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.
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