Book 5: Chapter 29 (312): Victorious Pages (Patreon)

If Rieren was being entirely honest, she had doubts whether the Arisen fighting today stood much of a chance against Ceraline. His opponent was simply too powerful. But one thing she had learned was that being that bluntly honest about things like that would only lead to more unnecessary drama.

Of course, she couldn’t blindly say that it just had to give its all and a win would be assured. That would be tantamount to lying.

As such, the best Rieren could have said that the monster had a chance of securing a victory for itself. A wishy-washy answer, to be sure, but it was the best she could do when pressed to reply to a query as concrete as whether the Arisen would be triumphant or not.

What a stupid question, really.

At least, the Arisen appeared calm and in control as it entered the arena. It got to the centre of the battlefield and stood before its opponent with the stars glimmering within its depths. Violence tightly leashed. Hopefully, to be used in controlled bursts of aggression rather than in an all-out, desperate manner.

Ceraline herself looked no different from how she had appeared in her first match against Serace. She might as well have been facing the same opponent for all that her face showed.

“Our final match is about to be underway, folks,” the commentator said, trying to add some spice into proceedings. “Will Ceraline Selvier be able to overcome her monstrous adversary, or will the otherworldly combination of the Abyssal Life Stifler and the Aetherian Amorphous Nebula overcome her prowess and secure victory?”

The crowd had roared at Ceraline’s name, before booing harshly when the commentator mentioned the Stifling Nebula. It appeared to be unaffected but the stars within its body started glimmering at a higher frequency. Rieren frowned. It had better remain in control…

“Begin!” the commentator said as the match official retreated far enough and dropped his hand.

The Arisen wasted no time charging straight at Ceraline. It rushed over the ground, wings of the same nebulous cosmic matter forming over its broad back. Several stars exploded behind it, boosting its momentum further and sending it hurtling towards its opponent.

Rieren gripped the railing of the stand and leaned forward a little. Good. The Arisen recalled the strategy they had decided to try out.

Ceraline would be dangerous in ranged combat. Any powers the monster might seek to throw at her from a distance would simply be swallowed up by one of her Enchanted papers. It was in close quarters combat where the Arisen would hold the biggest advantage. Or, well, a bigger chance at victory than trying to fight from range.

Of course, a cultivator at the level of strength that Ceraline possessed wouldn’t have come this far without shoring up her weaknesses. A weakness covered by her class.

Ceraline punched her fist forward just as the Arisen reached her location. Papers fluttered out of her sleeve, thin strips that wrapped around her arm and crossed over her palm. The air between herself and her adversary rippled, and all of a sudden, the Arisen was stopped in its tracks.

Its surprise was evident in the posture of its whole body. Too shocked to even contend countering whatever Ceraline had pulled. When she slammed her other hand in the monster’s direction, the rippling, invisible force bursting free from the paper sent the Arisen flying back.

Rieren frowned. That ability. It had to be coming from her pages. A different technique that she had embedded into her Enchanted pages.

Not a class.

Then what exactly was her class? Rieren recalled it from the previous timeline—Inkstained Sorcerer. Ceraline had found one that closely resembled what she could already perform as a cultivator. It functioned similarly to what Amalyse’s class did. Things that Ceraline drew on paper could be summoned into reality to then be used at the wielder’s discretion.

Was it the same? If so, then why was she holding it back?

The Arisen had fallen to its back several dozen paces away, but it was righting itself quickly at least. Still, it granted enough time for Ceraline to replace the pages covering her arms with new ones. The ones that had released her last two attacks had been spent, crinkling and falling apart as the inked script upon them faded to nothing.

With a growl, the Arisen attempted attacking directly once more. Rieren had told it to be wary, that there would be surprises in store because Ceraline could theoretically store almost anything within her pages. Hopefully, it was keeping that in mind.

The Arisen’s charge over the ground took it all the way towards its opponent with great ease. Its wings were firing full throttle now, the stars on its back now unleashing a stream of explosions to empower its momentum. But it wasn’t a straight-line motion like last time. The Arisen was zigzagging this way and that, trying to take Ceraline by surprise.

She acted first. More pages fluttered out of her robe, glowing blue and pointing in every direction. In an instant, they launched a series of cerulean fireballs all around her.

The Arisen dodged by climbing higher. Then it shoved itself down to stomp on her.

Ceraline’s reactions were quick. She raised a hand and released another invisible blast of force that blocked the monster’s lunging feet. It twisted quickly and punched in from a different direction. That was again stopped short by another blast emanating from one of her arm-wrapping pages.

The Arisen wasn’t daunted. Now that it had overcome its initial shock, it attacked relentlessly.

Its starry-fisted punches and lashing kicks were all blocked, But the monster was wearing Ceraline down. More and more little pages were flying off her arm and landing on the ground, spent and broken.

It was forcing Ceraline to use up her defensive measures so that it could land a proper blow.

Ceraline created some distance between them. It was easy. All she had to do was not block one of the Arisen’s strikes, letting the blow hammer her backwards. It had probably hurt, but not too debilitatingly so. Especially not if she had some Essence armour coating her. The monster wouldn’t have used a great deal of power either.

But the space created was enough for Ceraline to switch to a different format of combat. To shake things up to her favour.

She turned the arena into paper.

The ground under the monster’s feet became a series of pages, all covered with the same Enchanting script as her other pages had been. It made the Arisen panic a little. Rieren felt a noise of frustration bubbling up in her throat as the monster shot straight up in the air with its wings. No. No. It had to keep its focus on closing the distance.

Ceraline took quick advantage of the monster’s distraction. She threw out a storm of pages, each of which had its face pointed at the monster.

Thankfully, the monster was fast enough to dodge the array of fiery blue beams shooting out of the pages. Each of the flaming rods fired in different directions, but there were enough gaps between them for the Arisen to evade while taking only minimal damage, so long as it remained distant enough.

There were too many, though. Far too many. With all the pages Ceraline had thrown out, the monster was forced to dodge and dodge, unable to do anything but evade. Its fatigue had to be rising.

Rieren could almost see the moment it realized that Ceraline had truly turned the tables on it, that shewas now attempting to tire out her opponent.

That was when it began throwing out its stars to attack from range. Rieren growled. Why? They had decided that trying to win from distance was a fool’s game.

Ceraline proved the Arisen’s efforts were futile. The stars might have swung through her fiery lasers to shoot at her, but she was ready. A scroll had appeared in her hand. As the stars reached her location, she swiped the scroll around her, letting its long page unfurl and swallow the stars.

That scroll—Rieren was tempted to curse. It was specifically designed to cover Ceraline’s main weakness. Now that the scroll had absorbed so much Essence, it would greatly enhance her physical attributes.

The monster had reached a spot where it didn’t have to keep dodging the beams anymore. An opening to attack.

An opening Ceraline had left on purpose.

The Arisen swooped in with incredible speed to hammer at her with its fists. Ceraline twisted to meet it with her scroll. It glowed with the power it had absorbed a second ago.

When the starry fist and the scroll met, it wasn’t just the monster’s hit that was blocked this time. Ceraline used the power in the scroll to push back the monster and send it stumbling in reverse. With a grin, it was now Ceraline who went on the offensive.

That took the Arisen by surprise. It hadn’t expected Ceraline to attack so viciously when in close quarters.

She swung hard and fast. The monster was quick enough to use its arms to block her blows, but there was no point in blocking when that scroll emanated power with such ferocity. Every blow from Ceraline hammered the Arisen further and further back, crushing bits and pieces of it wherever the scroll struck. She was beating him down, blow after blow.

The panic had settled well and truly on the monster. It tried shooting its stars at her at point-blank range. Ceraline was faster. Her scroll opened up again, swallowing the little pinpricks of explosive light before they could detonate.

Then she continued bashing away at her opponent.

It was the monster who created some space between them this time. Its wings exploded in reverse to send it flying towards the arena’s wall.

Ceraline was about to give chase, but the Arisen attacked first. With the Life Stifler’s original power, it was able to separate its body into different parts to attack directly.

But range was the wrong idea. Just as Rieren had foreseen. Ceraline had adjusted the way she was to attack at the very moment she had seen what the Arisen was attempting.

Just as the monster started breaking apart, the scroll opened. All the brilliant starry Essence she had absorbed was now thrown out in a combined, blistering salvo of detonating power. The explosion caught the Arisen head-on, sending it striking the wall hard enough to crack it and leave it embedded in the wall itself, the whole arena shaking at the impact.

Ceraline was fast. She was standing before the Arisen already, before it could even be aware enough to recover and get back to its feet. A different set of pages had fluttered out to tape themselves over the monster’s body.

All she said was one thing. “Surrender.”

The Arisen trembled for a moment. Rieren’s face turned grim. Those pages were binding pages. Even if the monster wantedto fight, there was no way it could get free without causing grievous harm to itself.

Still. It tried. At least it couldn’t be said the Arisen didn’t put in enough effort. The remaining stars within its body tried to emerge and explode, but they were swallowed up by the binding pages in a second. It really had been defeated.

Only moments later, the commentator made it official. “There you have it, folks! Please give a warm round of applause for the winner of the glorious final bout of the third round—Ceraline Selvier!”

The victor of the battle removed the binding pages with a flick of her wrist, finally releasing her captive.

For a second, Rieren actually thought the Arisen would attack. No matter that the match had ended, no matter that the loss was official, the Arisen might still seek revenge.

But Rieren’s fears were eased when Ceraline walked away without ever needing to look back. The Arisen remained within the crack in the wall. It was almost frozen there, like it really had died. Only once the crowd started thinning that it decided to move, slowly pulling itself free before making its way out of the arena.

That was when the other monsters headed out too. Rieren didn’t accompany them. She suspected they were going to meet the Stifling Nebula, same as they had done with all the others, regardless of whether they had won or lost their bout.

Another surprising show of camaraderie, for certain.

Besides, it wasn’t like the Arisen had given a poor showing or anything. In her estimation, it had tried its best to win. Its efforts deserved some appreciation.

Rieren left them to it and headed to her little glen. She trained for a long while, as the afternoon gave way to dusk and deepened to a black night. But her practice session was cut short within minutes by a shrill scream.

A piercing shriek of someone being murdered not far away.