Dellen’s hand fell from Tiberius’s grip.

Ardentus nodded. “As you say, Master Tiberius.”

Another bell sounded. The subtle hum of conversation that had filled the roof, even with the order’s tendency to silence faded away.

A woman walked out to the centre of the sand. Dellen’s eyes narrowed, and he stared at her, he thought it was the woman who had bought him. A churning feeling spun in his gut. The emblem on her chest was familiar, but he had seen many robed members of the order with silver emblems on their chests.

“Welcome initiates,” she said, her voice loud, powerful, and warm. The sand erupted beneath her, raising itself into a cylindrical platform that added ten feet to her height. “For those of you who don’t know me, I am Lady Katherine, master of The Order of the Red Truth in Ravenport.”

The voice didn’t help, Dellen had only heard his buyer speak once, it could have been her, or it could have been any other well-assured woman wearing a red robe with enough of a mask over her face to ensure anonymity.

“You are here today to showcase your talents and your Aether, do us proud, show your worth to The Order of the Red Truth. Those that make their way to the sixth and seventh rounds will receive compensation for their excellent performance.”

There was no cheering. The sand pillar broke apart from the bottom up, waves of sand rippled out like a pond with a rock dropped in it before she was again almost level with the ground. The reduced platform she stood upon carried her to the edge of the sand, where she stood apart from any banner.

A red-clad figure walked to the centre of the sand and held up two symbols. Lightning and fire.

“Go.”

Dellen swallowed. He did not like being sent for the first match.

“Wear your goggles, they might help against a Pyro combatant.”

Dellen nodded and slipped the goggles on over his mask before he stepped into the sandpit, his heart pounding in his chest. An opponent stepped forward from beneath the banner of those with Pyro Aether. Dellen’s opponent was a hulking figure, close to six and a half feet tall, with shoulders broad enough to stretch his robes and a wide enough face that his mask looked small.

They stopped about twenty feet apart.

This wasn’t an opponent, it was a natural disaster. Dellen hesitated, unsure of how to proceed. Would there be a bell? A command to start. His body tensed, ready to react if his opponent moved.

“Gaius,” rumbled a deep voice from the man in front of him.

“Dellen,” he said, the words tumbling from his lips unbidden, it was the first one-to-one conversation he’d had with any member of the order that didn’t outrank him.

A bell rang.

Gaius’s reaction was immediate, he sprang forward ten feet, his hands came up and a gout of fire sprang forth, a horizontal beam, as thick around as a dinner plate. Dellen had not paid him the courtesy of standing still. The moment the bell began, he had ducked to the side. Even then, the fire missed him by less than a foot.

The beam of fire receded back to Gaius’s hands, thinning and only extending five or so feet from his palms before tapering off.

That gout would have been enough to win the match and put Dellen in bed for months recovering from burns. So much for not maiming an opponent.

Fire and electricity could be used to enhance each other, but they were not good at defending against each other. A ball of lightning crackled into existence between his hands, and he threw it at Gaius.

The large man released the flame in his hands and rolled to the side. If Dellen could pepper him with lightning, he might be able to keep Gaius from attacking. He released another ball lightning, it zipped across the space between them. Gaius stepped to the side and dodged, responding with a gout of fire that brushed against Dellen’s arm.

The intense flames turned his sleeve to ash and licked at his skin, leaving behind a scorching trail of pain.

Memories took him, he’d been on a battlefield like this before, ground sliding away from under him as he scrambled away from an unmatchable opponent. Fire landing all around, penning him in, scorching his skin. Fire was not immune to electricity though, it conducted it. It could not be stopped, but it could be contained, with the right preparation.

A complex figure of electricity and magnetism took shape in his mind, circling his body like the pipes of a machine.

Dellen stopped moving and turned to face Gaius, who hesitated for the first time in the match.

Hands up, the Pyro Aetherforged locked eyes with Dellen, and from less than ten feet away, he released another gout of fire, again as wide around as a dinner plate.

Dellen shaped magnetic fields around his body, two circular openings with opposite charges, led to tubes that wrapped around Dellen’s back and over his shoulders, their ends pointing back toward Gaius.

Fire was both positive and negative, but Dellen knew it could be split apart. The gout in front of him split apart like a branching river, lines of red and orange encircled him, hiding him from view, and exiting the apertures facing Gaius.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Dellen gritted his teeth, the fields around him were wobbly and unstable, almost falling apart. His Spark Core spun, and he pushed as much Aether as he could muster. It was just enough to hold the fields together, but not for long.

The returning lines of fire melded back into a single stream. Dellen hands outstretched, mere inches from the flames rushing toward him, lighting crackled into existence between his cupped fingers, and joined the return flow of fire.

Gaius screamed and the flow of fire died.

Dellen Spark Core stuttered to a halt.

Gaius fell backward, red robe charred and smoking.

A bell rang.

Dellen looked around, there was silence all around him, initiates and instructors stared at the ring.

A man, much smaller than Gaius, but with a silver emblem on his chest, walked out from under the Pyro Affinity banner, and stopped before Gaius, picked him up, slung him over his shoulders, and carried him back.

Dellen waited for some form of an announcement before walking back to Ardentus.

Ardentus and the initiates under the banner tracked his movements, “How did you escape that unscathed?”

“Not,” he paused and took a breath, “Not entirely unscathed, he burned my arm.”

“Fire engulfed you, your robes should all be charred, not just your sleeve.”

Tiberius interrupted, eyes narrowed, “You’re only First Trinity, what did you do?”

With a thrill of excitement, Dellen realized that they didn’t know how to protect against fire. Having more power was important, but so was knowing how to use it. “It was a quick fight, maybe my lightning broke his concentration before the fire could hurt me.” Dellen knew that his explanation didn’t make sense, there had been more than enough time for the fire to ignite his hair and his clothes.

Ardentus and Tiberius both looked unconvinced but let it pass. Ardentus nodded at Dellen, still looking skeptical, and gave him a roll of bandages for his burned arm. “You left that initiate charred.”

“Yes.”

“I said not to maim.”

“They aren’t maimed, just crispy, nothing steelskin can't recover from, and if you’ll notice, it was his fire that burned him.” Dellen was certain that all of them were sturdier than him, his First Trinity steelskin was much stronger than it had been before he’d forged silver. It seemed inconceivable that Second Trinity wouldn’t be more durable again.

Ardentus nodded, “See that you do as well against Elara’s initiates.”

Dellen held in a sigh, a word of praise would have been welcome.

The same man as before walked into the center of the sand, and held up two banners, Umbral and Lumino.

One of the two Umbral initiates stepped into the ring, faced by one of the five Lumino initiates.

The bell rang, and both attacked. A beam of light burst from the Lumino initiates’s hand. The Umbral initiate stepped to the left, but their shadow didn’t move with them, it grew stretching, distending, and growing. A thin tendril of shadow separated taking on form, shape, and depth. It peeled itself up from the ground. It was a moving patch of shadow, translucent and silent, its’ mouth opened, and it slithered across the sand at the Lumino Initiate, leaving behind a long, thin line linking it to the Umbral Initiate’s shadow.

Dellen stared, transfixed, the Umbral Aether was… beautiful.

The Lumino initiate let them shadow-snake close the distance, then, just as it closed to less than a foot away, the Lumino initiate flared bright white.

Around the sandpit, Dellen could see spectators shield their eyes with their arms, squinting against the sudden glare. He was thankful that he’d forgotten to take off his goggles between matches.

The shadow snake faded to the barest whisper of a shape, striking against the Lumino Initiate and breaking apart.

“Watch closely.” Ardentus said, “Their Aether is well suited to countering the attacks of the other, this should come down to a brawl.”

The glow faded, both combatants rushed closer to each other.

As the luminescence subsided, both combatants closed the distance between them. The Umbral Initiate summoned a heavy shadow, shrouding themselves in a veil of darkness. Dellen could faintly discern the outline of the Umbral Initiate, their figure concealed within the amorphous blob of darkness.

The Lumino Initiate, undeterred by the Umbral Initiate's shadowy cloak, released a rapid succession of bolts of light. The beams sliced through the darkness, cutting through the Umbral Initiate's shadowy defenses with precision, however, the Umbral Initiate, pressed forward. The battle became a dance of contrasting forces, light and shadow intertwined in a mesmerizing spectacle.

Dellen watched in fascination as the Umbral Initiate moved with uncanny agility, melding into the shadows and emerging from unexpected angles. Their movements were fluid, their strikes precise, as if they were an extension of the very darkness they commanded. The Lumino Initiate, with their radiant aura and relentless barrage of light, sought to pierce through the Umbral Initiate's defenses.

Mere feet apart, the fight devolved into an aura of light eating into darkness that itself pushed into the light. The interplay between light and dark continued until the dark was obliterated with a blast of brilliance. When he could see again, the Lumino Initiate crouched in the sand next to the Umbral Initiate, fingers on their throat.

Dellen felt embarrassed, perhaps he should have checked on Gaius after their match.

“Skillful Aether usage by both combatants, but it came down to who knocked the other out first,” Ardentus said, “Of course, if one of them had been a Trinity or two higher than the other, then it would have been different.”

The Umbral Initiate sat up of their own accord, looked around with the air of a man confused before shaking hands with the victor and walking off of the sand.

Two new banners went up, one depicting a gust of wind and the other a craggy mountain, Aero and Terra.

“This will be brief,” Tiberius said.

An initiate walked up from beneath each banner.

Both initiates bowed with what Dellen thought looked like a great deal of respect, however, the Terra Initiate looked resigned, while the Aero Initiate looked confident, her stance relaxed.

A bell rang and the Terra Initiate charged the Aero Initiate, powerful footsteps threw sand into the air.

The Aero Initiate stepped to the side and didn’t bother to attack, she just dodged, again and again.

Dellen frowned, the Terra Initiate was flagging already, their movements slow, he could see them dragging as though exhausted, but the exchange had lasted perhaps thirty seconds.

“Air manipulation. She’s thinning the air around him, but keeping enough for her to breathe. Not something an Aero Initiate can keep up for long, but fights don’t need to be long.”

The Terra Initiate moved like the air itself resisted their every move. Their opponent dashed behind them and shoved them over. The initiate fell and didn’t get up.

Dellen’s mind whirled as he considered their strategy, the Terra Initiate had to close, and the Aero Initiate did not need to let them. It had been a lopsided match from before the bell. “Why did they bother to push them over at all? Wouldn’t a contactless victory be even more impressive?”

Ardentus answered without commenting on Dellen’s breach of protocol, “Each match requires at least one point of contact to be considered valid.”

Two Terra Initiates came to collect their fallen participant.

Bells rang, three more of Ardentus’s students won their matches, while two lost, to initiates with Kinematic Aether and Steam Aether.

Then it was Dellen’s turn again.