Winter weather settled in fully as the Tournament drew near. No one expected it to snow again, but thick frost now lined the windows and the grass crunched underfoot in the early morning. Students were bundled up as much as possible, even when running, their rapid breathing creating misty clouds of condensation that trailed them around the fields.
The cold dark nights were no longer silent either. An owl had moved into a tree outside Yaric’s window, and while no one had seen it yet, it could be heard calling each night. A friendly competition had started to see who would be the first to catch a glimpse of their new neighbor.
Despite all this, classes continued at the same pace. The Winter Solstice Tournament was just around the corner, and once it was over, the students would be moving into their 8th year, and their first combined classes. They would still officially be known as 8th years, and their accommodations would stay the same, but classes would now be shared with 9th and 10th years, along with more personalized instruction from their teachers.
Magic classes were already more or less personalized lessons, as there was no other way for their teacher to continue. Yaric was now practicing his shield by changing the anchor point. Flat shields would manifest in front of his hand, elbow, and even his face. He looked forward to being able to stand still while someone punched him, only to find their fist blocked by a solid wall of arcana.
Today, however, they were separated from their class and taken to a part of the Academy that Yaric recognized well. He’d once had a good look at the small structures set in rows, though he didn’t see much when he left. The Tech Duinn’s.
“Right, I’m aware that Novice Miller has used one before, so he will go first while I explain the procedure to the rest of you. Go on, start right away.”
“Don’t pass out!”
Emil watched Yaric go in before moving to the controls and gesturing for his friends to come closer. Then the door to the shimmering building closed and Yaric was standing in utter darkness, a slight feeling of dread weighing him down.
A familiar hum started quietly, building up until the whole building thrummed with power. The small room was illuminated by a soft glow, revealing the dais with its mist-like reclining chair.
Yaric lay back into the chair and settled himself. He only took a single deep breath before placing his hands on the brass sleeves, activating the Tech Duinn for the second time.
Massive pressure bore down on him, seemingly trying to stop him from drawing breath, but Yaric immediately reached out as if to grab hold of the force pushing down. It faded away almost instantly, leaving only a heavy pressure instead of the previously unbearable one.
No spell form manifested for him to copy this time, but he already knew what he had to do. Yaric concentrated and began the task of forming his new fireball spell, creating first the shell and outer flame anchored over his hand, and then replacing the air inside the shell with compressed fluid.
The carbon shell crumbled, releasing the pressurized fluid with an audible pop. Flaming liquid sprayed in all directions, creating a small inferno all over and all around Yaric. Except it didn’t.
Just as it had done previously, the Tech Duinn shunted away all of the arcana that Yaric channeled, pulling it into the building itself. Every component Yaric formed was created by the building, connected like a second mind, linking Yaric to a simulated space where his fireball formed and failed, catastrophically.
But that was okay. It was the whole reason behind using the Tech Duinn to practice the actual forming of the spell in the first place, so no one would get hurt when mistakes inevitably cropped up. In this case, Yaric took too long to replace the air inside the carbon sphere, allowing it to oxidize when the heat from the external flames accumulated too quickly.
Yaric took another deep breath and tried again, creating the spell components more quickly while linking everything together as fast as he could. This time the shape of the sphere was off, and the pressurized fluid immediately shattered the ball, spraying highly flammable liquid through the outer flames and all over the caster. In this case, the building.
It was disorientating to open your eyes and find nothing there, as the spells weren’t simply cast off to one side but were fully simulated, meaning no spell actually went wrong in reality, but it was also comforting in a way that Yaric hadn’t expected.
Two dozen attempts resulted in only three successful castings, all of which occurred in the last five attempts. It wasn’t very encouraging, but the progress was easy to see. Along with the fiery deaths that would have been the result if he’d tried to practice on his own.
Each time his spell structure was recreated for him, exactly as he had cast it, with his errors highlighted in red. Small yellow areas brought his attention to smaller errors that affected the quality of the spell.
Yaric broke the connection and got up when the building began to power down. The deep thrumming that had become part of the background slowly shifted back to a soft hum, letting Yaric know it was time for one of his friends to take their turn.
The light outside was almost blinding when Yaric exited, making him squint. Only then did he realize just how much warmer the Tech Duinn was as well, shielding its user from the freezing weather outside while they focused on casting new spells.
“Well done, excellent work,” Emil immediately stated. “I wasn’t expecting anyone to successfully cast this spell so soon. Quickly though, change places. I’m only helping you today because it’s the first time for most of you, from now on the regular staff will run things. I still need to get back to the class before the lesson is over.”
Lauren took Yaric’s place, and he finally got to see things from the outside. There wasn’t much to see.
Emil manned the small control station, where he monitored Lauren’s progress. There wasn't any way to see what was happening inside, and it was done that way by design.
“The Tech Duinn is used by everyone at some point, and Wizards will continue to use it for the rest of their life. Often it’s used to test new spells or secret combinations, so there isn’t any way for us to check up on the arcanist inside. Not many Arch Wizards would enjoy researching a new spell while others monitored them from outside.”
“But we can see how the spell went?” Yaric pointed out, looking confused.
“Yes, students such as yourselves aren’t able to take control from inside. This spell is also a very basic one, known to the Tech Duinn. It can monitor the casting and point out errors. If you were researching a new spell you would simply see failure points and areas that came under stress, but you would have to figure everything out for yourself. Unless you add the finished spell to the Tech Duinn of course.”
Lauren managed to get a few right before her turn ended, though she also didn’t feel confident about her chances of success if she tried to cast the spell outside the Tech Duinn.
Li Na struggled initially, with multiple problems appearing during each attempt, but she managed to cast the spell successfully twice, back-to-back, before failing again on her last try. Sven succeeded twice as well.
“That was so weird,” Li Na said when they were making their way back.
“And eye-opening,” Lauren replied. “Imagine how dangerous it would be to practice offensive spells without a Tech Duinn. Just one mistake and you could be seriously injured.”
“But now we can try out really dangerous spells whenever we want.”
“You still need to learn how to cast them, Lina. None of us know any very dangerous spells.”
“But we could. That’s what really matters.”
“Did anyone have any problem connecting to the building?” Yaric asked.
“I wouldn’t have known we were doing that if you hadn’t already explained it,” Sven confessed. “You lie down, and it just happens.”
“That chair is amazing,” Lauren added. “It’s so comfortable.”
“Yeah. Imagine lying down in that chair and getting hurt. ‘What happened to you?’ ‘Oh, I was injured by a comfy chair in an empty room.’ It would be so embarrassing.”
Yaric bumped Li Na sideways and she playfully bumped him back.
“We’re going to have to start booking time so we can keep on practicing that spell. I don’t know about you guys, but there’s no way I’m trying that spell outside the Tech Duinn. Not until I can cast it a hundred times in a row.”
Lauren and Sven fully agreed, and Li Na nodded as if unconcerned.
Using the Tech Duinn became a regular occurrence. Yaric tested all of his spells while inside, using the feedback from the device to try and improve the quality of everything he cast. Yaric tried to tell the others, but Lauren had already had the same idea. They had discussed it while waiting for Yaric to finish during their second attempt at getting the fireball spell working reliably.
Days passed quickly, and in seemingly no time at all, the Winter Solstice Tournament was upon them.
Yaric made his way down to the arena with his class, carrying extra blankets along with his armor and a small bag of sausages he’d taken with him after breakfast. All of his friends were carrying extra food to snack on.
Soon they were in their seats, wrapped in blankets and waiting for the Tournament to start. Yaric noticed that the staff section was unusually full this year. Most staff attended every event, but they would come and go as they pleased, leaving large sections empty at any one point in time, particularly during the morning. This year it was packed right from the start.
“Welcome all, to this year's Winter Solstice Tournament!” Jaxxon announced, standing in the middle of the arena and magically amplifying his voice. “Before we get started, I have an announcement to make. At the end of the Tournament we will have not one, but three exhibition matches between Apprentices. All three matches will be held consecutively, so we can give each our full attention.”
Excited murmuring filled the arena. It had been years since Yaric had last seen an exhibition match, and this time he hoped he might be able to follow some of the melee combat.
“Now if the second years could please come down to start the Tournament for us, we can begin.”
Jaxxon disappeared as he usually did, only to be replaced by a bunch of eager second years.
Yaric watched their fights with interest, finding himself surprised every Tournament but just how much further ahead he was. He always felt guilty about it, because obviously he was better, those kids were only at the end of their second year. It would be a serious problem if he wasn’t significantly better. But every year he also remembered how he’d watched his first Tournament, and how kids far younger than him had been so much better than he was. Those problems seemed so distant now, and it was a good feeling.
‘Huh… this time I’m the defending champion…’
It was also interesting to see the clear differences in talent. Some students were just that much better than their classmates, winning fight after fight. It didn’t happen too often in the younger students, but that only made it stand out even more.
Certain individuals stood out for other reasons as well, and Yaric smiled as he watched Punchy Face get punched in the face, while he listened to Li Na’s commentary on the fight from under a warm blanket.
Some of the kids were shivering between fights, leading to Scaredy Cat facing off against Frightened Fool, along with a bunch of other students who were just feeling cold.
Meanwhile, Yaric and his friends were enjoying hot snacks. They passed their small bags of food back and forth, taking whatever they felt like. Yaric cast a quick spell to heat the roll Li Na gave him and leaned back, taking big bites from the steaming bun as the 1st years made their way down to compete in their second ever Tournament.
The morning passed quickly, despite the cold. Endless commentary and multiple bets later, hot drinks were handed out along with lunch, and not long after, Yaric found himself leaving his comfortable blanket for the cold, frigid arena. Teaching staff were forming small huddles, which Yaric knew was just them making bets, even though the exhibition matches weren’t for a few more hours.
Yaric hadn’t bothered to set up opponents in advance, so he just made his way onto the nearest available field in his armor, armed with a sword and shield.
Sven stepped inside on the opposite side. There wouldn’t be even a single fight before they faced each other this time. Instead, this Tournament would see one of the biggest duels would be held right at the start.
“Begin!”
Yaric dropped his sword and raised his hand, sending a torrent of air at Sven far quicker than he’d thought possible. The spell was cast in the time it took to raise his hand, so Sven had only taken a single step forward, moving less than a meter from the outer edge of the field.
Wind whipped at his eyes, making them water, while Sven was forced to lean forward into the wind to keep from being blown back. Unfortunately, he was also being blinded and finding it hard to breathe with all the dust getting ripped off the ground, so he ducked his head behind his shield.
He should have rather thrown it away.
Yaric pressed on, walking forward quickly and slowly sinking into a crouch as he did. Sven raised his hand over his shield, trying to counter the spell with one of his own. He couldn’t see that Yaric had crouched down low, blasting his spell upward from near ground level. Sven’s own spell went over Yaric’s head with almost no effect. Then the hurricane-force winds lifted Sven too far off his feet, and less than a second later he found himself pushed out of the field and out of bounds.
“Match!”
The big duel was nothing but a surprise push over the line.
“When did you learn to cast so quickly?” Sven asked, clapping Yaric on the shoulder.
“I’ve just been practicing. These spells are only really useful if you can cast them immediately.”
“I haven’t seen you do it so quickly before.”
“Ah… well… I might have been practicing it without casting, so no one would know how fast I could cast it.”
“Ha! Planned for this in advance, I see? Well, I still have two more defeats before I’m, I’m sure we’ll face each other again today. Next time I’ll make sure I can breathe instead of choking on dust.”
Sven and Yaric split up for their second fight.
This time Marlon squared up against Yaric, clutching his longsword with both hands. As one of the few dedicated longsword users, Yaric had fought Marlon many times. He dropped his shield and readied his own longsword.
“Begin!”
Both students advanced quickly. Marlon started with a sweeping strike at Yaric’s knee, which Yaric blocked and then countered by lifting the tip of his blade to strike Marlon’s hands.
Marlon withdrew before he could make contact, but Yaric advanced, keeping Marlon in range and putting him under as much pressure as he could. Of course, that went both ways, and Marlon countered immediately, thrusting for Yaric’s face and forcing Yaric to deflect.
The exchange lasted several seconds, until Marlon shifted to his side to avoid a thrust aimed at his shoulder, only to have Yaric pull back his sword by slashing at his neck.
“Match!”
This Tournament seemed to be more intense than the others, as Yaric found himself facing Lauren for his third fight. Lauren held her shield and spear against Yaric’s sword, so he quickly strapped his shield back on.
“Begin!”
Lauren lunged forward into a full-on charge, sprinting toward Yaric the instant the fight started. She reached back with her spear and launched it at Yaric with a fully augmented throw.
It was impossible to dodge.
Yaric already had his shield up, and the spear smashed into it with a crack, penetrating deeply enough that a couple of centimeters of spearhead made it all the way through. The heavy spear was embedded in Yaric’s shield, weighing it down and acting as a lever. Yaric only just managed to drop his shield when Lauren was on him, her sword drawn.
Left with no choice, Yaric fought with both hands on his sword, using its greater flexibility to both attack and defend. He attacked whenever he could, looking for a gap in her defense, but there were no gaps. Yaric found himself with no way through, so he switched targets and began striking Lauren’s sword directly.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Powerful two-handed blows struck twice, not merely deflecting or blocking, but striking as if he aimed to break Lauren’s sword. The augmented strikes were enough to almost knock the sword from her hand, however, forcing her to shift further behind her shield and bring her sword back so she could shift her grip and continue the fight.
Yaric stepped forward and kicked, augmenting himself as much as he could and trying to kick upward as well as forward. Lauren was sent sprawling. Usually, an attempted kick like that would be blocked with a sword blade, but Lauren found herself completely unprepared when she was effectively disarmed for a few seconds.
The tip of a sword against her neck signaled the end of the fight.
“Match!”
“We need to spar more often,” she smiled, looking like she was eager to get back in the Tournament.
Following the same theme, Yaric found himself facing Li Na next, and immediately decided that from then on, he would be picking his opponents, instead of waiting for others to choose him.
“Begin!”
Li Na immediately raised her shield and dropped into a low squat. She slowly shuffled toward Yaric with a stance so low that her shield covered her from her forehead to the ground. Only her arm rose above the shield, held high enough that she was able to rotate her mace vertically without it striking the ground.
Confused, Yaric held back, knowing that Li Na was likely attempting to do something stupid, like use her squat as a starting position for a jump. The last thing Yaric wanted was to be taken by surprise.
He started moving around Li Na, intending to use her awkward stance to flank her, but Li Na stood up at the last second, a wide smirk on her face. Placing her mace down headfirst and with the handle sticking up, Li Na pulled her shield to the side and triumphantly raised her mace hand, palm up. A bright ball of flame manifested.
The mage shields almost seemed to shimmer into place before Yaric even heard the whump, followed by pressurized fluid spraying everywhere as the fireball detonated, dousing Li Na in flames and spraying across Yaric’s ankles.
“Match!”
Yaric was the immediate winner, and he hadn’t even done anything.
The crowd didn’t seem to think so, however. Scattered laughter was followed by wild clapping and cheering. No other loser of a fight received a standing ovation as they left the field, still burning like a walking incendiary. Several of Yaric’s classmates ran forward to warm their hands next to Li Na, earning her even more applause.
“I can’t believe you thought that would work,” Yaric laughed.
“I got it right before. Go big, or go up in flames!”
Yaric’s next fight was against Chelsea.
She came onto the field with a sword and shield, and at first it looked like it would be a normal fight. Yaric held back on using his spells as he wanted to keep a few cards up his sleeve, but it was Chelsea who ended up catching Yaric by surprise.
Yaric was just about to step forward after disengaging when Chelsea dropped her weapon and raised her palm toward Yaric. He didn’t even think. Reacting instinctively, Yaric leaped forward with his shield raised and angled back, trying to directly intercept Chelsea’s hand. He was slightly too slow, but the fireball he was expecting never arrived.
A long sliver of wood was gouged from his shield by the wind blade Chelsea launched at him, before it deflected upward and over Yaric’s head. Yaric took a risk and shoulder-checked her with his sword arm, repeatedly smashing his whole weight into her shield and forcing her back. With her dropped sword now lying on the ground behind him, the fight didn’t last long.
Chelsea still looked ecstatic.
The very next fight was much the same, though this time Kayden did launch a fireball, which splashed harmlessly against Yaric’s shield. Yaric also caught several other spells going off in his peripheral vision. It seemed like more and more of his classmates were already using magic in combat.
Sven’s words proved prophetic, as round after round culminated in Yaric facing him once again, this time in the finals. Not that anyone was surprised.
Sven had defeated Lauren without loss, leaving him with only his single defeat. Yaric was still undefeated and would need to be knocked out three times to lose.
“Begin!”
This time both fighters rushed the other, meeting in the middle with clashing blades. Sven fought with a completely different style this time, moving around Yaric constantly.
Both probed for gaps, trying to maneuver themselves into position for a definitive blow. Yaric tried alternating between high and low strikes, using the length of his blade, while Sven focused on switching between thrusts and slashes, trying to catch Yaric with his shield out of position.
Finally, Sven switched tactics yet again, cutting at Yaric’s side and forcing him to block with his shield, then immediately following that up by punching across his body with his shield hand, striking the exposed edge of Yaric’s shield and knocking his whole arm out to the side.
Yaric stepped back frantically to create some space, but Sven stepped forward to match, his sword already thrusting for Yaric’s heart.
And then he tripped, stumbling forward and past Yaric in a desperate attempt to stay on his feet. Yaric brought his sword around over his head and chopped down at the back of Sven’s neck, creating a flash when it struck a mage shield. Sven fell on his face.
“Match!”
“And there we have it,” Arch Wizard Phelps announced, suddenly standing on the field once again. He rarely gave any commentary before an overall winner was found. “An interesting use of the shield spell to create an opening for victory.”
Sven stood and dusted himself off before looking at Yaric inquisitively. Yaric just slid his leg forward and slowly swung his sword down, revealing the small mage shield he had anchored half a meter away from his toes, at ankle height. Sven snorted and moved back to his starting position with a wry grin.
Both of them smiled and nodded once they were in position.
“Begin!”
Yaric immediately repeated his actions in their first fight, dropping his sword and raising his arm. This time, however, Sven discarded his shield the second the wind struck, leaving him in a far better position without the large flat surface for the wind to push on. He also held his breath and put his head down, illuminating his biggest problems. Leaning forward, Sven began powering forward, one step at a time.
Unlike last time, Yaric wasn’t advancing, though he did crouch lower. He also didn’t wait very long before cutting the spell, no more than ten seconds, but as soon as he did he shot off a small fireball before ducking behind his shield and bracing himself.
BOOM!
Large amounts of methane had built up around Sven, which he would have realized if he hadn’t been forced to hold his breath. A single fireball had ignited the gas, creating a massive explosion and sending a cloud of dust racing past Yaric. His chest still felt like it was vibrating from the sound.
Yaric looked over the top of his shield to find he was under a mage shield as well. The final second of a large mushroom cloud was rising over where Sven had been, its flames going out as Yaric watched. In front of him was a swirling cloud of dust, raised by the explosion and then agitated further when the air rushed back in.
The entire arena was utterly silent.
Jaxxon clapped once, startling Yaric, and all the dust instantly dropped to the ground, revealing a wide Sven still under a shimmering shield.
“You tried to exterminate me like a bug?!” Sven asked incredulously. His voice echoed awkwardly around the silent arena. Nothing happened for almost two seconds.
“Match!” the referee shouted unnecessarily, and several seconds too late.
Then the crowd erupted.
Several of Yaric’s classmates ran onto the field, led by a wildly leaping Li Na.
“You copied my trick! That was awesome!”
Lauren and the others surrounded Yaric and Sven, leading them off the field where the rest of the class was cheering.
“My my,” Jaxxon’s magically enhanced voice muttered. “We saw a seventh-year class use magic in combat for the first time during the last Tournament, but it would seem that they’ve taken things a step further. Several leaps, in fact. Who would have thought that they would end this Tournament with an even bigger bang?”
Jaxxon had to wait for everyone to calm down before he continued. That in itself was highly unusual.
“I counted twenty-six different students using offensive spells today, some more than once. I doubt you will see that many spells thrown around again until we have our exhibition matches later on. But will any of those be as destructive as simple gas and fire?”
People were still clapping while Yaric and the others received their rewards and stripped out of their armor.
The referee approached them as they were about to make their way back to their seats.
“Just be careful in the future,” he warned, looking directly at Yaric. “You were outside the lethal range of that blast, but hiding behind a shield isn’t going to protect you from a shockwave like that. The overpressure would still have injured you. A situation might call for it, but it’s a very dangerous stunt to pull if you aren’t in serious danger.”
The referee turned back to the fields before Yaric could reply, but he fully understood. Dust had whipped violently past him while he crouched behind his shield.
“Still like hitting someone with a magic mace!”
“Lina, your mace is a magical mace.”
“Duh! It’s my mace!”
Safely ensconced under their blankets again, Yaric and the others began discussing their fights. They obviously started with the big explosion at the end, and everyone behind Yaric kept leaning forward to congratulate him again as well, but there had been several occasions when they had been attacked by magic.
Lauren’s spear throw was also discussed at length. She had almost splintered the shield entirely, though while that would have looked impressive, Yaric thought that having the spear stuck in the shield, without enough time to discard it, would be the best possible outcome for her. Li Na realized that she could have aimed for the forearm bracing the shield, as the spearhead penetrated deeply enough to injure the wielder, but that only made Lauren upset when she realized what could have happened.
“The referee would have shielded me,” Yaric shrugged. “You can’t hold back. We need to discover these things now, not in a real fight.”
Lauren looked slightly mollified, but she clearly wasn’t happy with the situation.
Li Na had apparently been blown out of bounds exactly the way Sven had – by Sven. And Lauren had caught an opponent by surprise by simply using a second wind blade shortly after the first. It seemed that people had been so focused on practicing to get a spell off in time that many were caught by surprise when faced by someone who could quickly repeat the same spell. Li Na also won back-to-back fights by using a brief blast of wind on the ground between her and her opponent. The dust blown up by her spell left her opponents blinded and gave her easy victories.
Students eventually settled down as the afternoon wore on. The next two classes had been far more subdued, although there were several spells thrown into the mix, which hadn’t happened during the previous Tournament.
Still, everyone was augmenting themselves as they usually did, providing the spectators with some spectacular physical feats.
“Hey, why haven’t we been learning proper augmenting spells?” Li Na suddenly complained.
“What do you mean?” Lauren asked, yawning from the pillow she had made of Yaric’s shoulder.
“We’re still using that component thing; it isn’t a real spell. Why are we learning all these other spells when we haven’t learned a proper augmentation spell yet?”
“Wouldn’t you rather shoot lightning or something?”
“I’d rather smash in faces by moving so fast no one can see me or dodge in time. Augmenting beats any other spell every time.”
“Hmmm… I’m not so sure.”
“Well it can smash through almost anything,” Sven acknowledged. “Lightning can be blocked much more easily.”
“If you can make a shield fast enough.”
“Augmenting can make you faster than lightning,” Li Na countered.
“Maybe…”
“And Yaric said Lloyd wanted him to keep learning how to fight with weapons because it beats spells - because augmenting!” Li Na added, closing off the argument.
Lauren looked up at Yaric for confirmation.
“Not exactly… kind of… I told everyone what he said, remember? If you get close you can force someone to fight with weapons, and some creatures are very resistant to some kinds of magic. So you need a sword or spear to kill it. Both are important. Besides, there’s more to augmenting than making yourself faster and stronger for fights,” Yaric added, remembering his previous conversations with Lloyd.
“Like what?”
“Enhancing your senses or other objects. You can make walls stronger, or make something heavier. Lots of things,” Yaric said weakly. Lloyd had mentioned many options, but he hadn’t gone into any detail.
“I’m sure we’ll learn what those things are,” Lauren said reassuringly.
“Yeah, and…”
“And with that, this year’s Winter Solstice Tournament is over,” Arch Wizard Phelps announced. “But stay in your seats, because we have three exhibition matches for you today. First up, Apprentice Daveshaw will be facing Apprentice Wu.”
Yaric noticed that while many of the staff were huddled in groups again, there weren’t any more than when his class had gone down to fight. Most were simply watching the fight.
Two students walked out onto the field, using the full length of the arena.
“Apprentice Wu,” the referee shouted, promoting the Apprentice with the short sword and wand to raise his sword in salute.
“Apprentice Daveshaw.” The man with the sword and shield returned the salute.
“Begin!”
Daveshaw shot forward, intent on closing the distance, but Wu began by raising his offhand and using his want to cast more powerful spells.
Rocks tore from the ground and raced toward Daveshaw, but Daveshaw appeared to be able to step off the air. He continually dodged every object thrown his way, all without touching the ground. Then Wu sent a small orb of light into the air, directly in Daveshaw's path. It flashed the instant Daveshaw passed under it, sending out a wave of force that drove him into the ground.
Daveshaw stood up and dropped into a defensive stance, sparing a quick, confused glance toward the area where the light orb had been.
Wu sent two fireballs arcing his way, but both splashed harmlessly on the ground around him. Ground which immediately bucked wildly, tossing Daveshaw off his feet and creating rows of stone spears to impale him when he landed.
Daveshaw merely stepped off the air again, heading straight for Wu.
Not even ten seconds had passed by this point, and most of the arena’s ground had been torn up.
Yaric recognized the wind blade Wu fired off next, but he was utterly shocked when Daveshaw dodged it only for the wind blade to detonate, sending shards of stone flying in a cloud of shrapnel. There certainly hadn’t been any stone floating around when the wind blade had exploded.
Wu blocked Daveshaw’s retaliatory lightning blast with what must have been a preprepared spell, then sent out an almost solid wall of air, halting Daveshaw’s advance with just ten meters to go and then pushing him back further.
Spells began dancing back and forth, much of it wind or lightning-based. Most spells were dodged, preventing the consumption of preprepared spells, but Wu’s spells continued to behave weirdly.
A ball of stone fired off wind blades to both sides as it flew, creating flank attacks. Another fireball exploded in shards of stone like the earlier wind blade, while another wind blade hit the ground, triggering the earth to release an explosion of stone spears.
“I get it,” Lauren said. “He casting complicated spells that he’s too far away to use, but he’s anchoring them to those basic spells. Those wind blades and all the other spells are just there to carry the really big spell to the target.”
And evidently that was the intention behind this exhibition match, as Wu continued to use the strategy as much as possible. Daveshaw got a blast of lightning close enough that it clearly affected Wu, but his very next rock spear exploded into a giant blob of transparent goo. It covered Daveshaw, and though he easily managed to fight his way free, it very obviously limited his mobility in some way. He wasn’t able to get off the ground the next time Wu triggered a wave of stone spears to shoot up from the ground, ending the match.
“Congratulations to both fighters, an excellent display. I have been told that Apprentice Wu has been very focused on encapsulation and its use in combat, and I believe many full Mages and Wizards will have learned a thing or two from this fight. Very good work!
“Our second exhibition will be between Apprentice Flynn and Apprentice Filipov.”
This time the fight was far less exciting. It was still fun to watch, but both fighters had agreed that there would be no offensive spells, only augmentation and mobility-related magic. Watching so much power on display was interesting, especially melee combat that took place right across the length of the repaired arena grounds, but it was so fast that Yaric struggled to follow the actual techniques. Most strikes were still a blur to him, and he was sure that more than one blur had been made up of several strikes.
Yaric wasn’t even sure who had won in the end.
“Congratulations Apprentices Flynn and Filipov. It would appear that you both managed to break through the wall you found holding you back. Best of luck with your continued training. Now, we have one final match today. Apprentice Storm will be facing Apprentice Bailey. Good luck to you both!”
Yaric immediately noticed the flurry of activity amongst the staff. This was clearly the event they had been waiting for, and Yaric knew exactly why. Rebekka Storm strode onto the field with her spear in hand, facing off against an opponent who must have been Apprentice Bailey.
Bailey was equipped in a manner Yaric had never seen before. He had a short sword on his waist, but he had at least a dozen weapons strapped to his chest and arms. Yaric’s only guess was that they were throwing daggers. Looking more closely, Yaric noticed he also had a small war axe on his opposite hip. Neither sword nor axe seemed like it would be a good match against Rebekka with her spear.
They both saluted each other, and the match began. Or rather, it should have, but Bailey disappeared.
“There he is!” Sven shouted, pointing.
It was difficult to make out, but Bailey was circling around Rebekka in a wide arc. Yaric struggled to keep his eyes on him, though it wasn’t too difficult to watch the dust he kicked up when he started running.
“Why’s he so hard to watch?” Li Na complained, squinting her eyes.
The arena was wide open and fully lit, yet keeping track of Bailey’s movements was incredibly difficult. Especially when Yaric realized that while he was keeping track of Bailey, he wasn’t able to confidently make out what Bailey was doing. He could see the person, but not the individual movements of the arms and legs. Not enough to follow in a fight, anyway.
All the while, Rebekka wasn’t just standing still while Bailey ran around. Wind swirled around her, forming miniature tornadoes that picked up small stones from the ground. Those stones began glowing a molten red, and once they had accumulated to the point that it looked like there were two swarms of fiery bees on the field, Rebekka launched them at Bailey, using the momentum of the whirlwind to hurl them in large groups.
Rebekka flinched when an unseen spike flew past her knee, and quickly dodged the follow-up throw aimed at her arm.
Meanwhile, a small hailstorm of molten rock buzzed around Bailey, forcing him to put up a shield to defend himself and make himself plainly visible to everyone.
Yaric would likely have preferred to keep his distance and rain an avalanche of meteors on Bailey, but Rebekka chose to close the gap instead, sending the rest of her arsenal of stones at Bailey while she followed closely behind.
Bailey had far more success with his axe and sword than Yaric had predicted, forcing Rebekka to pull back her arm more than once, and allowing Bailey to knock her spear far off center whenever she did. His odd spells made following his attacks difficult, particularly his axe, and Bailey was repeatedly able to force Rebekka to let go with one hand so she wouldn’t lose it.
Still, Rebekka clearly had the upper hand overall, even with her occasional leap to dodge another thrown projectile. Things changed drastically when the air suddenly grew white with frost. Yaric could hear the crackling of the air from his seat, and Bailey staggered back.
“She just made the air cold, why would that affect anyone like that? It’s not like he’s going to freeze over.”
“Have you ever had to breathe air that’s far below zero?” Sven asked.
“Ahhh… Yes. That would be a problem,” Yaric acknowledged.
“Weren’t you two dating?” Li Na suddenly asked.
“Huh?”
“Yeah, I’m sure you were. She kept visiting you before you joined our class.”
“Lina, you know she’s Lloyd’s other student. She was checking on me for him.”
“She was probably teaching you how to use your affinities.”
“We only share affinities for fire. All her other affinities are different.”
“Even though she has so many?” Li Na asked, her mischievous tone changing to one of surprise.
“Yes. Though she could probably help Sven with his.”
“Why?” Li Na and Sven asked simultaneously, though Li Na’s eyes were slightly narrowed.
“She has all of his affinities. Every single one.”
“Huh,” Lauren said quietly. “One could even say she has a ‘Sven affinity’.”
Lauren’s head shifted suddenly against Yaric’s shoulder, while at the same time Yaric heard a thud by his feet. Li Na gave Lauren a satisfied smirk before turning to Sven.
“How far does that cold air spell thing reach?”
“I think you can see the frost in the air across its whole range.”
“Oh. It’s still cold up here though.”
Sven wrapped his blanket around Li Na, while the fight below grew even more intense.
Rebekka had been happy to continue training against someone with such unusual skills, but she’d had several close calls by now and she clearly wanted to end it.
A wide, sweeping strike from her spear was easily avoided, with Bailey stepping back far enough that the spearhead would pass half a meter in front of him. Which it did. Only, that didn’t seem to matter at all.
A shield sprung up over Bailey as the spear passed, and Bailey was sent tumbling through the air as if he’d been struck regardless. Rebekka ran over to help him up while the crowd waited for the call.
“Stupid Force Mages,” Bailey grumbled, making Rebekka laugh.
“Match!”
“Another fantastic exhibition match!” Arch Wizard Jaxxon announced, suddenly standing on the field once again. “Sponsored by the same High Wizard whose other student tried to blow up his friend earlier today, Apprentice Storm demonstrated several different affinities in this match, six, I believe,” Jaxxon said, glancing over at the teachers who had been placing bets.
“Don’t try to blow up your friends,” Lauren admonished sleepily, weakly slapping Yaric’s chest.
“Sorry.”
“Her opponent, on the other hand, just gave us a wonderful demonstration of some ways to use another rare affinity, shadow.”
Lauren sat up suddenly and turned to stare at Yaric, along with Sven and Li Na. “That’s what your affinity can do?”
“I have no idea,” Yaric shrugged, feeling trapped. He knew just as much as they did.
“And with that, our Winter Solstice Tournament is at an end. Go and warm up now, and enjoy your last day in your current year. Dismissed!”
The field was suddenly empty, but the students began filing out anyway.
“Hey, don’t we join other classes tomorrow?” Li Na asked, waddling beside her friends while still bundled up in Sven’s blanket.
“Yes, most of our classes are mixed. Eighth, ninth, and tenth years together,” Lauren replied.
“It helps when we’re learning about different affinities,” Sven explained. “We’ll have enough people that almost every affinity should be represented at least twice. And it lets more experienced students help teach those with less experience.”
…
“Well, I’m not teaching those losers.”