Marcus was a 6 foot 1 white young man; he had a lean build and wore some sort of scaly blue armour; On his lower back were 2 sheathed black daggers and he wore a silver ring on his left hand's middle finger. He had a head of short ginger hair and a pair of emerald green eyes holding a certain level of concern as he scanned the crowd. Unlike Sora, Marcus would be dealing with challenges from 3rd year students who were all, to a greater or lesser degree, at the advanced level.
The fact that Marcus wore such extravagant armour shocked nobody, as everyone above the 1st year had something prepared, hell Besides Sora every 1st year elite student had a set of armour to use that seemed to come with some sort of complimentary weapon. Not just them but some of the wealthier first-year families provided their children with less showy but top-quality armour and equipment to support their offspring.
It was clear that today, one's financial backing would likely play a crucial role in their survival, and Sora's lack of equipment stuck out like a sore thumb, those who heard of what happened to Sora in the upper years frowned when they saw what the school was doing to someone who was supposed to be an elite class mage. Of all the mages present Marcus Sterling was the most livid; influence was one thing, but no single family had the right to block the path of talented mages in this world, Especially not the Zhu's.
At the end of the day though, he was here for a purpose, he would deal with this predicament in the first-year class at a later date. Besides no matter what Takada was still a vastly more skilled and experienced advanced mage than he was, there was nothing he could do about this just yet even if he had the time of day. Narong walked towards Sora who looked around with a calculating gaze, he knew the nature of the more common pieces of armour worn by the everyday students of each year group, the Elite classes were a different case though.
The armour on their backs was more similar to beast hides than pieces of armour and he was confused as to how this was possible. He would take this initial free-for-all battle to observe the cause and effects of each armour. Now though Sora was formulating a plan to deal with every student from the 1st to the 3rd years. He wouldn't be able to win by any stretch of imagination but he sure as hell was going to make it into the top 5 if it killed him.
Each student was given a coloured badge representing their year group showing a colour for their suspected power ranking within the school. Of the 200 students in the Interstellar Academy, Sora was ranked 200th, bottom rung of the school. Frankly, though Sora knew in his head that this was true, he only had an advantage over the other first-year students with his second element; the second years didn't have this problem, and very few of them weren't already intermediate mages, regardless of if they could cast intermediate magic yet or not, they still had an Intermediate mana core and the mana boost that comes with one. He was simply too weak and would need careful planning to beat anyone of them.
At least that was what Sora assumed before he walked onto the platform with all the other students wondering how they all would be divided, just for him to suddenly be transported to a river bank with thick forestry on either side of him. He was confused as to what was happening but heard an announcement from nowhere in particular.
"Welcome all students to the first round of the divine Trial; If you are hearing this you are in the 4th zone of the school's artificial, forest of death; there are no creatures in the vicinity but there also isn't a time limit on how long the competition lasts; the first round only ends once there are 5 remaining people in all 4 zones. You are to hunt and defeat the other members in your zone until you are one of the remaining 5, not doing anything is fine, but extra points would be rewarded for efforts towards the 'filtering' process of each Zone... You may not leave your demarcated zone nor kill a defeated participant, penalties may lead to disqualification or expulsion depending on the severity of the crime... good luck students, and may the best magicians win".
Hearing the lack of enthusiasm or care in the voice of the announcer Sora began to understand a bit of how this whole thing worked and began formulating plans around it. He didn't stay in one place though, as things stood he lacked information, he was ranked the lowest, and he had no idea how well-equipped his enemies were; he could not afford to sit around and do nothing. he needed to find the ideal spot for a fire mage to reside because while he could burn the forestry for an advantage he would still be within the range of the wildfire.
He knew for a fact he would eventually use his lightning element, but he would rather make it through the first round without it if he could; If not, he would have to move forward assuming that everyone would have some knowledge of his dual elements. As Sora traversed the forest he could sense focused spikes of mana in almost every direction, It was likely the magicians with a speciality in movement were not being humble with their use of mana; to be fair though Sora wasn't sure if mana detection techniques were still a thing.
The nearest fluctuation of mana was annoyingly familiar; he would never forget one of those annoying little shits that turned on him, frankly he knew the families would likely come after him and pressure him to back down; but he thought the students themselves would have some sense of comradery, He would never adopt such naivety again that was for sure. Sora had sensed the aura of the light mage, Xu Ron from class 1E. Usually, he wouldn't be able to for more skilled light mages as they would usually be able to cast spells with a thought.
This idiot, on the other hand, had an abysmal casting speed and was feeding mana through his mana veins ahead of time so he would be able to cast the spell quickly and either attack with whatever resource weapon he was provided or escape with whatever life-saving resource he had hidden on his person. Light mages were annoying though, If they were unarmed they would be something of a pesky enemy that messes with your vision, armed though and they can suddenly strike you while your eyes are out of commission, As such Xu Ron could not be allowed to see Sora and fire his spell first.
Sora waited until they both got near an open field, not just anyone, but one where he couldn't sense any strong magic auras passing through. He found an exit from the forest onto an open field and saw three mages in a fight in the distance; he stood behind a row of trees parallel to Xu Ron and fired a basic fireball through the gap in the trees; It was a normal sized one with his added effect filtered out to save up mana. Unsurprisingly, when Xu Ron noticed he just barely managed to draw a shield and block the spell.
The force of the fireball blasted Xu Ron into the row of trees behind him making him drop from the sheer force of the blow, Xu Ron gritted his teeth and cast a lesser flash to bind his assailant and rushed into the bush behind him to take cover. Sora realised his mistake and turned for cover, firing a second basic fireball mid-turn, and covered his eyes. Sora's spell hit the tree beside the bush Xu Ron took cover in, burning the plant life around it through.
Xu Ron figured he had caught his assailant and rushed out of the burning bush with a sword and shield in hand, all to meet another basic fireball flying at him. Xu Ron barely had time to pick and attempted to cut the Fireball, failing and getting hit by the full force of Sora's spell. As the fireball exploded the heat burned his skin and half of his face before the force sent him crashing through the earlier tree that had now caught fire, The tree burst into more flames as Xu Ron's badge broke.
Sora saw something that genuinely shocked him not long after. Mana flowed out of the badge forming a ring on the ground around Xu Ron, It then formed a doubled-lined rim with some runic writing within the lines; within the circle was a single much larger Rune that read the word 'Gate'. Before Sora could inspect it more Xu Ron's burnt and unconscious figure was warped away leaving behind the shield he had dropped when he ate Sora's attack earlier.
To add insult to injury the number on Sora's badge changed from 200 to 196 a few seconds after; now Sora had to test one of 2 possibilities; either his ranking would go up if the person ranked above him was eliminated, or if his ranking would automatically become that of some he defeats as long as the person is stronger. If it was the former, was it just within his zone or did spread across all Zones; If it was the latter how was the academy able to judge who defeated a mage and what would happen to your rank should you defeat a weaker lower ranked enemy.