------
“Evangeline.” The Principal of the Argus Mage Academy greeted his old rival.
Four other headmasters had already gathered at the viewing platform and were sitting down in a rough circle. There were magical screens stationed in the middle, allowing them to view several of the fights at the same time. The gathering of headmasters was an eclectic mix of races, no two headmasters being from a single race.
“Darion. Good of you to show up.” Evangeline allowed a small smile on her lips. She was currently in her true form, knowing that fooling these old foxes with illusions was pointless. Besides, they knew better than to underestimate her just because of her small size. They all knew she could kill all of them if she wanted to.
“With the kinds of bets you were willing to make? I had to personally come and see what’s going on.” Darion responded, getting nods of agreement and mutters of support from the other headmasters. “I hear you even bet everything on a single representative. A new representative at that.”
They had agreed on rules that allowed the Academies to use as many students as representatives as they wanted, up to a reasonable point, but Mahora had put forward only a single competitor, despite being the instigators of this impromptu event. Eva had also bet heavily on the newbie category. Unusually heavily, even for her. Something she traditionally saved for older students whose abilities were more confirmed.
“So I have. That’s just how much confidence I have.” Eva told the demonic-looking man seriously.
Her strategy was risky, but it was also a bait. She knew that by putting forward only a single competitor, she’d be putting all her eggs in one basket, and painting a target on Seraphiel’s back, but she was quite certain that the angel could take it. Besides, it was easier to get others to agree to some heavy bets when they all thought they could gang up on her and tire Seraphiel down, even if she was better than they were expecting. Just went to show they didn’t know who they were dealing with.
“Who’s up first?” Darion asked, as the events had already begun. He'd been fashionably late enough to skip all the pre-amble and ceremony.
“Eva’s new prodigy versus mine.” An Asari matriarch spoke with a quiet voice. She looked harmless but Eva knew looks could be deceiving, especially when it came to the Asari, and the Academy she represented, which specialized in psions and biotics. It was also the newest Academy, even beating Mahora for that privilege. “I’m rather proud of this one. He’s the son of the Champion Artanis and the High Executor Selendis. He has great potential. Still, a lot of work to bring that talent forth, but he's going to be someone worth paying attention to in the future.”
"We'll see," Eva stated simply, not at all worried. She'd seen the results of Kaede's intensive training, and Seraphiel would catch everyone by surprise. Everyone but her of course. She’d long since learned not to underestimate the Angel.
As the two competitors, an Angel disguised as a Draenei, and a Protoss Templar stepped into the ring, all of the headmasters almost automatically used Identify on both. “Only level 35? I was expecting more with your confidence.” Darion commented.
"Level isn't everything," Eva said simply. Seraphiel's opponent was actually a couple of levels higher, but Eva knew Seraphiel's level was quite deceiving. She also knew that others her age who had reached a similar level had been helped along just like Seraphiel, or they’d had more time to level up. Eva wasn’t the only one with access to time-related shenanigans, and the older Academies had a lot more legacy and time to develop this sort of bullshittery.
The Protoss challenger swiftly charged across the battlefield, using the signature Skill of the Templar, while slashing at Seraphiel with a pair of blades seemingly made of plasma. The charge carried great momentum and usually stunned the target, while the blades slashed with deadly precision. This time though, at the last moment Seraphiel side-stepped the charge, ignoring the stunning effect entirely due to her stupidly high Vitality. She didn’t give the Protoss warrior a chance to alter his trajectory, before slamming her shield into his side, causing him to be tossed aside like a wet rag.
Seraphiel knew this whole event was going to be a battle of attrition, so she wasted no time sending a potent blast of psionic energy at the Templar, and while the attack was barely held back by a sudden shield surrounding the Protoss warrior, the shield couldn’t withstand the blade of crackling energy launched from Seraphiel’s blade.
Another shield appeared around the Protoss, this time bright red in colour, as a siren bleared, signaling the end of the match. The shield now surrounding the Protoss Templar was a safety measure that would only appear when it detected a potentially lethal attack. It would also work to disable limbs if sufficient force was applied.
"You were saying?" Eva asked, reveling slightly in her victory.
“That…was rather decisive.” The Asari matriarch admitted, knowing when to take a step back. “Why is she at your Academy though? She’s clearly a psion. She should be in mine.”
“Good old nepotism. Her mother studied at Mahora and now works there.” Eva admitted freely. Seraphiel’s mother was a rather good teacher. As expected of an Archmage.
“I have to admit, I was expecting a bit more from the son of a Champion.” Darion pointed out, his tone showing more teasing than malice.
“To be fair, so did I, but it seems he was caught completely by surprise. Staying power is not his forte, and when someone like that gets caught by surprise…well, we all saw the result. I think this will be good for him in the long term. He’ll learn from this loss, which will help him improve.” The Asari headmaster pondered. Eva admitted that she had a point in that failure often taught you more than victory. As long as you were cognizant enough to admit to your faults instead of wasting time coming up with excuses.
The participants were given some time between fights to recover. Not enough to recover completely, but a bit to keep things fair. For psions, that short time was more useful than to most due to their quick recovery, but it was impossible to keep things perfectly fair. Not that Seraphiel needed the extra help after the brief first fight. They kept a brisk pace with the matches and Seraphiel’s next fight came up fairly quickly, causing Eva once again to sit up straighter as she saw her enter the field.
“Ah, she’s one of mine.” Another older headmaster, from a dedicated magic Academy announced, gesturing to Seraphiel’s opponent. The competitor was a mage with a mixed heritage that included at least some Elven blood. “She’s promising, but I must admit I brought her along mostly to gain experience. Her potential hasn’t truly materialized yet.”
“This is going to be another very short fight, isn’t it?” Darion asked in a soft mumble.
“Very much so.” Eva grinned and was soon proven right.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Seraphiel used her Psionic Charge ability to cross the arena in a moment, and the explosion of force disrupted the young mage’s spellcasting by throwing her back. A frontal kick with Seraphiel’s hoof first bent the mage in two, before slamming her against the arena wall, causing another red barrier to materialize.
“I do hope the rest will be a little more exciting.” Darion protested.
"They should be." Another headmaster mentioned. The problem with these events always was that early rounds could be very one-sided. Even if all the participants were in some way promising, they were still new students that had little experience with duels. Some were naturally gifted in such fights, while others needed some experience before they could blossom. That was just one of the reasons why the headmasters rarely bet heavily on these matches since they tended to be so swingy.
"I wouldn't be so sure," Eva whispered. Despite the levels, this whole thing was basically Seraphiel beating on children, even if gifted ones. There would be little excitement in the fights.
------
Seraphiel noted with some satisfaction that she was gaining decent experience. Several of her Skills had already leveled up. The System tended to be rather bloodthirsty, so she had been a bit leery of the usefulness of these types of fights. They’d been taught that when you killed someone, or something, of similar or higher level to yourself, you almost always gained a level with your Classes. Almost, because "similar level" could be a bit of a broad concept and there were some limits. However, sparring, even intensive sparring, was better for leveling Skills and not your Classes. Of course, your Class could go up when your Skills did, but Sparring was definitely more for leveling Skills and not the Class. Official duels like these, recognized by the System, were apparently somewhere in between since they were sort of trying to hurt and kill each other, even if it didn’t really stick.
It made sense when you thought about it for a moment. When you killed someone of equal level, you theoretically killed someone of equal power, and it was an achievement rewarded by the System. Sparring on the other hand was done for the express purpose of training, so it made more sense for the experience to go towards Skills used instead. It also gave you some direction. If your Skill growth was hampered by your level, as was somewhat the case for her as most of her Skills were close to being capped, then going on a murder spree would fix the problem. Preferably murdering enemies and not random people of course. On the other hand, if your Skills were lagging behind your level, training and sparring would be the way to go.
All of that didn't take into consideration that doing activities related to your Class was also very effective at leveling said Class, and for some Classes that included sparring.
She’d already defeated four opponents, and it might have been because the fights had been so short and easy that she hadn’t gained a level yet, showing the difference in efficiency to what would’ve happened had she killed her opponents. In that case, she’d be four levels higher now. Instead, she sensed she was just about to level for the first time when she was brought back to the arena.
This time her opponent was another shield user, who looked a lot like a Knight in training. Which basically meant Squire just like she was an Acolyte/Apprentice. The young man also had some holy symbols on his armor, implying perhaps a Paladin-related Class. The man was a fairly stocky Human of some sort. Humans came in all sorts of varieties with all the other universes spilling over, and not all of them were the same, but they roughly fit a similar mold.
Apparently, he’d gotten some instructions from his teachers, as he immediately applied some sort of glowing defensive shield that seemed sturdy enough to stop any surprise attacks. Well, she had charged three of her four opponents, and the first one had charged her, so her pattern so far was rather predictable. Time to mix things up.
She slipped her own shield on her back and pointed both hands towards the Knight slowly approaching her. She channeled a powerful Destructor with both hands and instead of just stopping, she kept channeling, the psionic explosions were being boosted by both her Affinity and Electrokinesis Skills, and they kept rocking the poor Knight where he stood, making approaching her impossible, as the golden shield started cracking. A rather powerful defence.
She really wanted to get the evolution for her Class, as she knew Destructor was one of the Skills most likely to evolve, and she already suspected what it would evolve into. The upgrade would be rather significant. She also really wished her Kidō Skill had been higher, which would allow her to use higher levels of the Kidō spells to break such shields. The lower-ranked spells were effective, but a bit too one note.
The drain on her Psi reserves as she kept channeling was rather heavy, but the attack was quite effective, and she didn’t need to worry too much about draining herself as she’d recover before the next fight anyway. The Knight sent a desperate final attack at her, in the form of a flying golden hammer, which spun through the air at her.
She could’ve taken the attack, or blocked it with another Skill, but why bother? She preferred to take this opportunity to instead show the Knight why mobility Skills were so important, and she suddenly flashed past him, appearing on the opposite side of the arena, having slashed him in the back with a blade of light, and causing the red shield to appear again.
She rather liked the red shields. They allowed her to go all out without worry. Because it was a System enforced security measure, it also took into consideration her Gift of Permanence, meaning it would be very hard to cause the shield to trigger in her case, and it didn’t require her to reveal her Skills to anyone.
[Congratulations! [Path of the Seer] has leveled up from 35 to 36! Free Stat Points +60.]
[Congratulations! [Celestial] has leveled up from 35 to 36! Strength +10, Vitality +10, Agility +10, Perception +10, Charisma +10, Willpower +10, Manipulation +10, Acumen +10, Free Stat Points +20.]
[Congratulations! [Shinmei-ryū Kamigoroshi] has leveled up from 35 to 36! Strength +5, Vitality +5, Agility +10, Perception +10, Psionic Power +5, Psionic Control +10, Tolerance +5, Psi +5, Free Stat Points: +25]
Ah. There it was. The levels she'd been expecting. And no Skill improvements, unlike when sparring. Even if she had expected it, she had at least thought Destructor might level up. Oh well. Her stats were becoming kind of bonkers for her level. She probably had more than double the stats of another person who matched her in levels. And a better base as a Celestial. It showed in how easy the fights were. Wonder how long it would take until the other Academies protested and demanded she be moved to a higher bracket…
-------
“This is getting ridiculous.” Even Darion protested, letting a bit of his Eredar temper slip through. “She’s clearly much stronger than her level implies. Somehow.” The Knight had been one of his. One that he’d had high hopes for, as the boy had a special Hybrid Class that granted holy abilities without being a Paladin. A B-ranked Class to be precise, and the boy was a hard worker. It wasn’t the loss that rankled him, but the ease at which Eva’s student seemed to have won.
"You can all just give up." Eva pointed out, and to her surprise, the other headmasters actually seriously considered the suggestion. Normally they'd let the students fight it out for the experience anyway, but she had to admit that no one was getting any useful experience as things were. They were more likely to get demoralized after being beaten so easily.
“I think just giving up would be a waste, but how about we at least change the format a little bit? That way Eva can still have her victory but at least our students can benefit as well.” An older Minotaur Warlock suggested. His fur had started turning grey despite his level, which went to show just how old the Minotaur was.
“Our friend from Nighon has a point.” The Asari concurred. “We’re going to need a bit of time to alter the array though.”
"Fine by me." Eva gestured with her hand carelessly. She had the utmost confidence in Seraphiel.
------
Somehow Seraphiel wasn’t surprised when all of the newbie competitors were suddenly pulled out of the array and brought together with the instructions to spend the next hour however they saw fit. It would’ve been a bit unethical to let her keep slaughtering the other newbies. Many of those she had beaten gave her wary and slightly fearful glances before taking their distance, but two directly approached her.
“Hello, I’m Tassadar.” The Protoss she’d defeated in the first fight introduced himself with a cheery tone. Unusually cheery in fact.
“Tassadar? Were you named after…?” The bulky Human man asked.
“After the same Tassadar our warriors call out when going to battle? Yes. My parents were apparently that Tassadar’s students. I just hope to live up to the name.” The oddly social Protoss explained without a hint of hesitation. “What’s your name?” He asked both Seraphiel and the Human.
“Titus Rivendare.” The human muttered. “And yes, also named after someone, though perhaps someone less esteemed.”
“Seraphia.” She replied with a smile. She’d actually known the original Rivendare. Assuming there hadn’t been another one with the same name after her disappearance, of course.
"Aah, we all bear the same curse then." Titus of course made the connection immediately, assuming she had been named after her old personality as the Draenei Paladin, which wasn’t entirely wrong.
“Sure, let’s go with that.” She decided to play along. The idea of being saddled with being named after herself was kind of funny to her.
“So, either of you know what’s going on?” Tassadar asked curiously.
Titus just pointed at her. “She’s smashing the competition a bit too thoroughly. I was her latest victim.”
“Saying you are a victim is a bit harsh.” She laughed. Not untrue though.
"Not wrong though," Titus grumbled echoing her thoughts. “I have no idea how, but you’re way out of the rest of our league. Turned the whole event silly.”
“Wouldn’t that just cause us to have something to aim for?” Tassadar asked. “The same with our names. I view it as something to strive for, as a long-term goal.” He pointed at her. “She’s a more shorter-term goal.”
She made a mocking bow with a flourish. “A healthy attitude, though I think you might want to focus on being the best version of yourself instead of striving for someone else.”
“Oh, that too. But having a goal is a good motivator.” The Protoss argued cheerily. “I don’t intend to imitate you or my namesake, just to get to your level.”
“Also, it’s more because of the others. The teachers don’t want her traumatizing them, thinking that they should expect to face people like her if they keep competing.” Titus interjected.
“I mean, they kind of should.” She shrugged instead. “I might be out of the ordinary, but I’m not the only one. That’s something everyone’s just going to have to deal with.”
“Girl, I’m out of the ordinary. You’re just plain scary.” Titus scoffed. “Anyway, they’re changing things so that everyone will get something out of this instead of her just crushing everyone. Likely into something where we fight monsters or something.”
"Well, that should be fun too," Tassadar stated cheerily. Seraphiel rather liked his attitude.
As it turned out, Titus was quite accurate in his predictions.