The crowd cheered after the speech was over. They quickly began walking to the stadiums. Aayla was swept up into the flow of the crowd and barely managed to get herself out as the crowd split to go into different stadiums. As she was deciding where to go next, a voice broke through the dull roar of the crowd.
"Miss Glowery? Miss Glowery, over here!"
Aayla kept turning until she saw Jacki pushing her way through the crowd.
"Hello Miss Vhassohrin."
"I didn't expect to see you here! I thought for sure that you would work through the tournaments over the next three days."
"Well, originally I thought that I would as well."
"Since you're here, let's go to the small stadium. The second-year tournament is about to start!"
Jacki grabbed Aayla and pulled her through the crowd.
"But I don't have a ticket!"
"Don't worry about it. General seating is free for all stadiums. You just need to pay for snacks and special seating, or bring your own. Besides, I have a contact who can get us into places anyways."
A few minutes later, Jacki happily led Aayla to the second-year stadium. It was similar to a small high school football stadium. Simple metal bleachers that could hold a few hundred people surrounded a large grassy field. Four stone platforms had been placed on the corners of the field with a much larger one in the center. Several staff members stood by each of the platforms.
The audience slowly filled up the bleachers, but the front row was already jam packed with groups of students and faculty wearing various sashes or badges. Many of those on the front row held clipboards and talked among themselves as they glared at other groups. Aayla studied each of the groups. Were they from other schools or something?
"Don't worry about those guys. They shouldn't cause any trouble until someone really good shows up."
"So, they're scouts?"
"Yep. There's not as many this year, and most of the groups are from the clubs or societies on campus. Hmm… it looks like a few of the lower ranked teachers are looking for potential students as well. Oh, my friends are over there."
Aayla was dragged behind the bleachers. A couple hundred students were sitting in groups across the lawn. One of those groups included Daren and Chris who were very surprised to see Aayla somewhere outside of class or the residence hall. The other students looked curiously at Aayla. She could already feel her ears slightly popping. Either they were weak or Ramona's training was paying off. Chris smiled and waved.
"Look who Jacki dragged over! I never expected Princess Workaholic to leave her castle. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the reclusive Miss Aayla Glowery. She's the main student in charge of the Nafriton Residence Hall. She might need a little bit of help since she's from abroad."
Princess Workaholic glared at Chris and snorted. She was not in the mood to deal with him right now.
"Yes, in fact I am in need of some help, Sir Phantom Knight. I'll sign you up for the gremlin duty night shift this upcoming week. Thank you in advance for your aid."
"Huh? Nonono! Wait! Not that!"
Chuckles and snorts of laughter broke out among the group. Daren suppressed his laughter and looked down at his book.
"Could you please let him off this time, Miss Glowery? He's competing for the next three days."
"Fine. I'll delay his sentence until three days later but no longer."
Chris wilted and began to sulk. Several people couldn't hold back their laughter. Even Daren had a faint smile on his face. Jacki introduced Aayla to the group. Most student friend groups formed around hometown and social status. This group was no exception. These students were all from Halcyon, a port city in the south of the Chinebar Republic. They had gone to the same schools together growing up and were sponsored by the Forolan family. All of the third- and fourth-years had gone to their own tournaments though. The freshmen had gone to watch the most exciting fourth-year competition.
Slowly the conversation turned towards the tournaments and the competition. In each year, there was around 1,600 students. Among the second years, only 500 were allowed to compete. This number had been whittled down to less than half of that number during the past few days of pre-tournament competitions. In their group, only Daren and Chris had successfully joined the second-year tournament. They were each other's biggest competition. Few others would actually give them any trouble.
The most favorite point of gossip was Lysander Foryl. Due to his suspension and the moved-up dates of the tournaments, he would not be competing in the Fall third-year tournament. His roars of fury and threats to sue could be heard from the Student Council office for miles. The complaint box was overflowing with letters. Many wondered if the Student Council moved the dates to spite him.
Of course, the other third-years were ecstatic. Lyse was fairly well hated for his arrogant nature and poor sportsmanship. He had a gruesome laundry list of injured and allegedly sabotaged opponents. Aayla was peppered with questions about what happened during the incident that earned Lyse his suspension. Did she really use cookies and fireworks to tame the gremlins?
Aayla was surprised that they didn't seem to mind her mana-less condition. She had been getting fewer rude stares and comments recently, but they never seemed to go away. Overtime Aayla got more comfortable chatting about the gremlins. Every so often she would throw in a complaint about her rarely seen assistants. She found many compatriots who complained about Chris.
He was extremely unpopular with other young men. Many a blossoming love was crushed when they realized that their beloved were already in love with that womanizer. They did acknowledge his strength though as Chris had beaten most of them in duels by now. The remaining ones were scheduled into next month.
"Speaking of unrequited love, look who just arrived. Chris, you might want to sneak Daren out of here."
One of the young ladies pointed off in the distance. Chris's gaze blackened like the bottom of a pot while Daren slammed his book shut in annoyance. A flashy entourage of beauties was prowling the bleachers. Murmurs rippled throughout the crowd. Many young men preened themselves while many young ladies gazed enviously. Though their reputation had started to stink among the upperclassmen, the underclassmen still viewed The Butterflies as the epitome of high-class ladies.
However, the Halcyon students became uncomfortable. Unlike most other underclassmen, they were much more informed about the true nature of The Butterflies. They were well aware of Vanessa Landrienne's unrequited crush and Daren's unrequited disgust.
Chris and Daren quietly left to find a staff member. They would never get any peace if Vanessa and her flying monkeys found them. Right now, the best choice was to sit with the other competitors until the competition started.
The Butterflies flitted between groups of students but never found their intended targets. Frustrated, they returned to their seats in the stadium as the announcer gave signaled the start of the competition. Aayla followed Jacki and the rest as they found their own seats.
The audience pulsed with excitement. This was the only entertainment that they had in weeks! They could hardly stand studying, working or teaching all the time. Without any trips to Forest Waypoint, there was not much that kept the university entertained. Each person in the audience was determined to soak up as much fun as they could to pass the next few weeks.
As soon as the competitors were gathered, the competition began. The first day was a simple single knock-out style tournament. Each student would have one match lasting at most 15 minutes. With 200 students, the competition would last late into the day even if all the stages were used. Food and beverages would be provided for the competitors to avoid sabotage attempts. However, observers would have to get their own.
The matches were truly a sight to watch. Novice wizards love being flashy. Students were knocked off of the stages as the elements ran wild. Many of the matches didn't even last five minutes. Sometimes the opponents were simply too mismatched. Other times some idiot would try something flashy that would either backfire spectacularly or give their opponent time to throw them off the stage. Physical harm was minimal, but many egos suffered horrendous damage.
As soon as one duel ended, another would begin. With all five stages working, there were too many duels to watch at once. Jacki would point out the more well-known students to Aayla. Usually, those duels would be better magically, but a few of those well-known students were better remembered for their stupidity rather than their skill.
Daren finally had his turn on the main stage around lunch time. The shrill screams of the single young ladies were fierce when he stepped up. Aayla thought that she was going to go deaf. Without any surprise or suspense, Daren easily won his duel in seconds. Chris soon won his duel a couple of hours later with the same number of screams and ease.
Since Daren and Chris had finished their duels, the group left the stadium to walk around the festival streets. They finished out the day at a dining hall before they split to go back to their dormitories. Daren and Chris were particularly eager to rest and avoid running into The Butterflies. Those girls were the gum on the bottom of your shoe: super clingy, nasty and annoying.
The serious dueling would begin the next day on the second and third rounds of the competition.