Tourney round 2

    Aiden closed her eyes, drowning out the sounds of the crowd. She could vaguely hear the announcer, but apart from that she just focused on building up her fire. She took a deep breath, but felt her pulse quicken regardless. She was excited, excited to see her opponent, excited to fight, excited to see their abilities... The fire was burning through her veins, and she opened her eyes again, grinning widely. 
    It was a pity she hadn't gotten to know her opponent before the tournament, but maybe she could talk to her afterwards? Honestly, the only thing Aiden knew was her name. Shira. It was a nice name, she thought. But, in its own way, it was nice not knowing her opponent at all. This way, it'd be a surprise. Anything that happened would be new.
    She tried to size her opponent up properly, but it was hard to concentrate properly. She shook her head. Look. There. Shira seemed to be about her size, so tackling could be easier... As long as she flew, she could hopefully avoid most of the attacks...But of course, there were those undefined elements, like the arena and Shira's powers.
    Either way, it would be exciting.
    Tensed and ready, her eyes gleamed, waiting... Waiting... And... There! There it was! The cue to begin! She lunged forward immediately, going straight for the other girl. Shira dodged, though, and Aiden grinned. She was fast. Good. Now let's see if those wings were any good for flying...
    Unfurling her wings, Aiden shot up into the air, before diving at her opponent. Shira seemed to be concentrating hard... It'd be no good to let her do whatever she was planning to, though, so she swooped down, summoning her fire. Anything that took that much concentration would, without a doubt, hurt. So then she'd just have to stop it before anything happened... 
    Lucky her, her fire grazed Shira's cheek before the other girl could completely dodge, and Aiden grinned triumphantly, before feeling a sudden pain on her own face. Eyes wide, she faltered for a second, instinctively putting a hand up, the scent of burning flesh- her burning flesh- filling her senses. 
    She'd never been burned before, and it unnerved her. 
    What was going on? Her mind ran a mile a minute, trying to figure out what was happening. She'd burned Shira, and then... And then the same wound had been inflicted on her.
    Ah. That was it. The arena. There must be some kind of spell or curse that made them experience each other's wounds... Then, shouldn't it work the other way, too? Aiden hesitated for a moment, before biting down as hard as she could on her wrist. She could taste blood, but ignored it, working through the pain. Looking back up, she checked to see if Shira was hurt. She frowned, glancing at the other girl's wrist. Not a single mark, unlike her cheek, which was beginning to blister.
    Then it would only hurt her if she hurt Shira, and vice versa. Which meant... If Shira hurt herself, then Aiden would be fine. Oh.
    The smile spread across Aiden's face again, as she realized exactly what that meant. Please with herself, she altered her strategy.
    But before she could do anything, she realized that Shira was beginning to change. In the time that it had taken for Aiden to figure the arena out, Shira had begun to shapeshift into a dragon. Aiden's eyes widened, as she realized she'd screwed up. Never take your eyes off of your opponent. Well, she'd already messed up. Another stupid mistake, just like last time.
    Gritting her teeth, she narrowed her eyes. No. She could still get through this. She could still win. And if she didn't, well, at least she got to see something amazing. 
    It was too late to try and stop Shira now, her opponent's dragon form dominating a great deal of space. Aiden could feel her muscles tensing, as she prepared to move. At least she wouldn't have to worry about being burned by Shira's fire, though avoiding injury from being crushed would be a little more difficult.
    Strangely, Aiden found that she wasn't very angry, or worried, or even scared. No, instead, she could feel the excitement from before, heating up her blood. The danger was exhilarating, she realized, and the fact that she was up against a real live, full grown dragon- a dragon!- heightened that feeling even further. Even though she knew that she should be more cautious, she couldn't help but feel even more reckless with the knowledge that if Shira hurt her then the other girl would feel it too. She didn't know if her opponent had realized what the curse on the arena was, yet, but she'd assumed that it must be apparent by the identical burn marks on their cheeks.
    Shira hadn't moved yet, phoenix and dragon circling eachother warily. In order to win this, Aiden needed to get Shira to hurt herself. But how could she do that...?
    Before Aiden could think this through, Shira lunged at her, the dragon's large head whistling past her. Aiden barely dodged in time, panting. The dragon turned, surprisingly quick for her size, and aimed to do the same thing again. Her instincts went into overdrive, carrying her into a dive before her opponent could hit her. Faster, faster, faster... Stay away from the figure behind you. Right, left, higher, no, down now...
    It seemed to go on forever, and Aiden slowly began to tire. Up, down, right, left- No, the other left-! Aiden frantically tried to change directions in time, but it was too late. There was an awful impact, and she felt her breath snatched from her lungs as she fell to the ground with a thud. She just lay there for a second, the world spinning around her, before trying to sit up. She was still dizzy, but she managed to push herself into a position where she could see what was going on. In front of her, Shira seemed to have staggered, taking a moment to recover. Good. 
    Staggering to her feet, Aiden flexed her wings. There was a slight pain, but nothing major. She could still fly through it. Summoning up as much fire as she could, she began to run underneath the dragon, heading straight for the wall. Hopefully, Shira was still dazed, not thinking quite straight. 
    She could feel herself gasping for breath as she pushed her body to its limits. Just a little farther, just a little faster, just a little longer... Follow me! she wanted to scream at Shira. Come on!
    She heard the dragon shift, and sped up. The wall was coming up, right ahead, and she prayed that this would work...
    Craning her neck to look up, she saw Shira watching her intently, flying over her. And... CRASH!
    Aiden put on a final burst of speed, flying out from underneath her opponent's body before she was crushed. She collapsed to her knees, vision blurring for a moment before refocusing. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself up to her feet. Technically, she hadn't hurt Shira herself, so she shouldn't feel the same impact as her opponent had...
    Turning around to face the dragon on trembling legs, she looked to see that Shira had flown straight into the side of the arena, effectively knocking herself unconscious. Aiden's lips curled into a grin, before it hit her. She was still conscious. She was still awake.
    She had won this round.
    And then suddenly, she was smiling so much it hurts, and she was aware of how tired she was, but it felt good, so, so good... And then she was outside again, and there were people, and...
    She fell asleep, the happiest she'd been in a long while.