Being led through the halls and out of the Academy itself, the students eventually split into two groups where one headed to the north and one headed to the south.
Eventually they came upon the Amphitheater Faleria, the same one where Cyrus and Imran's special exams had been held.
Being led inside, the students were instructed to fill up the row of the spectators seats and come down once their name and rank was called.
"What is that down there?" asked Imran, looking at the dueling arenas that had been set up.
They were all extremely small marked spaces, with two places to sit and a large multicolored gem resting on a table between them.
Such small areas confused all the students who looked upon them, wondering how a duel could be had in such a small space where if one side simply leaned forward slightly they would be able to touch the other.
Completely disregarding the voices of confusion that were ringing out, the various blue tunic wearing staff with the Glacies symbol sewn onto their backs began calling out names and ranks with the aid of an Aero mage.
Slowly, students starting from the bottom of the ranks were called up and directed to sit down in one of the two seats on either side of the crystal.
"These are high quality strategic resources, usually used for planning high level operations and training high ranking military personnel. Today you will be allowed to use them and their purpose is that they allow you to fight not with your physical body but your mind, allowing you the full range of abilities that you normally have but in a created space within the crystal in front of you. The loser, even if they suffer fatal wounds, will not be harmed in the real world. Well, they will be knocked out cold for awhile and possibly suffering splitting headaches for the rest of the day as well as fatigue, weakness, and possible auditory and visual hallucinations.
Now, there is a time limit of 5 minutes and if no victor comes about by then both sides will lose. Place your hands on the crystal and probe it with your sense, allow for the force within to guide you…..
Begin!"
The fifty students all did as they were told and the moment the word begin rang out all their muscles went slack and their head slumped down as if they had died on the spot. Yet, with a careful and calm eye one would still be able to see their every breath.
"While it is possible to show the fights that go on within, this further wears down on the durability of the strategic resources so we shall only reserve such a thing for the top ten fights. This will be done so that everyone can see with their own eyes the difference between you as well as why we chose the ranks that we did."
With that said the organizer stepped back and began to wait patiently.
"What a curious thing" began Minerva," I have never heard of this existing before, this must be an extremely well-kept secret of the military. Yet they are revealing it so easily to a bunch of students."
Imran heaved a sigh, "As if we needed any more evidence that something big is going to happen. I just hope I am able to return to my business quickly and easily after my days here are over."
While Cyrus was completely silent thinking to himself, "The table that the crystal is resting on…why does it seem familiar?"
Nevertheless, the silent and sightless duels continued on and on as fifty groups of students came and went at a time. After the first 3 groups, the top ten was finally included.
Walking down from the stands were #10 Minerva, #9, Gellert, #6 Bavol, # 7 Titus, and # 5 Cyrus with their titles being Decima, Novem, Sixtus, Septum and Quintus respectively.
Minerva was pit against Gellert, Bavol against Titus and Cyrus was left to wait for whoever emerged victorious from Bavol v Titus to fight.
Each of the fighters sat down on their marked out seats and put their hands on the crystal, sending their sense over to it and experiencing for themselves this 'created world.'
"At least with these arrangements I get to watch the rest, to see how they do. I should analyze both fights carefully, good thing I am not one but two" thought the masked Cyrus, as he annoyed his naïve half to awake from his slumber and pay attention to one of the fights for him.
---
After placing her hand on the Crystal and activating her sense, Minerva found herself being tugged at and pulled at into a deep pit of endless depth.
Her senses turned off one by one and her sense of position in the world all but disappeared but before she could even so much as begin to panic everything returned as fast as it had gone.
Her eyes opened and she saw that she was quite clearly no longer in the amphitheater but instead on a barren field with a few trees scattered across. The sky was that of the setting sun with no clouds to speak of, while in the distance a few geysers spewing water vapor could be seen.
"The field of battle favors no single domain of magic, with equal opportunities for all," thought Minerva while she was examining the world of essence around her, "even the essence is completely equally distributed while there is no noticeable difference from that of the real world and in here, unlike the Labyrinth."
Preparing a few spells she walked forward, drawing her sabre with one hand and holding it face up in front of her as she approached.
Across from her the opponent she was to fight, Gellert, did much the same instead he nocked his bow and dashed behind a tree at once.
"I know that there is a danger in showing off too much here, which might endanger our future ranks," began Gellert, his low calm voice slowly gaining in volume and vigor, "but I care little for that, I was taught from a young age to never hold back…to always use your ALL!"
Ending with what was practically a hot-blooded shout of passion, three arrows were shot in quick succession from behind the cover of the tree with one heading straight for Minerva and the other two seemingly completely off course.
"An Aero mage using a bow, I do not believe that those last two arrows will miss" thought Minerva while she continued her slow walk.
She activated both of her domains, creating a thick water vapor all around her and rapidly reducing the temperature.
With a wave of her left hand a piece of ice appeared directly on the path of the farthest left most arrow, causing it to collide with it and knocking it off its course into the ground.
With a second wave of her hand the same happened to the right most arrow, not leaving her opponent even a single second to adjust whatever trick he pulled on the arrow.
When she went for the one in the middle, however, it abruptly moved out of the way of her spell and moved in a wide arc before readjusting itself back on the path towards Minerva.
"As expected" thought a smug Minerva, who brought her sword down slightly with her right hand to impressively slice the arrow in half.
All the while her left hand never ceased to move, making full use of the method that she 'persuaded' Imran for in order to efficiently cast spells by connecting them to hand gestures.
For several more exchanges the fight went just as so, with one side shooting projectiles and the other side slowly advancing under the rain of arrows.
Sweat was pouring down Minerva's brow, however, "This method of casting is so mentally taxing, yet so effective. Having to calculate the trajectories of each projectile and properly casting at the exact moment that they would collide, while also accounting for the time of formation of the piece of ice as well as the effect of the natural pull downwards of all things airborne," thought Minerva for a moment as she found a small moment of respite to create a block of ice above the tree that Gellert was hiding behind crushing the tree and causing her opponent to flee from it, "Yet the method is ingenious, as expected of a method penned by a Grandmaster. What a great gift, maybe I should return one to him?"
While Minerva was in a euphoric state of enjoyment, able to fully combine her sword talent with her magical prowess Gellert began to switch up his tactics.
Instead of hiding behind trees he stood directly out in the open, drawing three arrows at once and closing his eyes.
"I doubt he has gone senile" pondered Minerva as she began to form the spell that would encase her now completely exposed enemy in ice, the second spell that she was gifted by Cyrus.
The moment the spell was about to complete the three arrows were sent flying from their bowstring, each directly hurtling towards the trees to the sides of Minerva.
Deeply confused but still cautious, Minerva brought her sword close to her and positioned herself to dodge the arrows if their trajectories bent like before while fully completing the spell that turned her enemy into a block of ice.
"Now he just needs to suffo-" thought Minerva, stopping as she looked on in shock as all the arrows rammed directly into the tree missing her completely.
Removing her tension and lowering her sword, she wondered if her opponent had been charmed by her beauty and looked with a curious eye towards her opponent…right before her sense detected an activation of Aero magic in the tree next to her and everything went dark once more.