We started to walk around the stands and sell our treats to the people watching the matches.
____________________________________________________________________
I frequently ran out when serving a group and had to run back so as to not waste their time and I got pretty good at moving in the dress by the end of the second hour. I could run at top speed in the uniform with few hindrances, not that I would need to, but I could, and often did to resupply when a group wanted more than I had. As I was selling the goodies I was also watching the matches, and they were impressive to say the least. Magic was flying and the Overseers had actually created barriers to contain any misfired or dodged attacks, People were moving way faster than they ever were in my competition and best of all, they didn't look pathetic while fighting. What I mean by that is they actually gave off a presence of danger, the people in my group were akin to kids with sticks the worst the could do is give you a bruise despite their very real weapons, but these people looked like they could kill you.
' Can people really change this much in only a year or are the people in my year just really bad?' I caught myself thinking.
I saw Jacklyn, Blake, and Grant fight from my occasional glance at the fights and it was impressive. Jacklyn was really fast and practically ran circles around her opponents, her boundless energy finally being put to use. Blake was impressive too he fired arrows like a machine gun and any time his opponent got close he would disappear, reappear behind them, and end his match. Grant supprized me the most, he was slow but he wasn't hit once from the little I saw. He deflected and countered each and every strike from his opponent. Unfortunately I only saw a little of one match for each of them, the rest of the time I spent selling things.
Finally the time had come for the second rounds of the tournament and I had noticed the stands were progressively getting more full. I had a small amount of my basket left so I attempted to finish it before getting ready to fight.
I am going through the crowd and am on my last item of the basket when the announcer goes into the middle of the field.
" We will now begin the second Bracket of the First years competition, The matchups will be as follows." The Announcer motioned to a massive stone board and the matchups then carved themselves onto it.
____________________________________________
Ring 2 vs Ring 6
Ring 4 vs Ring 7
Ring 8 vs Ring 1
Ring 5 vs Ring 3
____________________________________________
"The Matches will begin immediately with Gram from Ring 2 and Alice from Ring 6 you have one minute to reach the arena otherwise you will be disqualified"
' Crap, I don't have time to sell the last one' I frantically try to get someone to buy it. Finding someone and them buying it I had around twenty seconds left so I run to the edge of the stands and jump over the short retaining wall into the arena, picking up a spare sword from one of the weapon racks on the edge of the arena, and sprint to get into position.
I am now face to face with my opponent and am getting a weird look from him.
" Sigh, What is it this time" I say with a deadpan tone, I can tell I'm forgetting something but I'm not sure what. However instead of a response he just continued to stare along with the announcer.
I look behind myself and see nothing then look at the and cock my head slightly.
" What, Is it my size?" I am thoroughly confused at this point, however the Announcer just facepalms and Gram snaps out of his daze.
" Your going to fight me in that" He asks with his confused look still on his face.
I look down at myself and notice I'm still in my frilly maid uniform.
' I totally forget I had this on! But I can't show I didn't mean to ... hmm ' After a moment of thought and in what could only be described as stupidity, I do the only thing that could make this worse and reach into the front pocket of the maid dress and pull out a ribbon from my inventory and tie it to my tail in a cute little bow. What did I think this was going to do? I have absolutely no Idea myself but I keep making this hole deeper and I don't have it in me to turn back at this point, despite the fact there is absolutely no reason not to.
" ~Purfect~" I pur, which I didn't realize I could do until now, and smile devoted to the moment. This only caused the confusion from Gram to changed from an expression to a transmitted wave of pure incomprehensibility as he desperately tries to understand what the actual hell I was doing and why it was happening, the Announcer walked to the conflicted Gram and just put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head lightly, as if to tell him to stop, because no one will ever understand and Gram just looks him in the eye, moves his gaze towards me, and slowly nods his head, a growing sense of resolution in his eyes, like he had developed some deep understanding from the situation.
The Announcer returned to his position in between us and looked between us with concern to make sure everyone was ok and went to begin our match.
" Match Start"
Despite the fact that Gram was still a little preoccupied with thoughts, because of whatever it was he was thinking about before, he still charged at me. I started to accumulate Mana into my hand and raised my sword. He got close and swung his sword at me deceptively fast and I blocked it with mine, but he griped the hilt of his with both hands and tried to disarm me of my sword. My sword went flying behind me and he attempted to stab me with a quick thrust. I step back and ignite the Sunfire charges firing one condensed blow at his feet and grabbed the hem of my dress lifting it slightly so I could sprint to my sword without accidentally tripping. Doing so I grab the sword and turn to face Gram who now has no shoes since I burned them and his shins with the blast. It seems to have hindered him, but he was, for the most part ok, I think. His sword lit up red as fire wrapped around it making the sword longer and made him look cool. Gram was probably about three meters from me, but had moved to hold the sword with two hands. That with the fact I could faintly feel the increase in temperature. I could safely assume, I probably don't want it to touch me.
Gram then runs towards me and jumps onto the air and does a flip positioning the sword so that if I didn't dodge it would hit me along the shoulder or collarbone. I jump back and dodge the hit the shock sending me back a little, as Gram stabilized himself and pulled his sword out of the ground and stepped out of the small crater that remained. I wasn't standing idly but had started creating another charge of Sunfire in my hand and had tried to coat my sword in magic but couldn't quite do it, so I gave up on that attempt. Gram ran at me and attempted another heavy strike since I couldn't deal with that last time. I once again block with my sword and he put more force I to his hoping to push me down, probably expecting me to push back. However I drop my sword and barely dodge his, crouching down and positioning myself under his legs swiftly pushing one knee forward and blasting it with the Sunfire I had ignited in my hand moments before, and through gritted teeth from the burns on my hands caused by the recoil of my proximity to the explosion, I grab his other leg still planted on the ground and throw him up slamming him into the ground and put my blade to his neck. I am glad I'm so small because without my small stature I would probably have a hard time winning. Tripping people is the best way to win a fight as a small person, if you were wondering.
" Winner, Alice" The announcer said and I stand up and reach out my hand with a smile to help Gram up. He graciously accepts and bows deeply once he has stood.
" Thank you for your insightful teachings" he then straightened his back and gave a dazzling smile to me, " You were a great opponent and have taught me a lot thank you."
" What did I teach you exactly?" I asked full of curiosity. I had noticed him internalizing something from the beginning of the match and I wanted to know what.
" Simple, in this world you can never underestimate you situation or what your eyes can see. One cannot simply deny reality but accept it and face it to the best of their ability. One must not judge things based on appearances but their character and their reactions to reality. Finally, some things cannot be rationalized one must not try to understand what is happening but how to coexist with that reality. You have truly opened my eyes. Thank you." He said his smile remaining throughout his explanation " It was a pleasure to fight you Alice I hope to see you in some classes together, you are definitely an interesting one."
I was stunned, it seemed it was now my turn to be confused. ' ... how the hell did he get that from a single fight with a little girl in a maid outfit!?!?' I couldn't understand how he had practically figured out the secret to life in this one little exchange of me acting like an imbecile.
" Your welcome?" I said, I didn't understand what had happened but if Gram was appreciative and he seemed fine I wasn't going to question it.
We both left the field and while Gram went back to the others who have yet to fight after our wounds had healed. I went to the restrooms to change my clothes back to my white shirt and brown jacket with a pair of brown pants instead of a skirt that made moving easier.
I returned to the arena and rejoined the others as the match between Ring 4 and Ring 7 was still going. The two people in the ring are named Tanya and lyric. Tanya was a girl with blond hair with blue eyes and was on the shorter side, not quite as short as me but she was shorter than the others remaining in our group of first years. Tanya was carrying two short swords and was in the same uniform as me. Lyric was a boy with white hair that faded to baby blue fringes and golden eyes, he had ears and a tail that made him seemed to be reminiscnt of a wolf. He seemed meek and we'll mannered, when you first meet him but from what I could see from this fight he definitely has a ferocious side. Lyrics weapon of choice was a pair of metal gauntlets with sharp finger tips shaped like claws that allowed him to act more like a wild animal in a fight.
The fight was interesting to say the least. They both had weapons that prioritize quick striking offence over sustained defense and they were both pretty fast, their attacks didn't seem to have the force of Grams attacks but there were so many of them you would probably find yourself in more trouble. Tanya would attack and Lyric would dodge and deflect until he found an opening. Tanya would dodge and be on the defensive until she exploited a flaw. The occasional special attack was used, for example Tanya at one point jumped back and slashed the air sending an X shaped projectile at Lyric that he barely dodged. Lyric had his own as well, it was an attack where his claw would radiate a blackish light and Tanya would have to dodge a series of very fast claw strikes or make enough distance so that she could wait until that attack defused.
The back and forth went on for a while after I got back and they came to a stand still where neither made much ground, the only injures were a lot of shallow cuts some worse than others, but none major. Finally Tanya got the advantage because Lyric's body started to falter after prolonged fighting and Tanya required less movement to sustain herself so she got a clean slice to Lyrics collar. However the constant clash of sword against claws dulled her weapons. Both weapons were pretty destroyed so in an actual fight the attack wouldn't have been lethal and it didn't actually do much of anything here but the match had been going on for around ten minutes straight and was almost nothing but exchanging blow for blow. The Announcer called the match in Tanya's favor yet neither had the strength to continue, or really keep standing at that point.
When the match was called they both slumped to the ground ragged, with erratic breathing and light bleeding over most of their bodies and only one deeper gash on the top right of Lyric's shoulder that caused him to lose. They had to be carried out of the arena by the teachers and healed. Unfortunately for them they probably won't have enough time to make a full recovery so it will mean a more convenient win for me.
If I'm being honest the blood throughout the competition is starting making me shudder, I wasn't used to seeing blood and that's what I thought the overwhelming feeling was, just an unfamiliar thing I would have to get used to, but the more blood in front of me the more fear I felt, I tried to think of why, I probably already knew but I was refusing to understand, I was afraid of realizing.
I just pushed it to the back of my mind, 'It is time for Emmy to fight!' I was excited