Inter-Kingdom Tournament (6) Bad Memories

The world slowed down as Eric concentrated his attention on the stage. He saw everything clearly. The glint of the blade as it descended on its downwards trajectory and Aerin moving in slow motion as she jumped out of the spectator's seat. Eric wondered if he should lend a hand.

He weighted the pros and cons. If he were to help him, the royal family of Zeovaria Kingdom would owe him a favor. But on the other hand, there might be a chance of disqualification if someone were to catch him using his power.

But what are the chances of being caught? His 'Evil Eye' does not have any physical indication of it being used like a 'Fireball', the only indicator was his left eye glowing deep blue. The barrier around the arena was set up so that physical attacks and spells cannot pass through or fro, but it does not stop incorporeal spells and abilities.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he spotted the four true vampire judges fast approaching the stage. Even in the slow-downed world, they were moving decently fast.

'That makes my job even easier then," Eric thought.

With one hand covering the left side of his face, leaving only a slit open for his eye. He activated 'Evil Eye'. As burning cold energy leaked from his eye, the momentum of the axe also slowed down. Now that the axe had decelerated by a fraction of its speed, the four judges now had enough time to stop it.

The world had now resumed its normal speed. Aerin who was about to leap off the edge stopped in her tracks. She turned and looked back at Eric, her eyes narrowed.

"It's you isn't it, you somehow slowed it down just enough to allow the judges to catch up."

"Wow, your mana sense is really good, it was just for a moment, but you got me." Eric said, surprised.

"Thank you, if it wasn't for what you did, I don't know what I would have done. I guess I owe you one." Aerin replied, settling back into her seat.

"Well, you better remember that."

"That vampire, i swear i'll crush every bone in his body." She crushed her armrest so hard, the wood broke into splinters.

'I'm sorry but, you're not the one that's going to face him in the end.' Eric thought, pitying her. 'I will not allow anyone to stand in my way, even if it's for revenge.'

"OOOOOOH, WHAT AN AMAZING FIGHT THAT WAS! THE PURE SKILL AND POWER THESE TWO SHOWN WAS JUST SPECTACULAR! BOTH COMBATANTS GAVE THEIR ALL, BUT IN THE END EVAGORAS NOX TEPES, THE VAMPIRE PRINCE EMERGED THE VICTOR! AND MOVING ON TO OUR NEXT FIGHT! STARRING THE PRINCESS OF ZEOVARIA, AERIN KRAUTHEMIER AGAINST A HUMAN WHO'VE SHOWN GREAT SKILL IN BOTH MAGIC AND SWORDSMANSHIP, ERIC PENDRAGON!"

Back on stage, the four vampire judges were dragging Evagoras away with much effort. Aerin jumped onto the stage and silently stared at him, her eyes burning with fury. She then checked up on Nivelet before the healers dragged him away.

Eric arrived a few moment after, ignoring the whole situation. He was quietly doing his stretches on the side. Using the time before the match starts, he scanned Aerin's status.

**

[Name: Aerin Krauthemier]

[Race: High Elf]

[Age: 20]

[8th Circle - Supreme]

[Intermediate Fighter]

[Magic: Metal, Earth]

[Ability: Golem Creation, Knight Creation, Explosion Zero]

**

"Gods above, you really are fucking with me, aren't you." Eric clutched his forehead, the bad memories that he did not want to bring up appeared in his head.

A few thousands years ago, Eric fought with a golemancer. It wasn't just any golemancer, but one that had perfect his craft. Saying that the battle they fought was intense was a massive understatement to say the least. Their battle was so epic, that it almost destroyed an entire continent.

The golemancer created golems the size of a mountain. Not only did he stop at just one, no, he went on and raised 20 mountain-sized golem. It was not the size of the golems that annoyed Eric, it was how they kept regenerating over and over again, using the surrounding landmasses. In the end, the battle went off for 5 days and 4 nights, an annoyed Eric who missed 4 days of sleep had enough. Bringing down a supernova, the explosion of light from battle could be seen from all corners of Neopagan. The land after the nuke became a wasteland and no life had ever came out from it since. The place was then named 'God's Barren Land'.

"Ahhhhhh, lets see how good your skills are," Eric huffed in annoyance.

"REAAAAADY, START!" The announcer screamed.

Aerin brought out a metallic blue ball that orbited around her hand. It shone with silvery light and pulsated with power.

"Golem Creation."

Even after she used her ability, nothing immediate happened.

"You gotta create them faster than that," Eric smirked, dashing towards her.

"Earth Dome."

Just as he reached her, a gigantic spherical earth wall erupted around her. It was tough enough to withstand a strike from Eric's blade, but because of its hurried creation, it fell apart easily. Breaking through the wall, Eric felt the ground below him rumbling. A giant stone hand suddenly shot from the ground and made a swipe at Eric.

After retreating a few feet away, the rest of the golems rose from the ground. There was a total of 10 golems and they were around 10 feet tall. Their entire body was made out of stone.

"Knight Creation."

"Oh come ON, you are really not going easy are you."

"I'm sorry, but i'm giving my all, this is important to me."

5 iron knights appeared a moment later, each of them 8 feet tall and in their hands were giant broadswords that were twice the size of their bodies.

"Gravity times 2."

"Flash step."

"Flash step."

...

...

...

Without any warning, Eric slowed down the advance of her creations and invaded her space. As he made an attempt to attack her, blocks of stone and iron rose up and prevented him from reaching her. The blocks increase until a wall of stone and iron was formed.

This match was not going as well as Eric expected, now he had to turn up the pace.