"Toby? Would you please step up?"
They felt the eyes of their cohort on them as they hopped up onto the stage. Bianca winked at Ilise. All Marten did was give them a curt nod.
"Right this way. Though we do have to wait for Ivan, hmm?" Bianca mused.
"We don't need him." Marten said. "I can take these punks alone."
"Don't forget your position, Marten. You're on defence today. That means I'm the only one who gets to beat my sister up."
Ilise wasn't sure if she was supposed to be comforted by that. It was no secret that Bianca wasn't just one of the strongest magicians in Mistilteinn - she was one of the strongest magicians in the entire world, aged sixteen or not. She held back most of the time in their sparring sessions, but Ilise hadn't had the opportunity to witness Bianca at full power. Ilise hoped that today wouldn't be her first time seeing it.
Ivan and Marten were much better matches. They were powerful in their own right, and while she was nowhere as familiar with their skillsets as she was Bianca's, Ilise was at the very least certain that she'd never seen their names on the leaderboards for magic-related feats. To her knowledge, none of them could summon giant house-sized swords either.
"If you insist, Bianca. Don't stray too far from me. My Fortification and Reinforcement spells can only do so much once you leave my range."
"Your weakness is none of my concern. Just make sure that you keep me guarded. Now, if we're all done chit-chatting, I'd like to get a move on-"
"Apologies for my lateness. Marten, Bianca." Ivan appeared out of thin air right next to them. He greeted his fellow councillors. His hair was windswept and his blazer was crinkled. On a whim, Ilise used a bit of Kinetic magic to feel him out. She withdrew it in shock - Ivan could use Hyperkinetic?
"Dare I say your uniform isn't up to dress code?" Bianca asked.
"Please, Bianca. You wear gym clothes to school on an average day. Marten wishes he could bust you, but his father's under your employment, isn't he?"
"That is true." Marten conceded. "My father is the head of Bianca's Einherjar guard. He'd get upset if I offended his ward in any way."
"Glad you know, Marten. Are we done talking? I'm sure Ilise and the others don't want to hear about the state of the council under Ivan's rule-"
"Yes, yes. That's quite enough. Right, then. Into the crater, first-years. Marten. The dome, if you will?"
Marten grunted. Ivan and Bianca ushered the four of them into the crater. In a show of sportsmanship, or perhaps more likely mockery, Bianca rolled out a hard-light carpet. Behind them, a gigantic glyph encircled the rim of the crater, rising up into a dome composed of many other smaller glyphs, each of them a facet in Marten's jewel-like creation. The dome shimmered in the sunlight, its constantly-shifting patterns visible every now and then.
"We're ready when you are, kids."
Ilise looked at each of her teammates. They all nodded.
"Don't let me down, Ilise." Bianca whispered. Giving her one last pat on the head, she joined her fellow councillors. Ivan blew the whistle hanging around his neck.
"BEGIN!"
--
1715
ALPHEIM
THE CRATER.
A FEW SECONDS BEFORE SOMEBODY WETS THEIR PANTS.
Bianca spared no time in conjuring up her signature swords. It wasn't one of her larger ones - apparently, she'd deemed them unfit to face it in combat. four smaller swords hovered behind her, their edges gleaming menacingly under the combined glow of Marten's dome and the sun. Ilise cursed herself for failing to remember that as somebody with an affinity for Light magic, Bianca received a huge boost when under direct sunlight.
Behind her, Marten was muttering. With each word he spoke, a shimmering wave of light struck Bianca, until she was glowing so brightly that she might as well have been the Sun herself. Layers upon layers of nigh-impenetrable defensive spells, cast by none other than the school's finest defensive magician.
"MOVE!" Ilise cried out. With a quick, wordless 'Hyperkinetic!' she shoved her teammates out of the way at lightning speed. Bianca's blades thudded into the ground, sizzling where they protruded.
"They're really pulling out all the stops, huh?" Toby said.
Instead of repositioning her blades, Bianca poofed them with a click of her fingers and recreated them.
"Illusion Magic: Silent Night." Bianca said.
"She can do that?!" Siegfried cried out in panic as the darkness encroached on them. None of his teammates heard him scream.
Ilise, on the other hand, was more focused on figuring out where Ivan had gone. She couldn't risk someone siphoning off kinetic energy from the same source as her. Kinetic magic didn't function entirely on mana - it required a constant source of movement from which to draw power. Up until now, Ilise had always thought of herself as the only Kinetic magic user. Never had she expected that she would one day go up against another like her.
"Silhouette." She couldn't risk casting her spells out loud. Not when Ivan could potentially read her lips, Illusion magic or not. Bianca was throwing all her cards on the table.
The sonar-like effect of her Kinetic magic spread out around her, highlighting the locations of her teammates and her foes. Bianca had yet to move - Ilise assumed she was caught in the temporary blindness that using a spell as powerful as Silent Night caused. Rei and Toby were backed against each other. Siegfried was scrabbling in the dirt - backing away from someone.
If Marten was still on the rim-
It had to be Ivan.
Ilise burst forward, leaving a huge cloud of dust behind as she fired off two Concussive Force spells to aid her speed. Just as she was about to reach Siegfried, she felt something draining at her. The effects of her spell were slowly being nullified.
"It can't be," Ilise whispered.
Ivan wasn't using another person as a source of kinetic energy - he was using hers. Hyperkinetic generated much more than, say, Siegfried backing away in the dirt. Ilise braced herself for the worst when she heard it.
"Copy Magic: Concussive Force."
She instinctively raised her hands. "Kinetic Plating!" The heavy thud of Ivan's Concussive Force hitting her 'armour' nearly sent Ilise onto the ground. Copy magic? It explained a lot of things. How she hadn't picked up any trace of Kinetic magic on Ivan when they first met. How he only used Concussive Force on her after she demonstrated it in front of him.
How was he concealing himself? Unless he was remaining completely stationary and had somehow managed to stop his bodily functions, he couldn't hide from Ilise's tracking spells. She staggered backwards. Without her teammates - or without Rei to pick up some of the mental strain, and the effects of Bianca's Silent Night slowly kicking in, Ilise felt like she was about to go stark raving mad.
She couldn't hear, or see. The silhouettes she had marked were visible in her mind's eye, but not to her actual eyes. All around her was black - if she wanted to dispel it, she had to go straight for Bianca. It was tantamount to a suicide mission, but she had to try anyway.
At the start of the day, Ilise had thought that her standard repertoire of spells would suffice. Not even the trainers Bianca had brought in could withstand her usual combo of Hyperkinetic, Impact Amplification and Concussive Force.
Here? Ilise had already been forced to bring out Kinetic Plating, a spell that she'd developed just in case Fortify failed. Unlike the rest of the combatants, Ilise was fighting with what was essentially a sort of magic she'd had to build from the ground up. Bianca had access to hundred of texts detailing ways in which she could properly utilise Light Magic?
Kinetic magic? Ilise was as good as a pioneer in that field. A pioneer who knew nothing about her own magical affinity, except for the more obvious aspects of it. Hitting people harder, faster and making herself tougher was all well and good against normal opponents, but this was Mistilteinn's student council.
"Think fast, Ilise."
A boot cracked into her stomach and knocked her onto the ground. Bianca!
"Maybe I'll make this easier on you. Fighting in complete blindness can't be very nice. I'll admit it. Silent Night isn't very fun for me, either. You know this one, don't you? Fire Magic: Dies Irae."
Day of Wrath. As if her Light magic wasn't versatile enough, Bianca just had to have a secondary affinity in Fire magic as well. Ilise knew that nothing Toby had in his arsenal could counter the sheer might of Dies Irae.
A burning sword cleaved through the darkness, restoring sound and light to Ilise's world. She found her teammates next to her, with Siegfried somehow ending up all the way on the opposite end of the crater. Toby was hunched over, clutching his stomach in agony. Rei's replacement glasses had been reduced to a mangled piece of plastic. Ivan stood triumphantly in front of them, a Copied Fireball spell hovering in his hand.
Ilise needed to buy time for her team. They had to regroup and collect their thoughts.
"Remote Detonation!"
A ring of glyphs appeared around them and exploded. Clouds of dust sprayed up into the air, obscuring them.
"We need to talk. Now."