To ensure public safety, transit terminals are not to be built within a quarter mile of a channel or river, or a half mile of the coast. Furthermore, no transit shall be permitted to cross unsafe water whether by direct sight or routing cable. Surviving violators will be subject to fines and the transit line’s immediate closure.
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"Greetings, friends!" Lord Veshin shouted. He stood on a pillar of light in the center of the arena, arms held wide exuberantly as though this were a play on a street corner. “Welcome to the seventy-fifth annual Mageblade Exhibition!” A soft ripple of polite applause greeted him, leaving his enthusiasm undiminished.
Jair stood against the back wall of the arena, along with the other three new initiates who would be showing today, each on their own elevated platform.
"First, a quick review of the rules!” Lord Veshin raised a hand in a flourish. “Starshaper, if you would?"
Someone out of sight cast a spell, and a glowing blue copy of Lord Veshin appeared beside him, an outline of translucent light, as though made of tinted glass.
Lord Veshin gestured grandly at the new creation. "This is a hardlight simulacrum. It can register strikes to any region, but unlike ordinary practice targets, it can fight back!"
In demonstration, the copy held out a hand, manifesting a sword of the same solid blue light, which it swung at Lord Veshin. The man hopped easily aside and lunged forward, tapping the opponent on the chest with one hand and the forehead with the other.
The number 1 appeared above the hardlight copy's head with the first strike, almost instantly becoming a 2 as his second hit registered.
"The goal is simply to accrue five hits against it. If you're too injured to continue, you can surrender at any time."
He punched the central plate that made up its torso, hard, throwing his whole weight into it. Two heavy strikes, and the section shattered. Missing its central piece, the entire thing dissolved. "If you manage to strike the head or torso hard enough times, you can perform a killshot. Be careful before trying something like that, it's more dangerous than it seems."
He wasn’t wrong. There was an art to fighting the hardlight simulacrums of Yalenin Veshin, a distinct skillset from ordinary combat, duels against other mageblades, or even against warrior classes. Despite appearances, they could hit harder than the humans they were imitating and had a stability no ordinary opponent could mimic.
Denor would be flawlessly prepared—indeed, this was probably more a chance for Lord Veshin to show off his son than anything else. At least this year, the likelihood of anyone matching or surpassing Denor would be minimal. Once the others had time to advance and add magic to the mix, things would become much more interesting.
This first showing of new initiates, only two years into their education, barely worthy of the mageblade class, would be less than impressive to any observers.
Jair wouldn’t have a problem, but for most new initiates it would be an unexpected wrench in their normally smooth practice. Even passing the first round was an accomplishment worth noting, though almost everyone would push for more.
Which meant it was Jair's job to make it impressive. He couldn't afford to be average. Right now was his best opportunity to impress the gathered nobility, and the only opening he could count on for claiming their help when the time came.
Lord Veshin waved a hand and the hardlight simulacrum disappeared. “First to demonstrate for us today will be Homiki Ielga!”
Homiki stepped forward. The platform of blue light upon which she stood slid forward beneath her, even as Lord Veshin’s moved him away to the center balcony opposite Jair and the others.
Homiki was decently above average, only lacking in soul manipulation, but since her capabilities were balanced between blade and manabody strength, she didn't truly stand out. She was exactly the sort of person you'd use to show the baseline standard for 'advanced' when everyone knew the truly advanced would have been initiated in the second group months ago.
She struck out with her soulsword. The simulacrum blocked, moving slow but smooth. Jair immediately saw a half dozen openings, but Homiki didn't capitalize on any of them. She locked their blades and pushed forward, trying to force its weapon up out of the way so she could punch it in the chest, but she wasn't used to the way it moved. Its other arm blocked her and its leg swung around as it crouched slightly, knocking her feet out from under her.
Jair winced as she slammed into the ground. Not a great start to the fight.
To her credit, Homiki recovered quickly and rolled backwards, putting distance between herself and the simulacrum. It walked forward steadily, swinging its blade in casual sweeps. Homiki jumped to her feet and ran to the side, circling the blue light opponent. It turned with her, smoothly keeping its weapon between them.
She darted forward again and hit the sword several times in quick succession. In fact, it looked like she was trying to break the sword through sheer overpowering force.
Judging from the difference in brightness, Jair would say the sword was roughly four times the strength of the rest of the simulacrum, but it was at least a strategy that relied on the specific form of the opponent. She was thinking creatively... not quite correctly.
The simulacrum shifted its stance, grabbing the sword in a two-handed grip, and retaliated with a battering barrage that slowly pushed her back.
Jair saw the moment she figured out the rhythm. Like a light going on in an empty window, her flailing settled. Even if he could see countless flaws in her technique, she'd adapted faster than most would have.
She matched it blow for blow, turning and retreating, then snapped out a quick stab to its thigh, gaining herself a '1'. Before its next strike could descend, she was back in defence mode to deflect it.
Good job.
After that, it was simply a matter of her leading it around the arena, striking between its attacks, and she easily accrued the remaining four points without being hit once.
"Round one, clear!" Lord Veshin bellowed, to scattered applause.
Jair clapped, but he had to admit her performance wasn't the most exciting. He couldn't blame the other observers for searching out more interesting things to occupy them. In this case, only because he knew the challenge so intimately could he appreciate the skill necessary to do what she did.
"Will she be advancing to the second round?" Lord Veshin asked, voice echoing.
"I will."
The simulacrum reformed, a little brighter than the first version.
"Ready?"
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They took their starting poses. Around them, obstacles made of yellow light formed an ethereal landscape. Boulders, trees, and buildings filled the arena, an impressive testament to Starshaper's skill and power.
"Second round, begin!"
Homiki didn't rush to attack, waiting it out to measure its tempo. Faster than the previous one, not as fast as her. She metered it out, keeping up with it in quick strikes, testing its defences. It was a significant step up from the previous one, in skill if not speed. Jair knew from experience how quickly the scaling improvements could throw someone off. He wasn't anticipating her falling so quickly, but he couldn't be certain she had what it took to fully analyze it so rapidly.
Raina was watching, head tilted, and Jair wondered if she and Homiki knew each other. Raina wasn't a particularly social person, but she kept connections with enough people that he wouldn't be surprised.
It had been way too long since he last paid attention to Raina's social life. He’d been in the future so long, nearly everything related to the academy was a blank blur of impressions without detail. He could picture her expression as she ranted, the way she paced, the way her arms moved, every nuance of her behavior, but the words she said and the names of people had disappeared long ago.
Then again, there was a difference between 'keeping this person around as a future ally' and 'actual friend'. Jair couldn't actually remember her talking about anyone as an especially close friend, though it couldn't possibly be just him.
Below in the arena, Homiki finally found her opening and struck the target with a jab to the shoulder. Jair wished he could be up in the box with Raina rather than waiting on the wall, they could trade commentary to keep things interesting. As it was, the fight was... slightly less dull with the addition of so many obstacles, but only barely. Homiki was a cautious fighter, moving steadily but without doing anything flashy. Exactly what one would do at some kind of competition where the goal was to prevent the opponent from striking you.
Jair already had something of an idea of his own strategy, but the more he watched the first fighter the more refined his thoughts on the subject became.
This wasn't a competition. It was an exhibition. A show. The point wasn't to play safe and not get hit, the goal was to entertain—and hopefully impress—the watching nobility.
Potential sponsors might be impressed if she kept up her slow cautious methods long enough to survive several rounds, but he could see she was wearing out fast. Dragging fights on for minutes on end wasn't ideal for someone facing a hardlight simulacrum which couldn't wear out or tire regardless of how much time passed.
There was a brief gasp from the audience, as the simulacrum pressed her back against one of the trees, light flickering and flaring. Before it could strike, she dropped under its guard and struck upwards, scoring her fourth hit of the fight, then grabbed its sword hand to keep it from hitting her and slammed her sword pommel into its forehead. Its other hand, fisted and swinging for her neck, stopped just short of impact as it registered the fifth hit and went still.
Jair clapped a bit more enthusiastically. That was quite the reckless maneuver she'd just pulled off. Maybe there was hope for her as a showman yet.
"Round two cleared!" Lord Veshin shouted, prompting more polite clapping. "Will you be attempting the third?"
Homiki took her time answering, breathing hard, but in the end she shook her head.
"Homiki Ielga, two rounds! Next, my son, Denor Veshin!"
The platform of blue light picked up Homiki and returned her to the back wall with the other contestants, while Denor's platform slid him forward to the center of the arena before descending and vanishing, along with all the environmental obstacles.
Denor stood alone in the center of the empty arena, then the blue glowing simulacrum appeared.
Denor saluted the magical creation and took his starting stance, two fingers on forehead, other hand empty and extended.
The light man imitated Denor’s stance, as Lord Veshin counted down the time.
"Begin!"
In a flash of blue, a sword made of the same light appeared in the opponent's hand. Denor's sword made no such flashing light, simply manifesting in his hand without fanfare.
His sword clashed against the hard light of the opponent's, both pushing hard as they tried to overbalance each other, then Denor disengaged and forced the other's sword up high. Taking advantage of the opening to strike twice in quick succession, he retreated in perfect time to avoid the retaliatory swing. The hit sections lit up with an X, showing the strikes.
Denor's style was clean and efficient. He was still young, still relatively inexperienced, but compared to Jair, everyone counted as inexperienced.
For his age, Denor moved very well.
Fluid strikes and blocks effortlessly matched the simulacrum's tempo.
He may as well have been dancing, the fight progressed so smoothly.
In seconds, he accrued the necessary five points to advance. At the fifth hit, the light man bowed and disappeared as the crowd applauded.
"Round two," Lord Veshin announced. “Ready?”
The opponent reformed, blue light coalescing into the shape of a slightly larger and more adult adversary, this one faintly brighter blue.
They each took their stances again and the environmental obstacles formed around them, then Lord Veshin called for the fight to begin. Denor blocked and dodged with elegant conservation of motion, striking back when he could, and once again flew through without being hit once.
Jair could only smile as he watched. It was a reminder of what he could be–would be soon enough. He looked forward to practicing with Denor. His speed and style were flawless for his age. It would push Jair's current capabilities very nicely, trying to keep up with him.
Denor knew how to play to the crowd, as well. He could have finished it in half the time, but took the time to show off what he was capable of rather than just technically winning.
He used the environment to his advantage as he moved, jumping atop a yellow-light rock to strike down at the opponent's head, ducking behind a glowing tree to save his energy for a precision strike.
When he finished the second round with a dramatic slide out of the way, grabbing onto a thinner tree to swing himself around and stab the thing in the back for his final point, he received an enthusiastic applause. Compared to the first girl, his performance was incredibly impressive.
"Round two, completed! What do you say, another?"
Denor nodded without waiting, giving his sword a dramatic flourish. Despite his showy moves, his fight had lasted less than half as long as Homiki's, and he was far from worn out.
"Ready? Begin!"
For Denor’s third round, the environment grew even more complicated. The yellow-glowing trees and rocks from round two shifted in place as the floor became a field of red. The ground rose in uneven sections, leaving countless rifts cracking across it in jagged crimson. Each piece of 'ground' tilted at a different angle, sometimes sharply so, making the maze of cracks that much more of a challenge to navigate.
The blue-glowing simulacrum ran forward without waiting for Denor's first move, jumping from island to island as it closed in. Denor braced to meet it, backing up to a piece of ground whose tilt best matched the angle he needed to brace himself.
This fight was faster than the previous one, both in tempo and in elapsed time. Denor subtly moved from 'show off' mode to 'win' mode, betrayed by tiny shifts in his stance as his moves became absolutely focused. He’d moved past the easy opponents he could mess around with, now he had to conserve energy and act fast and decisively.
His opponent began to actively use the environment as well, ducking behind trees or positioning itself where Denor couldn’t get a good angle without falling into one of the rifts or pressing too far forward.
The simulacrum’s ability to maintain exact distance was impressive, even if its creator weren’t simultaneously keeping up the entire environment around them too. Yalenin ‘Starshaper’ Veshin was a true master.
Though Denor won decisively, he didn't escape the round unscathed. In a rapid flurry of exchanged blows, Denor took several minor slices across his right side as he pressed his advantage.
The fourth and fifth rounds included a second adversary and increasingly convoluted environments. Denor fought cleanly and aggressively, more than willing to take hits in return in order to win. Jair favored a similar style himself, and applauded Denor’s capability with full sincerity.
“Initiate tier fully cleared! That’s my son, not to brag, but all five levels! Way to go, Denor!”
The applause was full and lingering, and would have been even without Lord Veshin goading everyone on. Denor’s show was probably one of the best performances Jair had ever seen at one of these exhibitions. No wonder people would be talking about it for weeks.
Denor stood for a long moment, smiling and waving while he caught his breath, then raised a hand to silence the continued applause.
“I’d like to advance to the next tier.”
Lord Veshin turned to him, concerned.
The audience, on the other hand, loved it. The cheers grew almost deafening.
Denor nodded, confident in his choice.
Lord Veshin accepted he had no choice and raised his hands. “So shall it be! Prepare for round six!”
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