The next morning, Kai walked into the waiting area like a conquering hero. Some of his fellow classmate’s eyes fell on him going wide, while others blinked and rubbed their eyes, likely identifying him once more to make sure they were reading it correctly. In only one night, he had gained 10 levels and advanced to the Forging realm. Yesterday he would have been the only Foundation realm fighter among the first years still left, but now he was on par with the other 15 remaining students.
“Shit, Cineris is in the Forging realm,” he heard someone whisper to another. Quickly everyone who was there became aware.
Judging by the way Jason was wringing his hands, he was either nervous or unhappy about Kai’s ascension to the same realm. Not that it mattered to Kai. They had both been ignoring each other since that botched trip five months ago. But if Kai was being honest with himself, he still hoped to fight Jason today or tomorrow so he could crush him. There was definitely some unresolved resentment still lingering there. Only a good beating would make him feel better.
Not seeing Nicolas around, Kai just took a random seat since there were plenty available. All students who won today would have to fight once more. Since there was no chance of getting a free win, he planned on putting his opponent down as quickly as possible to save on resources. While he wasn’t concerned about health since a potion could easily solve that. Mana and stamina would take a lot longer to recover.
Kai’s eyes closed as he fell into meditation. Clearing his mind before battle always relaxed and helped him focus. Sitting there he closed off most of his senses. Eventually, he felt a hum in the air. His ears heard nothing, but there was a sensation of something at the edge of his mind, humming in tempo like a pulse as if it was alive. Is that gravity? He recalled his gravity well yesterday. The gravity well appeared to pulsate its distorted view. Did that mean gravity wasn’t a constant force, but similar to waves from the sea?
He tried to focus and examine the sensation, but his concentration was broken as a hand fell on his shoulder. “Congratulations are in order. Holy Nine, ten levels overnight. Where the hell did your brother take you?”
The humming had vanished. He felt disappointed at the loss of the sensation. Turning to Nicolas, he told him the tale of his adventures from yesterday. Though he made sure not to mention his Forging realm abilities, since a few others were listening in on his story.
“Your brother is mad,” Nicolas replied. “The mountains are more dangerous than ever. There has been a lot more activity lately. It’s been making the ash wardens nervous.”
From the sounds above, the tournament was about to begin for the day. Kai ignored the usual announcer banter as he got the crowd riled up. A few minutes later, he heard his name through the noise of the crowd. Lucky for him he would be fighting in today’s first match.
Also getting up was one of the students he had been following throughout the tournament.
[Human – Forging Level 4]
Sasha was a known sand mage in the academy, not one of a kind like him, but still rare magic for this area. Her magic and ability to create and manipulate sand were quite powerful as she bent it to her will. Her favorite ability was creating sand golems and sending them to her opponents. Giving the sandy blonde-haired student a once over, her nervous expression told him she wasn’t happy to be fighting him.
“We are in for a treat today folks!” Kenny the announcer screamed with energy. “The only student to make it to the top 16 that was in the Foundation realm has now ascended to the Forging realm overnight. Gaining a whopping ten levels! The underdog turned new favorite to win!”
On the field of battle, Kai couldn’t help but grin a little. He knew the announcer was just revving up the audience some more, but the man was right. Yesterday he had been the underdog, but now, no longer. He felt the loss of his sword in his hand but had chosen to leave it with Nicolas, opting to only bring his mace into this battle.
Holding his mace up, he pointed the round spiky end at Sasha. “Surrender,” he commanded. If he could get away without fighting and exposing his new abilities, the better shape he would be in for the next fight today.
She looked as if she was actually considering it. Pivoting her head, she stared out into the audience for a few seconds before shaking it with refusal.
Kai could only shrug at her response. It wasn’t like he expected anything different. Any student who made it this far wouldn’t just give up. Then she did something he wasn’t expecting. She placed her staff down and began unstrapping her armor, all of it.
“In a surprising move, Sasha is taking off her armor. Will her gambit work or utterly fail?!”
The audience clamored at her unexpecting move. Picking up the armor, she walked it over to the edge of the arena and placed it down before returning to position. The only item she had kept was the staff. Though Kai wasn’t sure if that was meant to amplify her magic or a melee weapon of some sort. After all, he had never seen her in his melee tactics course.
It was a clever move. Taking off her armor would reduce her weight, not only allowing her to move quicker, but also reducing the pressure and stress on her body when his gravity inevitably pulled on her.
Sand was an odd element to control. It had the potential to be very powerful. Some of the most annoying people he had ever fought in his past life were sand mages, often absorbing the blood he created with his magic. Also, the fact that each grain of sand was a tiny projectile made it quite annoying to defend against. But that wasn’t even the worst part. No, the most annoying aspect about sand was that it got everywhere.
“Alright, we’ve waited long enough. The audience wants to see some blood. Begin!”
Summoning a [Gravity Pillar] over Sasha, he started running to her, not wanting to give her time to make her sand creations as he tried to immobilize her. Predicting his tactic, a cloud of sand formed in his way, blocking his vision. Covering his eyes with his arm, he ran through. Emerging he noticed Sasha was still in the same place as before, but three piles of sand were already beginning to take shape between them. Kai continued running. Ignoring the forming humanoid sand golems, he passed right by before they fully formed.
Sasha didn’t appear worried as he closed in on her. His mace swung at her legs as she stood there unmoving. Instantaneously sand enveloped her entire being making her appear like one of her creations behind him. Just when he expected to see blood and bone as his mace crashed into her legs, sand exploded as his mace passed through near effortlessly. Kai realized he had been duped. Sasha had switched places with one of her sand golem creations. All that remained behind was her staff and sand.
“Interesting.”
Lifting the mace high, he slammed it into the head of the golem as it reached out to him causing sand to fly in all directions. Turning around the two golems were moving towards him as they slid across the ground, their legs unmoving. Behind them, another was taking shape. Sasha stood behind the third with wide eyes, knowing that if she had missed her timing, her legs would have been obliterated.
With some fully formed bodyguards, Kai didn’t recklessly charge in. His eyes shifted looking for a clear path. The only safe way was to go around the golems and hope they couldn’t keep up. Bolting to the right, the golems shifted quicker than he had expected, moving around until they blocked him from getting to Sasha again.
Having seen enough he summoned his new ability [Gravity Well], placing a meter behind Sasha, making sure the golems were in the range of its effects. The results were immediate. Sand began draining away from the golems. At first, it was a small amount, barely visible as it flew through the air right past a stunned Sasha, who herself, was struggling to stay upright as she leaned forward as if she was climbing up a mountain slope. Quickly more sand began shifting away as if the wind was destroying her creations.
“Move!” Sasha yelled, anxiety in her voice. The golems were coming at him but at a slower pace than before.
More and more sand began falling off the golem, as it started visibly collecting onto the sphere of dense gravity. The golems seemed to vibrate, losing their forms as they struggled to retain their shape. Some of the sand hovered in the air, shaking as it pitifully tried to fight the gravity. Sasha’s face was turning flushed as she struggled to keep control of her sand. Each grain was being pulled away by the inevitability of a fundamental force. It was pointless. There was too much sand to control and manipulate individually. The golems were breaking apart, section by section. But still, Kai remained cautious.
It only took half a minute for the first golem to collapse completely. Breaking apart the sand moved like a cloud and collected on the well. The other two were barely holding on, half of their sand was already missing. Their backsides were completely gone. Sasha’s body shook a little as she tried to retain control of her sand. But as long as Kai fed mana to his gravity well, it would do its autonomous work of pulling on everywhere nearby.
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Deciding it was time to end the fight, Kai walked into the gravity well’s range. He traveled fast across the ground, ready to react at a moment’s notice to any sand. Passing between the golems, they each stretched out an arm to grab him, but all that happened was their arms and hands disintegrating as the well took away their sand. A few moments later, he assumed she gave up control of the remaining golems when large amounts of sand quickly flew past him.
Free of keeping the golems from falling apart, she began constructing a dozen spears of sand above her head. Only his gravity well was already tearing them apart just as fast as she could create them. Kai could see it in her eyes when she realized. Tens of thousands of grains of sand all individually fighting against the unending pull of gravity.
Changing tactics, she let go of her half-destroyed sand spears and focused on one which rapidly took shape and launched it at him. The projectile flew much slower than he had seen in her other matches. Sidestepping it, he easily evaded the spear.
Kai noticed Sasha’s eyes welling up with tears that also were carried away by gravity. She neither moved nor avoided him as he approached. Once he was two meters from her, she lowered her arm and stared at the ground near his feet. She might not have said it yet, but her mind and body had already surrendered the fight.
Kai didn’t care to wait for her to surrender. Planting his foot against her chest, he pushed. Sasha flew back until she crashed into the pile of sand surrounding his gravity well, where she appeared stuck as her feet were floating off the ground, her body attached to the well.
Apparently, the adjudicators had seen enough because the match was called the very next second.
“With an overwhelming victory, Kai has moved into the top 8!”
Kai released his gravity well causing Sasha to fall to the ground. She looked so pitiful as she stared down at the ground. Approaching her, she flinched back.
“It was a bad matchup,” he claimed as he held out his hand.
His mana was still at three-quarters and his health hadn’t been touched. Truthfully the match had been a lot easier than his last.
Tentatively reaching up she grabbed onto his hand and hoisted herself up. “You better win it all,” she grinned, with watery eyes, before she fled the arena.
----------------------------------------
Kai’s foot tapped nervously as he watched the current match from the window. He was nervous because tomorrow he would finally know if he would be attending Prime Academy or not.
The second and third years were finishing their first matches for the day. This was done to give some time to the first years so that they could recover their mana. Likely, only the super-wealthy students had mana potions hidden away in their rings. With all the excitement from yesterday, Kai had forgotten to find out where those mana potions could be found. And now his brother was once again in the wind. After dropping Kai off at the academy gates, he left with a short goodbye and a vague message that he would be in touch. He hadn’t even wished him good luck. Kai shook his head, having no idea what to think of their relationship.
Two short hours later, the first years were back on rotation. A smile came to his face as he heard who he would be fighting against. Turning to the man in question, Jason was staring right back at him. His face was devoid of the usual arrogance and sneering.
[Human – Forging Level 19]
Changing his mace for the sword he calmly walked to the arena leaving his back exposed as a subtle taunt at Jason. Just like Kai, Jason’s weapon of choice was a short sword. They had spared a few times in their melee tactics class. Where Kai had power and strength, and Jason used speed and feints. Kai assumed Jason had more passive abilities than him, some that subtly helped him out in those “non-magic spars.” When it came down to those non-magic fights though, Kai had begun winning most of them towards the end of the year when he became more accustomed to Jason’s tricks and feints.
A pattern was beginning to form as Jason followed him onto the field without his armor. Clearly, everyone had decided that his gravity was enough of a nuisance, that they needed to lighten themselves against him. He was certain it would benefit Jason more than it had Sasha since Jason’s air magic helped him move around.
Kai gave Jason a taunting smile. His response was the usual glare that lacked the arrogance it typically held.
The match began under the roar of the crowd.
Testing the waters, he placed a [Gravity Pillar] over Jason. He frowned when Jason moved out of it almost instantly. Canceling it, Kai placed another one on top of him, trying to slow the bastard down. Only for him to escape that one too. The problem was they were too small to effectively keep him in it before Kai could make up the distance and get to him.
Instead of approaching Kai, Jason dashed to the side keeping close to the arena’s edge. Distortions in the air formed above him as he moved. Followed by a noise like the wind howling that became louder as crescent blades made of concentrated air shot at Kai.
Striking down the first, his blade sliced through the fast-moving crescent air attack, dissipating it. Before he could strike down the next, it crashed into his shoulder forcing him to take a step back. He felt a sting of air on his bicep where he lacked armor. Blood seeped out of a new cut on his arm. Ignoring the pain, he returned to chasing Jason.
Jason was putting his speed to the test as he kept his distance from Kai. Apparently, his plan was to incapacitate Kai from a distance. The large arena was allowing the dexterous wind warrior to kite Kai around. Luckily for Kai, domain was no longer his only wide-area gravity effect ability. His mana took a dip when a [Gravity Well] formed to the side of both fighters. Caught in the pull, the air attacks shifted off target as they passed by Kai. His well had pulled on them just enough to make them miss.
Now that they were both under the influence of his gravity, they both moved slower. Though Kai’s speed was less reduced than Jason’s.
Growling Jason stopped firing and focused on running right out of his gravity well. Not giving him a break, Kai canceled his gravity well and spawned another to their side once again, closer than the last.
Proving his intelligence, Jason began firing crescent air blade after crescent air blade at him, intentionally aiming at the opposite side of Kai from the gravity well, so his well pulled them into the direction of Kai’s body. Doing what he could, Kai tried to dodge the air attacks, but they were too numerous and fast. Placing his arms in an X pattern he felt the impact of the blades hitting his armor. Each hit sounded like a solid object had bashed against his armor. A warm breeze blew against his exposed arms and legs that stung new cuts that had formed.
Peeking at his mana, he had already used two-thirds of it. This made him regret not having any true ranged attacks right now. Again, Jason had escaped his well, though the distance had shrunk more.
The very second, he canceled his gravity well, Jason turned and sprinted at Kai, surprising him. Before Jason had even made it to him, the wind had begun to pick up as if an unsettling storm was coming.
Their swords met in a clash of steel and iron. Drawing back Kai struck keeping his swings short and compact as he made sure not to overextend. [Domain] activated over the two right as Kai’s sword slammed down onto Jason’s, causing Jason’s to nearly drop out of his hands because of the sudden power behind the blow. Recovering quickly, Jason struck back forcing Kai to dodge.
Despite being new to fighting under increased gravity, Jason was able to react and keep up with Kai. His face was the picture of concentration as they exchanged blows. It was almost a dance as they circled around one another, trading strikes.
Despite his misgivings about Jason, Kai had to admit the young warrior was putting up the best fight he experienced during the tournament yet.
Their blades slid against each other. Taking a step forward, Kai pushed at the weaker warrior. Shifting his grip, Jason slid the blade down and moved his arms up, and pushed up causing Kai’s blade to move out of the way. Kai’s felt his body turn cold for a second as Jason’s sword scraped against the side of his chest piece. Taking one hand off his handle, he slapped the sword away with his forearm guard.
Irritated Kai gave Jason no mercy as he struck his sword down again and again. Jason held his blade defensively across his body, waiting to block the next strike, until Kai swung down with heavy blow, shattering his defense. “Ahhh,” Jason screamed as the tip of Kai’s blade ran over down his chest. Blood slowly leaked out of the shallow wound.
Taking advantage of Kai’s overextended sword that was touching the ground, Jason spun, elbowing Kai in the side of his helmet. Barely phased, Kai grabbed onto his arm and pulled him in closer headbutting him. Dazed, Jason stumbled back. Right as Kai was about to finish him, Jason pushed his hand out creating a giant gust that pushed him away a few meters. Kai barely budged as the wind stung his wounds.
Jason looked ragged as he got back into a stance. Giving him a grin, Kai said, “You should know my gravity helps drain your stamina much faster and that’s not including the added energy you’ve been using to move in increased gravity.”
A look of understanding passed by Jason’s face. The match had already been going on for a while now, and he must have realized his stamina was draining quicker than it was supposed to. Kai’s body was used to performing in this gravity.
Time to end the match. Before Jason could even think of gaining distance again, Kai formed another gravity well right in his path. Reacting to the sudden appearance of the gravity well, Jason pushed his hand out as powerful winds helped blast him away from the dense sphere of gravity. Only to find himself next to Kai who had predicted his movement.
Slamming his sword down, Jason barely evaded the blow. Kai attacked with the ferocity of a hungry wolf, giving Jason no time to breathe let alone counter his unrelenting strikes. Low to the ground, Jason placed his palm out to push himself away again only for Kai to grab the front of his shirt. The shirt tore as the wind howled at Kai’s face.
The sound of Jason’s ragged breath brought a smile to Kai’s face. The bastard had been evading him most of the match, but his passive [Burden] had drained his stamina before he even ran out of mana.
Lacking the energy to escape, Jason feebly held his blade up to block as Kai struck. Jason’s sword crashed into the ground away from the fighters. Stretching his hand out, he caught Jason by the throat and lifted him up, so his feet dangled off the ground. He made sure not to squeeze too hard. Jason appeared like he had been mugged on the streets. Bleeding, with torn clothes, and dim eyes, he had given up.
An impulse of anger flashed over Kai as he remembered when they first met. “Know your place.”
Dropping his own sword, Kai punched Jason in his stomach with heavy blow before the officials could call the match. Letting go of Jason at the same time, the wind warrior soared through the air and crashed a few meters away.
Jason struggled for breath as he switched between gasping for air and throwing up, curled up on the ground. Turning away he walked back to the waiting room, leaving Jason on the ground where he belonged.
“Winner Kaismo.”