Derek woke up later that evening. He found himself within the room at his mother’s place. As he looked around, he saw quite a few other people in the room with him. A moment later, he felt a cool touch on his forehead and wash of holy energy flowing through his body, removing what was left of the groggy sensation he was feeling.

He looked up to see his grandmother, Rebekah, sitting next to his bed. After casting the spell, she smoothed his hair as she looked down at him. She smiled at him and spoke with a slightly teasing voice, “Oh? Look who’s awake now.”

Derek looked at her with confusion, “Grandmother, what happened?”

“You lost your fight, silly boy. You overdrew your mana and passed out in that last confrontation with that boy Marcus. You were the only student that needed to be carried out of the arena today but the crowd were so thrilled with your fight that they cheered as you were carried out.”

Derek’s face blanched when he heard this, “Still, that’s kind of embarrassing.”

She smiled when she heard that, “It may be embarrassing, but you seem to have impressed someone. When you collapsed, a red light appeared and illuminated the area around you. The War Priest that was officiating the fight said that you had received the blessing of the God of War as a reward for your excellent performance during the fight. This kind of blessing doesn’t happen that often and the tale of the fighter who won the favor of the God of War has already spread throughout the city.”

She looked at him for a moment, before patting his cheek, “Either way, foolish child, you need to sleep now. You will have to participate in tomorrow’s competition.”

Derek felt a gentle surge of mana within him and didn’t resist its effects. His grandmother’s mana did its work, calming him and slowing his heart rate. In moments he felt the drowsiness returning and he passed back into a sound sleep.

His sleep was so deep that when he awoke, if it wasn’t for the morning light coming from outside of the house, he would have sworn he had only been asleep for moments. As he got ready, he checked his status. His grandmother’s ministrations the night before had healed him of any injuries he had incurred when he overdrafted his mana.

Overdrafting occurred when the user consumes all of his mana at once and attempts to draw more. When it is successful, nearby essence is drawn into the mana pool and spent through the spell, but it causes great strain on the mind and body. While it is dangerous, and often causes the spell caster to faint or feel weak shortly after doing so, it is not nearly as bad as Overcasting, which is forcibly casting a spell over the level that the user can handle. While Overdrafting causes strain and fatigue, Overcasting often tears at the paths that the mana uses and inflicts far greater damage to the mind and body as it does so.

That said, Overdrafting will often leave the spellcaster feeling weak for a few days after it happens. This can be avoided through the use of some expensive herbs and a good healer. Conveniently for Derek, his family no longer lacked the former and never lacked the latter. Between his mother and grandmother and a soup made up of semi precious herbs, Derek was already healed before he had even returned to consciousness the night before.

Getting up, he readied himself for the competition today. He found a new doublet and hose prepared for himself. This set was slashed in the blue and green of House Windreach, unlike his white and gold of the Thorne Clan from the day before. Once he was dressed he headed down to the dining room to join his family for breakfast.

Derek ate quickly while he listened to his Weapon Master breaking down the fights after he had lost. In the same round in which Derek had competed against Marcus, Xavier Cortez had gone against the mage from the tenth year. The tenth year was a strong caster, peak of tier four, but his focus was on research instead of combat so Xavier had been victorious after a quick and brutal fight.

The final match for the day had been Marcus Riley versus Xavier Cortez. From what Ovid said, the fight had been much more balanced than Derek’s fight against Marcus due to Xavier being a high tier four magic warrior. The two had fought for quite a long time before Marcus finally defeated Xavier. It had apparently been quite the thrilling scene, with neither of the fighters seeming to have too much advantage for much of the fight.

Thinking about it, Derek knew that if he did well today, he would end up facing Xavier at some point. He looked at the schedule for the day and compared his position with Xavier’s. Due to how well he had done on the day before, he wouldn’t have to compete in the first round. But his match in the second round was against the ninth year mage who had lost in the second round the day before to the tenth year Xavier had beaten.

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Looking at Xavier’s match up, he could not help but laugh, “Oh that’s unfortunate for that tenth year.”

Due to how well the tenth year had placed, he was up against Xavier in the second round. Derek would have to go against Xavier in the third round if he could beat the ninth year. He glanced at Ovid, “What was your impression of this ninth year? Do you think I can take her?”

Ovid thought about it for a moment, “She’s early tier four, with a focus on research. She should not be terribly hard for you to defeat if you go in aggressively and keep her on her back foot.”

Derek nodded, “What do you think about Xavier then? Do you think I have a chance.”

Ovid gave him that wolfish smile, “Xavier’s weapon skills and spell casting abilities are not too far off of yours. His physical attributes are quite a bit higher than yours and he is much more acquainted to fighting while enhanced than you are. I expect you are in for another excellent learning opportunity.”

Derek nodded, all the sudden not as interested in getting a second helping of breakfast. He waited for the others to finish up before joining them in the carriage ride down to the Colosseum. The group split up once again when they entered the building. Derek and Ovid went down the ramp into the fighter’s waiting areas, while the rest of the family went up into their viewing boxes.

Watching the others go their own way, Derek noticed Blake glance back at him. The young man’s face still showed hostility, but the arrogance he had once shown was long gone. Derek could only sigh as he turned around and began making his way down the ramp. Making eye contact with Ovid, Derek spoke quietly, “What a piece of work.”

Ovid nodded, “Yeah, he hasn’t caused any trouble since the first night, but he still says whatever he wants. He seems a lot less excited about dueling you now though. It seems that watching this tournament has had some form of effect on his confidence.”

The two entered the room reserved for Derek and Derek began stretching and warming up. He glanced at Ovid, “I seem to have received the Blessing of the War God. From what I can sense I have received an enhancement to my basic attributes.”

“That is correct. Battlemages may have another rite they perform to gain enhancements to their spellcasting but the Blessing of the War God is purely an enhancement to the basic attributes. Strength, Body, and Agility go without saying, but there is also the enhancement to Mind to enable the blessed to make the greatest use of the purely physical enhancements.

“With how ubiquitous his domain is, he has the ability to grant many blessings and he is quite generous with them, but be aware that he is just as quick to revoke his blessings as he is to grant them. He hates cowards and he hates fools. People that flee a conflict due to fear will lose his boons, but similarly people who refuse to retreat when that would be the best course of action will lose them just as well.”

Derek nodded his understanding as he continued his warm ups, he could hear from the stadium above him that the first round was already over. Ovid skipped out of the room quickly to find out what had happened. Almost an hour later, it was Derek’s turn. Glaive in hand, he went up the ramp to face his first fight of the day.

Coming up the ramp he heard the excitement of the crowd. He would be a liar if he tried to claim it had no effect on him. He felt his heartbeat quicken and he grew excited himself. The old War Priest was standing there once again and across from him was the mage he would be fighting. She looked uncomfortable in front of the crowd but still held herself with confidence. Derek smiled at her, “Go easy on me classmate.”

Hearing this, she smiled back, “I should be saying the same to you.”

The War Priest laughed, “Just do your best you two. Fighters, are you ready?”

When the two students responded he started the match. Derek went with his go to strategy of enhancing himself with Righteous Blessing and his opponent went with some form of water enhancement that lifted her up into the air in some form of water bubble. Derek immediately began slashing out with dispels to break through her shields.

At the same time he attempted to make use of the technique he had learned from Marcus the day before. Fire bolts formed unsteadily around him and blasted their way towards his opponent along with his weapon channelled dispels. His opponent became flustered as the number of attacks coming at her were more numerous than she had expected and she was slow to dodge.

Even as she did, her evasion was quite sluggish so Derek was able to cut off her escape and pound her shield rapidly with many of his attacks. Psychology reared its ugly head once again as the young mage panicked under the bombardment. Her defenses cracked and very quickly, her robes strobed out with a bright light. Proof that she had been defeated.

“Oh pooh.” Derek heard something odd from the other side of the fighting area. He glanced over to see if she was alright and saw the young mage sitting dejectedly on the ground. Her choice of words and her sulking appearance made him think that this upperclassman really was quite cute in her way.

She got up and primly dusted off her hands and the back of her robe from where she had sat before. The War Priest blinked a couple of times before announcing the end of the fight, “The winner of this fight is the first year, Derek Thorne! Fighters, please return to your resting areas.”