Kyrie was looking forwards and not looking forwards to the finals of the tournament. She was looking forward to the fight but not looking forward to fighting three finalists at the same time.

  Dulnolm Graygift, the dwarf from Gorin’s faction who fought with a great warhammer and wore no armor. He was fast and effective with his large warhammer.

  Letitia Windburne, a feliur spellcaster who cast multi-elemental spells. She had defeated Orin and Kyrie was weary of her.

  Finally, Grugnor Gurnhold, the favourite of Gorin’s fighters to win the tournament. He wore dark scalemail armor and carried a scimitar and kite shield. He was going to be the most difficult opponent to Kyrie in the finals.

  Kyrie sighed as she thought about fighting the other three finalists of the Gorin’s faction. She needed a strategy to defeat them. And she needed it fast. The final was just in three days.

  The format for the finals had been officially declared. It was four finalists fighting in the arena with the last person standing the winner. They were all going to be shrunk so that they could have a larger arena to fight in. The normal arena was not sufficiently large to accommodate a four way rumble.

  Items were allowed in the finals. But the usage was restricted to single use and maximum five items per fighter. Kyrie was hoping for a fair fight but she was highly doubtful she would get it. The three finalists from Gorin’s faction were going to gang up on her as soon as the match started.

  Kyrie got a message at that time. It was from Goros. She wondered what the blacksmith wanted. He had come to the palace and was waiting for Kyrie in one of the waiting rooms for visitors. Kyrie sighed. She was free to wander in the palace but the Ori brothers had told her it would be much safer for her if she did not leave the room given to her.

  She had an escort whenever she went to train and one of the Ori brothers was always with her. At that time, it was Orin.

  “Goros wants to meet”, said Kyrie, “He is in a waiting room.”

  “Oho”, exclaimed Orin, “Goros is here. This could be interesting. Let’s go and see what he wants.”

  Kyrie and Orin exited the room and were soon followed by a unit of ten guards. Kyrie understood the need for security. However, she was not completely comfortable with it.

  They soon reached the waiting room where Goros mentioned he was. Kyrie wondered why no one informed her that Goros had come to see her and why Goros had to message her himself. Kyrie opened the door to find Goros chatting and having tea with another dwarf. Kyrie recognized the dwarf. It was Levene Enhana.

  “Well, this is a pleasant surprise”, said Kyrie as she walked into the room.

  Orin followed her and greeted both Goros and Levene. The guards escorting them, entered the room, gave it a thorough look and then left, closing the door behind them.

  “That seems a tad excessive”, said Goros.

  Orin said, “It is necessary. They blew up the inn Kyrie was staying in and tried to stop her from resurrecting.”

  There were reactions of shock and horror from both Goros and Levene.

  “Then how did you resurrect? And when was this?” asked Levene.

  “Before the semi-finals”, replied Orin before Kyrie, “And Kyrie was able to resurrect on time because they messed with Galvin.”

  “Silvershroud?” asked Goros.

  Orin nodded and Goros whistled. Levene simply shook her head. It seemed to Kyrie that Galvin Silvershroud seemed to be a big deal in Karzasham.

  Kyrie said, “Aaand, seeing that we have gotten the pleasantries out of the way, what brings you here, Goros? Levene?”

  “What!” said Goros in mock outrage, “I can’t come to meet my favourite customer who is also a finalist in the tournament!”

  Kyrie rolled her eyes as both Orin and Levene laughed.

  Levene said, “We have come to help.”

  “Help how?” asked Kyrie.

  Goros and Levene looked at each other and then at Kyrie with a grin on their faces. Kyrie did not like those grins. And the two of them told her. How they were going to help her. And Kyrie liked it and did not like it at the same time.

  ***

  Kyrie stepped onto the arena. Her opponents soon followed her. Each of the finalists were announced by Loring, embellishing their achievements in the tournament and outside of it as they made their way to the arena. Each of the finalists stood facing each other forming a rectangular shape as they waited for Loring to finish his announcements.

  The referee then came and explained to the finalists the format for the finals and the rules. The finalists waited patiently for the explanation. After that, the four finalists walked up to one of the corners of the arena.

  Kyrie looked at the others. She was feeling a bit nervous. Loring and the referee stepped out of the arena. Loring was working up the crowd that was roaring quite loudly. Then Loring announced that the spell would be cast. Kyrie felt herself shrink the next moment. All the finalists shrunk till they were about a couple of inches tall. The arena had now become large enough that the four of them could fight comfortably now.

  Kyrie could see the other finalists. They seemed to be tense, their hands ready at their side, waiting for the fight to start so that they could use their first items. Kyrie smiled. Even though she was nervous, she was starting to feel the excitement. This was it. This was the fight. And she was now ready for it.

  The referee announced the beginning of the fight. Kyrie could see the other participants draw a few potions from their inventory and drink them. Prep for the fight. She smiled and drew a spell scroll. [Kyrie’s Eternal Rain]. Levene had prepared this scroll just for her. It had been examined by the referee before the fight and deemed it usable.

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  Clouds gathered at the top of the stadium and it started to rain. The rain was somehow restricted to the arena. Kyrie smiled. Levene had outdone herself. The drops of water were normal but to the shrunken participants, each one was considerably large. When it hit the other participants, it took away a few points of their health. Not much, around 2 health points per drop, but still it did damage.

  Kyrie could see Letitia try and cast some spells. She was trying to cancel Kyrie’s spell. Kyrie smiled. She knew Letitia would not be able to do so. Levene had ensured that. She looked at Dulnolm and Grugnor. Both seemed to have drowned another potion which formed a shield around them and they were now charging towards Kyrie.

  Kyrie ignored them. She knew who her first target was and she took aim. [Power Shot], she cast towards Letitia who had finally decided to put up a shield to fend herself against the rain. However, before she could finish her cast, she was hit with Kyrie’s arrow and thrown back.

  Dulnolm and Grugnor both made it to Kyrie and attacked in synchronization. Kyrie weaved and dodged between their attacks and started to run away from them. She got a potion out of her inventory and drank it. The potion temporarily increased her speed for a minute. It was enough.

  As Kyrie zipped away from Dulnolm and Grugnor, she shot Letitia who now successfully deflected her arrows and shot spells at her. However, Letitia had still not put a shield on her and was hit with a water drop staggering her.

  Kyrie took the advantage and cast [Multi Shot]. Letitia’s health was now low. She took a health potion out of her inventory and started to drink it. But Kyrie shot it out of her hand, breaking the potion flask. Letitia looked enraged and Dulnolm and Grugnor were now trying to flank her.

  Kyrie cast her third spell, [Field of Ice] and everything froze around her in an area of ten meters. As she was shrunk, the ten meters were calculated according to her shrunken height and so the entire arena was not frozen but only a certain part. It was still enough to make Dulnolm slip and fall. Grugnor somehow steadied himself and made his way towards Kyrie, albeit slowly.

  Kyrie shot arrow over arrow at Letitia and finally managed to hit her more than twice, bringing her health points to zero. Letitia disappeared in a flash of bright light. This was done. She turned to face Dulnolm to find Grugnor inches away from her. She tried to dodge, but his scimitar sliced her stomach, taking off a chunk of her health. He pressed the attack and Kyrie had to dodge out of the way fast.

  She was saved when his shield expired and a droplet fell on him, staggering Grugnor. However, Dulnolm had made his way up to Kyrie and was ready to attack. His greatwarhammer came crashing down on Kyrie and she managed to dodge at the alst second. It still grazed Kyrie.

  Her armor was already healing the damage done but it was close. She did not have much defense. She knew that. It would not take more than five to six hits to bring her down. She had to be careful.

  She looked at the two finalists approaching her cautiously, seeing what she would do. They were now used to the water droplets, hardly affected by them. They still got two points of damage whenever they hit the droplet but they did not seem to stagger as before. Kyrie knew why. The spell was weakening. It was a powerful spell but the time that it would remain active was not known.

  Leven had told her it was an experimental spell that she had designed to help Kyrie. She had explained the effects to her but she was not sure how long it would last. Kyrie was not happy that the spell was weakening. She had plans to take care of Letitia and Dulnolm before the spell dissipated.

  Kyrie would have to use her trump card early. The arena was now filled up with sufficient water according to her. She smiled and cast [Summon Water Elemental]. Her water elemental rose with her. With a nod from Kyrie, it charged at Grugnor who looked a bit surprised. Kyrie attacked Dulnolm. It was now two versus two.

  Kyrie maintained her distance from Dulnolm who she could see was visibly getting angry. He downed more of his potions and Kyrie could see that he was out of potions. However, his speed increased as he dodged Kyrie’s attacks and attacked her.

  Kyrie decided to use her water form at that time. She melted into the water, passing from one puddle to another with speed that Dulnolm could not track. She popped out from one water puddle, shot an arrow and disappeared in another water puddle. She even used rain droplets to move through the water.

  Her speed was fast. Dulnolm was, however, intelligent. He managed to track where Kyrie would come from and reached the spot before Kyrie some time. He managed to get in a few hits but they did not do much damage as Kyrie had indeed managed to dodge them narrowly, with his attacks only grazing her.

  Meanwhile the elemental and Grugnor were fighting nearby. Grugnor was on the defensive and was chipping away the elemental’s health slowly and steadily. The elemental had managed to hit Grugnor a few times but it did seem that Grugnor had the upper hand.

  The rain turned to a drizzle and a sense of urgency settled on Kyrie. She had to defeat Dulnolm fast. As Dulnolm approached her, she drank a mana potion and cast [Multi Shot]. Summoning the elemental had almost drained her mana. She shot arrows upon arrows while Dulnolm simply charged at her, now in a berserker rage.

  Dulnolm finally managed to land a good hit on Kyrie, pushing her back and taking almost 30 percent of her health. He followed that through by charging at her and bringing his greatwarhammer down on her. Kyrie dodged the attack and shot an arrow right in his face. It staggered Dulnolm.

  Kyrie cast [Power Shot] while Dulnolm recovered and shot the arrow right as he charged again at her. The arrow hit right between his eyes and Dulnolm vanished in bright light. She had done it. She had defeated Dulnolm.

  However, at that time, her elemental disintegrated, making Grugnor victorious. The rain also stopped. The arena was still sufficiently wet though, giving Kyrie ample advantage.

  Kyrie and Grugnor stared at each other. Taking deep breaths, they both tried to catch their breath. This was it. The final push for Kyrie. Grugnor was looking at her wearily. Kyrie was sure he had been expecting an easy fight, but Kyrie had made this quite difficult for them. She had defeated two of the finalists after all.

  “This ends now”, said Grugnor, taking an item out of his inventory.

  He smashed the cube-like item on the ground. There was a flash of heat and fire and Kyrie raised her arms. However, she was dealt damage and her health reached half her max health. She drank a health potion. There was one more item in her inventory left. The special cube that Goros had given her.

  “Well. It seems that you are still full of surprises”, said Grugnor as he raised his shield and started to circle Kyrie.

  Kyrie readied her bow and started to walk in an opposing circular route.

  “It seems that you are full of surprises too”, said Kyrie looking around. The item that Grugnor had used had vapourized all the water in the arena. Kyrie had lost her advantage.

  “You put up a good fight. I respect you. But now it is over. Give up. You cannot win.”

  Kyrie laughed, “You must have not done your research on me. This is the most fun I have had in ages. I am not giving up now. Come on then. Let’s dance.”

  Kyrie shot an arrow which Grugnor blocked with his shield. He started to walk towards Kyrie slowly while Kyrie shot an arrow over an arrow. Grugnor was not giving her any opening, his shield blocking all the arrows Kyrie was shooting. Kyrie had to create an opening or get behind Grugnor fast.

  When Grugnor was about ten feet, according to their small size, away from her, he literally flew forwards, jamming his shield into Kyrie. Kyrie was pushed back and felt the scimitar slice her as Grugnor followed up on his attack.

  Kyrie tried to get her bearings but Grugnor was upon her. Kyrie dodged the scimitar, used the shield as a platform and launched in the air. She shot an arrow right in his neck as she somersaulted over him. However, he was ready for her and the scimitar sliced where she had landed.

  Kyrie could not dodge and she had to use her bow to deflect the attack. Grugnor hit her with the shield and Kyrie was thrown back. Grugnor was upon her, his scimitar raised, the next attack was definitely going to finish her. In his attack he had left himself open.

  Kyrie took the cube out of his inventory and threw it at Grugnor. At point blank range Grugnor could not block in time, nor could he dodge. The cube hit him right in the chest. The cube exploded and covered Grugnor with tight rubbery material. He was held down and his attack stopped right before it hit Kyrie.

  Kyrie backed away and stood up. She looked at Grugnor. He was now held in place with layers and layers of rubbery material. He was trying to move but could not. Only his face was visible and Kyrie could see the panic in his eyes.

  Kyrie readied her bow. She cast [Power Shot] and let it charge. She finally shot it after five seconds of casting. Grugnor gave a final struggle. The arrow hit him right in his eye. There was a flash of bright light. And then, everything exploded.