"*sigh*... People who get into the top 15 think they're the shit, and it's just a linear rise from there… But in reality, it's exponential. Each person is at least 1.5 times stronger than the person behind them. Well, unless it's number one. When you're number one, you reign supreme above all, maybe even being five times stronger than the second place," The man with red hair explained.

"That's nice… But you should check your sword," I muttered with a large smile.

"OOOOOH! AND THE TRAITOR PULLS OUT AN UNEXPECTED MOVE! THE SWORD THAT IS WIELDED BY THE DEMON OF FLAMES HAS BEEN COMPLETELY COATED IN GRAY ICE! WHAT AN UNEXPECTED TURN OF EVENTS!"

The announcer was exactly right: I had completely coated the man's sword in ice, and he was even having trouble melting it with his partially demonic flames.

I wasn't stupid enough to hold back against this guy as that would practically be a death sentence, and I wasn't trying to die so young.

"Rainbow flames and gray ice… How interesting," He muttered, and beneath his helmet, I could feel his smile only grow wider before he stepped onto the ground once, shattering the ground into pieces.

A massive ravine had split the center of the arena in half, and just as I moved out of the way, an initial heat could be felt crawling up my skin, and then a blast of purple flames erupted from within the ravine.

I just barely managed to escape and prevent myself from turning to roast beef as the flames burning right beside me were so hot that even armor had signs of melting.

Krkkkkk

But, I quickly solved my problem by coating my armor in ice, and then I stomped onto the ground, coating the rest of the arena in my ice.

FWOOSH

But, an expected move had finally come out as the man burst through the purple flames completely unharmed and unleashed a wave of slashes.

TING TING TING TING TING

I just barely managed to block some of them with my own white longsword, but his skill was completely out of this world.

Each time I blocked one, ten more would come out of nowhere, forcing me to step farther and farther back while trying to spread my domain of ice beneath his feet.

I needed as many advantages as possible if I wanted to beat this dude… If I hadn't made that clear yet.

TING TING TING TING TING… SHING

"Ack… *cough*... *cough*..."

I began to cough up mouthfuls of blood as he led me towards the wall of the arena, and just as I was about to turn around, roundhouse kicked me straight in the gut.

Damn… He's perfectly synching his martial arts with his swordplay… wait, why can't I do that?

I had an idea, but executing it would be very risky, and to be honest, I wasn't trying to die yet, so I just shoved the useless thought away.

Experimenting now would be the death of me.

"You play too much," The man in dark black armor said, and I just smirked before wiping the blood away from the corner of my mouth.

"You're so dead," I muttered as I had finished setting up my trap.

I tapped the ground once, and the entire floor just shattered into icy shards, leaving absolutely no floor for the man to stand on.

I had utilized the massive ravine in the middle of the arena to freeze all the way underground and then spread it through the thin mushy rock below the very hard surface.

The deeper you went down, the softer the rock became, and eventually, my ice was able to crawl its way through.

The man began to fall infinitely into a dark hole that looked as if it had no end… but he quickly caught himself by stabbing his sword into the side of the arena.

I, on the other hand, was standing at the very top and slowly creating a small platform for me to stand on.

After seeing the man trying to maneuver his way up by pulling out his sword and then stabbing it back into the rock, making his way upwards, I spread out a thick layer of ice, coating the massive hole.

He had been trapped beneath the ice, but I wasn't done.

"[Aurora Borealis],"

Neon lights began to seemingly dance around me, like beautiful ballet dancers moving back and forth to a rhythmic tune.

As I practically skipped across the ice gracefully, I could feel an angry glare get shot at me from the balcony way across the arena.

Soon, the man had reached the very bottom of my makeshift icy floor and immediately burned through it with demonic flames.

My floor instantly began to melt, but I had already made my way to the opposite side of the arena, far away from the man dressed in black armor.

As soon as he jumped out from under the hole and landed on the rest of the ice, I snapped my fingers, causing him to tumble right back down.

His situation was dire… and that was also why he was unaware of the massive glacier tumbling down from the sky, blocking out the dim sun and proceeding to crush him down into the abyss-like hole.

As soon as I saw the notification of XP, I smiled widely before glancing toward the announcer, who kept glancing back and forth between the empress and me.

"That is Rank 9, am I right? So, how much longer until I become your dog…." I taunted the empress before creating a path of ice under me and exiting the colosseum.

The guards immediately restrained me and brought me back to my cell, where I began to ponder over a few things.

"I just got lucky… If he didn't create that ravine stupidly in order to try and show off to me, I probably would've lost. My sword skills haven't even slightly improved, but at least I figured out something useful,"

"Mixing martial arts with swordplay, right?" My maid asks while coming out of my body without permission.

To be honest, she wasn't really a maid anymore but more of a friend that I could talk to and get advice from.

Also, besides my relationship with my maid now, I had seen great improvements in my ice magic which doesn't require me to summon my crown.

Summoning my crown won't even give me a magic boost. It will just, y'know, look fancy and give me a more arrogant attitude… not the best of benefits, so I'd rather just keep it stashed away in wherever it stays in my body.

"Think you can train me in that?" I asked.

"I mean, you've already utilized it before," She replied nonchalantly before taking a bite out of my own steak that I got as a reward.

"I've used the two in tandem, but I want to fuse it. I have a few ideas, but I need to try them out on someone,"

My maid paused for a second, swallowed her piece of steak, and then sighed before placing down the plate and taking a fighting stance.

"Goddammit… Fine, bring it," She said, and we proceeded to do some "light" sparring.

…

The next few days, I didn't have any matches for some reason as I would've normally gone against some small fry, and I'm pretty sure it was because I completely destroyed the colosseum.

And it seems my guess was right, as the gladiators were soon moved to a new colosseum under the surveillance of the empress.

But, just in case we wouldn't even think of running away, we were personally chained by the empress and had her overwhelming presence make us fall to our knees… kinda.

I walked into a tent, already chained with magic suppressing steel, and met the empress face to face.

She was a bit taller than I had initially thought, and her cold gaze wasn't the best to feel as we were in the same room for a few minutes.

She slowly put on the skin-biting cold chains that wrapped around my wrists and ankles.

"So… You like ice magic?"

"Shut up," She instantly replied, and I just chuckled a bit before smirking at her.

"I wonder what it is you want from me… My virginity? Just kidding, just kidding… maybe my flawless skin or beautiful hair, combed by the greatest woman in the world? Nah… You want one of my skills, don't you? Which one do you want, though… Eenie… Meenie… Minie… Mo. You want the crown, right?"

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.

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