“Are you ready to watch Sue kick some butt?”
Aida grunted as Levi flopped casually into the seat next to her. She was glad she wasn’t in the first round of matches; she wanted to see what to expect. But on the other hand, she also didn’t enjoy being forced to sit and contemplate her upcoming humiliation.
Sue was already down in the center of the arena, along with Professor Lloyd and her Fire cohort. Professor Lloyd was the Mana Applications instructor, and was the complete opposite of Professor Havi. Young, exuberant, and with a full head of thick bronze hair, his passion for his subject was self-evident. He spoke enthusiastically, but never wasted any words, the combination making it easier for the students to stay focused in his classes. Needless to say, he was Aida’s favorite instructor so far.
Professor Lloyd began sending the group off in pairs to their own rings. Sue was paired with a boy with ruby-colored eyes and hair, and they didn’t seem to feel any of the tension in the air; they were both laughing and joking with each other, utterly ignoring the two other pairings that were alternately glowering at each other or avoiding each other’s looks.
Myk, Pritchard’s right-hand man, was partnered with a girl with long, coal-black hair and eyes. Despite being so near to his opponent, Myk was more preoccupied with keeping track of Sue’s every move, constantly glancing over at her ring with a scowl on his face.
“Sue doesn’t look worried at all,” Aida commented.
“Yeah, Calvin’s a fine student, but he’s not exactly top five and he knows it.”
“Does Myk actually think he has a chance against Sue?”
Levi shrugged. “Who are we to crush his dreams?”
Aida’s eyes roved over the crowd of students in the spectator stands. It looked like all of the student body was here to watch the matches, presumably since all five Maglica instructors were also here to score the third years. The first and second years were wearing their regular school uniforms, making a nice aesthetic against the white seats with their pink- and blue-accented uniforms. The third years were dressed in corresponding gray and pink/blue tracksuits and fabric shoes, seated in the shorter stands on the opposite side of the spectators awaiting their turns in the arena. The four other instructors were standing on separate platforms ringing the arena. Professor Havi was glaring at the younger students, warning them from getting too rowdy. Professor Gemma, the physical training instructor, was pacing around on her platform, flipping through the papers in her hands. The mana control professor, Bruce, was meditating on his platform as he waited for the matches to start. Professor Kozu, the combat instructor with rumors swirling around him about his life before becoming part of the Maglica faculty, had his eyes fixed on the students in the arena, already assessing.
Levi shifted next to Aida. “Hey Ezra, how’s it going?”
Startled, Aida glanced over. Ezra had seated himself behind Levi and Aida, his fists hanging loosely in the pockets of his tracksuit. His silver eyes were on the arena.
“Hello,” Aida said cautiously. Ezra’s eyes flickered, but he didn’t look at her. Chewing on her bottom lip, she wondered if it was worth trying to apologize in front of Levi, who had turned back to the arena. He let out a whoop as the rest of the arena fell silent. “You got this, Suelina!”
Reluctantly turning back to the front, Aida saw Sue sticking her tongue out at Levi’s fist pump before focusing back on Calvin. All of the combatants were facing their opponents, their wands at the ready. Professor Lloyd glanced around at the three occupied rings, checked with the other four professors to make sure they had no objections, then roared “BEGIN!”
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
“Nice job, Suelina!” Levi said heartily as Sue joined them on the bench. She grinned, accepting his fistbump. She nodded at Ezra, who was still lurking behind Levi and Aida, before giving her a hug. Aida returned the hug, murmuring a congratulations.
“It looks like Caleb is up next, huh?”
Aida nodded, unable to speak. Levi launched into an interrogation of Sue’s techniques, most of which she rolled her eyes and ignored, or gave a sarcastic response in return. Aida stared numbly at the arena, as the Earth cohort began their matches.
Caleb was matched against Tera, the Earth twin. Unlike Sue, Caleb wasn’t aggressively bombarding his opponent at an inhuman speed; instead, he was cautiously trading blows with her, fighting a lot more defensively despite the fact he could probably ground her immediately. Tera, on the other hand, was desperately dodging and returning skills as she could. It was clear she was getting exhausted. Watching the two made Annie think of the lopsided tennis matches she had seen before, where one player had full control of the ball and and made the other player chase the ball across the court.
“He’s kind of ruthless, isn’t he?”
“You think so?” Sue followed Aida’s gaze to Caleb and Tera’s ring. “He looks pretty merciful to me. GET HER, CALEB!” she hollered. Caleb flushed, falling straight into Tera’s trap - the same Quake move that Pritchard used on Aida her first day, neatly capturing his foot.
“Nice job, Tera!” Levi called. Tera blushed, promptly losing whatever advantage she had just gained over Caleb.
“I just mean it looks like he’s playing with her,” Aida continued doggedly. “It’s obvious that she doesn’t stand a chance against him, and that he’s holding back. It’d be more merciful to end it quickly, like how you did for Calvin.”
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“Caleb’s a nice guy. I think he’s trying to give Tera a chance to earn one point off of him.”
“Would that one point actually be considered ‘impressive’ enough by the instructors?” Aida asked skeptically. “With all the openings he’s offering her, it’s kind of insulting.”
“Well, going fast was actually part of my strategy,” Sue chimed in. “The sooner I end it, the less opportunity I give people to analyze me and come up with counters.”
Aida remained skeptical, but was distracted when Ezra stood up.
“Good luck, Ezra!” Sue called after him. Ezra joined the five other Metal students being flagged down by Healer Luk, who was gathering them by the arena gate so they could be ready to populate the field as soon as the current matches ended. There was a noticeable distance around Ezra, the Metal cohort huddling away from him. Dev was sitting near the front bench, slightly away from Pritchard’s group. Ezra’s silver hair and Dev’s pale, nearly white hair was eye-catching as a set.
Aida wasn’t the only one who noticed; she heard whispers start up as girls and some boys leaned towards each other, hissing and glancing at the two boys.
“It’s almost as if they haven’t seen that before,” Aida mumbled.
“What’s up?” Sue asked, leaning over. Aida gestured briefly at the commotion surrounding the pair. “Oh, they look especially like a matching set today, don’t they?”
“You know who else would look like a matching set?” Levi purred.
“Me and Aida!” Sue chirped, pulling Aida’s arm through her own as Aida choked.
“Precisely what I was about to say,” Levi agreed, his enthusiastic grin looking more like a grimace.
Professor Lloyd’s voice floated through the air. “Earth Round 1, complete! Metal class, please come out to the field!”
Sue and Levi stilled next to Aida, seeming able to feel her nervousness. “Don’t worry Aida, there’s still some time before you have to go down there. Ruth and Abedi will definitely take a while duking out their spots,” Sue said reassuringly. Professor Lloyd kicked off the matches.
“I think I’ll head down to the waiting area,” Aida said mechanically. Levi thumped her on the back as she passed him.
Taking the long way down the bleachers to avoid Pritchard and his group at the front, Aida gave a tight-lipped smile to Lyn Trippe, the more timid Trippe sister, who had also decided to line up at the waiting area early. Aida activated her profile box as Lyn returned her smile with a similarly tight smile of her own. “Can’t handle the nerves of the talk from your friends either?”
Character Profile: Coralyn (Lyn) Trippe
Elemental Affinity: Water
Class Rank: 25/30
Lyn nodded stiffly, her face taking on a slightly green hue, clashing with her thundercloud-blue hair. “I wish Tera and Natalie could just talk to each other about their matches, you know? Leave me out of it.”
Aida could hear Pritchard’s exultation as he crowed about “utterly dominating” in his match against Vanita Helms, as well as feel his jagged mana flowing over her, seemingly directed at her. She shuddered, trying to ignore the pricks in her skin.
Mistaking the reason for her tremble, Lyn hesitantly reached out, patting Aida’s shoulder softly in presumed solidarity. Focusing on the ring closest to the waiting area, Aida watched as Ezra held out a hand to pull his opponent to her feet. Her face flashed from humiliation to thankfulness to awe to straight up slack face as he led her, limping, towards Healer Luk, who had left her position next to the arena gate to meet them halfway. Healer Luk set down the small stool she was carrying, and Ezra lowered the girl onto the seat, gently peeling her fingers off of his elbow before walking closer to the gate, leaning against the wall a good distance away from the actual gate, studiously avoiding the corner Aida and Lyn were standing in.
Aida let out a breath. It was good that he wasn’t nearby. She was already stressed enough as it was for her first placement match, and if she actually had to talk to Ezra she might as well just forfeit entirely. She decided to do some last-minute Mana Cycling - other than the satisfaction Aida got from seeing her skill level increase, she was also surprised to find it actually delivered on the relaxation benefits all the lifestyle gurus touted about meditation out in the real world.
Soon enough, Pritchard’s prickly mana intensified, sharp enough to pierce through Aida’s carefully cultivated bubble of mana. Even Lyn, standing next to Aida, unconsciously retreated. “I envy you your first matchup,” Pritchard’s lofty voice floated over. “I mean, my match was easy enough, but it would have been nice if I could have matched with someone at the bottom of the class. Save myself some effort.”
Aida contemplated. She didn’t really have a good reason to resent Pritchard, despite his grudge; it wasn’t truly her life, after all. But it sure was annoying listening to an immature boy throwing whatever unoriginal insults he could in an attempt to get a reaction out of her. Before she could open her mouth and ask him to at least be more witty, Dev’s husky voice responded.
“Can you please go back to your seat? You’re disrupting my flow.”
“Sure, sure…you’ll do great, my guy,” Pritchard said genially. When Aida glanced over at him, his mana swelled, ineffectually battering her along with his glower. She couldn’t suppress a quirk of her lips as she slid her gaze over to Dev, casually meeting his icy stare. Dev, surprisingly, held eye contact with her, which seemed to kick Pritchard’s mana into an aggressive storm. Aida didn’t try to stop the broad smile spreading across her face at Pritchard’s tantrum, and Dev, even more shockingly, returned a faint smirk. Aida saw Pritchard physically swell up out of the corner of her eye, preparing to say something - but was immediately elbowed out of the way by Lara. Her long hair fanned out behind her as she marched up to Aida, executing a clean pivot on her heel to face the arena next to her.
“I know my cousin is a bit out of your league, but please do your best to throw him off his game at least a little bit,” Lara said lowly, not looking at her. Her voice had a pleasant deep quality to it.
Aida blinked, trying to parse through the (double?) meaning of her words. “Well…I’ll certainly do my best.”
“Oh good, you’re all here,” Healer Luk said briskly, coming up to gate. She opened the gate, waving the Water students through. “Come now, come on through.”
Aida stepped through the gate, looking out at the combat field. The individual combat rings all looked much larger from this perspective than from up in the stands. She felt her stomach shrivel even more tightly.
“Remember the fundamentals.”
Ezra had finally approached Aida. He still wasn’t looking at her, and he wasn’t standing too close, but he was definitely addressing her. “I beg your pardon?”
“You’re not going to be able to beat Dev based on raw power. But you have a solid grasp of the fundamentals of mana control. Show that to the rest of us.”
Aida opened her mouth again, but Ezra had already departed, the last of his Metal cohort to exit the arena.