The arena game started an hour or so before sunset, and there was quite a crowd. There were about a hundred students from the Dek class participating in this tournament, and they ranged from first to fourth years. There were five large dueling rings, all of which had duels happening at the same time. It seemed a little chaotic at first, but this way it was a lot faster, and there was always something interesting to watch, even in the first round.
When a student was eliminated in a duel, the other student would be swallowed up by the ground as well, both being replaced with new students until all the contestants had fought. Kaos was impressed by Sepra's opponent in round one. Despite clearly being outmatched in both skill and power, he held out for quite a while and even landed a few heavy blows with his flail.
As Kaos watched his peers fighting, he realized just how strong the Dek class was. There wasn't anybody in the Sen class that fought like them, almost every single one had a unique fighting style tailored to their wish.
"I've got a long way to go." He mumbled to himself.
Like Sepra, Kyris also won his first round fairly quickly. He had gone up against a younger kid that had a strong wind manipulation wish, but really didn't have much technique to his fighting. Kyris did a good job of playing defensively until his opponent's movements got sloppy enough for him to strike against, and after he got one hit in with his electricity wish, it was basically over.
"If you had to put money on it, who do you think is gonna win the tournament?" Nolly leaned over, asking Vasai.
"Hmmm…" He mulled, leaning back against the sandstone seat, "You know what they say, always bet on your friends, so either Sepra, or Kyris."
"Pfff! That's not a real answer!" she said with a touch of sarcastic annoyance, "Gilt, what do you think?"
"If I was putting money on it, I'd go with The Blood Mage. People have been hyping him up quite a bit, and his match probably didn't even last twenty seconds."
"Hmmm…" Nolly thought, "I don't know if I saw that one. Sounds creepy though!"
"I didn't really hear how his wish worked, but from what it looked like, he used his blood to fire out all sorts of magic." Gilt continued, "Maybe it's something like his blood amplifies general magic a ton or something."
As they talked about the fights of the round one contestants, the sun finished setting past the desert, and it grew dark. Suddenly lines of glowing golden sand rushed through walkways, benches, and pillars, illuminating the entire arena in an ethereal yellow glow.
Large golden letters began to circle the five dueling rings as the bell sounded out the beginning of the second round.
[ROUND: 2]
[CONTESTANTS REMAINING: 50]
[TAKE THE THRONE]
Students began popping up and dueling in each ring once again. These fights were a lot less one sided, and in general were more interesting to watch. Nolly slapped Vasai on the arm.
"Kyris just popped up in that one!" she half shouted.
As soon as he burst through the sand, Kyris activated his wish, causing blue lightning to crackle around his arms. It was a good thing he did too, because his opponent was already halfway to him, and was strangely running on all fours. As his opponent lunged at him, he raised both his arms to block the punch.
As soon as the attack connected, the electricity coursed through his arms and into his opponent, jolting them into a roll on the ground, which they quickly recovered from. There was a stinging on his arms which had somehow been sliced. Quickly surveying his opponent, he noticed that his opponent's hands had claws coming out the end of each finger. If he wanted to last long, he would need to avoid those. The student's legs also appeared to bend backwards, and he realized this must have been the third year nicknamed 'Dingo' because of his four legged attacking style.
"Gotta watch the teeth too…" He said to himself.
Dingo began to rush at him again, this time, he tried to sidestep the lunge, successfully managing to dodge the fanged jaws, but not escaping a clawed swipe across his shoulder.
Dingo was fast, really fast. The block Kyris managed to zap him with was good, but he would need a lot more than that to win the duel.
Dingo and Kyris were slowly circling each other, trying to find gaps in the other's defenses, when suddenly Dingo made another mad sprint towards Kyris. He readied his arms for another attack at his torso, but instead of jumping, Dingo dropped down even lower and slashed at his unguarded legs, knocking him to the ground.
His opponent jumped forwards in an attempt to capitalize on his downed opponent, but Kyris spun around his body in time to smack Dingo's open jaw, shocking him and sending him reeling.
He used this time to get back to his feet, something his injured legs were not too happy about.
"So the lightning is only on the arms then." came Dingo's raspy voice.
"Or I'm bluffing" Kyris retorted, knowing that Dingo had already figured out the flaw in his wish's current abilities.
"If that's the case," Laughed Dingo, coming up on two legs for the first time since the start of the match, "then you bluff almost as well as you bleed."
Kyris took the initiative to rush at Dingo, he had a better chance of hitting him with a wild haymaker, than he did of blocking one of his signature rush-downs. Dingo didn't appear to be afraid of Kyris's sudden advance, and began bounding on four legs to meet him halfway.
Everything seemed to move a little slowly for Kyris. Dingo was airborne, and headed straight for his head, his fist had just enough time to get there. As soon as he made contact with his fist, he felt Dingo's claws on his throat, and his arms turning to sand.
"Well there goes one of your two picks." Nolly said, elbowing Vasai.
"I mean I wouldn't have wanted to fight that guy either though." He shrugged, holding to his previous statement that either Sepra, or Kyris would win.
Sepra's round two match was with a second year who was incredibly strong, but was just sloppy enough for Sepra to use her Death Grip wish to end the battle in one blow, despite otherwise being on the losing end for the majority of the fight.
"That one was pretty rough…" Gilt said, "She's a lot better than the other first years, but what do you think the odds are that she wins again in round three?"
"I think she'll do it!" Vasai responded immediately.
"Getting to Round 3 as a first year is impressive, but she's coming out of the next fight as a bag of sand." Gilt chuckled, imitating pouring a sack of sand on the ground. "What do you think, Kaos?"
Kaos thought for a while, after seeing not only how well the students of the Dek class used their wishes, but just purely how strong they were, he was a mix of disheartened, and in awe. His mind came back to the current situation after remembering he had been asked a question.
"I think that the Dek class is insane." He replied.