Asher didn't sleep much that night. Nervousness had enveloped him along with excitement. He almost couldn't wait for the final fight, yet his stomach was twisting in anticipation.
Eventually, he got up from bed and began to pace the room. It was a strange feeling for him. He had never been at the forefront of anything, let alone had his name being cheered from adoring fans. Due to his success with the last match, almost all of the spectators knew his name. He had been becoming a crowd favorite up to that point, but that last win had solidified his reputation in the arena. People would be singing his praise from the stands.
Leah was still fast asleep on the sofa that he had in the corner. Her mouth was hanging open slightly with a bit of drool dripping. Asher smirked at the sight. The usually serious woman looked absolutely ridiculous in that moment. It was more than a little humorous to him, having seen her in the heat of battle, not backing down from beasts that were feared among most at their rank in the guild.
Asher quietly opened the door and slipped out into the town while dawn was still coming. He had to take a walk to clear his mind. He had no fear of the assassins coming after him currently. They had destroyed the camps in the wilderness, and Asher was absolutely sure they would have no organization due to that attack. There wouldn't be any retaliation for a while yet.
As Asher was wandering, he spotted someone in the market hammering a, 'For Sale,' sign into the ground. It was a shanty basically. It was also in total disrepair. In Asher's eyes, it was perfect. They could remodel it exactly how they wanted to. The caved in walls didn't matter as long as they owned the place. They could just as easily take it down to the foundation and rebuild it as they went.
Asher went up to the man putting the sign in and asked him, "Do you happen to know what the price is for the property?"
The old man putting the sign in balked at him. "You don't want this hovel, it's a money pit. You'd spend more repairing the place than you would ever get back from it."
"That's not what I asked," Asher replied firmly.
"Two thousand gold for the property," the man responded with no small amount of attitude.
"Would you mind holding it for me until this evening?" Asher requested.
"Are you actually serious?"
"Absolutely. I'm competing in the tournament and I believe I will have enough money to buy this property and rebuild it if I win," Asher said. "I may even throw in a little something extra for you if I succeed in obtaining this property, today."
The old man looked excited at the prospect of that and hastily covered the sign. Asher had already begun to walk away before the old man turned around. Asher was on his way to his most important fight so far. It would dictate whether he could even afford the business he wanted to enter into. Even with how much the building cost, it was just barely outside the slums. Crime was still rampant around the area, but it wasn't quite as bad as the area directly around Orion's shop.
Asher saw the sun rising high and he could feel his excitement going right along with it. He almost couldn't contain himself. Asher almost sprinted to the arena and something strange happened compared to the last matches, they let him use his personal equipment. He guessed they wanted the people competing in the final match to be fighting at their absolute best for a better show. He heard the cheers of the spectators, louder than ever before. There were two names being chanted, his own and another name he wasn't familiar with, Arcanis. Asher was sure it was a stage name for anonymity after the tournament was over, it didn't sound like a name that he had ever heard of.
It got him to wondering at the same time, most people would use stage names to display what powers they possessed, practically bragging about it to their competitors. Asher mused on what the name Arcanis may be implying. He imagined it was someone trained in magic, it could potentially be someone incredibly dangerous with it.
He would have his answer very soon, as the announcer for the match began to declare the match as started. The wrought iron bars arose once more for Asher as he carefully advanced into the arena. His opponent revealed themselves quickly as well, with a staff of all things. Asher groaned internally as he wasn't prepared to deal with a mage.
His opponent had mocha colored skin and stark white hair, with pale eyes. Asher wasn't sure whether his eyes were deceiving him, but that almost certainly meant his opponent was blind. Obviously it wasn't a deterrent for Arcanis in the end though, as he had made it to the finals. That didn't bode well for Asher.
Arcanis just stood there, obviously waiting on Asher to make the first move. Being experienced in his own right, Asher was more than a little wary of just charging in. Arcanis broke the silence with, "The longer you wait, the more prepared I am," as he made small gestures here and there, never pointing towards Asher. Asher was puzzled by this, but he still was reluctant to go in, as he had no idea what was going on.
Asher very carefully advanced in and was caught in a vine trap that Arcanis had laid on the ground. Asher immediately sliced through the plants and rolled to the side as a swath of raw energy blew past him. The undulating colors were almost mesmerizing, but he couldn't stop for even a moment as the earth below him began moving on it's own. Several craggy boulders rose up, attempting to swallow him inside. Asher leapt straight up, just in time to avoid the attack.
As Asher slid down the rock, a blast of fire flew past him. His foot was caught in another trap and he quickly sliced at it as a bolt of pure magic hit him hard enough to send him flying through the air. As soon as he made his hard impact with the ground, he sprung to his feet and narrowly avoided several ice spears that rained down from the sky. Asher didn't understand what was going on, his precognition that had assisted him so much up until now wasn't working against this opponent. He didn't feel a thing before each attack. He couldn't afford to dwell on that though, as another spell was hurled his direction.
Asher hadn't managed to get a single hit in yet against Arcanis. If it continued like this, he would end up losing the match. It had been a constant game of Asher narrowly avoiding each hit whilst Arcanis put every ounce of his power into his spells. Most mages would have begun to wear down at the point Arcanis was at, but he was still fighting as if he had just started. Asher had no idea how to even fathom how much magic was actually coursing through the mage's body. It was actually a wonder that Arcanis wasn't in the next ranking already with how long he had been able to keep Asher on the run during their match.
Arcanis threw another bolt of magic at Asher who held out his hand to brace against the blow. When the energy came into contact with the gauntlet, it glowed with power. Asher muttered, "Fascinating," under his breath. Even Arcanis, who sent the spell in the first place, was amazed at what he had just witnessed.
The crowd had been completely silent throughout the match, in awe of a test of sheer skill. The combatants had surprised them at every turn, especially this one. Asher's enchanted gauntlet had caught and held an incredibly powerful spell. The mage that had been fighting Asher was also standing still in shock, up until Asher threw the bolt right back at him with enough force to send Arcanis airborne.
Asher had formulated a plan from the few split seconds he had from the sheer shock of what he had done. Nobody had even breathed in those moments, let alone moved. This gave Asher time to think of a strategy on the spot. He had already figured out that his gauntlet would absorb every form of energy he had encountered, including magical apparently. That meant he could redirect every attack Arcanis threw at him, with just as much force.
That was exactly what Asher did, as a fireball shot towards him. He caught it with every muscle in his body straining against the force behind the attack. Once he regained his footing, he hurled the fireball back at Arcanis. A large fiery explosion erupted behind the mage, singeing his clothes. Arcanis responded with a lightning strike that hit Asher directly in the chest.
Asher felt his limbs jolting as electricity coursed through them. Once the spasms ended, he rolled out of harm's way from another bolt of raw magical energy. As the stone exploded from the arena floor, he dove into cover.
He peeked over the Stony outcrop he was hidden behind and saw another bolt of magical energy headed his way. He held his hand out and caught it, spinning into his throw. As soon as he loosed the energy back towards Arcanis, there was a collective gasp from the crowd. The spell passed through Arcanis who disappeared in a puff of smoke. When nothing happened after a few minutes, the announcer declared Asher the winner of the tournament. There was a huge collective cheer for Asher who was still dumbfounded at the struggle he had been through, just for Arcanis to disappear. It didn't make sense to him, but he had decided he wouldn't worry about it and moved on to collect his money.