--- [Rose’s perspective]
He has already touched the rune once now, only two more times and this match is mine…!
As the next round of bullets come at me, I try to get away, but due to the hole in my leg, I’m not able to dodge them in time.
This is risky, but I have to do it…
I quickly draw reflection runes all over my body, and the moment the beams hit me, they bounce right off.
They scatter, going flying in every direction.
Some right into the ground, others into the air.
There were some close calls, but luckily none of them hit the audience…
Had any of them been hit, I would have been in a whole lot more trouble than just facing disqualification…
No need to dwell on what could have happened, everything ended up fine.
On top of that, it bought me enough time to engrave a life rune onto the bullet hole.
The hole closes up, and the bleeding stops.
That rune is really useful in situations like these; it creates organic material that can quickly fix me or allies up if there are no proper healers nearby.
The downside is that the material doesn’t adapt to whoever it’s used on and is completely its own thing.
It only takes a few hours before it ‘dies’ and reveals the hole it used to fill again.
I still need a real healer after the match is over.
I take off at full speed once again, and try my best to reach him, but he does everything he can to get away from me.
He might not know what the rune on my sword does, but he has seen from all my previous matches that they can be extremely deadly.
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Besides, he’s got the advantage at long range, so getting away from me would be the best course of action for him either way.
I continue to chase after him, but getting close without getting hit is hard…
As the hunt continues, he gets more and more obsessed with hitting me.
Annoyed that the fight is taking a lot longer than the previous ones, he gets reckless.
He seemingly forget about the positioning of the runes I placed earlier on, and gets really close to them.
Before he actually steps on any of them, I manually activate them all.
Dozens of large bursts of flame shoot into the air around him, forcing him to stop running so as to not walk into them.
Although it was only for a moment, it gave me enough time to hit him once again.
The tip of my sword stabbed him in the forearm, and the rune flared up once more.
Just one more time…!
Desperate to get me away, he shoots a much wider beam than ever before.
I get away just in time, but in doing so, I also had to get further away from him.
The ray digs unfathomably deep into the ground below us; it was clearly a lot stronger than before too…
I only need to hit him once more, but that’s a lot easier said than done…
He’s willing to put a lot more power into his shots than before, so dodging will be harder than ever.
On top of that, all the runes I drew have been used up.
I won’t be able to make new ones if he keeps fighting like this either…
There’s no safe way to guarantee my victory, I need to take some risks…!
I leap into the air, and make sure my body faces him the entire time.
As I hurl towards him, I quickly draw reflection runes all over myself.
As expected, he tries to shoot me, but the beams all bounce back towards him.
He shoots some of them to cancel them out, while dodging others.
As soon as I get within range, I fiercely swing my sword towards him.
He gives his all and shoots one final shot.
He aimed at my chest, but in the final moment before it hit, I twisted my body just enough so that it hit a less deadly spot.
The beam pierces cleanly through my left shoulder, and at the same exact time, my sword hits him for the third and final time.
The exact moment it hit him, the rune flared up one final time, before disappearing.
At the same time, he goes completely unconscious and falls into a deep slumber.
He won’t wake up for a while.
He lays there on the ground for a few seconds while the crowd is in complete silence.
“I… I guess we have a winner!” – Barbara
The crowd erupts in cheers as the winner of the final match has been decided.
--- [Alex’s perspective] a few minutes later
The door opens…
It’s Mark; he’s with the third and final winner.
The winner of the B-rank bracket turned out to be another member of The Red Knights.
Rose Rubrum…
She’s the one who made the security system for our guild with her specialty.
I’ve only talked to her once; it must have been when she engraved the rune into our hands.
That was all the way back when we first joined the guild…
It’s been a while; I wonder if she remembers me.
She must see a lot of new faces due to her responsibilities.
“Now that we’re all here, let’s not waste any more time. I’ll take you all to the Emperor right away!” – Mark
