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.
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