As the match started, Jian yelled "Earthen Armor!" and the ground under them shifted as earth erupted from below Jian to cover his body, leaving him looking like a golem save for his eyes over which rested the glasses he had been wearing. After Kaels match, they were clearly wary of explosively decisive wins and wanted to prepare something. Kael watched Gwen, who had taken off the cape and left it with her attendant. Jian spoke, shouting at her.
"Sorry Gwen! I know you're related to a Duke but…I don't intend to take it easy on you!"
Guinevere smirked and nodded.
"Good! Same here, Jiji." They were clearly friends, both belonging to noble houses with Jian being to the house of Vicount Timswel Glass. His father, sitting in the audience, grinned and shouted "GET HER JI!" while the Duke, Edgar Van Nellis and his wife and parents all sat a little higher up in the boxed seats. Vicounts were vassals of larger territories controlled by the royalty, the Dukes and the Barons. Barely royalty, they were usually former knights or well-succeeding vassals of the Kingdom at large, granted management of land but very little power in it. That meant they usually got seats with the commoners while the wealthier houses sat above. Duke Van Nellis had his hands clasped in front of him, nervously watching as his niece (who was really more like a daughter to him) started forward.
"Smart to use armor, Jiji! But-" Whispering something, flames erupted from her hand and hit the rocks roughly. This caused Jian to turn away, covering his face from the brightness of the spell as the stone he covered his body with began to turn red on the outside. Gwen shouted- "You turn yourself into an oven with that, Ji!" She continued to torch the large ball of earth with a smile- she could wait for him to pass out.
Instead, she frowned, then jumped in the air in a frontflip- right as a spear of earth rushed past her to smash into the shield wall behind them. It had also been erected after Kaels match, so nobody would get their body embedded into the stone wall of the stands again. Jian had appeared to her left, no longer covered in the mass of stones that had been left behind as a distraction for her. Her fire had stopped, of course what with the attack that had come at her from the rear. She whispered again and three fireballs formed over her palm, firing quickly at Jian. Palms on the ground, the boy shouted "Stonewall!" and up it came, the fireballs smashing into it and causing some of it to crack and billow away.
Kael watched intently. It had been a while since he had seen two mages fight like this- well, other than when he fought Lyrael. That had been about training though, not showcasing spells. Being number one, his fire mage of a friend wanted to showcase the versatility of her flame. Landing on her feet she lashed out, spinning and whipping out a kick with fire on her heel. Behind her Jian popped up out of the ground right as her foot slammed into his side. Blood erupted from his lips as his glasses got skewed, sending his body flopping along the ground for a moment before he planted a hand and twisted his torso, landing on his feet. As he did so, a shield made of stone formed on his hand as a scroll he'd pulled from his pocket got infused with his Aether to make it. She was on top of him just as he'd expected and her fist, engulfed in flame smashed into the shield he made- and while the flame caused significant damage to the shield, her knuckles also became bruised from the impact.
How did she know he was going to come up there?
Kael's intense stare broke into a grin, impressed beyond measure.
She wasn't a fire mage.
"Dual caster." Jian said before he spat some blood, understanding now that she had felt the spear of earth in the air and felt him erupting from the ground right as she spun. She could control the air as well as fire which made this all the more complicated. Gwen, hearing Jian say that she was a dualcaster, merely grinned and flashed a "peace" sign before spinning and kicking the already damaged and burnt stone shield while at the same time whispering something else. A cannonball of air formed behind Jian and fired, crashing into his back and sending him flying out of the ring. He hit the ground rough and grunted through a couple of tumbles before he skid to a halt. Through the thunderous applause (Including a boarish exclamation of "YEAAAAAH KICK HIS ASS SWEETHEART!" from the Duke which garnered many shocked looks from the nobles around him), Jian came to his hands and knees shakily, chuckling as he wiped his mouth.
"Damn…guess it wouldn't have mattered whether I took it easy or not, huh?"
Gwen floated over and set herself down on the edge of the ring.
"It was just a bad match up, Jian. To be honest, I thought you were incredible! Not many people could last that long against a dual caster."
Jian shook his head then let himself fall and roll over onto his back, sighing as the medical staff started over to him.
"WINNER!!! Guinevere Van Nellisa, a fire and air dualcasting menace moves on to the second round! As you can see folks, we have some incredible talent joining us at Ashervale Academy this year so make sure to keep your eyes glued to-"
The voice faded as Gwen made her way backstage, smirking at Kael who gave a gentle and slow clap. Crossing her legs and bowing deeply, she stood straight after and used the back of her sleeve to brush some soot and dirt off her face.
"So, what do you think?"
Kael let out a low whistle.
"Pretty incredible!" He stood up, walking over to her slowly and patting her on the shoulder before lowering his voice significantly so others couldn't hear. "You being a grade 3 mage and being able to whispercast at such a young age? Your teacher must be proud." She stiffened up a little. How did he?
He glanced down at her feet- her shoes were very thin and only a select few people would even know why. It was so she could have a close connection with the Earth, as close as possible without taking off her shoes and giving away that she wanted to feel the ground. Kael continued.
"You started spinning a fraction of a second before broke through the ground, so there's no way air would have helped you. But Earth? Yeah…that'll do the trick."
He chuckled as he leaned back, putting a hand behind his head.
"But you'll need more tricks than that to beat me, Gwen."
Laughing, Kael looked filled with joy at the challenges ahead while Gwen marveled at him. She trained herself to death and yet she couldn't imagine what he had gone through that could make him so incredible- only the headmaster had noticed she was a tricaster, and that was likely only because he was close friends with her uncle. To notice simply in combat when she had not used it other than to feel the movement beneath her was a cut above anyone she'd heard of. She just watched him for a moment before letting out a hissing sigh.
"Damn….oh well. There goes the surprise, I guess. We'll see soon enough whether you're talking out your ass or not. Like I said, speed blitzing won't work on me so I look forward to seeing your own talents!"
Finishing his laugh, Kael nodded.
"I look forward to it!"
The next several rounds passed- throughout the better part of two hours they whittled down the remaining contestants to sixteen. The numbers that remained were: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 21, 26, 28, 29, ,31 and 32. Kael's next opponent was number 8, with Jian having been number 6 before his elimination. He looked at the screen that showed each of their faces- even though they hadn't stood for class pictures, whoever made this magic clearly made it possible for those images to be displayed and in quite perfect likeness at that. His brow twitched at number 8.
"What are you…" They name was almost jumping out at him to strangle him. Instead, the voice of Malakar that had been unusually silent finally rang out quietly in his head.
"That's her. Ilyana Bir Ulmokina, the false name I gave her in my past life. My daughter is here."