Chapter 43 — The Divinesday Newcomers Tournament! (Part 2)

Their first match ended in a complete one-sided victory. Ranger treated the shadow mage like a ragdoll and the enchanter hardly fared much better when Ria, juiced-up by the crowd and forgetting to hold back, went all-out on him. Once the abjurer’s protective barriers shattered under the relentless assault from Ria, Ranger, and Keira, the end was swift and brutal.

The first-year in armor managed a valiant effort, trying to defend his companions and standing til the last, but tactical use of compact air shields to disrupt his footing and block his range of motion mid-swing left him an easy target for earth-empowered strikes, and after a stab sank into the boy’s armored chest with a feel of twisting metal, cracking bone, and yielding flesh, he collapsed limbs-akimbo and unmoving.

The safety magic’s spatial effect that let her wood training dagger punch through his armor and body and the illusion mimicking the resistance had felt so eerily realistic that Ria had to look down to verify that the boy and his armor were both fine.

{{Raise your dagger, Ria. This victory is yours!}}

At hearing Zena’s voice, she did as told, and a huge cheer filled the air. Goosebumps again ran along her arms even as sweat dripped down. Her breathing was still a bit ragged from the intense effort.

The announcer’s overexcited voice blared out, “Zena’s Embers of Desolation are the victors and will advance to the next round! Woooow! How was that for a debut match! Ria of Shadewood! Has she redeemed herself from her disastrous duel?! Her teammates barely got a chance to do anything! Is this the sort of performance we missed out on when her bout with Phaelys Vesali was cut short prematurely due to an unlucky spell failure?! The regret is fierce!!!”

When she looked up at the illusions of her, Ria could see she was grinning in triumph, and indeed she was. Other illusions were showing scenes from the battle, with beams of light striking and Ria using her martial arts to dodge and attack, another with Ranger covered in a sphere of darkness before flying out to pounce and chomp the shadow mage boy.

{{Ria, this way! We need to clear the arena for the next match.}}

Zena’s prompting pulled her away from the illusions, and she waved to the crowd as she jogged to catch up with her team members, getting a thumbs-up and grin from Zena as the girl draped an arm around her shoulders, joining her in waving as they returned back into the tunnel leading to the waiting room.

The noise of the crowd and the announcer faded into the background, and Ria felt a little light-headed as the heat in her blood calmed enough that she could think clearly about what had just happened. Just like after her first time defending the palisade at Vorshan’s Hills, Ria’s hands were trembling by the time she sat down to rest.

“So… how was it? Your first time,” Zena asked, grasping both Ria’s hands, eyes bright and face barely containing the raven-haired girl’s huge grin.

Ria took a deep breath to calm herself. “Scary… but invigorating,” she admitted, as much to herself as to Zena.

“Isn’t it!” Zena agreed. “You did great, Ria! We’ll need buckets to carry all the coin from our next match’s bets!”

A wan smile slipped onto Ria’s face at her friend’s enthusiasm.

“It’s a shame we can’t get Iselyn to show her face! Or we’d get even more,” Zena meaningfully grumbled, and Iselyn vigorously shook her head.

The illusion girl seemed to be taking this better than expected and wasn’t making any effort to escape the next match, simply meditating to replenish her energy. Keira was doing the same.

Ria tilted her head a bit. “I’m surprised you’re so calm, Iselyn.”

“I told you I had to earn my sponsorship,” Iselyn said as if that explained everything, then at Ria’s still blank expression, added, “I fought a lot of public duels and tournaments to prove myself.”

Eh? Really?

Iselyn snorted. “You saw my match with Zell, didn’t you?”

Ah, there was that! With the water whips. Ria nodded. Her friend must have worked hard to become that skilled with water magic when her affinity was lunar energy.

Ria felt the faint tell-tale pulse of a communications stone signaling an incoming request to talk coming from her friend’s ring.

Zena let go of Ria’s hands and made a stone appear. “How’d you guys do?”

“We got an unlucky draw, facing the Earthshakers’ team in our first match. Klein with his Sand Tortoise and Penze with his damn Tunnel Gopher, they’ve really improved from last year and can ambush from beneath the ground. Alexus has improved his elemental magic enough to conjure small structures and fortifications, and Vecci’s abjuration magic was able to completely protect against our fire magic.”

“Ouch. Sounds like it was rough.”

“…if we’d been less overconfident and focused our magic into taking out at least one of them or their familiars, it would have gone better, but they used quickcast tactics with the basic Rockshot spell to disrupt our cooperation. Be careful. They can all use it.”

“Thanks for the scouting report, Jules. We’ll make sure your effort wasn’t without benefit.”

“Xander’s Luck.”

“And Rhys’ Courage.” Zena withdrew her energy and returned the stone to her storage ring. “You three heard him. Looks like we have a tough opponent next. Let’s replenish our energy then we’ll discuss how best to approach the match.”

None of their group was in opposition and Ria also gave her nod, adjusting to the unified meditation pose on the stone bench. She had used a significant amount of her reserves during the match, overpowering a second-year abjurer with brute force wasn’t particularly energy-efficient even using disruptive shadow magic. Fortunately, the waiting room was designed to draw up earth energy from the ley-line nexus that powered the arena and the energy was noticeably thick in the air.

Ranger hopped up onto the bench beside her and took up his own meditation pose.

Zena snorted. “Watching your familiar meditate is hilarious.”

Ranger huffed, causing his gums to flap and Zena to hide a further snicker-snort with her hand.

Ria cracked open an eye to acknowledge her friend’s comment and shrugged. It really was. But at least Ranger was taking their match preparation more seriously than Malleron who was snacking on energy treats.

A party full of earth-affinity, or at the least earth-attuned, mages was a hard counter for fire mages, but that didn’t automatically mean Ria’s team would do better. Jules’ team had won a good number of the prior day’s practice matches, some convincingly so.

After experiencing how effective the enchanter archer had been, Ria was tempted to re-register her gear for the next match. She did still have a few voidstone tipped arrows—and some fire-crystal tipped ones, but to waste expensive one-use arrows in an event when she was trying to earn money seemed counter-productive. Assuming she’d be competing with a goal to improve her modern spellcasting skills, she hadn’t thought to ask whether voidstone weapons were even allowed.

No, if she was going to use arrows, she needed to do some testing ahead of time and determine how much energy was required for an arrow to penetrate a second-year’s abjuration magic and protective gear. For now, her devastator was probably still her best trump card. Hulle wanted her to focus on efficiency, so she needed to think up better ways to overcome earth magic than just blasting it with shadow magic via her dagger.

Iselyn and Zena were ready the quickest and began hashing out some different strategies. With Malleron advising, most of those turned into various ideas about using Ria as bait. Though the evil little fungus man was grudgingly forced to admit that his petrified sword could probably penetrate summoned stone and with his armor he’d be better able to withstand attacks.

Once their strategy was decided, Zena and Iselyn went out to the gate to watch the remaining first round matches. Ria used the time to review and practice shaping the new versions of her spells.

This time when their team was called out for the second round, they all took positions in the middle of the square marked on their side of the arena. The greeting from the crowd was more enthusiastic than during their introduction, and it was easy to guess why. An upstart team of first-year girls versus a team from one of the arena guilds. It was sure to be an exciting match.

Unlike the previous round, Ria wasn’t going to be charging forward, and without an outlet, her nervous energy was making her jittery.

“Focus on what you need to do, Ria!” Zena called over to her from about 5 paces away.

Ria closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting the noise wash over. Her hands and knees were still trembling when the announcer finished his spiel hyping up the match, but her mind was clear and ready—eager maybe—knowing this fight would be a challenge.

The announcement of the match beginning rang out.

As had become habit of late, Ria started with her usual body-strengthening spell, barely getting through the casting before Ranger woofed a warning.

Just like with Phaelys, the Earthshakers had conjured rocks and shot them at her with unexpected speed—fist-sized and smaller rocks coming in a volley she wouldn’t be able to dodge!

Ria hardened the air in front of her using her wand, and angry embers like red-veined ash swirled outward from Zena to form a shield, sapping the rocks’ force sufficient for the air shield to hold.

“Oh-hoh! Is Team Earthen Doom trying to rattle our young war-hero? Having companions this time sure seems it saved her unlike-”

All four of them had tried to cheapshot her at the start! Rude!

A beam of light struck one of the boys before his team could erect any defences, and the boy was thrown backward, causing the unnerving snickers from the crowd to be overridden by a swell of enthusiasm at the exchange of ranged strikes. Another beam followed, striking a hastily-erected defensive barrier of sand. And another struck at a third boy, followed by a rapid barrage of less powerful but sharper beams of light, pinning them down.

{{Nice, Keira!}}

Ria cheered her friend as she felt Iselyn’s telepathic tethers connect. Thanks to Keira’s alteration magic imparting physical force to her light magic, the girl’s light beams were nothing to scoff at. These were spells that Keira had put to good use during the siege.

{{Don’t get distracted, Ria!}}

{{On it!}}

Zena’s chiding reminder returned Ria’s focus to her task, and as a giant spore-shrouded forest of mushrooms began to sprout from Iselyn spreading out her domain spell, Ria formed an enlarged and overpowered version of her new and improved Sensing Sphere spell and stomped her foot down, sending ripples of earth energy out into the ground.

The other team’s familiars had disappeared right at the start of the fight, and the battle plan for the Earthshakers was quickly becoming apparent. A stone dome rose to protect the huddling boys from Keira’s onslaught while the familiars tunneled close to ambush from underground—just as Jules had warned.

There was something vaguely amusing about earth-affinity mages—one with an actual turtle familiar—turtling-up. There was no need to worry about the match continuing without end if the turtling was too effective, though. Fortunately, a rule for cutting short boring matches existed: If no meaningful exchanges or attempts to win the match were being made, then the judge for the match would declare the ‘five minute rule’ and if neither team was defeated within the five minutes, the gods would be consulted for their judgement.

Of course, not trying one’s best to win and cowardly behavior such as running away or needlessly torturing one’s opponent made for poor tribute to the gods and was generally not well received. Though, sometimes comedy and showmanship could win the gods’ favor.

Ria visualized the results of her sensing spell, highlighting the location of the two tunneling familiars, and pushed that vision through the telepathic tether to her teammates and through the familiar bond to Ranger as they had practiced during Zena’s training session. This was her decided responsibility until they defeated the opposing team’s familiars.

Immediately stopping her barrage, Keira ran past Malleron and hurried to pull herself up onto one of the partially illusionary mushrooms. Iselyn and Zena did likewise. Ria couldn’t do the same because her feet needed contact with the ground to maintain the sensing spell, which meant she was bait after all. At least, Malleron and Ranger also remained on the ground to act as bait.

The maneuver seemed to work, and the sand tortoise diverted from Keira toward Malleron. The tunnel gopher was of course still headed her way.

Zena completed a casting, and part of the cloud of embers still hovering in the air separated off to form a helmet over Ria’s head and armor over her witch outfit. The embers stoked and abated as if breathing, and rather than burn, the heat from the protective armor continually replenished Ria’s stamina.

Expectations from the Earthshakers team’s prior battle caused an anticipatory hush to settle over the arena only broken by slight tremors in the ground as hidden doom approached Ria’s team.

Ria gave Zena a thumbs-up and took another deep breath as she diverted her attention into the spell that would form her own domain by replacing the element glyph with her newly discovered glyph. This was the solution she’d decided on for how to counter the opponent’s earth magic.

Ranger at her side, she rushed forward, and unleashed her orichalcum domain directly above the gopher familiar, hardening the ground and her ember armor while projecting out a terrible weight like she had done in the library. She could perceive the familiar within the tunnel struggling but unable to rise back to its feet, overwhelmed by the effect of her magic.

Maintaining the two simple spells and sharing her perception was requiring all her concentration. Defeating the gopher would be up to Ranger, and he eagerly leapt to the task as planned, landing ahead to dig down into the giant gopher’s tunnel and attack it from behind.

At the same time, a cheer went up as the ground under Malleron turned to swirling sand and sucked him under.

Glyphs flashing into view near the opponents’ stone dome caught her attention.

{{Incoming!!}}

Ria alerted the others, realizing Rockshot spells were forming.

Rocks whistled through the air, some slamming into the ground around her, weighed down by her domain, others striking her companions—passing through, trailing puffs of spores! Iselyn’s illusion was working!

The lull in combat was all a trap by Earthen Doom to take advantage of the anticipated distraction caused by the familiars attacking from underground!

But… for the Earthshakers second-years to be able to use Rockshot spells while hiding behind a stone dome—how was that fair?!

Ria grunted as a rock struck her armor. Her domain was interfering with Iselyn’s magic and making her an easier target… Thankfully, it was also making her an immovable and indestructible weight that suppressed the magic around her.

Zena had been thrilled upon learning about Ria’s new metal magic and had insisted they test it out. It was due to her arena enthusiast friend’s insistence and effort during their practice that Ria could already selectively apply the domain’s effects, if a bit imperfectly. Otherwise, the domain magic would be also weighing down Ranger and dispersing Zena’s protective magic as well.

Of course, Zena wouldn’t have had her spend so much time with the orichalcum magic, testing it, if it couldn’t be used in the matches, and thanks to Zena and the Flaming Dragons arranging for exclusive use of the Grand Arena, they had been able to diffuse the biggest worry, determining that she could use the orichalcum domain spell without overpowering the arena’s safety enchantment.

Though a little frustrating, the domain spell was the only orichalcum magic she had reliably working and tested in time for the tournament. Reworking the silver telekinesis and manipulation spells into orichalcum ones was something Ria greatly desired—even if just to better take advantage of her affinity—but further research and experimentation were needed. The magic-suppressing molten chains were also definitely a no-go—not that she had been willing to try the magic again during a training match so soon after what had happened.

Another rock striking her armor refocused her attention on their current struggle.

The sensing magic showed her teammates weathering the onslaught of telekinetically propelled rocks well and without any obvious injury other than indicated by a few choice expletives across the tether, and Keira’s powerful light-beam attacks had resumed against the stone dome, trying to wear down Earthen Doom’s energy reserves. Ranger’s digging had progressed deep enough into the dirt that he no longer needed to dodge incoming rocks.

Malleron’s situation was also progressing. The tortoise, after biting onto the fungus man’s petrified armor and getting a mouthful of mind-bending spores, frantically tried to retreat and use the sand to push the buried spriggan away. But as Ria observed into the ground with her magic, Malleron somehow pushed his way through the sand and stabbed the dazed tortoise, leaving it unmoving.

The rockshot barrage intensified as Ranger broke through into the tunnel below, charging, pouncing, raking, and biting the suppressed gopher until it stopped moving.

Familiars neutralized, it was time to attack.