"I'm sorry, who did he just say we were up against?"

  Takemin stood up from his chair in disbelief.

  "This just got way more interesting."

  Elizabeth formed a smile on her face.

  They both looked at Claire who was sitting down, seeing her knees shaking uncontrollably,

  "Oh god no."

  Claire was having flashbacks from when she was almost killed by Perry.

  After seeing her insides visible, his dark presence overrode all other emotions.

  She was just thankful his presence back then wasn't trying to kill her but rather to save her.

  "He killed five thirty-foot behemoths in one attack, we're done for."

  Claire's voice was shaking.

  "Relax Swords, remember no one has been killed YET, he wouldn't be trying to kill us, though that ruins half the fun."

  Takemin's miserable attempt to console Claire was not helping whatsoever.

  Elizabeth then put her hand on Claire's shoulder,

  "You made it this far, might as well try winning this thing."

  After a few moments she finally convinced Claire to participate in the final phase.

  Claire, Takemin and Elizabeth slowly walked toward the entrance of the battlefield, Claire's heart racing like she's about to get executed while Takemin and Elizabeth made the biggest grins on their faces.

  Upon getting to the entrance of the battlefield they see the final round of phase two winner also joining them.

  Before stepping onto the sand, it was quiet, so quiet you could hear a single thread of hair falling onto the ground.

  Upon getting onto the sand, the crowd was ferocious, screaming and yelling like the apocalypse had just started, the Mage revealed himself on the other side of the battlefield, his deep voice making Claire even more nervous.

  "Just before we begin, remember you will all have ten minutes to make a visible injury on me, if you are subdued in that time you are out and if none of you are able to injure me, you all lose and this entire thing was pointless. With that, I will give you all two minutes, some of you may be scared or nervous or thrilled, so you can let all your emotions out for two minutes.

  During those minutes, I will not attack but I will dodge or block your attacks.

  With that, let the third and final phase begin!"

  The four contestants stared the Mage down, hesitating for a single second, not being able to predict what his truly capable of.

  Takemin was the first to make a move, throwing his spear right at the Mage.

  He tilted his head forcing the spear to pierce the wall behind him, then Takemin made his move, running toward the Mage with his shield in front.

  However, the Mage flicked his fingers forcing Takemin flying straight into the wall behind him.

  "I've seen that trick once before young Takemin."

  While Takemin was recovering, Elizabeth used this as her moment to try and strike the Mage with her arrow, shooting it straight at the Mage's head with dangerous precision.

  The arrow was effortlessly caught by the Mage without him even looking, as if a sixth sense warned him.

  She repositioned herself right next to Claire who was yet to make a move, tapping her shoulder.

  "He's clearly too powerful for us to fight individually, so you attack and I'll try to find an opening to also attack him."

  Claire shook her head unsheathing her sword.

  "So you're finally making a move, Claire?"

  As Claire ran and shouted toward the Mage, he opened his fist up.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The next second, the sand below him began flying and forming into what looked to be a sword, perfectly placed in his open fist.

  Claire attempted to strike but was blocked off and sent flying across the sand landing on her feet, in return Elizabeth attempted to catch him off guard and shoot an arrow at him.

  He waved his hand and flung the arrow away from the sharp end, Elizabeth put her bow down and began making a concerned look with her eyebrows.

  "There's no way you could've blocked that without getting cut!"

  Mage put his hand up and showed Elizabeth,

  "Well have a look for yourself, child."

  The same part of the Mage's hand that struck the arrow only had a bit of dirty on it.

  "Thirty seconds left, I'd hurry up!"

  Then, the Mage heard a yell,

  "Special Move! Reconcilation!"

  The spear Takemin threw before flew out of the wall and almost struck the side of the Mage's face, however he dodged it at the last second and grabbed it by the blade.

  Takemin began smiling again,

  "You absolute idiot, there's no way you ain't bleeding from that!"

  Despite not being able to see the Mage's face because of his hoodie, he responded as if he had a large grin on his face,

  "Have another look, Hero of Warriors."

  He lets go of Takemin's spear, dropping it on the ground, as it touched the sand, it flew back at Takemin,

  "How is that even possible!"

  The Mage's hand was completely unaffected, no trace of him touching a blade anywhere.

  The four fighters all gathered up together for one big and large attack, surrounding the Mage.

  "Don't do that, if you all attack at once and one actually does land a hit, how am I gonna know who got me?"

  All four remaining contestants ran right at Mage but the next second, they're running at nothing as sand flew and got in their eyes.

  The Mage had somehow what looked to be teleported from one side of the battlefield to the other.

  "Bad news fighters, your time's up. Now I'm fighting back!"

  As expected, all the fighters all began backing off as they all experienced devastating migraines.

  All of them found themselves struggling to move as a deep, thick fog seemed to have surrounded the battlefield, each of their hearts racing out of their chests.

  The spectators looked at them confused, in their view, there was nothing but sand on the battlefield.

  The tank was the first to make a move, unexpectedly he caught the Mage off guard as he pushed him with his shield.

  The Mage quickly retaliated punching the shield and forced him flying, he made a hand gesture and somehow the tank didn't go through the wall, as if the Mage had just reinforced it.

  The tank got up but quickly collapsed back onto the ground, he was unable to resist the Mage's overwhelming power.

  "One down, three left."

  The remaining fighters all regathered themselves into one group, strategizing what to do.

  "I reckon we should all- "

  Before Elizabeth could finish the Mage came punching his way through the group.

  "I told you I'm not defending anymore."

  With that, they all concluded they were on their own, they couldn't afford time to plan, room for mistakes or even a slither of hesitation.

  They all quickly surrounded the Mage, thinking he wouldn't be able to defend three people attacking at once.

  Takemin and Claire both rushed in at the same time, simultaneously attacking him.

  He was able to quickly move out of the way causing them to both parry each other's attacks. Too powerful to keep them from staying in one spot.

  The parry caused the sand to fly once again with Takemin and Claire sent straight into the wall both cracking it behind them.

  Elizabeth saw them both go into the wall, while distracted on them, the Mage used his opportunity to attack her with his bare hands.

  She was able to dodge at the last second, causing a shockwave making her hair flowing unpredictably.

  In retaliation, she took a deep breath in, pulled the string of her bow with her arrow loaded and quickly fired at the mage whom seemed to be completely passive to a direct hit by this point.

  Knowing if this kept up she'd be out, she decided to pull some strings and began chanting right after dodging one more attack.

  "Special move, Titanium Gale!"

  She let the string on her bow go which forced her sliding across the ground she had fallen onto trying to dodge the Mage.

  With the arrow whistling straight toward the Mage. The sand had also been blown away from Elizabeth. As well as a small shockwave causing a small crater where she shot.

  The Mage was able to grab the arrow knowing it wasn't going to be easy to dodge, catching it he was moving his arm like he was holding a feral dog on a leash.

  He was able to redirect the arrow and let go of it forcing it wailing through the battlefield's wall.

  He stopped for a second staring at the hole as if he was impressed, a near impossible feat.

  Looking back down at Elizabeth, he widened his arms out and straightened up his hands as if he was about to hug Elizabeth.

  Elizabeth, confused and worried, watched as his arms came closing in almost showing a clap.

  Before his hands could touch each other, Takemin's shield came flying stopping them from touching, then Takemin and Claire both came running toward the Mage.

  Takemin attempted to strike his spear into the Mage whom blocked it with his bare arm, Claire soon followed with her sword attempting to stab his legs.

  The Mage tanked her attack while looking back at Elizabeth who had disappeared.

  Takemin and Claire, physically distracting the Mage then shouted out,

  "Do it now, Elizabeth!"

  Then a yell could be heard behind him,

  "Special move! Tsunami of Pure Steel!"

  She shot her arrow, then it multiplied into two, then consecutively kept multiplying until a tsunami of arrows appeared, still something the Mage was looking at like a minor inconvenience.

  Before the first arrow could hit the Mage he calmly let out two words.

  "Nice try."

  The next second, everything went flying away from the Mage.

  Claire and Takemin flew back into the wall, the arrows scattered against the battlefield with a few even impaling Elizabeth's shoulders, arms and legs pinning her up against a wall.

  "I wouldn't use too many special attacks at the same time, you'll lose your energy."

  Takemin collapsed off the wall onto the ground still conscious but sweating and breathing profusely, all five of his senses were locked onto the Mage, exactly like what happened in his fight against Brodie.

  His only thought was remembering the winner of this tournament could ask for any favour, his favour, was for the assassination of Brodie.

  He got up and yelled his lungs out viciously and ran toward the Mage like a monster, the only thought going through his head as the Mage prepared a punch, was how he ended up here, alive, tested, and as a hero.