SHATTERED REALM: FORGOTTEN ECHOES-Chapter 183: Battling The Lone Wolf

The announcer stepped forward.

"The competition has reached its end," he started.

"There will be no further rounds, and no reconsideration."

He turned to Aramith, then Kesha.

"Only one will stand as winner when this is over!"

"Let the final match begin!"

He stepped out as the drum boomed, signalling the start of the match.

Everyone held their breath, but the arena was still.

Aramith didn't move a single step, and Kesha didn't either.

They both stared at each other, waiting for the other to make their first move.

The air cooled further around Kesha as the mist around her thickened.

This wasn't an a\\\\tack, just her aura.

No one from the seats uttered a word. In intense battles, opponents sometimes studied each other for so long, observing everything before acting.

And sometimes such scenarios ended in a single move.

For that reason, they waited, afraid of interrupting.

Finally, Kesha broke the silence with a question. "Isn't it ill-mannered to keep a lady waiting?"

Aramith remained indifferent as he answered with two words. "Ladies first."

"So you claim to be a gentleman," Kesha said.

The crowd was perplexed.

"What are they talking about?"

"I don't know, don't ask me."

Kesha nodded. "Very well."

She raised her hand, and the umbrella shattered into tiny shards that quickly reassembled into her hand as a bow. She raised her other hand, and the mist around her feet came together to form an ice bow.

She aimed at Aramith and then pulled the arrow back. The ice string cracked and stretched, holding the arrow tightly. Cool mist flowed into the arrow like ropes holding it so it would not fly off on its own.

When she let the arrow loose, it flew straight with a small boom, sucking in the mist as it traveled without fail. As it neared Aramith, it expanded and stretched, increasing in size and length.

The sight of the deadly attack mesmerized them all, and no one could take their eyes off.

Aramith stared straight ahead, not even glancing at the arrow. He ignored it entirely; it even refused to appear in the reflections in his eyes.

Mozrael flinched as the projectile neared Aramith, but it just whizzed past him, barely touching his hair.

He felt the cold of it kiss his cheek, but that was all.

It struck the floor behind him, then dissolved.

Many people who were holding their breath let it out and just stared at Aramith, who was rooted to the ground.

They mistook his calm and calculation for fear. All he needed was one look at it, and he already knew Kesha didn't aim at him.

This was a test to know how quickly he was to make assessments.

"SO you weren't bluffing," Kesha said.

She took a step back, then opened her arms wide.

Frost covered them all over, then she clapped.

PAH!

The sound reverberated across to Aramith, spreading mist along their feet.

Aramith shifted a little, changing his grip on the staff. When the mist reached him, Kesha whispered something, and a projection of mist rose quickly before Aramith. Before it could take form, Aramith struck it with the staff.

Voom!

The move was so strong, it scattered the mist in its path, destroying whatever was forming beneath.

The mist quickly closed the opening, and three more projections rose around Aramith.

This time, he allowed them to form.

Three distinct howls echoed as three wolves stepped up, cold mist flowing from their bodies like water.

The first lunged at him, but Aramith didn't attack. He just dodged it right before the teeth snapped at his head.

His movement was so fast and smooth that many found it difficult to follow.

He struck it right after, but it didn't disappear this time.

The staff just phased through it, slightly distorting where it struck.

The other two attacked, and he dodged once again, giving them space so he could assess them.

Where are their weakpoints?

They moved quickly again, flowing above the ground as they approached him.

He gripped the staff with two hands and watched how the wolves moved. Something quickly caught his eye.

They barely disrupted the mist as they moved.

He waved the staff through the mist and noticed how the mist moved in response, but the wolves barely had any effect whatsoever.

"Hey, what attribute does Therin have?" One girl in Forsaken Peak asked her friend.

She also thought for a while, then realized the odd truth they'd all overlooked. "I've never seen him use any attribute before."

One boy behind them grunted. "Yesterday, I asked my tutor, and he avoided the question. They don't know either, and I'm starting to suspect he's relying on an artifact to accomplish his goals."

A student from another Academy overheard them. "That's what you get for being shady!"

They ignored him, though his words stung.

Aramith avoided contacting the wolves, keeping his distance from them as he tried to find where to end them.

And as one of them lunged at him, ready to slash at him, he saw it.

"Smart," he muttered, then stood his ground, refusing to move.

The claws went right through him, leaving him untouched and unharmed in any way.

He turned to Kesha. "You're still underestimating me," he said.

"I'm just waiting," Kesha replied, still watching him.

Kesha snapped her fingers.

The wolves' eyes glowed for a second, then they shot at Aramith. He quickly swung the staff, striking each one in the forehead.

They turned to snow instantly.

Kesha parted her hands like opening a book, and the mist suddenly disappeared.

What it revealed left everyone in awe.

The ground was covered in ice, divided into diagonals.

She didn't wait for him to respond before shifting her foot.

The area where Aramith stood glowed, and the ice shot upwards. Each spike was nearly a foot long.

Aramith barely dodged before more shot up again.

Wherever he moved, they shot up like bullets.

While everyone was distracted by the wolves, she'd been quietly setting up mines.

He quickly assessed the place and tried to go back to his initial spot, but Kesha didn't give him a chance.

They kept shooting without stopping, forcing him to constantly dodge.

Mozrael felt her heartbeat quicken. She'd counted almost ten times when he'd almost been impaled.

Aramith moved carefully, and each step he took was measured and precise.

The spikes beneath him still shot up fiercely, forcing him to twist, leap, and dodge with exact timing.

But in all this, he wasn't panicking. Not even a tiny bit.

Every time he moved, he did so while observing her and calculating his next move.

He was thinking...How can I turn this against her?

Kesha wouldn't make a mistake. She wouldn't shoot herself. Knowing her, her plans won't have any holes

Every attack she let loose was connected to the next, and if he was a fraction of a second slower, he'd fail.

But even with all this in mind, he still advanced, moving closer.

The closer he got, the more he scanned: the spacing of the spikes, even the subtle vibrations through the ice.

He suddenly noticed a glow, and this one wasn't beneath him like before, or where the spikes had erupted.

This time, it radiated across the entire battlefield from where he was standing, all the way to Kesha.

The spikes under him froze mid-shot, and the others that lay in wait pulsed in sync, glowing brighter like a heartbeat.

Aramith's pulse quickened as his body prepared itself to move.

She was ready, and now, she wasn't just defending herself, but was trapping him.

The glowing spikes rose in one swift motion, forming a wall between him and Kesha.

It was so fast, those who blinked missed it, thinking the air itself had solidified into a storm of sharp ice.

The crowd gasped.

"Look at that!"

"She's turning the whole arena into a battlefield!"

"Those are deadly."

Aramith didn't hear the murmurs. His eyes narrowed, analyzing each shard, each gap, and each potential line of fire.

"Descend!" Kesha's voice echoed.

Then it started: a burst of spikes launched simultaneously toward him.

He had seen ice bullets before, from other ice attribute users. But this was different.

The sheer force, pressure, and weight behind themwas a hundred times greater.

It felt like standing in a storm.

Each projectile carried enough force to snap a bone or even cleave a limb if it hit wrong. The wind behind each shot billowed his clothes like he was in the heart of a hurricane.

Aramith shifted, twisted, and leapt.

Each precise dodge made sure not a single spike hit him, but the near-misses were enough to make the hairs on Mozrael's neck stand on end.

Aramith could feel the force in his chest, vibrating with each strike.

The arena had gone silent. Everyone was frozen, caught between awe and fear. Some students clutched their seats. Others leaned forward as if they could peer closer to see how he would survive.

They swallowed, knowing they'd be long dead if they were in his place, which made them question...

Aramith's eyes didn't waveras he moved.

He noticed that they weren't just shooting randomly across the arena. Kesha was controlling their every movement, which amazed him.

Her control was terrifying.

He had to constantly adjust, as she was also changing her tactics to corner him.

One false step and he would be buried in shards.

Yet, he wasn't just dodging. Aramith was approaching Kesha.

He glanced at Kesha, noticing how calm and focusedshe was. Losing wasn't part of her vocabulary.

As he dodged another volley, a thought crossed his mind. So this is how powerful she became just to be independent.

He calculated the remaining shards and realized they were almost depleted.

And for a moment, their thoughts aligned.

I hope you're ready, he thought

I hope you're ready, she thought.