And it seems my taunt paid off as the empress suddenly unleashed her bloodlust, which I fought back with my own.

Though, I was immediately pushed back again as her power was too overwhelming.

"Seems I still have a way to go," I chuckled before waving her goodbye with one of my stiff hands and then exiting the tent.

"You dare test me?" The empress said, but I had already quickly shuffled away before she could call me back into her tent.

…

A few days later, just as I had finished my workout, the guards came to pick me up, and as I was only in a tattered bra and underwear, they blushed profusely.

"Geez, can't a girl get some privacy," I muttered, and they quickly turned around as I got ready for the next match that I was kind of nervous about.

Today, I was facing off against number seven, who also wields the power of ice, but her ice is special as it has the properties of fire.

Her red ice is a strange contradiction, but it works as her ice can melt ice weaker or stronger than hers, and her ice can also extinguish fire weaker or stronger than hers.

Basically, she perfectly countered everything I had… though that is also why I've been training with my sword.

I haven't touched my magic in about a week and have been continuously practicing sword moves and filing down all the excess things that I do with my swordplay.

Plus, I've been sparring with my maid continuously in the small cell I was in, which works out for me perfectly as the person I was facing utilized small spaces.

As I stepped out of my cell and into the new but same-looking colosseum, another woman approached me from across the dirt arena.

She was tall and had wavy red hair that matched perfectly with her tanned skin, which was a rare sight to see in a place with barely any sunlight.

She was a clean seven-foot-tall and wore basic mage robes that enhanced her magic capabilities by quite a lot.

Essentially this fight was going to come down to whether I could close the distance between us before she could kill me with long-distance magic.

That doesn't mean I won't be using my magic, but I'll try to limit it, so I don't have to split my concentration into something useless.

"AND ON THE LEFT! IT IS THE WOMAN WHO WAS RAISED FROM BEING A LOW-BOTTOM FEEDER TO AN AMAZING WARRIOR! THE TRAITRUOUSSSSSS! WENCCHHHHHH!" The new commentator announced, and I've gotten pretty used to the name now.

Still, it kind of ticks me off when others start using it in a good way but in a bad way. It makes sense, so I don't really mind it… kinda.

"AND ON THE RIGHT! WE HAVE THE LORD OF ALL FLAMES! HER FLAMES WHICH HAD BEEN TRAPPED BY OUR EMPRESS, GAVE HER A NEW BENEVOLENT POWER! HER ONLY GOAL IS TO TAKE REVENGE ON HER HIGHNESS! WILL SHE MANAGE IT!? OR WILL SHE FALL IN THE COLOSSEUM?!" The announcer shouted and I kind of felt bad for the woman as she had also been captured by the empress.

Wait… could I possibly use her? Maybe we can end this in a stalemate? We both have the same goal, and having an ally wouldn't be so bad… Hmmmmmm… But I doubt I can reason with her because that rage overflowing from her is deadly.

Not only was the rage coming off of her dangerous, but the bloodlust that she bared towards me was unlike anything I'd ever felt.

"A mage… That's no fucking mage," I muttered before the announcer sounded the horn, and our fight proceeded.

Immediately, I began my dash toward her, and as expected, the woman unleashed a quick blast of ice before jumping back.

She created a platform of red ice that she used to tower over me and snipe me with magic from above… but she was clearly underestimating me.

[Gravity Press] and… [Aurora Borealis]

With these two combined, I had evened out the playing field by just a bit as she continued to rain a hail of red ice down onto me.

She hadn't used any of her signature moves yet, and I was hoping to get rid of her before she could actually attempt to use them… but that would be too greedy.

I cut down the tower after finally reaching it, and as the woman fell down towards me, I took a deep stance and sliced upwards into her back.

TING

She blocked it by coating her back in red ice, completely deflecting my white blade, but I wasn't finished as I then used the momentum of my swing to spin vertically.

I ax kicked her right in the face, smashing her into the ground.

Now that she wasn't underestimating me, I had to actually be careful, so I backed up, and just like I thought, a thin red film appeared around me.

I was unable to melt or slice it with my sword, and it slowly began to close in on me while the woman was getting up.

"You did alright for a number nine…." She muttered with cold eyes, and just as she squashed her hand together, the box around me closed in on me.

My bones began to creak, and I was quickly losing oxygen… but I had finally infiltrated the ice.

"Density is around… that part… The fire within is weak, and the ice is strong… The fire can be adjusted, and you have no control over the density of the ice or the intensity of the ice… I mean, you're not the real user of the ice, so it makes sense,"

I continuously muttered to myself as I had gathered more than enough information.

A string of flames that had been condensed using [Gravity Press] suddenly expanded, breaking the strong yet thing box of red ice around me.

"What the fu-"

I then dashed towards her and sliced upwards with my sword though she used the momentum of the downswing to trap my sword underneath her foot.

She pulled out a move that I sort of expected and smiled.

BAM

I used my foot to block her punch and then used her follow-through as momentum for me to spin around, tear out my sword from underneath her foot and slice it into her chest.

She was strangely sent flying away, and I muttered to myself once again.

"That felt… weird. Did she put a layer of ice under her robes? She already prepared for this… damn,"

But, it's not like my attack didn't do any damage, as the impact had caused some internal bruises, causing her to throw up a mouthful of blood.

She was shocked at how I had hit her so hard… and it was obvious once you saw the purple coating around my sword slowly disappear.

"Why do you think I kept swinging down?" I asked her, and the woman suddenly realized what I had done.

At the last second, I used [Gravity Press] on my sword in order to increase impact and hopes of killing her with one shot… and obviously, it didn't go as planned, but at least I got some damage off.

Now hopefully, she should listen to me.

I dashed towards her as she tried to recover, but the internal damage was too much, so she continued to stumble.

Eventually, long shoots of red ice sprouted from her back and held her up before she created yet another box of red ice around me.

This was her last resort, and now she had used it twice, meaning she must be running low on mana… I hope.

[Glacier Wall]

All of a sudden, the dim sunlight had been blocked out, and a massive glacier tumbled towards the woman who just stared blankly at it.

With a wave of her hand, another set of long shoots of red ice sprouted from her body and destroyed the glacier as if it was nothing.

I would've normally been shocked, but this was obvious bait in order to get closer to her.

Krkkkkk

BAM

Just as I had thought, she surrounded her neck with red ice at the last moment, and I was now pressing my sword against her.

She struggled greatly with pitiful strength, and her magic beat my back continuously.

Though, it wasn't that strong as she had basically dried up her entire mana pool in just an instant.

"Want to work together? You choose… We work together, or you die right here," I said as I brought my face as close to her as possible.

"Go to hell," She smirked.

CRACK

I broke her neck by applying as much force with [Gravity Press] and stood up as the victor… my battle IQ and regular IQ were definitely coming in handy with these prideful idiots.

"A-AND IN A BRUTAL FINISH! THE TRAITOROUS WENCH WINS!!!"

But, just as I began to walk away, I heard another snap, and I just barely managed to dodge a massive spear of ice that tried to pierce through my head.

Red ice?! Didn't I just kill her?

I slowly turned around and what I saw made me sigh relentlessly.

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