In A Dilemma
The fights continue, and at the end of the round, only four people are left. Me, Keldin, Roy and Bree. I have no doubt that Noah would have been a part of them if he hadn't been paired against me. Finally, the pairings four the second to the last round come out. I would be going up against Bree, while Keldin would fight Roy.
Once again, Keldin goes first, and the fight that ensues is the best I have seen since the start of the competition. Unlike the other fights, it lasts far longer than a few seconds, and with both of them having knowledge from the Elemental Trump, they are almost always able to counter each other's moves. The good thing is that for the first time since the Rankings started, I am finally able to get a good look at Keldin's full strength, and just like I originally suspected he has grown stronger.
Like before he is still using mainly fire and earth, but his control over them seems to have become far smoother than before. Also, the golden beam he used to finish me off has clearly become stronger, plus he can cast it far quicker now. If I managed to beat Bree and have to battle him, well, I don't think I will be able to win.
In the end, Keldin cinches victory and wins earning wild applause from the crowd watching. I understand what they are feeling, after all this was the first fight today that wasn't particularly uninteresting.
Finally, my name and Bree's appear on the TV. I pour my Uua into my seat and I am teleported to the room with the teleportation circle. Bree appears almost exactly when I do, but the moment she sees me her bearing changes. It doesn't look like she is scared of me, more like nervous, but I can't tell why. Is it because I won my fight against Noah? I don't know.
We step into the circles and are teleported to the stage. The moment the match begins, I move, trying my best to close the distance between us as fast as possible. After my fight with Noah, a whole new way of winning my fights was presented to me. All I had to do was to make sure my opponent is within my domain, then I could summon Hilla's barrier around them, that single move would put an end to the fight as there was no way I am letting them out until they either surrender or use up their Uua trying to break out.
It is also at this moment I begin to realize the advantages of having more Uua than others. Since I became Laen, I haven't really had the chance to see the usefulness of large amounts of Uua. The first time I fought Keldin suppressed me with pure skill, then after that I mainly trained with people like Drew who are much stronger than me, then my next fight was with the Majin who I had no hope of beating. In all of this, the advantage of having a large amount of Uua just couldn't be seen. But now, in my first two fights I had begun to see them. As long as the conditions were right, I could end this fight without too much of a hassle.
As I move forward, using Burst to increase my speed, she likewise moves backward, somehow managing to move faster than me while not using Burst. Since everyone else I had fought used Burst, it takes me a second to realize she was using telekinesis to achieve her speed. The principle should be the same as that behind Burst, release an explosive force from your feet to boost you in whatever direction you want to move in, but instead of using Uua she is using telekinesis.
While making sure to stay out of range of me she begins her attack, and it catches me off guard. Moving as quickly as I am with Burst, I hadn't expected to run into an invisible wall. Of course, it's not a wall but telekinesis, but the result is still the same, I almost knocked myself out. I knew from her previous fights that Bree mainly used telekinesis, but unlike Noah's illusions it's not so easy to counter due to the fact that it's very versatile - to those who can use it well - and also pretty much invisible. There are ways to tell when people are using it, like stuff moving on their own, or when the air suddenly begins warping in a strange manner caused by the telekinesis moving through it, but somehow Bree has found a way to make it almost undetectable.
As I step away from the invisible wall, I notice Bree clap her hand. The next moment I gasp as two opposing forces slam into me from either side. Without giving me time, she makes a sharp forward movement with her hand, and I feel something hit me hard in the gut. She makes another movement, but I am not going to stay still and make myself her punching bag. I activate Hilla's barrier and block the attacks that land, and then I activate D-three. Now a bit more prepared, I dash toward her, again she goes on the run, making sure that I am unable to close the gap between us. Once again, she attempts the invisible wall attack, but I am alert now. Even though it is invisible, telekinesis generally distorts the air around it, it is so slight that in some cases it is almost undetectable, but with my eyesight improved by the enhancement noers, I am finally able to detect them.
I stop and look at her. She must have learned a lot about me from my previous battles, which is why she doesn't dare let me come close. So far, everything she has done has been from a distance, which wasn't the same in her other battles. Against others, she hadn't been afraid of getting close but against me, her guard is clearly up.
She moves her hand and I quickly summon Hilla's barrier. I am quickly figuring out that anytime she moves her hand she is making an attack. It makes her almost predictable and some part of me worries that at some point she could use that predictability to trap me, but for now it works.
Her attack slams into my barrier and dissipates, but she isn't done. Her hands move quickly as she prepares and fires another set of attacks. I make out small pyramid-looking distortions that flash through the air before hitting my barrier. The moment they touch the barrier, however, I quickly become alarmed. Because of their shape, most of the power is focused on the tip of the pyramid therefore when they hit the barrier, they almost pierced it. If the barrier was a concrete wall, then those things she shot were akin to nails moving at very fast speeds. Thankfully, they didn't manage to get through.
Our little dance continues and as it stretches out, I begin to lose confidence in myself. Almost nothing I know of works against her. She can dodge Roes, and in cases where it is impossible, she uses Hilla's barrier, anytime I try to use telekinesis she quickly neutralizes whatever I do, and through it all, she ensures that she keeps her distance from me. It's frustrating. Meanwhile, her attacks are doing damage to me. The longer the fight goes on the faster her attacks keep coming. At first, I was able to dodge or at least use Hilla's barrier to block them, but it is getting increasingly harder to do so. Plus, I am quickly figuring out that she is forcing me to use more Uua than her.
All of a sudden, she smiles and clenches her fist. Invisible ropes wrap around my leg and drag me to the ground. A well-timed burst of telekinesis from me breaks them, but they are back again in less than a second. This cycle continues, with the ropes growing each time I try and fail to get rid of them. In the end, I am forced to use Hilla's barrier to stop the onslaught.
Breathing heavily, I come to a realization. The way things are going, I might not be able to win this fight. Nothing I can think of seems capable of hurting her, she's making sure to stay far from me, and each of her attacks forces me to use quite a lot of Uua to neutralize, like the ropes from earlier. If things continue like this, she is going to win. So how, how can I break out of this losing path she has set me on?