Rebirth of the Phoenix God

"Fight!"

As if realising what the crowd of people located all over the tribunes of the colosseum wanted, the official part of the event didn't take all that long. With some officials declaring their undying and eternal love to the empire and the envoy completely ignoring those pleas to be noticed.

From the way in which the entire formal opening of the event was dealt with, Fen could tell that after satisfying the minimum of what the local powers requested to flex their muscles and actually allow their most important supporters to flex theirs, the fights would start right away.

And just like the young man expected, as soon as the bare minimum of the opening finally concluded in a few minutes after the grand begin, along with the tunes of orchestra adding the tenseness to the announcement, the very first two contestants were called to the fight!

Starting from the top of the list made out of the two top classes, the same Fen's classmate that managed to score the first win against the second grade stepped up, accompanied by some kind of female wearing royal insignias on her robes.

Just the fact that she belongs either to the royal forces or was a royalty herself made that person dangerous. Yet, at this point, Fen couldn't help but feel jealous about this classmate of his that was about to start the entire thingy. Not because he was about to fight a female. After twenty-four hours long session with Kashia, Fen no longer could be bothered by such basic aspects of life.

The main thing that was different about Fen's situation and that of his classmate, was that instead of fighting the inquisition members or someone else from the church, Fen's classmate only had to worry about the fight.

And just from the very first few moments after the judge explained the rules and gave the signal for the battle to start, all the audience could tell that Fen's classmate didn't just sit down in the glory of taking the first sport of the list.

Most likely influenced by the display of Fen's strength during his with the veteran soldier in the class, rather than staying in a place full of his own dignity and trying to create some sort of phenomena, this rather small man threw himself at the girl.

Fen could already tell how the entire city would continue to gossip about the situation for months, creating some opportunity to rather quickly forget about the humiliating display of those who wouldn't show up for their fights.

Hit.

Contrary to the young man's expectations, Fen's classmate somehow managed to bury his fist right into his opponent's arm, that protected the otherwise exposed side. From the pained grin that appeared on the girl's face, one could assume that it was actually a good attack, yet Fen just couldn't agree with anyone on this point.

While it was a fact that the girl's expression was pained, there was no sign of deterioration on her body! What's more, the strength behind Fen's classmate attack was pitiful, as if he just sent a flurry of attacks, hoping to learn more about the opponent's defence, only to accidentally let himself lose that opportunity to execute a proper attack!

That is, those kinds of problems and strategies could be implemented and realised if only that duel was something real. But just looking at the two of people locked in the combat in the middle of the entire colosseum, the young arcanist apprentice realised that it was actually nothing more but characterised theatre play!

To put the entire fight in just a few shorts words, then the royal female, after overcoming some initial troubles caused by her lack of respect towards her opponent, managed to quickly turn the tables on him, forcing him to surrender by putting a dagger to Fen's classmate throat.

Raising his eyes with curiosity, Fen looked at the location where his fake, former friend was located. Given how the entire wing of the colosseum was reserved for the envoy group, spotting that bastard took Fen only a moment. Yet, what made the young man put his vigilance up, was a weird, accomplished smile of that bastard as he looked down on the arena.

"Are you ready?"

Those words of the announcer managed to jerk the young arcanist out of his stasis, as he delved into my deeper thoughts. Raising my eyes once again, Fen realised why his body unconsciously forced him to took notice of this fight.

Because Keisha was taking part in it!

Connecting the facts didn't take the young man that long, especially with how the next single word of the judge suddenly forced him to focus all of his attention on this task alone!

"Fight!"

With the judge retreating from the arena, only Kaisha and the same bastard that attempted to stir up the trouble during the interclass meeting remained on the spot.

"What are you waiting for? Come at me!"

It only took a few moments. Starting from the man's attack, quickly pushed back by a sudden fireball erupting from Kaisha'a hands, the initiative instantly shifted to the girl's favour. In less than two minutes, she was barely short of breath with her body nearly perfectly fine. On the other hand, her opponent quickly had to realise that contrary to his expectations, this girl wasn't willing to submit to him just because of who he was!

"You asked for this!"

Gathering himself from the ground, the man lunged at my girl at a speed far exceeding anything that your average arcanist of our level of expertise could never cope with!

But for the Fen, his actions seemed as sluggish as before, with only a strange glitter in the man's right hand. On the other hand, Kaisha seemed to be a little surprised by this sudden turn of events that allowed her prey to escape from what she most likely considered to be a prime cage for any arcanist.

It was at this moment, that Fen noticed something. The patter of the enemy attack changed, slowly but surely bringing him closer and closer towards the body of my girl.

Hit.

Slap.

Crack.

Those sounds quickly filled the entire area, as both sides decided to go all in. Soon, both Kaisha and the man were nearly completely covered in each other's blood, yet neither of the participants dared do surrender in face of the envoy!

'The heck is this…'

As the fight got longer and longer, Fen's eyes couldn't help but get drawn towards the fighting man's right hand. There was simply something unnatural about the way in which that man was both moving that hand of his, and how he never actually attempted to use it to attack or defend ever before!

'Wait, is that…'

Just as this stray and desperate though appeared in Fen's mind, the male contestant once again lunged himself forward, this time finally pulling a small, stabbing, wooden knife and lodging it comfortably between his fingers!

But that was enough of what Fen was willing to put himself through.

Even though the relationship he had with Kaisha was fully based on the wall of lies that he created for her sake, there was no denying that with each passing they that they spent together, he was growing fonder and fonder of this mischievous female!

"Here goes nothing, I guess…"

Speaking out in the open with a voice of someone who has already given up, Fen nearly instantly jumped forward, crushing through the soft side of the barrier aimed at keeping the participants separate from the fragile crowd, before landing on the well-kept grass of the fighting grounds.

"That will be enough of this."

Using just a little bit of his power, Fen instantly placed himself between staggering Kaisha and the lunging man. After waiting for a fraction of a second, the young man simply grabbed the wrist of the oppressor of this duel, suddenly pulling him upwards!

"What the heck?"

"Whoa!"

"Eh?"

The tribunes instantly filled with all sorts of reactions. From the people who watched the fight with just a spark of their attention, to those who were focusing on it with all their senses, the reaction was uniform.

What the heck just happened?