Freedom Jumper-Chapter 90: Roaring Finals

The sky was dark, and surely the estate was wondering where Elijah had been...

Unceremoniously, a metal rune fell to the floor creating a loud banging noise against the hard wooden floor.

"Elijah! Is that you?" Alexia was casually walking past his door heading for her own room, but stopped when she heard a thump within her best friend's room. To be fair, these days, Elijah had not felt like her best friend. Distance for unknown reasons was created, and the conversations made between them were slightly dull.

Elijah slowly opened the door and first saw Alexia's ear. Her hair was loosely braided for the ease of sleeping, and her soft white clothes draped over her body loosely. "Why hello, Alexia."

"Were you doing things you shouldn't be doing?" She asked with her arms crossed.

"I'm sorry, with the runes Novius gave me, I can't help but explore to my heart's content. Alexia, I do have someone important I want to ask you, can you come inside?"

After taking a seat on the bed and wooden chair, Elijah began probing.

"Do you believe in life outside the walls?"

"I don't know. I know you and Novius do, but the kingdom has made it clear there is no such thing."

'Not a yes or a no, but something in the middle...'

"If you had the chance, would you want to explore outside the kingdom and look for a sign of life other than beasts?"

A pause in the still conversation was heard after that question. The reason for this ordeal was so Elijah could determine how corrupted Alexia was, which would then lead him to believe someone her parents are seeing is very corrupted, which is spreading to her on a constant basis. There has to be a reason why Alexia is not affected the same way Novius is.

"No, I don't think I would. I hope there is life outside the walls, but I like this kingdom and want to return to the outer region. This place is too crowded for me. I enjoy the open air..."

'Not so much as being corrupted, but an imagination that is limiting her beliefs. I think she is not affected at all by any of this, but her mindset is keeping her locked inside this place...'

An emotional conversation full of positive banter was exchanged between Elijah and Alexia after his questions. Deep down, Elijah didn't feel as though he would marry this beautiful girl in the future, and dreaded the idea of abandoning someone that truly cared about him. This life that was forcibly given to him was not something he wanted to give up, but also something he wanted to change.

Freedom is not possible here.

...

Blue and yellow ribbons lay beautifully against the walls of the arena, and within the stands were just barely fifteen thousand spectators that tightly fit into every space. Waitresses dressed in fine black and white clothing were rampantly walking through the crowds with dozens of different water based beverages, and even moonshine and wine.

While the arena itself was completely empty, there were four very large battle grounds indented into the ground more than 20 feet below the natural ground level. An excellent display of strategy was put into place considering the chaos a certain hunter caused to the surrounding active matches—especially considering the tall and thick walls that separated each battleground.

Suddenly, the crowd went wild with cheers while pointing their hands towards two groups of four hunters that were led by many referees from opposite sides of the Arena.

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"Welcome esteemed spectators!!!" The sound of a proud noble voice came from large metal boxes engraved with a very complicated looking rune at eight different points within the arena. "The first round of the finals will be starting right now! Fenris Liveya versus Emery Damaris. Emil Maxwell versus Mina Bradborn. Luka Lozano versus Bernard Wiggins. Sidney Woodard versus Haris Chanfry. I wish you all good luck, and stay hydrated!!!"

Within the many rooms below the staggered seating was Elijah and all of his friends as they watched through a windowless opening. New renovations were made to house even more people within the arena, and one reason was so the contestants could also watch their future. The downside of being so low to the ground is that they were only able to see one fight depending on where you were, which was better than being stuck inside a transition room without any view at all.

Emery had begun his fight with Fenris, an earth mage who had just barely been beaten by Elijah. Notes of red and orange flickered off the stone walls as they combusted in mid air. It seemed the entire kingdom now knew of the unique application of fire magic. With Emery's already outstanding positioning and thinking ahead, Fenris will surely be defeated.

'What the hell?' Elijah saw an earth spike ram into the chest of Emery.

"Hey did you guys just see that? Fenris' earth spike went completely through Emery's wall of fire!" Novius spoke just as Elijah was about to speak.

"I did. I don't understand what just happened. The spells should have clashed against each other, but they didn't..." Elijah thought of the reason why. The only possible explanation is if the mana was being removed from the spell after it is thrown and casted. This essentially means Fenris is relying on the natural properties of his element against the natural properties of Emery's element. Fire cannot disintegrate natural earth or stone as the temperature is simply not hot enough. The wind is not being affected to a large degree which gives Emery a weakness that is easily exploitable!

Many earthen barriers were constantly being erected in different orientations that blocked both of the sights, but acted as punching bags that would send out a pile of earth with every strike Fenris took.

Elijah thought this was rather a stupid idea which removes the potential of exploiting the obvious weakness. Maybe Fenris either just learned this tactic, or was done by accident?

After this point the fight ended quickly with Emery staying low to the ground, and also out of sight. Fenris quickly began panicking after not being able to see his target. He literally dug a grave for himself.

An entire hour passed and it was finally time for Elijah to have his first match. For appeasement purposes, two red core matches, one orange core match, and one yellow core match all happened at the same time. This was alongside the idea of waiting to start a new match until everyone else's matches were finished.

Sadia, an air magic user. At this point, Elijah had a belief that all females preferred the wind affinity due to its soft nature, even over the water affinity simply because everyone thought it was a joke if you did not want to be a healer.

Not many words were spoken between the two as they slowly walked to their battleground. Sadia seemed very focused, and Elijah, was slightly bored.

Not because of thinking he is all powerful, but because there was literally no reason for him to be in this tournament other than bettering his own skill. Lately, he had been feeling his mana core develop to the point it's almost full, or as bright as red can be. Elijah wasn't able to tell the difference but thinking about the specifics didn't matter in this situation. Compared to the average junior hunter, Elijah was progressing three times faster than what is usually seen. Whether it be his use of space magic that uses more mana, and what he theorizes in also more complex ways, his constant training this past month, or his early awakening.

Elijah had set himself up for success, and even with the possibility of an early death, he still wanted to chase after something foreign, something seemingly impossible.