Shades of the New World

The group of people walked towards the training grounds, which was a large empty area decorated with a few weapon stands and some knights and squires doing rounds.

"Clear the area! A duel between the young mages will take place here!" A servant announced.

The soldiers grumbled a bit, but after learning that their young lady was going to fight, the ones who were training started to look at Arza with some pity in their eyes. Some others went to cheer up the young lady of the house. Clearly, the little girl was notorious in her turf.

Bella went to change her clothes, and Arza was being scolded by Aran. The Earl's two elder daughters had an intrigued look, wanting to see how their youngest sister shames herself in front of others.

'Guess they don't really come to watch her spar… The girl's pretty respected by the guards, as incompetent they may seem,' Evin thought absentmindedly.

"At least we get some entertainment while we visit this dull place," Rith chimed in.

"Who do you think will win?" Evin asked.

"Probably Arza, you know how he fights. I'm pretty sure he'd beat you if he starts to use his head a little," Rith said.

"Really? I think the girl will win. Wanna bet on it?" Evin taunted.

"Oh, what will we bet?" Rith seemed amused.

"How about a thousand?"

"Daring, are we? Isn't that basically everything on your hand? I hope you don't cry when you lose them all," Rith smiled.

"We'll see who's going to cry," Evin smirked.

The earl and his daughters who listened to the conversation were interested in how easily the two talked about money. 1000 silver was not a small amount of money. And not only that, it was for a fight between two kids. On such a small fight, who would dare bet such a large amount of money!

Finally, Bellaslayn came out with a light leather armor that fit her like a glove. It was padded in the areas of her vitals, but it looked like it was made to not restrict of the owner's movements. She held a wooden sword that was clearly enhanced to absorb World energies better, with a glove on her right hand which was covered in small colorful gems. She also wore a scowl on her face, like something really bad happened to her. As far as Evin could tell, it was not the boy she was fighting that made her scowl like that. Evin was curious of the reason, but he was more interested in the glove.

"What's that thing she's wearing?" Evin asked.

"It's called a Channeling Artifact. You see the gems on it? They're all tiny fragments of World cores mixed with a precious metal known as sorbothium, and they can absorb World energies before a fight. Although it's not useful in sudden situations, it's still a valuable tool that most mages use," Rith explained with some longing on her face.

'So it's something like World energy batteries. That's so useful,' Evin thought.

Aran, on the other hand, was feeding something to Arza. The kid looked like he was about to puke out the thing afterwards, but Aran forced it down the kid's throat. Arza started tearing and gagging.

"What did he make him eat?" Evin asked the Feline.

"You'll know soon enough"

The two's fight was finally about to start.

A servant threw a green cloth to the air and backed off immediately. The cloth fluttered in the air for a few seconds and right as it fell, Arza madly dashed towards Bellaslayn, tightly gripping his enhanced wooden sword.

Bella smirked and pulled out an Earthen wall from the ground to interrupt the dash. The piece of ground that she pulled up was much sturdier than Evin's and it also looked much more threatening. She then enveloped her wooden sword in flames and expectantly looked at the wall's edges. She probably planned to surprise Arza, after the boy jumped or dashed around the Earthen wall.

Evin was surprised by two things. First, Evin could feel that her fire had the same qualities as Ssatsko's solid fire. But more surprisingly, she didn't bring out a mana lodestone to conjure it. Evin realized that the glove she was wearing was doing its job. Evin desperately wanted something like that for himself.

"She's not playing around," Evin thought out loud.

"Yeah, but that wall will not stop Arza," Rith chimed in.

Instead of going around the obstacle like a normal person would, Arza directly jumped at it. Evin could see the child's muscle bulge slightly with energy and the next moment, Arza's wooden sword burst out at the wall with incredible energy. Arza's sword then shined out bright white rays, briefly blinding Bella.

Evin was surprised that he could not see Arza take on any hue of color. He guessed that whatever the thing that Aran fed the boy had the ability to hide his World energies.

As Evin was analyzing the contestant's methods, the fight started to favor Arza.

Bella did not expect someone to actually break her wall like that, so her defense was slightly more sloppy than what it could be. On top of the surprise, the light show happening on Arza's sword did its job properly, even further putting the girl in a passive spot.

They exchanged a few blows, with Bella receiving much more damage than Arza. The boy did not know the meaning of the word holding back, so his attacks were brutal and overwhelming. Suddenly met with intense pain all around her body, Bella was find her slipping into a bad spot.

Evin could see that she was able to hold on thanks to her glove, which allowed her to channel World without using a lodestone. She was also properly trained by a soldier, so that also helped her cope with the various attacks that Arza was throwing at her.

Knowing that she can't let the situation go on like this, Bella gritted her teeth and threw a relatively big flaming ball between herself and her opponent. The ball suddenly exploded, taking Arza by surprise.