Overwhelming Power

“There’s really not much on vampires in here,” Adelyn said in the waiting room. She was currently reading through Grimace’s encyclopedia, hoping to find new information on their problem. While she was doing that, she noticed Teddie taking a seat next to her.

“I suppose that would make sense,” Teddie said. “We know that vampire hunting hasn’t been… all too common recently.”

“Yeah… this book is still good, just maybe a bit incomplete,” Adelyn responded.

“Are you ready for your next match?” Teddie asked.

“I have to fight Wendy, right? In the tryouts she was kind of… uhh… crazy?” Adelyn laughed a little bit. “I’m actually a bit worried.”

She remembered the spectacle that girl put on. Wendy almost completely reduced the golem to dust in a few seconds. Adelyn was hoping that she knew how to control that power so she wouldn’t be reduced to dust either.

“Well… I’m not allowed to help you there. But I hope you win!” Teddie said.

“Thank you,” Adelyn said. “This tournament has been harder than I thought.”

“Uhh,” Teddie scratched his chin awkwardly. “No offense, but it might be because you have a chainsaw as your weapon?”

“It’s my weapon though. I like it,” Adelyn responded. Though, she had to admit that Teddie did have a point. A weapon that was both cumbersome and dangerous was not the best for a non-lethal tournament.

Still, nothing could replace the fact that she just clicked with it. There were a lot of cumbersome applications regarding it, but she had her telekinesis to work the machine well enough.

“I… don’t get it, but you do you,” Teddie said. “I’m going to go to the library again, see if I can find more books on the subject.”

“See you! Remember to skim!” Adelyn waved Teddie off. Shortly after, a guard approached Adelyn.

“It’s time for your match,” the guard told her. Adelyn nodded, closing her book and carrying both it and her chainsaw as she was led out of the waiting room.

***

Adelyn, as she entered the stadium, was practicing swinging her chainsaw around like a club. It still was clunky and unfocused, as expected of the weapon not being made to be wielded this way. Nor something that wasn’t meant to be a weapon at all.

The announcer summoned her in, with the same introduction as last time. The crowd applauded, as per courtesy, but this was all standard fare to her now.

“Let's welcome everyone’s favorite Blastmage, Wendy!” the announcer said. The orange haired girl in her cute sweater walked in, waving at the crowd with her staff. They definitely seemed to be enraptured with her presence.

“I’m ready whenever you are,” Adelyn told her. In preparation, Adelyn instantly began summoning. Golus, the Earth golem formed in front of Adelyn. He stood strong, tall, and in front of Adelyn, ready to immediately attack.

BOOM-

Adelyn saw her spirit immediately get blown to pieces. The rocks that made up its body were sent flying across the entire stadium, as a smoking crater stood where it once was.

“What the-”

Adelyn didn’t get time to finish her sentence before she immediately dived to the side, as a small beam shot right next to her that just barely missed.

Adelyn breathed a sigh of relief, and thank goodness she dodged because a large explosion rang out where the beam struck behind her!

“Are you kidding me?!” Adelyn said, scrambling quickly to her feet. She had to remember the tryouts, because this girl was ridiculous. She did remember her massive blasts from when she fought the golem, but how was she beat?

“You okay?” Wendy innocently shouted out, like she didn’t almost just blow Adelyn to bits just a second earlier. Adelyn was assuming that she could control those blasts to not obliterate her on hit, or else she wouldn’t be allowed in the tournament at all.

It was still scary, even if she could.

Adelyn called forth another spirit, Viridia. She hoped that she could restrain the girl before she could fire off another devastating blast. The vines spawned forth from the ground and tied her down. The spirit of nature kept on wrapping more and more plants around Wendy until she couldn’t move a muscle.

If she managed to tie her down enough to the point where she couldn’t move at all, that should be a victory on its own. Luckily, Wendy didn’t seem to be resisting particularly hard, allowing the vines to wrap her down easily.

Adelyn began to approach her. She had her book and chainsaw floating right next to her in preparation for anything that might happen. A few cautious steps forward, and she noticed Wendy’s body glowing orange.

“Eh?”

And then suddenly, a massive orange burst of pure energy came flowing out of her body. It shredded through the stadium ground, kicking up sand into the air and blasted Adelyn immediately backwards.

“AAAAAH-!” Adelyn just barely managed to hold on, defending herself with her telekinesis and managing to protect from the majority of the blast. However, the stadium’s ground seemed to be almost completely desecrated. There was a massive hole where the sand once was, spreading from one side of the stadium to the other. All of Adelyn’s vines had been vaporized upon the single magical burst.

Adelyn groaned, leaning on the sides of the crater. She wasn’t out yet, though, managing to just stay on her feet and within the bounds. She figured that explosion was tuned to knock her out of the arena entirely, but she managed to stay inside the crater, preventing elimination.

“Oh, I didn’t get you yet,” Wendy said, in the middle of the crater. She was holding her staff close to her, and panting just a bit.

That explosion must have taken a fair bit out of her. It was the same for Adelyn as well. The two girls stood many meters apart from each other, catching their breaths after that moment.

Seconds passed of no attacks, as the two girls regained their own stamina. However, eventually Adelyn opened her book and began her summon.

“Eira, freeze her!” Adelyn shouted, as the Spirit of Ice formed behind her. A beam of ice shot forward at Wendy, who proceeded to run to move out of the way. She wasn’t attacking back just yet though.

As Eira did her work, Adelyn figured it would be best to apply even more pressure. She grabbed her chainsaw by the blade—which was still pretty uncomfortable to wield—and began running towards Wendy in hopes for a quick takedown. She’d try and cut her off, as Eira continued to freeze behind Wendy’s path.

And her play was successful, as she managed to strike Wendy head-on, sending her flying off her feet and onto her back. But, before she hit the ground, an explosion released under her. This knocked Adelyn backwards and Wendy back onto her feet.

“Shoot,” Adelyn flew back and landed. She was going to keep getting away and using her explosions if she couldn’t put her down. If she got struck with another shot of such raw power, she couldn’t defend forever.

Adelyn pulled another summon, this time, she summoned Luz into the skies. Beams of light began to rain down from the sky around Wendy, forcing her onto the defensive once again.

“You’re going to get tired… eventually,” Adelyn said. She was going to keep on applying pressure, and she hoped that Wendy would run out of energy before she did.

Wendy ran through the light beams, dodging them as they came to her. However, Luz’s beams were incredibly fast and numerous, the girl couldn’t keep up the movement forever. She got struck by one, then another, then another.

Before eventually, she turned back and fired another blast at Adelyn! The girl commanded the light spirit to move in front of her, and the blast connected… causing another massive explosion!

The dust settled, and out of it came Adelyn, running forward. Sylpha, the Spirit of the Wind, flew behind her. The rushing air carried Adelyn across the arena as she charged forth at Wendy.

Wendy’s eyes opened, and Adelyn knew that Wendy probably couldn’t outrun this. Wendy fired another blast as a response, directly under Adelyn’s feet. Another arcane explosion shook the entire arena, kicking up the dust once more.

Yet, despite that, Adelyn flew through the dust once again. The Spirit of the Wind was destroyed in the blast, using its power to disperse as much of the attack in every direction. That did not leave Adelyn unscathed, as multiple bruises covered her body from that attack. But she needed to keep going.

“Come on…!” Wendy breathed, then she fired one last blast. She put much more of her energy into this one, and the crater that they were fighting in became at least two levels deeper from this. The purple explosion expanded out from Adelyn’s position, with a blast that would instantly knock her out of the arena if it hit!

But, for the third time, when the dust settled. Adelyn moved forwards.

A black orb was dissipating behind her, Drach, the Spirit of Darkness covered her in its dimension… saving her from the attack before it was destroyed. Adelyn ran forward, panting heavily. She had taken so many powerful explosions, and just barely evaded each of them. She was at the end of her stamina.

But she could not stop, because if she stopped to recover, then Wendy would too. Her knees felt like they could melt into dust and her arms felt like they did not want to move anymore. But she had to make them move to win this match.

If Wendy could do one more attack, then she might have given in.

But, Wendy pointed her staff at Adelyn one more time, and Adelyn braced for the worst. Except, the worst did not happen. No spark came out of the staff and no explosion rang out. The only thing that struck was the back of Adelyn’s chainsaw into Wendy’s stomach, causing her to kneel over.

“You… you really put me through the wringer here,” Adelyn huffed, grabbing Wendy by the hair. With every step, her legs hurt. With every pull, her arms hurt. With every breath, she felt like she was going to choke.

But, in order to win, she began dragging the girl. She dragged her up the walls of the crater. No matter how much her body ached, they walked up the crater together.

Wendy’s magic was low, her strength was faltering, and Adelyn’s grip remained strong. She would not let go, as her victory entirely depended on how much she could walk off this pain. Too many summons were used, and too many powerful attacks had to be dealt with.

But, as they reached the top of the crater, she could feel Wendy struggling against Adelyn’s grip. Trying to break free, hitting Adelyn with her staff through the entire journey to make this task that much harder for her.

Her foot stepped on the edge of the bounds, and with that, Adelyn picked Wendy up with both of her arms. She lifted the girl over her head and threw her right outside of the ring lines, just out of bounds.

She had won. She just needed to be persistent.

“Eugh,” Wendy groaned, as she laid on the ground. The announcer screamed Adelyn’s name, and so did the crowd. Adelyn stood over her, before crouching down to meet her eye to eye.

“You’re really cool,” Adelyn threw a compliment. “I’m glad I got to fight you.”

“Y…Yeah, maybe just raw power wasn’t going to win,” Wendy laughed a little bit. Adelyn smiled back.

“It almost worked, I think you definitely made a great show at least.”

The two girls both took a breath next to each other. They were tired, and both of them could see that. Behind them, staff seemed to be called to fix the mess that their battle had caused, attempting to fill the large crater with sand again.

She needed a break. Adelyn still had to compete more after this, and she could not stop here. She’ll have to keep on going and going, just like she did at the end of this fight.

And there wasn’t going to be any stopping.