The venue was essentially an immense circular inclosure with fenced off square in its interior with small seating area that I assumed was for judges while anyone else wishing to view what happened in the arena had to stand around it.
On the outskirts of the arena where different stalls and desks flooded with an immeasurable amount of people. Unbeknownst to me a man snuck up behind me and grabbed my shoulder and said "You must be new here, do you need an explanation as to the rules?" Turning to match his gaze I found myself starring at a balding middle aged man wearing plain clothes. Without even waiting for a response he continued, "only 100 members may be tested as the onlookers include sponsors of high caliber including many reputable adventures and nobles. We have the arena in the center for members to fight and show off their potential. Perform well and you can catch the eye of a great teacher not to mention have your affinity tested, it really is an honor." My eyes glazed over as the wave of knowledge flooded over me but shaking my head back to reality I realized what he was saying. I'd have to fight other hopefuls, suddenly the efforts Mango put into having him train and keep up the sword started to make more sense. "Thanks for all the help this is my first time ever attending such an event...Who exactly are you?" "Pay it no heed lad I've heard about to from an old friend just head over to that table and good luck." He winked shamelessly, and without further ado he headed off into the mass of bodies and honestly more confused than ever I turned back towards the direction he pointed. I headed over to what turned out to be a registration table of sorts where I listed my name: Kasper, age: 18, weapon choice: short sword and buckler shield, any known magic ability:none. After this they handed me a necklace bearing a thin black square which upon further inspection had the words "Magic Unknown" engraved upon it. I'd learned that those who could somewhat use their magic could use it in their fights so I assumed this was a way to track it in the fights to come. Even though I had no real stake in this I couldn't help but feel sweat arc down my spine and felt my knees shake. I was always bad with crowds but now not only was I thrown into one, I'd have to fight encompassed by one too. Not to mention if someone has magic they can use it on me, never having experienced that before in combat I had no clue as to how I'd deal with that. Some hopefuls mingled around with the well dressed and powerful looking audience members, I'm assuming to try to and get their name out early for a sponsor or teacher. Having little interest in this since I just wanted to end up back at the shop with Mango. I headed towards a large board labeled "Magic And Their Uses"
It was here for the first time I got to see such a detailed account of exactly what kind of Magic was in this world. I heard stories and met some different adventures but I really just ran into a lot of Earth/Water users, Eva being a Nature user was the only exception.
The board displayed this information:
Magic listed in terms of rarity/power:
Earth: Dominating defensive capabilities sacrifices speed and somewhat attack power. But can dramatically increase the user and or parties defense. Paired well with extremely heavy armor, built to take a lot of damage and focus their enemies attention on themselves.
Water: Has the capability to major in healing and minor in defense or the inverse. The downside of two uses is it's inferior in each to a main user of each (Earth - Defense / Nature - Healing)
Nature: Pure and unrivaled Healing Magic. The better the user skill the more capabilities and strength of healing
Wind: Absolute speed and accuracy, paired well with light light weapons or archery since it'll dramatically increase the speed and range of their arrows. Sacrifices damage but is a good support type especially since speed boosts can be applied to party members if the user has the skill.
Thunder: Similar to water in the sense has a major and minor aspect (Attack/Speed) still inferior to main users of each skill (Fire/Wind) but the positive is two uses. Skillful mages can help their party with whichever or both of their skills.
Fire: Pure damage and attack oriented but sacrifices range. Only highly gifted and highly talented mages possess this absolute game changer. Elite compared to the other magic skills.
Light: Absolutely extremely rare put immeasurable powerful magic that very few are blessed with. Faster than wind, without sacrificing the damage output wind does. Essentially as strong as fire, as much range and speed as wind. Whatever weakness they posses, it could be considered defense. Users blessed with this magic usually abandon any close type combat and stick to long range combat mage.
Dark: Unquestionably the absolute rarest magic. Only a rumored handful of users have ever been blessed with this terrifying power. Direct rival of light, as fast as wind but even more powerful than fire type users only perceived weakness could be speed but being so rare there's too many unknowns.
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I could literally feel the smoke coming out of my ears as my brain struggles to take in as much of the information as possible. It was fascinating seeing all these questions suddenly answered. I couldn't help but get a little hopeful as I had thoughts of what I could if I possessed one of these skills. Shamelessly I had a thought of me, blessed with light magic dominating monster after monster and I couldn't help but grin. Suddenly a loud horn blared throughout the enclosure and everyone suddenly grew silent. Suddenly a man stepped onto a podium, my brow furrowed as I recognized the man who had given me directions early, what exactly was he doing up there. His voice rang out sending a shockwave if excitement through the crowd, "The first battle is set to begin, as there are 400 hopefuls, you'll have 2 matches each to compete and show why you should have a chance to be in the Rite Of Heroes." Kaspers heart suddenly sped up as the excitement surrounding him, he could feel his palms start to sweat with anticipation. The older man continued, "The first match is between Kasper - an unknown and Hugh - Earth user, will the contestants please head to the arena at this time." My jaw hit the fucking floor, 400 people and I have to fight first? What the hell kind of luck is that. Not to mention my opponent was a known earth capable user, he was only here to have is focus skill confirmed and get recognition for a teacher. Suddenly the joy I felt earlier turned to ash in my mouth. Knees shaking I gave myself a few slaps to the face and headed towards the arena. As I walked over I kept running through past bouts with Mango through my mind trying to go over a gameplan, he always held back to be fair, but Mango was also an Earth user. I can do this, butterflies slowly fleeing my stomach and breath steadying just as I entered the gate. I glanced over to the judge seats and made eye contact with the balding man from earlier, he just did one of his little winks (he should trademark that) and gave me a curt nod. Letting out one last shaky breath I finally stepped into the arena, crowds roared with yells and cheering and vibrations reached all the way over to the arena. I could see my opponent Hugh, enter the arena at about the same time. He seemed to be equipped with a two handed war-hammer which easily dwarves my short sword. I favored the small buckler shield on my left prioritizing speed and dodging over outright defense. Against a weapon of that caliber it wouldn't stand a chance to even parry though. With a slight pang of fear I threw it to the side and motioned over to a man in the ring with us whom I assumed to watch over and stop the match if need be. He just smiled reached towards the weapon rack behind him and handed it over as I approached seemingly reading my previous actions as if he knew this was going to happen beforehand. The balding man in the head judge seat couldn't help but let out a huge grin and thought to himself, "At the very least Mango, you've raised a boy into a man with ingenuity."
Kasper finally walked back to the starting location this time however, accompanied but two short swords he spun them once before slamming them into the sand on their downward arc. The crowd couldn't help but get louder as what they were seeing was an absolute rarity. Only the most skilled would even think of dual wielding let alone a young hopeful talent. The crowd was droned out as a loud horn echoed throughout the stadium and Kasper knew this was it, do or die time.