Altair stood on the spot, looking down at Nephelae and frowning. After witnessing his classmates fight, Altair had lost a bit of his confidence. Without the special abilities granted top him by the System, Altair had very few option to pick from. And he certainly couldn't use Mana Manipulation in this fight, since it would easily be detected by Mr Lindt, and likely by others in the Academy too. He was under no doubts that someone like Le'garde would not sense the Mana disturbances.
Due to his small frame, Altair had no choice but to pick a dagger for his weapon. While he had been a mastery of every art imaginable as a Denizen of Infinity, he had lost the muscle memory of since reincarnating and now only knew the theory of swordsmanship. He would make frightening progress once he started training, no doubt, but that was in the future and wouldn't help him now.
Across from him, Nephelae choice...a great sword. It seemed to be a mix between a claymore and a zweihander. Whatever it was, it looked ridiculous compared to the tiny frame of it's wielder. Yet despite her petite figure, Nephelae lifted the blade with one hand and practical ease. At this sight, Altair and every other student swallowed their saliva. Even Mr Lindt had blinked several times upon seeing this, like he was trying to dispel an illusion.
Altair looked down at his puny dagger and then at the great sword. He instantly knew that he was pretty fucked from the get-go. A single solid hit would shatter his dagger and crush him to a pulp, and he was obviously beaten in terms of range With the ease Nephelae had lifted the sword too, Altair knew it's swings would be relatively fast, meaning the classical disadvantage of the archetype would be nullified.
As Mr Lindt prepared to initiate the match, Altair desperately turned to his steadfast ally: the System! As he activated it, time seemed to slow down, allowing Altair precious time to surf the System shop for something to use. Yet he came to a stop once he saw his low number of Authority Points, hesitating to use them. After all, this was only a spar with no actual consequences on his academic record, or so Mr Lindt claimed. Yet the thought of being beaten to a pulp by this tiny girl ignited a sense of resistance within him as Altair sought out a different method.
"Hey System, Mana Manipulation allows me to control Mana in all forms, including its most basic, right? In that case, can I use it to create Air or Darkness Mana and use that as a weapon?"
Altair picked Fire and Darkness as an example because of his Bloodlines dictating that was what Altair was biased towards. He intuitively knew that, if he could manipulate Mana like that, those Elements would be the easiest to do so.
[Host is correct, they can use {Mana Manipulation (Ex)} like that. However, the effects of of the artificially created Skill will be weaker than the actual Skill, since Host lacks the required understanding of Matrixes and Mana to create a perfect replica. It is recommended Host uses simply Skills or Spells, such as Air Bullet or Dark Tendrils.]
Once Altair took this all in, time resumed its usual flow and the whistle of Mr Lindt rang throughout the hall. The fourth and final duel of the day had begun, and Altair was now much more confidant in this battle. He turned to face Nephelae, fully prepared to fight, but was surprised to see an empty spot where she originally stood. "What-"
Before he could finish speaking, Altair saw something flash in the corner of his eye, causing him to lung to the side straight away and roll. Where he previously stood, a boom rang out and dust flew in the air. When it cleared, all that was visible was a crater. Heart palpating, Altair felt a warning from his instincts and spun around, dagger raised and reinforced with as much Mana he could gather in that instant.
He just managed to see another flash before he was flung through the air, his arm and dagger cracking dangerously from the blow. Despite the Mana reinforcement, his blade had several long cracks running along it. Altair landed on wobbly feet as he grit his teeth angrily. He was being tossed around by a midget!
Deciding that staying on the defensive could only end badly, he used his Mana Manipulation Skill to draw in a large quantity of Mana and transform it. Altair relied on the instincts of his Zephylte-Atrazark Bloodline to convert the neutral Mana to Air Mana, before expelling it from his body in a violent whirlwind.
A flurry of crescent wind blades shot out in all directions, blindly aiming to hit Nephelae. Altair was still uncertain if she was using some sort of Invisibility or was simply too fast to be seen, but he reckoned that she had to get tired and slow eventually, and being forced to dodge or deflect all these wind blades would speed that up. Yet after multiple round of not hitting anything, Altair frowned heavily and ceased.
But straight after he did, Altair felt a sickening blow land on the underside of his jaw, sending him straight into the air once again. Concussed from being uppercutted, he crash-landed in a lump and struggled to pull himself together. Yet his confuddlement faded to rage as he rapidly absorbed more Mana, this time making use of his Nyx-Hyppiliote Bloodline to summon darkness. A sea of pitch darkness surged out from where Altair stood, drowning the arena in inky blackness. Altair was slightly worried that the watching students would get involved, but he was sure Mr Lindt would intervene-
'Wait a minute...where is Mr Lindt and the others?' Altair thought. He looked over to the side of the hall, but it was empty of all life. Since Mr Lindt began the match, everyone somehow vanished from the hall without him noticing. No, that wasn't right...Altair should have noticed almost immediately but he hadn't. Had something interfered with his mind, muddling his thought process away from focusing on the absence of everyone else?!
As he came to this realization, the sound of shattering glass resounded in Altair's ears. An intense wave of nausea hit him hard, disorientating him and making him fall to his knees. His head felt like he had just activated Split Double once again, like it was on the verge of splitting apart. Yet the feeling went away quickly, allowing Altair to raise his head and look up. As for what he saw...
Nephelae stood before him, her gigantic sword laying causally in the grip of her hand. Mr Lindt and everyone else had re-appeared, and everyone but the instructor looked at Altair in confusion. Above them sat a clock, one which had only advanced by twenty seconds rather than the multiple minutes Altair had just spent fighting. Or had he?
As he looked up at Nephelae, she nodded her head slightly before reaching out and tapping his forehead with her index finger. "You're pretty strong" she muttered, seemingly to herself. "So just go ahead and sleep for a bit."
Before Altair could respond, his body collapsed like a puppet without strings as he lost awareness. He familiar clasp of unconsciousness claimed him once again, as he vainly struggled against it. 'God damnit, why am I always being knocked unconscious! It happens every other fucking day!' he bemoaned violently, before his mind followed his body and everything went black.
.....
When Altair returned to the land of the living, the first thing he heard was Mr Lindt's booming voice. "Miss Nephelae wins due to disabling Mister Atrazark! That marks the end of our class students, so please vacate my hall. I have other First Years to meet in several minutes!"
Altair sat up groggily and rubbed his eyes, yawning and stretching at the same time. He felt...wonderful! Altair never knew how tired and stressed his body was until just now. He was honestly surprise his little physique had put up with as much as it did without snapping at any moment! He turned his head and looked at Elizabeth, who had approached him upon seeing him regain conscious. She looked at him with worry as she spoke. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just groggy" Altair yawned as proof before standing up and making his way towards the exit. He turned to Elizabeth as she walked with him. "What the hell happened back there anyway?" he inquired seriously. Elizabeth hesitated before speaking slowly "It's hard to answer...what we saw and what you saw are likely very different after all. What did you see, first of all?"
"I was fighting Nephelae, but she was invisible or something. She tossed me around like a doll for a bit, before I got angry and unleashed a couple of Skills, like Air Blade and Dark Surge" Altair explained, mixing in a couple of lies. Dark Surge was the Skill that Altair "used" to create the sea of darkness, and was one he had learnt the name of from Jace.
"After using that Skill though, I realised everyone had vanished. After figuring this out, I heard what sounded like shattering glass and then I saw suddenly on the ground with Nephelae standing before me, and everyone had returned. Then she tapped my head and I fell asleep."
Elizabeth nodded and then explained her side of things. "For us, you just stood there for a couple seconds before releasing a large amount of Air and Darkness Mana into the atmosphere. No Skill materialised however, just the Elemental Mana. You fell toll your knees just as Nephelae got close, then she tapped you on the head and you collapsed. Mr Lindt declared her the winner and pulled you out of the arena. You woke up several seconds later."
Altair mulled over what she said, as he came to one conclusion. "A dream?" he asked tentatively. Elizabeth nodded in agreement. "Some sort of dream illusion does seem to be the most likely answer. Nephelae made you believe you were fighting her inside your mind, while in fact you were standing there doing nothing. Such a power is common for members of the Floating City after all."
"The Floating City?" Altair asked. The blue-haired girl nodded several times with a smile before explaining the term. "The Floating City is the Divine Kingdom of Chanteur, the God of Minds and Dreams! As the name implies, it is a gigantic city that flies in the sky and is home to the largest community of Dragons on Orvonia. It also produces 30% of the available Aether in the entire world, making it a massive powerhouse in terms of trading and military might. It apparently floats around the world at random, and can also be teleported anyway too. Chanteur "Himself" resides within the Floating City."
"And Nephelae comes from there?" Altair asked in excitement. Elizabeth turned to look at him in surprise before raising an eyebrow. "Wait, Altair, did you seriously not know what Nephelae is?"
Altair raised an eyebrow in turn as he tilted his head. "What are you on about? Is Nephelae not a human? Wait...is she a Dragon?!" he gasped, jumping up and down on the spot at the thought of meeting such a mythical creature in the flesh. Elizabeth smirked at the sight before shaking her head. She gestured Altair closer and then whispered in his ear.
"Nephelae isn't a Dragon, though she isn't Human either. None of the citizens of the Floating Capital are Humans in fact. No, Nephelae is...a Fairy.