I smiled at Nyima. How would she get out of this one now? Well, not that I would wait to find out. It was best to end things here. Else I would end up losing as Yen did.

My eyes widened as beams of light shot out of Nyima's umbrella-lance, breaking apart my electric chains.

I gripped my butterfly knife and flew closer to her. Had to be wary of those beams, or else that might be it for me.

Nyima raised her umbrella, dispersing her beams as I came within range. She smirked and stepped back, paring my knife with her wand weapon.

"How do you do it? Moving despite my spell's paralysis effect?"

"You aren't the only one with sheer willpower," she said, spinning. 

I pulled back my knife to avoid getting hit by her umbrella as she spun back around.

"Playing it safe isn't your style, Lei!" she said as she threw her umbrella into the air. Her body was covered in a light red glow. Was that how she was overpowering the paralysis effect?

I smiled. "You're right, but I also know you're baiting me." I struck the ground with my knife and warped repeatedly between the two. The prana use for this technique was incredibly low, allowing me to spam it repeatedly.

Nyima caught her umbrella and stepped back, likely to get a better view and avoid any incoming attack from either direction.

I smirked and picked up one of the knives after warping, throwing it at her.

Nyima swatted it away.

I popped up in the air directly over the knife, catching it.

"Tsk," Ny said, narrowing her eyes at me. "Is that how you plan on winning?"

I shrugged. "Why not?"

She raised her umbrella up at me. "Seems a tad cheap if you ask me!" A wave of water droplets flew up at me.

My wand glowed cyan as it instantly formed a blue barrier around me. The bullets were absorbed into it.

"It mimics my Aqua Scutum," Nyima said as she condensed more red prana into her arms and legs.

I grinned. "Yeah, it's thanks to you that I got this ability."

Her cheeks reddened.

She ran up to the barrier, punching it. Energy gushed out of it, flinging her a few feet back. She quickly caught herself and threw her umbrella into the air once more.

"You're not the only one who can use spells from a distance, you know."

I smiled as I floated above the ground. This time I didn't even bother trying to dodge the droplets being thrown at me. Instead, making another blue barrier to absorb them. The droplets surely would've hurt if they hit me thanks to their speed, but the prana content was too low to break through my special defense.

I summoned another blade of wind and launched it at her. This barrier only kept attacks from outside out unless I said otherwise, much like some of the ones that Yanyu used.

Ny blocked it with her prana-covered left arm, sending my spell flying to the side. It didn't explode upon contact. It was similar to what I did with my wand earlier. Could she have been mimicking me? Nyima was the most observant person I knew.

She smirked. "If you think you can win, come at me."

I sighed as I closed in on her. Maybe I had no other choice but to engage in close combat. Thankfully, the one power I got from Iah boosted my physical attack with a minor endurance boost too. If not for the latter, I probably would've broken something during the battle against Kun.

I warped over to the knife with the glowing indents. A yellow aura flowed out of it, covering my body. I slid it into one of the sheaths I had made for them last year during Tool Synthesis and approached her.

I gasped as Ny ran at me and kicked me, sending me sliding back a few feet. Another strike sent me crashing onto the floor.

I groaned and rolled out of the way, using the speed boost from the pink indent to dodge her third attack. If only I could've used both at the same time. Then I would've been able to fend against her martial magic easier.

"Yikes," I muttered as I hopped back to my feet.

A beam of water shot at me. I moved slightly to the right, causing it to miss me by inches. I grimaced as I watched it fly into the barrier. Nyima had finally drawn her talismans out. Wait, did that mean she was on her last legs prana-wise? Or was she just that impatient about wrapping this battle up?

"Are you tiring out?" I asked, smirking. Good thing I had decided to depend on the low-cost abilities of my knives. It saved me much-needed energy. That Fulgur Draco Maxima really drained me.

Ny frowned at me. "Not at all."

I chuckled. "Really? It's okay if you are. You can call it quits."

She scoffed. "Like I will!"

Well, it was worth a try. But it would've been rather anti-climatic if she had given up just like that. Fighting until the very end was much more fun!

I charged forward, dodging the next bolt of water she fired at me. She had changed her strategy from firing continuous blasts of water at me to shooting single projectiles instead. She must've figured out the weakness of my blue barrier. I could easily dodge single attacks though.

I sped toward her as I summoned another blade of wind. I sliced the air before her, creating a large gust of wind. With the extra momentum provided by the wind, I pushed off the ground and waved both hands, creating claw-shaped gales.

Nyima winced as the wind pushed her around.

I grinned. Now that was fun! But then I remembered why I was doing this. To defeat Nyima! I couldn't let myself get distracted. No matter how enjoyable it felt to play around.

Nyima glanced upward as she created a wall of water around her.

"Going on the defensive now, huh?" I said, cupping my hands. "Think your umbrella might be more helpful than a barrier! I gasped. Wait, he umbrella. Shivers ran up my spine as I felt something coming at me from above.

"Checkmate," Nyima said, snapping her fingers. A beam of water flew out of the tip of the umbrella-lance.

I dodged the attack, but the beam split up in midair, sending small beams flying in all directions. It was a faint!

I grimaced as one hit my left arm, tearing the sleeve of my uniform off. Maybe it was a good thing that Koukyuu hadn't given us cloaks before the quarter-finals again this year. Else mine would've been ruined.

Nyima smirked at me as I landed back on the ground. Her uniform was also badly damaged.

"Falter!" she said as she caught her fluttering umbrella. The whole wall of water rushed at me as she thrust her weapon forward.

My other knife was on the ground still, so I couldn't escape that way. I threw the one I had sheathed earlier as high as I could.

I sighed as I appeared overhead. The wall of water crashed against the ring's barrier, causing it to tremble. That was so close...

Nyima smiled as she raised her weapon once more. All of the water still on the field rose up at me. The knife I had left behind was pushed up alongside it.

It was a trap?

I held my hand out and formed a sphere of wind. Well, it wasn't like I didn't know teleportation magic. It just meant I had to use a bit more prana than I would've liked.

I warped to the ring below. "Ventus Draco Maxima!"

Nyima sidestepped as the wave of water came down like a harsh rain.

I gritted my teeth as I was swept away by the harsh waters. My head pounded from the pressure. It was getting harder to breathe.

Nyima gasped as she realized no spell was coming from me.

She held her umbrella up as the fangs of my dragon came down on her. The gales expanded until they covered her completely.

I smiled. "Didn't you say that I was unpredictable? Me doing that should've been the most predictable thing ever!"

She snickered. "You got a point there. Not like you haven't been launching attacks from your wand." She pushed against the dragon and hit it up with a blast of water, tearing it into pieces.

The dispersed winds however wouldn't stay dispersed for long as I activated my spell's follow-up ability. When destroyed, it would try to reform by attacking the one who did the deed.

Nyima gritted her teeth as the dense air pressure began to push down on her. Yet she continued standing. As expected of the one who defeated my sis and Ayawamat. But I knew that this would be a drawn-out battle from the start. The prana spree from the start was me hoping to go big to finish things off early. Since that didn't happen, I had to focus on maintaining my prana usage low. I knew I'd chipped away at her prana reserves. But mine weren't doing all that well either. I'd invested too much in my Maxima spells. Not to mention, this throbbing headache from that downpour earlier.

She waved her umbrella, blowing away the remnants of my spell.

"Hmm, you didn't do a backup spell?" she asked. "Are you tired too?"

I smiled. "Too, eh? So I was right!"

Her cheeks turned pink. "Well, maybe I am running a tad low. But you seem a tad pale. If you want, you can call it quits now."

"Don't steal my line!" I said, laughing as I spun my knives. While Nyima was bearing the brunt of my wind dragon, I had taken the liberty of gathering them.

Nyima gritted her teeth as the red aura around her arms and legs dispersed. She fell to her knees.

"Huh? Are you alright?"

She gripped her umbrella, but it shooked a lot.

I gasped. "You've been overusing your martial magic, you dummy!"

"Tell me something I don't know," she said, trying her best to push herself up.

"You can't fightt like this!"

"You look like you might pass out at any moment yourself," she said, smiling.

I sighed and pushed her to the ground with a gale.

"You could resist my Ventus Draco Maxima, but fell over against this. Talk about lame!"

"S-shut up!" she said as she got up.

I shook my head. "Stay down. You've lost." Walked over to her and picked her up.

"H-hey! Let me go!"

"Your body is gonna spasm worse than this if you don't rest."

"I-it seems the battle is over! The winner is Lei Lan!" Marina said.

Nyima grumbled as her face turned red.

I laughed. "And you called me childish!"

She turned away. "Put me down as soon as you can. This is embarrassing."

"Okay, okay. Not like I like carrying you."

Ny sighed. "Especially as it's you of all people."

My face warmed up. Why did she have to say that? Way to make things more awkward, Ny.

"I can take her from here," Marina said as I stepped down from the ring.

I smiled as I handed Ny over to her. "Alright. Take good care of her."

"You should get some rest too. Nyima wasn't simply taunting you when she said you look pale."

I sat down at the edge of the ring. "Yeah, my head feels funny."

"We better get you some honey tea soon, or else you might get sick," Yen said, walking over with Kun.

I chuckled. "I would like that! Uh, the tea, not getting sick."

Yen laughed as she held a hand out to me. "Well, at least you succeeded in avenging me this time around."

I smiled as I took her hand. "I wasn't even thinking about that this time. Also, it didn't feel like much of a victory." In part as Nyima couldn't go all out against me.

"True. Fighting two light mages in a row will do that," Kun said, laughing. "But you got Adela, Burai, or possibly Koharu to fight next."

I smiled as he and Yen lent me their shoulders. "True!" I glanced up at Burai who smiled at me from the stands.

I grinned back at him. I'm definitely coming for you, Burai!

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter ^^. Like the other two chapters, some parts were written with the use of A.I. . Thoughts on the battle? Predictions for what's next?**