Derek woke up early on the second day of the Spring Tournament. Since it was the day for the loser’s bracket to fight, he had no fights of his own but he still wanted to root on his friends. He didn’t want to bother them during their preparations so instead of joining them, he went to his mother’s for breakfast.

Eona was not planning on watching since her son wouldn’t be fighting today. Since she would be staying home, Derek accompanied her until just before the Tournament started for the day. Afterwards he left to go watch Desmond’s first fight.

Today, Desmond wasn’t as lucky as he had been the day before. Instead of getting a bye in the first round he drew Anthony. As Derek approached he saw the little priestess cheering from the side. He always found the girl’s enthusiasm and optimism uplifting. Her devotion to the young man who was to be her Champion was even more endearing. Derek laughed as he approached, “Diana, it is good to see you this morning. Do you mind if I root for Desmond from here?”

The girl blinked cleverly at him, “Un. As long as you are rooting for Desmond and not against Anthony! You already won yesterday, so you can’t be greedy!”

She shook her fist cutely at him before turning to cheer her Champion again. Derek laughed and similarly shouted encouragement to Desmond. It wasn’t long before the two started their competition and the fight was fast and furious.

Derek noted that Desmond had greatly improved since that time he had seen him competing against the Acolyte from the Order. He felt pride to think that his teaching had been a portion of that improvement, even if most of it was the teaching of Ovid and several other instructors.

On the other hand, Anthony’s skill seemed even more refined than during their match the day before. He had internalized the things he had experienced first hand and from watching the latter matches. His perception was outstanding and Derek was certain that it was only a matter of time before Anthony would be a serious challenge to him.

Derek was glad. His relationship with the young man was positive and he had close ties with the Cathedral as well. It never hurt to have talented friends.

The fight didn’t take long. After a flurry of strikes Anthony broke Desmond’s guard and landed a series of strikes before Desmond’s shield failed and the armor flared white. Derek applauded the two. Though Desmond lost, it was still a good result to last so long against Anthony.

“Great job Anthony! So fierce!” The little priestess was clearly pleased by the results as Derek went over to where Desmond was exiting from his side of the field.

“Better luck next time my friend. Looks like you’re done with the tournament for this year.” Derek consoled his friend as he patted him on the back.

“Thanks man, I thought I had improved quite a lot, but Anthony’s rate of improvement is out right astonishing. It was a bad draw to get him first thing. There are probably only three or four others that would have been a worse match up for me."

“Yeah, you did well though. There’s always next year. Who do you want to go see next?”

Desmond thought for a minute before speaking up, “You know, my mom and sisters just arrived in town. They aren’t into these kinds of things so I think I will take them around the city.”

“Oh well, that’s good too. Take it easy then.” Derek responded, waving him off. Derek knew there were some special circumstances around Desmond’s family so he understood why his friend would skip the rest of the day.

The second match he chose to watch was a fight between Garrett and a pretty talented tier one opponent. After the fight started, Garrett quickly buffed himself with a fire based enhancement that Derek had taught him. It was a great choice as this increased the speed and impact of his fighting style enough to match his opponent’s. In the end, Garrett’s raw power allowed him to overcome his opponent.

For the third match Derek went over to watch Lynette fight, but she lost to her opponent after a few minutes of fighting. Her rather large family came over and consoled her after her defeat so Derek merely waved at her before heading on. He thought it was rather unfortunate that the girl lost in the third round both days, but from what he knew of Lynette who was more interested in scholarly pursuits than the battlefield he was certain that she wouldn’t mind losing much.

Derek was surprised to see that just before lunch Tristan drew a match against the tier two Derek had fought in the second to last match the day before. Joining the crowd he got to hear a little more about this fellow. His family was known as the Kani Clan and their hereditary lands were to the south at the Great Wall.

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There, they made war with the barbarian tribes, orcs, and ogres that tried to invade the continent from the badlands in the south. It was said that their martial tradition was as old as the Thorne Clan’s, if not older. Ogres and orcs were known to worship demons and they fought ferociously to break past the wall every year to get into the softer lands to the north.

Due to the importance of holding the Great Wall, the many kingdoms and militant orders in the south had alliances to support the Kani Clan, which was wealthy itself from its access to mines in the Ironhome mountains. It was said that the Kani were descended from people who married into the dwarven clans of those mountains ages ago. Their skills in construction, mining, armor and weapons smithing, as well as their famed heavy infantry reinforced this belief and the Kani never really denied it.

Derek wondered about their heritage though, as the members of the Kani Clan he saw in the crowd and his opponent from yesterday were indeed stout, but they were easily as tall as any other man in the city, barring Garrett and his family. Their clothing was fine and well made, designed in a simple but elegant manner, with studs reminiscent of armor in places around it and reinforced in various places and all of the men had thick beards kept in various styles.

After observing these people he turned to see how Tristan would engage his opponent. The two lined up and when the fight started they moved similarly to how they fought the day before. Tristan went with his wind enhancement and floated into the air, this time raising himself to four and a half meters. The young man from the Kani clan used his earth based enhancement and rooted himself into place.

Derek could only describe what he saw next as a ruthless bombardment and a battle of attrition. Tritan used every technique he knew to try to force his opponent to run out of essence before him, casting Flame Sentries, Flame Bolts, Wind Blades and many other spells to whittle his opponent down. The young man from the Kana clan simply hunkered down and weathered the blasts. Finally, after thirty minutes, the warrior’s shield collapsed and Tristan won the fight.

Derek clapped fiercely along with the other spectators. Tristan humbly complimented his defeated opponent before leaving the competition platform. Derek laughed when he saw Tristan’s pale face, saying, “So, how much do you have left?”

Tristan glanced over at him and knew exactly what he meant. “My mana? There’s only a small amount left, perhaps after two to three more spells I would run out.”

“Haha, now you know how I was feeling yesterday when you saw me. Lucky for you, your next match is after lunch. Let’s go grab something at my mom’s place. Your family didn’t come right?”

Tristan shook his head. “No, they didn’t come. I’ll take you up on that meal though.”

Derek nodded and the two set off to Eona’s house. The others were still out, so they were only joined by the lady of the house. Derek’s mother politely listened as they described the matches they had seen and asked about how the others were doing in the competition.

With a shake of his head, Derek answered her, “Desmond lost in the first round, Lynette was defeated in the third, and Garrett and Monica both lost in the fourth round, so Tristan’s the only one in the competition a this point.”

“Oh, that’s unfortunate. Well, best of luck to you, Tristan. You two run along and have fun, I am going to return to my office.”

The two boys said goodbye and went to the next field Tristan was meant to fight at. Derek looked at him and smiled, “I think you should have this. Randal Kani was the only competitor in today’s line up that was a good challenge for you. I will talk to you after the matches.”

“Oh, what about Anthony? I thought you said he was pretty good.”

Derek laughed, “Yeah, he’s good, but he’s a swordsman first. His spell casting and mana pool aren’t good enough yet to bring you down or outlast your bombardment. You have this in the bag. Just don’t tell that little priestess I said it.”

With a laugh, Tristan waved him off as he went to prepare for his fight. Derek stood on the sideline and noticed that his opponent was the Prince Cid he had fought the day before. The prince’s luck must have been pretty good to get this far as there were quite a few others that were much better than him as far as Derek was concerned.

The luck had run out though as Tristan started bombarding him with an assortment of spells after the official had announced the beginning of the fight. The bombardment ended half a minute later, after the prince’s armor flared with light to announce the hit. Tristan hadn’t even taken the time to float up, knowing his opponent would never make it close enough to threaten him. Derek could only imagine that Cid’s face was at least as ugly right now as it had been when he defeated the arrogant young prince.

The next fight seemed to paint Derek as a prophet as Tristan defeated Anthony. Tristan didn’t neglect this opponent as he had risen to six meters before beginning his bombardment. Anthony’s mana held for a while before collapsing just as Derek had anticipated. The young priestess’ mood didn’t seem dimmed at all as she cheered her Champion and the student that beat him. It seemed to Derek that in her eyes a loss didn’t diminish her friend but rather proved how exceptional his opponent was.

The second to last fight was enjoyable for Derek as he got to watch Tristan and another mage bombard each other from either end of the yard. The explosions of different spells detonating against each other created quite the light show, but eventually Tristan’s raw output overpowered his opponent and he won that match as well.

Finally, in the Arena, Tristan defeated a tier one magic warrior of decent skill to clench his place in the finals for their year group. Derek smiled, looking forward to the opportunity to compete with this talented young mage again. He knew his opponent was good, but he was certain of his own skill as well. The two laughed as their competitive spirits soared.