The fight between the gladiator and Bree was not yet over. It had just barely begun. Embarrassed by being overwhelmed like that, the gladiator began to ran forward, holding his shield in front of his body in a way that it couldn't be pushed to the side.
But Bree didn't care much about that, she figured out her own tactics after analysing this situation sufficiently. Just before the gladiator came into range, Bree had swung her hammer down over her head. It seemed like she was planning not to hit the shield to the side, but to hit its top and push it down. The gladiator realised this as well, and pushed his foot into the ground to stop moving.
However, Bree was never aiming for that shield in the first place. Instead, she aimed at the ground in front of her. As the heavy hammer hit the floor and cracks formed on it, a cloud of dust appeared that surrounded both her and the gladiator.
The man was standing within this cloud, focusing his eyes on the faint light given off by the hammer's enchantments. A broad grin formed on his face. After all, if he wasn't able to see, then the girl wasn't able to see anything either!
He pushed his sword forward, trying to attack Bree after being given this chance. But all that happened was that the blade slipped by the hammer as it fell to the ground, the feint light from the enchantments illuminating his feet.
"Huh?" He let out with clear confusion taking over his mind as he felt something grab onto his helmet from behind. Bree had jumped up and pushed her slender fingers into the gap between the gladiator's neck and the helmet's metal. She placed all of her weight into it as she pressed her feet against the gladiator's lower back and pulled the helmet back as hard as she could.
Of course, the gladiator's weight quickly pulled him backward, and he tried to swing his sword toward the girl on his back. But at that point, Bree's plan was already on its course. The movement of the sword simply helped out the backward trajectory of the gladiator's body, and Bree quickly jumped off and used her spry and agile movements to reach her hammer not even a full moment later.
She slipped her fingers around the grip and pulled the hammer forward, quickly hitting it against the center of the gladiator's chest. Just like that, as the cloud of dust was finally settling, the gladiator was pushed back and onto the ground, slipping through the dirt while gasping for air.
The audience looked into the arena, unsure what exactly just happened in there, while Eisen turned his head toward the Grandour, "I'm guessing that's a win for us."
The Grandour ground his teeth and glared back at Eisen, who couldn't help himself but grin in this situation. Giving the signal by raising his left hand, the announcer was told how this fight had ended.
"Th-The winner through overwhelming power is the warrior from Asgard!" The announcer exclaimed, and Bree raised her hammer into the air as she started laughing smugly. And hearing how exactly this fight turned out against their expectations, the combat-loving giants cheered.
Of course, there were those that were upset their side didn't win, but the overwhelming majority was simply excited that they were able to see a fight with an unexpected outcome.
Eisen waved Bree over with a smile on his face, and the young girl joined the King on this platform. It would take a while for the potion's effect to subside, so until then, all the gigantified warriors would stand right behind Eisen, just like the Grandour's guards were standing behind him.
"Oh, what a surprise~... She won." Eisen smirked as he looked at the Grandour, who simply scoffed in response, "It was mere luck. Your next one won't be able to win."
"I'm not so sure about that. Sky, have you prepared your stories?" The old man inquired, looking at the young man standing on his palm, "Duh, of course I have. I've got a perfect one to show off how great we all are."
"Great. Then do your best. I'll be cheering you on."
With a broad grin, Sky listened to this King's encouragement, as he was brought over into the arena, "Guess I can't afford to lose then, now can I?"
Sky stood in the arena, as his opponent came out as well. It wasn't a gladiator this time, but a fully-fledged warrior. He wore thick armor as well as a long spear. This might be the worst opponent for a mage like Sky, but in the end, he was still confident that he was going to win. He had a bit of a plan as well, after all.
After drinking the potion, Sky grew in size. He placed his book into the armband on his wrist, since he was unable to hold it properly otherwise, and he looked at his opponent. Sky didn't even need to read from the book, he had imprinted all his stories into his memory already. He simply needed this special Inkheart Grimoire as something of a spellcasting focus, something that allowed him to bring out his full power.
This time, although seeing that Sky was far, far shorter than the warrior, the audience didn't react with ridicule, but were rather excited about what this one would show them, especially since he was clearly unarmed.
"Warriors, begin the fight!" The announcer exclaimed, and the warrior on the other side of the arena immediately jumped forward and pushed his spear toward Sky. However, this young man simply held forward and shook his head as he pulled out his first tool with the help of his Inkheart Grimoire.
"A book can contain the universe, you see?" Sky said with a smirk, as he looked at the man in front of him. From the grimoire on his wrist, black letters started to appear. The wristband itself was a tool meant to amplify the strength of the grimoire, while feeding as much ink and mana to it as it needed for the upscaled spellcasting. And the first thing Sky did was complete his look. The black letters from his grimoire twisted around his hand, gathering together and forming a pitch-black book that Sky could use as an intermediary.
"A book? What, you gonna read a story to me?" The warrior asked, having stopped with his attack while looking at Sky. The young man simply nodded his head in response.
"Actually, that's exactly what I'm going to be doing. You see, I love books. Every kind there is. Thick books, thin books, fiction or biographies. Spellbooks, children's books. Old books, new books. All of them are great, don't you think?"
"Hah, right! A book can't be used to fight a monster!" The warrior exclaimed, and Sky shrugged in response, "Then maybe you're reading the wrong books. The ones I prefer have quite a punch to them."
As he was talking, Sky ripped a page out of the ink-book he was holding. With a few quick folds, he turned it into a paper airplane that he threw it toward the warrior.
"Is this... Erm..." The warrior turned his head toward the Grandour, being clearly confused why he was supposed to fight this boy that was just playing around. However, the moment that the paper airplane hit the arm of the warrior, despite how slow it was travelling, it compressed into a tiny spot and twisted the warrior's flesh at his shoulder in a vortex-like manner, ripping it apart immediately.
"What the fuck!" The warrior twisted his body to get away from this point of impact. A part of his clothes had been ripped off through this vortex, and it was floating in the air before dropping down in the form of a tiny, regular soccer-ball sized orb, a mass of blood and cloth compressed deeply.
"What, didn't you listen to what I said?" Sky asked with an innocent smile on his face, as he twisted the book around and showed the content of the page to him. It was like the book was hollow, revealing an infinite space beyond. As if one was looking at the starry sky in the middle of the night. That was contained within each of the pages of the book.
The 'Book of the Universe'.
"What, you think I'm some little crybaby bitch? You saw my sister right now, didn't ya? If she can beat that dumb idiot from before, then I can shove a few fists into your ugly mug myself." Sky replied in a blunt tone, as he held his hand forward. The warrior was rather confused about how Sky's manner of speech suddenly changed like that as well, but he didn't have much time to think for now anyway.
After all, Sky could continue speaking whenever he wanted, and that was the last thing that the warrior should let him continue doing.
"There once was a warrior. A monster amongst monsters, that nobody was able to stand up against. That man travelled the world, fending off his enemies and growing in strength more and more, gathering experience and even more power. This is the story of one of his fights, in the country of giants." Sky exclaimed, as more black letters appeared from the book on his wrist. They gathered around, creating a huge mass of black right in front of Sky and the warrior he faced off against.
The more the mass was formed, the more it was obvious whose story this was. It was the story of a warrior that Sky himself made up. A story of his creation, that he could shape however he wanted in the blink of an eye.
Right now, it was just a bare, humanoid form.
"His opponent carried a spear, so the warrior equipped a shield." Sky said, and a black shield appeared in his hand, "He wore a thick armor, so the warrior equipped a sword capable of piercing it."
With that, a strong, large sword appeared in the inkheart warrior's other hand, "Seeing the warrior's might, his opponent stood there, frozen in fear! The warrior took the opportunity, and lunged forward."
And so, the Inkheart warrior did as described, swinging his sword directly at the giant warrior. He moved to the side and pushed his spear forward instead.
"The warrior defended against the opponent's counterattack with ease. He pushed the spear to the side, and stabbed his blade through the other's chest." Sky exclaimed with a broad smile on his face, "...Or so the warrior thought, but the opponent was trickier than expected. He moved his body away and cleverly tried to close in on the warrior within just a moment."
Sky was really just narrating the fight at this point, while he was watching from an outsider's position, allowing him to analyse the situation much more easily. For a while, the fight seemed relatively even, until...
"And then... The warrior split into a thousand pieces, revealing that he was nothing but a bunch of kobolds in a trenchcoat, trying to fit the giant warrior's might." Sky said with a smile on his face, as the inkheart warrior fell apart just like he said. The pitch black ink kobolds jumped directly at the giant warrior while everyone was completely and utterly confused.
"What, you think a story has to be coherent~? You know, this isn't a drama, or a biography... It's a comedic adventure." Sky said with a grin on his face. He was the creator of this story, and he could turn it into whatever he wanted.
