Mor thought he knew now what pain was after the last brutal muscle aches before the human got him to do morning exercises and stretches, but this "not so bad" intensive training was hell, he almost felt like he was losing hair. But at least this was over now and the human stayed true to their word and the last week before the turnamet was just resting, up. Still, Mor couldn´t calm down, because he didn´t know what to do with his time now, at least the human would let him keep doing his morning exercises. Because of that, he was incredibly excited as they had just three days before the tournament revealed the pairings.

°Ok, where are we?° Mor searched for his Name and found it completely to the right.

°There, meaning right the first fight and where is Ranbor?° he asked and after a quick search he found the name of his ex-tormenter completely on the left, meaning they would not meet before the finals.

°I recognise tampering when I see it.° The human states and Mor had to agree.

°Miss Amethyne probably doesn´t want this duel to happen at all, but rules are rules.° Mor answered.

°Still that means, we have to get to the finals first. Good, we already planned for it.° The human said and Mor smiled.

°Then let´s look, at who we are up against first.° The human said looking at the roster again °E. Emeror, you know him?° they asked and Mor shook his head.

°No I don´t remember anyone with that name, but Emeror is probably a branch family from the Emeralds, so probably wind-attributed.° Mor said

°Well no sense wrecking our head about that now, time to get some food, do some stretches to take the nervous edge off, and go to sleep. Then we are in the best shape possible.° The human told Mor and both went to end the day early.

Sometime later that day, Ranbor looked at the same list and smiled.

"Amethyne has made sure we don´t meet up, shame. But she made a mistake. Don´t disappoint me Emtsor, the peasant is yours, just stomp him completely into the ground and make him pay to disrespect the nobility."

Emtsor Emeror nodded. "As you wish Lord Ruby, I will drown the commoner in my storms."

And Ranbor let out an evil chuckle.

The next morning, after a restful night, Mor went through his morning routine getting in some stretching and then breakfast. Followed by getting his bag of stones and making his way to the gathering hall for the announcement of the exact rules by the headmaster. As he went to his spot he noticed Ranbor smiling at him and Mor shuddered at that.

°I don´t like that look.° He told the human, who had to agree.

°Something is up, we have to be careful.°

But further musings were cut short as the headmaster took the stage.

"Dear students, please pay attention, as I tell you the rules of this midterm. Firstly you are allowed to go all out while you are in the Arena with your opponent, the arena is fitted with protective magic, keeping you from being seriously wounded. Secondly, you will be graded according to your performance and finally keep your rivalries and fights in the arena, if someone is caught trying to "even the score" outside of the Arena, it will have the harshest of consequences. But now without further ado let the midterm test begin!" The headmaster explained the rules.

With hoots and applause, the headmaster left the stage and the students were herded towards the arena, by the other teachers. Mor was just walking along when a feminine hand touched his shoulders and he turned around looking at Miss Amethyne.

"Mister Agaton, you are in the first round, please follow me." She told him, and Mor followed, he was led to a side room and made to sit down.

"Now Mister Agaton, I need to ask, what you have in this bag of yours because weapons or something like that are not allowed. This is after all a contest of magic."

Mor shrugged and showed his collection of stones to her.

"Just stones." He told her truthfully and got a confused look as a reward.

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"Why would you bring stones, for your magic test?" She asked him, and he explained.

"I want to use single-grade magic and therefore need some materials. I didn´t know if the Arena had what I wanted, so I brought some." And Miss Amethyne nodded.

"I understand, this will be allowed, but remember, this is about magic. You´re already on my watchlist and if I see you hitting someone with that bag of stones, without using magic, like some sort of barbaric berserker. I will disqualify you. We are of the soul-kin and not the berserkers of the ice-kin after all."

Mor nodded and answered, "I didn´t plan on using it as a club, just for the throw-stone spell."

Which satisfied Miss Amethynes´ questioning. "Good then you are ready to go, here´s the door to the arena, after your duell just leave through it again, and I or another teacher will bring you to the stands to watch the following duels."

Mor smiled at her and left through the door, stepping outside the darkened room and instantly getting blinded by the burning sun. As he entered the sandy arena with some metal pillars, designed as cover or obstacles he heard a lot of booing.

°Seems, we are not so popular° The human stated the obvious. °But let´s raise hell!° they added.

Mor had an evil smile plastered on his face because of the humans' enthusiasm. °This will be fun, let´s keep surprising them until we win the whole thing!° he told his partner.

Emtsor entered the arena, squinting his eyes, why did they have to keep this room so dark? If he is only blinded by the sunshine afterward, as his eyes got used to the brightness he saw his opponent, the commoner Ranbor wants to be crushed. He shrugged, sometimes you just have to do what the higher nobles want you to, and it would not be tragic for the commoner, he would just get put back in his place and could be happy knowing his betters cared so much for him. The only thing giving him some nervousness was the warning Zaletha gave him, that after his accident the commoner was somehow different and as he took a better look, he saw the smug smile on the commoner's face. Oh, he would put him back in his place, this uppity behavior is not acceptable for commoners, they should bow to him and the other nobles and be grateful for everything.

With a loud gong, the fight was on, Emtsor watched the commoner run towards some of the metal pillars and smiled to himself, that was more like it. At least the commoner hat that much sense to hide himself from his magic and now the rumor that he was "running" in his free time made sense, but Emtsor did not care, he was ordered to go all out and crush the commoner, so all out he would go. With a spike of power, Emtsor gathered the air around him, letting all his power flow....

Mor watched in horror as his opponent entered the arena, and he finally got a face to the name.

°Oh no!° Mor exclaimed.

°Isn´t that one of Royal-butthole´s flunkies?° The human asked.

°Why did you not know his name?° They cited Mor, who got defensive.

°He never introduced himself! And I didn´t think that Ranbor would tolerate a lesser noble in his entourage! I thought his "friends" would at least be upper nobles!°

°Well, too late to cry over spilled milk!° The human said and Mor asked

°What´s this milk now?° His nerves getting the better of him.

°Not important right now! Get ready!° The human admonished and got ready to move. As the gong sounded through the arena, the human exploded Mors's body into movement, getting into cover.

°Come on we can do this! We trained, just keep going, we are stronger than this pompous ass!° The human tried to motivate Mor and then it happened. The air grew eerily still, and even the human could feel the powers unleashed by their opponent.

°Oh, shit!° the human exclaimed, and Mor´s face went pale.

°That is not good!° Mor fearfully exclaimed.

°Quick! I have an idea, just ...° The human called out

The unleashed storm hit the arena like a hammerstrike, the iron obstacles giving off stressed metal sounds but holding, sand and dust became a torrent of razor-sharp projectiles, and both contestants vanished from view. Ranbor smiled excitedly, yes now the peasant would know true power, Emtsor would quickly run out of power, but nothing the peasant could do would keep him from losing and of course, getting a bad grade. Ranbor bribed one of the applied magic teachers, with some favors from his family and knew therefore, that this tournament was a ruse, it was just to get everyone motivated to do their best casting offensive spells. The only advantage winning had was to get to show off more often, but going all out in the first round, would at least get yourself a passing grade, now with Emtsor´s dominating power over the peasant would not get to show off at all and fail. Ranbor laughed, his plan was perfect!

Rosana watched in horror, as the storm toppled one of the metal pillars, the tournament was not meant to be fought at this power level, the spell unleashed was a continuous spell of village-class probably scratching on demographic-class power levels. Even she was not sure, she could escape a spell like that without using all of her power. This kind of spell would come at a cost though, Mister Emeror would not fight his second round, he would be completely out of energy in just a few seconds, but for this win that would be all he needed. She did not understand what pressed the young mage to such an extreme reaction.

Slowly, the storm wained and the dust settled, through the haze, a single figure could be seen bent over panting, but standing. Emtsor looked around, breathing hard, that spell took everything out of him, but from the commoner, no trace was left, and he smiled at a job well done. That is what you get for messing with nobles, without being strong yourself he thought. Ranbor laughed as the crowd gasped in shock, as the peasant had just vanished, probably getting ground up by the flying micro debris, he would need to give Emtsor something for that performance, he really got rid of the pest.

Headmaster Amethyne watched carefully, keeping his calm, the spell was impressive and worth passing marks, but it could not have obliterated the other contestant, the protective magic was too strong for that.

"What is going on?" He whispered to himself.