan had moved was unbelievable.

"And that person is supposed to be Intermediate or Advanced Rank?" Rena found herself muttering.

"All right, girlie… let\'s get our started, eh?" The mace wielder asked while launching himself at her.

Rena sighed because he was no competition for her. Sure, he was a very strong fighter, however, he had shown a weakness already. He was not confident in aerial defense. Luckily for Rena, she already revealed that card, so it was no problem for her to fix it.

"[Ventus: Air Step]"

Rena bound into the air and held herself at the second to last step she could take. She was able to hold this spell for a handful of minutes by this point, as long as she did not use other spells. However, it was her very intention to use spells, so at most she had a minute.

"[Ferrum: Iron Spear]" "[Aqua: Water Ball]" "[Glacies: Ice Spear]"

From high in the air, Rena fired spell after spell at the mace wielder, who attempted to block as many attacks as he could with his shield. Unfortunately for him, he did not seem to possess any Shield Arts that could have granted him additional protection. In no time at all he was battered and beaten by the number of spells that she had cast on him.

Struggling to speak, he almost collapsed to the ground before saying "I forfeit…" Then he passed out.

"The First Round of the singles matches is complete! We have our winners advancing to the next round! Please give a warm round of applause to, Rena von Petra from Arcadios! As well as Titan of Eroa!"

Rena glanced over at the ring where Titan had fought and muttered to herself. "That man over there is the true fight here. Good luck to whoever faces that guy…"