Life Hunter

Arima was sitting on the top of the outer wall, ready to watch the next fight. He held a pouch in his hand and was leisurely snacking on the candies inside. Night was next to him, also looking below with semi-interested eyes.

In block D, Aria and Rehard were facing each other on the arena.

"Ready!?" James bellowed. "3, 2, 1. Begin!"

Aria kicked the ground first and charged at Rehard, the latter lifted his shield and briefly chanted. A magic formation appeared on the shield and the whole armament started releasing a blinding light.

"[Zero Rain]," Aria conjured a magic in response. A dozen of icicles condensed in mid-air just above him before falling at high speed. As the icicles entered his range, Rehard clicked his tongue and waved his shield. He used it as a blunt weapon to shatter the ice and alleviate the shock. The light that was coming from the shield was dispersed just after.

At that moment, Aria closed in and swung her long spear at him. Rehard could only counter it head-on with his longsword.

"[Light Acumen]," he chanted when the two blades clashed. His sword glowed, and a white pillar directly fell from the sky and struck Aria.

"So, he uses light magic, huh? He is looking more and more like a paladin," Arima commented. "He has a decent defense and good crowd control. This guy is suited for warfare," he paused and swallowed his last candy. "But he's no match for her."

Night nodded in agreement.

On the stage, the temperature suddenly dropped. Ice spikes sprouted from the ground and pierced the white pillar as if it was a physical object. The light turned to ice and broke into glimmering fragments. Within the crystal spectacle, Aria collided with Rehard with her spear which was enveloped by a mystic blue shine. This time, when she landed the hit, the ice around her changed into cold water and pushed the paladin as if a tide had emerged on land.

"[Ice Pole]," Aria intoned. Her spear turned white as she threw it. It pierced the ground right in front of Rehard. The ice spread and trapped his legs. The armored man felt a numbing sensation rising inside his entire body. Before he could say or do anything, Aria was already in front of him and had pressed her palm on his chest.

"[Ice Coffin]," she chanted and Rehard continued to congeal until he became a block of ice in the form of a coffin.

Aria let out a breath which crystallized due to the cold. She swung her spear one last time and broke the coffin with the shaft. Rehard was instantly freed and fell on the ground unconscious.

"It's over," Arima yawned. "I'll go sleep." He jumped off the wall along with Night. A short while after, James announced Aria's victory as well as the next fight between her and Arima.

***

Finally, the next day, the finals arrived.

On the stage, once again, Arima casually stood with his body straight. This time, he was facing Aria. Night was beside him and was eager to finally be able to fight.

"Ready? 3!"

Aria clenched her spear. "I'll do my best. Sentio," she called and a huge snake appeared at her side. He was as big as an anaconda back in the old world. But this serpent was certainly unusual. He was light green in color with a few darker scales at some places. He had two little horns on his head, slit pupils, and bright green eyes.

"2."

"Oh, a snake?" Arima was a bit surprised. 'Well, it's a cold-blooded animal, it kinda suits her I guess.'

The snake in question gazed at Arima and Night. When he looked at the former, he didn't react much but when his eyes met Night's, his pupils narrowed even more and he unintentionally moved back his whole body.

"1."

Arima smiled and nodded his head to Night. The latter laughed and activated his magic. It was only returning his body back to normal, so it wasn't going to be slow or complex. Night turned back into a dragon in front of everyone, cracked his neck and slammed his tail on the ground.

"Finally, I was getting cramped."

The spectators were silent and Aria was shocked. 'I actually petted him!'

Even James forgot to finish the countdown. But nobody waited for him. Aria decided to attack first and dashed. She was pretty fast and wielded her spear to attack Arima. On the other hand, Sentio jumped on Night and wrapped himself around his arm and tried to bite his neck.

"Karma," Arima called his sword and easily blocked Aria's spear.

"[Fire Scales]," Night used his fire magic to ignite his scales. Black flames immediately covered his entire body. Sentio hissed and hurriedly backed off.

He glared at Night and chanted, "[Frozen Rain]."

Water condensed above the dragon and clashed against the flames. The fire was weakened slightly then the water suddenly froze and assaulted Night with ice shards. Within a few seconds, the whole place became filled with steam.

The vein-like red lines on Night's body glowed. He deployed his wings, blowing away the steam, and flew toward the snake. He chose to rely on close combat for now. Maybe because he was Arima's soul beast, but he seemed to be skilled in martial arts and appeared to already have a fair share of experience.

Though it was indeed awkward to watch a dragon giving kicks and punches.

Sentio was gradually forced to stay on defense. He wasn't a soul beast supposed to fight in close combat in the first place.

"[Scintillam Ferram] (Wild Spark)," Arima sped up and slashed with Karma from a tricky angle, but Aria was reactive enough to parry it with the shaft of her spear. "Your spear is pretty tough. Unfortunately, it's not enough. [Sunt Robore]," he exerted more strength and cut the spear in two. Karma's title of soul weapon wasn't just for show.

But Arima unexpectedly frowned afterward. He wanted to continue his momentum but he noticed that his hand and arm had been encased in ice. Aria took the opportunity and placed her hand on his chest.

"[Ice Coffin]." What happened next was the same as the day before. Arima froze until he became a large block of ice, a lot bigger than with Rehard.

Sentio smirked while fighting with Night. "Looks like your partner lost," he scoffed. Night nonchalantly glanced at the ice coffin for a second. The red lines on his body shined even more and some flames escaped the gaps between his fangs. He opened his mouth and roared.

A massive flame erupted from his throat and burned everything in a straight line until the wall of the coliseum. Sentio was struck directly but managed to avoid life-threatening injuries thanks to a magic shield.

When Aria was about to rush to help him, she heard a deep voice echoing.

"[Fulgur] (Lightning)." Thunder rumbled, the ice coffin cracked and black lightning exploded from inside. Arima walked out totally unharmed. Aria was astounded. He didn't look agitated or tired and he didn't suffer any injuries, not even a scratch.

In fact, the enchantments of Arima's clothes activated automatically and he actually didn't even need to use his magic directly to resist or heal himself.

"[Spaera] (Sphere)," Arima waved his hand and conjured a dozen of small spheres above his palm. Like previously, a complex circle formed. But compared to the others, this one was red and orange.

He flung the marbles through the circle. When they touched the ground, they were already filled with fire and electricity. Aria's took a glimpse of the sphere at her feet and urgently backed away. She waved her spear with great strength and produced a strong and cold wind, which froze and blew away the small marbles.

The spheres exploded in the air and released an explosion of black flames and lightning. Aria looked at that and gulped, those attacks were a lot more destructive and powerful than the ones she had seen before.

Arima smiled. "You got it pretty easily. Of course, if you blow away those marbles, escape their range, or just obstruct the discharge, they won't harm you in any way. But… don't relax too quickly."

"What?" Aria suddenly heard the sound of wings. A red-eyed falcon suddenly landed on her shoulder and her pupils narrowed. The bird was holding a marble with compressed flames inside his beak. Aria tried to destroy that bird but Arima was a step ahead.

"[Lacero] (Break)." The sphere broke inside the bird's beak. The explosion engulfed Aria's figure. She covered herself in ice and barely resisted most of the damage.

With some of her skin still covered in ice, she retreated to Sentio's side and gave him a healing potion. Arima calmly sauntered and stopped beside Night.

Aria stared at him. "Be honest, either of you could defeat us alone, right?" She uttered. Sentio groaned and lifted his head.

Arima shrugged. "I don't know about Night. His fire magic is definitely mighty, but I summoned him not too long ago, so his body is only around the low-mid class of level 7. As for me… yes. I can win against you two easily," he naturally answered. He knew that there was no point in lying.

"I see," Aria stood up. "Let's go, Sentio." The snake nodded. The two released their aura and mana at the same time and an unknown circle formed on the ground below them. Both of their spiritual forces began to align with each other like matching frequencies.

"[Resonance]!" They shouted in sync. Sentio became a blue ray of light covering Aria. The latter's figure changed during that period of time. After the light disappeared, she had light green hair, sharp reptilian eyes, faint scales on her arms and face, and two fangs that could make someone mistake her for a vampire.

She smiled. "Please fight me seriously."

"Well, I'll use the maximum level at which I won't kill you… what about that?"

Aria helplessly sustained her smile. "I shall be satisfied with that."

"Night," Arima looked at his partner. Just like their opponents, they both released their aura then a magic circle encompassed them. The general layout was similar but some runes were clearly different.

"[Resonance]."

Night changed into a black light dragon and flew toward Arima. As Arima was still hidden by that energy, he chanted something else, "[Draconicis est Anima Mea] (Draconic Soul)." A red hue mixed with the black one.

At that moment, a suffocating aura spread throughout the whole coliseum and even outside of it. The spectators immediately turned silent. They couldn't say anything as they couldn't even open their mouth. They felt like a single move would result in themselves being killed. Even Aria could barely breathe.

After the resonance, the aura was restrained and Arima's appearance was revealed. His arms were covered with strong black scales that even destroyed his coat's sleeves. His hands also became as strong as the claws of a dragon. His pupils became red like a dragon, his sclera turned slightly silver, and his hair became a bit longer. And the most marking change was the pair of wings on his back.

"What did you do?" Aria spoke a bit fearfully. "Your resonance was odd. The circle was different and your actual strength now is at least two times stronger, this should not be that powerful…"

"I just changed the process of the resonance. I realized it was quite flawed so I altered it. With my version, the boost of strength changes from 1.5 times to 2 times and it lasts until it's willingly released," Arima explained as if it was normal.

"{No, it's not normal, you know? Do you realize that you just perfected an ancient technique of this world that even renowned scholars can't modify?}" Night retorted while he was fused with Arima.

Aria was dumbfounded, she couldn't believe it.

"Well, are you ready?" He asked and Aria trembled. She clenched her fists. Her surroundings turned terribly cold as she released her aura. She took out a new spear from her spatial storage and applied an enchantment on it, changing it into a pure white weapon.

Arima smiled, his body began to heat up as he burned the ground with flames. Lightning gathered around him as well. "In this form, my fire magic reaches the same affinity level as my lightning. And my mana and magic output greatly increases. So..." The heat and the lightning died down and were replaced by cold air. "I'll use this only. I won't use Karma; I wouldn't want to kill you."

Aria didn't respond and charged at Arima, she circulated her mana to the maximum of her abilities and was even faster than Arima with his usual Wild Spark. Aria gripped her spear with both hands and swung it vertically from above.

Arima inherently moved and caught the blade with his now claw-like hand. The aftershock crushed the arena behind and covered it with ice in the next instant.

"Well, let's end this," Arima condensed his aura in one direction and pushed Aria back without even making contact with her. He broke the spear in his hand and pointed his palm at her.

"[Glacians Aestus] (Freezing Tide)." It only started as small crystal and then it became bigger and bigger and swept over the entire arena leaving then a colossal purple ice block behind.

Aria was caught inside and fainted, her resonance was ended forcefully and broke apart the block of ice. She and Sentio were both unconscious once out.

"The champion is Arimane Blade!" James loudly said. All the spectators cheered.

Arima canceled his resonance and Night reappeared at his side. The former was actually gawking at his own magic.

"Why is it purple? This doesn't make any sense… I admit it's gorgeous though... If I can make an everlasting ice magic, I could probably sell it," he admired.

A moment later, he healed Aria and her soul beast before waking them. "Get up," he helped her stand up.

"Thanks for healing us," she said with a soft smile but her eyes were filled with a fierce will after she saw her opponent's true strength.

"Don't mind it."

"Mr. Blade, to receive your reward, please come to the hall," James suddenly said.

Arima heard him and moved to the exit and waved his hand at Aria. "See you."

"Ah, right," he then remembered that his sleeves had been torn because of the resonance. "[Restitutio] (Restore)," he intoned and his sleeves were quickly restored. The fabric literally grew back and he headed to the hall of the coliseum afterward.