Azura was unusually glad for the day to be over. His friends had all returned to their rooms once he told them the problem was resolved. Or at least managed for the time being. More than anything he needed to rest, today had been one thing after another, and he needed rest. Unfortunately, sleep was not coming easily today. No, instead of sleeping his mind was going miles a second as he started putting pieces together. Something he had said offhandedly after one of the trials had bugged him. Someone had interrupted the trial, just to ask a question. His uneasy feeling made him fairly confident it had something to do with the book of origin.
On top of that the elves were attacked for the seed of yggdrasil as well. That couldn’t be a coincidence, and neither could the fact that both of those things found their way here. He glanced to the side at his heavily enchanted vault. In terms of appearance, vault was not a fitting description. It was merely a metal box with a lock on it, but with his enchantments it became nearly impenetrable.
In there the book he had identified as the book of origin lay. It didn’t just tell him how the world worked, according to legend he could use it to rewrite reality. Not that he had any intention of testing that theory. That would be too much responsibility for him to handle. Not to mention if he started he couldn’t guarantee he was mature enough to know when to stop, so best not to start at all.
As if just those 2 weren’t enough, it was his guess that Lily was the acolyte of destruction even if she hadn’t awakened to it yet. Which meant all 3 sources of primordial power were in the school right now. Each having chosen their champion, perhaps even chosen them from the very point they were first made when the world was new.
He sighed. Wasn’t it too early for world altering powers to be involved in his story? If this was destiny or whatever it should have at least waited a few years, as it was he had no idea what he was supposed to do about this. He sighed again and accepted that he wasn’t going to get to sleep, normally if he couldn’t sleep he’d either enchant or go to the forge, but this time he unlocked his vault and pulled out the book that was partially responsible for his current headache.
To his surprise the book opened on its own, and rapidly flipped to a page. Once it stopped flipping he was met with a sword. It was beautiful, looking very similar to Elismera’s blade, except a more matte white, rather than gleaming metallic white. He knew immediately what it was. Well if he was supposed to use that to make her a sword, he might as well make 2. It wouldn’t work as well for him as it would her, but it should still work extremely well as an amp for powers he already had. Guess he was going to end up in the forge after all, just had to make a pit stop first.
***
Cynthia was a bit concerned. They were all gathered in the courtyard waiting to hear what challenge they were going to be facing, but Azura looked dead on his feet. It looked like he hadn’t slept at all last night. “Are you ok?” He glanced at her and tried to speak, but a yawn cut him off.
“I’m not, not ok. Just tired.” That much was obvious, but the question was why was he so tired. He had turned in relatively early last night. She couldn’t blame him. He did have a pretty rough day after all, but that didn’t explain why he looked like a zombie today.
“Hello students! Is everyone ready for another event between all 4 years?!” She groaned as did all of the first years in the space, and even some of the 2nd years. Professor Roads ignored the clearly unhappy students. “Good good, now this is going to be a team event. You must make teams of 3, however the 3 can be from any year so feel free to team up with whoever you want. You will be given 1 hour to form teams, and then I’ll give the rest of the details on this event!”
Azura groaned. “That’s aggravating, we don’t even know what we’re doing to make teams, and to add insult to injury there are 7 of us which means 1 of us will have to find other members.” She felt a little bad about it given how exhausted he looked, but they all knew who the odd one out was going to be. Apparently he noticed their intention because he sighed. “It’s me isn't it? I’ve got to find the other members.” He was the most versatile, which meant he’d work the best with whatever teammates he ended up with; the rest of them were only going to be at their most effective with someone that knew their fighting style and could complement it.
“If it’s any consolation Elismera owes you one, so she’ll probably join your team.” That was a good point. Depending on the type of game it was, Elismera was easily worth 2 of them. More really. Of course he wouldn’t have any practice working with her, but his support magic meant he could adjust his style to suit whatever role he needed to have.
“Assuming she doesn’t already have a team.” He sighed. “Whatever, I guess I’ll go look for a team, you guys can argue amongst yourself to see who’s on which team.” Her and Roran were on 1 team, which meant Lily would be on the other side for balance. The rest would have to be debated between them.
“Good luck.” He waved her back as he walked into the crowd. She really did feel a little bad, but honestly they just would have held him back as they were now. They had kept pace with the copies well enough, but Azura had come back different from before, and gaining the copies' knowledge had given him a huge boost. They had all been training as often as they could find time for, even when they were hanging out they were practicing their mana control. He had exceeded them, but they didn’t intend to let that state of affairs last.
***
Azura mocked annoyance at being the odd one out, but it’s not like he didn’t understand their reasoning. His whole skillset revolved around versatility without sacrificing specialization, as long as he had shards on hand he was capable of enacting almost any effect. That being said it was probably his abilities with support that were going to come into play here. If he did get Elismera on his team then obviously she would be the front liner. Part of him considered asking Kaiser, but the man would definitely not be on the same team as him or Elismera. He wanted the chance to fight against them, though admittedly for different reasons.
Surprisingly the first person he ran into was actually seeking him out. “Hey there firstie, been a while hasn’t it?” The friendly man he had fought during the first event stood in front of him. He had never actually met the man in person, but he was fairly sure the name had been Auros.
“It sure has. Last I saw you was when you kicked my copies ass.” Well that was perhaps a bit much. That fight had at least been far less one sided than his fight against Kaiser. Honestly he had meant to try and find Auros earlier, their fight had been a pretty good match, and he figured the older student would make a fairly good sparring match.
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say I kicked your.. His… its? Well whatever, you know what I mean.” Auros shook his head and then smiled. “Well anyway I was actually looking to see if you wanted to team up?” He tilted his head in surprise. Well he probably shouldn’t be that surprised though he had lost rather one sidedly he had at least competed with Elismera and Kaiser, and he doubted there were many 2nd or 1st years that could do that. Well as far as teammates went Auros wouldn’t be bad, his water magic would be easy to support, and wouldn’t really interfere with Elismera’s magic either if they managed to get her on their team.
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“Yeah sure, but I already have a 3rd member in mind, so if there was someone else you were wanting to add I’d say they are a 2nd option in case she says no. Though I doubt it will come to that.” Auros seemed surprised but not displeased.
“I did have someone in mind, but who is yours? Must be pretty strong if you’re adamant that she gets the first shot at joining our team.” He chuckled as Elismera gave him a raised eyebrow from behind Auros. Apparently he was actually decent enough in their spar that she had actually sought him out herself.
“I’d like to think I’m fairly capable.” Auros turned around quickly, and his draw dropped upon seeing their 3rd member.Not that he could blame the man. She was the 2nd strongest person in the entire school after all. Under normal circumstances they would just be dragging her down, but he was willing to bet that for someone as strong as her someone who can make her even more powerful was worth more than 2 other 3rd years. Auros’s water skill would also have good synergy with her magic.
“E-Elismera?! You’re the one he wanted to recruit?!” He debated on whether a smug grin would be remiss, but decided as usual that it wouldn’t hurt anyone. Auros was gaping like a fish.
“I owe him one anyway, so I figured he might call in a favor for this.” She owed him well more than 1, but he was willing to let that slide. Besides that, she was absolutely absolutely right about his intention to call in a favor.
“You owe him one? She owes you one? How did that happen?!” He laughed. It was good to deal with someone less used to his antics again. All of his friends were well used to the craziness surrounding him at this point. To the point where him basically being a dragon barely made them bat an eye.
“He helped me out with something, that’s all.” So long as she kept her end and told the principal he intended to continue to do so. No one would benefit from the tree being discovered early. Besides, he benefited from having access to the tree too. So he really wasn’t a hard deal for him to make.
“I knew you were something special when I realized you duped me, but wow you must really be something huh?” He chuckled, and shrugged his shoulders. Funny enough considering his normal behavior he had never taken genuine compliments very well. Or rather he didn’t really know how to respond to them.
“Well all that aside, we gathered pretty quickly, so we have almost 50 minutes to try and plan out some strategies, for whatever this event will be.” He didn’t know what the challenge would be exactly, but he had a pretty good guess. Most likely it would be a combat challenge or at least meant to simulate one. When adventuring parties were competing for the same job it was typically decided by a game of cyvran between 3 representatives of each side. Cyvran wasn’t a completely accurate representation of someone's abilities, since some spells would interact in a different way when truly cast, but it was a close enough approximation that most accepted the results.
“There is only one person who’s team we have any need to strategize against.” He didn’t know if he was quite that confident in their teamwork, but Elismera was right that one team was going to be especially tough. Insult to injury it looked Like Kaiser had teamed up with Gareth, the only first year that could probably still compete with him. He didn’t recognize their 3rd member, but he was sure he wasn’t a weakling by any means.
“Well I might have the beginnings of a plan for that group, though admittedly it is dependent on my guess about the challenge being correct.” Cyvran had one major failing as far as simulating a duel went. Speed was only used to decide turn order. Other than that it was essentially purely a duel of magic. There was no movement, no dodging, or using the terrein to your advantage. In this case, that gave them a chance at victory even against a monster like Kaiser.
***
Elismera wasn’t particularly pleased with the current state of affairs. Azura had been correct about what this event was going to be, which unfortunately was a human game she had never played before. Azura had taught her the game, and it really was simple enough, and that was what vexed her. A duel was not a simple thing. Such a cheap competition would prove nothing.Even if she managed to best Kaiser like this she’d get no satisfaction out of it, and Azura’s plan made it even worse. It would probably work, but it felt beneath her to win in such an unsavory way. Yet she did owe him, and so she reluctantly agreed to his strategy all while hoping that she wouldn’t be forced to duel one of the few students she respected at this school in this manner.
“Alright! Your 30 minutes of prep time is up, and I’ll now be announcing the matchups for the first round.” She sighed. Usually events were quite entertaining, but she felt this one would probably be fairly dull, even with the inclusion of all years, which as far as she knew never happened outside of the fall festival. Cards fell from the sky above each of the groups. She watched placidly as Azura caught their card. Their enemy team was stylistically shown on the card. Professor roads really did have a flair for the dramatic.
“Wow uhh, I hate to say it, but these guys look super plain. How are we supposed to find them in this mess?” She considered saying something about the pot and the kettle, but decided it was below her and simply looked around to see if she could find their opponents. Worst came to worst she was easily recognizable, And the tattered blue scarf Azura wore with his uniform should make him fairly easy to spot too.
Sure enough, it didn’t even take 5 minutes for their opponents to find them. A group of 2nd years by the looks of it. Unlike how students would normally be when facing her they did not seem particularly worried. It made sense she supposed, there was no real risk of injury in this game after all “Uhh looks like you’re our opponents. Should we just start, or are we waiting for someone to referee the matches?”
“We’re probably meant to start right away, the professor already gave us a preparation period, and it would be pointless to do that if we were going to have to wait before starting anyway.” The other team nodded, and they stood in a circle with her about 30 ft from the person on the opposite side. Azura and… the other one whose name she didn’t think to ask were about 10 ft from her. Then a larger gap before the other team was laid out in the same order. They really were plain. They wore the school uniforms without any adjournments, and they had brown hair and eyes. Oh well magic mattered far more than appearance, and they made it into the school, so they had to be at least decent.
No one disputed that she was the fastest so she’d be starting off. She formed 5 cards in front of her. She decided to start off aggressive so she selected the 4th card, swiping it up. It was an interesting sensation. She felt like she was casting the spell, and it looked like she was casting the spell, but the slightly hollow feeling of the magic made it clear there was no real weight to it, the spell was practically an illusion. That wasn’t quite right, but if she was honest the explanation Azura had given for how the system worked eluded her. Something about the spells themselves only existing on a pseudo plane, and that was why they were capable of interacting with other spells but not anything else.
Vines rose from the ground and quickly surged for the person on the other team directly across from her, but it was the person on the right side of Auros that reacted, swiping a card up as she had. A dome of swirling fire surrounded their center member, and she was surprised to see them burn her vines to ash as soon as contact was made. She shouldn’t be though, she couldn’t focus on enhancing her vines strength in this card game because they existed in a different place.
She decided to let it go, she had a game to finish after all, and whether she liked it or not she liked losing even less. She noticed Azura play a card while they were focused on the vines and the fire. She rolled her eyes, was there any need to use his cheap tactic against people of this level? The person closest to Azura played a card and lightning shot down on them, but Auros quickly played a card, causing a sphere of water to appear above them and absorb the electricity. The orb floated above them with the electricity visibly bouncing around inside of it.
She made another card and played it, causing the vines to grab the ball and toss it at the enemies. Another card appeared in its place from the spell Azura had snuck in. Not that she had any intention of using it. The opponent across from her swiped a card in panic, and a rock about the size of her head shot through the orb of water, at incredible velocities. That was the wrong play. It worked as both an attack and defense since it came at her after going through the orb, but it also caused the electricity charged water to lose shape and splash all over them. She didn’t bother defending herself knowing Azura would handle it, as she played a card causing thorns to shoot at the team who were already weakened. A wolf head of ice shot up and ate the cannonball before shattering completely leaving nothing but ice shards in its place. She reluctantly smiled. This game was growing on her a bit.