GUARDIAN OF THE END

"One battle field now ranges up to half the arena." Zilan reminded as he looked at the remaining participants with interest. He could already tell who would win and advance to the finals.

Though he was slightly doubtful about the match between the Feuer child and Jason, the outcome would be clear few minutes after the match's start.

"On the count of three, you will start," Zilan announced as he started counting in reverse order, the audience chanting alongside him. "Three, two, one, start!"

Andrew, having seen the outcome of Jason's last round, immediately attacked his opponent.

A ten meter snake made completely out of flames lunged towards Jason who eyed it with a fascinated gaze. He had seen Nora use his fire element to create various types of things yet the young demi-human couldn't come close in comparison to Andrew's snake.

'If not for the fact that it completely made from fire, I would've thought that it was a real snake.' Jason then decided to reveal some more of his skills, glancing up at the glass box for just a split second.

Issac and Risa noticed this and exchanged a look across the box. They could tell what their grandson was planning to do and the only thing that was left to be seen was the way he would do it.

"Dark Net." Jason muttered under his breath as he launched a net made from his dark element in the direction of the snake.

The was the same length as the snake which meant that unless the snake was curler, it wasn't possible for the next to completely capture the creature inside it.

Jason also knew this but he hadn't been aiming at capturing the snake in the first place. Instead, he flickered from his spot, using 'Lightning Steps', and appeared right behind Andrew.

"Flame Burst!" Andrew shouted the moment he saw the net launched out of Jason's hand.

Andrew had expected this to happen after seeing the previous fight. He had already came up for a countermeasure just in case such a thing happened.

Mana moved to the all parts of his body before forming a coating on his skin for half a second. It then shot out in the form of football sized fireballs which shot in every direction.

Jason was barely able to dodge one of those due to moving out of the incoming fireball's way. The others had went around various parts of the arena before hitting the force field and vanishing.

Andrew gave Jason a small smirk knowing that he had surprised the latter with his attack. Jason on the other hand felt excited at the fact that Andrew was giving him a challenge.

[ Host, don't use any other move except the ones you have used till now. ] The system suddenly stated as Jason moved a good distance away from Andrew.

'Even though I barely have any other move left to use, may I ask the reason as for why I can't use any other move?' He inquired while summoning a lightning bolt and throwing it at Andrew.

His gaze then looked at the dark net which had stuck to the fire snake's body and held it one place. Jason was surprised to see that the fire from the snake's body didn't seem to be doing anything to the net.

[ Just trust me on this. ] The system replied before going silent as Jason sighed. He decided to follow what the system had said and decided to use his already shown skills.

'I can still make adjustments to my used skills right?' He inquired while dashing forward with another bolt of lightning in his hand.

[ Yes, you can do that. ]

After getting the system's approval, Jason decided to use an old move of his that had never been officially converted into a skill.

'I guess this one is a bit modified version of it.' He thought while throwing the bolt of lightning forward.

Andrew had dodged the previous lightning bolt and was about to do the same with the current one too. Jason had been betting that Andrew would do the same thing again and his gamble paid off.

The moment Andrew moved away to dodge the incoming lightning bolt, Jason once again appeared behind him with another lightning bolt in his hand.

Andrew noticed this and used the same move from earlier except he made one big mistake. He used the same thing again expecting it to have the same effect on Jason.

"Check." Jason announced as he threw the lighting bolt in his hand towards the incoming fireballs.

? The two attacks collided mid-air but instead of not exploding like last time, Andrew's fireballs exploded and created a smoke screen around the two of them.

'I guess this is why control makes a big difference when fighting.' Jason observed. Andrew hadn't been able to control his fireballs properly due to the sudden attack by Jason which had forced them to explode.

However, Jason had a much supreme control on both of his elements thanks to the many hours he had spent practicing.

Andrew on the other hand realized that something was very wrong and his temporary loss of vision only worked against him.

'He threw another lightning bolt in my direction before appearing behind me!' Andrew suddenly realized that the first lightning bolt had never reached him and neither had he seen it touch the ground.

Moments after the realization, Andrew heard a crackling sound resound through his ears followed by an extreme amount of heat.

"Checkmate." Jason spoke again as he the bolt of lightning passed from right beside Andrew's throat.

Many might say that he missed or that he purposefully did it to not deal any damage to Andrew. Jason would've also thought like these people if not for that fact that he had been the one creating the plan.

Though it had seemed that he had aimed the bolt of lightning towards Andrew, his original goal had been the dark net stuck to the ground.

He had freed it from the ground and had sensed that the fire snake had been absorbed by the next. So the moment the smoke screen had been created, Jason had vanished and appeared right beside the net.

He had easily been able to pick it up without feeling any kind of heat and had thrown it at Andrew alongside a lighting bolt.

'I wonder how he looks.' Jason thought curiously as the smoke finally cleared up the audience was left stunned.

Andrew was completely wrapped in the dark net that Jason had created from the starting of his chest to his knees. However, an even more surprising thing was that the net radiated mild amounts of heat energy that increased the temperature around Andrew.

Though Andrew wasn't too worried about the temperature, being a high level fire mage, the heat made it difficult for him to break the net as it somehow seemed to be strengthening it.

"I abstain." At last, he sighed and gave up. The net around him suddenly turned to ashes as he was teleported back to the box.

The audience clapped loudly for Jason before shifting their gaze towards the other ongoing battle.

< Quest completed. >

< See rewards? >

'I will see them later.' Jason replied after seeing the system window open. He was instead focusing on Amber's battle.

[ She has a unique way of fighting. ] The system commented as both it and Jason were observing the fight.

Amber wasn't going on the offensive and instead seemed to be tiring her opponent out. Jason also noticed that she was only using her Earth element against her opponent which weirded him out.

'I think she is trying to learn how to be defensive in an actual fight.' He suggested after seeing how Amber used her Earth element to manipulate the ground.

Those with a C grade affinity or higher could make use of the natural elements around them and manipulate them with the help of mana.

Amber was doing the same thing with the arena floor and was using it to create structure after structure. She would use the Earth as cover to protect herself from the attacks of her opponent, one of the two children Jason had seen with the old man.

The boy wore a bright blue coat with the symbol of the Anvilone, an icicle with a blood red tip, shown on its back. Jason wondered whether the boy was an ice mage as all of his attacks had been wind attacks.

His attacks contained enough force to break through the structures created by Amber but she didn't looked the least bit worried.

Jason noticed that she kept track of the boy's moments, improvising her own strategy along the way. Soon enough, she was able to predict the boy's move but he couldn't do it as Amber hadn't been offensive till now.

As though sensing that the match had been going on for too long, Amber suddenly stopped controlling the Earth.

The boy immediately put his guard up yet Amber smiled at him.

"You were too focused on me." She said with a wink as the boy blinked in surprise. But he didn't get the time to say anything as the ground below his feet suddenly opened up into a large hole.

Amber had somehow managed to lure the boy to an area under her control and from there, she had managed to send him underground.

A bright flash of light went inside the hole as the boy was teleported back the box. Amber then turned to look at Jason with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"I will be serious now." She announced as two golden rings suddenly appeared above their heads, teleporting them back to the box.