Tiebreaker

I walked forward in the Arena feeling slightly tired after the two succubi had their way with me for slightly longer than planned. Both Kathy and Mal wanted me around for longer than I expected, which I should have realized would happen. Still, I was happy that my confirmation with the Succubi went through easily. I knew they had hatred towards Ralph, but that news alone made their representatives thrilled with me, and I wondered if Ralph did something to piss off their bosses.

Christina would have to look into when her information network started to bring in information at all. I hid a sigh as I moved with Francis, who was smiling as a fight in the middle of the arena between two C rank fighters continued. The problem was that they were both defensive knight-style warriors that used a sword and shield.

There was no cheering for these two warriors as they were both skilled with their shields and swords. The problem was neither could get through the other guard, so I turned to Francis as we sat down, waiting to fight ourselves. "This match isn't going to be short," I remarked towards the similar skill level of the two inside fighting.

"Yes," Francis replied with that smile, "They are at a similar skill level, and if it weren't for the absolute hatred I see they have for each other, I would jump in to end this boring fight." Francis finished.

It was true as I watched the two go at it in the middle of the arena. Watching each strike at the other in the arena, you could see the wish to kill the other. Each strike at the other would kill the other if it got past their guard. Neither of these two wanted to give the other a small wound to give the other an out to live their life.

It was tedious to watch, though, since it started to get almost repetitive as we watched. The crowd, on the other hand, was betting with increased fervor as time went on. I couldn't just watch this boring fight as both the devil in the ring and an Incubus warrior fought to the death, and I turned to Francis. "Francis," I said, regaining his attention, and he turned to me, "What races do you think I should approach to get the votes I need?" I asked.

Francis looked at me, startled, and raised an eyebrow, "Wow," He said before continuing, "You know I never heard you ask me something like that despite how close I feel like we are getting. You seem to choose in your own mind before moving forward with your own decision. This is the first time I heard you asking advice." Francis remarked before looking more serious, "You should approach the Succubi, Which I am sure you can figure out on your own. It would be best if you also worked with the Imps since we, the Devils, are working with you—also the Incubi and the Vampires. The succubi, Incubi, and the Vampires tend to stay close together among the races as the Imps tend to stick to us, the Devils. The Nephilim would be a good choice to branch out to. That would give you a solid voting platform that would stop most stupid decisions but not enough for the eight vote majority you would need. It will also leave it open for the Medusa's to build up that eight vote Majority that you don't want happening." Francis was on a thought path while I decided I couldn't help but agree with him and was already doing something. "The warlocks would be a bad decision to try and will probably fall in line with the Medusa's in hopes to kill the free trade agreement. The Winged Demons might be an avenue you can follow while I think the Jinn might be interested."

My eyes widened at the mention of the Jinn. That was an avenue I hadn't thought of yet. They were a species I had yet to deal with, and I couldn't help but feel intrigued with them as a possible avenue. The Jinn were an interesting species that had a province landlocked in the Demon lands. They would not care about the fishing agreement. The only reason why I hadn't was because, to my knowledge, the Jinn have never have been close to the Bunny-kin. Due to the lack of information, I wasn't leaving my comfort areas to seek others.

In the end, though, it was all excuses for me neglecting one of the fourteen species that run the Demon lands. I decided to stop beating myself up, which I found was one of my talents lately, and started to think when I heard a cheer in the stadium. I looked down to see that Devil had cut the Incubi's arm, and his sword arm was bleeding. The Incubi warrior didn't back down, and the fighting was reaching a climax as the Devil pressed his advantage. Then the sword of the Incubi's entered the Devil's throat right after the Incubi blocked with his shield using it as cover while the Devil was trying to press the advantage.

It was a sudden end to the duel that took a long time, and both Francis and I smiled. "It's time," I told him as we walked down the steps, as no one even attempted to save the bleeding body of the devil that was dying.

The Incubi, on the other hand, was cheering and shouting as the crowd cheered that the boring fight was over. We jumped into the ring, and cheers became louder as we moved to where the body was being dragged from by two Imps cleaning up the remains. It was gruesome, and I paid it no heed as I turned to Francis, backing up as I did so.

"Tiebreaker," Francis said with a large smile and flexed his muscles as we waited for the Imps to remove the body and leave the area.

"Tiebreaker," I replied with a smile of my own, feeling excitement despite feeling a little spent. Francis wouldn't take that excuse, and I wouldn't be in his position either. You needed to be ready for battle at any time, and using that excuse was just that an excuse.

Neither of us moved, and soon the body was dragged into one of the exits. It was like a shot went off for us, and Francis leaped forward towards me with a smile. I, in turn, moved man throughout my body, knowing that Francis would be able to deal with any spells I shot at him. He was a counter to my form of fighting, and so I had to meet him on his grounds.

I could see the anticipation in his eyes as I leaped forward to meet him instead of leaping away. His fist filling my vision before the void opened, and I moved through Francis. My foot then connected and cut into his back as I visualized a void cutter with my foot which then slammed Francis forward as my feet attacked him several times quickly with quick kicks hitting the solid mass of muscle on his back cutting lightly into it..

As my feet drove into him, he moved forward, almost falling face-first onto the blood-soaked sands soon to become even more fresh as he lightly bled into the sands himself. His hands shot out, and his feet missed my face barely as he spun, and instead of righting, his body began to use them as hands, surprising me as I tried to land on the ground. Milliseconds went by as I barely dodged one of his feet as my foot touched the ground. I wanted to spring back and move into another rift instead of dropping into one when his foot did the work for me.

His foot hit my shoulder just as I moved more mana into it to help protect it, spinning me and sending me back as I opened the rift. My mind exploded in pain at the sudden hit, and I felt my arm go limp. My rift sent me to the other side of the arena, and I yelled in pain. My back hit the sands, and my vision blurred, but I turned, trying to ignore it as Francis leaped towards me. I didn't know how long I had to recover, and I knew it wasn't what I needed.

Francis was almost atop me when I got myself back in control of my mind and rifted into the sky, feeling the wind under me. I cursed at my recklessness and realized that Francis had put a lot more work into training new fighting methods than me. I turned myself around, seeing the distance I had so I wouldn't die from falling and realized I didn't have much time left.

I needed to check my condition, and I felt my arm up only to sigh in relief. It was only dislocated and not broken like I initially thought. I then changed into a pencil dive and rifted again. I then shot past Francis's head as I moved right past his head. It was impressive instinct as I attacked him and rifted back out, knowing that I could only try to surprise him like that in my dreams.

I was back in the air, falling, thinking about my next plan of attack while I was high in the air. I then forced my arm back into the socket with a curse to cover the pain I felt. I then started to move the mana in my body to make sure it was put in its proper place as I fell through the sky.

It was only a matter of thirty seconds, but I rifted back in, and the fight continued despite the ache I felt in my arm. On the other hand, Francis was ready as I exited a rift at terminal velocity, both feet first reinforced by mana. Francis dodged only to realize I disappeared into another rift, and I started to shoot around like crazy. It was dizzying, but I slowed down to a more manageable speed, and my leg kicked out towards his head.

Francis smiled, and my leg met his arm. His other hand moved to grip me as I decided to blast him with a frost bolt coming from my hand. Francis was startled as I used a spell to cover his vision and barely escaped his hands falling into another rift. I quickly reappeared on his other side, creating another frost bolt as I created another rift to disappear into.

Just because his body was almost immune to mana didn't make them useless, I realized as I appeared behind him again and attacked his balance as my feet hit the ground. I spread ice over the sand and heard Francis curse as his elbow quickly moved to strike me.

I dropped into another rift and appeared in front of Francis a distance away as He righted himself. Francis looked at me with a large grin as I stood opposite of him. I took a moment as Francis regained his poise to make sure my arm was in the right position and healed it. Hunger ate at my stomach now, but it needed to be done for the next part of the battle as I spoke to Francis, "I learned something that I shouldn't have needed to learn." I told Francis with a grin of my own.

"You aren't attacking like last time," Francis said with a grin.

"Doing the same thing to an opponent like you, Francis, can only be considered stupid," I replied, starting to bounce on my feet, getting ready for round two.

The Vicious smile that erupted on that devil's face would make human children cry without a second thought. "You are smart," Francis said, and I got a feeling he was up to something.

It didn't matter what he was up to, and I wouldn't stand around to find out as he jumped towards me, and I fell into the sky slightly above his head behind him, sending a cut through the void towards him. Instead of dodging, his arm came up to intercept it as it wasn't targeted at him.

Francis was anything but a musclehead as a new scenario came to play as I moved through the arena, keeping my distance from Francis as he tried to close in on me. Instead, I moved through each rift, casting water onto the sand, making it seep into the ground while casting void cutters to try and make him lose balance. His body might resist Mana, but the world around him reacted to it. It became like the fight before us in a new way due to his natural counter to wizards. I changed the arena with each cast of a spell, feeling mana seep into the arena floor as Francis seemingly noticed a pattern.

It was startling when he instantly reacted to a new location I rifted into, and I rifted back out just as his hand almost caught me. My feet landed on the ground far away from Francis as he looked at me with a smirk. "You are annoying, Chelsea," He growled out as I smiled.

"Don't worry, Francis; I won't run long!" I announced, and I moved my mana into something I hadn't tried to the now muddy. It was filled with sharp cracks in it, and I moved my mana out. I pictured nitrogen freezing the world around me, pouring out cold into the world around me, spreading out in a circle around me.

Francis looked at me, surprised, realizing now what I was doing, and Ran towards me as the ground started to freeze. The ground turned hard, and soon, Ice started to cover the top of it with the little moisture there was in it. I combined that with fresh water imagining it cooling and freezing in a layer of ice over the arena. Francis cut the distance, and I leaped away from him as I continued to freeze the world around him.

"You think I can't deal with this?!" Francis said, walking on the ice as he chased me. I smiled at him and ran for as much time as I could, freezing a large part of the arena. I stopped and rifted out into the sky, quickly picking up speed, and now, with my mana tank still about half rifted back in, shooting feet first at Francis as he smiled.

A chill ran down my back as I was like a missile with Void cutters on my feet to hit him. Instead, my body twisted using the ice to move quickly, and I paled as my instincts cried out to me. I was then in the sky hurtling up as pain erupted on my ass as I felt him kick it, sending me into the air as my mind blanked in pain.

I was still in the sky when I felt a hands grip both my arms pinning me and stopping me from rifting.

I felt him place me on the ground, and I saw him even as pain radiated from my ass. "You failed when you took that break from attacking me to spew nonsense," Francis said without care and a big grin. "You didn't capitalize on me being off balance and tried to recreate the situation after taking time to finish putting your arm back in place, Chelsea," He finished, and I sighed as I heard the cheers and boos all around, and I stopped myself from cursing as I knew he was right after thinking about it.

"Come on," I said before grinning despite the loss I just took, "The last one back to my Embassy is the real loser of today's fight," I told him, rifting out of the arena while Francis started to run back bleeding back and all through the city.