"Ok, maybe if I...?" I ponder to myself as the dust settles at the end of the arena. Looking to my free hand once again, I stab my staff into the ground preemptively. The magic flows through it as well as my body and I raise my palm. Nothing comes of it.
Frowning a little, I follow it up with a tired shake and slap my face a little. Focus, Baltanthan, focus well and good. Focus on making the greatest spells I can. Keep the end goal in sight.
Like a hand on a dial, the glow of my magic turns up in brightness and then starts to turn patchy. Trying to provoke it further, I do my best to force the mystical energies towards my open palm. If I keep to simple shapes for now, I might be able to force my power to evolve. At the very least, it's a stepping stone when it comes to me trying this with my actual spells.
"I should probably be practising in an actual facility, one with a matter maker." I remark, firing off a lance before I even start to strain with keeping it contained. My magic has always been about oxidation, I can't really express my armour-destroying capabilities on dirt and stone walls. Mechanical House is probably the better option for me to train in, plenty of scrap metal over there I should be able to take. Sighing, I get back to it.
I throw my staff to the ground and look up at the many arena seats.
"Where in the name of all the gods, good, bad, evil and benevolent are you lot!?" I cry out, turning to the clock overseeing the arena. They're both a couple of hours late, seriously, what is holding them up? I groan towards the ground and look back up with a palm over my closed eyes. The exit comes into view.
I should be able to leave and come back so long as I keep my stuff here... Right?
I consider it, but, ultimately pick my stuff back up and head on out to the portal. Putting in the requested doorway, it lights up and I go on through. Quickly walking through the busy halls of the greater arena complex, the stench of sweat and a bit of blood bloats my nose. Fresh air quickly enters my lungs and I survey the expanse that is the Suhurlodst Academy of Arcane Learning and Understanding.
There's no big, red girl to be seen, armour-plated or otherwise and I can't see a familiar blond or blonde. What I can see, though, is a crowd gathering in the distance, one that is only getting larger as more and more are snared by the curiosity. Not really able to focus myself, I decide to join in with this herd mentality and head on over. It's a little too dense to see through and I can't fly.
I spot a tree and narrow my determination at it.
Finding a strong branch of modest thickness, I move my staff hand towards the top of its name giver and push up. Scrambling around, I shift into a slightly more comfortable position and pull the tool up with me. I lock it against some other branches and seatbelt myself steady. A hand picks away at some of the leaves so I can spot what it is this crowd is about.
"Oh, now you lot are here..." I realise when I spot beak and red. Groaning a little, I force the staff out of its entrapment and clumsily land on the ground. Keeping to my sore bottom for the moment, I wait for the expected duo and their odd expansion to make it through the crowd. They seem to miss me and carry on to the arena like they should have some time ago.
I prepare to call out for them and stop, a thought coming to mind about my future prospects. I know it's not entirely the way I am focusing on, but, I can't help but wonder if I will ever experience what these lot are right now. Nin may be osibindah, the only one like, well, him. And, Liadanann is of course the only one of her kind known to the recorded histories.
Despite these obvious, superficial things, they both have something that keeps people's eyes on them. Nin is perhaps one of or among the strongest witches in the city right now, I can't really confirm it but seeing what Smiling Jhurack has done, surely there is a basis. Liadanann may not be notably powerful in comparison, but her magic is something foreign and exciting. The claims of it being divine are certainly an easily carried detail, gossip always focuses on it.
And then there's me, simple me from a Ravineer town.
The one big thing I have done in my life so far, my first Inter-House Talent Display, it wasn't even really me. It was a Traditional House win, I was just the one who got the limelight because I took up the final objective. If anything, Michney deserves that praise more than I do, he was the one who got the ball rolling. My magic is not grand, it's not even a good colour, my magic is the shade of green rhyolite.
I'm barely out of the unofficially called Weak Wind bracket, a piece of paper in thickness away from being the emerald of pathetic incompetence. Stained glass. I'm trying as hard as I can, I want to become an Exceptional but every time I try I can't help but feel like I won't be able to make it. Those I tend to practice with are challenging enough and actual Exceptionals throw all my years of training out the window.
"Guess I better stop moping and go after them." I grumble, forcing myself off of my root-beaten backside. Walking at first, I pick up the pace into a light jog and catch Seigunfrei's attention that way.
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"I thought you were going to wait inside our set-aside arena?" he asks and I glare immediately.
"Approaching three hours." I point out, perhaps a little exaggeratively but I can always tell him to shut up if he wants to say what the actual time is.
"That long, huh?" he goes and I bypass the group to check the booking board to make sure the arena is still in my name. Thankfully, it is, if on the warning timer regarding its lack of occupancy.
"Hurry up!" I bark, rushing on ahead to get back to our one. If we lose this then we won't be able to get another arena the whole day and we can't access other Academy facilities with a non-student. Let alone two!
"Everyone is slow in here." Nin quietly comments next to me, my legs pumping with all they have while he just seems to be skipping.
"DON'T RUN NEXT TO ME, GET TO THE CONSOLE AND SET IT UP!" I scream against him with an attempted whack of my staff. He dodges it and a bunch of other students by running up a wall and then jumping from the roof. He rolls across the floor and vanishes in a gust of wind. I slide to a halt to catch my breath, my eyes wide at how casually he seems able to do that.
The heavy clang of armour catches up and I turn to Liadanann while Seigunfrei seems to try and race Nin.
"Sorry about being late, things got a little busier than we were expecting." she tells me and my nose crinkles, lip rising a bit.
"It's fine, so long as those two can get to the console to remind the system that I am still here." I sigh, rubbing my face and walking ahead. I ignore the nearly full set of fingers she pokes my side with.
"Don't you me remind it that we're here?" she asks and I look at her, blinking a little at what she said before this.
"Late, remember?" I remind her and I assume she turns away with what must be a sheepish expression of some sort. That or she's giggling inside of her head at the easy response she got from me. The portal comes into view and we step through, the view changing to one lacking in decoration and school pride. We step out into the arena just as Nin seems to counter a blow from Seigunfrei.
"I thought it would be a good idea to bring Nin into it while we can have him here." Liadanann mutters and I shrug, some extra help isn't always helpful but I am hoping this will amount to something. Maybe Nin can explain things differently than Seigunfrei, maybe he has insights I can better work with.
"You know, it would be nice if Nin actually worked with us rather than him." I remark as we arrive at the edge of the arena. Seigunfrei comes spinning in on his usual tornado spells and Nin simply runs. Whatever that bug can see, he finds a clean path to knock Seigunfrei right off of his floating feet. I smile a little, glad to see Seigunfrei in the dirt for once even if I cannot follow along all that well.
Just watching the two take it somewhat half-heartedly is already more than I can handle. Oddly, I have no way of proving it, yet, I just know that Seigunfrei is going easier than this against me and Liadanann. Puts into perspective what five years of training at their level can do, I suppose. Lots of fighting, the real bloody kind of stuff.
"Guild work..." I mutter in thought as a lot of the really well-known witches are all guild contractors. Their grand feats of defeating beasts and fighting in armies, it's all so easy to learn about. War-Witches and so on might be stronger, but their part in a greater group sort of means you don't hear about them per say. Unless they're something spectacularly special like the upper-ups of the Valkinvar or something.
I'm pretty sure there's a saying with the Valkinvar as well, though, it's not about them. At the head of the army does the good general lead, his name as eternal as the proof of his victories in mind and stone. They're nothing without the army but you don't recall the man and his mount or the infantrymen lined up. It's all about the general.
Maybe I should enrol in the army or something? My magic would probably be a good fit in a place like that where armour is a problem. Little old Baltanthan with his old rusty crossbow bolt. I can amount to something in the profession that probably got my mother killed.
Well, I assume it is what got her called, that crossbow bolt back in my safebox is the only lead I have.
I blink and focus on the present as the other two start to approach.
"Alright, so, you two want to be able to try and come on a job with me?" Nin asks and we nod while Seigunfrei scoffs a little at the speaker.
"So long as you don't leave me abandoned next to a wyvern's corpse." he chuckles and Nin steps forward without a care, hands behind his back.
"Look, I'm going to be honest, the pair of you are nothing special. But, I owe you both a lot so I am going to put in the effort and try and make this work. Seigunfrei's tried to catch me up and Liada's given her whining corrections but I need to see it for myself." he explains and my eyes quiver a bit with nervousness. How am I supposed to show off my strong points if he's not wearing metal or anything? Is the problem with my magic or am I just bad at picking teachers?
I guess only the gods know.
"Suppose I better try anyway." I mutter under my breath, my hand coming to life with my magic. I throw it out at Nin and he quickly steps back and spins around it. Liadanann's armour grows with her talisman's power and she charges for Nin. He does much the same until he starts to prod at the seemingly larger girl.
She stumbles into my spells and I sharply cut it off.
"I'm fine!" she calls out, a shield having stopped my magic from eating away at her armour.
"So, is this the best I can get out of you like this or do I need to...?" Nin asks from my side and I jump away, dropping my staff. Scrambling back to my feet with hands full of magic, I latch onto him with what feels like a limp grip. He may not have any metal on him, but I can still focus my magic on something. Locking one arm around his neck, I reach into my belt and pull out a piece of magnesium.
I set it off right against his face and am thrown into a metal wall for the trouble. The wall groans beneath me and I push myself up, using her plate as an excuse to walk over her. She drags herself up after me and we set ourselves up again, my eyes shifting to my dropped staff. We just need to-
Claps start to echo from up on the chairs of the arena, a dark-skinned woman being the source.
"Now isn't this quite the find, my oh-so-beloved partner is doing charity work for these poor, poor students." she guffaws, everyone's attention going up to her.