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.)
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