Liliana watched with interest as a student was thrown through her astral form. It never got less funny, to her, to watch someone just pass right through her.
Thanks to her team’s targeted contributions to the general bedlam, they were down to perhaps half the original number of students on the field. Liliana looked up at the sky and frowned at the new position of the sun.
The first forty or so students who were knocked out gave her a misguided sense of how long it would take to finish off the rest. The first students taken out were the stragglers, the weak links in their year who were easily dealt with. As more students were eliminated, it became harder to get rid of the rest.
Like cockroaches surviving a nuclear blast, too many of her yearmates refused to roll over and admit defeat.
Still, there were large enough groupings of students left that her team’s tactics didn’t need to change overmuch. However, Nemesis had to be recalled to play protector, as more students had decided to take a shot at their defenses.
“Tch.” Liliana hissed as she darted to the side, avoiding an attack that felt distinctly more dangerous than the varied missed shots she’d been taking so far.
Most wouldn’t have an effect on her astral form. The only attacks that would were Soul attacks, as she was in a soul form right now. As Liliana dodged the attack, her eyes roved the torn up coliseum to locate the origin of the strike, her eyes locked on a gaze looking right at her.
The student nodded his head in her direction, a smirk tugging at his lips. Liliana vaguely recognized the student as someone in her Soul class and she cursed silently. She had accounted for the fact that some with sufficiently high enough mastery in the Soul affinity would be able to sense or even see her presence, but she had hoped the general mayhem of the battle royale would mean they mostly ignored her.
“I’ve been spotted.” Liliana told her team as she took off when a second attack honed in on her from the student, dodging through another student and forcing them to tank the hit.
“Does that mean we can finally get out of here?” Anya asked, voice taking on an almost begging tone.
“You know the plan. We stay behind those walls until someone breaks them open and forces our hand.” Liliana told her group as she melted into another fight, putting more bodies between herself and danger.
She sent out the mental images to the mages as she moved around, using [Threads of Control] to pick up discarded weapons and to trip unwary students. Her aim wasn’t to do as much damage as possible, but to cause the most confusion she could.
She knew the plan chafed at their more battle thirsty teammates. Anya had it the worst of all of them. She had to sit on her thumbs as her skill set revolved around close combat. It meant none of them could truly stand out in the first round, but with so many bodies fighting, it was hard as it was to get noticed.
If they could conserve their Mana and Stamina for the one-on-one fights later, they could make a bigger impact. Stand out far more in comparison to students already tired from spending hours embroiled in the battle royale.
With Polaris and Nemesis defending their little fortress, it was unlikely anyone would get through, and protected as they were, it gave their mages the luxury of picking and choosing the most effective targets to thin the herd. If they were to bring down their walls, their mages would need to go on the defensive, targeting whoever attacked them and potentially running themselves dry.
Liliana herself itched at the plan, despite being one she had a large hand in coming up with. She’d like nothing more than to feel adrenaline pumping through her veins as her heart beat a staccato rhythm in her chest and her weapons flashed in the light as she cut through students, pushing her body to the limit. Seeing the students fighting made her want to fight all the more, yet she was relegated to passing off information and tripping up others where she could.
But this wasn’t a matter of doing what she wanted, she needed to do what was the most effective. What would get their entire team through the first round and onto the second.
Liliana looked to the sky, wanting to take to it but refraining with the knowledge she would simply make herself more of a target. Other students were already airborne and had been. Some with Wind skills and spells, others with more unconventional means.
She saw some beastmen making use of their wings to fly, a small handful riding flying mounts, and others who had somehow acquired wings through skill or spell use dipped and twisted in the air. If Liliana had the luxury of time, she’d be taking notes on the creative use of elements students employed to get the high ground.
“Where was that student who targeted you, Lili?” Emyr’s voice came to Liliana, and she focused back on the ground rather than the sky as she looked around.
She saw students fighting, every skill or spell imaginable employed. Students rose from the ground, as fires raged and wind wailed, beasts made of every possible element rushed past, crashing into students too slow to dodge. Constructs let loose mute war cries as they crashed into students, but Liliana couldn’t locate her attacker.
With a sigh, she activated [Windwalk] and stepped into the air. She rose higher and higher, taking in a better view of the coliseum and hopefully making herself enough of a target to draw out her little admirer.
There! Liliana twisted and dropped through the air as another shot of pure Soul energy whipped past her head.
She turned and spotted the boy from earlier and sent the information to her team. She kept the relay of images going in the back of her mind as she started a very twisted dance in the air as shot after shot targeted her and forced her to keep moving.
Flying students screamed when Liliana darted behind or through them, using them as shields to block the attacks. More than one student fell from the sky into a crumpled heap on the ground as they were forced to bear the brunt of attacks meant for Liliana. Unable to even see the invisible battle going on around them.
Liliana watched with a mixture of amusement and awe as a threefold attack finally hit her annoying clinger on, stars fell from the sky like deadly rain as vines broke through the ground and wrapped the boy, whose attention had tunneled on Liliana during their cat-and-mouse game.
The boy barely had time to realize his error when the stars pelted onto him, burning and pummeling him, cutting through the vines restraining him even as a loud crack of thunder followed a bright strike of lightning hitting him head on.
“Ah, I think you guys got him.” Liliana told her team, bemused, as she watched the boy’s red form collapse on the ground. She had expected one attack, possibly, not a three-way combination attack.
“Talk about overkill, you three.” Liliana chided with a shake of her head as she turned her attention back to the battle raging under her.
Now that she was safe in the sky once more, she rose higher until she could get a better view. She couldn’t make use of her spells from here, but she could easily direct attacks from the mages, and apparently they needed more targets if they could afford to spend so much Mana on one boy.
“It’s not overkill. It’s a message.” Emyr told her in a huff.
Liliana didn’t deign that with a reply, knowing it was a lost fight to argue against her friends’ overprotective tendencies. She was just surprised he’d managed to rope Rathwater and Basil into it.
“Emyr, hit that group. Rathwater, can you get a chain going with that fight? Basil hold those down. Koth’talan, we have some students approaching. Give my bonds a break.” Liliana sent out as she twisted in the air, taking in the fight.
Nemesis was doing a valiant job at keeping most students away from their defenses with a cloud of poison she kept refreshing. If anyone made it through that, Polaris would quickly deal with them, but she could see their Mana dropping steadily. Polaris could easily handle any student in their year, but the sheer number of them meant his Mana was in a constant drain.
Liliana watched as a wave of lava rose and crashed upon a small knot of students who had gotten through Nemesis’ poison cloud, washing them back into the cloud even as it ate through the health of their shields.
Liliana looked away when she was sure of the outcome and looked towards Basil’s targets, a fight between what Liliana assumed were students of two different classes. Vines burst through the ground, seeming almost sentient as they wrapped around students and constricted, leeching their shields ever closer to red as those who remained free capitalized on the opportunity and struck their compromised foes.
Lightening struck and webbed out, fire fell and meteors ravaged as Liliana kept directing her team from on high. Students screamed, shouted, and fell as Liliana orchestrated their demise. Bodies vanished and the number of students left standing steadily declined as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky.
Those left remaining as time went on became more ragged and spread out. Fights went from grand things waged between large numbers of students to smaller skirmishes, as battlefield alliances were struck and discarded just as quickly.
From above it all, Liliana capitalized on every stabbed back and turned tables, aiding some students with the help of her teammates and bringing ruin and defeat on who so ever she chose. A student protected in one turn by a giant tree sprouting and taking down their enemies with grasping branches could be felled minutes later by a strike of quick lightning.
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Liliana played with the students as she directed attacks, choosing to shoot down whoever she thought would get them closest to an ending for this round the quickest.
It was a heady thing, this control Liliana had over the denizens of the coliseum. Since the student who had been able to target her, she hadn’t suffered another scare, leaving her unmolested as she stood in the sky like some god smiting whoever displeased her.
Fire, lightening, strangling vines and chaos fell at her word and slowly, the first round inched ever closer to its end as students fell to their year mates and the invisible girl in the sky playing a game none of them were aware they were part of.
“Break.” Marianne called out, letting Liliana know their mages needed to regenerate their Mana with Marianne’s help.
The mages wouldn’t be so low it was dangerous, but it had been agreed upon to not let their mages drop below half Mana during the first round, just in case. Liliana hoped they wouldn’t start another tea-party.
As the number of students on the sands dwindled, more had begun targeting those who had the sense to erect defenses and hide behind them. Liliana could no longer leave her astral form as she needed to keep a constant eye on their defenses and give relief to Polaris and Nemesis when her bonds Mana dropped too low.
Next tournament, I’m leaving Lelantos out too. We might even shift the arrangement and leave Anya out as well so she can get rid of her energy somewhat. Liliana thought as she flew back to the defenses to take a more active part in the defense while the mages took their break.
“Oh, hello Dawn!” Marianne’s chipper voice reached Liliana’s physical ears. Liliana stuttered in the sky, the urge to return to her body almost overpowering, knowing there was a threat near her friends.
“Would you like to join us?” Basil’s amused voice asked next and Liliana let out a deep breath, an odd thing to do in her astral form that needed no air. Her body kept up its normal functions on its own when she was like this, but some habits were hard to break.
“Are you… having a tea party?” Dawn’s voice sound tired, and so utterly done.
“Of course, we have extras if you want to partake.” Alistair sounded like he was holding back laughter.
“I’m going to. Go.” Dawn’s curt reply was heard, and based on the disappointed noise Liliana heard from Marianne, the girl had vanished.
Well, apparently the tea party worked quite well as an intimidation or confusion tactic, at the very least.
“She could’ve at least stayed for a bit. We aren’t going to bite.” Marianne muttered mulishly.
“Speak for yourself.” Anya retorted, and Liliana heard the clacking of teeth as the wolf girl presumably snapped her teeth in the air in a false bite.
“I don’t bite, but I might stab.” Emyr added in.
“Her loss. The tea is delicious.” Basil murmured consolingly and Liliana shook her head, returning her attention to the battlefield. Her friends had effectively confused a potential enemy away. How on brand.
Liliana raked an assessing gaze over the vine covered ball her body and team were still holed up behind. The recent scare from Dawn breaching their defensesmaking her hyper vigilante and paranoid.
Attacks, either purposeful or accidental, had worn through some of the vines covering it, revealing the hard packed dirt behind the vines. The earth walls showed less damage, thanks to Nemesis reinforcing them whenever she could.
Even as Liliana watched, a ball of fire washed across the vines, shriveling some of the more damaged pieces and leaving the rest singed. A second attack, acid, splashed against the same spot, eating through the weakened vines and a third, a sharp large spinning spear of ice, drilled into the earth, pushing past to hit the metal beneath.
“Nem, fix the damage. Polaris, help me take them down.” Liliana ordered as she turned and shot through the air towards the origin of the hits.
She didn’t recognize the attackers, not that it surprised Liliana, as she was becoming intimately acquainted with the fact that she didn’t recognize most of the first years. It was a trio, friends if she had to guess based on their body language.
Two girls and a boy, the boy looking more like a mage with his large staff held in his hands as he summoned another fireball over the top of his weapon. One of the girls was styled closer to a rogue with her twin daggers, and the other was some sort of ranged fighter, using a bow with no arrows to summon ice based attacks with.
Liliana activated [Gatling Barrage] from above them, the light bullets shooting down to distract them from their target. Liliana had a moment to enjoy their confusion at the attack with no obvious origin before Polaris barreled into them, [Chaos Breath] proceeding him as it washed over their bodies.
The trio fell back, screaming as they dropped twisted, destroyed weapons before Polaris reared back, his wings pumping with the activation of [Wings of Bedlam]. Wind whipped around the three, tainted with chaos as it forced them to huddle together until Liliana lost sight of their forms behind the rising chaotic winds as it overwhelmed them.
Satisfied the three would be knocked out after suffering two Rank 4 attacks, Liliana turned and looked at their defenses. Satisfied that Nemesis was repairing what she could, she started back to her place in the sky when a familiar scream drew her up short.
Her head shot to the side and her eyes locked onto Diana, alone against a group of five students steadily gaining on the young woman even as she threw panicked shots of whatever spells she could. Earth spikes, water whips, fireballs all rose and shot towards her assailants, but Diana was obviously exhausted. Her attacks were sloppy and easy to avoid.
She’s not on your team, she’s not your concern. You should focus on playing defense until the mages are ready to fight again. If she falls, it’s on her. You’re barely even friends now. She’s not your problem. Liliana tried to reason with herself, but watching Diana’s shield flash orange sent all those thoughts spinning out of her mind as she moved.
Liliana was restricted with minimal spells that would work right now, but she used what she could as she barreled through the bodies of the students attacking Diana. Without a physical body her charge had no effect, but a [Wind Blade] targeted at undefended shins tripped three of the students up, even as Liliana picked up a weapon thrown out of someone's hand by their fall with [Threads of Control].
The stolen sword slashed through the air, clanging against the metal helmet of one of the students still standing as Liliana activated [Gatling Barrage] again and let the light bullets pepper the confused and disorientated group.
“Run!” Liliana telepathically shouted at a stunned Diana, shaking the girl from her stupor at seeing her attackers fall to what looked like a ghost and a possessed sword.
Diana shook her head and took a step back before her face hardened and the ground below the five students shook as it split. The three who had fallen, not able to regain their feet while being pelted with shots of light, scrambled for purchase ineffectively as the gap in the earth widened. Liliana aided in their inevitable fall with an enterprising use of [Shove] to send them toppling.
The earth snapped shut, cutting off the screams from the fallen and Liliana really hoped those shields they had stopped suffocation and being compressed. The last student, left mostly unmolested, looked at his comrade, who was still being accosted by a flying sword battering his helmet as he flailed around. He looked then at Diana, who had a large chunk of rock floating near her ready to fly, before turning on his heel and running away.
Liliana pulled back the sword and with another use of [Shove] at the helmeted student’s legs and a hit from the sword at his kneecaps, the boy went down. A large boulder dropped on his head from Diana ended his struggling and turned his shield red. His body disappeared almost as soon as his shield went red.
“Thanks,” Diana said, turning her head around to try to spot her invisible savior.
“Just survive until the next round,” Liliana sent telepathically, watching as Diana’s eyes widened and mouth dropped into a large O.
“Liliana?” Diana asked, hesitantly, almost guiltily.
“Yeah, I’ve got to go, so stay safe. I won’t be able to save you again.” Liliana told her, giving the girl a small smile she couldn’t see.
“I-Ah. Thanks. You too.” Diana said, shuffling awkwardly.
Liliana hesitated to say more but decided the middle of a tournament wasn’t the best place to try to start a heart to heart with her once, and maybe eventually again, friend. So she turned around and moved back to the defenses her team had built and when she looked back, Diana was gone.
Ten minutes later, Liliana was given the all clear from Marianne, letting her know their mages were back to full and ready to fight again. Liliana left thoughts of friends and reconciliations to the side as she took to the sky once more.
Her attention was focused on directing the mages in what was slowly becoming an arduous task as the number of students steadily dropped. With fewer students, there were less standing around, stuck in the middle of fights. Most kept moving, either to avoid stray shots or because they had wised up to the fact that they were sitting ducks if they stayed still.
As the numbers dropped and the amount of available targets sitting in the open lessened, the miniature fortresses erected by other students had become more popular targets. Her team included. They were down to the metal barrier by the time the end was called, and Liliana had begun to fear that her contingency plan would be necessary to enact.
“Stop!” a voice cried out, shaking through the coliseum.
Spells and skills fizzled out as students froze under the force of that command. Even Liliana’s [Astral Projection] was canceled, throwing her roughly back into a body that felt too small, too tight and constraining. Liliana grimaced as the sensation gradually faded, but she didn't move, held still under the echoes of that command.
“The first round has ended. What remains are fifty students. The top fifty of the first year, the best and brightest of your year. The one-on-one rounds will begin in two hours. Take this time to rest and ready yourselves.” Headmistress Wraithe informed them, her voice tinted with pride that surged through them all at her words.
Liliana batted away the subtle mental manipulation as the words faded, even if she could still feel the remnants of the words echoing deep in her bones. Rank 1 beasts were far too dramatic. She sincerely hoped her own bonds were nowhere near this bad when they got to Rank 1.
“So… we did it?” Alistair was the first to ask in the silence that followed.
“I-We survived?” Rathwater whispered quietly, his voice soaked in disbelief.
“Of course we did.” Basil said, and Liliana could hear him stretching.
She opened her eyes, blinking slightly as she adjusted to seeing things through her physical eyes. Astral sight was different from her real sight, almost… wider, as if she was seeing with more than her eyes. She stood, stumbling slightly as she readjusted to using her body.
I need to be careful about extended use of [Astral Projection] especially in the middle of a fight. Liliana thought as she regained her sense of balance and winced as she felt her body complaining. Her muscles had cramped up somewhat from being in one position for so long.
“Let’s take these walls down and get ready for the real fight.” Liliana said as she stretched out her arms, nodding at the walls. Rather than taking down all of it, Alistair set to forming a hole in the defenses large enough for them to walk through.
Liliana looked around at their group as they got ready to leave the coliseum and prepare for their individual matches. They were chattering in excitement, all of them congratulating each other on well-done hits or attacks. Riding the high of surviving the first round of their first ever tournament.
Her plan had worked. They’d gotten through the first round with their entire team whole and healthy. None of them had exhausted themselves in the first round, meaning they would be more rested and ready than many of their opponents. Provided they were lucky and none of them faced anyone from their team early on, they could get far in the individual fights.
Maybe one of them could even win the entire tournament.