Chapter 64: Too Hot to Handle

  (Scarlette’s POV)

  My match was the last of the eight, but we were told to start preparing at the beginning of our half since there was no telling how long the previous matches would take.

  I sat in one of the private waiting rooms, biding my time until my match. Fortunately, we each had our own space in the prep area. A live broadcast of the ongoing matches played on the tablet in front of me, but my attention kept drifting. So with the remaining competitors battling it out, I focused on my own warm-ups instead. Before I even knew it, Games 5, 6 and 7 had already ended. I briefly registered Asher dominating his opponent in one of the games, but honestly, I couldn’t really focus on anything else other than my own upcoming duel.

  I guess this was it. I made my way to the player’s tunnel to see my opponent already waiting for me.

  “Don’t think you’re gonna win just because you have fire powers,” Elara smirked at me.

  For some reason, that really lit a fire in me. “Can your ice handle my flames?” I shot back.

  “We’ll see,” she replied, turning to face the exit.

  “…Please welcome… Scarlette Falcon!” the announcer’s voice echoed around the stadium.

  The roar of the crowd rang my ears as I emerged from the tunnel. I was immediately floored by the sight, out of amazement if anything. The energy was incredible. How had Cadel not reacted to this?!

  I went to my corner, already feeling the adrenaline rush within me. My nerves all washed away. I was feeling hyped.

  “…Elara Grace!” The audience erupted once again. Somewhere out there, I was sure Jonah was doing his part in booing her.

  The announcer had begun his usual speech, but I wasn’t paying him any attention. I had to get in the zone.

  The bell rang.

  We both reacted immediately. A barrage of icicles fired in my direction as I sent a wave of fire in hers. Obviously, my fire overpowered her ice attacks, vaporising the icicles as if they were nothing.

  I followed up with yet another burst of heat, but Elara managed to dodge it as she rode a wave of ice crystals up into the air. So you want an aerial duel? Bring it on.

  I conjured up a fiery platform beneath my feet and took after her, sending streaks of fire as I went. Elara was doing her best to defend herself, but her icy shields were struggling to offset my heat.

  Suddenly, giant ice spikes rose from the ground below me. I twisted, managing to avoid it, but Elara took that moment of distraction to her advantage, hurtling herself straight at me. I crossed my arms and ignited them in a flash, causing an explosion as we made contact.

  The impact sent me reeling backwards, but I was relatively unharmed. Elara meanwhile looked to have suffered visible burns on her suit.

  She glared at me, immediately resuming her attack. Methodically, I created a wall of fire to conceal myself and dove close to the ground. As Elara lost sight of me when the fire cleared, I engulfed her in a plume of fire from below.

  At the last possible second, I saw her encase herself in a coffin of ice. So, can your ice handle my flame? I smirked to myself. Slowly, I turned up the heat. I could sense her defences start to crack.

  An explosion of ice crystals rained down towards me. But I had been expecting a counterattack. I leapt straight into my fire plume and ran my fist straight into her coffin, which shattered instantly. Her figure was immediately consumed by fire, causing her to scream in distress.

  I then sent her crashing to the ground, pounding her with fiery attacks as she tried to retreat with her ice manipulation. The momentum was heavily in my favour. I chased her around the arena, calmly side-stepping any futile counter attacks until she was fully exhausted. Still, she refused to throw in the towel.

  Finally, I had enough. With a final barrage, I gave her a taste of hell.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  “The winner is… Scarlette Falcon!” yelled the announcer.

  Hearing the applause filled me with an excitement I had never felt before. Even though we were only in the round of 16, I felt like I had won the whole thing. I waved to the crowd as I made my way back backstage.

  “That was awesome!” Jonah clapped me on the shoulder as we gathered for dinner.

  “Yes, you’ve repeated that like 20 times since the match ended,” I laughed. “But keep em’ coming.”

  “You did really well out there. It was a spectacular display,” Cadel remarked.

  I blushed, a little humbled by his words. “Coming from you… thanks.”

  “You guys are on to the quarter finals!” Kaede clapped with delight. “That’s already impressive in itself!”

  “I think there would’ve been an issue if either of us didn’t make it up to this point,” Cadel continued. “At least we’re fighting other 5-Stars now.”

  “Elara was a 5-Star?” I asked.

  “From what we overheard from some Horizon students, yeah,” Kaede replied. “A couple of them were demanding her to be Downranked.”

  “That’s pretty mean,” I felt a flicker of guilt. “It wasn’t her fault she got a bad matchup.”

  “Yeah, but these people are pretty ruthless,” Jonah shrugged.

  “So who’s left?” I asked. “There’s just 8 of us, right?”

  “There’s you, me, Ignar, Asher, Felix, Zara and two others—Elias Mercer from our side, and Tessa Hale from theirs,” Cadel stated.

  I recognised those names. Elias had some earth-based Ability, while Tessa’s involved plants. While Tessa’s might sound weak, it was frankly anything but. Still, plants weren’t really strong against fire, so she would probably be the best possible matchup for me. There was also Asher, but for some reason I didn’t really feel comfortable facing off against him.

  “So that’s 5 from our side and 3 from theirs,” I observed. “One of us is gonna face each other.”

  “I just hope it won’t be you two,” Kaede was echoing everyone’s concern.

  “I agree. Scarlette’s the last opponent I want to face,” Cadel commented.

  I nearly choked on my drink. “It’s so weird hearing you say it that way,” I mumbled, causing the table to burst into laughter.

  It was some time later when I received the email. I took a breath as I unlocked my phone. Alright, let’s see who we got next.

  --

  Welcome to the quarter finals

  Your opponent is: Ignar Maximus

  School: Horizon High

  Venue: Block A, Grand Arena

  Time: 3.00 PM

  --

  My blood ran cold. Why did it have to be him? Practically speaking, it was better than drawing Cadel or Zara, but Ignar was definitely someone I would’ve been better off not facing. As I stoned in silence, I received a text from Cadel.

  “Who did you get? I got Felix.”

  Felix, huh. To be fair, it wasn’t like I wanted to fight Felix either.

  “I got Ignar.”

  “Are you nervous?”

  I facepalmed. What kind of reply was that?!

  “How could I not be?”

  “It’ll be fine. I’m sure he’s dreading to go against you too.”

  Somehow, I doubted that. In fact, I was probably the opponent he wanted to face the most.

  “What about you? Any thoughts on your draw?”

  “It’s Felix. I doubt he’ll pose a challenge,” came the reply.

  I smiled. Of course he would say something like that. Why did I even bother asking? Perhaps I wanted to leech off some of his confidence?

  As I thought of a reply, Cadel followed up on his last text. “Tomorrow’s our last rest day. Make sure you get some good sleep in.”

  Oh yeah, we’d just fought for two days back-to-back. At that moment, I realised just how exhausted I was.

  “Yeah, okay. You too. Good night,” I texted.

  It was around 10AM when I woke up the next day. I lazily rolled out of my bed and washed up, all part of my standard morning routine. Once done, I unlocked my phone. There was another message from Cadel, asking if I wanted to check out some of the senior duels that were happening today. We didn't have any matches today, since it was our final rest day before the quarter finals commenced. I was admittedly quite curious, so I quickly agreed.

  After lunch, we made our way to the Grand Arena along with the rest of our friends, making it just in time for the third-year event.

  As the matches went on, there was a clear difference in power compared to us first years. Over the many months at our school, many of them had Upranked, so their round of 16 was almost entirely made up of 5-Stars. A couple of them had avoided participating in the earlier team events, so we were seeing some of them for the first time.

  One of the seniors that stood out to me was another fellow fire esper. His dazzling display of flames almost reminded me of myself. Yet, he still lost to someone who had an even stronger gravity-based Ability. I shivered. The second guy reminded me of Cadel, who could easily pull off something similar.

  After the events, as Cadel and I were walking back to the accommodation block after dinner, we ran into Asher and Bob. Upon seeing Bob, I immediately felt awkward, since we hadn’t had the chance to speak after my victory over him.

  “Pretty exciting games today, huh?” Asher began.

  “Yep. Speaking of which, who’s your next opponent?” Cadel asked.

  “I got Tessa, the plant girl.”

  Cadel nodded slowly. “So Zara got Elias, huh. Air vs earth would be an interesting battle.”

  “You don’t have to avoid looking at me Scarlette, it was nothing personal after all.”

  As Cadel and Asher talked to each other, I looked up to see Bob gently smiling at me. “You don’t have to feel bad,” he continued.

  “Sorry, but you’re not hurt, are you?” I stammered.

  “In the pink of health! The medics healed me back up in no time,” Bob grinned.

  I sighed in relief. “Well that’s good to hear.”

  “Who did you get?” Asher asked, directing the question at me.

  The negative feeling flooded back. “Ignar…”

  “Eh, should be fine,” Asher responded without batting an eye.

  “You think so…?”

  “Definitely. Anyway, was nice catching up with y’all. Don’t wanna hold you guys up any longer.”

  Cadel and Asher seemed confident that I would win. I really hoped that would be the case.