(Hey y'all. It's been a minute. I had a really bad cold, then I got Covid for the second time. After I recovered, I was trying to focus on myself and school work. Hopefully I'm back on track. Enjoy the chapter!)
The hallway was lined with doors on either side. They were generously spaced out and each one was labelled with a team name. I presumed that these were the locker rooms for the players. This is where we would wait until our match started.
Jamie stopped at a door that didn't appear any different from the others. The only distinguishable characteristic was that our team name was on the door. The sign said "Zephyr" in large lettering.
She opened the door and gestured for us to enter. I was shocked when I saw the inside of the room. Calling it a locker room was an extreme disservice to its grandeur. It was more of a lounge. On one wall of the room, there were four mirrors with a small table and a chair in front of them. They had lights bordering them and it looked like a dressing room.
Dotting the floor of the room were various couches and chairs. They all looked very comfortable. On the wall opposite the mirrors were four equipment cubbies that spanned from the floor to the ceiling. Above them were our names in the same font as our team name on the door.
Within the cubbies were mannequins wearing uniforms. The uniforms were of a simple design and were quite similar to our school uniforms. The color scheme was different though. Most of the uniform was covered with a camouflage pattern that had varying shades of gray. There were also golden accents that accentuated the design. They looked… royal.
Jamie was still standing by the door. "I will leave you all to prepare. Your match begins at 8PM. A referee will visit you shortly."
Jacob nodded and waved her off. "Thank you, Jamie. We'll be fine from here."
Jamie quickly closed the door and made herself scarce. In the meantime, I was already putting on my uniform. The others turned to look at me and laughed. I couldn't even wait for our manager to leave before donning the camo.
After we all had the uniforms on, we hung out on the couches in wait of the referee. We made some light conversation and discussed some possible strategies we could use to approach the match. I learned a lot from this discussion.
The biggest takeaway was regarding the arena. Contrary to my expectations, it was not a set environment. It would change every match and even between rounds. There was a system that created the arena and it was portable. This is how MMA matches could be held in any setting, given that enough mana can be provided. This, obviously, would be of no concern in one of the royal academies.
Before a match starts, an environment type would be randomly selected. Some of the possibilities included forest, urban, subterranean, ruins, and even aquatic. Once the type was selected, the device would construct the arena. For example, the urban setting would have randomly placed buildings and would appear like a typical city block.
Of course, this would give rise to difficulties when it comes to spectating and refereeing. Fortunately, this is circumvented via a magic tool that is given to everyone except the players. In fact, it was prohibited for players to possess the device. The device looked like a normal pair of glasses with some mana crystals embedded into it. Channeling mana into the glasses allows the user to see through the terrain generated by the arena constructor. No one within the arena can hide from the prying eyes of the spectators through the use of this device.
This type of device might seem amazing but it has severe limitations. The glasses can only see through the terrain that is generated by the constructor. This is allowed by the energy flow that exists in all of the terrain it creates. If this wasn't the case, I was sure every pervert would have a pair.
While we were merrily discussing the possibilities of the match, there was a knock on the door. Jacob called out in response. "Come in!"
The door opened revealing a man and a woman wearing black robes with the letters "MMA" on their chest in white lettering. They were both carrying crystal tablets that I presumed were magic tools. The man appeared to be Asian. He had black hair that was parted down the middle and dark eyes. His skin also held a slight tinge of yellow. He was also of average height for an adult male and looked middle aged. The woman was white and had black hair that was tied up in a bun. She was pretty short but every movement she made reeked of power.
They stepped inside the room and closed the door. The man in front introduced them. "Good evening, Zephyr mages. My name is Tsukahara Kinshiki and my companion here is Nadia Lilovic. We will be part of the referee team for your match tonight. The other two referees are Samuel Juno and Yorick Richardson."
"The rules for MMA matches are simple and few in number. The first one is no killing. That one is self explanatory. Rule two is regarding takedowns. Takedowns are how you eliminate your opponents. Any state of incapacitation such as knockouts, extended immobilization, and detainment will suffice. Please try to avoid using cheap tricks. This is a spectator sport, not a life or death battle. The last rule is the most important one. There is no outside weapons, tools, devices, potions, or support of any kind allowed. The matches are to be played via the use of the weapons provided by us and your own power. Nothing else. However, fully controlled summonings are allowed but not contracted beasts. Any questions?"
I sighed at the fact that I wouldn't be able to have Okami help in combat. I could probably use his assistance in other ways though.
It was then that Okami chuckled. 'I know exactly what you're thinking and it's not happening. I'm gonna watch, just like everyone else.'
I rolled my eyes and looked back to the referees. They looked like they were about to continue.
Kinshiki then scanned across the four of us. "What are your affinities?"
Jacob started. "Fire, wind, and earth."
Kinshiki nodded as he noted them in his tablet. "Three elements, as expected of his royal highness."
After him was Anna. "Water, wind, and lighting."
Kinshiki chuckled as he took note. "Not just the prince, but also the princess. Very impressive. The King must be quite satisfied with his children."
Yanni then spoke. "Fire, water, and earth."
Kinshiki nodded. "Understandable for the son of a royal magesmith. Those elements are key to forging tools." His focus then turned to me.
I then thought of something stupid and decided to mess with the referee. "I have no affinity."
Kinshiki furrowed his brow in confusion. "Impossible. Don't they have all the students take an affinity test?"
I nodded. "Yep. I am no more talented in any element than another."
After a few moments, Kinshiki's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. "Are you trying to say that you are proficient with all six elements?"
I laughed. "Well, wouldn't having affinities with all of the elements be the same as having none at all?"
Kinshiki looked up in deep thought and then laughed. "Nadia, we have a comedian here. Regardless, I think we're in for a treat. I've never had the pleasure of officiating a match that had a player with six affinities." Nadia remained silent and Kinshiki could only sigh. "Lighten up every once in a while, will ya? Anyways, show them the weapon selection."
Nadia walked over to us and handed us each a tablet that she must have retrieved from a storage ring. She still didn't say anything.
I inwardly chuckled at this but turned my focus to the tablet in my hands. Its design was similar to that of the kiosks. The screen could be interacted with via touch. There were five categories; Blades, Staffs, Rings,Gauntlets, and Miscellaneous. I immediately went for the blades section. The available selection was quite thorough. There were long swords, short swords, rapiers, daggers, and even throwing knives.
As I was scrolling through, a certain type of dagger caught my eye and I immediately fell in love. It reminded me of a game I used to play back on Earth so I quickly added two of them to my loadout. Each player was limited to five items from the catalogue so choosing wisely was key. I was struggling to choose as I had never had any formal weapons education. The only method of combat that I was familiar with was magic. Fortunately, this was only an exhibition match so there was nothing holding me back from experimenting.
Since I didn't see anything else in the blades category that interested me, I decided to check out the miscellaneous tab. I wasn't interested in staffs or rings as I was a close range fighter. In addition, I can create gauntlets with ice magic so I didn't see a point in looking there.
When I opened this last section, I was confused. There were all manner of peculiar weapons there. There were senbon needles of varying sizes, hammers, an assortment of seeds, bags of powder, and various other things that normally wouldn't be used for combat. This did make sense though as some people have very unique and eccentric skills. However, one item in this section also caught my interest. It made me reminiscent of a certain superhero from Earth that used this type of thing in one of their movies. I decided to add three of those to my loadout as well.
After returning my tablet to Nadia, I realized I was the last one to finish. The others had probably already thought this through. I was a bit slow on the uptake. Looking at my tablet, Nadia gave me a weird look, presumably doubting my choices. She merely shrugged after a moment before putting the tablets away. She then pulled out an assortment of weapons from her ring before distributing them to the four of us.
Jacob was equipped with a wand, a short sword, and three throwing knives. Anna had a staff and four rings. Yanni was holding a pair of gauntlets and nothing else. All of the weapons were ordinary and were clearly made to be standard issue in MMA matches.
As I was reveling in the weapons that Nadia handed to me, I felt like I was being watched. I looked up and noticed that Jacob, Anna, and Yanni were all staring at me like how one would stare at a crackhead spouting bullshit in Times Square.
I coughed to break the silence. "What's the problem?"
Jacob nearly choked and coughed a lung out. "Cal, what in the world are those weapons?"
I rolled my eyes. "Two daggers and some balls. Are these not good?"
Jacob sighed and smacked his forehead with his hand. "Do you even know how to use any of them?"
I shrugged. "I've never held a knife in my life that wasn't for cooking. I think I could use them though."
The daggers I chose were curved like a tiger's claw. They had a handle that followed the curve with three grooves for your fingers and a safety loop to put another finger through. Back on Earth, this type of knife was referred to as a karambit.
Jacob rolled his eyes. "The daggers can be figured out by anyone but what about the balls? How are you going to use those?"
In my head, I imagined using the balls like this one superhero that can manipulate metal. Through the use of lightning magic, I should be able to achieve a similar effect. The balls were made of a metal similar to steel. When I checked them out in my hand, I noticed that they were magnetic and this is what sparked my idea.
Through the use of lightning magic, I could manipulate the balls. Flowing electricity can create a magnetic field that forms vector lines of force. The balls will be influenced by the field I create due to their magnetic nature. In highschool, I learned that an electric current flowing through a wire would generate a magnetic field. I was curious if I could do the same thing without the wire since I could control the flow of lightning with my willpower.
The creation of a magnetic field using this method is quite the fickle thing. The orientation of the magnetic field depends on the direction of the flow of electricity. Thus, I would need to get a feel for how I can manipulate the balls.
I held the three balls in my hand and started to manipulate lightning mana. I made it flow in a circle in the palm of my hand. This was to test if I could achieve results without having to manifest lightning via the expulsion of that type of mana from my body. With the mana flowing in a counterclockwise direction, the balls began to levitate about an inch off my hand. I was shocked that I accomplished this with such a gentle flow.
Meanwhile, my three teammates and the two judges had their jaws on the floor. None of them could believe what they were seeing. They just watched silently as I made the balls move up and down above my hand.
Then, I decided to add a layer to it. In addition to the circular flow, I added a spiral flow that followed the curvature of the circular flow. With them layered on top of each other, it was like a donut made of lightning mana.
With this additional flow, the balls began to revolve around each other while floating in the air. I smirked in response to my success. It would seem that physics really will be my friend when it comes to magic. I was just thankful that the physics of this world operated in a similar fashion to that of Earth. If it didn't, I wouldn't have ever been able to progress as fast as I have.
Unfortunately, reaching a level of proficiency where the balls would be useful in combat would take a long time. I was struggling to maintain my focus while keeping the two flows active simultaneously.
I sighed. "Well, I won't be able to use the balls tonight but with some practice, I should be able to knock people out without them even knowing what hit them, literally."
Jacob laughed nervously. "I pity anyone that incurs your wrath."
I shrugged. I don't plan on actively seeking out enemies as there are undoubtedly individuals in this world that possess unfathomable powers. Magic is only limited by physical laws and the imagination after all.
Shaking himself out of his shock, Kinshiki cleared his throat to garner the attention of those in the room. "Well, we should head to the arena or we will be late. Chop chop."