Roran was fairly happy with the way this event had gone so far. His team was 2-1, and the one loss was against a group of 4th years. Not much they could do when completely outclassed like that. The shadows were stronger than he expected, but not to a level he couldn’t handle. The biggest concern was how long it had taken Azura’s team. When the portal opened up in the middle of the courtyard, he had a feeling he’d be able to ask Azura what took so long pretty soon, and his friend did not disappoint. Azura stepped out of the portal lookin inordinately pleased with himself, and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little curious why.
“What crazy insane crap did you do now?!” He chuckled. Lily had beaten him to the punch on asking the big question, but he didn’t mind. He walked towards his friend eager to hear the explanation. There was no doubt whatever the explanation was that it would be entertaining.
“Why do you immediately assume it was me that did something crazy?” Azura said in mock offense. He responded with the same deadpan stare as everyone else. Even Elismera and Auros were giving the Silver heir incredulous looks with their eyebrows raised. Azura rolled his eyes, and laughed. “Alright, you got me. I’m guilty as charged. To keep things simple I made a mistake that nearly got us killed, and then did something crazy and reckless to get us out of the situation I put us in.”
“It’s unlike you to be the direct cause of a problem, what happened.” Katy asked with concern. He was of the same mind. He had never met anyone as cautious as Azura, what could have happened that would lead to him making a mistake that severe? Well whatever it was, it probably wasn’t something they should be discussing out in public.
“He just got a bit overzealous against our opponents, it wasn’t a big deal.” His eyes widened. Elismera had sounded almost defensive. Something major had happened in there, and whatever it was Azura didn’t want it getting out. He couldn’t think of another reason for Elismera to be stepping in like that.
“I’ll give you the specifics later, but out of curiosity, how long has it been since we were first put in the extra space?” He frowned at Azura’s question. Azura had a pretty good sense of time, it was odd for him not to know. Whatever happened to them must have been pretty weird indeed if he had to ask a question like that.
“A little over an hour, I think.” Luna answered his question hesitantly. He was unsure if that was due to her being unable to let go of her misgivings or out of the same curiosity that was driving him mad. He knew Azura would tell them, but that didn’t stop him from being exceptionally impatient. He had a feeling the answer would be worth the wait.
***
Barely over an hour? Azura hadn’t realized just how severe the time dilation had been apparently. Most of that was probably the time it took him to properly reform in the spirit world. He had set the portal to summon his friends to the spirit world a bit later than him, to give himself time to start the process so they weren’t stuck waiting too long. Not that he was conscious of the process.
“How long do you think it’s going to take for everyone to finish up? I’m bored.” He smiled, if there was one thing he could trust his friends to do it was break the silence. After spending hours in the void where all he could hear was his heartbeat, just about anything was a soothing sound. Lily’s complaining included.
“Hard to say. The opponents aren’t the same for everyone. So there are too many variables for me to properly guess.” If they all had opponents of the same caliber as his team did, then Katy’s and Roran’s teams definitely would have lost. Not that he doubted their abilities, but his allies were much stronger, and even still his team's win was more luck than anything. If it had been a standard match where spells didn’t actually affect the people then they would have lost.
“I figured that might be the case when you came through a portal instead of just reappearing like everyone else. Our opponent probably would have been super easy for your team.” He wondered about that. Oh well, they’d trade stories later, so he could find out what kind of opponents everyone else dealt with.
“Yeah, the headmistress really seems to have it out for you.” He rolled his eyes. Katy wasn’t wrong, but she wasn’t necessarily right either. If he had to guess he would say the headmistress had chosen him. For what he didn’t know, but whatever it was she was doing her best to prepare him for it.
“I don’t mind it so much, one doesn’t grow without challenge afterall.” It’s not like he had been slacking before coming to the academy after all. He put his all into training every day beforehand too, but all the competition and life threatening trials had helped him improve leaps and bounds, and that wasn’t even counting the power ups he had gotten like fusing with his draconic side or making a spirit contract.
“Wow, it’s pretty unlike you to look at the silver lining.” Siara chuckled at him.
He grinned back. “No it’s not, it’s just that usually the silver lining is still bad, just less bad than everything else.” Though he never said it out loud, he constantly thought that all the bad luck was worth it, because it had made him friends like them. Although if his ‘bad luck’ was all by design of whatever intervened when Garrion was reading his mind, then perhaps his meeting with them was also by design. The question was just what was that being building?
Luna chuckled, but stopped herself quickly, flushing in embarrassment. He sighed. Luna and Katy had taken his history pretty hard when he decided to fess up. Katy had more or less gotten over it, but Luna had been trying to act normal from the beginning, and he got the feeling her failing to air out her grievances was only making them worse. He’d need to have a talk with her about it at some point, but now wasn’t the time.
***
Azura’s friends had once again split into their 3 teams, all rather excited to give the tournament a try. Of the 32 teams that had made it in, his friends were the only 2 composed entirely of first years, and there weren’t many that had even 1 first year in them. Counting his there were 3 teams with 1 first year on them. A cursory look at the competition was all it took to know his friends wouldn’t be making it past the first round. They probably knew that too, but it wouldn’t stop them from giving it their best.
He was actually more worried for his own team. They had a shot of advancing, but only if they could work together, and it didn’t take a genius to see that Auros was going to be a problem in that regard. He needed to find a way to deal with that… at least temporarily. What was he supposed to say though? Especially since he couldn’t exactly bring up the actual issue in public. He glanced at Elismera. She met his eyes, and properly guessed his intent, because she just shrugged.
He sighed. It wasn’t really surprising, she hadn’t ever given off the vibe that she had great social skills, but he hoped that hers might be better than his. He was setting a fairly low bar after all. “Nothing has changed you know.” He couldn’t be direct, so he’d have to settle for general, and hope Auros got the message.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Auros shot him a wary glance. “Perhaps in reality nothing has changed, but now that I know, I can’t just pretend I don’t. Even worse, is that I literally can’t do anything about it. It won’t affect my ability in the tourney, but don’t expect us to be friends after this.” Harsh, but fair. There was a reason monsters weren't treated like people or animals. The current theory was that they lacked souls, not because of their usual aggressive natures, but rather it was the presence of a monster core that was the basis for that theory.
Humans had no physical mana generator, though they did have metaphysical circuits it was widely believed that the soul itself was what generates mana for most living beings. So why would monsters need a monster core? The train of thought was obvious, even if he personally thought it was rubbish. If anything a core was more like a heart, monsters simply circulated mana instead of blood. Well they had blood too, but all of that was formed with the mana their core pumped out.
“I understand you feeling that way, but I hope you get over it. I could always use more friends.” He walked back to where Elismera was leaving Auros once again separate from the group. He believed that Auros would be able to act professionally during the tournament, and that was enough to satisfy him for now.
“Don’t let him get you down, he’s just a bit close-minded.” He smiled slightly. Who’d have thought a day would come where Elismera of all people was comforting him. Not to say he didn’t appreciate it. He wasn’t kidding about always needing friends part. He found himself in a lot of trouble fairly regularly, and the more allies he had the better.
“I won’t. Thanks for handling all this so well, I appreciate how calm you’ve been about the whole thing.” If he was being honest, Auros’ reaction was probably the more normal one, and that made him appreciate Elismera even more. It was almost funny to think that their first meeting had been her threatening him to leave, and him being stubborn simply for the sake of being stubborn.
Elismera rolled her eyes. “It’s really not that big of a deal. If anything, I’m glad to know how you accomplished some of your tricks.” He smiled, that was how he viewed most things. It was always good to know how people's magic worked, that was true of both friend and foe.
“And that marks the end of the 3rd match!” The familiar voice once again came from all around him. “Now in an impressive turn of events, more people beat the 3rd round challenger than expected. As such we have chosen the top 32 teams based on their record in the first 3 matches. Teams that have been selected have already been notified, as for everyone else you have the option to either watch the tournament or clear the space as we’ll be using a special subspace for the tourney. Our headmistress requests that whatever spell caused the collapse of one of the subspaces used for the 3rd round not be used.”
He flushed. Of course he had no intention of using it again, did she really have to inform the whole student body? Everyone who saw his team come through the portal would immediately put 2 and 2 together. “The subspace will override this area in 30 minutes, so anyone not wanting to be stuck here for hours watching the tournament please leave the area before then.” Many of the students seemed conflicted. After all it would no doubt be entertaining to watch, but being forced to sit and watch an entire tourney would probably be tiresome. That and the amount of people giving him wary glances increasing from 1 to too many to count was aggravating him. At least the rest were looking at his team as a whole trying to figure out who had busted the subspace.
“At least no one would dare pick on you now.” He laughed. Most wouldn’t dare from the get-go. He may not like it, but Silver was a prestigious name, and he had lived up to the expectations placed on that name. Kaiser was the only one in the school who would dare stir trouble with him, other than his friends anyway.
“Yeah, instead everyone will be super uncomfortable any time I enter a room, what an improvement.” He said sarcastically. They didn’t know who on the team had done it yet, but it wouldn’t take much observational skill to see how uncomfortable Aurso was around him in particular, and guess that meant he was responsible. That wasn’t why Auros was uncomfortable around him obviously, but they wouldn’t know that.
“If it’s any consolation, people were going to start doing that anyway after watching this tourney. I wouldn’t be surprised if you surpassed me before you even hit 2nd year. You are truly monstrous, and that’s not even the scary thing about you. Your versatility is amazing, I have literally never seen someone who fights the way you do. People are going to be nervous of you, that’s just the way it works.” He sighed, that was the opposite of consolation, and he knew Elismera knew that. She was prepping him, because he had no doubts that most of what she said was true.
“Maybe I’ll surpass the fighting strength you’ve been using, but I doubt I’ll be stronger than you quite that quick.” He hadn’t realized she was holding back with the intention of people not realizing she was stronger than she let on, he thought that was just her being nice enough not to demoralize her opponents. Most people wouldn’t notice, but he wasn’t most people, and he knew when someone was holding back.
“Caught onto that did you?” He rolled his eyes. She had actually expected that to work on him? Maybe if he had never actually witnessed her fight, but her movements alone made it obvious she was holding back. Though he’d admit to being wrong about why she was doing it. He wondered why she didn’t want people to know her true strength. He didn’t think he was wrong to compare her to Kaiser, even though she hadn’t shown even a fraction of that strength.
“I honestly thought everyone knew, but I guess most people wouldn’t pay you that close attention, especially since it’s hard to find time to think in a fight with you.” Lucky for him Reign didn’t say fighting him was like fighting smoke for nothing. He was a slippery opponent, and he prided himself on that. Now if only he could get reign to fight in a way other than blasting things till they die or give up he’d be golden.
“I can assure you most people don’t. In fact other than you I think the only one who knows is Kaiser. We had a private match once, so he could ‘see what I’m really made of.’ He won, but it cost him.” So his judge of their powers was dead on, or at least his judge of their powers in relation to each other. It was possible he was wrong about their actual strength, though he doubted it.
“I can’t believe he knew your full power and still said something crazy like I had to leave you with an injury. If you had been going all out I’d have been a smear before I even got started.” Honestly he didn’t even know if his grimoire would be enough to even the odds. Not that he would have dared to use it in a situation like that. He really needed to work on trump cards he could actually use. Perhaps literally, this extra competitive Cyvran had actually given him a lot of ideas. Funny how something going from a game to life or death makes you view it in a whole new light.
“It’s probably because he knew my true power that he said that. He knew the second I made the challenge public that I wouldn’t be using it, and if the guy who bested him, even if only by technicality, failed to injure me while I was holding back, that would have been pretty embarrassing.” He didn’t really think so. At no point during their ‘match’ had he been able to do any kind of damage, or even knock Kaiser off balance. With all of his tricks, and all the mana he had in his body he had managed to get a single hand past the man. Still pride was a tricky thing, he knew that better than anyone.
“If you say so, I’m just glad I don’t have to fight him again. I get plenty enough practice fighting things way out of my league, frankly I’d love to get some practice against people near my level. Most people I fight are way above or way below.” It was the nature of the beast though. Thanks to the pool and the dagger he was incredibly strong for his age. That wasn’t to say there weren’t people in the school he was roughly even against, but with Auros alienated, not many would spar with him. Losing to a first year would look really bad after all, so why should they risk it? Or at least that was their mentality.
“Your friends will catch up. The weaker you are, the easier it is to get stronger. Barring any other sudden power ups, they should be able to close the gap.” She was right of course. It would take a while, but he had no doubt they’d be able to. Aside from Lily none would be able to match his magic output, but if they played to their own strengths they’d give him a run for his money. Not that he’d let it be easy for them, he had no intention of slacking off either. In fact he had come up with some new training methods, and his friends were going to hate them, but he had no doubt they’d be effective. An evil smile came to his face. He’d give them the training from hell.