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[indent][color=ff7f00]Location:[/color] Kikka, by the Coliseum
[color=ff7f00]Interactions:[/color] /
[color=ff7f00]Mentions:[/color] COLLAB WITH [@Zeroth]
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[indent][/indent]In between one breath and the next, when Solveig was in the middle of introducing herself to the poison mage, a potent gust of wind knocked into her back, stealing away her capacity for speaking, and shoving her off of her broom.

[color=ff7f00][i]Shit.[/i][/color]

That's what she got for not paying attention on a battlefield. Oh, how vividly she could hear her father scolding her!

She tumbled ass over teakettle, a dizzying moment where up was below, brown smudged with blue, streaks of red spiraling down with her.

After one or two turns, she stabilized, facing upwards while her body was still hurtling down to the ground. Alwin was there, because of course it was him. With pinpoint accuracy, his attack aimed at the gap where her magically-reinforced thumb and pointer finger met around the Angel Sphere[sup]TM[/sup], dislodging the ball from her grasp with a spell faster than the speed of sound.

Then he left her behind in her free fall, chasing after his prize. It was just like how she'd dismissed that cannonball of a boy after she'd pushed him away.

However.

She visually located Alwin, his broom, [i]her[/i] broom, and the target both he and she wanted. As the other noble fell, Solveig saw his free hand reach out to empty air. A silvery-blue glow overtook his broom, as it changed course to try and get beneath him--he was aiming to try and catch the sphere, then land on his getaway! To have that much control over a broom from a distance though, was even more evidence that he wouldn't be a pushover.

Even so, Solveig wasn't out of options. Her fire whips were still with her. So was her sword. Her spell might have unraveled into individual whips again, but it was still there. If anything, the rivulets of flame were now thicker, more potent, having had fed in barely noticeable increments since the beginning of the third test.

Solveig gathered her fire in front of her. The vortexes hissed and sizzled, an angry sound resembling a pit of snakes which had been poked into with a stick. She angled her body just so, trying to position herself in the direction of her Angel Sphere[sup]TM[/sup]. Then, she released all that energy, shooting the burning currents away, sending them off in the exact opposite direction [i]she[/i] wanted to get to.

Having nothing to brace against mid-air, her body was blasted off away from the gushing stream of fire and [i]towards[/i] the ball, which was also where Alwin happened to be heading. Multiple pressurized streams of fire twisted and turned around each other as they were fired off. But just as it looked like the spell might continue straight onwards, Solveig exerted the hold she still had on it, forcing it into a turn.

Now, she was catapulting toward Alwin from one direction, while a flaming tide approached him from another in a wild pincer maneuver! For an instant she saw his eyes hesitate--to grab the sphere, or to defend himself?--and he made his choice with an angry roar. His free hand released another blast of wind just like the one that had knocked her down--

[b]"Gale Burst!"[/b]

And his sword arm, along with the rest of his body, wheeled to face her. His spell blasted into the trail of fire she had sent after him, causing an explosion as the two powers met. Meanwhile, he defended against her direct attack blade to blade. As the two of them clashed, their trajectory altered!

[b]"Damn you!"[/b] Alwin cursed, as they were now falling away from the ball. He kicked out, managing to drive his foot into Solveig's hip among the tumble and pushing her away from him.

But, in that time, someone else had swooped into the fray--a gangly blonde boy, licking his lips as if in anticipation of a meal, came flying in from below! With one long arm he snagged the Angel Sphere[sup]TM[/sup], and looked back to smirk at the two nobles.

[b]"You high-class types, all mana and no brains!"[/b] Bryant cackled. However, as Alwin glared at him with those narrow eyes, the blonde boy didn't see the glowing broom coming at his head like a missile from behind.

Solveig, on the other hand, [i]did[/i] see it, and sensed an opportunity. She took the split-second to look around, just in case anyone or anything else was in their area which she should be aware of.

[color=ff7f00]"Dragon Scales,"[/color] she intoned, glancing from Alwin to Bryant. The crimson scaled gauntlet around her left forearm shimmered, and spread out to the rest of her body. As magic empowered the spell, the colour leeched from the scales which became brighter. A nearly pearlescent layer of magic extended over her whole form now.

But what had she intended to achieve with this spell?

While one or both of the boys might have thought an attack would follow, it had been a distraction and a preparation in one. If either of her opponents wasted time wondering what she was doing, they weren't attacking her. Now, with the additional protection, magic would be less affective against her.

Of most immediate importance, Bryant hadn't noticed what was behind his head. Solveig gathered mana in her left hand--

Alwin's broom slammed into the blonde's head!--

--and the young noble lady unleashed her mana faster than she'd ever had, wrapping it around the commoner's broom, and pulling it right to her! She hijacked her opponent's broom, gaze flicking from Alwin to Bryant before zeroing in on the contested flying object. She readied mounted her new broom, a renewed zeal fueling her as she was determined to fight it out over the Angel Sphere[sup]TM[/sup].

Alwin retrieved his own broom as it tumbled through the air after the impact, grabbing it with one hand and holding on as it steadied itself. With his rapier in the other hand, he too appeared to be ready to race after the sphere once more--but, just then, another winged ball whizzed between both of the mages. Alwin gave Solveig a look that said he wouldn't soon forget this, but as he pulled himself back onto his broom he went after the closer target. Behind him, however, two more applicants were already coming in hot!

As Solveig closed in on her own target, the whirling cloud of applicants was only raging all the harder around her. Down below, many of those who'd fallen from their brooms had managed to get back on after untangling themselves from the officials' nets and moved to rejoin the fray. There were many who'd managed to stay aloft the whole time, and more than a few had now moved from chasing down an Angel Sphere[sup]TM[/sup] to actively defending a caught one, trying to maintain their leads.

Inhaling and exhaling, Solveig steadied herself on her stolen broom, and directed it towards the unconscious blonde boy. With one strike of her sword to the boy’s hand, she freed the ball. Before it could escape, she grabbed it, once again snatching it out of the air. This time, she adjusted her grip on it in such a way that even someone like Alwin would have a hard time finding a gap to strike at it directly. She held the ball close to her left hip, taking on a duelist’s stance as she weaved in here and there throughout the battlefield.

[color=f4cf0f][i]If this had been a real battle, you’d have died,[/i][/color] she could hear his voice even if he wasn’t there to watch her. Her father, Cináed von Brandt, the head of their family.

[color=ff7f00][i]I know, father.[/i][/color]

[color=f4cf0f][i]Then act like it.[/i][/color] He almost always had that strict expression, now. The haunted look had never quite left his eyes. Eyes which had grown cool and detached, the once warm and kindly amber irises seemingly having changed into a cold piercing gold.

But she knew it wasn’t anger, nor disappointment, nor innate high expectations which were at the essence of why he pushed her so much.

No.

It was [i]fear[/i].

And that’s why she wanted to show him how strong she was. So that he wouldn’t have to worry about her. So that he wouldn’t have to protect her – so that he wouldn’t [i]die[/i] because he had to protect her.

That’s right…even if this was practice today, she would soon be experiencing real combat. As a magic knight, life-risking missions were a given.

[color=ff7f00][i]I know. I’ll do better.[/i][/color]