Chapter 266 – Wind Elementals

Yuki’s next fight was nothing of note. She had a suspicion that the Fiddler was throwing easy opponents at her. There were a multitude of powerful people that Yuna had watched fight the day of her first battle, but she managed to be put against one of the weakest ones. 

‘And even then, that man had to be around rank A.’

The only reason the Fiddler would be throwing people like that at her was to most likely ease her into the Coliseum and build her reputation.

‘He is a man trying to entertain an audience.’

By giving her wins, it set her up as someone with potential. If she went on a decent streak, then attention would land on her. Attention that the Fiddler could use for his performance.

‘But that’s not my problem,’ Yuki thought. ‘I need to prepare for each battle like I was going to fight Ghost.’

Ghost was the most dangerous person in the entire arena. From watching his battles, Yuki knew immediately that he would be a roadblock in her way out. He fought ruthlessly, mocking foes when they couldn’t strike him. The Bull still hadn’t recovered from his fight with Ghost. He walked around as if his body was constantly in pain, a wild look in his eyes that made everyone avoid him.

Ghost also used the same tactics over and over again in his battles. That worried Yuki. Things like that usually meant the person wasn’t trying. A man like Ghost would have back up tactics and more powerful cards up their sleeves, ready to be pulled out whenever their main strategy failed them.

‘I need to find a way to counter his invulnerability. Though, I’m still not sure what he even is.’

What she knew for sure was that Ghost was a demon and a demon that seemed hellbent on escaping. 

“Sophie, have you ever fought someone that you couldn’t hit?” Yuki asked one day, during training. Yuki was exercising her mana, channeling it about in her body. Sophie told her that doing that everyday would help the speed at which Yuki casted spells. 

“What do you mean?” Sophie replied.

“Someone that, whenever you try to strike them, your attacks just go through them.”

“Oh, like a spirit?” Sophie said. “I’ve fought a few spirits. They can’t actually hurt you physically. They just like to do mental manipulation.”

“Not a spirit,” Yuki said, shaking her head. “The person is living. He’s a demon, I believe, but I’m not sure what kind.”

“Attacks go right through the man?”

“Yes. It’s like he’s made out of air.”

“Ah, then he’s probably a Wind Elemental,” Sophie said with a nod of her head. “They are quite pesky to fight, I give them that.”

“Wind Elemental?” Yuki repeated. “Is that like a wind elementalist?”

“No, different. They’re basically spirits of the wind,” Sophie explained. “Most wind elementalists look like babies compared to them. Their bodies are wind. They have to focus to physically manifest themselves. I’ve never had trouble with them though.”

“Really? How did you fight them?”

“Well, most of the time, I didn’t. They would just leave me alone,” Sophie shrugged. “The few times I have gotten into altercations with one, I just let them do whatever they wanted. They couldn’t hurt me, so they just stopped once they got tired.”

She chuckled a bit as she remembered those fights. Yuki frowned. That strategy didn’t seem to be a good route for when she inevitably had to fight Ghost. 

“Is there a way to strike them?” Yuki asked. “A way to injure them?”

“Of course there is,” Sophie said. “No one is invulnerable, certainly not Elementals. I can see why a Wind Elemental would be the most problematic. They don’t have a direct counter in terms of elements. Water you can freeze them or electrocute them. Earth Elementals have a hard time with water. Fire as well.”

“So how do you deal with Wind Elementals then?” 

“You need to ground them. Force them to manifest.”

“But how?” Yuki asked.

“I haven’t tried personally,” Sophie said. “Like I said, I’ve rarely ever fought one and the times I have, they were too weak to bother me.”

Yuki opened her mouth to speak, but Sophie raised a finger.

“But,” she continued, “I have watched others fight and talked with some people that have fought them with different tactics from mine.”

She clapped her hands together.

“One way was to simply trap them. Create a vacuum and suck them in. However, that’s obviously a common strategy, so Wind Elementals usually have countermeasures in place. Most of them don’t completely take on their true forms, so the chances of trapping them is slim. Also, this technique is really easy to detect.”

“So it’s not recommended?” Yuki said.

“I mean, it’s just a strategy. Use it when you can,” she replied. “Another way, if I remember correctly, was the use of an artifact that was enchanted specifically to destroy Wind Elementals. That won’t help you here.”

Yuki nodded. It would be helpful to know the spells on that artifact, but Sophie probably didn’t have them.

“The third way is the one I’m going to suggest you learn,” she said. Yuki perked her head up at those words. “It’s harder, definitely harder, but it’s inline with what you told me you wanted to be able to do.”

“The arena magic that I described?” Yuki asked. 

“Exactly.”

“How would it help?”

“You’ll be able to force the elemental into their physical manifestation,” Sophie explained. “After that, it’s trivial to defeat one.”

Yuki blinked as she understood what Sophie was describing.

“But that problem is that I don’t know how to do what’s needed to do that,” Yuki frowned. 

“You have the pieces though, do you not?” Sophie said. 

“Maybe. It might not be all the pieces though.”

“That’s why I’m here to help. So. What do you think?”

“I think it’s my only choice,” Yuki replied, her voice soft. “This is going to take a bit of time. And by bit, I mean a lot.”

“Good thing we have a lot of that in here, don’t we?” Sophie smiled. 

“What about the other things? The other training?” 

“We’re still doing that. You need to learn as much as you can in here,” she said. “You’ve been slacking in your development outside. You haven’t been catering to your strengths. You know that.”

“I do,” Yuki sighed. “Is it even possible to do all of that, though? We’ll be trying to make new magic while doing so many other things.”

“It’s more like upgrading existing magic. Besides, what choice do you have?”

She didn’t. 

“Let’s get to work then,” Yuki said, resigning herself to her fate. This was her only way out. “Where do we start?”

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