At first, all three arrows flew straight toward Aislyra, each apparently aimed directly at her chest. The silver-haired elf knew perfectly well that the emerald-tipped projectiles were more than capable of piercing her armor.
Even so, she made no attempt to dodge them. Instead, she chose to meet them head-on with Ice Burn.After all, trying to escape Emeralda's arrows was pointless.
So, the moment they entered her range, Aislyra swung her massive sword and shattered all three arrows.
Or at least, that was what she believed she had done.
In reality, one arrow had pierced the armor protecting each of her feet.
Fortunately, the projectiles failed to penetrate very deeply, inflicting only superficial wounds upon the skin beneath the armor.
The truth was that Aislyra had managed to destroy only one of the three arrows.
The other two, just as her Ice Burn was about to strike them—when they were little more than a millimeter away—suddenly changed direction as though they possessed minds of their own, veering toward the queen's bodyguard's feet.
Immediately afterward, the emerald gemstones embedded in their arrowheads began to expand, engulfing both of Aislyra's feet before anchoring themselves firmly into the arena floor.
Emeralda clicked her tongue in frustration.
"Tch... I still couldn't hit those scandalously large breasts of yours..." she muttered before immediately retreating as far as possible from the silver-haired elf, fully aware that she stood no chance against Aislyra in close combat.
"Compared to my mother and my sister, I don't think mine are scandalously large at all," Aislyra replied matter-of-factly.
Then the excited smirk already spread across her face widened even further.
"It's only been a few months since the last time we fought, and your precision has improved so much that you can now make your arrows evade my sword even when they're so close to it."
She grinned.
"You and that old man really are monsters!"
The previous evening, after Emeralda had returned to her room, Lucas—curious about the fact that Aislyra would be facing her in today's tournament—had asked his younger sister how the golden-haired elf actually fought.
After all, in the two matches Lucas had watched, Emeralda had defeated both of her opponents almost instantly, using no more than four perfectly aimed arrows.
While they had been discussing the assassin known as The Silent Gate, Aislyra had gladly answered his questions.
Regarding the spell Emeralda had used to alter the trajectory of her arrows, Aislyra had explained that it was a Wind Magic spell—and one of the rare spells that required no incantation whatsoever.
Its name is Wind Guide. It allowed Emeralda to manipulate the surrounding air currents, changing the flight path of her arrows and even keeping them airborne for much longer than normally possible.
As for the emerald-tipped arrows that had immobilized Aislyra's feet, those were not the result of a spell at all.
They were the power of the bow she wielded. Its name is Emerald Duke, a Magical Artifact passed down through the Ventora noble family for centuries.
It had originally belonged to one of Emeralda's ancestors, a legendary Ranger renowned for mastering an advanced branch of Emerald Magic, itself derived from Earth Magic.
For that reason, despite Emeralda possessing a natural affinity for Wind Magic, she was still capable of wielding spells of a Derived Magic derived from Earth Magic through the power of that ancient bow.
Even Aislyra, however, admitted she did not know the full extent of its abilities.
'Plus, Aislyra also told me that Emeralda's own Derived Magic isn't suited for combat and she feels rather embarrassed by it. That's also why she refused to tell me what it actually is,' Lucas thought with a small smile.
To him, that only made it even clearer how deeply Aislyra cared about her longtime friend.
While complimenting Emeralda's improved skill, Aislyra increased the flow of mana reinforcing her body through the Physical Enhancement spell. Then, with a single explosive kick, she shattered the emerald crystals imprisoning her feet.
Without wasting another instant, she sprinted straight toward Emeralda.
The blonde elf had used those precious few seconds while Aislyra was immobilized to put as much distance between them as possible.
And she had never stopped running.
"You muscle-headed woman! You have the nerve to call me a monster after pulling off something like that?! As always, your brain is nothing but muscle!!!" Emeralda shouted as she loosed another volley of six emerald-tipped arrows.
This time, Aislyra managed to freeze and shatter every arrow flying toward her without allowing a single one to slip past her guard.
A brief "Tch" escaped the golden-haired elf's lips.
But as Aislyra continued charging toward her opponent, a massive, razor-sharp emerald thorn suddenly erupted from the ground directly in front of her.
She managed to dodge it by the narrowest of margins, suffering nothing more than a shallow scratch across her cheek.
Yes, Aislyra had destroyed every arrow aimed directly at her.
But there had only been four.
The fifth arrow had never been intended to strike Aislyra herself. Instead, Emeralda had fired it into the ground where she knew her opponent would pass.
The arrow had become a carefully prepared trap, waiting patiently for its prey to arrive.
Having narrowly avoided it, Aislyra immediately shattered the emerald spike with a single swing of her sword, freezing it solid before reducing it to fragments.
Only then, before resuming her charge, she carefully examine the stretch of arena separating her from her opponent.
The battlefield before her had been transformed into an emerald minefield.
Taking advantage of the precious moments granted by her first trap, Emeralda had already created, fired, and embedded well over a hundred emerald-tipped arrows into the arena floor.
More than a hundred "mines" now stood between the silver-haired elf and the Ranger.
"Don't worry, Emeralda. Someone capable of planting this many arrows in less than the blink of an eye is unquestionably a monster in her own right..."
"Stop talking nonsense! The only monster here is you, you muscle-headed woman! Come on, then—if you've got the guts!" Emeralda shouted back, her voice overflowing with frustration as she loosed another ten arrows.
"Hmm... Crossing a battlefield full of traps like this would certainly be an interesting challenge..." Aislyra murmured with an excited grin.
"But after what happened during the last fight, I think I'll handle it differently!"
Before the incoming arrows could reach her, Aislyra raised Ice Burn high above her head and shouted with overwhelming force,
"Ice Crescent Moon!"
Immediately, her greatsword was engulfed in a brilliant blue light.
Then, putting all her strength into the attack, Aislyra swung the colossal blade downward.
A gigantic crescent-shaped blade of ice burst forth from the swing, racing across the arena at tremendous speed while effortlessly shattering every arrow lying in its path.
But with an elegant leap high into the air—assisted by a precise application of Wind Magic—Emeralda avoided the devastating attack completely.
At the same time, she manipulated the air currents to redirect five of the ten arrows she had just fired, steering them safely around the advancing blade of ice.
Having only just finished casting her spell, Aislyra managed to intercept only three of those arrows in time. Two had been aimed directly at her eyes. The third had targeted her heart.
The remaining two struck true, piercing both of Aislyra's wrists.
Immediately, emerald crystals spread outward from the arrowheads, expanding into large masses of crystal that locked around her wrists like oversized emerald shackles.
Aislyra simply ignored them.
Keeping both hands tightly wrapped around the hilt of her two-handed greatsword despite her newly restrained wrists, she charged forward at astonishing speed along the path her own attack had cleared.
In the blink of an eye, the silver-haired elf had almost reached the elven Ranger.
But the instant Aislyra looked into Emeralda's face, although the confident grin never left her own lips, her eyes widened in surprise.
The Ranger was smiling.
Not confidently.
Victorious.
Standing before her, Emeralda extended her right hand.
Then, with perfect composure, she closed it into a fist, as though giving a silent signal.
At that exact instant, every single emerald-tipped arrow she had planted throughout the battlefield was swept into the air by powerful gusts of wind.
They converged upon Aislyra from every direction.
Before the silver-haired elf had any opportunity to react, the countless arrows struck her simultaneously, and the emerald crystals blooming from their tips engulfed her completely, imprisoning her within a massive emerald gem.
"Emerald Coffin"—that's the name of the spell that just defeated you, Aislyra…" said Emeralda, doing her best to conceal the excitement bubbling inside her over her apparent victory as she gently stroked the massive emerald in which her rival was encased. Aislyra did not move even a single millimeter.
"Don't worry, Aislyra. As soon as Mr. Pinusal declares me the winner, I'll set you free," the Ranger added in an elated voice.
Virtually the entire audience sat in stunned silence.
One of the tournament favorites had seemingly been defeated with surprising ease.
Without a doubt, this was the first time Aislyra had been eliminated before the finals by anyone other than Fortore.
'My beloved Fortore surely watched this match from his waiting room. With this victory, I'm certain he'll finally have eyes only for me, and I'll replace that stupid woman, all muscle and no brain, as my beloved's true rival! Then, from being rivals, we'll gradually grow closer and closer… and afterward, in secret, we'll do this, that, and even this…' the elven girl fantasized euphorically as she made her way toward Pinusal to ask him to declare her the winner.
After all, Aislyra was no longer capable of moving.
It would be different if that emerald had been created from just a couple of arrows, but that coffin had been fashioned from the compressed emerald of nearly a hundred arrows, making it virtually indestructible for most people. It was roughly twenty times more durable than the emerald that had immobilized the queen's bodyguard's feet at the beginning of the match.
The Ranger continued trotting toward Pinusal, thinking, 'Even a woman as monstrously strong as her shouldn't be able to move inside something like this, so breaking out of it should be practically impossible-'
But that thought came to an abrupt halt the instant she heard something begin to vibrate.
Immediately, the girl turned toward the emerald prison in which she had sealed Aislyra.
It was shaking violently.
So violently, in fact, that it looked as though an earthquake powerful enough to level an entire city were raging beneath the enormous crystal.
And before Emeralda could even raise her bow again and nock another arrow, the emerald exploded into thousands upon thousands of glittering fragments, revealing Aislyra.
Her body was riddled with arrows.
Yet the excited grin on her face had never disappeared.
The instant the audience witnessed that sight, the arena erupted into thunderous cheers, thrilled that the battle was clearly far from over.
"Come on, Emeralda, did you really think you'd already won?" Aislyra asked with an excited grin. "You should know by now that I'm not the kind of person who goes down so easily. Still, I have to admit that the emerald you trapped me inside was pretty tough—it actually took me several seconds to break free!"
The moment she finished speaking, Aislyra instantly closed the distance separating her from Emeralda.
Caught completely off guard, Emeralda managed to fire only a single arrow, which Aislyra effortlessly intercepted during her lightning-fast charge.
With no opportunity to retreat, the golden-haired elf was forced to use the Emerald Duke itself to parry Ice Burn.
Fortunately, despite being a bow, the Emerald Duke was a Magical Artifact, making it extraordinarily durable. Even against Aislyra's overwhelming physical strength, it could withstand several direct blows without suffering damage.
However, considering the terrifying power behind the silver-haired elf's attacks, even a magical artifact would not endure for very long.
Emeralda gritted her teeth and pushed her Physical Enhancement spell to its absolute limit. Anything less, and she herself would be crushed long before her beloved bow ever broke.
In a strained, nearly breathless voice that revealed the enormous pressure she was enduring, Emeralda cast,
"Mode: Emerald Blade!"
Immediately, emerald crystal spread across the entire bow—leaving only the string uncovered—and transformed both ends into two incredibly sharp blades.
"Oh? I haven't seen you use that spell in quite a while," Aislyra remarked with obvious excitement.
"But are you really sure about this, Emeralda? Usually, whenever I force you to use it, it means our match is just about to end!"
As she spoke, the silver-haired elf poured even more strength into her attack.
Resisting with every ounce of strength she possessed, the golden-haired elf shouted back,
"Don't underestimate me, Aislyra! I'm not the same woman I was just a few months ago!"