When Fiyu entered the sunlight and heard the audience cheering, she flinched, despite the fact that all the calls were encouraging. Still, by the time Fiyu stepped over the ring of water, she appeared fully in control of herself, hands ready at her sides.

A bell rang to signal the beginning of the match, but neither acted immediately. They remained motionless except the breeze moving their clothes, then without any apparent signal, the Tatian man hurled a sphere of cantae across the arena.

In a single motion, Fiyu stepped aside and raised her hand, unleashing a torrent of bolts. They slammed directly into her opponent's torso, driving him off his feet and out of the ring.

Just like that, the first match was over. The cantae sweeping past her had blown down Fiyu's hood, leaving her hair streaming in the wind - it seemed she'd redone it in a loose braid. Her lips were parted in slight surprise, as if she hadn't expected to win so easily, but it was already over.

Another Tatian man moved forward to help his teammate up - he felt like he'd finished soulcrafting his first floor, so he was probably Mogi. His gaze swept over Fiyu, not angry, but clearly marking her as a dangerous opponent. Winning the first match so decisively, that was likely on everyone's mind. Fiyu hesitated a moment, glancing back toward them with a bit of worry, but then politely lowered her head to the audience and returned to their seating area.

Several members of their team whooped, startling her more than the cantae blast to the face. But Nauda was prepared, leading her back down to her seat without actually touching her, a warm smile on her face. "That was wonderfully done, Fiyu. That's one match in our favor."

"Send out your fighter!" Mogi called from the opposite side, hands around his mouth showily, as if he actually needed to shout across the short distance. "Unless you're not so confident without knowing who you'll be facing?"

This was where strategy came into play. If they traded turns, that meant that there were effectively two different kinds of strength: the ability to remove specific opponents and the ability to resist an unknown opponent. The early matches would be the most dangerous, given that anyone from the entire enemy team could potentially fight.

Theo realized that would also lead to the matches dwindling to the weaker participants, which wasn't a very showy way to organize a tournament. Clearly, Tatian crowds weren't in it for the bloodlust. Mogi continued to taunt them, so at least he wasn't lacking competitive spirit. Judging from the way Nauda pursed her lips and marched out, she wasn't lacking either.

"I apologize for my cowardice in not leading my team into the arena." Nauda bowed deeply before stepping over the water. "As a small recompense, I will step forward now and do my utmost to challenge whoever is sent against me."

Mogi grinned... and turned away to allow another member of his team to enter. It had been a trap, and a hypocritical one, given that Mogi hadn't stepped forward either. The opponent who stepped up to face Nauda was an ordinary-looking Tatian woman who drew two small rods as she entered. Theo would have thought they were an ineffective weapon, except that they were covered in the same dark studs as Nauda's staff.

The instant the bell rang, Nauda thrust the prongs of her staff forward, but she wasn't quick enough. Her opponent raised both rods in front of her, blocking the invisible force. Nauda hissed and tried to push forward, but couldn't overcome her opponent. In fact, the other woman jerked one rod to the side, pulling Nauda with the movement, then thrust out with her other hand.

One of Nauda's legs trembled in place and Theo understood the trap. Mogi clearly knew about Nauda's technique and had prepared one of his team members who could do the same, but with two separate armaments. Most of Nauda's body seemed frozen in place as she struggled to level her staff toward her opponent.

With an abrupt wrenching movement, Nauda twisted her staff free of her opponent's force. But this time, even as she was beginning to thrust, the other woman flipped both rods upward, jerking Nauda's arms into the air. While she was off balance, both rods thrust outward, the air rippling as force caught Nauda in the shoulders and hips, driving her backward.

She fell back a step... but not over the ring of water. Nauda grimaced, straining against her opponent's force. Theo was surprised to find himself raptly watching the invisible match, while Fiyu clutched the bench beneath her so tightly her knuckles were bloodless.

Again Nauda twisted out of her opponent's bind, her staff sweeping horizontally. Once more, her opponent deflected the force with both rods, smiling as she started to extend one again.

Nauda reversed her staff, the base thrusting forward.

Though the force was invisible, it knocked her opponent off her feet, doubling her body over as if she'd been impaled through the stomach. She remained frozen in the air in that position, one rod clattering to the ground. A hush fell over the crowd and Fiyu breathed a sigh of relief.

Theo's combat instincts expected Nauda to slam her opponent into the arena, but instead she lowered the other woman to the ground gently. As soon as she touched the ground, the match was over. Nauda bowed to the other team with perfect humility, then returned to their side as the crowds began to cheer.

"Mogi's family, please choose your next contestant." The judges spoke gently when no one was forthcoming, but the other side continued speaking in low voices. They didn't seem furious, but Mogi had definitely been humbled by the defeat.

When they finally broke, they sent a Fithan man out into the circle. Theo frowned, trying to glimpse the man's soulhome and reconsidering his thoughts about strategy. This man hadn't followed a Farmguard blueprint, but his cantae felt unremarkable... Theo glanced toward Nauda.

"Is he hiding something?"

"No, I think he's bait." Nauda considered him a moment longer, then turned back to the rest of them. "Not their weakest, but they're trying to lure out more of our skilled fighters. Kuber, do you think you could fight him as you are?"

"Probably." Kuber stood up, reluctantly leaving the ceremonial rod behind to step into the circle.

Their fight turned out to be much less interesting than the previous, as neither combatant had any polished techniques. Though the Fithan man had a knife, Kuber disarmed him with a huge burst of cantae. His every movement was overpowered, as the only real advantage he had was the massive store of cantae inside his over-sized chamber. In a longer fight, his lack of organized rooms might have led him to lose, but eventually he managed to out-wrestle his opponent and throw him from the circle.

Three victories, no losses. Theo swallowed when Nauda pointed to him, because he had a feeling that he was going to break that streak.

He walked to the ring calmly, trying to display as much confidence as possible. It wasn't that he was completely helpless: he had a well-crafted soulhome that stored a decent amount of cantae. Over the course of his life, he'd honed his fighting instincts and learned several martial arts, plus he still had the spear armament Navim had made for him.

All he could do was stand and wait, hoping he could draw out one of their stronger fighters. Based on the amount of time it took Mogi's team to choose, he must have caused them a bit of worry. Eventually they sent out a middle-aged man with a heavily fortified soulhome.

That wasn't good, or it was great, depending on the perspective. Then the bell sounded and he had no more time to think because a wall of wind swept toward him.

It almost knocked him from the ring at the very beginning of the match, but his instincts told him to drop to the ground and dig in. The wind stung his skin with an edge of cantae, not quite a focused attack. The sapphire currents swirling around the man's hands definitely were, though. He leapt away from the first burst, which dissipated against the ground with nearly enough force to make him stumble.

His only hope was to get close enough to use his spear. Theo drew as much cantae from his soulhome as he could, reinforcing his body and moving him faster than his opponent could hurl the bursts of sapphire wind. Unfortunately, the older man didn't panic, merely raising another wall of wind to keep him back while steadily hurling bursts at him.

Without any special techniques of his own, Theo was definitely going to lose. His only hope was to put everything he had into a single charge, so he lunged forward.

As expected, the middle-aged man raised a wall of wind with one hand while sending out a burst with the other. Theo ducked underneath the burst and this time charged directly into the wind, throwing his own cantae against it in an uncontrolled blast. Then he was through, thrusting his spear forward and activating it...

His opponent's hands closed around the tip of the spear, catching the force in a swirl of his own cantae. Theo realized too late that he should let go of the spear, but the whirling force caught hold of his body and threw him into the air. Before he'd even finished tumbling, a burst of wind smashed into him, then another, then another, then he was crashing into the arena floor.

Outside the circle.

The conclusion was announced and the old man nodded politely to him, but Theo ignored him and the crowds. Defeat was bitter despite the fact that he'd expected it. When he returned, Fiyu gave him an encouraging smile like a knife to the gut, while Nauda clapped a hand on his shoulder approvingly.

"You made them use up one of their stronger fighters. That's good enough."

But it wasn't, not for him. It wasn't just that he had lost, it was that he had lost badly, outclassed in both power and technique. Theo sat on the bench gloomily, trying to figure out if there was another way he might have won, but given so little to work with, he didn't think it was possible.

Their next fighter went out in a heated wrestling match that ranged across the arena before Mogi's fighter won. It had been a close match between roughly equal opponents, making morale a more important factor and leaving Theo wondering if he was responsible for that loss as well. Mogi's team was certainly exultant now that they were catching up, and Nauda's expression suggested that she agreed.

"Fiyu, can you fight again?"

The Ichili woman bobbed her head agreeably. "Do you need me to?"

"Yes. We're both running out of skilled soulcrafters and we need to end their streak."

When Fiyu stepped out into the arena a second time, there wasn't a pause like before. Instead Mogi himself walked forward with a broad smile on his face, as if he had been waiting for that moment. Nauda bit her lip and reached out, as if she could take back the decision, but Theo pulled her hand back. They could only trust in Fiyu's strength now.

"You're strong," Mogi said, "but you should stick to ambushing opponents who aren't prepared for you. Just a suggestion for future fights."

Fiyu didn't respond at all, hands loose at her sides. Mogi tried to smirk at her, but it dissipated against the lack of response. He eventually bent down and readied his fists, fully serious. Unfortunately, it did feel like he had a fully soulcrafted first floor, so the fight wouldn't end swiftly like Fiyu's previous one.

The instant the bell rang, Mogi smashed both his fists together. A cacophony of flashing lights and blaring horns exploded over the arena, so intense that it nearly blinded Theo from a distance and made several of the judges fall from their seats. In the instant that Fiyu flinched, Mogi leapt across the arena to strike her.

He was met head on by a burst of light from both hands. His technique might have been disabling to Fiyu not long ago, but Theo felt a surge of pride when he saw her completely ignore it. With her soulcrafted window combined with her new mask, no attempt to strike at her weaknesses would be effective.

Though a huge number of her bolts landed, knocking Mogi backwards, they didn't drive him from the ring. He straightened with a grimace and emerald light flickered around his torso. It was some sort of spiritual armor, battered by all of the bolts but not broken. To his credit, Mogi didn't attempt any kind of distraction again, he just attacked.

His first leap was terrifyingly fast, nearly bridging the distance between them in an instant. Fiyu released a hail of bursts at his location, but he easily dodged aside, a surge of cantae preventing him from losing any momentum. She'd held back her other hand and the burst from it caught him in the face.

Mogi kept coming, grimacing as her bolts impacted against his armor but not about to stop. Just before his fist collided with her face, Fiyu shot to the side, quick as a shadow. He was puzzled for only a moment, and in that time she sent more bolts slamming into his side.

Seeing that her attack was ineffective, Fiyu retreated to the edge and conserved her strength. The enemy leader was hesitant as well, surprised that his opponent was so quick. He took a step forward, then retreated as soon as she raised a hand, taunting her into sending out more bursts. Considering that Fiyu couldn't release limited strikes, that was an effective strategy. Mogi began to shift around the arena, so quickly that he was just a blur, every movement a potential attack.

Fiyu spread her fingers wide and unleashed a hailstorm of light. Eyebrows rose and jaws dropped all around the arena as she utterly blanketed the entire ring with bolts. Even if Mogi could have dodged them, his strategy shifting from side to side sent him slamming into several of them before he could correct. The green aura protecting him began to crack and he grimaced before leaping into the air.

As soon as he did so, Fiyu raised her hands to strike. But Mogi brought his fists together again, this time releasing a shockwave of force that smashed aside her bolts.

In an instant he was overhead, his fist slamming down toward a defenseless Fiyu.

It looked almost like she fell forward at first, yet Fiyu tucked into a roll and passed just under his attack. Mogi stomped down into the arena, his boot gouging deep into the stone, whirling around to strike her before she could escape his range...

Instead, Fiyu extended a hand behind her, fingers aligned like a knife. A searing stream of bursts struck him in the torso, shattering through his aura and sending him flying back toward the audience.

Multiple people gasped and flinched before he collided with an aura of green cantae that had been invisible before that moment. Mogi flattened against the cantae wall, his chest bleeding severely. He began to fall forward and Nanjuma caught him before he hit the ground.

"You see? There is nothing to fear." Nanjuma smiled over the crowd, but his eyes moved quickly to find the healers. "Would someone come forward and help this lad? We'll take a brief break to return everything to order."

In that time, a pair of healers came to attend Mogi, who was conscious but in pain. Someone else walked out to repair the arena, the stone throbbing as if to a stony heartbeat as it slowly flowed back into position. Meanwhile, Fiyu walked back to their area very slowly.

Though she looked serene, Theo could tell that she was exhausted. She barely even flinched when everyone cheered her, then slumped down onto her bench. Nauda was smiling broadly and ended up clapping Theo on the shoulder as if she couldn't resist touching someone.

"That was exactly what we needed, Fiyu. They've sent their strongest, so we have this well in hand. Everyone else, I expect you to fight your best, but the remainder of this match is about gaining as much real experience as you can."

As it happened, they still dominated the remaining set, as Mogi's team had been severely demoralized. The remaining fights weren't particularly interesting, yet Theo found himself watching closely, invested in the outcome of his team. Of the remaining four fights, they won three of them, and even the loss seemed like only a temporary setback, the loser not even ashamed when she returned to their group.

So they'd won seven to three, a strong showing for the first match. Some of the fights had been a close thing, but they also had more to reveal. Theo was fairly certain that Fiyu and Nauda both had something left up their sleeves, while he hoped that in a week he would be an entirely different soulcrafter.

Just as he was starting to put his loss behind him and enjoy the celebration, Theo caught a glimpse of Magnafor in the crowd. He didn't even seem to notice anything that had gone on in the arena below, his gaze locked on the vast tree overhead.