Author's Reincarnation in a Fantasy Setting

As I stepped into the arena sunlight fell directly on my face, I covered my eyes with my hand since I had a stinging feeling. It was because I had come directly under sunlight after being in the dull corridor for quite a while.

It took a while for me to get adjusted and when it was done I moved into the ring-shaped ground of soil and dust. And so did my opponent—well, no actually. He was here already and was waiting for me.

I got a clear look at him as I just knew he was the same man I fought in the novel—or Zero fought to be precise.

The guy standing in front of me. He had short, light brown colored hair, and a fairly built body. He had an arrogant look on his face and I don't know why his narrowed eyes were staring at me.

He was Enen Alderman, the guy I fought in loli_pop's novel.

"Hey, I hope we'll get along," I said. This sounded so out of context I know but I just repeating the dialogues written in the novel. After all, here I don't want anything to stray from the original path.

"Get along?" he repeated. "You should just quit this match on your own if you don't want to get beaten to a pulp. You come nowhere near me, you can't beat me even if you try!" he declared.

"Ah, thanks for your kindness but I'd like to fight till the end," I replied in the most clichéd way possible.

"Ha! Don't say I didn't warn you then," he said as he lifted his long sword toward me.

For some reason, pointing at your opponent with your sword was a custom to tell that you're ready to fight them.

"You two ready?" the referee asked. Both of us replied with a nod and then he blew air through his whistle, thus announcing the start of the match.

I clenched the hilt of my sword tightly as I was about to move forward but just then I saw Enen coming at me almost instantly after the match begin.

He was before me in less than a second, raising his sword he swung it down at me, he was not even trying to go for my sword but my chest.

Instantly I took a step back as I intercepted his sword with my own, a burst of sparks was released into the air when the two blades collided.

'Damn it. This is harder than I thought,' I said inwardly.

Enen's strength and speed were great but well, that was only to be expected. He had the same rank as me—rank B—after all.

Our strength was the same—no, there was a possibility that I was weaker. I mean, only my rank was B, the other attributes were C while his status plate was fully dyed with B all over.

For now though, I was able to hold him off somehow. However, I don't know how long I'll be able to do that.

The pressure on my hands was increasing as I felt Enen's sword weighing over me. This time maybe I will have to fight seriously; yeah, until now I never did that.

Focusing my strength I pushed his sword back and then quickly leapt to the side. Right after I was on his side I threw a slash at him targeted on his shoulder.

To not my surprise, he turned and hit my sword with his own. 'Fuck!' His blow was so powerful that it shot my hand back; the sword almost slipped from my hand.

I moved back and stabilized myself; concentrating my mana all over my body I tried to increase my strength as much as possible. Since I wasn't able to use magiken doing this was my only option.

With a <strong>BOOM</strong> I launched myself toward Enen, craters formed where my feet once were as I took off. I rushed at an insane speed and in no time I was face to face with him.

Not wasting a single second I put all my power in the sword and swinged it at Enen. The blow was powerful as I was putting all my power into this; the sword moved quickly and was about to hit Enen when—

<strong>-CLANK!</strong>

Enen defended with his sword—he was able to see me at that high speed after all. A great number of sparks flew all over my face and a shock wave that grumbled the whole ground was released.

"Magiken!!!" he screamed. His sword shone and then his blade turned green.

His power increased all of a sudden, he moved his hands, and instantly after that, I was sent flying backward. Landing at a distance from him I rolled over the ground before I finally stopped myself.

'Dang! I knew this attack was coming; even so, this was way too much. Loli_pop should've explained more details in the novel,' as made excuses for my own carelessness, I stood up and dusted the dirt out of my clothes.

This was my first time, fighting someone with the same rank as me plus someone with magiken. This much was to be expected, but it ends here.

"Phew!" I let out a breath and relaxed myself, closing my eyes shut only to open them again.

I focused and channeled my mana, to my hands and then into my sword. The sword started lighting up, at first it was red and then quickly it turned white.

Sweat appeared all over my face but ignoring that I shouted, "Magiken!!!"

Wrong, this was not magiken at all. I was just using elemental magic to heat up the sword like I practiced before.

<strong>-BOOM!</strong>

I again dashed toward Enen; this time I was even faster. So fast that the world around me blurred and I had tunnel vision. Reaching close to Enen I swung my sword in a left-to-right motion.

"Won't work! It doesn't matter if you're using magiken this time, like before you can't fend me off!" he said rapidly, but I didn't have to fend him off.

He bought his blade in my sword's way to block it but-

A sizzling sound was released as my sword clashed with his and instead of stopping the 1500-degree Celcius hot blade buried itself inside Enen's sword and slid through it, cutting the blade in half.

The upper half of Enen's blade got separated from the lower half and fell to the ground. Both Enen and the referee looked surprised but however it happened, it was true that Enen's blade was now on the ground—even if half of it.

I looked at the referee, he looked confused at first but then regaining his composure he announced the end of the match...I won.

As soon as those words left the referee's mouth I threw my blade to the ground myself, halfway before it fell the blade melted into a liquid state and splashed all over the ground.