Kaiser one sidedly dominated his fight again. He sighed. So boring, perhaps he should just let his team handle things, at least until he got to fight the only team he was bothering with the tournament for.If it was those 2, they should be able to manage, though perhaps asking them to deal with teams of 4th years might be pushing it a bit. Liander was higher up on the 4th year's power scale, but not to the point he was overwhelming the other 4th years, so Kaiser would unfortunately have to fight no matter how boring the opponents were.
At least watching the fights was more entertaining than participating in them. He was pleasantly surprised at Elismera’s use of the divine tree. Even he had a hard time getting past it when she used it against him before. It was a splendid spell, both offensively and defensively. In the end he hadn’t found a way around the spell, and had been forced to unleash his full power to go through it. She was definitely an interesting opponent, to the point it was curious that she usually refused spars with him. He had to be the only one in the school who could be a challenge against her, just as she was for him, yet she still almost always refused to spar.
“You know you could at least let us cast a few spells before you end the fight.” Liander yawned as he stretched his back. A rather overt display of boredom, but he didn’t blame his fellow 4th year, he was rather bored as well.
“We might as well conserve energy while we can. There is at least 1 team that might actually be able to overtake us.” He chuckled, Gareth had come to the same conclusion had he? The kid had a good head on his shoulders, he supposed the boy didn’t consider Azura to be his rival for nothing.
“What you mean Elismera’s team? She’s already been defeated by Kaiser before, and you yourself said you and the other firstie are roughly even. That leaves me against a 2nd year. At best we’ll get a decent fight out of them, their chances of winning are nonexistent.” Liander spoke, confidence ringing from his voice.
He noticed Gareth about to respond to Liander, but beat the first year to it. “I don’t think so. I’d say their chance of victory is actually closer to 20%. It’s true that in 3 1v1s our odds would be rather good, but this isn’t 3 1v1s. Also keep in mind if you’re just using the results of past battles to judge that technically Azura has defeated me before.” Most people would avoid talking about losing to someone younger than them, but Kaiser relished in it. It had been by the smallest of margins, a mere technicality, but the first year had won. That wasn’t something many could say against him, and he wasn’t going to say it didn’t count because Azura had pulled out a ton of tricks, that was all part of a fight, just the same as a punch or kick.
“Not in a fight. If anything that was the equivalent of him beating you at chess, while he only had half of his pieces. Don’t get me wrong, the kids are super talented. Little Gareth and him both are going to be far stronger than me when they are 4th years, but neither of them would be able to lay a scratch on me, and as long as you keep Elismera occupied I can handle the other 2 by myself if I had too.
“You haven’t fought against him yet, so you don’t understand. His strength isn’t the issue. If it was a test of strength, or magical ability I’d beat him every time. Yet he was the vital piece in our completion of the 1st trial, and I was outright beaten in the 5th. I’m not saying we’ll lose, but don’t let your guard down, Azura is a tricky opponent on his own, but he really shines in a team.” He smiled. He was impressed that Gareth was willing to admit to Azura’s strengths like that. The boy was more mature than he was at that age, and perhaps just as talented. If only Azura and Gareth could have been his age, he would have had some worthy sparring partners. They would have done it too, both of them had an incredible will for getting stronger after all.
“Gareth is right. He was able to outplay me by himself, but even I could tell his true power would only reveal itself in a team battle. I’m getting quite excited about it to be honest.” He loved it when his blood pumped like this. Every cell in his body filled to the brim with energy. A fight that he could be proud of, win or lose. A fight he could put his everything into, and have the possibility of it not being enough. Even that 20% chance of a loss, was more than he had ever experienced before, and against someone who had beaten him in the past with an even slimmer margin. His competitive spirit was ignited, and one look was all it took to know Gareth was the same. Liander didn’t get it yet, but he would, and every student in those stands would as well. Who would have thought the day would come where he would be excited by the growth of another mage.
***
Azura had an ominous feeling wash through him a bit after the final fight of the 2nd round. Kaiser going all out was a message, and he couldn’t say he liked its contents. The 4th year wouldn’t be underestimating him this time, and he knew Gareth wouldn’t. He always knew he wouldn’t have the element of surprise forever, but he didn’t expect to be put to the test this quickly after coming back. First with those shadows and now this. Kaiser had completely mopped the floor with him, and he had beaten Gareth by the skin of his teeth, so he had hoped their team would be overconfident, but it was clear he wasn’t going to be that lucky.
It made sense, he supposed. One doesn’t become as strong as Kaiser by being careless, and Gareth had a similar upbringing to his. And that meant he wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice. Gareth would be going all out from the start, and he’d have to do the same.
“And with a quick finish by Kaiser that concludes round 2. Now we’ll move onto round 3 so we can find our semi-finalists.” He raised an eyebrow. It seemed there was going to be a lot more fanfare for these next rounds. Not that he minded, this felt more like what a tourney should be. “First match of round 3 is going to be team Crimson vs team Tempest.” Oh joy, up till now they had just been using people's names, but apparently they were just saving the team names for the final 3 rounds. He wasn’t entirely pleased with the team name he had reluctantly agreed to.
“Oh they are using team names now, I was starting to wonder why that was even a thing we had to decide on.” Elismera seemed ecstatic. Probably more because she knew it bothered him more than any pride in the name she came up with for them. It didn’t even fit, for multiple reasons.
“The first match of round 3 is set. Now… Begin!” To his surprise the fight wasn’t over after the 3 pillars of blood rose up to devour Kaiser’s opponents, instead a loud clap of thunder dispersed the blood, and several shots of lightning flew towards Kaiser. Kaiser casually swiped his hand causing a blood wall to form and absorb the attacks before shooting at the enemy team as a giant lance formed from the now sparking red liquid.
The enemy team surprised him again, by teaming up to create a wind strong enough to divert the lance, but they weren’t prepared for the flock of fire birds dive bombing them from above, or the mass of ice spikes that followed in the wake of the blood spear. Gareth and their 3rd member had finally been able to join in on a fight, and it looked like they were eager to not waste the opportunity. Unable to handle the onslaught after focusing too heavily on Kaiser the other team tempest lost 2 members, and the 3rd surrendered with any hope for victory wiped out in the brutal counter attack.
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“It wasn’t a bad attempt.” Auros spoke up. He was surprised to hear the boy after the silent treatment he had been receiving, but pretended nothing was off for the moment.
“They should have gone after Gareth instead of Kaiser. Picking off the weaker members so they can focus on the most dangerous one without worry.” It’s not like he didn’t understand their reasoning, Kaiser was the biggest threat, and if they could take him out in a sneak attack then the win was as good as theirs, but such a plan was hopelessly optimistic. Kaiser wasn’t the kind of guy that would be taken out that easily.
“If they went after Gareth, then Kaiser would have wiped them out.” Auros’ response was more heated than the conversation warranted, but he ignored it. Hopefully this would help relieve some of the tension that came from his secret becoming known.
“Kaiser was going to attack again either way, and they actually did manage to divert his attack, so if that attack had gone for Gareth they actually had a shot of taking him out, from there they could divert Kaiser’s attack, and then they might be able to block the 3rd members attack without the dive bombing fire birds.” They still probably would have lost against Kaiser and the other 4th year, even if they got lucky and managed to take out their third member Kaiser still would have been more than enough to take them out.
“Has anyone ever told you it’s kind of aggravating that you’re always right?” He laughed. It seemed like Auros was slowly coming around. He supposed seeing him act just like he always did was enough to make the 2nd year falter on how bad the monster core thing really was.
“While I’m far from ‘always right’, I have indeed been told that on a fair number of occasions.” It was probably because of how he betrayed himself, filled to the brim with confidence, even when talking about how he would probably lose confidence still radiated from him. Such is the duty of a noble, or that’s what his dad drilled into his head since he was little anyway. Nobles managed a vast array of land, and if one looked unsure or worried it could cause the citizens of said land to panic, and possibly riot. Not that there was any risk of that happening on Silver lands while his father was in charge.
“After that exciting match, team Crimson takes the win. Onto our 2nd match of round 3 Team Enchanted flower vs team Inferno core!” He groaned, the team name made sense. Flowers symbolized both of his teammates' powers as they were a plant, and needed to be watered often, the enchanted part was obviously for him, but really? Surely they could have come up with a cooler name. Elismera had practically strong-armed him into agreeing with it, and he regretted letting it go. He sighed, guess there were worse things than fighting with a team name he didn’t like.
He didn’t really like being the round immediately after Kaiser, for a couple of reasons. He really hoped these fights were random. “Well I guess we’re up again.” Elismera casually tossed her hair as she stood up. He and Auros followed her down into the building, so they could head towards the gate. He and Gareth had been reprimanded for jumping into the arena during the 5th trial, so he’d been avoiding a 2nd offense. “This team is pretty heavy on fire attacks, so you might need to bring your A game Auros.”
Auros rolled his eyes. “I’ve been bringing my A game, not all of us are so crazy powerful we can afford to hold back against 3rd and 4th years.” He chuckled. Auros was no slouch, easily comparable to the average 3rd year, but when they were against the top of the 3rd and 4th years it was only natural the 2nd year would be wary. Still he and Auros had been holding their own as support.
“You’re telling me, I’m keeping pace on willpower alone at this point.” He was lucky that he had the ability to go beyond all out, thanks to his preset enchantments and stored mana. Technically magic items weren’t allowed, but given that the cards themselves arguably count, the actual ruling is that no magic items created for a purpose other than Cyvran were allowed. For most people that was plenty effective, but he had the ability to make his own, so the rule was a minor inconvenience.
“I’m calling b.s on that one. The only time I’ve seen you struggle was in that sub-dimension. Other than that disaster of a fight you’ve been breezing through this whole thing.” He smiled, this time Auros’ comment came out more like a jab than him actually picking a fight. Progress at the very least.
“Elismera has been putting in a little more effort since then, so I’ve not had to do much.” He wasn’t playing humble either. He had cast a few spells here and there to try and speed things up, but if he hadn’t been there the battles would have been more or less the same. He had resigned himself to a supporting role in any upcoming fights, luckily his skillset made him pretty good at everything. So he could switch between support or offense in an instant.
“That’s true, let’s hope that keeps up, the more energy we can save for our fight with Kaiser the better.” He nodded, as they passed the south gate entering the arena. Of course the energy conserving applied to Elismera too, but he was helping her with mana recovery. When they had learned about enhancing other people in class he had researched that skill intently, and had come up with a variety of techniques based on the skill. Enhancing mana recovery was one of them.
“Speaking of, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, but focus on supporting Auros rather than me this time.” He rolled his eyes. He had already enchanted her attacks to be fireproof before, so this was a thinly veiled attempt to get Auros back into team player mode, since he’d been fighting basically on his own since the tourney started. Him and Auros shrugged at each other and played along.
“Yeah, I think I can manage that.” This fight was going to be a tough one, since Elismera had just as good as stated that she was going to take a lesser role in this fight. He didn’t know if he and Auros would be able to manage on their own. Neither of them was up to par with their opponents in 1 on 1s. Having it be 2 on 3 was a very risky proposition. Of course Elismera would probably step in if they needed it, but he was honestly grateful for a chance to see what he and the 2nd year could do without their win button.
***
Katy had been having a lot of fun watching the fights. Azura didn’t really appear to be doing much, but she was sure he was sneaking stuff in, but it made sense for him to be backup more than anything in these games. His own abilities wouldn’t be enough to compete in a brute force contest, but he could manipulate the field and help his allies to maintain an advantage. She had a feeling he was going to be a lot more active this fight though. His face was grim and focused as was his male team mate. While the elf princess lady looked like she was thinking of something funny.
“Do you think she’s going to make that giant tree again?!” She chuckled. Figures that Roran was still excited about that, not that she could blame him. That was magic on a scale beyond anything she had ever seen. Rather than that drawing her attention to the magic though, it just drew her attention to how blase Azura was about it. He had seen magic on that scale many times before. Azura had probably even made plenty of enemies capable of magic at least on that level, the tightrope of death. Azura had used that phrase when describing what it was like to deal with nobles stronger than he was.
It had never really clicked for her. How could it when Azura was the only mage she regularly interacted with. He was so much stronger than her, that it was impossible to imagine mages stronger than he was. Seeing that tree though really drove it home. There were people here Azura genuinely couldn’t beat, and that thought made her blood run cold. She had relaxed a little since then though, Azura had seen that level, or even higher plenty of times, and yet he moved forward without fear. She’d just have to do her best to do the same. “I have no idea, predicting Azura’s strategies is like buying a lottery ticket.” He was just too unpredictable.
Everyone chuckled at that, but silence descended when the announcement for the fight to start broke them from their thoughts. The fight started with an explosive hiss of steam as a massive wildfire met a truly impressive water golem. The steam quickly condensed forming several blades of water. The makeshift swords then fired rapidly at the enemy team. She raised an eyebrow. Elismera had yet to raise a finger. What was the plan here?