ROSES HAVE THORNS

"I have you pinned to the ground. This match was over before it even had the chance to properly begin. Now, give up so we can move on, okay?"

"Ha..Hahaha! Never!" Shiki Kazuma let out a snide laugh as he glared up at her. "You seem to be forgetting that I am a chosen representative of Myria! Something as pathetic as this will never make me–! GAK—ARGH!"

The words died in his throat when an invisible, suffocating pressure seized his throat, squeezing with the unrelenting force of an iron vice.

Kazuma’s bulged pupils began to dilate with terror as he looked directly into Emelie’s face.

"Yield," she commanded softly, her green eyes glowing slightly as she applied more pressure around his throat.

Kazuma clawed desperately at his neck, but his hands swatted wildly through the empty air in a despairing attempt to rip away whatever was crushing his windpipe.

’She’s... she’s holding me down by my collar with her actual hand,yet I’m still being choked! What the hell is this magic?! Is this what Ryuuji and Jin had to deal with!?’

His face rapidly shifted from a flushed red to a dark purple. Strangle gasps bubbled past his lips as his chest heaved severely, begging him to take in air properly.

With his free, trembling hands, he deliriously tried to channel his mana, attempting to manifest a jagged stone spike from the ground to pierce her. But Emelie’s was quicker.

SLAM!

"ARGH–GAK!"

A powerful telekinetic force slammed both of his arms flat, cracking the stone beneath him. Kazuma strained with every fiber of his being, but his limbs were utterly pinned, completely unable to lift even an inch off the ground.

"Still not giving up?"

"N-Ne... v-ver... A-Ack!"

"Hmmm..."

She casually released her grip on his collar, stepping back but keeping her foot firmly planted onto his chest. She slowly raised her right hand, formed a casual finger gun, and pointed it straight down at him.

The green streaks in her silver hair began to glow with a pulsing light, her hair swaying and floating as she began to draw a concentrated amount of mana toward the tip of her finger.

A jagged pebble materialised, hovering about a centimeter away from her fingernail. Then, the pebble ignited, wrapping the stone in a mini-flame before a static charge of lightning crackled across its surface as well.

As Kazuma lay there choking, she calmly aligned her finger with his right shoulder.

BANG!

A clean, circular hole was blasted straight through his right shoulder joint.

"GYAAAH-HURRRK—AAAAGH!!!"

Kazuma let out an ugly, blood-curdling scream of pure agony. However, the sound almost immediately cut short into a choking gurgle as the telekinetic vice on his throat tightened even further.

"Yield."

"A-ACK! ARGH! GAG!"

"Haaaa..." Emelie pointed her finger gun at his other shoulder.

BANG!

"Uuuuurgh—AAAHHH-HUK!!!"

Another clean hole punched through his left shoulder this time. At this point, Kazuma’s screams degenerated into a series of pathetic, incoherent whimpers.

"Yield."

Kazuma’s mind was broken by the agonising combination of suffocation and physical mutilation.

"Fine. If that’s truly how you want to play this, so be it."

She slowly pointed her finger gun at the exact center of his forehead, right between his wide, teary, and terrified eyes. The suffocating hold on his throat suddenly snapped, releasing its grip.

The sudden return of air threw Kazuma into a panicked state of primal fear. Staring up at the glowing tip of her finger, his face contorted in sheer terror.

"W-WAIT! PLEASE! NO! I GIVE–!"

BANG!

The screaming stopped. A heavy silence fell over the spectators in the coliseum.

Up on the holographic projection screen, the image zoomed in on Kazuma. His eyes were rolled back to his head and a dark stain spread across the crotch of his trousers where he had pissed himself in fear.

But there was no hole in his forehead.

Instead, a trail of fresh blood was spreading across the ground beside his temple. Emelie hadn’t shot his head; at the last second, she had adjusted her aim and vaporised his left ear. The psychological terror of the near-miss, combined with his injuries, had caused him to black out.

["L-L-LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!"] Commentator Ken’s voice carried an unsettled tremor that the crowd hadn’t heard since Amber’s match as he stared down at the bloody scene. ["The winner of the third bout... is Emelie Herst! Eldoria secures another decisive victory!"]

["I mean, was there ever any real doubt?"] Christy murmured casually as she watched the display of dominance.

With a lazy, effortless kick of her heel, Emelie swept Kazuma’s unconscious body into the air, using a telekinetic push to chuck him toward the waiting medical priests near the boundary.

Then, her glowing green eyes locked straight onto the Myrian bench.

"Next."

Every single eye on the bench – and indeed, the entire coliseum – turned to look at one specific, solitary figure sitting near the center of the bench.

Emelie’s lips curled into a genuinely excited smirk. "Well, well, well. So you’re fourth in their line-up this time around. It’s about time you finally showed up... Izumi Ayako."

""""""YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!""""""

An absolute fever-pitch of pure chaos erupted across the entire coliseum. They screamed with a terrifying wave of vigorous patriotism.

"IZUMI-SAMA!!! DESTROY HER!!!"

"IF YOU BEAT HER, THE GAUNTLET IS PRETTY OVER, EMELIE!!!"

Ayako let out a soft chuckle. Under her breath, she whispered, "Finally."

She slowly stood up to her full height and reached down to adjust the leather scabbard of her sheathed katana at her waist, before reaching up to straighten her black sailor’s captain hat.

The remaining Myrian representatives all looked up at her with reverent respect. Chihara Mei offered her a warm, knowing smile. "Good luck out there, Ayako. Not that you’ll need it."

"Thank you, Principal Chihara. I will not disappoint."

She swept her mini cape properly around her shoulder and walked toward the arena. As she stepped up onto the floor, she paused, looking around at the cracked, melted, and heavily damaged terrain left behind by the previous three bouts.

"Ms. Herst... would you mind floating up into the air for just a single moment, please?"

Emelie shrugged her shoulders carelessly and smoothly hovered a few feet off the ground.

Ayako’s gray eyes subtly flared with a faint glow.

RUMBLE...

Without her moving a muscle, every single piece of shattered stone, loose debris, and melted boulder across the entire arena floor rose into the air. In a breathtaking display of elemental reconstitution, the stones snapped perfectly back into their original configurations, the melted boulders fitted back into the earth, and the battlefield completely repaired itself in a matter of seconds.

["HOLY SHI–! OH MY BEAUTIFUL GODDESS ABOVE!"] Commentator Ken screamed. ["Izumi Ayako has literally rebuilt the whole arena with a single thought!"]

"There. Thank you for waiting. Now, we can finally begin."

Down in the VIP seats, Kurt’s body suddenly went rigid.

A prickling sensation shot down his spine. Like with Amber, his Unique Skill screamed an alarming bell of danger inside his head even though their animosity wasn’t directed at him. But this time, the sensation was ten times worse.

*Gulp* ’These two... they’re on a completely different level. This is going to be one helluva a bloodbath.’

"...."

"....."

BOOM!!!

The battle erupted in an explosion.

Ayako’s silhouette vanished from the spot. There was no lightning step, no visual trace – just a sudden vacuum of air where she had been standing.

Standing still, Emelie instantly manifested a multi-layered, compressed telekinetic dome around her body.

CLANG!!!!

Ayako appeared directly in front of her with her katana half-drawn from its sheath. The single inch of exposed steel pressed against Emelie’s barrier, creating a loud, high-pitched ringing sound that vibrated through the concrete foundations of the coliseum.

"Fast as always," Emelie smirked.

Her hands then flew forward as she unleashed a barrage of sharp wind blades at Ayako’s face.

Ayako nimbly spun away while clicking her katana back into its sheath. With a sweeping motion of her leg, she unleashed a massive arc of freezing ice along the ground, creating a towering wall of frost that completely shattered Emelie’s wind blades.

Before the ice could even settle, Emelie shattered the frozen wall with a telekinetic blast and transformed the shards into a thousand lethal, flying needles, launching them straight at the Izumi Heiress.

Ayako’s gray eyes sparked. She took a deep, grounding breath and wrapped her fingers tightly around the hilt of her blade.

In a fraction of a second, she drew her blade.

SHING–BWOOSH!!!

A howling hurricane erupted from the steel, completely vaporizing the incoming ice needles before transforming into a giant, vertical vortex that tore across the arena, aiming straight to swallow Emelie.

Emelie thrusted both of her hands forward and seized the air currents of the vortex itself. Using her telekinesis, she violently tore the hurricane apart, splitting it down the middle before summoning a crackling sphere of fire in her palms.

"Let’s see you slice through this!"

BOOM!!!

She threw a gargantuan fireball toward her.

Ayako’s smile widened. Her calm and disciplined demeanor finally melted away to reveal the explosive, thrill-seeking warrior she keeps buried inside. Her heart hammered against her ribs as an intoxicating rush of adrenaline surging through her veins.

"Oh, I absolutely will!"

Her eyes shined with wild excitement as she stepped directly into the path of the roaring flames.

With a draw so swift it left a silver crescent in the air, her blade cleared the sheath, and a pressurised wave of dark blue water erupted from the edge of her steel. The torrent crashed directly into the fireball, generating a spectacular detonation of boiling steam that completely swallowed the center of the arena.

Before the mist could even begin to drift, Emelie parted the white cloud with her own wind.

With her hand outstretched, she shot through the gap like a bullet. She hardened the air around her fist until it possessed the density of a solid steel wrecking ball.

Ayako twisted her upper body and let the blunt force of Emelie’s fist whistle past her shoulder. The pressure of the near-miss attack was so intense that it tore a clean rip in the sleeve of her coat.

Smiling through the rush of wind, she pivoted on and brought the back of her katana up in a brutal strike aimed directly at Emelie’s ribs.

However, a thin, hard plate of telekinetic force manifested right where her strike was about to hit.

BANG!

The impact sounded like a hammer hitting an anvil. The rebound pushed both girls back, carving parallel tracks in the newly fixed arena before they came to a halt ten yards apart.

"Your reaction speed is absolutely beautiful, Ms. Herst!" Ayako shouted over the roar of the crowd.

She eagerly threw her hat toward the Myrian bench, letting her dark hair spill free in the wind. "I haven’t had to think this fast in years!"

"Don’t start praising me yet. We’re still just stretching our legs. Also, call me Emelie."

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