The incoming lances that had previously streaked the battlefield stopped. He immediately stopped the surge of mana throughout his body, and he felt his mind falter and stumble when trying to remember the events that took place seconds ago. Remembering what exactly happened caused more pain on top of the headaches slowly growing throughout his head. Still, powered by adrenaline he could ignore the pain, if only for now, and focus on the combatant before him. He stood in a basic fighting stance, arms raised and body facing to the side; the sphere above him had shrunk to be about half of its previous size.

  He was ready, and waiting. Barlor circled him for a bit, ready to start dodging at any time. Rather than firing another attack however, it was Vaeris that rushed forward to attack him, leaving the sphere behind, he charged circling around him and running quickly to flank him. His steps were quick and he closed the distance quickly. Turning to face Vaeris he readied his hands to do close combat. Turning his head, he was instantly struck by one of the beams from the orb, the world spun and the colors blended together before ending abruptly with a shock and a view of the stone ceiling and a knee on his chest.

 If he didn't act immediately he would lose here and now, he focused a ball of mana at the center of his mouth, he attempted to have it burst outwards only to be interrupted by searing pain and immense pain in his jaw. He got up immediately trying to end the fight before the pain really got to him. He charged at Vaeris who was staggering to get up, only to notice far too late the smile on his face and the lack of a glowing blue sun in the sky. A number of of orbs hiding behind his back revealed themselves before striking him multiple times in the knees, body, and elbows, before finally striking him in the head. The world began to grow dark as the ground rushed upwards to meet him before finally smothering him blissful silence.

*******

  Barlor woke slowly, his head was still spinning. He got up slowly and massaged his temples.

  "Hey, your head feeling good, I probably went a little overboard with the whole knocking you out thing, you know, better safe than sorry, probably,"

  "Yeah I'm fine." He really wasn't; his head felt like it was being struck with a hammer. "Was I out long?"

  "Not really, I don't think, it's only been a couple minutes, just making sure you're all good."

  "Yeah I'm good." They both fell into something of an awkward silence.

  "Well, I should get going."

  "Hey wait actually how'd you do the thing with the orb."

  "I'm most likely not going to tell you that." He gave him a blank expression.

  "No I mean how'd you do all that stuff so confidently, you seemed to have your shit down when you showed up. Those bursts were definitely faster than anyone else's I'd seen and controlling multiple orbs fluidly like that looked like it would have taken a lot of focus especially after being thrown off like that."

  "Oh, that; I've been learning for a little while, I didn't really practice with it much, I spent my time learning theory and technique."

  "Well that explains a lot."

  "Hey, you almost had me on the ropes there, you did pretty good for your first time using magic."

  "I almost came close to almost beating you?" He raised an eyebrow.

  He shrugged "To be fair I have a pretty good head start on you; established noble families tend to pass magic and knowledge of it downwards, I may be part of a side branch but I'm still a noble nonetheless, you actually did really well, I was kinda relying on using a larger portion of magic to take you out more quickly and spend less overall; guess that didn't work. Anyways my round is probably coming up soon so... see you later I guess."

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  "See ya." He watched the noble walk out of the room. He knew Vaeris was being really generous, he got absolutely trounced. But for some reason he didn't mind, in fact he smiled, in truth he only really became a mage to escape the farm. After today though, he felt a spark, the smallest inkling of ambition, it took hold and it coursed through him. He dreamt of one day catching up to the noble, to surpass him, but beyond that, he thought to leave a legacy to rival even the oldest of noble families, he thought to leave a mark, no an engraving, on history itself. Barlor wasn't delusional; he knew that if there were even a chance to follow along that road it would mean suffering, pain and intense challenges, though none of this fazed him. In fact his smile grew even wider, it didn't matter how many times he would fail or the hardships he might face, he had chosen his path, no matter how vague or undefined it might be.

  Stepping out of bed and ignoring the pain he walked back out to the stadium, if he saw a few more fights maybe, just maybe, he'd be a few steps closer to closing the distance.

********

  It was as though he was caught in a spider’s web. Jagged flashes of light struck from every angle and left gouges in the shimmering blue aura of the figure caught in it. For Namar that meant doing his damnedest to maintain a mana field and avoid as many jagged strikes as physically possible. Escape was almost impossible, every time he approached the edge of his circle the nearby anchor points would explode. He was covered in cuts from the few moments where his field might've dropped. He was running out of mana fast and if he didn't act now he would be drained of what little he had left, and while he wasn't entirely sure how his opponent was doing; the fact that she was standing calmly with her arms crossed meant that she was probably just fine. It was then that an idea struck, he wasn't sure if it would work, but it was worth a shot.

  An azure wave rushed outwards and filled the arena where he was standing. Across from him his opponent lay, she was unfocused and dazed but quickly getting up. Some of the anchor points had destabilized but the few remaining had ceased firing. He made his way quickly to stand over her and pointed his hand downwards.

  "Surrender you've lost." He attempted to summon some mana from his hand but the resulting sphere was gaseous and quickly faded. Namar pursed his lips and let his hand fall to his waist.

  At first she looked confused, then she grinned in realization. She burst into laughter and between fits of laughter she managed to eek out a few words. "Ahahaha...you...totally ran out didn't you?..." She continued laughing.

  "It wasn't that funny..." He grumbled. She only started laughing harder.

  Allenbury called out "Amyra wins! Alright you two, get off the stadium."

  "You gonna be a gentleman and help me up or what?"

  Reluctantly deciding not to be spiteful he extended a hand. He tugged slightly and helped her up.

  "Thanks." She dusted herself off. Placing a hand through her blonde hair she sighed. "This'll be a pain to get out of my hair, eh, whatever." She walked off. Namar walked through to the only door in the combat stadium. She was giggling on the way up.

  Namar was somewhat curious, and a little bitter about the situation. Only a little bit.

  "I still don't get what's so funny."

  "It's just walking in you looked, aloof, you gave off this sort of cool guy vibe, you know?"

  "No. Do I really give off that sort of vibe?"

  "Absolutely, especially when you ignored any attempt at conversation. We just assumed you were the dark brooding kind of guy, or the silent but strong type."

"Yeah, no. In truth, I really didn't even notice sorry."

  "Seriously? Amanda was trying pretty hard to start a conversation with you and I think you even grunted a couple times."

  "I tend to get lost in thought." He said rather sheepishly.

  "Obviously."

 They were at the railings now, atop the stone walls. Watching as both Vaeris and a challenger who won his earlier fight by indiscriminantly out shooting his opponent; exited the entrance and took their positions across from each other.

  "So who're you betting on? Five silvers on the skinny guy with a V name."

  "Why would I bet against the guy who's obviously going to win?"

  "Fine I'll bet on the other guy."

  He hesitated, shifting from side to side. "Well... I'm not a big fan of betting anyways."

  She stuck out her tongue "You're no fun."

  "Fine." He reluctantly pulled out five silvers from his pouch.

  "Alright! Game on!" She called over a few of her friends and the betting began in earnest with most betting on the "underdog" as they called it. He wasn't sure why they would bet on such an obviously poor choice, but it was their loss.

  They exchanged greetings and a few laughs. He felt that he'd get along just fine with these people, to be honest though he had a hard time disliking anyone, he was simply too understanding to hold anything against them. Some would've called it admirable, some would call it naive, regardless of what other people thought, that was the way he was.