I stood at the entrance to a large, circular building, people bustling around me as they walked into it.
From what I had been told, this was the 'Grand Arena', one of the many places that spirits could find if they wanted to watch a fight, but this one was different from all of the others.
This one was used only when spirits of a certain level or higher were going to fight.
And there was a fight starting in about an hour, between one of the leaders of the 'Assault division' and one of the leaders of the 'Guard division'.
Apparently, they fought once every year, each time using new tactics and combinations. I found out this had been going on for little less than three hundred years.
This was going to be the two-hundred-and-eighty-fourth match.
I made my way to my seating area.
One of the conveniences that Numoral's mark brought me was that I could take advantage of it to be categorized as a VIP, which I technically was.
I entered the room that read 'No.4'.
There were a few couches placed inside, along with a counter full of snacks and a cooler filled with drinks. The last thing was a small panel filled with buttons with labels under each of them to show their functions.
A button stopped sound from transmitting through the walls, another closed the lights, one directed the sound from the arena directly to the room, one activated the air conditioning.
There was also a button labeled as 'Assistance.'
I spent the next few minutes fiddling with the buttons until the start of the match was near.
"THERE THEY ARE!!!" The announcer's voice sounded, drawing my attention to the arena itself.
I picked up a glass filled with a cool blue liquid and took a sip, watching the two people in the middle of the arena walk closer.
"THE SECOND IN COMMAND OF THE ASSAULT DIVISION AND TEAM CAPTAIN OF THE TĀIZUAT FOR MORE THAN THREE HUNDRED YEARS!!! GIVE IT UP FOR THE SPIRIT KNOWN AS THE FASTEST IN THE WORLD!!! CAPTAIN TASHINAKE!!!"
I could feel the vibrations as the completely full arena resounded with the shouts and screams of over a hundred thousand spirits filling the air.
I looked at the screen to get a better look at him.
Captain Tashinake was wearing a grey shirt and loose pants, with long black hair tied up in a ponytail. I could not make out his eyes, but he seemed to be of similar stature to me.
The man in question waved at the crowd around him, before saying something to his opponent.
His opponent was a full head taller.
Dressed in a black coat over a blue shirt with white pants, she seemed to have taken offense to whatever she had heard.
"AND ON THE OPPOSING SIDE, WE HAVE THE FOURTH LEADER OF THE PATROL DIVISION, KNOWN FOR HER FIERCE COMBAT STYLE AND DEVASTATING ATTACKS, CAPTAIN GENUNCHI!!!"
Another wave of shouts and screams shook the arena.
Unlike Captain Tashinake, Captain Genunchi did not respond to the cheers.
A moment later when the vibrations subsided, the announcer's voice sounded again.
"The rules of the match are as follows:
Rule No.1: The fighters are allowed to use both their Own and their spells, along with any weapons previously registered in this match.
Rule No.2: The fighters are allowed to activate their Own if they wish to use it.
Rule No.3: The fighters are not allowed to activate their Owns ascension unless in case of emergency.
Rule No.4: The fighters are not allowed to use any substances to items that will boost their combat ability in any way.
Rule No.5: The match will last for a maximum of thirty minutes, after which it will be declared a draw.
Rule No.6: The match will end if either of the fighters is extremely injured, unable to continue, or knocked out."
As the announcer read out the rules, the two captains distanced themselves from each other until they stood fifty meters apart.
I pressed a button, and the noise of the crowd could no longer reach my ears.
"Are the two of you ready?" The announcer asked the two captains, who nodded.
Genunchi had her fists clenched as she took a stance, while Tashinake looked relaxed, twirling a longsword as he looked at Genunchi with a smirk on his face.
"Well then!"
Suddenly, a pair of black and red gauntlets appeared on Genunchi's arms.
"LET THE MATCH! BEGIN!!!"
The next instant, Genunchi vanished from her position and appeared out of thin air in front of Tashinake, one of her fists pushing against the flat of his sword as he blocked her attack and used its momentum to throw himself backward.
"Captain Genunchi starts-"
I pressed another button, silencing the announcer as I concentrated on the fight.
Tashinake was evading Genunchi's attacks and gaining distance at every opportunity, but she caught up to him the next instant.
This continued for a few moments until it seemed like Tashinake had enough and threw his sword away, two others appearing in its place.
These new swords were much larger, with just their blades being two meters long with a slight curve.
Their hilts were surrounded by thin metal strips that emerged from the cross-guard and went into the pommel, providing his hands some amount of defense.
The guard itself was small in comparison to the sword, but could still provide good defense against blades.
As I looked at the new swords, Genunchi seemed to have said something which brought a smile to her competitor's face.
He said something back as he suddenly rose into the air, which caused her to take a defensive stance.
This was Captain Tashinake's Own, 'Gladius wings'.
'Gladius wings' gave him the ability to move freely through his surroundings, freeing him from the affects of gravity.
This ability also took very little energy, allowing him to use it for hours on end, he could accelerate and decelerate as quickly as wanted to without suffering from the effects that kind of movement would have on a living being.
This kind of unrestricted movement made his attacks difficult to predict, and very hard to avoid since he wasn't limited to the attack directions of an ordinary person wielding swords.
He sped forward through the air, zooming towards his opponent who had her guard up, then suddenly disappeared.
I could make out a vague streak of grey whizzing around her in a circle, and assumed it was him.
Suddenly, Genunchi moved, turning backwards, and the moment she did so, Tashinake appeared behind her, the swords cutting the air, the one in his left hand heading towards her back as he flew parallel to the ground.
What happened next happened to fast for me to perceive, but the next thing I knew was that Tashinake was floating in the air a few dozen meters from Genunchi's position (which was now covered by a cloud of dust) as a yellow current jumped between his blades.
The dust was blown away to reveal Genunchi with a smirk on her face, surrounded by a glowing yellow circle.
As I watched, the circle shuddered and dissipated as she brought her fist and palm together a surge of what appeared to be red electricity appeared and ran over the gauntlets before disappearing into them as they stated to glow a soft red.
She had activated her own as well.
I leaned forward in my seat, ready to commit the next part of the fight to memory.
This would teach me a lot about spirit vs spirit combat.