ROSES HAVE THORNS

Without a word, the distance between the two vanished.

BOOM!!!

In a motion so blistering the human eye could barely track the blurs, they collided at the center of the arena. Jin was a whirlwind of precision. A golden broadsword materialised in her right hand for a brutal downward slash, but as it came through, Emelie deflected the attack with a telekinetic blast against the flat of her blade.

"Dammit!"

The moment the broadsword shattered under the strain, Jin’s left hand instantly formed a sleek golden trench knife and drove it toward Emelie’s ribs with a crackle of lightning.

"Not today!" Emelie seamlessly glided backward.

As she retreated an inch off the ground, she manipulated the air beneath her boots. Then, with a rapid twitch of her fingers, she seized a jagged chunk of the stone floor behind Jin and hurled it straight toward the idol’s back.

Sensing the shifting air pressure, Jin dropped into a low split, allowing the massive boulder to whistle harmlessly over her golden hair. She then propelled her palms upward, manifesting a pair of spiked golden lances that shot straight out of the ground toward Emelie’s floating form.

The two incoming lances suddenly froze in mid-air, their golden lightning streaks spitting sparks against a wall of telekinetic stasis.

With a mocking flick of her wrist, Emelie reversed their trajection, sending the golden lances rocketing back down toward their creator at twice their original speed.

"Gotta move–!"

CRASH! CRASH!

The floor exploded into a cloud of dust and golden fragments, narrowly missing Jin as she nimbly rolled to the side. Once she was safe, she bounded back to her feet and wiped a fresh smear of sweat and dirt from her brow.

Her black and golden combat dress was beginning to show faint signs of searing along the hem, and her armored greaves were covered in fine scratches.

She looked across the clearing. Emelie stood with her hands loosely resting on her hips, looking impeccably composed. Unlike Jin, her sleek black bodysuit was untarnished, and her breathing hadn’t even changed from its baseline, resting rhythm.

"Ha... hahaha. Man... you really are a freak of nature, aren’t you, Emelie-chan? Honestly, monsters like you and Izumi-senpai... you guys are just built on a completely different evolutionary chart. It’s almost unfair."

"If you’re already sensing the wide gap between us, Goldilocks... you’re welcome to throw your hands up and walk back to your team. I wouldn’t shame you for it."

"Oh, please! Walk away?!" Jin grinned fiercely as her golden aura flared with a stubborn resurgence of pride. "A true idol never walks off the stage before the final curtain call!"

Suddenly, harmonic and beautifully synchronised sound began to echo from the northern and eastern stands of the coliseum.

It started with just a few hundred Myrian, but within seconds, it swelled into a deafening chorus of thirty plus thousand voices. The Myrian crowd they were singing. They were singing one of Jin Fu’s most famous songs.

A song of hope, that whenever you find yourself trapped in trapped darkness, all you have to do is search deep within yourself to find that precious golden light:

"""YOU ARE MY SHINING STAR♬⋆."""

Jin Fu’s eyes widened in a look of pure surprise. She slowly turned her head toward the enormous wall of crimson and gold banners waving in perfect harmony with the lyrics.

She could see the desperate hope in her fans’ faces. They knew she was struggling; they could see she was facing an insurmountable wall – but they didn’t care. They still believed in her. Their shining star.

"Ha.. Hahaha... Seriously, you guys are so..." The exhaustion in her limbs vanished and a warm feeling settled deep within her chest.

Feeling revitalised, she turned her attention back toward Emelie while loudly shouting at the people who were supporting her, "Thank you, everyone! I hear you loud and clear! Let’s give them a proper finale, Emelie-chan!"

["LISTEN TO THAT RESONANCE!!!"] Commentator Ken felt his own skin covered in goosebumps. ["The entire Myrian populace is lifting their idol on their shoulders!"]

["I feel like I’m gonna cry..."] Christy sniffled. ["This is way too beautiful. An idol fueled by the love of her people is a dangerous force indeed."]

BZZZZZZT—BOOM!!!

With a charge that just about shattered the sound barrier, Jin launched herself high into the sky. Her golden aura expanded into an astronomical sphere of gold that illuminated the entire coliseum like a second sun.

Taking her up on the challenge, Emelie used her telekinesis and aggressively shot upward after her.

The two girls took their battle to the skies, leaping and clashing against the air thousands of feet above the arena floor. The spectators sat with their heads thrown back and their eyes glued to the magnificent, yet terrifying, aerial dance unfolding before them.

Jin created a pair of massive golden twin-blades, executing a spinning aerial slash that cut through a gust of wind Emelie tried to throw at her.

"Take this! And this! And this!" Jin’s voice echoed down from the clouds as she rapidly manifested weapon after weapon – spears, daggers, halberds – throwing them in a continuous, lightning-fast stream as she fell through the air.

Emelie moved through the sky with weightless serenity.

With a subtle twist of her hips, she slipped past a massive golden broadsword. With a casual wave of her left hand, she casted a compact wall of compressed ice that got shattered into harmless frost as multiple golden daggers pierced through.

She was an untouchable phantom floating amidst a golden tempest.

"Ahahaha! You’re amazing, Emelie-chan! But let’s see how you handle my final curtain call!"

Reaching the apex of her altitude, Jin dynamically threw both of her arms toward the sky. Her golden lightning aura began to surge, then condense, pulling every single ounce of her remaining mana reserves into a single point directly above her head.

The sky darkened slightly as a colossal construct began to materialise. Within seconds, a gargantuan, golden broadsword – easily the size of a warship – hovered above the coliseum, its surface crackling with millions of volts of pure lightning.

"THIS IS IT EMELIE-CHAN! MY EVERYTHING! TAAAAKE THIIIISSS!!!!" Jin screamed at the top of her lungs and violently swept her arms downward.

The colossal golden sword pierced the cloud, its total mass and kinetic force creating a deafening, atmospheric rumble that caused the protective barriers around the coliseum stands to flare to their maximum intensity.

The entire Myrian and Eldorian crowd stood with bated breath as they waited for the world-shattering result.

Emelie looked up at the descending mountain of golden steel and lightning. For the first time during the match, her casual expression morphed into a subtle smile of respect. Slowly, she relaxed her arms.

Instead of maneuvering around it, Emelie closed her eyes and focused on a technique that would easily put an end to this.

Bzzt!

"Let’s do this."

As the tip of the blade zeroed in on her, Emelie thrust both of her palms upward and unleashed an unrestricted telekinetic force against the underside of the descending sword.

SKRRRRRRRIIIICH!!!

The colossal golden broadsword suddenly froze in mid-air, barely a hundred feet above her head, the utter friction between her telekinetic grip and the thunderous force of Jin’s final attack created a deafening, metallic screech that rattled the teeth of every single person below.

Emelie set and clenched her jaw. Then, with a guttural shout, she strenuously twisted her wrists.

"DISRUPT!"

Bzzt–BBZZT–CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-SHATTER!!!

The gargantuan blade abruptly buckled, cracked, and completely shattered into a million shiny pieces of harmless golden glitter that rained down over the arena like a beautiful snowfall.

Jin, who was falling through the air with just about no mana left in the tank, let out a soft, defeated laugh as she watched her ultimate technique turn into harmless sparkles.

"Ah... yep. A total monster."

Before she could even touch the ground, Emelie shot through the falling glitter and appeared above Jin’s falling form.

"Fo you really have to confirm the kill, Emelie-chan?"

"Unless you wanna give up?"

"... No."

"Then face the music."

With a casual, almost lazy downward push of her palm, Emelie unleashed a merciless blast of telekinetic force.

BOOM!

The attack caught Jin dead in the torso, sending her body sailing across the arena, completely clearing the white boundary before landing crashing and rolling near the Myrian Representatives.

["AND IT IS OVER!!!"] Commentator Ken exploded into the microphone.

"""YEEEEAAAAHHHHH!!!""" The Eldorian section of the coliseum also burst into a triumphant roar.

["EMELIE DISMANTLES THE GOLDEN IDOL OF MYRIA! JIN FU HAS BEEN ELIMINATED! ELDORIA MAINTAINS AN UNBROKEN STREAK!"]

["Wow! What an unforgettable fight,"] Christy cheered while clapping her hands happily. ["This one will definitely go down in the history books!"]

The Eldorian fans were high-fiving and screaming Emelie’s name, while Dominik and Mia were simultaneously cheering for her victory and throwing supportive flowers toward the healing priests who were currently carrying an unconscious Jin Fu toward the medical bay.

But down on the arena floor, there was no rest for the wicked.

The very second the priests cleared away, a shadow suddenly launched itself straight from the Myrian representative bench.

The figure crossed the ring with an aggressive pace, leaping high into the air and pulling back an enhanced fist of dark-brown earth magic.

"THINK FAST, YOU SILVER-HAIRED DEMON!!!"

Emelie didn’t even turn her entire torso around. She simply tilted her head to the side, allowing the fist to whistle harmlessly past her ear.

Before the attacker’s feet could even firmly touch the white stone, she casually reached out her left hand, grabbed him tightly by the collar of his uniform, and violently slammed him flat onto his back against the ground.

CRASH!!!

"EURGH!" The young man let out a choked gasp as the air left his lungs.

He glared up at her wildly, his teeth grinding as he spat a bit of sand from his lips. "You... you damn Eldorian monster! Do you remember me, huh?!"

"Nope. Not even a little bit."

["HOLD ON A SECOND, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!"] Commentator Ken’s voice boomed back over the speakers.

["It looks like we have a revenge match! Entering the ring as Myria’s third representative is none other than Shiki Kazuma, who charged into the arena looking for payback for what Emelie did to him during the opening rumble of Day One!"]

"There! Does that ring any bells?! You ruined my whole debut yesterday!"

"Oh! You’re–"

"Yes! Exactly! You finally remember me now, don’t you?!"

A mocking smile cut across Emelie’s face like a razor blade. "Nope. Don’t know. Don’t care."

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