Aki was coming back up through the back entrance to the VIP area. Over the years he, not Tansen, had been the one who had done most of the leg work in merging the guild and academy into one almost-seamless body. A lot of that didn't involve paperwork or endless debates over protocols but winning over the grunt level people. Getting these members more amiable towards the academy was what allowed the merger to go through.
This also allowed Aki more contacts on the ground as to what was happening beneath the bone dry reports and statistics. Today that had proved very handy. The final round of the crafters round had commenced. Weirdly it had been between a surviving orc and a soldier with a stone head hammer. But if his sources were right this was just the first twist of a day that was going to be mired in oddities.
"Ah there you are. You missed the most bloody parts but there is still one good show left." Tansen called to him as he sipped his gold wine chalice.
Aki hummed nonchalantly in response. As the arm of the orc broke Tansen looked at his old friend again, taking in his beard stroking, ponderous expression and vacant stare.
"What's the problem?" Tansen asked. This also drew the attention of Leeroy and Agatha. Watching an orc die was pretty common for them no matter the setting but eavesdropping on a academy head was a once in a blue moon event.
"I think we should move the crafting victor to the bottom of the match rung." Aki said after a long moment of consideration.
Tansen just stared at him for a long moment before confirming he had heard him right.
"When the parents whined about the representation of crafter students you proposed putting their victor in the third to last round and now you want to change things right at the last possible moment? What brought this on?" Tansen said.
"There's whispers of a craft capable of putting that soldier in the top spot. I would typically ignore such nonsense but the source this time is someone I trust. The damn gold lust got me before I considered the problems it would make for us if he won" Aki said, pointing towards the victor as he raised his hammer in triumph.
"That soldier? "Leeroy asked incredulously.
Aki took a moment to restrain himself from smacking this witless fool.
"Yes" he responded in a strained voice.
Tansen considered this for a long moment but was interrupted by Agatha snorting in derision.
"I swear, old men gossip worse than young girls" She said as she crossed her legs and looked at the hammer with a light interest. "I will admit putting wind together with a hammer is a good idea, but the enchantment to do that wind effect must degrade the head if he had to make it replaceable. Not a bad workaround but all master craftsman know that having enchantments wear down on your equipment is the sign of a low tier talent in the crafting world."
AKi looked to Tansen who shrugged his shoulders in apparent agreement.
"Agatha has studied her talent far longer than we have" Tansen said helplessly.
Aki just huffed. " All right but if I score with the money I put down on him winning I don't want to hear of us splitting the prize pool." The older man then came to stand beside his charge as the caster students came in when the arena was cleared of the last body. The contestants made their way to the various white circles on the ground already matched up in previous drawings.
All of the students were dressed in garb reflecting their element. The few men wore full metal armor pieces colored in the typical reds, blues, greens, and browns. A few of the female contestants wore metal shoulder guards with some leather armor pieces, but most of the women on the field wore flowing robes in laid with a few jewels or gold trimmings to accentuate their elements color. These would be opened at certain places to reveal necklines or to show off the length of their legs.
"Girls these days. They seem to think their boobs and thighs are what is being judged. We will just have to whip them into shape in the coming months." Agatha grumbled.
"Ha! If you had been here for a while you would know it's always been this way. Give most women a stage and the first thing they'll think to do is show off their bodies." Tansen laughed out as he sipped his wine.
"Well it's not like they don't have good reason this year. With 2 male scions and a male dual element in the offering they will do what they can to make sure they're as eye catching as possible." Aki rebutted. But as he turned to expound on this point he saw Leeroy looking the the spectacle of bare flesh with naked lust in his eyes. The old man just shook his head and decided he had had enough of this conversation.
The gong sounded and an explosive whirl wind of wind blades, water balls, gouts of fire, and head sized rocks littered the field. Of course there were no deaths in this contest as the combatants this time around were far too valuable to take such risks. Part of their evaluations would be how they not only performed their spells but also the restraint and judgement in which they used them. The crowd was still equally engaged despite the lack of blood sport.
For all their caution, this was still a chancy endeavor for the inexperienced participants. Despite everyone's best efforts, one woman had her thigh crushed from a boulder and two combatants were severely burned by steam when a man in blue tinted plate armor tried to counter a red robed woman's close range fire wall with a water jet.
'Better here than in the woods' was all the sympathy Tansen could offer them. Despite his icy thoughts, Tansen was still impressed with the students. A lot of them had managed to manipulate mana with their hands and feet. Casting spells with the mana through the mouth was a beginner method to allow them to get used to using mana and spirit magic at the same time but a more mid level approach was absorbing mana in the mouth and having it come out through the limbs to release the spell, which many students had accomplished this semester.
The rounds proceeded with their up and downs. One woman looked to be on the verge of winning but the earth mage made a hole for her to fall in as she was walking towards her victim sprawled in the dirt. A man who put him self on a tower of dirt laughed at his opponents attempts to spray it down with water. His laughter soon died down when she used the water that had soaked into the dirt tower to knock it, and him, down and out of the circle.
But the main show was Jeff. The yellow tongues of lightning on the field announced his victory wherever he was. The only person who held out against him for any length of time was an earth user who was able to block the lightning in time with boulder armor but he wasn't able to counter the intense heat of Jeffs fireballs and the wind assisted movements that allowed him to move behind his rock walls. The bright yellow armor with an almost spherical helm and intricate inter working plates stuck out. Many thought he was the final winner of the contest before the final rounds even commenced.
It was nearing the end of the day when the obligatory crafter round started. It was a fire user who would put him down. The other round was a wind mage against Jeff, and they had about as much chance as the crafter did if his exhausted breathing before the match even began was to go by. After this round the winner against the crafter would go against a third water user who had won a previous round but had both of his two potential opponents mutually eliminated.
"All right, l have a match against a scion I need to get too so I will make this quick fella." She said like she was strolling in the park, her sharp cheek bones with make up and long luscious brown hair showing off her considerable wealth as these features were touched up to look unblemished after every round. The soldier was concealed in a metal helm obscuring his face with the iron coins padding his capes shoulder section. He just lowered his hammer and kept the head trained on the woman several feet from him.
"Is he just trying to surrender his weapon in the first blow?" Leeroy asked incredulously.
"Nah, I think he will try for a quick jab. He probably won't win but its the best play he's got." Tansen explained as he leaned back in his seat waiting for the real combat to start as he settled his gaze on the Jeff and wind mage round.
The gong sounded and an explosion rang out, announcing the defeat of the crafter. All the attention was on the wind mage as he soared into the air to try and get over the fire ball Jeff threw at him. As the wind mage was coming down over Jeff he ran into another fireball Jeff had thrown into the air behind his back. The fireball detonated about two feet from the wind mage and sent the green armored man flying out of the circle.
A cheer went up, but Leeroy exclaimed loud enough to cut through the din.
"What the fuck happened to her?"
A moment of confusion passed as everyone turned to look at the fire mage splayed out, several feet from the circle. Her left side was crushed and she was passed out from the pain as a medical team dressed in white robes with a small coolie hat in the style of Tansen's homeland that had a red line around the edge. The workers on this team also had veils to hide their identities as they stabilized her and put her on the stretcher. Stunned silence reigned for a moment before a cacophony of questions and demands started flying. A few who had seen it were put on a pedestal by their peers but their regaling was cut short.
"Silence!" Tansen shouted, killing the noise with that same wind spell he used earlier.
"Head master, I demand to know what trickery this is." screamed a tall woman with similar features to the now unconscious girl.
Tansen turned his gaze on the one medical member that stayed behind to look over the soldier who was, unbelievably, spotless. While the mans face was covered by a white veil, his head turned unmistakably towards Mason, the guild master.
A spell was prepared by an assistant to carry the guild master's inquiry to the whole stadium.
"The battle field is unforgiving and unpredictable. As such the people attending to the safety of the contestants cannot give out free information about what they see to us or any of the combatants unless underhanded activity in violation of the rules had occurred. Has the soldier received any outside assistance, used an elixir, or violated any of the other rules of this arena?"
"No, he has not." The medical team member responded.
"This is outrageous, we need to have a-" The woman started
"ENOUGH!" the guild master boomed, his lamb chops and bulging muscles making him look like a wolf in human skin. "If any one is to blame, blame yourself for taking the victory for granted." His array of wands jingled as they moved back and forth from his rage at being lectured to in his own territory.
After a long pause the combatants got in the middle of the arena between the pillars. This time all eyes were staring intently at the soldier. As the soldier put the hammer down he pointed it towards the water mage, a burly man with long brown hair in blue plate armor. The water mage likewise prepared several of his spells in advance.
The gong sounded and there was another explosion. As the head of the hammer exploded it sent the stone piece zipping towards the mage. But unlike his haughty predecessor he was prepared and used a water jet to zip to the side. The loud gasps of the crowd were barely audible to the two combatants as they used every last ounce of their brain power to out maneuver the other.
The mage used his other prepared spell to launch a horizontal slash of water towards the soldier but by twisting around the soldier managed to keep the spell from hitting any of his crafts as it slammed against his cape almost knocking him down. Then the soldier dodged to the side with more speed than any man should have and shot another stone head at him.
This time the missile managed to clip the water mage in the side which sent him spinning but in the brief second that he was disoriented the soldier ran up and kneed him in the stomach hard enough to send him out of the stone square.
A wave of cheers descended over the arena as the soldier went to stand in the middle of the stone pillars with his hands resting on the staff as the bottom slowly pushed up as it reformed the head.
Jeff came up to the opposite end and gave a light bow of respect. A small break of 5 minutes was called to allow both combatants to rest. Water and moist towels were sent out to both of the combatants.
Jeff took off his helmet and casually strolled over to his opponent as they both sipped the cool water in the mugs and wiped off their sweat.
"I have one question, did Eli make that?" Jeff asked casually.
The mug stopped halfway to pouring the water down the helmet holes. This stop, lasting for the smallest fraction of a second along with the silence told him all he needed to know. Jeff smiled and nodded as he put his helmet back on and went to his place on the opposite side of the stone centerpiece before the soldier could articulate a response.
The brass bang of the gong shook the arena and Jeff took off to the side. While the soldier fired off the stone head uselessly to the spot he had been, Jeff shot out a massive fireball and a whirlwind of air blades in a wide cone to the fire balls left and right. Unlike what Jeff was expecting the soldier didn't dodge or even move from his spot. He put out his arm guard and Jeff saw something come out of it.
'Poor sod, a stone shield thick enough to shrug off a fireball that powerful isn't going to form in time.' Jeff thought to himself.
As the smoke cleared, a small mound of dirt came into view. But the blast of a stone hammer head caught his attention more than the mound. It zipped through the smoke cloud to the right and got him in the right shoulder. It knocked him down near the edge of the stone floor but he threw out a gust of wind that the soldier had to move behind a pillar to avoid.
Jeff moved his right arm and found nothing was broken, internally at least. The intricately crafted armor blocked most of the impact but now it had completely immobilized his arm as the interwoven plates had been crunched into a single jagged mass with some of its yellow paint scraped off.
This moment to take in the damage was all the breathing room Jeff got. The soldier was now running nearer to him. Jeff instinctively used his left gloves water jet to keep him back while he tried to work himself out of the ruined armor piece. When the water jet hit the soldier it slammed into the back of his cape as the man had turned to block as he had before. This jet was more powerful than the slap dash effort from the water mage the last round and knocked him face first into the dirt.
The soldier quickly got up and did another of his impossibly fast moves behind a pillar. But Jeff had just managed to get his arm pieces leather straps unfastened and the rest of the piece off to free his arm. Once Jeff took a deep breath he sent out a wind blade to the right of the pillar that curved in a wide arch towards the enemy. The soldier saw this and quickly dodged. A fireball was sent hurdling towards him but he had anticipated this and used his arm guard to throw up a small wall of mud in the air which absorbed the blow. A chorus of shouts accompanied the spectacle.
Zipping between the pillars he came up to arms reach of Jeff. Jeff tried to slash with his sword but the wall of quickly drying mud from the arm guard coated him and all the spaces in the joints of his armor. Full immobilized, Jeff could only struggle to suck in Mana as the soldier pulled back his hammer and then sent him flying out between the pillars onto the bare dirt.
A cheer went up into the crowd, more on the commoner end. The section near the VIP lounge was almost completely silent as the parents struggled to process the fact that they lost. Well their children lost, but they felt equally aggrieved at the upset victor as if they were the contestants.
"Hah it seems like old men know a thing or two about life" Aki jeered, his brown eyes wild with greed at the absurd amounts of money he was going to be making on his bet. His ears already relishing the expected cries of the bookie as he filled his sack with gold.
"He's not guaranteed to win the scions rounds." Agatha shot back, a defense so pathetic she scolded herself as the words left her mouth.
"Pff, I bet on him making it to the scion rounds. Whether or not he wins makes no difference to me." Aki spat back, a little more literally than he intended. Apparently he had been drooling this whole time without realizing it.
Leeroy seemed oddly nonchalant about the whole thing while Agatha looked like she had sucked on a lemon slice she thought belonged to an orange. Tansen was deep in thought as he looked on in contemplation with his hands folded over his stomach.
For the coming rounds the pre-determined break was called so that the victor could rest and to allow for the ambient mana to soak back into the arena. There was a mini riot by the VIP entrance as parents demanded to know who had created these impossible crafts. This mayhem continued until it neared sunset.
Fortunately, the guild master had anticipated this and had made arrangements when he first saw the fire mage out cold in the dirt. The back entrance and all other areas they would be likely to go were re-enforced with guards and all records of the participants were sealed under the highest levels of classification in safes only the headmaster had keys to.
As the tide of parents yelling at guards and demanding to be let in reached it's peak, the gong sounded again marking the end of the break. Some stayed behind to argue but most decided they would rather see the scions rounds than try and coax the guards for hours on end.
The combatants were kept completely in the dark as to what they were walking into. When the soldier came into view the three figures coming out of the gate were stunned for a moment.
"Where's Jeff?" Andrew asked in the twin of Jeffs armor done up in a darker red.
He was accompanied by a massive brown armor piece to his left. It had sharp corners and certain smooth corners giving off the impression of boulders in the arms and legs with smoothed stone in the mid section with the soft green in the brown but its sheen marked it as being metal. The helmet had a similar dark brown with yellow outlines on the helm which had Ryan's head partially blocked with its nose guard.
To Andrews right was Veronica, with a flowing blue robe that hugged her curves. It had small roses and birds embroidered along the slope of the neck line. Agatha nearly spat out her drink at this sight.
"Those stupid girls. No wonder they insisted on spending the day together. They were getting ready to switch out her armor." Agatha said as she clutched her cup in fury.
As the three figures walked towards the stone center they each leaned on one pillar.
Tansen stood up and commenced with the final speech of the day.
"Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we reach the main bouts of our event. For the first time students know that your evaluation will be done privately with several instructors that have been tasked with assessing your performance tonight. But we all know that this is no ordinary examination today. Today we have a crafter who has entered into the scions rounds. Lets this be a lesson to us all that victory is not a certainty in life and we must always push ourselves to our limits, to improve upon our achievements day after day, month after month, year after year."
A large round of applause went up, mostly from the commoner and a few of the crafter sections. Most of the casters parents looked like they aged considerably from all the lines in their faces expressing rage and sourness.
"Ryan and the soldier will face off first then Andrew and Veronica will be taking up the second bout. As a reminder, with these bouts the combatants will fight until they are too exhausted to continue and will not be limited on space for their engagement."
As Andrew and Veronica left the stone center they looked at the soldier with questioning eyes. As the two combatants took their places a light suddenly came from four poles at the four points of the arenas central oval pit. These were similar to the churches glowing chandeliers but far more wide reaching with the whole arena being lit up with a soft wispy glow pushing back against the faint darkness that was creeping in through the falling of the sun.