Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

One cut and it's over. One swing and I'm in the finals.' Bloody Lily thought as she saw that she had a clear opening to attack Xanthea's neck.

So she swung her sword with all her might, hoping to hit Xanthea and end the fight. This was her big chance. She couldn't make a mistake and she knew it.

But what she didn't expect was that even though the Bloody Lily moved with the speed of thunder, Xanthea had tremendous battle perception and the cunning of a witch. And at the last moment, when the red-haired warrior swung her sword, Xanthea managed to dodge at the last moment.

The blood lily's reddish sword sliced through the air without hitting anything, and her entire body followed the movement, opening her guard completely for an attack. Blood Lily's eyes widened at that moment, because she didn't expect to miss, and also because she realized how vulnerable she was to Xanthea's attack. These moments seemed to last for minutes for Lily, who tried to quickly think of a way out of this situation, only to come up with nothing.

On the other hand, Xanthea seized the opportunity and ripped the flaming chains from the dragon's left paw, causing it to howl in pain and obey her command.

The colossal dragon's paw moved quickly toward Bloody Lily, and she could feel the heat of the flame approaching. Still, Lily knew she couldn't just wait for the blow, so instead of trying to balance herself in the midst of the attacking motion from before, she threw herself to the ground without a second thought. The red dragon's paw passed just above the ground without hitting her. She stood up quickly, but saw that her sword had fallen from her hand as she dodged the attack. She looked around for her weapon, but didn't see it anywhere.

Xanthea smiled triumphantly, seeing that Bloody Lily was in trouble and a little desperate. She pulled the chains once more, causing the dragon to roar and spit a blast of fire in Bloody Lily's direction. This time, the warrior had no chance to escape. She closed her eyes and waited for the end, but there was no end. Instead, she heard a thud, and when she opened her eyes again, she saw the Red Dragon close its mouth in the midst of the fire.

Everyone watching was very surprised.

"What exactly happened?"

"Why did that idiot dragon stop attacking?"

"That doesn't make any sense!"

Even Xanthea was surprised, and soon she was busy tightening the chains that bound her to the red dragon to punish it. Again, the dragon roared in pain, opened its mouth wide, and rained down fire.

The audience was protected by the magical barrier that separated the stands from the battlefield, Xanthea seemed immune to the heat, but what about the Bloody Lily? As soon as she realized she still had a chance, she scanned the battlefield, once again searching for her weapon, and when she found it, she ran towards it with all her might. This gave her time to grab the sword lying on the ground and transform it into a shield that protected her from the hot rain.

When the millions of extremely hot embers stopped falling from the sky, giving way to small particles of ash that looked more like dark snowflakes, Xanthea was surprised to see that the Bloody Lily was still standing.

"Huh. You survived that? Not bad." Xanthea teased her, placing her right hand, which held her white wand, at her waist.

Bloody Lily didn't react immediately. She was busy extinguishing an ember that had fallen into her reddish curls. When she looked back at Xanthea, her expression was different. Before, Lily had been determined to defeat her opponent, only this determination was purely competitive, because of the tournament, only now she felt an inexplicable anger.

"You're annoying." Bloody Lily said.

"What?" frowned Xanthea.

"Don't tell me this is the first time you've heard that from anyone. Your personality is annoying."

"Ha! Spare me your personal attacks!" Xanthea tossed some of her hair to the side, snubbing her opponent.

"You're right... Let's get this over with. I forgot for a few minutes that this tournament is worth more to me than a measly Legendary Rank Item." The leader of the Crimson Soldiers Guild said, transforming her ruddy sword into a bow. "It's time to stop fooling around."

As Bloody Lily said that, she slashed her right palm at a small sharp thorn on the side of the bow, and then used the <Blood Transformation> skill. Suddenly, the blood in her right palm began to move, forming a small swirl of blood that soon tapered off and turned into not just a shaft, but an entire arrow that Bloody Lily placed on her bowstring.

Xanthea's eyes widened as she saw the blood arrow in Bloody Lily's hand. "You think that's going to scare me?" She shouted, trying to hide her nervousness. "You don't know who you're up against! I am Xanthea, the most powerful witch of the Three Great Human Nations and of Midgard! I control a Red Dragon, the most feared beast of all time!"

She held out her left hand and commanded the dragon to attack again. The dragon roared and unleashed a blast of fire in the direction of Bloody Lily, who was ready to fire her arrow, but saw that it would be useless to shoot if she was charred to death, so she ducked behind one of the wrecks from the previous semifinal.

"Is that all you can do? Throw fire?" Bloody Lily sneered. "You're a one-note witch. You have no creativity, no skill. You just depend on your dragon to do everything for you." She tried to buy time, waiting for the right moment.

"How dare you insult me like that?" Xanthea was furious and felt her face flush. "You will regret challenging me, for the power to control any creature is the true power I crave!"

Then Xanthea pointed her left hand in the direction of the rocks where the Bloody Lily was hiding, and just as she was about to order another attack on the Red Dragon, she heard a strange sound coming from the sky. She looked up and saw a red arrow flying towards her. It was the arrow that Bloody Lily had formed a minute ago. She had used another ability called <Blood Stalker> to target Xanthea, so no matter where she ran or tried to dodge, the arrow would follow her, even if she threw it as high as she could.

Xanthea had no time to react. The arrow hit her in the chest, and she let out a high-pitched scream, falling to the ground and dropping her wand.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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