ROSES HAVE THORNS

"Well, well, well. Look who it is? Emelie Herst. I’ve heard an awful lot about you in Myria. They say you’re the top hound of Eldoria."

With a smug grin sneer stretching across his sharp features, Ryuuji cracked his neck from side to side as he stared down his opponent.

Emelie stood entirely still with her hands resting loosely at her sides. Although the front of her sleek bodysuit remained unzipped down to her upper stomach, she herself looked unbothered.

"I’m sure you have and you’re right to think so. Can’t exactly say I’ve heard a single damn thing about you, though."

SHEEN!

The holographic runes in the sky suddenly shifted, initiating the countdown for the first bout.

"""FIVE!"""

Ryuuji’s eyes narrowed into a venomous glare as he scanned her provocative attire. "Big mouth for someone who dresses like a street whore."

"""FOUR!"""

"Oh, I bet you know everything there is to know about street whores, Ryuuji-chan~"

"""THREE!"""

Ryuuji flinched. His aggressive posture faltered for a split second as a wave of panic flashed behind his eyes. "What... what the hell are you talking about?!"

"""TWO!"""

"Nothing. Don’t mind me. Just thinking out loud."

"""ONE!"""

Suddenly, Emelie’s eyes flashed with a deep glow. At that exact moment, a subtle static noise rippled through the coliseum’s audio speaker, cutting out all signals.

Her voice hissed through the air, sounding like a demon whispering straight into Ryuuji’s eardrums: "But just know... the second I head to Myria... you and that pathetic little underground playhouse of yours are getting burned straight to the ground."

Ryuuji’s eyes blew wide open in horror.

The glow vanished from Emelie’s eyes, and the audio speakers returned to normal.

"""FIGHT!"""

BOOM!

Emelie shot forward like a missile.

Using an explosive burst of telekinesis against the air behind her heels, she crossed the expanse of the arena in a literal second. Ryuuji, still stunned and mentally paralyzed by the horrific secret she had just whispered into his soul, barely even saw her coming.

Before he could raise up a guard, Emelie was already inside his personal space. With a terrifyingly gentle, almost intimate motion, her hands shot forward and firmly cupped his cheeks, locking his face in place.

Then, in one breathtakingly fluid movement, she extended her right leg perfectly straight up into the air, executing a flawless vertical split beneath the sun. And with a vicious force, she brought her leg crashing down, driving her knee straight into Ryuuji’s face.

CRACK!

The brutal impact fractured his nose, releasing a spray of blood into the air as the momentum sent his body flying backward across the stone floor. He tumbled violently through the white stone before skidding to a halt several yards away.

Emelie landed gracefully on one foot as she watched him with a cold, detached serenity.

["WHAT AN OPENER, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!"] Commentator Ken leapt out of his seat and screamed into his microphone. ["Before Yamada Ryuuji could even process the start of the match, she practically took his head off!"]

["What an amazing display of speed and beautiful flexibility!"] Christy reacted after him.

Down on the Myrian benches, Mei clicked her tongue in irritation as she dug her fingers into her crossed arms.

’What the hell did she say to him?He froze like a complete novice.’

"GAAAH! DAMN YOU!!!" Ryuuji roared, bursting up from the ground with a face covered in blood and rage. "I’LL END YOU, YOU HEAR?! I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU BITCH!!!"

He violently slammed both of his palms flat against the stone, forcing an unprecedented amount of mana into the subterranean bedrock.

RUMBLE!!!

A miniature-earthquake erupted, which shook the coliseum structure. The stone floor beneath them cracked and buckled, sending massive shockwaves through the air.

["Whoa! Hold onto your seats, people!"] Ken yelled. ["With everything shaking like this, I have a feeling something big is about to happen!"]

Emelie, not worried in the slightest, simply allowed her body to float off the ground, which completely negated the seismic vibrations so as to not lose an ounce of her balance.

"You think being off the ground will save you?! Well think again!"

The ground beneath her floating form turned a glowing, molten shade of orange. Before she could adjust her altitude, a massive pillar of liquid lava shot straight out of the bedrock, swallowing her whole in a geyser of boiling, liquid rock.

Ryuuji let out a loud, hysterical laugh, wiping the blood from his nose as he watched the lava cascade over her position.

"Hahaha! See?! You’re not all that, you arrogant Eldorian trash! Nothing survives the heat of my–"

As the molten liquid cleared, Emelie was revealed to be entirely unharmed. She remained floating in mid-air with a translucent coat of compressed telekinetic armor wrapping around her body.

The boiling lava slid off the invisible barrier like water off a raincoat, not leaving a single burn mark on her skin or her black bodysuit.

Ryuuji’s laughter died instantly in his throat. "W-What?!"

Without offering a single word of reply, she flew straight at him once again like an apex predator.

Feeling an overwhelming sense of threat, Ryuuji frantically began slamming his fists against the ground repeatedly.

"Get away from me!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Five consecutive pillars of liquid lava erupted one after another, creating a boiling maze directly in Emelie’s flight path.

However, she moved with the style, grace, and effortless precision of a master dancer.

With a subtle tilt of her shoulders, she dodged the first pillar, the molten heat missing her cheek by a fraction of an inch. She spiraled through the air to cleanly clear the second, spun around the third with a beautiful arc, and seamlessly slipped between the fourth and fifth eruptions without losing her forward momentum.

She didn’t even blink as the boiling liquid exploded all around her.

And just like that, she was in front of Ryuuji again.

Panicking, Ryuuji swung an earthen, right hook straight at her jaw. But Emelie simply bent her entire torso backward – all the way down until her spine was practically parallel to the ground.

Maintaining her inverted posture, she shot her right foot straight up into the air, delivering a snapping kick right beneath his chin.

THWACK!

His body stumbling three steps backward in a daze as his head snapped back.

Ryuuji fiercely shook his head, trying to clear the blinding stars from his vision. Filled with seething rage, he pointed both of his palms at her and screamed. "DIE!!!"

A ginormous stream of concentrated fire erupted from his palms. The massive flames rapidly shifted and took the terrifyingly intricate form of fire dragon that surged forward.

Emelie leapt and flew backward at high speeds to create distance. But the massive fire dragon was relentless; it locked onto her and began chasing her all across the expansive arena.

The audience sat in breathless awe. The magnificent sight of a fire dragon flying in complex loops and arcs across the clear sky left both Myrians and Eldorians completely mesmerised.

Emelie, leading the dragon in a circle, suddenly changed her trajectory mid-flight. She spun around and dived straight back down toward the ground where Ryuuji was standing. And as she descended, she thrusted both of her palms forward.

Two compact spheres of mana materialised in her hands – one of fire, and one of swirling water. With a quick flick of her wrists, she threw and slammed the two opposing elements together directly in front of Ryuuji’s line of sight.

PHIIIISSSH!!!

"Blocking my vision?! This pathetic trick won’t work on me!" Ryuuji scoffed. He quickly dodged up into the sky to escape the steam cloud.

Below him, Emelie and his own fire dragon shot past beneath his previous position. Ryuuji let out a triumphant laugh. "Ha! Ha! Missed me, you stupid–"

Suddenly, the absolute unexpected happened.

Emelie extended her right hand backward toward the trailing fire dragon. Forcing an immense surge of telekinetic grip into the flames, she seized control of the dragon. Then, with a violent jerk of her arm, she altered its trajectory, snapping the massive fire beast’s head around a full 180 degrees and directing it straight up toward its own creator.

"That... that’s my spell! That won’t work–"

Ryuuji raised his hands to execute a counter-dispel, but the moment he tried to move, his entire body went rigid. Every single one of his joints, muscle fibers, and limbs locked up in solid paralysis.

"W-What’s going on?! What did you do to me–!"

When he looked down, he saw Emelie sticking her pink tongue out at him while holding a single finger down on her lower eyelid in an act of childish mockery.

"Bye-bye, Ryuuji-chan~"

The fire dragon widened its fiery, cavernous jaws and swallowed Ryuuji whole before violently detonating into a blinding mushroom cloud of explosion magic.

BOOOOOOM!!!

The shockwave rippled through the coliseum.

As the cloud of smoke and scattered embers began to disperse into the afternoon sky, the audience looked up. Ryuuji’s body was still being held suspended mid-air by an invisible telekinetic lift.

His pristine uniform was charred and shredded, his skin covered burns, and his eyes rolled back into his head. He was out for the count.

With a lazy flick, Emelie casually tossed his limp body across the sky.

Thud.

Ryuuji’s unconscious form landed in front of the Myrian representative bench, where the healing priests immediately went to work on him.

Emelie casually extended a mocking finger toward their bench, dripping her voice with terrifying dominance:

"Next."

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