Not even thirty seconds after the tournament started, two people from opposing classes clashed against each other. Then another, followed by more. Eventually, the whole class of Silkaneth, Zyortis, Nironius, and Grinshar had come in contact with each other.
Yuri moved forwards with her ax in hand. Leading her class to the middle of the arena. Enzo and Zhu had went off to the side, hoping to avoid an encounter with other students to their target destination. Zyortis flag.
Carmilo stayed put with a few others by their own flag. Having set up traps around the perimeter. He observed the huge area around him while taking note of every nearby group of people around them.
As the security force watched on from the stands, they communicated with each other through their earpiece. Madhav watched on from the screens as he sipped more Chai. Enjoying every single second of the fighting. He had no hope that his class, Silkaneth, had any chance of winning.
"You think Arlecant would win again, Elyssia?" Madhav asked.
"Possibly! I really can't hear you Madhav, everything is too loud here!" Elyssia shouted, her voice drawing in the sea of the audience's voice.
"I think my class, Zyortis, would win!" Rovanne shouted.
"Yeah! Keep living in that delusion Rovanne!" Matthew said, "Trust me! Grinshar would win no doubt!"
"Ai! Possibly! But what about our teammates huh? What about Gary, Samuel, and Donovan!" Madhav asked, "Three people against the world! Who do you think would win!"
"No idea! It depends on the person!" Matthew said.
"Then let's see, yeah?!" Rovanne turned her gaze to Haelfein's class. Watching as Aziroth and Donovan stood back.
***
From the far edges of the school, there were two things that people would be doing by now. Watching the tournament, or studying for a test. But a majority of the students living here are doing the first option. Whether in person or through watcher birds and cameras.
This left the school mostly empty. As most stayed in their dorms watching the tournament. A perfect time for two opposing factions to do what they need to do. A dash of black and red zoomed from the outskirts of the arena. Staying close to the shadow to avoid detection.
One ran through the arena and jumped down into a crevice. Descending down the abyss as they tuck themselves close together. Eventually, they would land on hard concrete and begin to run through the dark yet again.
Eventually, as he continued to run through the dark, light appeared in the end of the hallway, bursting through the light, he came across a mostly empty room. Only accompanied by a single person handling bits of machinery and magical artifacts that work in unison together to keep the arena up.
"Bloody school...Gives me overtime handling this god damn arena..." The worker complained as he readjusted the settings of the machines.
The figure slowly crept over him, almost going unnoticed by the worker before he suddenly turned around out of instinct. The worker barely managed to swing a wrench before a smooth liquid slowly filled his throat as cold metal slid through his neck. A sudden cold overtook his body. A surge of weakness slithered into his veins as the figure threw him to the ground.
The figure wiped his dagger quickly before stepping over the dying worker, plugging in a hard drive onto the computers and imbuing the magical parts with his own. He tapped onto his ear, activating his comms, "Sahrakish here. Arrived in the control room finally."
A buzz appeared briefly before another voice spoke out, "Maestro here. Have you rigged the systems yet?"
"Trying to." Sahrakish focused on controlling the magical aspects while letting the hard drive do the electronic section. Sparks of red and black zapped across the room. Over the living and dead. Before finally settling down. The machine whirred with a red color and hummed in a low tone, "Got it. What should I do next?"
"Just be patient. I'll inform you when to activate the barrier."
"Got it." Sahrakish slammed the door shut behind him. Taking a quick glance at the wide-eyed and still worker on the ground, "Unfortunate day for you mate. Now to lock the door..."
He zapped a red glowing lock on the handles of the door, before turning back towards the machine and screens infront of him. Ready to follow through with the murder of a child
***
"Quite lively don't you think? How would we ever find them in this crowd!"
Three 'students' had snuck onto the arena without anyone seeing them. Sultan had his scimitar on his hip at the ready. Seemingly always on edge compared to the other two. Karasu still seems sleepy and tired. Barely hanging onto consciousness while gripping his katana for support. But Aurora is still as excited as usual. Eager to see a fight and her boyfriend in action again.
"They're participating if I remember correctly." Sultan said, "Still, I don't see the charm in watching a gladiator fight like this."
"Oh, come now. Take it easy. If you really don't want to watch, just wait outside and we'll call you once it ends or if something important happens." Aurora said. The three moved in between Arlecant and Haelfein's crowd border. They noticed some of the Arlecant second and third years berating and mocking Haelfein's students. Quite distasteful in Aurora's eyes.
They settled themselves on Haelfein's side of the arena. Taking out their binoculars to see the ongoing tournament, "Now where's Gary..."
Sultan snapped his fingers infront of Karasu, "Wake up sleepy head."
"Huh-? Yeah yeah...I'm awake..." Karasu groaned as he rubbed his eyes.
"You wanted to watch the tournament." Sultan said, "Now watch."
"Alright alright..." Karasu straightened himself as he adjusted the feather coat on his shoulders.
From the ongoing mayhem that is occurring down below, The three can sense the familiar aura through the sea of hundreds. Through raw magic, and some occasional aura's of kids having chosen their paths already, their path is the most clear to them. It's almost like finding a pineapple under a sea of blackberries.
They spotted Donovan nearby, he's just laying down on the top of the archway. Near a pale boy with a scythe, "What's Donovan doing there...?" Karasu asked.
"What do I know?" Sultan shrugged, "Maybe he has a plan?"
"Or he's just relaxing." Aurora said, "Yeah, that's what he's doing."
"Should we call out to him?" Karasu asked.
"No. Let him be." Sultan said.
The air was littered with sparks of magic and ash from the battle in the middle. In only six minutes, the area already looked battle worn. Students from each class except Haelfein were clashing against each other. SHooting out raw magic and the occasional spell from a high-ranked student with access to their magic path already.
A particular eye-catcher was Yuri Mardiovana. As she stood out grabbing a boy and lifting him up with one hand, before slamming him down on the ground. She ignored his cries of the poor boy she destroyed and moved forward. Swinging her axe horizontally. Sending out a mist of chilling blue fog that froze some of the students armors and limbs. As they are immobilized, Yuri and the other Nironius students take this chance and quickly threw them down and put them out of commission.
Before they could continue, they were met with heavy retaliation by the Arlecant class. Yuri spotted someone running towards her with a dagger in hand, "Nicola-!"
The girl slashed her daggers in two consecutive motions and stabbed her tip on the flat side of the axe, "Hello Yuri! Enjoying the tournament?!"
"I guess so-!" Yuri slammed her foot on the ground, ice spikes erupted outwards as Nicola jumped back while breaking and cutting down spikes going towards her.
"You improved! And got bigger from what I can see!" Nicola slowly imbued magic into her dagger.
"Wait...Really?!" Yuri was shocked after hearing her compliment, "You mean it?!"
"Yes! The only thing now to find out is if it's useful in a fight!" Nicola burst through the ice walls and swung her daggers wildly but with precision.
Yuri barely managed to block or parry her strikes, Nicola grabbed onto Yuri's axe and slammed both of her feet onto Yuri's stomach. Sending her sliding back as she gasped in pain.
She still managed to grab a hold of her axe and use it to keep her standing. Nicola had buffed her kick with magic, amplifying the force threefold. Yuri can feel the bruise on her stomach.
"Damn, you managed to stand after all that." Nicola whistled, "That would've knocked an average dude right out."
A few students ran up to Yuri's side, holding up their weapons in support of her. The same thing goes with Nicola as she's reinforced with a few others. They stared at each other for a hot ten seconds, before Yuri composed herself and dashed forwards first.
Nicola ran forward as well, imbuing more magic into her dagger as each side charged as well. Before they can clash weapons, a stampede of footsteps can be heard across the arena. This temporarily froze Yuri in her tracks as she turned to her left.
It was a raging bull. No, a dragon. No, not even that, an unstoppable force of nature rammed through other students in their path towards Yuri. She was barely given any time to react as it pulled its tight fist back, "Что за хрень!" Yuri cursed in Russian as she held her flat side of the axe.
The fist slammed against the axe hard, the mere force and pressure had blown everyone around Yuri away and sent her barreling away. She barely managed to land on her feet and stand properly. Having to lean on the axe for support.
"Damn! Your axe held up nicely!" A boy barely managed to contain his excitement.
Everyone around him took a second to acknowledge the person who disrupted the flow of the fight. A hulking unit, roughly two hundred and five centimeters in height. Donning a long scarf and black fur cloak. A warhammer held tightly on his left hand as he used his right to punch Yuri away.
"Who are you..." Yuri groaned as she tried to get a good look at him.
The boy chuckled as he twirled his warhammer around, "Gary Skorrson...Pleasure to meet you."