GUARDIAN OF THE END

"Jason, don't hold back." Issac whispered in Jason's ears once before he was teleported down to the arena floor.

Amber and Jason appeared in the arena with a fifty meter distance between them.

Amber had a smile on her face and was cracking her knuckles. Jason on the other hand stood in his position calmly while summoning small sparks of lightning around his fingers.

[ To use thunder effectively, you have to use your lightning element to its full potential. Always remember that Thunder is more than just a sound. ] The system suggested hopefully.

Jason would be lying if he said that he wasn't nervous.

It would be the first time he would actually be using his thunder element in action and had no idea how thing would go.

"The rules remain the same except that you have the entire arena floor to fight on." Zilan explained, his eyes glancing at the hidden box once. "The battle starts on the count of three."

The crowd, alongside Zilan, started the countdown. The moment the number reached zero, Jason felt the ground below his feet starting to tremble.

An earthquake shook the entire arena floor as slight cracks ran against the ground. Jason's eyes were fixated on Amber, the smile from earlier still visible on her face.

'I guess she isn't going to hold back.' Jason thought as he activated his lightning steps skill while keeping an eye on his mana.

He had already used his skill way too frequently and if not for the break, Jason was sure that he would have run out of mana mid-fight.

"Phew…" Jason exhaled slowly while letting his lightning mana run wild around his body. A clapping sound resounded throughout the arena as sparks of lightning flickered around Jason's body.

He suddenly shot in the air, the lightning now visible around him. It was wrapped around his limbs in the form of tendrils and gave him the look of a god descending from heavens.

'So he is showing his thunder element. I guess I should use magma too.' Amber suddenly closed her eyes in concentration before joining both of her hands together.

The trembling ground suddenly went still, making Jason feel uneasy. He decided to not take a risk and pointed his right hand towards Amber.

The lightning running wildly around his arm suddenly centralized itself towards the target and shot from Jason's arm in the form of a huge lightning bolt.

The audience held their breath in silence as the lightning directly struck Amber. A cloud of smoke block anyone from seeing the outcome of the clash.

'She survived…' Jason narrowed his eyes while slightly using his vision control. Though he wasn't able to see clearly through the smoke, his eyes could see mana in any object or person.

An outline of sorts would appear around the person Jason would look at with his eyes, the color of the outline depending on the type of mana the person or the object had.

Currently, Jason could see Amber standing still in the middle of the smoke. A mixture of bright red and brown outline was visible around her arms.

However she wasn't the main focus of Jason's eyes.

He was staring at the objects Amber seemed to have summoned at the last possible second to avoid getting hit by the lightning.

It was a huge rock the size of two elephants combined, both in height and width. Small pores were also present in the rock which seemed to be oozing some kind of fiery substance.

The smoke had initially been produced by the clash between the rock and the lightning but the fiery substance was making sure that it didn't die down.

'Magma element.' Jason felt something click in his mind as he suddenly flew backwards, just in time to dodge one such rock flying in his direction.

Jason finally got a clear view of the rock and it was enough for him to avoid getting hit by one of them or else he would become a flat tire.

Suddenly, Jason saw another living source of mana pop up right beside Amber. He narrowed his eyes slightly as he sensed that the new living thing was someone familiar.

"Uh, is it allowed to use your pets during battles?" Jason asked aloud as Zilan stared at him with a surprised expression.

The prime minister had of course known about the sudden appearance of another living being beside Amber despite the smokescreen.

Zilan hadn't expected Jason to be able to know about the creature as he couldn't see past the cloud of smoke. Or at least that's what Zilan assumed.

'Wait, are his eyes glowing?' Zilan paused, his eyes narrowing to get a clear view. However, what he had seen must've been a trick of light as Jason's pupils looked normal.

"Pets are allowed as long as its either one with a soul bond or its a guardian." Zilan replied firmly, knowing well that Jason would've no idea about either of the two categories.

Zilan had been present at the time when the Syrward family was cursed to be not able to tell any sort of helpful information to their future generations.

The king at that time had been Zilan's father. At that time, Zilan had felt that the punishment was way too light but over the years, he finally understood why his father had placed such a curse on the Syrward family.

It was to make sure that they weren't able to turn their future generation into powerhouses. This would ensure that the balance of power was maintained.

'If only father knew how wrong he was.' Zilan sighed mentally as his eyes kept track of the battlefield.

Neither Jason nor Amber had made any move and the audience was left waiting in suspense.

Amber was hesitating to do anything due to the fact that Jason had managed to pierce through the smoke and had foiled her surprise attack.

Jason too was hesitating to attack as he had a feeling that the thing Amber had summoned would attack him alongside her, making the fight a two versus one.

'System, is it just me or does that shape remind you of Flamey?' Jason inquired while trying hard to focus on the shape of the creature.

It was definitely not longer than a feet and had a lizard like body. It also had a tail coming out from its rear end, making it look a whole lot like Amber's pet magma salamander.

[ It does look like him though he seemed harmless. ] The system stated while looking at the creature through Jason's eyes.

'Most things that look harmless and pretty are sometimes the most dangerous ones.' Jason reminded.

The crowd was getting bored of the long stalemate where both the children weren't doing anything.

"Come on, just throw a few attacks and be done!" Suddenly, a man's voice rose throughout the arena, soon followed by many more chants.

Jason watched the audience with an emotionless face, silently wondering the reason for all the nameless people shouting together.

He could understand the feeling that they wanted to see some action but only five minutes had passed since the start of the match. Also, wasn't it clear how tense the situation was?

[ They are not the ones on the floor of the arena and nor are they the ones seeing the entire picture. Its just cheap entertainment for them before their kids can choose an alliance. ] The system sighed.

Jason was about to argue with the system on that yet someone else beat it to him.

"Some humans can never learn to be patient when they don't understand the situation." A tired voice suddenly echoed around the entire arena.

The voice had an accent no one had ever heard before yet for some reason, they felt a bit suppressed by it.

"I didn't know she could summon a guardian." Risa muttered in an impressed tone while staring at Amber's grandmother, Ariana.

"She learned from the best. Though we didn't get any guardian bearer in our family for ages, we still kept teaching our children to the best of our abilities." Ariana's voice contained traces of pride which was quite rare to see.

"Must be nice to be able to teach your grandchildren…" Risa muttered under her breath as the two ladies watched the smoke vanish from the arena.

The trembling of the ground resumed once again, this time much stronger than before.

< The Guardian of Magmaland has chosen to enter his vessel. >

Jason saw a blood red window open in front of him. At first, he thought that it was a system window telling him of what was about to happen in the future.

But one glance around him told Jason that everyone was seeing the same message. Though the others didn't see it in a window like his and had instead heard the message echoing around the entire arena.

The smoke cleared up, allowing Jason to finally see Flamey perched up on Amber's right shoulder.

The magma salamander's eyes were glowing a shade of blood red similar to the window that had opened up in front of Jason.

His body was also releasing a dangerous aura which had managed to put the entire arena in silence.

"I accept…" Amber suddenly mumbled as Flamey vanished from her shoulder.

Jason could still track his aura as the salamander's aura suddenly merged with Amber's aura. A heat wave blew over the entire arena, drying out the atmosphere in a matter of seconds.

The cracks created in the ground by Amber's attack during the beginning of the match suddenly started widening, forcing Jason to launch himself higher in the air.

He had temporarily turned off the release of lightning around his body as it cost him a bit too much of his mana.

If not for how he could recover one mana per thirty seconds, Jason was sure that he would be running out of mana sooner or later.

A few seconds later, another message echoed around the entire arena.

< The Guardian of Magmaland has entered the battlefield successfully! >