Ron was doing his best not to look over at where Fiona was training with his mother. He was right now in the middle of a competition with some other archers from his mother's battalion. He knew most of them, more like disliked most of them ever since he was young and they had only gotten worse and more annoying over the years. A lot of people were watching and after his mother had brought him along to check his progress he needed not to let her down.
Their targets were small balls that a man would be throwing on the other side. They would all be aiming to hit the ball first. The referee whistled and the guy at the end threw the first ball in the air much faster than Ron expected. He followed its trajectory with his bow, finding the right moment he aimed at a spot ahead of the ball and let loose. Only a dozen other arrows flew too at the same time and someone else hit it first. The same thing happened two more times, his aim needed to be a little bit more accurate and faster. But the faster he tried to aim the less accurate it was.
"They are using their affinities, you should too," his mother had appeared beside him out of nowhere and instructed.
Most archers had either air or metal affinities using them to bend the trajectories of the arrows after they were released. Ron had a moderate metal affinity, nothing special, probably why he was good in the kitchen handling hot pans. Metal affinity was a very weird magic, you couldn't make it like fire and there wasn't lots of it present everywhere like air, so he never liked it. Using it was a task too, you'd have to focus and vibrate the metal particles, which would generate heat and soften it, and then you could reshape it. How the hell was he supposed to increase the accuracy of an arrow like that?
Still, he had to hit at least one ball, especially if Fiona and Vanessa might be watching too. The next ball was about to be thrown, and when Ron started focusing on the metal tip of the arrow, he felt it vibrating and the metal tip changed colors a little. Now what? Should he try to sharpen the edge more maybe that would increase its speed, but it was already pretty sharp it won't do much good, he thought.
Then he glanced at others to see if he could guess what they were doing but clearly, most of them were air types. That's when it hit him, instead of manipulating his arrow what if he messed up with the others?
If he made the tip some weird shape that would mess up the trajectory much more than sharpening it. But what if some of them were metal types too, then it would just be a struggle between the two forces and he might not win, but he would at least stop whatever they were doing, and then they would have to rely on their skill too, and Ron had already been doing that most of his life if they had been relying on their powers then they might be rusty and it might give him an advantage.
So with the plan made up in his head, he let this ball go too, and waited for the next one.
Everyone took out their next arrow and aimed it in the sky. Ron aimed his arrow too, he had to do two big tasks he had never done before, first, he had to make sure he aimed accurately himself while also using his powers on the others without looking, and he had never done this thing at once with so many targets.
In the back of his mind, as he searched for the metal, he saw the tips as blurry triangles near him, he pushed at all of them at once not focusing on a single one, and at once three of them moved back against his pressure, the movement felt foreign and seemed to make his powers recoil but he used his powers like a net just not letting them escape and do what they wanted to do.
The arrows left as soon as the ball was thrown, the air types weren't expecting their arrows to go so far off suddenly so even with air they weren't able to realign them in time.
With the metal types, things happened like he had expected, they weren't able to do what they wanted and they had to rely on just skill and release in a hurry, their aims were off too.
Ron finally hit a ball.
Everyone knew something had happened in this round, most of them were way too off the target, and they were all looking at each other to see who had messed with them. But since Ron was the one who was able to hit the ball he was the obvious suspect and he wasn't a good liar so his guilty expression as he turned his eyes away gave him away.
Someone shouted to start the next round, things were finally heating up now, and the audience cheered.
The next round was nothing like the previous one, the air types were on full guard from the start they were pretty much going to carry the arrow to the ball with their powers. The metal types had taken Ron's trick, and now everyone was trying to mess with others, Ron had to make sure his arrow wasn't messed with which took more brain power.
Some of them weren't confident in their skills and some weren't able to do more than one task so they had to focus on their own.
Which ultimately resulted in a very exciting and tiring few rounds, Ron however this time felt like he was on level with others and giving a good fight, he was able to land two more hits in the last six rounds, in all he felt he had a pretty good result.
"Good job, Ron, your aim has improved," said Isanna patting his back.
Ron was really happy with himself but he was also very exhausted now and it seemed like the others were gearing up for another round, so he left the ring and went to check on Fiona.