It wasn't the kind of smile that meant she was happy to see me.
I quickly looked down at the crack in the floor.
Then back up at her.
She kept smiling.
"Oracle," I said quietly.
"Yes."
"How much water do you think is under us?"
"Volume unknown," Oracle said. "There is an underground drainage system that runs directly under this section of the arena. The crack that u made from Phase Two has opened a direct access point to it. A skilled water magic user would be able to utilize it without much issue."
"So basically she has unlimited ammunition."
"Essentially."
"Well that's just great!" I said.
I looked over at Garret Hale.
He was just standing there with his arms crossed and had said nothing up until now.
Then he opened his mouth.
"Vagrant Grade Zero," he said.
"Yes," I said.
"No class?" he said very sarcastically.
"Correct!"
"No formal training?"
"Also correct!"
He then took a real nice look at the cup.
"And that is your weapon?"
"It is not a weapon. It is a cup."
He stared at me for a second. Then he looked at Sable.
"Knight Errant Third Class," he said. "You are going to lose a lot of ground protecting someone who can't protect himself."
Sable looked at him.
"I appreciate your concern,I will be fine."
Garret laughed at that. The same laugh of someone who had heard that before and watched it not work out.
The announcer chirped on.
"INTERESTING WORDS FROM TEAM TWO!" The announcer had clearly been eagerly waiting to say something. "GARRET HALE MAKING HIS FEELINGS VERY CLEAR BEFORE A SINGLE MOVE HAS EVEN BEEN MADE! AND TEAM SIX STAYING VERY CALM ABOUT IT! SUSPICIOUSLY CALM!"
I looked over at Sable.
She looked back at me.
"I have Garret," she said quietly. "You have Mona."
I looked at Mona Synn.
Mona Synn looked at my cup.
"Okay then," I said.
Then everything happened at once.
Garret moved quickly to Sable No buildup. No warning. Just zero to a hundred real quick in just one step. The ground around us cracked slightly.
Sable was already moving away from him.
I stopped watching.
"GARRET HALE MOVES FIRST! HE IS FAST LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THAT IS A GRADE FIVE CLOSE RANGE SPECIALIST MOVING AT FULL THROTTLE AND SABLE VORN IS ALREADY. WAIT? SHE IS ALREADY GONE! WHERE DID SHE GO!"
Mona raised one hand toward the giant crack in the floor.
[ GUTTER INTUITION: Mona Synn. Water magic user. Tracking magic pattern. Pattern identified. Initiating continuous read. ]
I then felt this weird feeling behind my eyes. Like a second layer of something was sitting just behind it. I felt this weird feeling about what Mona was about to do before she did it. The direction. The timing. The angle.
She pulled up a massive amount of water up through the crack.
It came fast.
I stepped left.
Not like I had time to think about it.
The water hit the area where I was standing and kept going.
Her expression changed.
"HE MOVED! MONA SYNN SENT A FULL WATER WAVE ACROSS THE FLOOR AND THE GRADE ZERO JUST STEPPED OUT OF THE WAY! LIKE IT WAS NOTHING!"
She tried again. This time from two different directions.
[ GUTTER INTUITION: Left side arrives 0.3 seconds before right. Move forward. ]
I stepped forward without hesitation.
Both waves missed.
"HE DID IT AGAIN! I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM WATCHING RIGHT NOW!"
The crowd made a noise I had not heard them make before. Everyone sounded more confused and were all trying to figure out what they were watching.
From an outside view, it probably looks like I was just walking around casually while a Grade Four water mage threw everything she had at me.. What was happening was that every single movement was costing me something. Gutter Intuition was running constantly. Reading every shift in her magic before it resolved into an attack.
I was already sweating.
Mona had wiped that grin of her face, and you could tell she was done playing around.
[ GUTTER INTUITION: Volume increasing. Pattern shifting. New approach incoming.]
"Oracle," I said while moving.
"Yes."
"She is changing her pattern?"
"Yes," Oracle said. "She is no longer trying to hit you directly. She is trying to surround you."
I looked around.
The water was already creeping up on three sides. Just rising trying to closing the space down.
"MONA SYNN CHANGING TACTICS! SHE IS NOT GOING FOR THE DIRECT HIT ANYMORE! SHE IS CUTTING OFF THE EXITS AND THE CUP GUY IS RUNNING OUT OF FLOOR TO STAND ON!"
I looked at the cup.
No Celestial Beggary. That was the rule.
They had not said anything about Drifter's Dominion.
"Oracle," I said.
"Yes."
"Can I claim this space?"
A pause.
"The arena is not unclaimed," Oracle said slowly. "It belongs to the Gauntlet authority. However.... The specific section of floor you are standing on. The cracked section. The section that is technically compromised and no longer considered claimed space."
"So it is unclaimed? I said.
Another pause.
"That is an interesting way of putting it," Oracle said.
"ORACLE THIS IS SERIOUS!"
"Yes. Technically there could be an argument that the compromised section is in a state of abandonment pending repair. Which would make it."
"Unclaimed....?" I said.
"Oracle would not recommend testing that argument,"
"Screw it.."
I looked at the crack running through the center of the floor.
I planted my foot on it.
[ DRIFTER'S DOMINION: Claim initiated. Contested space. Processing. ]
[ DRIFTER'S DOMINION: Claim recognised. Compromised section of arena floor has been temporarily designated as personal territory. ]
The water stopped rising on my side of the crack.
It just stopped.
Like it had hit an invisible wall.
Mona Synn's facial expression went from locked in to totally confused.
The crowd went quiet.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING! THE WATER JUST STOPPED! I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW! SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME!"
Mona stared at the water that had stopped.
Then she looked at me.
Then she looked at her feet. The water on her side of the crack was still there. But was not going anywhere now .
I then walked towards her.
She took a step back.
[ GUTTER INTUITION: Mona Synn. Magic capacity dropping. Sustained output over extended period. Fatigue setting in. ]
You could tell she was already getting tired. She had been pulling tsunami size waves continuously for the last five minutes through the ground.
I stopped two feet in front of her.
She looked at me.
I looked at her.
"You are so lucky I cannot use my main skill in this tournament," I said. "So Im going to give you one chance to get the hell out of this arena, before I have to use you as my personal plaything and find out what my secondary skills can do to a person."
She stared at me with fear in her eyes.
She was mere moments from trembling over herself.
I held my cup.
She stepped back.
Then she raised her hands up in the air.
"TTEAM TWO. I AM..... WITHDRAWING!." she said.
"WITHDRAWING SO EARLY ON? MONA SYNN! GRADE FOUR! SOLHAVEN AFFILIATED! WITHDREW FROM A FIGHT AGAINST A VAGRANT GRADE ZERO! HE TALKED HER OUT OF IT! I NEED EVERYONE TO TRY AND UNDERSTAND WHAT JUST HAPPENED! BECAUSE IM LOST FOR WORDS."
The crowd erupted.
I turned around.
Sable and Garret did not care, they were still going.
Garret was good. Really good.
But..
Sable was better.
Not by much, but enough. She moved way differently to how I expected. Much quicker on her feet than her build suggested.
"SABLE VORN HOLDING HER OWN AGAINST THREE YEARS OF UNDEFEATED CLOSE RANGE COMBAT!" "GARRET HALE CANNOT GET A CLEAN HIT IN! EVERY TIME HE COMMITS SHE IS SOMEWHERE ELSE! KNIGHT ERRANT THIRD CLASS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! DO NOT SLEEP ON KNIGHT ERRANT THIRD CLASS!"
Garret came in hard and fast with his right hand that would have ended most fights.
But, Sable was not there.
She was behind him.
One precise strike to the back of the knee and Garret was down on one leg.
Before he could recover.
She had his arm locked up at an angle that it definitely was not designed to go in..
He stayed down.
He was screaming in pain.
He let out some words.
"Team Twoo.... Garret Halee!. I SURRENDER PLEASE!."
"TEAM SIX WINS!" The announcer sounded like he was jumping around at this point. "RYMUR KAITO AND SABLE VORN WILL BE ADVANCING! AND SABLE VORN JUST PUT DOWN A THREE YEAR UNDEFEATED FIGHTER WITH ONE STRIKE TO THE KNEE!"
I quickly ran over to Sable.
She was breathing super hard.
"You okay?" I said.
"Fine," she said. "You?"
"Fine,"
The crowd was still going.
But not long after.
The next team was already walking out.
Completely fresh.
I then looked at Sable.
She was looking at them.
"Oracle," I said.
"Yes."
"Who the hell is that?"
"Team Four," Oracle said. "Fen Havel and a candidate named Brix Solane. Grade Five. Embrath affiliated."
I stared at the gate.
Fen walked out eating something with the look of someone who had not a care in the world.
Like he had been sitting in the back watching television and someone had tapped him on the shoulder and said your turn is up now bud.
It kind of pissed me off.
Then he looked at me.
I looked at him.
Then he went straight back to eating.
"Oracle," I said quietly.
"Yes."
"Is that the same kid who stopped a Grade Five Stone Marrow Beast by closing his fist?"
"Yes ," Oracle said
"That kid?"
"Yes."
I looked at Sable.
She was already looking at me .
Neither of us had anything to say.
The announcer then cleared his throat.
"FEN HAVEL HAS ENTERED THE ARENA LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!"