Chris got up, took his tray over to the kitchen, and walked out of the room. Chris' next match was one he was excited for. It seems like the Viscount girl Lily managed to beat Christa as they both went for their strongest attack right off the bat, and cooling air makes the windblade invariably inaccurate. It was a fifteen second knockout. The chant time was all that was necessary for her to win.
Chris slowly entered the arena, trudging through the grit and stone, and slowly approaching the middle. This time he was greeted politely, “Congratulations on your last match, I hope you can entertain me a bit better than the last girl.” She was a bit conceited, but Chris couldn’t blame her, she won so easily last time, and by comparison, it looked like she was fighting someone without ranged magic. Not only that, Chris didn’t run at full speed either, making her think maybe she would have time.
The instant the match started, Chris decided that he would show off a little. He chanted out the water-whip spell, followed by a simple water spell that controlled the form of it, manipulating it into the shape of his trusty sword. He then waited until Lily finished her big ice attack. The cold air rushed over Chris, and froze his water sword solid.
The blast was frigid, enough to make Chris shiver, but he had a small mana shield up, blocking a decent amount of the cold shockwaves that rippled through the crowd. He then grabbed his new ice-sword. He used mana to reinforce the strength of the blade, and charged her as she tried to charge up an icicle blast. As he dashed, she fired large ice javelins towards him. He swung his sword in an arc pattern, smashing the icicles into a cold mist.
Using the low visibility of the area, he quickly dashed past her. He slid by, grabbed her ankle, and tossed her to the ground. He slowly approached and pointed his glistening light blue sword to the girl’s throat.
“I… I concede,” she stuttered out. “You were much better than that Herval guy. Keep working on it, and you’ll probably be the best ice magician in the whole nation,” Chris smiled, and held out his hand. He yanked her to her feet.
The crowd roared, as this was another upset. It was hard to gauge how strong physical enhancement magicians were, as their spells needed only a simple chant, and they benefit for extended periods of time. They had little range, but they were also normally well suited for dodging.
As they exited Chris kept his eye on the crowd, but the faces were gone. No sign of those creepy looks anymore. ‘Thank goodness. I did not want to deal with those guys.’
Chris started to get bored after that match. His friends wanted to watch every single match, as they considered it interesting. He just waited for his next one in silence.
He didn’t think of any fancy plans like before, had nothing to gain from showing off in his fight against Christa, and overall just wanted this annoyance to be over. He simply dashed towards her as he chanted out the fire-bolt spell.
She launched her wind blade, and Chris quickly kicked to the side, maintaining his spell as he moved. She quickly began chanting again, but he had no patience. Chris blasted her with his charged up fire-bolt and it slammed into her, knocking her to the ground. She conceded, and got up slowly.
Once again the crowd cheered, once again Chris was on alert, and once again Chris was back to waiting for his turn again.
All that was left was Sven and from what he could tell, Sven was also undefeated. Sven’s tactic was pretty simple: pick the spell type he needed to counter his opponent. Sven was also fit and mobile, allowing him to avoid some of the same attacks as Chris had. The last match of the entire day was finally here, and Chris was finally a bit excited. If anyone was gonna give him a show it was Sven. Chris smiled wide.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Chris entered the arena, the smile stayed gripped on his face. Could Chris catch Sven by surprise and win quickly? Easily. But he knew that Sven was holding back, and he wanted to see what this guy's trump card was.
He watched his last match against Lily, and Chris knew he was hiding something. ‘If I push him to his limit, I might get to find out what he can really do.’ They both walked to the middle, shook hands, and then they stepped back to their respective side.
Sven didn’t say anything and neither did Chris. The only thing Sven knew about Chris was he was fast, strong, and could use the moves firebolt and water-whip. While that would already class most people as decent as long as that firebolt was strong, it had Sven worried, as Chris hasn’t seemed to have been showing off all that much. Chris looked bored during most of the fighting, as if he was slowing down for the other person.
The match began, and both stood at each other, neither approaching the other. They looked across at each other, Chris smiling wide, while Sven’s forehead dripped with sweat. ‘He hasn’t made a move yet, maybe he’s worn down. I can do this, I can do this. I have to prove my worth damnit,’ Sven commanded himself to have confidence.
Slowly Chris walked towards Sven, and he began to chant the physical enhancement spell. This shocked Sven as he thought he was already using it, and Sven needed to react, otherwise Chris could finish the fight in mere seconds.
Sven began chanting his wind-blade spell, ‘He hasn’t seen me use this yet, maybe I can throw him off.’ Chris darted towards him, running quickly, but not fast enough to avoid the wind-blade. The spell hit Chris, and Chris decided to take the spell full force, getting knocked down. Chris slid across the stone brick surface and slowly began to get up. The crowd began to roar with cheers, as Chris was finally knocked down.
Sven took this time to begin chanting again, this time a firebolt. Chris took just long enough for Sven to finish the chant, and then dodged to the side in an instant. Chris began chanting himself, this time for a water-whip, and launched it at Sven, making sure to only to hit his side.
Sven slid backwards, barely staying on his feet, and Chris took a dive, pretending to trip. Once again while Chris was on the ground, Sven charged up and was able to launch another wind-blade, hitting Chris in the leg. Chris took it full force and got up quickly.
‘So far it looks like Sven is winning, but he’s on edge. I need to push him just a bit more.’ Chris then began speaking incantations as fast as he possibly could, launching weak firebolts in a mini-barrage. Sven did his best avoiding the most dangerous looking attacks.
Sven couldn’t dodge them all though, and began huffing, ‘Shit, I wasn’t expecting such a quick cast time. I’ll need to finish this quickly.’
Chris recognized the look on Sven’s face. It was time to find out what Sven could really do. “I’m gonna come at you with everything I have, be ready!” Chris yelled. Sven nodded and they both began chanting.
Chris was chanting the highest level of the strength enhancement spell, even though at this point he always had it on.
Sven began chanting the intermediate spell, Whirlwind. It creates a tornado of wind-blades, takes up a lot of mana, and is dangerous to the caster if left uncontrolled, as the wind blades could launch in random directions, or the entire mass could go the wrong direction.
Sven launched the Whirlwind at Chris. Chris waited until It looked as if the tornado connected, but suddenly disappeared from view. Without even a second of delay, Chris reappeared, left of Sven. Sven turned to react, as Chris punched him across the head, knocking him across the arena and unconscious.
The crowd flew into an uproar, as Chris, a total nobody, suddenly became the number one fighter in the entire class. Chris smiled and waved at the crowd, scanning it for those cold and calculating eyes that peered previously. He once again spotted nothing and walked out of the arena.
With that the tournament ended, Chris, with a 4-0 record, became the new representative for the freshman class.
When Chris left the arena he was met with a lot of people interested in him, how he’s trained, what he was best at, and a few other questions Chris was too tired to answer. He simply wandered off to the cafeteria once again, this time followed by a small hoard of people. He ate, only responding to questions he felt like answering, and by the end of it, it seemed as if they would finally leave him alone.
Haven and the others joined him and they all ate together. They also asked a few questions, and Chris decided to give them the details they so desperately craved.
After dinner Chris took a bath and went to bed. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out.