"No way, no no no, this can't be happening!"

  "CLAIRE! Snap out of it!"

  Claire was having a breakdown. After all, the second most dangerous and powerful hero had just been subdued by this man.

  Elizabeth had been too focused trying to get Claire to come back to her senses before the Mage came along like a bull at a gate, smashing her through the wall.

  This colosseum really needed to get a bit more space for this tournament.

  The Mage had basically teleported behind Claire, forcing her to finally snap out of it.

  The Mage struck Claire on her side with his bare arm, however Claire was able to put her sword up in time and parry his attack.

  It didn't keep her from being injured however, the sheer force of the attack was enough to force Claire landing hard on the sand.

  The Mage, for once since he started fighting, finally stopped for a couple seconds.

  "Come on girls, only two minutes remain."

  Claire froze, not because she was injured, but because she was shocked.

  Had eight minutes already gone by? Was he really parrying and dodging our attacks for that long?

  Impossible.

  The Mage had been staring at Claire, waiting for her to get up, before he heard a shout from Elizabeth.

  "Claire! Good luck, it's all on you now! Ultimate, Arrow of the Hero!"

  Elizabeth gasping for air, knowing she couldn't withstand another attack from the Mage no matter how weak it was, decided to use whatever she has left for Claire.

  She loaded an arrow onto her bow, pulled the string back, and then a glowing illusion began.

  It was as if glowing yellow ribbons were giving her arrow power, after the effect wore off, her bow became six feet longer and a large golden spear had replaced the arrow.

  She pulled the spear back as far as she could before she was unable to hold it, then, with one last scream, let the string go.

  Thanks to how the sun was placed, you could see the Mage's bottom lip positioned as if he was letting out a faint smile.

  "Special move, Evasion."

  The spear came hurtling toward the Mage faster than the speed of light, a trail of a bright glowing light following closely behind it.

  As it was about to hit the Mage, it was as if he had teleported through the attack, which was now flying straight toward Claire.

  Thanks to years of archer training, Elizabeth, despite being weakened, had positioned her ultimate attack to miss Claire by a hair if the Mage were to dodge it somehow.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  The spear cut off a single strand of Claire's hair before flying straight through the wall causing a loud sound.

  The spear had hit the barrier the Mage had put around the colosseum, it looked as if it was pouring its last remaining power into trying to destroy the barrier.

  The barrier actually ended up cracking before the spear's power began fading away and dropping onto the ground.

  Claire was flabbergasted, too shocked to even look at the spears path.

  The Mage was just surprised the spear was able to crack his barrier.

  Elizabeth had been staring forward the entire time. The second the spear fell onto the ground powerless, she too collapsed, too exhausted to continue standing.

  Who wouldn't be exhausted after using both their special moves and an ultimate?

  "The Hero of Archers is now out, the final remaining contestant, is you, Hero of Swordsman. One minute remains."

  Claire just stared straight ahead.

  Looking at Elizabeth unconscious, flashbacks of Claire's childhood with her began coming back.

  After school they'd play tag around the city, during school they'd defend each other, threatening anyone that tried to look intimidating, during training always help each other back up after fights.

  Elizabeth had been the one reason Claire still had her humanity while the rest of the world treated her like a sword.

  Remembering these moments with Elizabeth also reminded her of the final words she had said before accepting defeat, 'Claire! good luck, it's all on you now!'.

  That gave her the strength and determination to pick herself up and continue fighting.

  The Mage had already shown that with all of their combined efforts it was almost impossible to injure him, so he began slowing down a little more.

  Claire began dashing forward, attacking, quickly falling back then repeating, each time from different sides of the Mage.

  He was blocking them all off effortlessly with the sword made out of sand he still had.

  The Mage noticed that she was beginning to speed her attacks up, so began countering her attacks.

  Each time he countered them, stopping herself from going flying into the wall again she'd position her foot on the sand as the Mage pushed her away, losing the momentum of the Mage's counter and gaining more momentum for her next attack.

  After a couple seconds of this, the crowd was almost unable to perceive how fast she was going, it just looked like a blur.

  After her last ordinary attack, he grabbed her sword.

  "Thirty seconds left, hero. I'd hurry up and make a miracle happen."

  Claire pushed her sword away from the Mage which he just let go of and then finally said the words that made the entire crowd cheer.

  Her mind was flashing memories, more memories of her and Elizabeth, building her adrenaline.

  "Ultimate!"

  The Mage interrupted her,

  "Are you sure you want to do this? You've already used two special moves, you'll end up like Elizabeth."

  Claire completely ignored the Mage and continued chanting.

  "After Image Aggression!"

  Claire then just seemed to have disappeared.

  She then suddenly appeared to the left of the Mage, then, she appeared to the right of him, then behind.

  All three were visible, frozen in time, all as if they were after images.

  Before anyone knew it, fifteen seconds had gone by and the Mage was surrounded by thirty after images of Claire.

  The real version of Claire then stood five meters behind the Mage.

  She lifted her elbow up and pulled her sword back, the end facing the Mage.

  Letting out a primal roar, she pushed the edge of her sword out toward the Mage with all she had.

  A singular beam of light pierced out of the end of the sword, travelling as fast as Elizabeth's ultimate attack.

  The longer it travelled, the bigger the trail of light became.

  The Mage quickly tilted his head to the side, seemingly dodging the attack by a molecule.

  This attack actually went through both the wall and shattered the barrier flying straight through the surrounding area.

  As the attack flew out of sight and the Mage stood there unharmed, the crowd who had been on the edge of their seats went completely quiet.

  "Ten. Seconds. Left. Hero."

  Claire fell onto her knees, nothing she could possibly do now.

  All she could do was fill herself up with rage, she deeply messed up.

  Couldn't win it for Elizabeth, couldn't win a simple tournament to earn her place in the Mage's party, and now, she's gonna lose everything she worked for.

  The Mage clenched his fist and got ready to unleash a devastating right hook.

  All Claire could do was think to herself, she has failed Elizabeth.