I'm Cozy, and my humblest thanks to you guys for reading Words of Power quest. I hope you've enjoyed the story thus far.
As the title says, this series will suffer a short hiatus. I'm approaching the exams that's held at the end of February. Don't worry, though! March and April are going to be filled with free days for me to continue this story with ease in mind, at least until I return back to school on April 22nd, where my Major Project begins. Until then, I have no clue as to how I will continue this little story. Rest assured, when I return from the hiatus, I'll bring a triple chapter or something magnificent amongst those lines.
Enough about myself, let's talk a little bit about the story. The first conceptualization of the Words of Power began when I was just staring into space, trying to conjure a tragedy that was both epic, yet tragic.
A young boy, abandoned by his final pillar of emotional support (A woman whom he treats as an elder sister figure), goes absolutely berserk. He used the word "定" to "set" his status as "constant", and then "set" the gravity around him into 15 times its original strength. The bunch of gangsters, men and women alike, are all forced to kneel. Those who just gave in collapsed onto the floor, while those who struggled could do no more than lift themselves up by a few inches.
The boy took an iron pipe in his hands, and proceeded to beat the leader of the gang senseless, to the point where his brains splattered out into a grotesque mess on the floor. When he was finally tired, he set the gravity around him to be sixty fold of what it originally was, causing every human around him to be forced toward the ground so hard the concrete cracked, and blood oozed from them all.
A pretty fine, messy short story indeed.
2011, when I was asking around for an animation I could watch, I was recommended Deltora Quest to watch. To be honest, I liked that story. The concept of magic, medieval theme, and the age of chilvalry fit the theme well.
Aha, I see you guys are thinking what I was thinking back then.
"I should probably replace those 7 gemstones into words, and make a similar setting for my story!"
And so, the Words of Power Quest, was born.
Well, except, Words of Power Quest is indeed different from Deltora Quest.
The entire framework is pretty similar. Deltora Quest has the young boy Lief set out to hunt for the 7 Gemstones of the land, to form a Belt of Deltora which was believed to be a holy artifact against what is known as the Shadow Lord. Katachi, the semi-protagonist in Words of Power Quest, similarly sets out on a traveling adventure across the lands and seas in search of the Words of Power. You can blame me for spoiling it here, but there are actually 292 Words of Power, and a hidden 293rd Word of Power. (Of course, they are also different - The 7 Gemstones has a definite, set location where it would appear, while the 292 Words of Power could appear anywhere, for its carriers may have died while fleeing, or placed their Words of Power into hidden hands, etc.)
Deltora Quest also talks of its own world in a strange fashion, a mythical, unknown world with laws common to our own (spare the magic and the ghosts and the like) as much as Words of Power Quest speaks of its worlds and lords, and how they have their own Gods as well. It's often depicted this way because our normal world is set and defined in history, and to derive at something that did not exist in our reality using whatever we have is beyond this realm.
Similar as they may seem, they are also fundamentally different. Lief was *spoiler* apparently the son of King Endon and Queen Sharn, *spoiler end* while Katachi is the son of a renowned Word of Power Hunter, Kotsuba Musashi, and his mother... Well, I wouldn't talk that far in for fear of spoilers. It's nothing much anyway, his parents are minor characters. (lol)
Lief has what people would address as "Nobility's Blood" within himself, a recurring theme in many adventure stories. Katachi has a similar drive, but it is merely the desire of a fool given the power to achieve it. They're similar, and different at the same time - If a stereotypical hero was to fight a villain, it would be classic, but if an old beggar on a street suddenly got up, armed himself with brass knuckles in his hands, and proceeded to punch the shit out of the villain who's just walking down to the local bakery? And then the beggar proceeds to rob and take everything the villain has, throw the body in a dumpster, and lives his new life impersonating the villain? ...
... Yeah. That's what I'm getting at. They're similar in that they are both sources of motivation, but fundamentally different in the reasons behind their actions.
Lief was known to travel with a trusty old fogey (lol) Barda, and met Jasmine, Filli and Kree in the forest early on, before meeting many other acquaintances around the world. Katachi also has a similar, yet different approach to this which, well, you'll just have to wait until I write that far. I can say this though, unlike Lief who has had multiple companions throughout the journey, Katachi's getting only one companion for the rest of the journey. (He's powerful enough to take out any and every city anyway, if you give him a dictionary.) ^o^
Deltora Quest is based around good and evil, in a bright light - The Gems are good, the Shadow Lord is evil, a definite line is drawn between good and evil clearly in that rhapsody. However, in WoP Quest, it is starkly different. There is no world-rule that states that you cannot use the Words of Power for justice, nor with malice. Everyone has their own story to tell, everyone has their own beliefs, and in whoever's hands, the Words of Power *will* bring out the best, or the worst, in any character.
Of course, there will also be some classic twists in the story as it rolls out. I'm making the companion Katachi's traveling with... unique. That companion has a standard, yet very unique story, in which it would most likely drag both of them into deep, deep trouble not-so-very soon.
This story, unlike Deltora Quest which delays the romance towards the end of series, is going on a new route. It's going to be a heart-rending adventure, where you guys will delight at the happy moments, and depress at the sad moments. I'm making it really good. You can guess and speculate the relationship between Katachi and Bael all you want, but... Heeheehee. Just wait for it.
Lief's adventure shows of Lief maturing from a rash, hot-headed arrogant careless idiot into a careful, meticulous king. Of course, that is a given from how a person has to eventually grow up. However, Words of Power Quest is going by a significantly different route. It's a tragic story by nature, and it shows the slow descent of Katachi into madness and desperation as he struggles to fight the battle both physically and mentally.
I hope you enjoy the next chapter that I'd be releasing probably on March 2nd, or 3rd, or even 5th if I want to make heavy edits, and the like. Because the next release is also going to start on the second protagonist's view, Katachi's companion. If you've been at my wall, you know her name already : R*****a.
Katachi just took Cillian, the finalist down. But that's the finalist who lost, not the champion who won. Look forward to it.
Cozy T.W. Signing off.
Friday 25 January 2013
Friday 18 January 2013
Chapter 12 : Tournament 3 : Reversal
On the sandy grounds was Katachi and another student holding a wooden sword.
And on the elevated stone steps that comprised the coliseum, were the other students, intently looking at them.
Something rumbled within him.
It was an uncomfortable anxiety of being watched by hundreds of strangers.
Katachi tensed up a little bit at the thought of being observed by countless eyes.
C : "So, I've heard that you're that student that flew through the sky and snatched the token before I did."
Katachi remembered this student's name.
With dark blue hair and a uniform far classier than his, with white fingerless gloves on his hands and a standard 80cm long wooden sword provided by the academy, Katachi remembered this student's name clearly. He had remembered it so clearly that he had hoped to avoid fighting him if possible - He was the finalist in last year's tournament, after all.
K : "You're Cillian de Vorsche, are you not?"
C : "Yes. I am."
The affirmation of his status only serves to increase Katachi's guard and nervousness.
K : (I have no idea what this guy uses, nor how he attacks. The best solution should probably be running around and dodging his attacks until I get a good feel for them.)
C : "Seeing that you know my name really makes me happy. I didn't think my name would reach the new students this rapidly."
Cillian must have somehow noticed that Katachi's magic circle was clean, without any sigils on it to signify that he was a veteran. Either that, or he just assumed it from the way Katachi stanced himself that this student did not know how Cillian fought.
K : "... It's an honor fighting you."
C : "The pleasure is mine, but will your skills sustain it?"
With that said, Cillian raised his wooden dueling sword, and ran the blade across his free left palm. With legs spread wide apart, he was already in a stance for fighting.
Katachi drew out his wooden dagger, and entered a more suitable fighting stance as well.
C : "... A dagger?"
Cillian seems surprised.
A dagger in a competition between magi was very strange indeed. In most legends and tales which involved a dagger, there were often cosmetics and additional parts on the dagger that made it ceremonial. Since the daggers in the competition were pitifully plain wooden daggers with a simplistic hilt and blade, it can only mean that the weapon was to be used as a normal dagger would.
Even so, that was a strange choice of weapon for a magus to use. Why would a magus use a weapon that required him to get into a range where he can be killed off easily? Also, most magi were physically frail unless they were hybrid swordmagi like Cillian, so they shouldn't be able to execute very advanced attacks like the knights or rogues or other people would. So, perhaps it was to be used as a spellblade that increased the range of his attacks deceptively?
C : (... Best not to brood over it. Worse comes to worst, I'd be hit hard by a surprise attack or something. What could a new student possibly do to me?)
Without hesitation, Cillian readied his guard and stepped forward.
*** ***
They had swung blades for at least 2 minutes wordlessly.
A clash of wooden blade against wooden blade, the sands beneath their feet pushed by their bodies' momentum, and the cheers of the crowds on an exciting show. These sounds melded together and comprised of what was known to be the the third match between the competitors.
C : "... I don't like this. You're still not using your full power."
Cillian leapt back after dashing in for a strike, and lowered his sword slightly.
C : "I want you to fight me at your fullest, but you're holding back. Are you so naive to think that you could beat me without using magic at all? Or are you trying to disrespect me by deliberately doing it?"
With that, Cillian held his free left hand over the blade portion of his sword.
C : "Or perhaps you are the type to go all-out only when your opponent has?"
With a few chants, the blade portion of his sword radiated an uncomfortable light.
The Vorsche family was known to be a family of a transcendent magic known as Bringer of Dawn. The golden days of it began with Tarren de Vorsche, the creator of this magic, using this magic to lead his lost sheep back to him in the darkness of night. The light was so lucent and glaring that the villagers and the villages next to his own village woke up from it, and he was heavily criticized for it. Generations past, one of his descendants, Bryne de Vorsche, used it in actual combat to blind his opponent, and since then it had been revered as a famous, well-known form of supportive magic.
The light was glaring enough for people to shield their eyes from the source and still be partially blinded. It was at such an intensity that merely looking at an object reflecting its light would hurt one's eyes. Cillian himself did not seem to be affected by the magic at all, but that may be the fact that he was immune to its effects, or it could be that he was already used to the glare from the swords being pointed at him by his family.
Cillian was never really liked for this form of magic. Stunning it may be, the spectating students barely, if at all get the chance to see Cillian fighting his opponent because of this magic. It instead sparked the mystery surrounding him, masking his ability from being gauged.
With his opponent blinded, Cillian walked towards Katachi slowly, raising the sword above his head and getting ready to cut it down.
... Yet.
K : "... Perfect."
The first word he spoke in two minutes.
His opponent did not seem dazed at all.
*** ***
K : (恒定. Constant status - Wooden sword.)
K : (固定. Fixate object in space - Wooden sword.)
Two golden 定s surfaced on the blade of the sword. However, because it was so bright, nobody could see the Words of Power placed onto its blade.
Katachi blindly rushed forward, and swung his dagger wildly. The light blinding him placed him at a disadvantage, but if he couldn't determine where the enemy was, or at least get the light behind him without showing his back, it was going to end much worse.
Cillian, in a panic, tries to jump away, but then realized the trick a moment too late.
His sword could not be moved at all.
Letting go of his sword, Cillian leaped back, to see the sword hanging in midair, and that Katachi had reached a position where the sword was now behind him.
Katachi opened his eyes, and looked at Cillian. His uniform seemed so much cleaner compared to Katachi's - While Katachi had tumbled over and rolled across the sandy ground repeatedly to avoid some of the riskier attacks, the uniform had been stained with countless grains of sand on his sleeves and back, while Cillian merely needed to advance and retreat on his two feet, fighting like a proper knight should. Comparing their uniforms, his was definitely much cleaner.
But now, cleanliness was the least of his problems. Cillian's weapon was behind him, and Katachi was standing between him and his weapon. This was a great opportunity to win.
With "Fixate object" applied to the sword, it was not going anywhere. With "Constant status", the light on the sword wouldn't falter even if the sword broke contact with Cillian. Unless it was supposed to glow on contact, it should not attract any attention from others, especially Cillian.
His opponent was defenseless, and he didn't seem to have anything else up his sleeves to use since his attacks were heavily oriented around the blade. Katachi managed to disarm his opponent, while keeping his Word of Power a secret, even if it would have been very bad if the sword wasn't supposed to glow without body contact.
Cillian's face didn't show an expression of shock, but rather an expression of regret that he had fallen under his enemy's trap. From his expression, it seemed as though the sword was supposed to glow even when there was no body contact. Still, there's bound to be a time limit as to how long it stays glowing, so every second ticking away brought his Word of Power closer and closer to being revealed.
K : (It can't go on any longer than this. I have to end it now.)
Katachi gripped his dagger tight, dashed and slashed at Cillian aggressively.
Swipe. Swipe. Swipe. Stab. Swipe. Swipe. Backhand. Swipe. Katachi unleashed a torrent of blows against the defenseless Cillian, who could only dodge backwards further and further, without his weapon by his side.
Under the melee fighting rules, should the wooden blade touch the opponent enough times, indicating an amount of damage the magus could not sustain, the round would be over. It could be many repeated slashes on the arms, or a direct stab onto the heart. But so long as the 'damage' was large enough, it could be anyone's victory. It was a job of a magus to avoid such situations both on the magus and his comrades after all, so if that could not be avoided, or if a magus could force his enemy into a situation like this, it was as good as saying "I won."
Finally, *pa!* With a lunge, Katachi closes the gap between him and Cillian quickly!
C : "Gaaak!!"
Katachi's wooden dagger cleaved towards Cillian's throat, pushing Cillian backwards and forcing him to stumble.
*** ***
C : "... I will be honest here, I have never expected an opponent like you."
K : "It's a pleasure fighting you too, Cillian de Vorsche."
Cillian shook hands with Katachi, signifying the end of the round.
C : "I guess I'm too used to having a blade by my side that my body's rusted. This will be a good lesson for me to train my body along with my swordsmanship. Thanks, kid... Or, should I say, Katachi."
Cillian walked out of the coliseum full of cheering students with dignity.
*** ***
S1 : "Hey, Mister Jiel!"
J : "Hello, students. What are you all doing?"
S1 : "Oh, we're discussing about the type of magic that new kid uses."
J : "New kid?"
S2 : "Yeah. The one that beat Cillian!"
S1 : "Oh, Mister Jiel! Do you know of any type of magic that could recreate the third round just now?"
J : "Recreate the third round... How did it end again?"
L : "I think I know the magic he's using."
S1 & S2 : "Mister Lapp! You know the magic he's using?"
L : "Well, this is just a vague guess, but that student didn't seem to use any spells nor items to recreate spells. He probably used Reincarnate Arts in that match." (Assuming that he's below a Meister's level, that is.)
S2 : "Reincarnate Arts? Which Reincarnate Art could possibly cause that?"
L : "... What do you think, Jiel? You're better at Reincarnate Arts than I am."
J : "I'm sorry, Mister Lapp. I haven't watched the match, so I really don't know what happened."
S1 : "Aww, you should have! You should have seen how awesome that was! Cillian's sword was floating in mid-air, and only when that new kid struck the fatal blow did the sword fall onto the ground."
J : "... Floating in mid-air...? Would the field happen to be sunny while they were fighting?"
S1 & S2 : "Yeah."
J : "... I'm guessing it's Child of Sun."
S1 : "Child of Sun?"
S2 : "Is that Soltak?"
L : "... Now that you mention it... It could very well be a Soltak believer. The Vorsche family's magic was, after all, based off the Sun. Obviously, you would use the sun itself to counter something based off the sun."
J : "Well, don't jump to conclusions, you guys. This is just a guess, so don't go crazy over-"
S3 : "What's this about the new student being a Soltak believer?"
S4 : "Is he really using the Child of Sun magic?"
S5 " HEY EVERYONE!!! THAT NEW KID'S USING CHILD OF SUN!!!"
J : "..."
L : "... Why do the students always do this..."
*** ***
"Hey! Child of Sun!"
"Child of Sun!"
"Hey, Soltak guy!"
"Soltak believer!"
"Dude!"
Katachi spun around, to see at least eight students with empty wooden tablets in their hands.
"Could you give us all an autograph or something?"
Katachi was wordless.
First of all, why was he suddenly a Soltak believer? As far as he could remember, he's only worshipped Segus his entire life. He had only heard of Soltak, but even then it was a Auser God, so nothing in his head rang when he was called a believer of Soltak.
Secondly, he did not know the Child of Sun Reincarnate Art at all. It was like calling an object a name it didn't have. So why were they calling him that?
Could it have been wrong to trust Mafer? He did, after all, lie to Mafer about using Soltak's Child of Sun. Katachi felt a great relief that he had avoided what could have potentially been disastrous.
K : "Uhm... I-"
Before Katachi could even begin to answer, eight wooden tablets were shoved into his hand.
K : "..."
It would normally be easier just to raise the tablets to the magic circle on his left arm, but that word engravement method gave magic power to the tokens. Giving those away was the equivalent of selling his identity, which, according to the thick book in his room that states the rules to abide in the academy, was not allowed.
K : "... Can I borrow that, then?"
"Take it! Consider it a gift to you!"
Katachi could only sigh as he graciously accepted a carving pick from one of the students and proceeded to carve his name into all of the tablets.
And on the elevated stone steps that comprised the coliseum, were the other students, intently looking at them.
Something rumbled within him.
It was an uncomfortable anxiety of being watched by hundreds of strangers.
Katachi tensed up a little bit at the thought of being observed by countless eyes.
C : "So, I've heard that you're that student that flew through the sky and snatched the token before I did."
Katachi remembered this student's name.
With dark blue hair and a uniform far classier than his, with white fingerless gloves on his hands and a standard 80cm long wooden sword provided by the academy, Katachi remembered this student's name clearly. He had remembered it so clearly that he had hoped to avoid fighting him if possible - He was the finalist in last year's tournament, after all.
K : "You're Cillian de Vorsche, are you not?"
C : "Yes. I am."
The affirmation of his status only serves to increase Katachi's guard and nervousness.
K : (I have no idea what this guy uses, nor how he attacks. The best solution should probably be running around and dodging his attacks until I get a good feel for them.)
C : "Seeing that you know my name really makes me happy. I didn't think my name would reach the new students this rapidly."
Cillian must have somehow noticed that Katachi's magic circle was clean, without any sigils on it to signify that he was a veteran. Either that, or he just assumed it from the way Katachi stanced himself that this student did not know how Cillian fought.
K : "... It's an honor fighting you."
C : "The pleasure is mine, but will your skills sustain it?"
With that said, Cillian raised his wooden dueling sword, and ran the blade across his free left palm. With legs spread wide apart, he was already in a stance for fighting.
Katachi drew out his wooden dagger, and entered a more suitable fighting stance as well.
C : "... A dagger?"
Cillian seems surprised.
A dagger in a competition between magi was very strange indeed. In most legends and tales which involved a dagger, there were often cosmetics and additional parts on the dagger that made it ceremonial. Since the daggers in the competition were pitifully plain wooden daggers with a simplistic hilt and blade, it can only mean that the weapon was to be used as a normal dagger would.
Even so, that was a strange choice of weapon for a magus to use. Why would a magus use a weapon that required him to get into a range where he can be killed off easily? Also, most magi were physically frail unless they were hybrid swordmagi like Cillian, so they shouldn't be able to execute very advanced attacks like the knights or rogues or other people would. So, perhaps it was to be used as a spellblade that increased the range of his attacks deceptively?
C : (... Best not to brood over it. Worse comes to worst, I'd be hit hard by a surprise attack or something. What could a new student possibly do to me?)
Without hesitation, Cillian readied his guard and stepped forward.
*** ***
They had swung blades for at least 2 minutes wordlessly.
A clash of wooden blade against wooden blade, the sands beneath their feet pushed by their bodies' momentum, and the cheers of the crowds on an exciting show. These sounds melded together and comprised of what was known to be the the third match between the competitors.
C : "... I don't like this. You're still not using your full power."
Cillian leapt back after dashing in for a strike, and lowered his sword slightly.
C : "I want you to fight me at your fullest, but you're holding back. Are you so naive to think that you could beat me without using magic at all? Or are you trying to disrespect me by deliberately doing it?"
With that, Cillian held his free left hand over the blade portion of his sword.
C : "Or perhaps you are the type to go all-out only when your opponent has?"
With a few chants, the blade portion of his sword radiated an uncomfortable light.
The Vorsche family was known to be a family of a transcendent magic known as Bringer of Dawn. The golden days of it began with Tarren de Vorsche, the creator of this magic, using this magic to lead his lost sheep back to him in the darkness of night. The light was so lucent and glaring that the villagers and the villages next to his own village woke up from it, and he was heavily criticized for it. Generations past, one of his descendants, Bryne de Vorsche, used it in actual combat to blind his opponent, and since then it had been revered as a famous, well-known form of supportive magic.
The light was glaring enough for people to shield their eyes from the source and still be partially blinded. It was at such an intensity that merely looking at an object reflecting its light would hurt one's eyes. Cillian himself did not seem to be affected by the magic at all, but that may be the fact that he was immune to its effects, or it could be that he was already used to the glare from the swords being pointed at him by his family.
Cillian was never really liked for this form of magic. Stunning it may be, the spectating students barely, if at all get the chance to see Cillian fighting his opponent because of this magic. It instead sparked the mystery surrounding him, masking his ability from being gauged.
With his opponent blinded, Cillian walked towards Katachi slowly, raising the sword above his head and getting ready to cut it down.
... Yet.
K : "... Perfect."
The first word he spoke in two minutes.
His opponent did not seem dazed at all.
*** ***
K : (恒定. Constant status - Wooden sword.)
K : (固定. Fixate object in space - Wooden sword.)
Two golden 定s surfaced on the blade of the sword. However, because it was so bright, nobody could see the Words of Power placed onto its blade.
Katachi blindly rushed forward, and swung his dagger wildly. The light blinding him placed him at a disadvantage, but if he couldn't determine where the enemy was, or at least get the light behind him without showing his back, it was going to end much worse.
Cillian, in a panic, tries to jump away, but then realized the trick a moment too late.
His sword could not be moved at all.
Letting go of his sword, Cillian leaped back, to see the sword hanging in midair, and that Katachi had reached a position where the sword was now behind him.
Katachi opened his eyes, and looked at Cillian. His uniform seemed so much cleaner compared to Katachi's - While Katachi had tumbled over and rolled across the sandy ground repeatedly to avoid some of the riskier attacks, the uniform had been stained with countless grains of sand on his sleeves and back, while Cillian merely needed to advance and retreat on his two feet, fighting like a proper knight should. Comparing their uniforms, his was definitely much cleaner.
But now, cleanliness was the least of his problems. Cillian's weapon was behind him, and Katachi was standing between him and his weapon. This was a great opportunity to win.
With "Fixate object" applied to the sword, it was not going anywhere. With "Constant status", the light on the sword wouldn't falter even if the sword broke contact with Cillian. Unless it was supposed to glow on contact, it should not attract any attention from others, especially Cillian.
His opponent was defenseless, and he didn't seem to have anything else up his sleeves to use since his attacks were heavily oriented around the blade. Katachi managed to disarm his opponent, while keeping his Word of Power a secret, even if it would have been very bad if the sword wasn't supposed to glow without body contact.
Cillian's face didn't show an expression of shock, but rather an expression of regret that he had fallen under his enemy's trap. From his expression, it seemed as though the sword was supposed to glow even when there was no body contact. Still, there's bound to be a time limit as to how long it stays glowing, so every second ticking away brought his Word of Power closer and closer to being revealed.
K : (It can't go on any longer than this. I have to end it now.)
Katachi gripped his dagger tight, dashed and slashed at Cillian aggressively.
Swipe. Swipe. Swipe. Stab. Swipe. Swipe. Backhand. Swipe. Katachi unleashed a torrent of blows against the defenseless Cillian, who could only dodge backwards further and further, without his weapon by his side.
Under the melee fighting rules, should the wooden blade touch the opponent enough times, indicating an amount of damage the magus could not sustain, the round would be over. It could be many repeated slashes on the arms, or a direct stab onto the heart. But so long as the 'damage' was large enough, it could be anyone's victory. It was a job of a magus to avoid such situations both on the magus and his comrades after all, so if that could not be avoided, or if a magus could force his enemy into a situation like this, it was as good as saying "I won."
Finally, *pa!* With a lunge, Katachi closes the gap between him and Cillian quickly!
C : "Gaaak!!"
Katachi's wooden dagger cleaved towards Cillian's throat, pushing Cillian backwards and forcing him to stumble.
*** ***
C : "... I will be honest here, I have never expected an opponent like you."
K : "It's a pleasure fighting you too, Cillian de Vorsche."
Cillian shook hands with Katachi, signifying the end of the round.
C : "I guess I'm too used to having a blade by my side that my body's rusted. This will be a good lesson for me to train my body along with my swordsmanship. Thanks, kid... Or, should I say, Katachi."
Cillian walked out of the coliseum full of cheering students with dignity.
*** ***
S1 : "Hey, Mister Jiel!"
J : "Hello, students. What are you all doing?"
S1 : "Oh, we're discussing about the type of magic that new kid uses."
J : "New kid?"
S2 : "Yeah. The one that beat Cillian!"
S1 : "Oh, Mister Jiel! Do you know of any type of magic that could recreate the third round just now?"
J : "Recreate the third round... How did it end again?"
L : "I think I know the magic he's using."
S1 & S2 : "Mister Lapp! You know the magic he's using?"
L : "Well, this is just a vague guess, but that student didn't seem to use any spells nor items to recreate spells. He probably used Reincarnate Arts in that match." (Assuming that he's below a Meister's level, that is.)
S2 : "Reincarnate Arts? Which Reincarnate Art could possibly cause that?"
L : "... What do you think, Jiel? You're better at Reincarnate Arts than I am."
J : "I'm sorry, Mister Lapp. I haven't watched the match, so I really don't know what happened."
S1 : "Aww, you should have! You should have seen how awesome that was! Cillian's sword was floating in mid-air, and only when that new kid struck the fatal blow did the sword fall onto the ground."
J : "... Floating in mid-air...? Would the field happen to be sunny while they were fighting?"
S1 & S2 : "Yeah."
J : "... I'm guessing it's Child of Sun."
S1 : "Child of Sun?"
S2 : "Is that Soltak?"
L : "... Now that you mention it... It could very well be a Soltak believer. The Vorsche family's magic was, after all, based off the Sun. Obviously, you would use the sun itself to counter something based off the sun."
J : "Well, don't jump to conclusions, you guys. This is just a guess, so don't go crazy over-"
S3 : "What's this about the new student being a Soltak believer?"
S4 : "Is he really using the Child of Sun magic?"
S5 " HEY EVERYONE!!! THAT NEW KID'S USING CHILD OF SUN!!!"
J : "..."
L : "... Why do the students always do this..."
*** ***
"Hey! Child of Sun!"
"Child of Sun!"
"Hey, Soltak guy!"
"Soltak believer!"
"Dude!"
Katachi spun around, to see at least eight students with empty wooden tablets in their hands.
"Could you give us all an autograph or something?"
Katachi was wordless.
First of all, why was he suddenly a Soltak believer? As far as he could remember, he's only worshipped Segus his entire life. He had only heard of Soltak, but even then it was a Auser God, so nothing in his head rang when he was called a believer of Soltak.
Secondly, he did not know the Child of Sun Reincarnate Art at all. It was like calling an object a name it didn't have. So why were they calling him that?
Could it have been wrong to trust Mafer? He did, after all, lie to Mafer about using Soltak's Child of Sun. Katachi felt a great relief that he had avoided what could have potentially been disastrous.
K : "Uhm... I-"
Before Katachi could even begin to answer, eight wooden tablets were shoved into his hand.
K : "..."
It would normally be easier just to raise the tablets to the magic circle on his left arm, but that word engravement method gave magic power to the tokens. Giving those away was the equivalent of selling his identity, which, according to the thick book in his room that states the rules to abide in the academy, was not allowed.
K : "... Can I borrow that, then?"
"Take it! Consider it a gift to you!"
Katachi could only sigh as he graciously accepted a carving pick from one of the students and proceeded to carve his name into all of the tablets.
Friday 11 January 2013
Chapter 11 : Tournament 2 : Reincarnate_Art_Vs_Reincarnate_Spell
With all of the preliminaries settled, it was time to rest and recover for the next match.
The students whom had participated were given access to a booster tonic in exchange for their wooden weapons to be confiscated. The syrup-like tonic was copper-like, viscous and truthfully quite disgusting, but it revitalized the students for the next round.
The students were supposedly made to perform this trade so they may not infuse their wooden weapons with any magic during the breaks between the matches, but that's not quite true. It was, in fact, a choice - To keep one's wooden weapon enchanted and coated with magic, or to rest up and have your wooden weapon restored to its original intended form.
There were indeed competitors that were strong enough to last through the whole tournament without recovering or resting even once, like Deku, the tournament champion for the past 3 years. There were also other competitors that rely heavily on the enchantments on their weapons, whom had to give up on the healing syrup in order to sustain the magic on their weapon.
Katachi struggled to drink the thick, gooey copper syrup.
Within his throat, it felt really slimy, yet it didn't. It felt like a pouch of water that was well-preserved and unbroken, hinting on how thick and cohesive the syrup was. Strangely, though, the sensation was horrible but the aftertaste was mildly sweet.
M : "Hahahaha! Disgusting, isn't it?"
A spiky-haired boy walked up behind him, patted him on the shoulder, and sat down on the wooden stool in front of him.
K : "! Mafer! You're here! You got a token as well?"
M : "Yeah, I did. It's not as hard as I thought. I'd think that Deku, that guy from the tournament, would wipe the floor, but nobody even tried or dared to hold him back. That guy just strolled towards the rope in a carefree manner, and grabbed a token, and nobody so much as bothered about his presence. That is truly unbelievable. Did you see it?"
K : "I... I didn't. All the preliminaries were held at the same time, weren't they?"
M : "... Yeah, you're right. But seriously, that Deku guy... He's a real toughie. I have never seen anyone so powerful that the rest of the competitors view the mere thought of challenging him as silly. There were loads of murmurs and the like amongst the crowds, but I heard you did pretty good yourself, snatching the first token with a trick like that."
Mafer seemed to have noticed from the commotion that Katachi had used some trick.
M : "How did you do it, mister healer?"
And now it came down to a really tough decision.
Katachi could directly tell Mafer that he has a Word of Power on him, but the problem was whether the secret would leak. If the news got out, Katachi will never be able to relax, not even in his own room. The students would glare at him for being a cheater. The teachers would want to kill him and claim the Word of Power for their own. Bertund had promised that he would do his utmost to assist Katachi in that aspect, but even that was unreliable.
The safest solution was to lie.
Segus had once cited that 'One ought to tattle only lies of white when need be.' So, if Katachi was lying about his power to protect everyone from this madness from desire of power, it was acceptable to lie.
But even so, he had to come up with something convincing to lie about.
He couldn't just say 'Oh, I can partially float' because, most probably, he would be questioned on the type of magic used. He had to come up with a convincing argument that could cover up the Word of Power's true potential, a magic powerful enough to match it.
K : "... I'm..."
Katachi scanned through all the knowledge of gods, magics and reincarnate arts he could think of.
Finally, he found one that was suitable.
K : "... I'm a believer of Soltak."
M : "Wha- Seriously? A Soltak believer? That's really rare..."
Mafer seemed to have bought the argument.
K : (Good. Very good. He seems convinced.)
M : "So, you're only that powerful so long as you're in direct sunlight?"
K : "There was no direct sunlight. It's been an overcast since the start of today, Mafer. I can also use regular, dim light, though the Reincarnate Art would be weakened slightly."
M : "Huh. So, even without direct sunlight, you can still use Soltak's Reincarnate Art?"
K : "Yes, but to a lesser degree."
Soltak was the God that guarded the Sun. It seemed an insignificant role, but it was important to every person and animal and plant that had once lived, for they relied upon it for warmth and nutrition. Soltak's Reincarnate Art, Child of Sun, was a special technique that used sunlight in favor of one's mental image, or stamina, or magical objects to strengthen themselves. This meant that a person was indomitable by day, but became much, much weaker in the night, especially on a new moon where they would become a normal human.
It was a convenient lie because nobody would have, and would be able to notice any significant difference at night. Katachi had yet to show his Word of Power at all, and since the students only saw him in the day, it was easy to pull the bluff.
Mafer seemed pretty convinced that Katachi is a Soltak believer.
M : "... That's cool. Well, I'll be off now. The first official match begins really soon, and I'm first up. See you then, Katachi."
*** ***
Katachi squeezed through the students to reach an empty seat on the huge stone stairs. Sitting down comfortably, Katachi peered into the ring of the coliseum-like stage for the first battle.
It was just an empty, barren field with a projection of a match between two students in the Cosmatral Tlod. But that alone was exciting enough, for the fight between Mafer and the strange student was pretty intense.
Mafer was holding a wooden staff in his left hand, and a small, unlit candle in his right. He had been dodging the opponent's attacks the entire match. His opponent, whose name was Vikarr, as displayed on the board, was throwing strange tablets of what seemed to be wooden card pieces. For the battle to have progressed to this stage in a mere 20 seconds, it was amazing.
"Look at Vikarr, man! He's my senior!"
One of the male students sitting behind him was excitedly telling the others to focus their attention on the student named Vikarr.
K : (... Wow. That looks pretty tough. That Vikarr guy is not giving him time to catch his breath or formulate a plan...)
*** ***
Vikarr, a student who originally had 61 card-shaped wooden pieces in his hand, was throwing the pieces one at a time towards Mafer like they were throwing darts.
And Mafer, who had been dodging these wooden pieces with his might, had created many prints on the sand.
M : (This guy's bound to run out of these wooden pieces sooner or later.)
Mafer kept dodging the wooden pieces as best as he could. Some would hit him on the arm or some other body part, which felt like a hard, rigid pebble had been thrown at him.
Then...
V : "Okay, I have now exhausted all of my cards."
His opponent openly declares that he had run out of cards to throw.
M : (... Is this a trap?)
V : "Now then, don't be shy. Look at this card."
The student named Vikarr picked up a wooden tablet on the floor, and showed Mafer what was on the card.
On the card was a simplistic pattern on it - Every card had a broad-headed V on it.
V : "Do you think this card is a V for 'Victory'? Or do you think it is V for 'Vicious'?"
Mafer raised his guard even more.
There was no reason why a student would reveal his magic's pattern and trick out, and give the opponent a chance to counterattack. Not unless...
V : "Make your choice."
... The winner was already decided.
M : "I go with V for 'Vicious'. Is that fine?"
Mafer raised the candle on his right hand he had clutched onto dearly, and aimed his spell towards Vikarr.
V : "... Wrong answer."
Vikarr snapped one of his fingers, and the cards beneath his legs started to rattle and vibrate maliciously.
The bright red-colored Vs on every card glowed a sinister blood red, and the cards started to fly in the direction the V's bottom tip was pointing at.
Mafer realized it the moment the cards started rattling, but it was far too late.
M : (... Sha'koth, the trickster legend said to have become God by impersonating one, had a story where he was able to make a duck walk backwards. He did it by attaching strings onto the duck's legs, and someone from the brushes tugged the duck's legs step by step, to make it look like it walked backwards. But the highlight was that he had painted the duck's feet with a reverse arrow, and claimed that the arrows made the duck walk backwards. Converting it into an attack spell with Image Power...)
The wooden tablets flew in the air like swallows and bats, beating up, bruising and even incising Mafer with a flurry of attacks from all directions. In the pain, Mafer tried to kneel down, but the knee that was exposed had a card hit it, so Mafer clutched that in pain. In utter agony, Mafer could only clutch his body with his arms, and protect his vitals as best as he could. There were so many attacks from every angle and direction except the ground that it was only possible to count them if only they had superhuman senses, or a form of omnidirectional protection, like a sand barrier.
V : "Game over. They are not letter Vs - They are arrowheads."
Vikarr stood calmly, placed the one wooden card he had held flatly on his hand and raised it above his head. The rest of the cards, still fluttering and ravaging Mafer, seemed to respond to it and flew out in every direction, and towards Vikarr. The cards flew to his back, and neatly stacked themselves above the one card in his hand, and Vikarr kept the cards within his shirt properly.
"And that, my friends, is how you use a Feister-61 deck properly. This is for my juniors Sakel and Ginevette!"
*** ***
K : (... Beaten in the first round...)
Katachi could only widen his eyes in shock.
Mafer had been cruelly beaten down by a foe that didn't even seem to break a sweat, without a single chance to retaliate. It was utter proof that even a normal spell could defeat a believer of a God. No matter how powerful Croxa's Reincarnate Art was, if it could not be used, it was as useless as teaching an animal to swim in lava.
The first official match took a mere 52 seconds, and it could barely be called a match - A one-sided beatdown was more appropriate.
K : (... I should expect this level of difficulty against my own opponents... No, even greater. I can't expect anything to sail smooth according to my plan.)
Katachi increased his grip, and waited for the next contestants to enter the ring.
The next match ought to be equally exciting, for it was supposedly an epic match nobody had expected this early on - Zul, one of the semi-finalists, was going to challenge Deku, the champion for the past three tournaments.
*** ***
D : "HELLO EVERYBODY!!!"
Deku exclaimed in a pep and energy nobody could resist.
The crowd went absolutely nuts over his simple greeting.
D : "I'LL MAKE A DEAL RIGHT NOW WITH YOU FOLKS! OKAY!, well, let's see... What would be a good punishment..."
The crowd had silenced down surprisingly quickly, awaiting Deku's words like orphans peering into a classroom to learn new things from the teacher.
D : "Oh, I KNOW! IF I LOSE, I WILL DRINK THAT DISGUSTING HEALING SYRUP AS WATER FOR A FULL WEEK!!!"
The crowd roared with laughter over that overconfident response.
Of course, that moxie radiating from Deku was not without base. He had been the champion for the tournament for 3 times in a row already, after all, and to be beaten by a person whom was obviously weaker than he was, would be an utter disgrace.
That being said, the crowd did not take his bets seriously, since he was going to win the tournament after all.
Z : "Hello again, Deku. You ready for this?"
D : "OH, AM I READY!? AM, I, READY?! LOOK AT THEM! LOOK AT HOW FIRED UP THEY ALL ARE! HOW CAN I NOT BE READY!?"
And so, with the ready signal present from both sides, the judge began the match.
*** ***
That was the fastest match yet.
In two seconds, Deku had punched the floor with his glowing fist, and the land beneath him glowed yellow before being 'absorbed' into his right arm.
In the next two seconds, Deku had simply punched toward the general area where Zul was at, and the yellow liquid-like attack lashed out like a whip from his still-glowing arm towards Zul, forming a familiar shape mid-flight. The familiar shape then lost its yellow luster, and the huge chunk of land that was once beneath Deku's feet was thrown toward Zul at a ridiculous pace.
With nowhere to escape to, Zul could only hold his arms forward in a defensive stance, and took the huge mound of sandy land head-on.
The land had broken up into many tiny, fine pieces, probably because it was made of sand mostly, but Zul had taken the full brunt of the blow.
In 5 seconds, the second match ended.
K : (These people are all power freaks... I think I remember Bael mentioning something like her having not enough time to set up her traps in the arena, rendering her knowledge and techniques completely useless, but... This is absolutely ridiculous!...)
Katachi's face grew sterner and colder than when he had first observed Mafer's match. His lips frowned and quivered a bit at the raw display of power before him.
K : (... I feel like I will just utterly die without my Word of Power as protection.)
Katachi squeezed his way past the spectator zone, and to the armory.
K : (... It's my turn next... Against Cillian de Vorsche. This is going to be a tough one.)
The students whom had participated were given access to a booster tonic in exchange for their wooden weapons to be confiscated. The syrup-like tonic was copper-like, viscous and truthfully quite disgusting, but it revitalized the students for the next round.
The students were supposedly made to perform this trade so they may not infuse their wooden weapons with any magic during the breaks between the matches, but that's not quite true. It was, in fact, a choice - To keep one's wooden weapon enchanted and coated with magic, or to rest up and have your wooden weapon restored to its original intended form.
There were indeed competitors that were strong enough to last through the whole tournament without recovering or resting even once, like Deku, the tournament champion for the past 3 years. There were also other competitors that rely heavily on the enchantments on their weapons, whom had to give up on the healing syrup in order to sustain the magic on their weapon.
Katachi struggled to drink the thick, gooey copper syrup.
Within his throat, it felt really slimy, yet it didn't. It felt like a pouch of water that was well-preserved and unbroken, hinting on how thick and cohesive the syrup was. Strangely, though, the sensation was horrible but the aftertaste was mildly sweet.
M : "Hahahaha! Disgusting, isn't it?"
A spiky-haired boy walked up behind him, patted him on the shoulder, and sat down on the wooden stool in front of him.
K : "! Mafer! You're here! You got a token as well?"
M : "Yeah, I did. It's not as hard as I thought. I'd think that Deku, that guy from the tournament, would wipe the floor, but nobody even tried or dared to hold him back. That guy just strolled towards the rope in a carefree manner, and grabbed a token, and nobody so much as bothered about his presence. That is truly unbelievable. Did you see it?"
K : "I... I didn't. All the preliminaries were held at the same time, weren't they?"
M : "... Yeah, you're right. But seriously, that Deku guy... He's a real toughie. I have never seen anyone so powerful that the rest of the competitors view the mere thought of challenging him as silly. There were loads of murmurs and the like amongst the crowds, but I heard you did pretty good yourself, snatching the first token with a trick like that."
Mafer seemed to have noticed from the commotion that Katachi had used some trick.
M : "How did you do it, mister healer?"
And now it came down to a really tough decision.
Katachi could directly tell Mafer that he has a Word of Power on him, but the problem was whether the secret would leak. If the news got out, Katachi will never be able to relax, not even in his own room. The students would glare at him for being a cheater. The teachers would want to kill him and claim the Word of Power for their own. Bertund had promised that he would do his utmost to assist Katachi in that aspect, but even that was unreliable.
The safest solution was to lie.
Segus had once cited that 'One ought to tattle only lies of white when need be.' So, if Katachi was lying about his power to protect everyone from this madness from desire of power, it was acceptable to lie.
But even so, he had to come up with something convincing to lie about.
He couldn't just say 'Oh, I can partially float' because, most probably, he would be questioned on the type of magic used. He had to come up with a convincing argument that could cover up the Word of Power's true potential, a magic powerful enough to match it.
K : "... I'm..."
Katachi scanned through all the knowledge of gods, magics and reincarnate arts he could think of.
Finally, he found one that was suitable.
K : "... I'm a believer of Soltak."
M : "Wha- Seriously? A Soltak believer? That's really rare..."
Mafer seemed to have bought the argument.
K : (Good. Very good. He seems convinced.)
M : "So, you're only that powerful so long as you're in direct sunlight?"
K : "There was no direct sunlight. It's been an overcast since the start of today, Mafer. I can also use regular, dim light, though the Reincarnate Art would be weakened slightly."
M : "Huh. So, even without direct sunlight, you can still use Soltak's Reincarnate Art?"
K : "Yes, but to a lesser degree."
Soltak was the God that guarded the Sun. It seemed an insignificant role, but it was important to every person and animal and plant that had once lived, for they relied upon it for warmth and nutrition. Soltak's Reincarnate Art, Child of Sun, was a special technique that used sunlight in favor of one's mental image, or stamina, or magical objects to strengthen themselves. This meant that a person was indomitable by day, but became much, much weaker in the night, especially on a new moon where they would become a normal human.
It was a convenient lie because nobody would have, and would be able to notice any significant difference at night. Katachi had yet to show his Word of Power at all, and since the students only saw him in the day, it was easy to pull the bluff.
Mafer seemed pretty convinced that Katachi is a Soltak believer.
M : "... That's cool. Well, I'll be off now. The first official match begins really soon, and I'm first up. See you then, Katachi."
*** ***
Katachi squeezed through the students to reach an empty seat on the huge stone stairs. Sitting down comfortably, Katachi peered into the ring of the coliseum-like stage for the first battle.
It was just an empty, barren field with a projection of a match between two students in the Cosmatral Tlod. But that alone was exciting enough, for the fight between Mafer and the strange student was pretty intense.
Mafer was holding a wooden staff in his left hand, and a small, unlit candle in his right. He had been dodging the opponent's attacks the entire match. His opponent, whose name was Vikarr, as displayed on the board, was throwing strange tablets of what seemed to be wooden card pieces. For the battle to have progressed to this stage in a mere 20 seconds, it was amazing.
"Look at Vikarr, man! He's my senior!"
One of the male students sitting behind him was excitedly telling the others to focus their attention on the student named Vikarr.
K : (... Wow. That looks pretty tough. That Vikarr guy is not giving him time to catch his breath or formulate a plan...)
*** ***
Vikarr, a student who originally had 61 card-shaped wooden pieces in his hand, was throwing the pieces one at a time towards Mafer like they were throwing darts.
And Mafer, who had been dodging these wooden pieces with his might, had created many prints on the sand.
M : (This guy's bound to run out of these wooden pieces sooner or later.)
Mafer kept dodging the wooden pieces as best as he could. Some would hit him on the arm or some other body part, which felt like a hard, rigid pebble had been thrown at him.
Then...
V : "Okay, I have now exhausted all of my cards."
His opponent openly declares that he had run out of cards to throw.
M : (... Is this a trap?)
V : "Now then, don't be shy. Look at this card."
The student named Vikarr picked up a wooden tablet on the floor, and showed Mafer what was on the card.
On the card was a simplistic pattern on it - Every card had a broad-headed V on it.
V : "Do you think this card is a V for 'Victory'? Or do you think it is V for 'Vicious'?"
Mafer raised his guard even more.
There was no reason why a student would reveal his magic's pattern and trick out, and give the opponent a chance to counterattack. Not unless...
V : "Make your choice."
... The winner was already decided.
M : "I go with V for 'Vicious'. Is that fine?"
Mafer raised the candle on his right hand he had clutched onto dearly, and aimed his spell towards Vikarr.
V : "... Wrong answer."
Vikarr snapped one of his fingers, and the cards beneath his legs started to rattle and vibrate maliciously.
The bright red-colored Vs on every card glowed a sinister blood red, and the cards started to fly in the direction the V's bottom tip was pointing at.
Mafer realized it the moment the cards started rattling, but it was far too late.
M : (... Sha'koth, the trickster legend said to have become God by impersonating one, had a story where he was able to make a duck walk backwards. He did it by attaching strings onto the duck's legs, and someone from the brushes tugged the duck's legs step by step, to make it look like it walked backwards. But the highlight was that he had painted the duck's feet with a reverse arrow, and claimed that the arrows made the duck walk backwards. Converting it into an attack spell with Image Power...)
The wooden tablets flew in the air like swallows and bats, beating up, bruising and even incising Mafer with a flurry of attacks from all directions. In the pain, Mafer tried to kneel down, but the knee that was exposed had a card hit it, so Mafer clutched that in pain. In utter agony, Mafer could only clutch his body with his arms, and protect his vitals as best as he could. There were so many attacks from every angle and direction except the ground that it was only possible to count them if only they had superhuman senses, or a form of omnidirectional protection, like a sand barrier.
V : "Game over. They are not letter Vs - They are arrowheads."
Vikarr stood calmly, placed the one wooden card he had held flatly on his hand and raised it above his head. The rest of the cards, still fluttering and ravaging Mafer, seemed to respond to it and flew out in every direction, and towards Vikarr. The cards flew to his back, and neatly stacked themselves above the one card in his hand, and Vikarr kept the cards within his shirt properly.
"And that, my friends, is how you use a Feister-61 deck properly. This is for my juniors Sakel and Ginevette!"
*** ***
K : (... Beaten in the first round...)
Katachi could only widen his eyes in shock.
Mafer had been cruelly beaten down by a foe that didn't even seem to break a sweat, without a single chance to retaliate. It was utter proof that even a normal spell could defeat a believer of a God. No matter how powerful Croxa's Reincarnate Art was, if it could not be used, it was as useless as teaching an animal to swim in lava.
The first official match took a mere 52 seconds, and it could barely be called a match - A one-sided beatdown was more appropriate.
K : (... I should expect this level of difficulty against my own opponents... No, even greater. I can't expect anything to sail smooth according to my plan.)
Katachi increased his grip, and waited for the next contestants to enter the ring.
The next match ought to be equally exciting, for it was supposedly an epic match nobody had expected this early on - Zul, one of the semi-finalists, was going to challenge Deku, the champion for the past three tournaments.
*** ***
D : "HELLO EVERYBODY!!!"
Deku exclaimed in a pep and energy nobody could resist.
The crowd went absolutely nuts over his simple greeting.
D : "I'LL MAKE A DEAL RIGHT NOW WITH YOU FOLKS! OKAY!, well, let's see... What would be a good punishment..."
The crowd had silenced down surprisingly quickly, awaiting Deku's words like orphans peering into a classroom to learn new things from the teacher.
D : "Oh, I KNOW! IF I LOSE, I WILL DRINK THAT DISGUSTING HEALING SYRUP AS WATER FOR A FULL WEEK!!!"
The crowd roared with laughter over that overconfident response.
Of course, that moxie radiating from Deku was not without base. He had been the champion for the tournament for 3 times in a row already, after all, and to be beaten by a person whom was obviously weaker than he was, would be an utter disgrace.
That being said, the crowd did not take his bets seriously, since he was going to win the tournament after all.
Z : "Hello again, Deku. You ready for this?"
D : "OH, AM I READY!? AM, I, READY?! LOOK AT THEM! LOOK AT HOW FIRED UP THEY ALL ARE! HOW CAN I NOT BE READY!?"
And so, with the ready signal present from both sides, the judge began the match.
*** ***
That was the fastest match yet.
In two seconds, Deku had punched the floor with his glowing fist, and the land beneath him glowed yellow before being 'absorbed' into his right arm.
In the next two seconds, Deku had simply punched toward the general area where Zul was at, and the yellow liquid-like attack lashed out like a whip from his still-glowing arm towards Zul, forming a familiar shape mid-flight. The familiar shape then lost its yellow luster, and the huge chunk of land that was once beneath Deku's feet was thrown toward Zul at a ridiculous pace.
With nowhere to escape to, Zul could only hold his arms forward in a defensive stance, and took the huge mound of sandy land head-on.
The land had broken up into many tiny, fine pieces, probably because it was made of sand mostly, but Zul had taken the full brunt of the blow.
In 5 seconds, the second match ended.
K : (These people are all power freaks... I think I remember Bael mentioning something like her having not enough time to set up her traps in the arena, rendering her knowledge and techniques completely useless, but... This is absolutely ridiculous!...)
Katachi's face grew sterner and colder than when he had first observed Mafer's match. His lips frowned and quivered a bit at the raw display of power before him.
K : (... I feel like I will just utterly die without my Word of Power as protection.)
Katachi squeezed his way past the spectator zone, and to the armory.
K : (... It's my turn next... Against Cillian de Vorsche. This is going to be a tough one.)
Saturday 5 January 2013
Chapter 10 : Tournament 1 - Preliminary_Selection
Friday morning.
Under the overcast sky, a huge arena with sand and mud trodden on by countless of people was surrounded with students. They all awaited impatiently for the start of the Young Magus Tournament held in the Sage Raufid Magus Academy.
The tradition for such a competition was that an official, Minister Lein, from Findel would visit the Sage Raufid Magus Academy, in search of those who would benefit the country. To hand-pick the potential magi, he would then enlist, recruit, and even personally tutor them in their respective fields.
If the student was a genius strategist, Lein would gift the student with a chance to be a General that commanded a platoon in Findel's army. If the student was agile or sneaky, he would be hired as a spy. If the student was good at mere fighting or killing, he would be enlisted in the military, as a war magus. Whatever the country lacked, whatever it needed, Lein would pick the potential candidates that would fulfill the jobs with the utmost proficiency.
And, since it so happens that such an important figure in the Duvel would arrive only upon the blossoming of the first daffodil in the new year, the academy would hold such an exquisite annual event just for Lein.
As badly as the students wanted to watch the tournament and meet Lein in person, it was not allowed to start. Starting the event without the guest-of-honor's presence, the person whom this event was created for in the first place, would be disrespectful. So, with bated excitement, the students chattered amongst themselves excitedly.
Some would talk about how dashing the competitors looked. Others talked about how powerful they were. Yet some others chose to observe their magicks and fighting styles, coming up with a counter for every participant. In short, the crowd was chaotic, yet mildly suppressed in that aspect.
A few minutes passed. The guest-of-honor stood at a high ledge, and raised his right hand. With a crazed wave, the crowd roared in excitement.
"Students of Sage Raufid. I am Minister Lein. Sorry to keep all of you waiting. I would like to take this time, to thank the champion from the previous tournament for being my escort. Now, without further delay, let the tournament BEGIN!"
The official named Lein picked up his goblet filled with wine, and emptied it towards the bird resting on a perch. The wine caught fire mid-flight, soaked the bird, and the bird transformed into a flaming beast, flying off into the sky with an ear-piercing screech. With the official "rebirth" of the tournament complete, the students' cries frenzied.
*** ***
"Alright, form up. 'Tis time for the preliminary match. I'll only go over the rules once."
The teacher instructed all the competitors to stand in a line. However, because of the shape of the small hallway, the students ended up bumping into each other shoulder to shoulder.
"Don't bother about lines, fools! I don't expect you lot to be uniform, so just listen up. Each division is given only 8 tokens suspended on a rope 10 metres off the ground. There are 16 of you in this division this year, but only 8 of you will make it to the actual match. Each person is only entitled to take one token. No hoarding. If the token is taken, the person receives an immunity spell for 2 minutes, so once you grab it, don't let go, and walk out calmly. Anyone who attempts to take two tokens will be electrocuted painfully. You may use any method you wish to obtain the token, but remember that the rules still, and always will apply regardless."
The rules were well designed such that a capable person cannot take a second token for a friend. If one blindly charges forward, he could be beaten down, or used as a stepping stone. However, to be engrossed in fighting meant that the tokens may be snatched while one was fending off someone meaninglessly. It truly was a rowdy test of skill, power, speed and manipulation of your enemies.
Katachi thought about how to get a token.
K : (... I don't have any competent magic for movement except for the Word of Power. I can think of multiple ways to grab the token using this, but blowing my cover in the preliminaries is stupid. Should I immobilize everyone? Should I use constant status? Or... There are so many decisions, but which would be best?)
"Now that everyone understands the rules, you may go to the armory at the back there. Grab your order, and get ready to fight for that token. Dismissed!"
The students break formation and rushed to the cabinet filled with many wooden weapons. A green-haired guy grabbed a spear, a bald guy Katachi had met before grabbed a bladestaff, and a girl reached for a wooden shield. They were all busy arming themselves with the ordered equipment, which were free of reinforcements and imbuements, probably emphasizing the fact that one needed to get used to the weapon they ordered quickly.
While the other 15 students armed themselves and practiced their wooden weapons, Katachi squeezed through the lot of them and finally reached the rack.
What remained was a tiny, wooden dagger.
It was finely-crafted, with a solid hilt and an elegant, simple design. The handle was slotted with a different type of wood, trading the toughness of the dagger in overall for a tighter grip. The wooden blade portion was a fine 20 centimeters long. Alas, since it was wooden, it probably had no offensive power, not to mention its only viable use is probably for shielding enemy attacks or for hitting someone with a surprise attack, or maybe even as a distraction by throwing it at the enemy.
K : (... This thing...)
It seemed suicidal to carry such a tiny dagger with almost no reach into a tournament.
K : (It's light enough to carry, it seems solid enough to hurt a bit, and the thickness of the wood is great. Not to mention, its weight... It's perfect. I think I might like this.)
Katachi swung the tiny dagger on his right wrist a few times, adjusting its weight to his muscles. It fit naturally onto his arm, almost as if his arm extended just that little bit. The dagger could be flicked around his hand quickly, with just enough momentum and timing to fit him. Just as he started accustoming to the new weapon in his hands, the teacher signaled the beginning of the preliminaries.
"Line up at the gate! Get ready!"
Katachi nodded his head slightly, with a solid plan in mind.
"GO!!!"
*** ***
The iron gates lifted, and dangling on a hanging rope on the squarish scaffolding were 8 red colored tokens tied onto the rope with some strange mixture of what seems to be corn flour and water.
*Cozy's Notes : Fancy way of saying glue. Y'know, cornstarch and water heated into a thin sauce and all.*
The participants all charged fervently towards the scaffolding.
K : (Let's go with that then! 恒定! Constant velocity - Self!)
Kicking off the ground in the direction of the rope, the golden colored 定 formed on Katachi's chest, his uniform hiding the word well. Katachi kept moving towards the rope, almost as if he was flying towards the rope with a single kick.
"What the-!!"
The other contestants have merely reached the stairs to climb the scaffolding after 20 metres of running, but Katachi was almost at the rope already, without even worrying about having to squeeze and battle the students.
Reaching his hand out, he grabbed the rope, and began climbing it. With the Word of Power erased in sync, it made the entire act appear as if he had naturally floated toward the rope. The act was a bit flawed, because had Katachi truly been able to float, he would have floated to the token directly, but it was quite well-timed because someone below was already beginning to attack him.
A girl with blue hair pointed her staff at Katachi.
"I won't let you! O, great and mighty Kafki, silence this insolent man!"
Katachi climbed the rope as quickly as he could. Beneath his feet was a purple cloud that appeared miasmic, gushing towards him like raging rapids.
Katachi's fingers barely gripped onto a red token, and his body was instantly coated with a white membrane, just before the purple cloud engulfed him - Yet he was fine.
Panicking, Katachi let go of his rope-gripping hand by mistake, and fell.
Down and down he went, until he was diving headfirst into the floor.
K : (Not good! 恒定! Constant status - Self!)
The Word of Power formed on his chest again, as he fell, and planted his head onto the floor.
K : "Auegh!!!"
Every participant stopped to look at Katachi. Because Katachi still had 'Constant status' on him, he was strangely still 'falling' down despite being already on the ground. His arms and legs were still upright in the air, in a falling motion. It looked as though Katachi was standing on the roof of his head. It was only when Katachi removed the word on his chest did his body and limbs land on the hard ground normally.
It appeared comical and all at first, but when the other students saw Katachi getting up in slight pain even with such a suicidal fall, they regained their senses and rushed toward the rope. They seemed to have 'realized' that the immunity spell would protect them from falling off the scaffolding, even though Katachi had achieved that by a completely different method which they hadn't noticed. Some would knock others off, to whom some of them falling off dragged their attackers down with them. Others just wanted to blast spells of lightning and fire at everyone, turning the token capture competition into a battle royale.
Those on the scaffolding reached out for the rope in desperation, while those below fought intensely with each other, trying to knock out their opponent. It was a rather large-scale scuffle.
K : (Ugh... That still sort-of hurt, even with 'Constant status'. Well, I guess my 'status' is constant, but I can still feel external forces and attacks that don't directly change my status... I'd have to use that more carefully from now on.)
The tag that coated him with a white membrane was clasped just barely between his middle and ring fingers. Katachi was so glad he got the tag in time.
Staggering out with a painful head and neck, Katachi left the arena.
*** ***
Five tokens have been taken since Katachi's departure.
Right now, there were 7 students still fighting each other for the tokens, with 5 others knocked out cold.
"Cestia! I didn't think I'd be fighting you like this..."
The boy with the green hair and wooden spear faced the blue-haired girl holding the staff.
C : "Why are we enemies in this, Loar?!"
L : "I have to talk to Minister Lein, Cestia. I have to get that tag, and win the tournament so I can protect my village!"
C : "But what about me?! I need that tag too! I need this victory for my sister's medicine money, and now you're going to fight me?! You liar! You said that I could trust you, SO WHY?!"
The girl pointed her staff at the boy Loar, and chanted. "O saintly Kafki, grace me with this savage's silence!"
With the wooden staff channeling the magic as a conduit, Cestia sprayed a purple mist towards Loar.
With evasive movements, Loar used his spear as a vault and jumped to her left, causing the huge cloud of poisonous gas to miss completely.
Regaining his composure, Loar thrust the spear towards Cestia, who sidestepped it and knocked the tip into the earth beneath their feet. Sliding the wooden staff over the spear's body, she pointed the plain wooden staff at Loar.
C : "Give up. You cannot beat me... ?!"
Digging the earth with the spear's tip, Loar hastily drew a small, basic rune on the soil right beneath Cestia. The scraping sound of the spear's tip drawing on the soil was clearly heard amidst the ambient chaos. Despite being at point blank range of an enemy, Cestia gambled a peek at the spear's tip.
C : "!!"
She leapt away as quickly as she could. She recognized that rune - It was a simple "Smite" rune. Had she stayed in that for long, she would have been under his mental control.
L : "You're too naive, Cestia! Why did you think I picked a spear over a sword? It's because I know your techniques involve cornering and disarming!!!"
Before Cestia's eyes was a blur. That was odd - Blurring of eyesight was not an effect the "Smite" rune inflicted.
C : "Gh!?"
Cestia had to close her eyes in pain. It felt like the water in her eyes were evaporating rapidly, causing extreme discomfort. She cringed and held her hands to her face in pain.
L : "How do you like my Obscurat-"
"HEY!!! YOU STUPID KAFKI BELIEVER!!!"
A bald student with a bladestaff landed behind Loar. Having the time to leave battle must either mean his opponent had abandoned fighting him, or was knocked out cold. But that was not normal at all. Why would a student stop a battle going on between his competitors instead of snatching the tokens himself? The bald student also looks incredibly angry.
"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!? DON'T YOU EVEN SEE THE SCAFFOLDING WEAKENING BECAUSE OF YOUR MIASMA?!"
Hearing that, Loar and Cestia turned to face the scaffolding.
Cestia couldn't see anything, but Loar could. The base of the wooden scaffolding was corroding, being eaten into by the toxic cloud Cestia had shot earlier. There are still three students battling on the scaffolding, but only two tokens left.
L : (... ! Not good! If the scaffolding falls, at least one of them will be heavily injured!) "Cestia! I won't pursue this matter with you for now. I'll save them first!"
Loar started running towards the scaffolding, and digging his spear into the earth, writing complex patterns that circled the entire scaffolding.
Cestia was still in huge pain, and lying on the floor, with both hands clutching her eyes. Her eyes didn't seem like they would recover soon, because moisture in the eyes was not as easy to regain as one's balance. She was as good as being knocked out for the round.
The bald-headed bladestaff student stood by and observed the situation.
(To hell with the tokens! Their lives should come first!... I'd have to time my attack right...)
The base let out a creaking sound. The corroded parts did significant damage to the wood, and the scaffolding's legs didn't seem like they would hold out much longer. Loar was busy drawing the runes on the sand and soil with his spear, but that was just a flimsy safety net since it's not on something solid, like stone, or wood.
(Levitation runes on the soft ground? Such poor handiwork! It wouldn't hold if the debris falls onto the runes and destroys them! What is this guy thinking?!... This just made my work so much harder...)
The bald student thinks for a while, and grips his wooden bladestaff hard.
(I guess I'll just have to try that then... Here goes nothing!!!)
The scaffolding was almost breaking apart, and the platforms wobbled and resounded with a mind-scraping creak. The three students on it were still in danger. One of them, a purple-haired girl wielding a scythe, fell toward the rope, grabbed it, and sliced the rope. The two tokens attached to it fell along with her, and she grabbed one of the tokens quickly. Surrounded by a white membrane, the girl landed on her butt, uninjured, and proceeded to run towards the exit without looking back.
Without the last token on the scaffolding, both students were in danger. It had snowballed into a dangerous situation pretty quickly.
"Hey! GREEN HAIR!!!"
Loar pauses for a while and looks up towards the bald student.
"Draw a Tespi symbol on the ground to attract them together! Make it deep so it can't be removed by the falling debris! I need them together to save them both!"
Loar did not understand what he had planned, but he did know that drawing a Tespi symbol would help this bald-head's plan succeed.
Without doubt in his mind, Loar quickly dug a Tespi symbol into the ground, and continued making runes around the scaffolding. The bald student ran towards the Tespi symbol, and positioned himself so the symbol and the students were aligned.
(Good. It's in place. Now, focus... The waves spread out from disturbances and inequilibriums in the sea, from the tiniest fish to the largest sharks. The Tespi symbol is Axia's method of reading the waves from the stars, with his fabled hammer...)
"The iron strikes a clean dent! Novadis Graté!"
The students atop the scaffolding are pulled in by a mystical force unwillingly towards the Tespi symbol. The scaffolding had yet fall, but it was better to pull them out as quickly as possible anyway. It would have been much harder to deal with them had the debris been in the way too.
(Not yet... Not yet... They're not close enough... ! Now!!!)
"HAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
With a swift movement, the bladestaff's blade at the tip glowed a very faint blue, and the bald student sweeped the blade at the area above the Tespi symbol.
A rather strong shockwave forced the bald student himself to guard his face and vitals, and the students who were falling onto the Tespi were thrusted upwards for a very brief moment, before sliding across the sand safely.
"Gah! Hah... hah... Whew."
Relieved that the two are safe, the bald student gave a sigh of relief.
However, the shockwave did not merely just save the other two students. Affected by the shockwave's force, the scaffolding immediately gave way and collapsed onto the ground. The last token was, unfortunately, buried under that huge mass of broken wood and rope. Some of the debris were caught by the levitation runes, but most of it had been pointless.
L : "... The last token's under that..."
Loar quickly ran towards the heap, and wrote in saliva a Tespi rune on his spear. With a strong stab, the wooden debris quickly stuck to the tip of the spear like a magnet, clearing the lot and revealing the rope with the last token.
L : "There it i-"
Before Loar could even exclaim in joy, a swift shadow swooped down and grabbed the rope with the token.
C : "I'll take that...!"
The person grabbing the rope with the token was a girl, with blue hair. Her eyes were still slightly red, dried and pained from the attack earlier, but she could ignore that flesh wound if it were for her little sister's medicine.
L : "Cestia!?"
C : "It's mine now, Loar. You lose."
Cestia was waving the rope around her hand in a proud manner, but-
Whoosh!
-the token on the rope was snatched away.
A white membrane coats a student with orange hair.
"I... I did it~! I managed to get a token! YES!!!"
...
Loar, Cestia and the bald student could only sigh in misery.
C L Bald : " " "... It should have rightfully been mine..." " "
The three sung their grievances in unison.
Under the overcast sky, a huge arena with sand and mud trodden on by countless of people was surrounded with students. They all awaited impatiently for the start of the Young Magus Tournament held in the Sage Raufid Magus Academy.
The tradition for such a competition was that an official, Minister Lein, from Findel would visit the Sage Raufid Magus Academy, in search of those who would benefit the country. To hand-pick the potential magi, he would then enlist, recruit, and even personally tutor them in their respective fields.
If the student was a genius strategist, Lein would gift the student with a chance to be a General that commanded a platoon in Findel's army. If the student was agile or sneaky, he would be hired as a spy. If the student was good at mere fighting or killing, he would be enlisted in the military, as a war magus. Whatever the country lacked, whatever it needed, Lein would pick the potential candidates that would fulfill the jobs with the utmost proficiency.
And, since it so happens that such an important figure in the Duvel would arrive only upon the blossoming of the first daffodil in the new year, the academy would hold such an exquisite annual event just for Lein.
As badly as the students wanted to watch the tournament and meet Lein in person, it was not allowed to start. Starting the event without the guest-of-honor's presence, the person whom this event was created for in the first place, would be disrespectful. So, with bated excitement, the students chattered amongst themselves excitedly.
Some would talk about how dashing the competitors looked. Others talked about how powerful they were. Yet some others chose to observe their magicks and fighting styles, coming up with a counter for every participant. In short, the crowd was chaotic, yet mildly suppressed in that aspect.
A few minutes passed. The guest-of-honor stood at a high ledge, and raised his right hand. With a crazed wave, the crowd roared in excitement.
"Students of Sage Raufid. I am Minister Lein. Sorry to keep all of you waiting. I would like to take this time, to thank the champion from the previous tournament for being my escort. Now, without further delay, let the tournament BEGIN!"
The official named Lein picked up his goblet filled with wine, and emptied it towards the bird resting on a perch. The wine caught fire mid-flight, soaked the bird, and the bird transformed into a flaming beast, flying off into the sky with an ear-piercing screech. With the official "rebirth" of the tournament complete, the students' cries frenzied.
*** ***
"Alright, form up. 'Tis time for the preliminary match. I'll only go over the rules once."
The teacher instructed all the competitors to stand in a line. However, because of the shape of the small hallway, the students ended up bumping into each other shoulder to shoulder.
"Don't bother about lines, fools! I don't expect you lot to be uniform, so just listen up. Each division is given only 8 tokens suspended on a rope 10 metres off the ground. There are 16 of you in this division this year, but only 8 of you will make it to the actual match. Each person is only entitled to take one token. No hoarding. If the token is taken, the person receives an immunity spell for 2 minutes, so once you grab it, don't let go, and walk out calmly. Anyone who attempts to take two tokens will be electrocuted painfully. You may use any method you wish to obtain the token, but remember that the rules still, and always will apply regardless."
The rules were well designed such that a capable person cannot take a second token for a friend. If one blindly charges forward, he could be beaten down, or used as a stepping stone. However, to be engrossed in fighting meant that the tokens may be snatched while one was fending off someone meaninglessly. It truly was a rowdy test of skill, power, speed and manipulation of your enemies.
Katachi thought about how to get a token.
K : (... I don't have any competent magic for movement except for the Word of Power. I can think of multiple ways to grab the token using this, but blowing my cover in the preliminaries is stupid. Should I immobilize everyone? Should I use constant status? Or... There are so many decisions, but which would be best?)
"Now that everyone understands the rules, you may go to the armory at the back there. Grab your order, and get ready to fight for that token. Dismissed!"
The students break formation and rushed to the cabinet filled with many wooden weapons. A green-haired guy grabbed a spear, a bald guy Katachi had met before grabbed a bladestaff, and a girl reached for a wooden shield. They were all busy arming themselves with the ordered equipment, which were free of reinforcements and imbuements, probably emphasizing the fact that one needed to get used to the weapon they ordered quickly.
While the other 15 students armed themselves and practiced their wooden weapons, Katachi squeezed through the lot of them and finally reached the rack.
What remained was a tiny, wooden dagger.
It was finely-crafted, with a solid hilt and an elegant, simple design. The handle was slotted with a different type of wood, trading the toughness of the dagger in overall for a tighter grip. The wooden blade portion was a fine 20 centimeters long. Alas, since it was wooden, it probably had no offensive power, not to mention its only viable use is probably for shielding enemy attacks or for hitting someone with a surprise attack, or maybe even as a distraction by throwing it at the enemy.
K : (... This thing...)
It seemed suicidal to carry such a tiny dagger with almost no reach into a tournament.
K : (It's light enough to carry, it seems solid enough to hurt a bit, and the thickness of the wood is great. Not to mention, its weight... It's perfect. I think I might like this.)
Katachi swung the tiny dagger on his right wrist a few times, adjusting its weight to his muscles. It fit naturally onto his arm, almost as if his arm extended just that little bit. The dagger could be flicked around his hand quickly, with just enough momentum and timing to fit him. Just as he started accustoming to the new weapon in his hands, the teacher signaled the beginning of the preliminaries.
"Line up at the gate! Get ready!"
Katachi nodded his head slightly, with a solid plan in mind.
"GO!!!"
*** ***
The iron gates lifted, and dangling on a hanging rope on the squarish scaffolding were 8 red colored tokens tied onto the rope with some strange mixture of what seems to be corn flour and water.
*Cozy's Notes : Fancy way of saying glue. Y'know, cornstarch and water heated into a thin sauce and all.*
The participants all charged fervently towards the scaffolding.
K : (Let's go with that then! 恒定! Constant velocity - Self!)
Kicking off the ground in the direction of the rope, the golden colored 定 formed on Katachi's chest, his uniform hiding the word well. Katachi kept moving towards the rope, almost as if he was flying towards the rope with a single kick.
"What the-!!"
The other contestants have merely reached the stairs to climb the scaffolding after 20 metres of running, but Katachi was almost at the rope already, without even worrying about having to squeeze and battle the students.
Reaching his hand out, he grabbed the rope, and began climbing it. With the Word of Power erased in sync, it made the entire act appear as if he had naturally floated toward the rope. The act was a bit flawed, because had Katachi truly been able to float, he would have floated to the token directly, but it was quite well-timed because someone below was already beginning to attack him.
A girl with blue hair pointed her staff at Katachi.
"I won't let you! O, great and mighty Kafki, silence this insolent man!"
Katachi climbed the rope as quickly as he could. Beneath his feet was a purple cloud that appeared miasmic, gushing towards him like raging rapids.
Katachi's fingers barely gripped onto a red token, and his body was instantly coated with a white membrane, just before the purple cloud engulfed him - Yet he was fine.
Panicking, Katachi let go of his rope-gripping hand by mistake, and fell.
Down and down he went, until he was diving headfirst into the floor.
K : (Not good! 恒定! Constant status - Self!)
The Word of Power formed on his chest again, as he fell, and planted his head onto the floor.
K : "Auegh!!!"
Every participant stopped to look at Katachi. Because Katachi still had 'Constant status' on him, he was strangely still 'falling' down despite being already on the ground. His arms and legs were still upright in the air, in a falling motion. It looked as though Katachi was standing on the roof of his head. It was only when Katachi removed the word on his chest did his body and limbs land on the hard ground normally.
It appeared comical and all at first, but when the other students saw Katachi getting up in slight pain even with such a suicidal fall, they regained their senses and rushed toward the rope. They seemed to have 'realized' that the immunity spell would protect them from falling off the scaffolding, even though Katachi had achieved that by a completely different method which they hadn't noticed. Some would knock others off, to whom some of them falling off dragged their attackers down with them. Others just wanted to blast spells of lightning and fire at everyone, turning the token capture competition into a battle royale.
Those on the scaffolding reached out for the rope in desperation, while those below fought intensely with each other, trying to knock out their opponent. It was a rather large-scale scuffle.
K : (Ugh... That still sort-of hurt, even with 'Constant status'. Well, I guess my 'status' is constant, but I can still feel external forces and attacks that don't directly change my status... I'd have to use that more carefully from now on.)
The tag that coated him with a white membrane was clasped just barely between his middle and ring fingers. Katachi was so glad he got the tag in time.
Staggering out with a painful head and neck, Katachi left the arena.
*** ***
Five tokens have been taken since Katachi's departure.
Right now, there were 7 students still fighting each other for the tokens, with 5 others knocked out cold.
"Cestia! I didn't think I'd be fighting you like this..."
The boy with the green hair and wooden spear faced the blue-haired girl holding the staff.
C : "Why are we enemies in this, Loar?!"
L : "I have to talk to Minister Lein, Cestia. I have to get that tag, and win the tournament so I can protect my village!"
C : "But what about me?! I need that tag too! I need this victory for my sister's medicine money, and now you're going to fight me?! You liar! You said that I could trust you, SO WHY?!"
The girl pointed her staff at the boy Loar, and chanted. "O saintly Kafki, grace me with this savage's silence!"
With the wooden staff channeling the magic as a conduit, Cestia sprayed a purple mist towards Loar.
With evasive movements, Loar used his spear as a vault and jumped to her left, causing the huge cloud of poisonous gas to miss completely.
Regaining his composure, Loar thrust the spear towards Cestia, who sidestepped it and knocked the tip into the earth beneath their feet. Sliding the wooden staff over the spear's body, she pointed the plain wooden staff at Loar.
C : "Give up. You cannot beat me... ?!"
Digging the earth with the spear's tip, Loar hastily drew a small, basic rune on the soil right beneath Cestia. The scraping sound of the spear's tip drawing on the soil was clearly heard amidst the ambient chaos. Despite being at point blank range of an enemy, Cestia gambled a peek at the spear's tip.
C : "!!"
She leapt away as quickly as she could. She recognized that rune - It was a simple "Smite" rune. Had she stayed in that for long, she would have been under his mental control.
L : "You're too naive, Cestia! Why did you think I picked a spear over a sword? It's because I know your techniques involve cornering and disarming!!!"
Before Cestia's eyes was a blur. That was odd - Blurring of eyesight was not an effect the "Smite" rune inflicted.
C : "Gh!?"
Cestia had to close her eyes in pain. It felt like the water in her eyes were evaporating rapidly, causing extreme discomfort. She cringed and held her hands to her face in pain.
L : "How do you like my Obscurat-"
"HEY!!! YOU STUPID KAFKI BELIEVER!!!"
A bald student with a bladestaff landed behind Loar. Having the time to leave battle must either mean his opponent had abandoned fighting him, or was knocked out cold. But that was not normal at all. Why would a student stop a battle going on between his competitors instead of snatching the tokens himself? The bald student also looks incredibly angry.
"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!? DON'T YOU EVEN SEE THE SCAFFOLDING WEAKENING BECAUSE OF YOUR MIASMA?!"
Hearing that, Loar and Cestia turned to face the scaffolding.
Cestia couldn't see anything, but Loar could. The base of the wooden scaffolding was corroding, being eaten into by the toxic cloud Cestia had shot earlier. There are still three students battling on the scaffolding, but only two tokens left.
L : (... ! Not good! If the scaffolding falls, at least one of them will be heavily injured!) "Cestia! I won't pursue this matter with you for now. I'll save them first!"
Loar started running towards the scaffolding, and digging his spear into the earth, writing complex patterns that circled the entire scaffolding.
Cestia was still in huge pain, and lying on the floor, with both hands clutching her eyes. Her eyes didn't seem like they would recover soon, because moisture in the eyes was not as easy to regain as one's balance. She was as good as being knocked out for the round.
The bald-headed bladestaff student stood by and observed the situation.
(To hell with the tokens! Their lives should come first!... I'd have to time my attack right...)
The base let out a creaking sound. The corroded parts did significant damage to the wood, and the scaffolding's legs didn't seem like they would hold out much longer. Loar was busy drawing the runes on the sand and soil with his spear, but that was just a flimsy safety net since it's not on something solid, like stone, or wood.
(Levitation runes on the soft ground? Such poor handiwork! It wouldn't hold if the debris falls onto the runes and destroys them! What is this guy thinking?!... This just made my work so much harder...)
The bald student thinks for a while, and grips his wooden bladestaff hard.
(I guess I'll just have to try that then... Here goes nothing!!!)
The scaffolding was almost breaking apart, and the platforms wobbled and resounded with a mind-scraping creak. The three students on it were still in danger. One of them, a purple-haired girl wielding a scythe, fell toward the rope, grabbed it, and sliced the rope. The two tokens attached to it fell along with her, and she grabbed one of the tokens quickly. Surrounded by a white membrane, the girl landed on her butt, uninjured, and proceeded to run towards the exit without looking back.
Without the last token on the scaffolding, both students were in danger. It had snowballed into a dangerous situation pretty quickly.
"Hey! GREEN HAIR!!!"
Loar pauses for a while and looks up towards the bald student.
"Draw a Tespi symbol on the ground to attract them together! Make it deep so it can't be removed by the falling debris! I need them together to save them both!"
Loar did not understand what he had planned, but he did know that drawing a Tespi symbol would help this bald-head's plan succeed.
Without doubt in his mind, Loar quickly dug a Tespi symbol into the ground, and continued making runes around the scaffolding. The bald student ran towards the Tespi symbol, and positioned himself so the symbol and the students were aligned.
(Good. It's in place. Now, focus... The waves spread out from disturbances and inequilibriums in the sea, from the tiniest fish to the largest sharks. The Tespi symbol is Axia's method of reading the waves from the stars, with his fabled hammer...)
"The iron strikes a clean dent! Novadis Graté!"
The students atop the scaffolding are pulled in by a mystical force unwillingly towards the Tespi symbol. The scaffolding had yet fall, but it was better to pull them out as quickly as possible anyway. It would have been much harder to deal with them had the debris been in the way too.
(Not yet... Not yet... They're not close enough... ! Now!!!)
"HAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
With a swift movement, the bladestaff's blade at the tip glowed a very faint blue, and the bald student sweeped the blade at the area above the Tespi symbol.
A rather strong shockwave forced the bald student himself to guard his face and vitals, and the students who were falling onto the Tespi were thrusted upwards for a very brief moment, before sliding across the sand safely.
"Gah! Hah... hah... Whew."
Relieved that the two are safe, the bald student gave a sigh of relief.
However, the shockwave did not merely just save the other two students. Affected by the shockwave's force, the scaffolding immediately gave way and collapsed onto the ground. The last token was, unfortunately, buried under that huge mass of broken wood and rope. Some of the debris were caught by the levitation runes, but most of it had been pointless.
L : "... The last token's under that..."
Loar quickly ran towards the heap, and wrote in saliva a Tespi rune on his spear. With a strong stab, the wooden debris quickly stuck to the tip of the spear like a magnet, clearing the lot and revealing the rope with the last token.
L : "There it i-"
Before Loar could even exclaim in joy, a swift shadow swooped down and grabbed the rope with the token.
C : "I'll take that...!"
The person grabbing the rope with the token was a girl, with blue hair. Her eyes were still slightly red, dried and pained from the attack earlier, but she could ignore that flesh wound if it were for her little sister's medicine.
L : "Cestia!?"
C : "It's mine now, Loar. You lose."
Cestia was waving the rope around her hand in a proud manner, but-
Whoosh!
-the token on the rope was snatched away.
A white membrane coats a student with orange hair.
"I... I did it~! I managed to get a token! YES!!!"
...
Loar, Cestia and the bald student could only sigh in misery.
C L Bald : " " "... It should have rightfully been mine..." " "
The three sung their grievances in unison.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)