It was just about one and Silence had joined a small group in the middle of a field. Stares and murmurs surrounding her presence were not hidden at all, but she just ignored them and waited for Spire to start the competition.
Four poles were placed in the field, making a rectangle with roughly one hundred by fifty meters between them. Two poles, fifty meters apart, were coloured red, the other two being blue. All four of the poles were about ten meters tall, with a circular base supporting their balance.
Spire soon came running from the administration block behind the field, clearly out of breath.
"Ha... Sorry if you all waited for too long, I was just doing some minor adjustments to the schedule." he stuttered as he spoke, so paused to catch his breath.
He recovered quickly, so pointed at Silence as he continued, "As you may have noticed, there's a new face here. This is Silence, rank 73. Regardless of not being a mage, she still wants to try out this even, so I allowed her to at least try. This means that there will be four matches instead of three. I've sorted out the order in the fairest way I could, so the two lowest ranked will compete to see who goes against Blaze, this being Magnet, ranked 223, and Seismic, ranked 199. Gust will go against Freeze Then Silence will fight Root. Does anyone have any problem with this?"
Everyone shook their heads and started hyping themselves up and talking between themselves. Silence, being herself, just stood there eavesdropping. She heard the expected mockery from her not being a mage, calling out her win against Lunar was just a fluke, and that was completely over her head. It caused her to smirk, imagining their faces as she beat this 'Root', although she could understand their skepticism.
"Okay, now then. Have fun and don't worry about losing. This is only an exhibition, so if your opponent is really that strong, you can still prove yourself and get in the group." he paused again. Soon looking at his watch and continuing. "Well, that's enough explaining for now. Let's start. Magnet. Will you please go to the red side. Seismic, please go to the blue."
Following this, Silence scanned both competitors. Seismic, the girl walking between the blue pillars, was petite like herself but had short brunette hair and brown eyes. She wore a pure white dress with a large hat which blocked out the sun.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
'So this is 'Seismic'. I guess she can create vibrations in the ground or something. It's obvious her opponent has the power to attract or repel metal, so she has the short end of the stick. But there's got to be a reason that she has a higher rank.' Silence thought, making a small conclusion before the contest started.
Meanwhile, the two competitors were now in place while the spectators sitting on a bench to the side.
Spire started to shout towards the two, "Are you ready?"
They nodded, as the looks they exchanged intensified. He continued, "Okay. We begin in three. Two. One. Commence!"
Immediately Seismic looked toward one of her own poles and started to chant. I was inaudible mumbles in the audience’s perspective but seemed to be important to her regardless.
Soon, befitting her name, small ripples appeared in the dirt around the base, soon causing a hole to appear below it. This caused the pole to slightly sink into the ground, forcing Magnet to do more work to make it fall.
But during this, her opponent focused on her other pole and commences a similar chant. The pole gained momentum as it gradually toppled towards him, and it fell moments after her other pillar sunk. But now he had to topple the remaining pillar before both of his fell.
The crowd started to get excited as it really wasn't clear who actually would win this. Commentary on both sides eventually reached the conclusion that only time could tell.
Magnet was struggling as he tried to physically pull the other up the hole's in climb so it would fall on the ground, whilst Seismic created an earthquake near one of his poles, causing it to jump around and land on the side of its base. It fell with a loud thud as she evened the score.
Now it became tense, one last pole remained as Magnet was starting to lose concentration from panic as Seismic started on his last one.
He was visibly sweating as he pulled the pillar for the last inches and he finally saw the top of the base. As he was about to give a sigh of relief as he was about to win, a new thud from beside him dictated the match.
"Seismic has won the match! You can both stand down. Let's get the field cleaned for the match between Gust and Freeze." Spire proclaimed, dashing Magnet's spirit as he fell to the floor in disbelief. Seismic's final pillar slid back down the hole, soon finding its balance at an awkward angle.
Seismic, smug with her victory, waltzed back to the bench practically humming. After some brooding, Magnet eventually got up and followed suit.
An army of staff soon swarmed the field, some smoothing the ground with restoration magic, and other’s lifting the large steel poles back to their positions.