Jeremy, and Sandwich lined up to apply for the ranking tournament. It was not actually necessary to participate in it if one already had the basic education, and cultivation aptitude. Jeremy barely met the threshold, but still wanted to be ranked in order to receive priority when requesting resources. When he arrived at the desk the worker gave him a strange look. “Fighting style?”

Jeremy, wearing a bright red uniform, a defense amulet, various agility boosting rings, and a tiara that provided extra mana storage, pulled out a small megaphone, and pointed at Sandwich, who was on his head peeking from behind the tiara. “Barker-Beastmaster.”

The worker gave him a look of disgust, and practically chased him off.

First there would be a large group battle. A complex runic formation observed the battles and determined the ranks of those who were defeated. A small group of teachers would watch the free for all, and modify the results based on their judgment.

The last eight would fight 1v1s.

The arena for the group battle was selected for maximum chaos. Life is unpredictable like that. They were to be teleported onto tiny boats in a vast, dark, and quiet ocean. Naturally this was all within the formation, and thus a perfectly safe illusion. Jeremy sighed. He did not know how to swim. If he lost his boat he would be utterly annihilated. However, in the distance there was a bigger boat, and it appeared to be empty, attracting smaller boats to it.

A swarm of flame engulfed Jeremy’s boat. His defense amulet noted the threat, and activated defending him at the cost of some of its mana.

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Jeremy turned to see a student gathering flames to shoot towards him. He pointed at the student, raised his megaphone, and barked. “AAA.”

The three letters appeared and struck the mage, disrupting his casting. He lost focus, and got the sinking feeling that he was ‘vulnerable.’ A streak of white light rapidly swam up to the boat, and launched out at him. Before he came too he had already sunk beneath the waves, and been disqualified from the tournament.

Jeremy sat down to recover. Barking was quite effective as a debuffing tool, if you wanted to be rendered completely useless afterwards. It costs Jeremy nearly everything to use it once, but his recovery is just good enough to allow him to do so once every half hour or so. He also has the tiara which has enough mana stored for 2 uses.

The tiny boat seemed to be magically forced to seek out bigger boats, so the two merely sat, and waited. He could have grabbed the magic paddle that was laying on the floor, but he didn’t really feel compelled to redirect the boat into hunting down others. From what he could see, they were doing a fine job taking each other out. He watched as a student who was slowly rowing closer was struck by a powerful lightning spell. She was obliterated. Jeremy could not identify the caster. He got down low on his boat. Hopefully, he could stealth this out.

Stealth It out he mostly did. The mana depletion had gotten to him, and he had simply slept. He was awoken by Sandwich biting his ear.

“We have arrived at a bigger boat. There are other people here.” Sandwich telekinetically communicated.

He did not hear what should have been fighting. “How many, and why aren’t they fighting?”

“8. Dunno.” replied Sandwich.

“Ah.” Jeremy stood up, and started climbing.

Dhiya, an Uudki, a type of bat-winged humanoid, was hanging onto the mast of the large ship. She observed the 7 brats below. They were getting impatient. They had agreed that they were the strongest, and that they should not waste time with each other. They worked together, and beat out the other students. However, someone was still around, and the battle would only end when there were 8.

Dhiya looked around, but saw nothing. Only the silent, and still ocean. She then saw Epjan Neristo, an ill-tempered and impatient merchant's son, pull out his blade, and prepare to strike at the girl next to him, who was looking away. Before Dhiya could warn her a figure appeared behind Epjan. A noble wearing a lot of jewelry. He pulled out a megaphone. “BOO!”

Something struck Epjan. He paused, and dropped his blade. A light missile struck him from behind, and he was disqualified. The group battle ended there.