"It's time for the final match of round one, let's get right to it!"

"It's finally my turn," Muttered Jules, before making her way down to the arena.

"You've got this, let's make sure all of get through the first round!" Called out Aster.

Jules glanced back and nodded with a smile, easing her nerves as she met her gaze, before heading to the arena.

Ariodred was one of the participants on the previous match, and he ended the fight in an instant, without wasting any time.

The match was over in less than a second, he was determined to see it through to the end and win the tournament, desperate to get his hands on the time travel device.

Like Raven, Jules was also up against an opponent from the superhero world, a young man wielding an axe.

As she and her opponent stepped onto the arena, the countdown began promptly, steadily ticking down as Jules let out a slow exhale to compose herself.

As the countdown ended, she drew out her sword, flames swirling around the blade before she whipped it across, firing out a slashing wave of flames towards her opponent.

Suddenly, he vanished from sight, Jules quickly spinning around as she sensed him reappear behind her, raising her blade up defensively as he swung his axe down towards her, a sharp clang ringing out upon impact.

As Jules buckled slightly under the force of the strike, he suddenly teleported to her right, swinging his axe across at her head.

She ducked under it, the blade of the axe severing a couple of strands of her hair, before she swiftly blasted his stomach with a swirling, intense fireball, sending him hurtling back through the air.

He gritted his teeth with a pained grimace, before teleporting again, reappearing to her left and slashing at her side with his axe.

Jules turned across and blocked the swung with her blade, before firing out a blast of flames from her mouth, hitting her opponent's chest and sending him stumbling back.

As she fired out a fiery slash with a rapid swing of her blade, he teleported out of the way, reappearing several meters away, before racing across as Jules unleashed a barrage of fireballs towards him.

She then spun around as he teleported behind her, a frustrated look appearing on his face as he raised his axe defensively, the tip of Jules's blade colliding against the face of his axe as she drove it towards his head.

He teleported away again, sprinting across as she unleashed a blazing wave of flames at him from her mouth, the flames steadily catching up to him, before he teleported right above her, his axe raised high.

He quickly lowered his weapon in alarm as Jules swiftly glanced up and unfurled a rapid thrust of her blade straight up towards him.

He just barely blocked the strike with the handle of his axe, finding himself briefly suspended in midair, before teleporting away as Jules unleashed a rapid blast of flames up towards him, just barely avoiding it.

"What the hell...how did she adapt so fast? It's as if she knows exactly where I'm going to teleport, does she have some kind of sensory ability?"

She didn't. It was simply intuition, sharpened over several years of experience. She didn't have to put any thought behind it, she simply had to track his attacking intent.

Of course, her reaction wasn't exactly instant, there was a slight delay of a split second, but her opponent wasn't anywhere near fast enough to take advantage of that lag.

As he teleported to her right, he stiffened as she lunged at him, grabbing his right wrist as he began to raise his axe, before whipping her blade up and across, a sharp gasp of pain ringing out as the blade slashed diagonally across from the left side of his stomach upto the top of his right shoulder, inflicting a deep, diagonal gash across his torso.

The flames wrapped around the blade seared the wound shut, wisps of red mist billowing out as the heat evaporated his blood, before he gritted his teeth and teleported away.

He stumbled back in pain, clutching his torso with a grimace as the wound sizzled slightly, his body shuddering in agony.

"[Flame Control]," Chanted Jules, a tremendous mass of blazing flames erupting around her, before swirling around her with immense speed.

The flames roared and rose up as she generated more and more, forming a violently twisting tornado of flames around herself, compressing, concentrating and intensifying the flames, the entire space around the arena shimmering violently as her opponent stared helplessly.

The tornado then expanded in a sharp, blazing burst as Jules abruptly stopped compressing them, erupting across the arena, a muffled cry ringing out before getting drowned out by the roar of the flames.

As the flames dissipated and faded away, Jules sheathed her blade with a slow exhale, before glancing around, spotting her opponent.

He'd been blown right off the arena, knocked out and covered in severe burns. The blade of his axe was partially melted, a good chunk of his hair was gone too.

"With that, the first round of the tournament is done and dusted. I'll give you guys a fifteen minute break before the second round, to rest up and regain some energy, maybe get some healing if you need it. Best start preparing...now that the warm-up round is over, it's only going to get more intense from this point on!"

As Jules got teleported back up to the bleachers, she let out a sigh and sat down next to Aster, leaning against him and resting her head on his shoulder.

"Way to go, you did great," He remarked with a smile.

"Yeah, it was awesome the way you kept reacting faster and faster each time he teleported, Commander," Added Akila with a grin.

"Thanks. With this, all of us participating have made it through the first round more or less unscathed. But what our gracious host said is true, it's only going to get more intense, so we can't let our guards down yet," She stated, as she glanced around at the others...

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