The difference between techniques and skills is quite simple. Techniques cannot function without willpower and can be learned by anyone, regardless of their affinities. Skills, on the other hand, can function without willpower, although they are usually weaker without it and cannot be learned without the required affinity.
Awakened Advancements Theory.
Techniques and skills, page 2274.
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Aodhán awoke before dawn the next morning with his stomach fluttering with nerves. Today was the day he’d been training for, and after letting out a yawn, he reviewed the general message he’d received yesterday.
Tournament Time: 10:00 a.m.
Venue: The Arena.
Admin.
He sighed. He still had about four to five hours left before the start of the tournament, but he had nothing important to do. A few hours of will-taming would be nice, but it would have no immediate impact on his abilities, not truly.
Aodhán stood up and turned, searching for something—anything—to do, but when he found none, he began to arrange his room. There wasn’t much to do, courtesy of the self-cleaning runes, and five minutes later, the room was sparkly clean, and Aodhán was idle once again.
I guess I’ll have to meditate after all.
Aodhán made his way into the training room and inhaled deeply, taking in a large amount of dense energy into his lungs. His stomach cramped nervously, and he squeezed it as he walked to the center of the room and took up a meditative pose.
He sunk his consciousness into his core, actively blocking away any sense of his surroundings to enhance his focus. The taming of will flames hadn’t exactly become easy, but it was now a routine that he could do without much stress.
The ball of molten will in his core was now double the size it had been when he’d gained the bronze title, and a sense of heaviness emanated from it. Time flew as he focused his mind on the task of taming willpower, and when he finally opened his eyes, it was past eight.
His nerves had settled slightly, and his mind was calm. He had received three messages during the session, one from Daruk and another from Andrew, both wishing him the best in the tournament. Surprisingly, the other was from Lupin, the girl he’d met in the library, and she’d simply said.
—If there’s one thing the catastrophe was good at, it was defeating his enemies. Take a page from his book and kick ass today. I’ll be rooting for you.
Aodhán chuckled at the message. He hadn’t seen her since that day at the library; he wasn’t even sure he knew when she left, but it gave him a warm feeling to know that someone would be cheering for him asides Daruk and Andrew.
He made his way to the shower, and half an hour later, he was dressed in the uniform issued for extracurricular activities. It was a simple black round-neck t-shirt that hugged his lean body tightly, along with a black and silver-patterned khaki trouser.
He smiled as he stared at himself in the mirror. Meredith was right; he did look hot. In only a few months, he’d transformed from a mildly good-looking teenager to, well, a much better-looking one. Still, he didn’t hold a candle to Daruk, who was unnaturally beautiful.
After a short murmur of encouragement to himself, he walked out of the room only to bump into Meredith, who was coming up the stairs. He hadn’t really observed her yesterday evening, but in the light of day, he could see how beautiful she was. Her hair was a blue hue so dark it could almost be called black, and unlike most of the other girls her age, she was curvy and blessed in all the right places.
Her deep blue eyes shimmered like the surface of a sea at noon, and the runic symbol of water graced the back of her neck. To sum it all up, she looked like the incarnation of the sin of lust, and she knew it. Her smile widened as his eyes dipped to her generous chest, and like a predator, she pounced, sidling closer to him even as her eyes slowly took in his body until it reached his eyes.
A breathy sigh escaped her lips. "Oh, Aodhán, you look so good.”
“Leave the poor boy alone, Meredith; you don’t need to fuck every commoner you find just to stick it to your father.”
Aodhán turned to find Eren frowning behind him, his expression a mixture of anger, jealousy, and reproach. Before the situation could escalate beyond what it already was, he quickly made his way out of the house and to the arena.
Rather than create a platform, he decided to walk, as he still had enough time before the start of the tournament, and besides, he needed to settle his mind after the upheaval Meredith had caused.
It took him about fifteen minutes to reach the arena, and he marveled at the size and beauty of it. He’d seen the building from afar before, but this was the first time he was seeing it up close.
Similar to most of the buildings in school, the arena was made of Ragnar steel and Romanian glass, and it was even larger than the training area. It reminded Aodhán of a stadium, but on a smaller scale.
Its entrance was open, and Aodhán walked in to find a spacious area filled with rows of seats arranged in a circular fashion that sloped towards the central stage. The arena was decorated in the colors of the kingdom, silver and black, and although it wasn’t too extravagant, it was large enough to comfortably contain a thousand people.
A few people were already seated, and more trickled in. Most of them were first-year students, but Aodhán could see others from the second and third years, judging by the number of black stripes on their uniforms.
He turned to see Rahim speaking to the competitors who had arrived in one corner of the stands, and he quickly moved closer to them but only managed to catch the tail end of his speech.
“….won’t be seating here; the academy has provided a space specially for you up in that glass building; that way, you can get a perfect view of whatever is happening in the arena.”
“Sir, any information on the sort of challenges we would be facing?” A nervous-looking boy asked, and Rahim sighed.
“As I’ve said before, I do not have that information, but in the next one hour, I’m sure we’ll find out together.” He rolled his eyes and asked. “Any other questions? No? Great, I’ll meet you in that building in a couple minutes.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
…..
Thirty minutes later, the arena was filled. Students from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th years were present, including their teachers, doctors, professors, and several non-teaching staff. Aodhán and the other competitors were currently on the second floor of the glass building, while the principal and some important guests were on the floor above them.
The entire arena was alive with murmurs of curiosity and the excited conversations of the audience as they impatiently watched the seconds tick down. Aodhán’s nerves had returned after he’d sensed the core of his competitors, most of whom were between the 17th and 18th tiers. In fact, he was one of the lowest-tiered individuals in the room, but it felt foolish to absorb energy now and unsettle his core this close to the tournament, so he stayed his hand.
A two-tier difference was nothing without control, and he had control. He closed his eyes and whispered to himself. “You can do this, Aodhán; you can do it.”
The entire room was silent, each of the competitors nursing their own nerves, and they eagerly turned to Rahim when he arrived a few minutes later.
“We have ten more minutes before the start of the tournament, and I just want to say I’m rooting for each and every one of you; the reward of this tournament is no joke; it is worth killing for some people, and I want you to take that mentality with you whenever you climb that stage. Bring your absolute best, because this is not an opportunity you want to miss out on.”
There was a chorus of agreement from the gathered competitors, and Rahim nodded before proceeding. “The principal is currently addressing the audience, so I’ll give you a breakdown of what I’ve been told. The first contest is a one-on-one match to weed out the weakest among you. The participants will be picked randomly by the moderator, so make sure you listen for your names.”
“What about the second contest?” The same nervous-looking boy asked, and Rahim sighed.
“Get through this one first; if you survive it, I’ll tell you. Now, look alive, everyone, and focus on the moderator. Once you hear your names, you file out; no dilly-dallying.”
Aodhán took a deep breath as his nerves spiked, and he turned back to the moderator, who was none other than Professor Aleran, whom they’d met at the rift station. Immediately after the principal declared the tournament open, he boomed.
“Awakened ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first event of the school year!” He paused as a cheer rang out before proceeding. “With Raol as our witness, today we shall watch a group of first-year students as they fight for the chance to win an Epic Grade bloodline!”
A roar resounded from the gathered audience in anticipation, and Professor Aleran continued. “With the power vested in me, I declare the first challenge open!”
Immediately, a blue holographic screen appeared in the sky, with 22 names listed on each side and a pulsing holographic bar seated at the center. The bar pointed to two different names on each side of the list, and with a ding, the names began to move until, a few seconds later, it settled on the names of two girls, and Prof. Aleran shouted.
“Maddie Cronox versus Aida Simms!"
Aodhán turned to stare at them. One of the girls, a redhead called Aida, looked like she was close to tears, while Maddie just looked confused.
“Go, go, go.” Rahim ordered, and both girls walked out of the room as if in a daze. They appeared on the center stage the next moment, and another holographic screen appeared beside the first one, displaying the center stage and the girls standing on it.
“Now, I must warn you contestants: this is not a fight to death. If you believe you cannot win the match, then you surrender; if you don’t, I will do it for you, and I will make sure that it is painful.” Prof. Aleran stated:.
Both contestants nodded in understanding, and they moved to stand in the marked circles on opposite sides of the stage as they waited for the signal to start.
As soon as the bell rang, both girls paused for a moment, each one staring at the other in fear, before Maddie suddenly disappeared and Aida stumbled back in shock.
Boos rang out from the audience, and even Aodhán chuckled lightly at the scene. The boos seemed to help Aida, as the next moment, she stomped her feet and sent a pulse into the concrete floor. Immediately, a circular area several feet wide caved in, only to reform a second later, burying Maddie up to her neck in concrete.
The bell rang, signaling the end of the fight, and Aida collapsed as adrenaline rushed out of her.
“Winner! Aida Simms!”
Cheers rose from the crowd in encouragement as Aida walked back into the room on rubbery legs while Maddie was disqualified. A few of the contestants congratulated her as she arrived, but Rahim shook his head.
“Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. Where was the fighting spirit I asked you to take to that—” The spin of the holographic screen caught his attention, and he instructed. “Pay attention, everyone.”
Aodhán turned back to the holographic screen as it settled on another pair of names, and Prof. Aleran shouted. “Bakhtin Arede versus Kira Fontaine.”
The boy and girl walked out of the room and onto the stage. Prof. Aleran repeated the rules as both contestants moved to stand at opposite ends of the stage, and after they expressed their understanding, he boomed. “Fight!”
Both contestants fought for almost two minutes, but Aodhán was disappointed. The boy was a metal awakened while the girl was a fire awakened, but their control was so terrible that they could as well have been sleepers.
Rahim groaned behind him as the match stretched to the third minute, but fortunately, Bakhtin slipped on something and managed to plunge his crude metal weapon into Kira’s thighs. She gave up immediately, and the entire arena sighed in relief as the mental torture ended.
Eager to get the excitement back up, the holographic screen spun, and Prof. Aleran called on the next pair before Kira and Bakhtin could even leave the stage. The fight ended on a slightly better note, but it wasn’t that inspiring. The fourth and fifth pairs ended in the same manner, and Aodhán had just begun to think he would be winning this tournament by a land slide when Prof. Aleran called out the sixth pair.
“Marcellus Edgarin verses Curtis Beaumont.”
Aodhán was surprised to see his unsavory housemate walk out of the room along with the nervous-looking boy from earlier. They walked onto the stage a moment later, and as the signal bell rang, Marcellus, his housemate, rippled, and instantly, there were a dozen of him on the stage.
He prowled forward, circling Curtis, who nervously held a single ball of flame in his hands in warning. The ball shot out, aiming towards the copy of Marcellus closest to him, but it simply passed through, and the copy burst apart in a shower of glitter.
Curtis attacked again, throwing out half a dozen fireballs in succession, but the moment he destroyed a copy, two more took its place until he was almost entirely surrounded.
One of the copies lunged at him, and he stumbled back to avoid the attack, but before he could create another ball of flame, a wooden dagger pressed against his neck, and the real Marcellus revealed himself.
“Winner! Marcellus Edgarin!”
Cheers rose up for the first time in a while as excitement once again coursed through the arena.
“Yes! That’s how you do it!” Rahim praised Marcellus as he walked into the room before asking them to return our attention to the stage. A few more pairs were called out, and although a few battles were long and boring, many of them caught his attention, like the fight between the 9th pair, a force and sound awakened, who both had adequate control over their element and had wrecked the entire stage before the sound awakened finally won.
Aodhán replayed the scene in his mind, imagining himself as their opponent, and he realized that even for him, a fight against them might be hard to win. Another was a fight between the sixteenth pair, a light and spatial awakened who both fought with incredible speed, dodging and stabbing at each other with weapons created from their element.
The fight lasted for almost five minutes, but a well-timed slash tore through the arm of the spatial awakened, who screamed in pain and immediately teleported himself out of the stage. The bells rang to signal the end of the battle, and Prof. Aleran announced.
“Winner! Yurin Lahey!”
The light awakened was ecstatic at his victory, even though he was covered in bleeding cuts and his left leg was broken.
The holographic screen spins once more, and a moment later, Prof. Aleran shouts. “Aodhán Brystion verses Lyra Davenport.”
Aodhán made his way out of the room along with a gruff-looking girl with a slight scar on her forehead. They walked through a short corridor that led them to the center stage.
Prof. Aleran once again repeated the rules like he had done for every fight, and they both nodded in understanding before moving to stand in the circles marked on opposite sides of the stage.
The girl took an aggressive stance immediately, and Aodhán cursed his luck. Why hadn’t his opponent been Aida? Or Maddie? Or one of those other contestants with little to no understanding of their skills.
The bell rang a moment later, and without hesitation, Aodhán channeled three energized strands of willpower into {Create construct}.
instantly, a lightning spear the width of his palms shot forward with a boom of thunder and tore through Lyra's chest before she could even blink.