Illios looked to the broom he was given. He could think of the countless times he should have tried to fly with one. Yet he thought more on learning about his magics. He looked to the sky as he could see the sun hang high. There was time, he began to take the broom and sat upon it as he began to think. Slowly taking in the time as he invoked his magic and began to float. He could feel his feet lift off the ground as it was a very lofty feeling. He slowly bobbed about as the proctors released the flying orbs and started the next test. Yet Illios knew, it was going to be a fight up in the skies. He knew he didn't have much to defend himself with, so he knew he needed to pace himself. Illios opted to try and slowly build himself up. Learning how to fly with this new device before trying.
For the next few moments, Illios flew around near the ground, trying to build up speed as he looked to the sky every now and again. He nodded slowly as he began to reenact movements that some were performing, while not perfect, he moved with enough grace not to fall. He watched as people began to claim more and more flying orbs. Illios slowed down and set himself down. Few knew what he was doing, some thought maybe he was giving up, others thought he might have ran out of magical energy. Yet there were others who never noticed him as many were watching the high-flying action being done far above the ground. Those who noticed Illios were able to see him beginning to glow, his grimoire was now out as he began to quietly chant to himself. He looked up and was now watching with great intensity.
Countless fights went on, and multiple people began to be restrained, lashed out at, and parried. A small group dog fight began as 4 people fought for a flying orb that was dancing around the 4 of them. They shot magic at each other, they put up defensive shields, they sent attacks back, as eventually they were caught in a tight engagement. Illios began to crouch, deeply crouching as his feet began to glow. The moment the light grew incredibly bright, it solidified, as he now had golden glowing shoes with wings upon them. Illios took a breath in, a deep one as his legs began to glow brightly, "With these Day Racers, I shall fly with the Sun's Strength".
Illios poured mana into his legs, using his spell, Sun's Strength, to increase the power of his legs. The moment he saw the flying orb split away from the group of applicants, he took in one last breath and leaped. He launched up high and fast as the moment he neared the flying orb, he reached out and took hold of it as he continued by. The moment he felt himself slowing, Illios took to his broom once more and began to fly normally. He was now higher than he ever was and still glowing, much similar to a second sun.
- Illios stands there as he slowly figures out his way to fly with a broom. He nods to himself as he lets the others fight and spend time trying to get spheres.
- The moment Illios saw a group of applicants scramble and fight among each other, he knew it was his time as he saw a flying sphere running from them. He activated 2 of his magics together to launch himself at high speed to grab it and fly away.
Location: Kikka, in the Coliseum Interactions: @Xaltwind Nephertys Mentions: /
Solveig’s moment of grim determination lasted but a few minutes. As she flew loops around the battlefield, exhilaration crept in, and a grin spread across her features. The fight with Alwin had been epic; she’d been too busy thinking about capturing her target in the moment to fully appreciate it, but looking back on it, a shiver of thrill ran down her spine. She’d been free falling! Even in mid-air, she’d pulled off a maneuver she’d never tried before. And she’d succeeded!
She cheered herself on silently, performing a corkscrew spin with her broom for the sheer fun of it. Solveig knew the fight was far from over. But who had ever said that taking it fully serious meant she couldn’t have fun with it? She didn’t want to be someone who lost the ability to enjoy life, like her dad had. She believed a love and joy for life was, in fact, exactly what would propel her ever onwards. If she could appreciate the good times, then she was sure to fight with rabid ferocity to ensure that others could experience that too.
Around her, a brutal mid-air brawl was taking place, and it wasn’t long before Solveig, who had secured her sphere became a target for a few of the sphere-less individuals. By now, the participants scarcely had a choice but to steal targets from others, and many had teamed up to increase their chances.
A team of three came at her. There was a heavyset girl with a tanned complexion and choppy dirt blonde locks wielding a spear of iron in her left hand. She’d crafted a helmet and a breastplate from her magic; the helmet lent her the appearance of a fierce sabertooth tiger, and for brief moment, Solveig marveled at the detailed creation her opponent had crafted. Flying by her left side and slightly to the back was a boy with a dark bronze complexion whose black hair framed a handsome face bearing a bloodthirsty grin. He wielded a saber, however Solveig couldn’t determine his magic type at first glance. To the right of the blonde was a nervous girl as thin as a twig and pale as a ghost, who had most of her face obscured by long ashen hair. She had numerous bubbles of differently coloured liquid surrounding her.
The first to charge was the Iron Tigress, as Sol had nicknamed the spearwoman. “HrraAAARRGH!” she yelled, flying straight at her. Focused as she was on the yelling amazon, Solveig didn’t notice the boy by her side whispering something. So, she was slightly caught off guard when the blonde’s yell resonated and echoed strangely, as if amplified by something. She figured the effect must have been caused by the boy, whose magic she hadn’t been able to discern visually. However, the von Brandt was immediately threatened by the spear wielder, so the aim of the Sound Sabreur (as she now called the boy) wasn’t readily apparent to her at first.
The spear point was advancing towards her. While the opponent’s weapon had longer reach, that advantage was more easily dealt with midair than on the ground. When Solveig flew up, the straight weapon couldn’t curve to follow her, so the Iron Tigress could either draw it back to follow with a stab in a different direction or she could lift it above her head so as to try and smack Sol with the length of its handle. Iron Tigress picked the latter, to which Solveig responded by whirling around, blocking with her sword, and letting the force of the hit carry her behind the blonde.
“360° Spears!” the Tigress shouted, and multiple spears appeared all around Solveig, aimed right at her. However, since Solveig was so closely positioned to her opponent, there was a human shaped gap right in front of her, where the enemy team’s leader herself was. Which did not stop the Tigress from reversing the grip on the spear she wielded and aiming an attack behind her. The noble heiress was in the middle of parrying Tigress’s weapon while trying to outmaneuver her concurrent magical spear attack, when that weird echo reached her again.
It persisted, and the sound caused an uncomfortable throbbing in her head. A spell of dizziness hit her, and Solveig suddenly felt nauseous. “F-fuck,” she muttered as she wobbled on her broom. Her parrying and flying became somewhat shakier, and arguably, she avoided some of the spears only because she dropped down to sit on her broom. Three spears flew by her so close they gave her glancing blows, partially breaking through her reinforcement magic, and leaving her with shallow bleeding lines on her left shoulder, right thigh, and left ankle.
However, Solveig was still flying near the Iron Tigress, and so was able to retaliate with a slash to the girl’s left elbow. While her sword did not cut, the force of her swing produced an audible crack, and the iron mage shouted in clear pain as she suffered a broken bone. Even now, when his ally was in pain and had been forced to drop the spear she’d wielded, the sound mage used their team leader’s vocalization for another attack. Sound waves crept up to Solveig’s face. They pulsated, and finally hit the right frequency to dismantle the Dragon Scales around her nose and mouth. The young noble didn’t know specifically what they trio planned, but brought her sword in a defensive position in front of her head. At the same time, a shout of “T-the Invader!” resounded all around her, originating from the second girl who’d been quietly floating somewhere off to the side so far.
The Invader? The heck’s up with that name? Solveig scrunched her nose, flying more carefully given the recurrent headaches and dizziness. Bubbles of liquid sluggishly flew towards her, trembling from the caster’s effort to direct them. Despite the sound mage’s efforts, and even with the Iron Tigress trying to get back into the game, Sol easily slashed through the bubbles. However, that seemed to work against her as the liquid particles suddenly sped up and splashed her in the face. Solveig spluttered and coughed but inevitably ingested a mouthful or two.
It was a bitingly sharp, stinging sort of taste. The scent was distinct, and after a moment of surprise, the noble recognized it.
Alcohol?!
It must have been quite potent and fast acting, because the von Brandt heiress was almost immediately affected by it. Her body felt looser, and it was only the strength of her will that made her clench her hand around her captured sphere. A flush coloured her cheeks, and she hummed joyfully as she looked at the three youths surrounding her.
The poor dears did seem as if they could use some relaxation.
Solveig giggled at the constipated grimace on blondie’s face. She had a siege engine sized spear floating next to her which was rotating slowly but picking up in speed. “Thaaa’sss a big drill!” she laughed gaily, swaying on her broom as she flew here and there erratically. Whether intentional or not, she evaded blondie, her flight path taking her right above Ghost girl.
“Eeeep!” the poor pet shrieked, closing her eyes and covering her face as Solveig raised her sword above her head. “S-sorry!” she was trying to say something but the noble shook her head sadly. Really, a small scared rabbit like that had no place here. It was best if she was sent down below, where she’d be out of reach of all the chaos. The noble’s arming sword came swinging down, breaking ghostie’s broom in two. The ashen haired girl screeched as she fell down, but her screams cut off when she fainted. Sol peered after her, then nodded firmly to herself when she saw her being safely caught in the netting placed below the field. “Sweet dreams!” she shouted after her even though she couldn’t hear.
An annoying machine buzz approached. “Nuh-uh,” the noble refuted the rotating spear, flying this way and that even as the spell kept following. Sound was still scrambled, but in her semi-drunk state, Sol didn’t even notice. Sabre boy came within range, frustrated his harassment from afar had no effect. “Up left, slice right, ooh, stab,” she garbled several of his upcoming moves to the boy’s visible annoyance.
Then, the machine noise was there again, and saber boy whirled on it in surprise. Meanwhile, the noble did the first thing to occur to her to her addled mind, which was to hook her legs around her broom, and turn upside down. The spear left another gash below each knee, but Sol was distracted by something big, shiny, and round in the near distance. “Oooh!” she marveled.
Meanwhile sabre boy ate most of the spear attack, and fell down. The young noble waved at him, but only got an enraged scream in return. It was another sound attack, which in her state, gave her such powerful nausea she threw up a bit. The bile flew right down, away from her, and floating down in the general direction of sabre boy. Hmm, that wouldn’t be fun to get hit by! She hoped he could avoid it.
The spear’s whirring closed in again.
Solveig wasn’t sure why, but she started feeling awful.
Was it because she was still facing upside down?
“Urgh…” she squeezed her left palm. Good, she hadn’t let go of the thingamajig.
She glanced at the big gleaming sphere in the distance, and awkwardly zig-zagged her way there. Her broom wasn’t entirely convinced to turn her the right way up. It shook itself like a dog drying off wet fur, then accelerated towards the unknown, exotic looking mage.
“INCOMING!” Solveig warned. While she made the sharp turn at the last second, curving around the girl’s barrier, the humongous drilling spear was heading straight at the girl’s protective bubble.
Her assault suit her goal despite its clumsiness. Edward, sadly, got the upper hand whilst they'd been a mess of bodies. Parin saw his arm cock back for a split second and braced herself. The fear of falling shocked her into action before she could care for the sting. A sudden burst of water erupted from her feet in a wide, explosive cone to slow her fall. Her head whipped around as she searched for her broom.
It came to her - prim and proper in fact, with a faint blue glow about it. Her instincts reached out for the broom and her mana responded in turn. The wooden handle shuddered violently as she whipped it towards her. She caught it before salt was added to her fresh wound, feeding it with mana. The magic helped the broom stay afloat while she set herself back on top of it.
Parin only realized how hard she'd been hit once the adrenaline started leaving her body. A pained intake slid through her teeth.
"Disgusting piece of..." She muttered, mumbles hidden behind the hand she'd brought to her head. "Wants to grab people, and then get mad when- just, so..."
Edward sent another tendril of slime after his broom as he fell away from Parin, dragging it back to him just in time to stay airborne only a few feet above the official's net. Still red-faced from the exertion of magic as well as his own rage, he poured power into his broom to shoot up, rocket-like, towards the one he still assumed had the golden sphere: Ludo.
"Congeal Slime: Maximum Output!" he yelled. A tendril shot out of each hand, but instead of trying to snatch the poison mage again they went straight up into the air. Winding about each other in a double helix before meeting in the middle, the two streams produced an ever-growing globule of translucent green mucus. As it grew larger and larger, the distorted sunlight passing through it rippled across Ludo's face as if he were underwater in a green swimming pool.
An adequate cover-up. Parin set off on Edward's trail while his attention was preoccupied with conjuring his magnum opus. Spheres and tests be damned, someone needed to put this cretin in his place.
With a gesture of both hands, Edward cut off the supply of slime, and the enormous blob began to fall towards Ludo! The air pressure underneath it caused it to spread out far and wide...
Ludo let out a long whistle as he watched Edward rocket upwards with a face redder than an overripe tomato left on a summer day in the sun. The grease bucket really was determined to snatch that Angel Sphere from him, or desperate. The amount of mana that Edward had to use to fight off his own was not only sizable, but he was also not used to wielding such power. It was one thing to have a monstrous amount of mana and another to control it, but to use it so suddenly when his own body was not used to having such a deep well of mana must've put a strain on him.
This looks like a last ditch effort. He thought to himself as slime shot upwards and winded up in the air, pooling together in a globe high above them that grew in size with every passing second. It sort of looked like a big snot bubble. Then Edward dropped it, the blob of slime rocketed down towards him with the air resistance causing the sphere to flatten and stretch so far that there was nowhere for Ludo to run away in time, except he stayed perfectly still and rather nonchalant about the situation.
The corners of his mouth curled upwards. "You really are a fraud."
There was no build up. Serpents formed of poison shot from around Ludo and tore holes into the slime, but they would quickly dive back down and shred through it until the sheet of slime was turned into nothing more than tiny bits of glimmering gel falling down to the once again other unlucky saps that were below. To add onto Edward's shock and horror, he could sense it; Ludo had used far less mana for that assault than when he was trying to break free of his spell earlier.
"Confused, aren't you? chuckled Ludo with that wide cocky grin of his. "Let me give you a quick lesson in magic."
Parin had already finished speeding behind their adversary by the time Ludo's tangent began. Her fists trembled while her narrowed eyes sized up her prey. It was almost as if the air around her was thicker, pulsing with tension.
"No matter how much mana you have, stretching your spell out like that will always weaken it if you do not compensate for it, kinda like pasta dough." Ludo's tone told the truth of his lesson; he was taunting him, almost as if he was egging him on to waste more of his artificial power. Poison circled the commoner's body as if ready to bite with no hesitation. However, this was a ruse. Ludo was just distracting Edward because in his rage, Edward had completely forgotten that he pissed someone else off.
"Even someone with less mana than me would've broken through that-"
"Like me!"
Without warning, the bubbling volcano erupted. Her foot shot out, an uncontrolled swing blown by the tempest of rage. Her aim was true in spite of the lack of grace; Parin believed in an eye for an eye, thus she aimed for the dunce's face.
"...So much for being good at your spells."
Ludo watched as Edward's body slump over like a ragdoll after receiving a rather vicious kick that felt very personal. His attention focused back on Ms. Wildcard, his grin rather playful. "Alright, I'll give you a seven out of ten for the entrance, but a ten out of ten for the kick. Gotta work on your presentation, but overall nice job."
His eyes trailed down to her hand, noticing that it's quite empty. "But do you really have time to waste when you haven't caught one of those spheres yet?" He asked not even facetiously, but with actual concern that this girl was wasting her own time.
"Yeah, I do," Parin said, her eyes gleaming with a persistent light through the urgency. "Cause neither have they," She turned and gestured towards the storm of bodies and magic brewing around them. "Aaaaand..." She trailed off, turning back towards Ludo. The corners of her mouth twisted, her ever-growing smile pivoting into a devious grin.
"Now that I helped you out..." She clasped her hands together and tilted sideways as she gazed up at Ludo with wide, innocent eyes. They blinked in anticipation. "Ya know?"
Ludo crossed his arms, smirking at what Parin was implying even with her puppy eyes. "Oh, you scratch my back and I scratch yours. Gotta say, I respect the hustle." He glanced down towards the chaos going on down below, his eyes narrowed as he watched other contestants almost climbing over each other to just get these dumb spheres. There was absolutely reason to help her, he knew this. The smart play would have been to just hang back and let her deal with it, except she did help him.
"Ah fuck it. Never let anyone say that I don't pay my debts," Ludo said with a minor reluctance. "What would you have me do?"
Parin's burst of excitement and relief quickly swelled into a look of pure smugness. She crossed her arms and raised her chin as she laughed in triumph. "Well, just listen to me!" She began, her gaze dropping back towards the serpentine spellweaver. "Alls we have to do is- duck, now!"
She quickly flew to the side after what she'd seen - a beam of water headed straight for the back of Ludo's head. Not wasting a moment, Ludo leaned forward on his broom and watched as a beam of compressed water nearly took his head off. So much for not using lethal force.
Parin glared at the space behind him and found the culprit... all the way on the other side of the arena, shooting water at other contestants. She scoffed. Clearly it wasn't safe being still, and she wasn't going to have them catching any strays.
"Walk and talk, yeah?"
Ludo shook his head and chuckled menacingly. "Walk and talk? Nah, it's aim and maim. Point me at them." He was getting a tad bit sick of people taking potshots at him, just a tad.
“I like your style,” Parin said, her legs crossing as she slowly started to fly off on her broom. Later, she’d express her gratitude, but right now? Time was of the essence and their heads were on the line. She waved her partner over. “Let’s hurry up, then! I’m not getting hit!” She exclaimed. Not a moment passed until she’d set off with a spring in her broom.
"You don't have to tell me twice," he said, quickly following after her. Unlike his very excited protege, he was keeping an eye out for potential targets.
As the newly formed duo whipped and weaved through the crossfire of many magics, they could see that the chaos was slowly starting to filter out. Those who had not yet captured spheres, or who had some other interest in helping each other--such as nobility bonded by their house politics, or commoners looking to get one over on the upper classes--had also started to form teams. More than once they saw a single person fleeing three or more, desperately holding onto the Angel Sphere they'd obtained. In a very rare few cases, some applicants who had somehow caught or magically contained multiple spheres were using them as "currency" to hire out a team for their own protection.
Then, there were the even rarer lone Angel Spheres who had somehow still avoided capture, like the one that had just slowly drifted past Ludo's peripheral vision---No, wait...
This particular sphere was not only moving far slower than any of the others, it was also apparently flying in the opposite direction that its wings were flapping. And there was an odd, person+broom-shaped haze around it...
"Stupid spell, work already! C'mon! C'moooon!"
As if it were being eaten like an apple, pieces of the Angel Sphere started to disappear...
Ludo's eyes narrowed at the strange sight. The hell is that? He thought to himself. It odd, but there certainly was the outline of a person there. Well, whatever it was it was swallowing that Angel Sphere up. Before the sphere could be lost to them, Ludo raised his hand and with not much build up he shot another of his serpents at the disappearing sphere. If he had any luck, the mage would lose focus on their spell and reappear.
Parin would be able to see her partner suddenly attack what seemed like empty space, alerting her to the floating sphere as well. As the purple snake missile headed towards its target, there was a sudden reaction; the angel sphere turned in place, as if it was the one looking instead of the person holding it. Nonetheless, though, both of them picked up the shout of terror.
"Gya!"
Ludo's snake, however, passed through seemingly empty space. Yet as it splattered into a hissing puddle on the arena's barrier, the air rippled like a drop of oil diffusing into water.
A girl appeared. Short, lime-green hair melted out of the haze to be secured by a black hairband; a pale, soft face appeared with a nervous grimace, further emphasized by sleep-deprived eyes. She wore a purple hooded sweatshirt over a red, pleated skirt, the only accessory of note being a silver bangle with a crescent moon charm on her right wrist.
"Oh shit." she said simply, as she realized the other two mages were staring straight at her. Ludo realized that he had not missed--in addition to being invisible, her magic had somehow allowed her to pass right through his attack...
"Well, that's different." It didn't change their current objective though. Once again with his hand held straight out towards the intangible girl and shot another den of snakes at her though his intention was to not hit her. He was cutting off her avenues of escape giving his partner a path to go and deal with her.
Parin hit the gas at the same time. It seemed they had to focus on what they could always see and touch - the ball, rather than the girl who could up and disappear if she tried. If the mage had some combat potential, surely they wouldn't have been so focused on hiding, right? But with how her face stung right now, she had a mind not to get too close so quickly...
As Ludo's snakes slithered towards the girl's front, Parin flew for her flank and watched closely for any more of her magic tricks.
@SilverPaw, @Zeroth As Nephertys floated high up in the arena, watching the chaos unfold below, safe behind her bubble-like shield, she also made sure to keep ready. The group of contenders who she had snatched the sphere from earlier were quickly approaching from below, and their insults and spells were being slung with equally reckless abandon towards the desert-dwelling beauty. Unfortunately for Nephy, the human body only has two eyes, and when you're focused on looking at something in a particular direction, you don't often tend to see stuff that's coming at you from an entirely different one... Such as a crazed drunk flying upside down on her broom, being chased by the world's angriest dentist wearing a tiger head...
Only when the draconic drunk shouted her warning of something being on the way in, Nephy turned her head to her side, looking at the peculiar sight. There was a girl, flying very... Wobbly? While clinging to her broom and holding onto a golden ball of her own, and also wielding a sword... While being flipped around... That... That couldn't be good for your head... More pressing though was the person behind this new arrival, which was the aforementioned tiger-headed dentist, who came charging forth with a whirring spear/drill while roaring like a savage and wild beast. Under normal circumstances, Neph would've simply moved out of the way, but the joint attack from below and this new flanking assault left the girl pincered and unable to react or respond in any real way. Basically, there were no good options to her in the amount of time she had to react.
With a mighty crunch, the spear-drill slammed against Nephy's Binary Bulwark, and sent the caramel-skinned girl into a horizontal spin, sending her floating off in a direction away from the spear-woman. The shield only barely held up against the kinetic force of the blow, and it was a good thing the spear had been made out of magic, otherwise Nephy would've been eating dirt.
Speaking of eating dirt though... Remember the pack of assailants moving in to nab Nephertys orb? Well, they all suddenly found themselves charging into the path of the wild amazoness and her dental drill of doom. A cacaphony of 'arrgh' and 'noooo' and cinema-licensed Wilhelm-screams followed, as the cluster of competitors were caught by the circling weapon. The spear-wielder herself didn't fare much better though, as she'd moved into the exact spot where multiple spells from below had been aimed - as that had been Nephy's location prior - and she now found hersself in the litteral crossfire of water ribbons, giant plant thorns and metal spikes, along with other bits and bobs being flung at her.
Meanwhile, Nephertys had to lean forward on her broom, wrap her free arm and legs around the broom handle and cling on for dear life, letting out a sound that was a mix of excited amusement and terrified confusion. What the heck had just happened!? With that one question in mind, she kept spinning away from the clusterf*ck that was now going down at where she'd been just mere moments ago...
Only to slam into another body, shield and all. There was a muffled yelp as Solveig was nearly bowled off of her broom. She clung on just as desperately as her unlikely rescuer, somehow managing both to keep in flight as well as keep her hold onto her sphere and sword. If nothing else, the extra weight and resistance was enough for Nephertys to finally stop rolling around. "Oouch..." the fiery haired girl complained. When the star mage next caught a glimpse of her, Sol had finally managed to turn herself the right way up - possibly, the rotating shield-encapsulated Nephertys had even managed to aid in that effort. "I feel sick," she blinked dazedly. As the noble went to rub her face, she stopped with a blink as she gave her hands a slightly confused look, as if she was surprised to find them both full.
"Oh, right," she blinked some more, and shook her head, frowning. Bright magical scales still shimmered around her body as she took her time looking around. "Huh, looks like they're all gone." She tilted her head at Nephertys. "Thanks? And sorry. There was this liquor mage..." she smiled awkwardly, then winced. "Oooh, I have a hell of a headache." With a grimace, she rubbed her temple with her left hand, unintentionally mimicking how a cat would clean its face with its paw since her hand was still balled around her target.
Having now stopped, thanks to the living speed-bump that was Solveig, Nephy finally managed to slowly rise from having been clinging onto her broom. Buuuut, she was looking kinda dizzy, with the whole big swirly eyes and tweety-birds flying around her head... At least until the exotic sorceress shook her head just like Sol had previously, and then blinked a few times to regain her senses. Which was just in time to catch the dragon-damsel's delivery of her apology and explanation.
"N-No worries! I've never gotten to be spun like that before while in the air. It was a most splendid new experience!" Nephy replied, all smiles and starry eyes, and completely ignoring the horrible screams and pain that her and Solveig's respective pursuers had just endured due to this kerfuffle. Then, the star mage used her free hand to briefly cover her mouth, letting out a small gasp.
"Please, pardon my manners! I am Nephertys Setet of Sankrah, a pleasure." She gave a slight bow with the upper part of her body... Since, y'know, she couldn't exactly stand and give a proper one while flying. Still holding onto her sphere, Neph began to pour magic back into her shield-spell, slowly repairing the 'cracks' that had been left by the iron tigress. Hopefully, this half-drunken girl wouldn't get any sudden ideas of trying to procure an additional orb for herself out of the blue.
"Oh! Yes!" Solveig suddenly nodded which she immediately and visibly regretted. She queezed her eyes shut, waited a moment for the world to stop spinning, then opened them to give Nephertys a proper greeting. "Solveig von Brandt, from Zagros," she introduced, mimicking the bow. "A pleasure to meet you...even if it was under very strange circumstances!" Noticing her fellow mage repairing her shield, she grinned. "Hey, that's a great idea! Mine was also..." with her left thumb, she traced her jaw and mouth while her other fingers remained clutched around her prize. This was how she discovered there were still traces of sick there from when she'd previously vomited, so she cleaned herself off as best as she could. "Hm, yes, damaged," she concluded, making no mention of the messy state she'd found herself in. Instead, she channeled just a slight boost of magic through her body, and wherever the shimmer had previously been dimmed or lacking, scales formed anew.
"There!" She hmmed and looked around. The great and terrible clash of multiple magic knight aspirants who had been promptly felled from the sky seemed to have served as a deterrant for any others. "I think..." she tilted her head this way and that. "I am starting to feel better." In all this time, Solveig hadn't so much as glanced at Nephertys' sphere, so the star mage's worry seemed to be misplaced. "I would rather get a check up just in case." Better didn't mean she was fine, after all. "How have you fared?" she suddenly questioned, zeroing in on Nephertys. By her rambling, it did indeed appear the von Brandt heiress was still somewhat affected by that one spell.
Nephertys ceased her repairs of her own bulwark when prompted by Solveig's question. The girl with heterochromia smiled brightly, extending her arm and hand that held her prize, while at the same time puffing out her - rather ample - chest in a display of pride and self-satisfaction.
"I've fared most excellently, for behold! The coveted prize is mine!" She loudly and proudly proclaimed, followed by a genuinely warm and honest little laugh. She then looked at Sol once more. "It seems you've always performed most splendidly, Lady Von Brandt. Splendid performance." Although she said that, Nephy likely hadn't seen or witnessed any of Solveig's various escapades and tribulations during this exam. It was more of a 'Oh, you managed to get your hands on a ball too? Good show!' sort of compliment, rather than an actual, factual comment on the dragon mage's skills or abilities.
"Ah, but we must remain vigilant. There're still those who'll try to challenge us for our balls!" Her choice of words could've been... Better... But at least Neph had the right idea. Things had - hilariously - worked out in both their favor this time, but who knew when the next wave of angry, ravenous sphere-seekers would come knocking to take what was theirs? To that point, Nephertys tapped her chin momentarily, seeming deep in thought, before looking over at Solveig yet again.
"May I suggest a proposal? If we join forces, we can aid each other and help retain our hold on these golden globes. As true knights and shield-sisters, we can fight side-by-side and display both chivalry and camraderie! What do you think?" Nephy said this with great enthusiasm and a big sunny smile, eyes sparkling and twinkling with even more stars in them now than before.
"Congratulations!" Solveig smiled kindly at Nephertys. Her sunny disposition was cute and infectuous. "Thank you. It has been more eventful than I'd initially bargained for, to be honest," she admitted. "I would rather this than simply flying, though." Saying so, she braced herself on her broom with her forearms, attempting to stand up. She was unsteady, but did pull herself up. "Still a bit unbalanced..." she commented but remained standing. Nephertys' unexpectedly humorous comment caused her to laugh, shaking her whole body and the broom with it precariously. "Yes, indeed, we should keep ahold of them," her lips twitched but she didn't give into the juvenile impulse to make more jokes about balls.
She nodded at Nephertys' proposal. "If you hadn't asked, I would have," she smirked. "Of course, I accept. Getting through the rest of this trial with our spheres will be much more agreeable in a team." Solveig tightened her grip on her sphere and the sword. With an incantation, curling flames sparked into existence around her left hand. The riotously swirling flames would serve as yet another layer of protection for her sphere. "Let us cover each other's backs."
With a goofy big smile and a cheerfully lyrical 'huzzah', Nephy performed a joyful swirl on her broom, in celebration of Solveig's aceepting of the proposed alliance. When she was done though, her head tilted and she had a slightly confused look on her face.
"Are you certain you should be standing like that? You look a bit... Wobbly... And it's much easier to keep your hold of your broom if you're actually holding onto it, yes?" Nephy asked, out of sincere concern for her new partner. After all, if you didn't have a hand on your broom, it was that much easier to get knocked off.
Still! Regardless, the Von Brandy lady had made a good point. They needed to watch each other's backs, and watch it she would! With great motivation and determination, Nephertys adjusted her position on her own flying stick, fixed Solveig in her vision and took to position herself so she could always keep an eye on both Sol and any incoming enemies from most any direction! Well, except from behind herself. 'Cuz she didn't have eyes in the back of her neck.
But with the unified forces of the Setet heiress and the Draconic Maiden of the Von Brandt-family, any opponent would have their work cut out for them if they wished to challenge this powerhouse of a duo now!
"My hands are full," Solveig chuckled. To demonstrate, she shook her flaming fist which held the sphere, while artfully slashing the sword through the air with the other hand.
"I do prefer standing, because it makes melee easier. Besides, if I fall, and the broom is close enough, I should still be able to call on it. Do you know, there was this boy - Alwin Dawnthorne - who controlled his broom from afar while throwing himself into freefall?" As she explained, Nephertys inexplicably positioned herself in such a way that she could only really see her allied mage. Confused and baffled, Sol just stared at the star mage for a prolonged moment.
"Oh!" she then exclaimed, realizing the Setet noble must have misunderstood. Was the girl clueless about basic tactics? That would be rude to ask, so instead, Solveig repositioned herself, flying behind Nephertys. The two were soon back to back and looking in opposite direction. "This is a good way for two people cover each other's backs on the battlefield," Solveig explained while adjusting where she was facing. "Like this, each of us can see what the other wouldn't, we just have to trust that we will both alert each other about incoming enemies, and deal with them. Don't forget to look above and below every once in a while."
"Indeed!" Nephy exclaimed with great enthusiasm.
Actions & Interactions: - Nephertys' Brilliant Binary Bulwark was struck by the Iron Tigress chasing Solveig, which sent her flying. The shield held, but just barely. - Nephy and Sol collided in the air, then watched as the Iron Tigress and Nephertys' own pursuers collided in a massive mess, resulting in multiple KO's and wizards getting punted off their brooms. - After the two regained controlled of their brooms, they engaged in some light conversation. - Nephertys proposed to work together as a team, to which Solveig agreed. - Solveig helped a rather clueless Nephy by giving her some basic battlefield tactics when it came to "watching another's back". - The two are now defending each other and work in conjunction to retain hold of their respective spheres.
"ATTENTION, APPLICANTS: LESS THAN HALF OF THE SPHERES REMAIN!" boomed a giant voice over the arena.
"Some of them are really going after it." Captain Bisera commented, kicking one slender ankle where one shapely leg crossed over the other. "Maybe we ought to think these tests through a little more before we go changing them up again..."
"I don't know about you, but I've been watching the ones who decided to team up." said Captain Walder as he crossed his enormous arms. "We changed the test from just "flight skill" to "retrieval of a target," but I think it's turned into a display of who's willing to work with others, and how they go about it."
"It's turned into a free-for-all, is what it's turned into." Azarleon snorted. Beside him, Argos nodded in agreement. "We're going to have to rewatch all of this on a recorder tool to pick any of them out of the chaos! Who's bloody idea was this?" @Duthguy@Th3King0fChaos As Albie and Illios both retrieved their spheres with great effort, given their individual limitations, they found themselves drifting away from the majority of the swarming hordes of other would-be-recruits. Both would soon come within sight and sound of each other--however, they were not alone!
"Heeeeey, Sunny Boy!" called a familiar voice towards Illios. It was Bryant, the same boy he'd talked with at the food stalls! With a wicked grin on his face, the lanky blonde came swooping at him from above! "Good to see ya, pal!" As he grinned sarcastically, the mage thrust one palm towards Illios!
"Acid Magic: Melting Spray!" A wide cone of hissing, steaming white liquid headed towards the Sun mage!
"COMMONER! DON'T THINK YOU'LL GET AWAY FROM ME!" Albie would immediately recognize that voice---Snyder Glassard had escaped Gunnar's restraints, and the fire mage was nowhere to be seen this time! "Either hand over that sphere, or I'll TAKE your hands! Glass Magic: Shattered Scalpels!" With a sweep of his arm, multiple blades of transparent glass took shape in the air, and all of them swiveled their points towards Albie! "They said no lethal force--they never said anything about MAIMING!" There was a cold determination behind the pale young noble's thick spectacles... @imia@Remram As Ludo's snakes shot towards her, the girl in the hoodie yelped and tried to find another route--only for the serpents to curve in mid air! Rather than attack her directly, Ludo had limited her movements--she could only go up, or down! After only a moment's indecision, she went up--but Parin, who had been watching from the back, would be able to see the other girl's telegraph the moment before her broom started to move! If the water mage acted fast, she'd be able to intercept her--the only question was, would her physical attacks pass through the intagible magic the way Ludo's poison had?
However, the girl wasn't completely helpless. She revealed a handmade wand in one hand, and pointed it at Ludo!
"Permeation Magic: Invisible Volley!" she shouted! There was a slight glow of power around her---but the projectiles were nowhere to be seen! Despite no doubt making an attempt to dodge, Ludo would feel a sudden impact like a handful of hard punches striking his shoulder, chest, ribs, and leg! @ReusableSword@Expllo Rio and his large, clumsy new friend were still inside the cloud of steam along with several others, thanks to Hikari. As they no doubt searched for a way out of the foggy field, they would find themselves nearly running over the ox-boy! However, before the three had a chance to decide whether to fight it out or not, another half-dozen shadowy figures emerged from the sizzling banks around them!
"Which one's got the sphere?!"
"Which one's causing this cloud!?"
"Who cares, get all of 'em!"
Multiple beams of wind, water, lightning, sand, a rippling soundwave, and a writhing vine of thorns all barreled towards the three mages! @Xaltwind@SilverPaw Nephys and Solveig found themselves back to back against a crowd of other mages closing in on them, but the various applicants were also eyeing each other warily--there were only two spheres up for grabs, but at this point there were at least three mages competing for each singular Angel SphereTM.
"Hey!" called one noble looking applicant---though the two ladies might or might not be familiar with him, given that he was a member of the Kira family, Ludo's "friend" Isvelt appeared out of the crowd. "The two lovely young misses, there! I've a proposal for you I bet the rest of these boors can't match!" he called, to the sour looks from the rest of the group. "I'll HELP you defend those spheres, if you'll help ME get one afterward!" He winked at them with a smile. "After all, isn't it unfair of all these riffraff to gang up on two innocent doves like yourselves?"
"I'll show YOU riffraff, you pompous ass!" A young man with wild green hair and several piercings all over his face, wearing an open leather vest over a white shirt and red trousers, rocketed up towards the young noble. "Rock Magic: Rolling Stone--!" A rapidly spinning, melon-sized sphere of stone formed in his hand, but before he could complete the spell to throw it at Isvelt, the young royal held out his own palms.
"Gold Magic: Coin Flip!" An enormous, round golden coin manifested in front of the noble! It seemed like a normal magic shield at first, but when the spinning stone struck it, the broad surface rapidly spun like a water wheel paddle! It flipped the rocky projectile right back at its caster, striking him dead-on in the face! Nose bleeding and eyes rolled back into his head, the wild young man plummeted towards the safety net of the officials...
"Forget him, take the girls out!" shouted another! A barrage of fireballs, a lightning bolt, icicles, a wind funnel, and a purple, pulsating laser beam all flew towards Nephys and Solveig--!
Illios had taken hold of his prize, at first it was no small effort from the start as he had to take it from others trying for it. Now that he had his sphere, he needed to defend it, he flew around and watched every which way he could. He knew others would come for him as only half of the sphere were left, yet his eyes alone could only do so much as he was attacked from above while he wasn't looking. He looked up and saw Bryant, Illios wasn't too sure on how well he did, but hoped Bryant at least did well in the magics test.
Illios put on his own smile, there was no malicious intent as he responded to Bryant, "Good to see you as well! How've-".
Illios was then cut off as the other boy yelled out, "Acid Magic: Melting Spray!" A wide cone of hissing, steaming white liquid headed towards Illios! Illios' eyes widened for a moment as he pulled upon his magic, he tucked his legs and body close to his broom as he tried to employ a mana shield against the Acid attack and dive with the broom at the same time. An attempt to defend himself against the attack if it was to hit him and give him enough time to try and get out of the way of the cone of acid.
"WHOA! Watch your acid jet! I thought we weren't supposed to use lethal force!"
Albie could hardly believe it, he had gotten his hands on an Angel Sphere tm and now all he had to do was stay out of any fights until time was up. Just as he relaxed a little however he heard something that changed his attitude. "COMMONER! DON'T THINK YOU'LL GET AWAY FROM ME!" "Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no."
Albie didn't have the magic left to deal with Snyder or to claim another Angel Sphere and tried to ignore the noble, in hopes that he would pick a target that seemed like it be easier instead. Hopes that were soon dashed when Snyder threatened to cut his hands off. Albie turned his broom around to see multiple blades of transparent glass pointed towards him and abandoned any plans he had of trying to use other contestants as cover. Not only was Snyder too angry for that to stop him it would be too dangerous for anyone unknowingly put in his path.
Unfortunately the only other option Albie could think off was to take out Snyder's broom somehow and that was easier said than done. He quickly stuffed the Angel Sphere into his shirt so he had both hands free and began charging two magic bullets, one in each hand.
Unlike before however Albie gave each bullet different properties. The magic bullet Albie fired first, aimed at the glass blade between him and Snyder was made to be explosive. The second magic bullet, which took a bit longer, was as condensed as Albie could make it. Albie launched it, aiming at the back of Snyder's broom and hoping it would damage the tool enough to render it unusable.
That still left the matter of the rest of the Scalpels as Albie was confident that Snyder would use them even if he knew he was out of the competition. Albie didn't have any spell to defend himself or enough mana to squeeze a burst of speed out of his broom so that left only one option he could think off, something he tried before but that would leave him completely defenseless against the attack if he failed. "Here goes nothing." Once again Albie forced himself to fully stop putting out mana and just hoped gravity, his reflexes and ability to use mana again were all fast enough to allow him to dodge the glass blades without too many injuries
It was assumed correctly that Ludo would try to dodge the attack, but how does anyone avoid an invisible attack. The answer was that they couldn't. All he could do was recoil from his body being bludgeoned by an unseen series of blows. Blow by blow his body was beginning to be wracked with pain as he could not guard against attacks that he literally could not perceive. With his one free hand he held onto his broom to brace himself to maintain his balance while his grip on the sphere tightened.
On one hand, he knew that he could Death's Touch to protect himself from the attack, but he couldn't keep burning through his supply before the final round. Ludo didn't need to. All he could do was just keep eating the attacks and hope that Wildcard would be able to land the finishing blow.
"Hey Wallflower! I'm not the one you need to watch out for!" He shouted up towards her with a big grin even when he was getting his pelted with invisible blows.
A crowd surrounded them, a crowd resembling sharks who’d grown frenzied at the scent of blood. However, there was also a noble offering an alliance. “How come you don’t have a sphere yet?” Solveig called out to him. If he was so confident, it was a bit strange. Then he demonstrated his magic, and she considered the possibility that he only had defensive magic. She was unsure the deal was worth it, but it would be simpler to work with him. “What do you think, Nephertys? I don’t really like him, but cooperating would be to our advantage.”
The star mage expressed her enthusiastic agreement, to which Solveig nodded. Briefly, she used her new friend to cover her front from the enemies’ sight. Carefully, she lodged the Angel SphereTM underneath her breastplate, then reinforced her Dragon Scales with another boost of magic. She extended the layer of magical protection over her armour, sword – and with an additional effort of will, around her broom too. It had taken practice, but as long as she considered the object a part of her, she could do it, though it was much easier and more efficient for objects she used daily, such as her sword.
“I suggest you hide your sphere,” she whispered to Nephertys. “Let’s try herding the opponents close together. I will need a bit to use long ranged magic, so I will resort to melee and flying for now. If I see anyone trying to come to you from your back, I’ll still protect you,” she relayed as quickly as she could.
"Very well! But... Hide it....?" Nephertys replied, then looked down at herself. She... Didn't really have anywhere to hide the sphere, did she? Well... There was one place but... She hesitated for a bit. Then took a deep breath and then...
Plo-boing~!
The dark skinned girl forcefully shoved her hand, with the winged little ball, down in-between her breasts - trying to mimic Solveig... Sadly, when you don't have a breastplate or some restrictive material, and just soft and squishy angel pillows, you're not really gonna be able to --
"Aah... Ahh-- Hawawawawawa, n-no, this isn't... This isn't quite working, Lady Von Bran-- Ahn..." The girl's voice was interrupted by a lot of.... Peculiar sounds... And her chest was visibly being affected by the little golden rascal, who was desperately trying to escape its new holding cell. After only a few moments, Nephy was forced to retrieve and remove the tiny orb, both because it was distracting - and probably not just to herself - but also because it was clear that, while impressive, her chest wouldn't be able to keep the small fellow in place if left alone.
"T-those wings really do tickle..." she commented, cheeks flushed while now holding the sphere in her hand again.
Then a barrage of spells came their way, and Solveig braced as the force of two icicles hit her side, a wind blast tried to disbalance her, and a lightning strike was drawn to her sword and channeled into her body, leaving her with tingles all over. She gritted her teeth through the resulting pain, but aside from channeling enough power into her defensive spell to keep it up, she didn’t actively cast any other magic. The existent flames around her left hand sizzled and hissed, growing brighter and larger as they drew on the ambient magic.
“Alright, you lot! See if you can come and get this!” Solveig shouted, raising her balled hand high in the air. However, with the shimmering scales and crimson flames surrounding it, no one could be the wiser that her left hand was now empty.
Suddenly, the fiery noble dropped down onto her broom, almost lying down on it. She clung to it with both legs and her left forearm, while she held her sword at the ready in her right. “Hey, player boy!” she called out to Isvelt. “Game on! You better know how to bowl, because we are aiming for perfect!” Saying so, she suddenly accelerated, shooting off in the direction of his golden coin. “AIM!” she yelled as she flew straight toward it. She twisted and turned in the air, positioning just so.
Her sword extended, struck the coin—
the coin flipped around with a resounding cling of metal striking metal—
one moment, she was facing Isvelt, in the next, the direction opposite of him—
“FIRE!!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.
Her broom flew past the coin. As she passed it by, Solveig caught one edge of the still-rotating coin with her feet, and pushed herself off of it, generating additional force. Hopefully, the golden mage had actually managed to aim her at their enemies, because Solveig could hardly change her direction now.
Meanwhile, Nephy was brought back to reality as a bolt of lightning suddenly slammed into her bulwark, causing an unpleasant, crackling and fizzing sound as the magic shield both took and dispersed the incoming energy of the attack. Unlike with the Iron Tigress though, the Setet girl wasn't flung or pushed away this time, as there wasn't any kinetic energy travelling with the spell. Lightning, after all, didn't exactly have any mass with weight.
Still, this attack had damaged her defenses, and more were incoming! Plus, she needed to aid and keep track of her ally and the gentleman who'd arrived to offer them assistance when this group of poachers had shown up. Doing a quick left-to-right, then right-to-left sway on her broom, Nephertys regained her composure and focus. It seemed like her fiery friend was frantically flying forwards to face their foes, which meant that there was only one thing for Nephy to do!
Offer support and cover! After all, the dragon mage had told her that they should try and herd their opponents.
"Stellar Photon!" Nephy's voice called out, and almost instantly, six little star clusters were spawned from nowhere, hovering in pairs of three slightly above the star mage's shoulders. She narrowed her eyes, as yet another magic spell slammed into her bulwark and damaged it - a small collection of fireballs. She could tell that if the icicles and air funnel hadn't been aimed at Solveig, she would've lost her barrier by now, it was already taking quite a beating...
But... That didn't matter!
With mental visualization and command, the six stars at her side sparked to life, and soon followed a barrage of luminous little beams, streaking towards the collective that was their opponents. She was aiming for the ones at the ends, trying to making them dodge in closer towards their peers, and hopefully she could start driving them in one direction by laying down a bunch of curtain-fire on their flanks.
As both girls simultaneously enacted their strategies, their opponents split up--roughly half tried to keep track of Solveig, while the others had to evade or defend themselves from Nephertys. The multiple star turrets, firing separately, succeeded in driving them in the safest direction--which, they realized too late, had them almost crashing into the other group!
"Shields up--!" shouted one mage, but only a handful of barriers and other defensive magics had time to cast before Solveig, enhanced by the redirection effect of Isvelt's coin, smashed through the crowd! Like a draconic comet surrounded by shards of shattering stained glass, she sent the majority of their opponents spiraling out of control, some losing their brooms entirely.
However, as her fiery scales began breaking and peeling away, Solveig would feel exhaustion creeping over her--covering her entire body like that, while maintaining both spells and putting so much effort into that attack, had been costly even for the reserves of nobility. Luckily, as her broom dipped, those that hadn't been bested by the crashing chaos had scattered to re-assess their chances.
"Well done, well done! Quite a show there, ladies!" Isvelt chuckled as he drifted closer. "Now, if I can assume a deal's a deal?" He held out a helping hand to Solveig, while looking towards Nephy. "I've already spied a few targets---that chubby girl over there, with the magnet, happens to be one of them!" He pointed as the rotund young woman with pink hair happened to be drifting at the edge of the arena, her back turned to them as she looked around at other applicants.
"As would be that fellow with...what I REALLY hope is some sort of confectionary magic..." He nodded his head towards another applicant who was down below them, trying to stay under the fighting which seemed to be taking place more towards the coliseum's open-air. It was the morose looking young man in all black, who had conjured up something round and brown in his hand that he took a bite out of. However, this one noticed Isvelt's gaze, and his pale face began to sweat as he looked for another hiding place.
"Solveig von Brandt," she introduced herself. Temporarily, she sheated her sword to take and shake boy's hand, nodding to confirm that their deal was indeed a deal. She had to take a bit of a breather, letting her defensive spell dissipate. The fire around her left hand had spread up her whole arm, simply due to having picked up extraneous magical energy throughout the fight. She did not appreciate that she'd let herself run so low on reserves, however. She had severly underestimated how much it would take to cover her whole body with Dragon Scales, because she usually did not.
But what was done was done. "I would pick the chocolate boy. The magnet girl might use her magic to interfere with my swordsmanship and with your gold magic, depending on what she does. Even if the boy's magic relates to food, he is not to be underestimated, however...I faced a girl with liquor magic just before, and it was...unpleasant." She tilted her head, as she considered something. "However, we could ambush the magnet girl. Any preferences?" she questioned the other two.
With their opponents soundly thrashed and on the retreat, Nephy allowed herself to float forward on her broom and join Solveig and Isvelt as they began their conversation about how and who to target and claim a sphere from next.
... Mag... net...? What's that...? Is... Is it some kind of magic item? Ah! That must be what these heartlanders call a magical net, yes, of course! On of those... Abra-vations or whatever they call them! Good thing I figured that out and didn't just ask, I could've looked quite the fool to my new allies and revealed my own ignorance.
... Was what Nephy was mistakenly thinking when the topic of the chubby girl with the big ol' manget was brought up. When the mention of the boy - who was snacking on something was brought up though - Nephertys looked around a bit before spotting him down below the trio. She gave him a careful look.
"Hmm, he must be quite the warrior, covered in war paint like that. Could be a most worthy opponent!" She stated with enthusiasm and a sage-nod... Apparently missing completely that the guy was sweating bullets and his eyes had gone wide like a deer's caught in the headlights of a charging truck-kun.
"The chocolate boy it is," Solveig acknowledged, because she did not think Isvelt frankly cared as long as he got a sphere of his own. As soon as he saw the three mages looking in his direction begin to move in concert, the young man in guyliner made a panicked expression and started to make a beeline away from them! The pursuit began; Solveig shot straight ahead as Isvelt veered to one side. She let her broom drop down, and once she was low enough not to risk injury, released her magical hold on it, letting gravity do the rest of the work. She was aiming to land straight on top of the boy in all black, aiming a drop kick at his head!
Looking back over his shoulder, her target threw out one pale palm: "Choco-Drizzle Spiderweb!" Strings made of dripping, liquid chocolate shot out in weaving octagonal patterns, ensnaring Solveig mid-air! The puttering flames left in her hand would be enough to melt her out without spending too much of her mana, but if she didn't call her broom back she'd fall to the nets below---her low reserves wouldn't let her pull off that fancy flight trick she'd tried with Alwin again.
"Raining Wealth!" Isvelt cast, producing a literal handful of golden coins that were magically thrown at their opponent. As if each small, but heavy disc of metal had been launched from a professional's slingshot, they peppered the chocolate-magic user's back as he retreated.
"Owch owch owch yeeeeeoooowch!" The boy zigged and zagged, slowing him down enough for Nephertys to follow up her allies' attacks--!
Nephy watched one of her allies gallantly leap off broom in midair to deliver a foot-full-of-force to their target - even if it had resulted in Solveig getting tangled up in what was hopefully, a spider-web of gooey chocolate, and her other ally giving chase to the boy in makeup, peppering the latter's back with money. How curious, she'd never thought to use coins in that way before... But perhaps it was a good idea, after all, if you had the coin to spend, why not!?
"I won't be outshined, hah!" Nephertys announced, in a strangely competitive way, before giving her broom a wave of magic juice, causing the star mage to propel forward.
Like Isvelt, she gave chase to the chocolatier, rather than do what Solveig had done and tempt fate by performing aerial acrobatics that did not involve her broom. Instead, as the black-clad emo lad focused all his attention on preventing Solveig from reaching him, and being harassed by their male companion, Nephy took the opportunity to speed on ahead, positioning herself at a distance to the right of their mark, though slightly above in the air. Her shield was still holding up, though damaged by their earlier scuffle, the girl seemed to have confidence that it'd last long enough to see her through this final push.
"Stellar Photon, dual fusion!" With this chant, four of the tiny star clusters appeared next to Nephy, before first merging once, creating a pair, and then merged again to form a single, larger star. Taking care with this Big Boy, she began aiming and leading her shot, watching as the zig-zagging black rabbit tied his best to avoid the assaults' of their gold magic-using fellow. The goal? Well, either she'd hit him directly and hopefully knock him, or at least the sphere, off their broom and/or grasp, or she'd at least force him to perform a sudden turn or dive/pull up, which would give her allies more time to close the gap!
"AAAAAND, FIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!"
ZA-PEW!
The sudden, oncoming light reminiscent of being chased down by an anachronistic truck-kun caused the choco-mancer to turn his head, his mouth turning into a black-lined O as a high pitched scream began. Desperately he cast another spell, his grimoire glowing with a creamy amber light as he seemed to be putting quite a bit of mana into it.
"D-D-DOUBLE CRUNCH BARRED DOOR!"
An enormous, double layered chocolate bar in a shape reminiscent of some castle's huge mahogany double doors--each "square" of candy bearing meticulous decorative inscriptions--manifested between Nephy's oncoming attack and her target! With a thunderous BOOM the spells collided! As the four-in-one starbeam began to crack through the first layer, causing molten cocoa to boil up from beneath, the other mage held out both hands as he pushed futilely against Nephertys' mana.
Then, with a distinct snapping sound, the chocolate barrier was blown apart! As the light washed over him, her opponent practically threw his Angel SphereTM away from himself as he was blasted across the arena. Which, immediately after, Nephery's had a somewhat peculiar expression on her face for a brief moment. The critter construct spun in place for a moment before it finally got its wings under it--just in time for Isvelt to swoop in and grab it!
"Haha! And there we have it!" He grinned smugly, before floating up to Nephertys. "Quite well done, my lovely new friend!" He held out his hand to her as if he were asking for a dance. "By the way, I never did get your names, did I? I must apologize--my manservant's boorishness must be rubbing off on me." As he said that, for a single second his eyes darted somewhere else within the coliseum. A micro expression flashed across his face--but the next second he was all beaming smiles as he continued to enjoy the tanned beauty's company.
Seeing that her male companion had managed to secure his own golden ball, Nephertys smiled in a big and sunny manner, happy that she'd managed to aid in repaying the young nobleman for his help earlier. When the young sir extended his hand in such a gentlemanly fashion, Nephy's cheeks blushed a bit, as she reached out her own hand and arm to let him hold hers. She seemed to have forgotten that her barrier was still up though, but thankfully physical matter could pass through it freely.
"I am Nephertys Setet of Sankrah, good sir! I'm pleased we could repay your kindness from before. Well done, your magic was splendid!" The desert noblewoman exclaimed in a cheery and sincere voice. And she completely failed to notice the guy's sour expression as he cast a far-too-quick-for-Nephy's-sponge-brain-to-notice-glance at what was presumably his aforementioned manservant.
"As was yours, my dear!" Isvelt swiftly lowered his head to the back of Nephy's hand, delivering a quick peck. He batted his eyes at the buxom girl, but as he seemed about to say something else, Solveig interrupted them. Having summoned her broom after her failed drop-kick maneuver, the von Brandt heiress rejoined her companions.
"I introduced myself to you," Solveig raised her brows at the boy. "You still haven't, though," she commented, tilting her head to the side. Unlike Nephertys, she did notice the boy's odd demeanour, though she didn't quite catch who he was looking at. "Besides, your manners are your own." She didn't appreciate him trying to blame someone else for his own actions.
"A-ah, um, yes, of course...Lady...Solaire, wasn't it?" Isvelt backpedaled, quickly letting go of Nephy's hand so that he could wipe an awkward sheen of sweat from his brow. "H-how silly of me! I am Isvelt Quartus Kira, of Royal House Kira! It's been such a pleasure to work with you, ladies!"
"Solveig," she chuckled, "but I don't mind nicknames."
She only had one other question left for him. "Now that you have your sphere, do you want to stay teamed up with the two of us until this trial ends?" He had contributed, and one more team member would more likely deter the sphereless go-getters, especially with that one defensive spell of his. Once it did become apparent the three of them would remain a team, Solveig fetched her sphere from its hiding place, once again holding it in her left hand.
"Oh, certainly!" Isvelt sighed in relief as he seemingly recovered from that bit of awkwardness. "You know, I think both of you thus far have made quite the show of your abilities---and my status should be more than evident. With the three of us as a group, I doubt anyone here would be foolish enough to provoke our wrath!"
If they looked around, it would seem that was indeed the case. Solveig had fought off Alwin, and Nephertys had shown that her Star Magic was quite formidable in both defense and offense. Now that one of the Royals had teamed up with them, the few roaming groups of sphere-hunters left seemed to give them plenty of stinkeye, but otherwise a wide berth.
‘Wind Mage? Well, that wouldn’t be good now would it?’ Hikari thought to himself as he heard a voice call out for a wind mage to blow his steam away. It didn’t seem to be going well though, as soon enough they seemed to be engulfed in the ensuing chaos he caused. It amazed him how no one thought to pause their fight and work together to get rid of what was a disadvantage to all. Wasn’t there such a thing as, the enemy of my enemy is my friend? Oh well, it wasn’t to his detriment. He completed his objective, and then some. Though the supposed Wind Mage seemed to be occupied, he knew better than to remain where he was in case they came out victorious. Though, if he had it his way, they’d be crashing face first into the ground right now.
The pages of Hikari’s grimoire flipped as steam emerged from his mouth. No one would see his ability, so he poured as minimal mana as possible into his decoy clone. The face almost looked scribbled-on by a toddler due to how little mana was poured in. Hikari didn’t have as big of a mana pool as many here, therefore he had to learn how to better control his mana instead in order to reverse mana. He wanted to save the big stuff for the final trail, which seemed to be ahead of them as they announced less than half of the spheres remained.
Hikari chuckled, “Just keep your head down, maybe that’s better for both of us?” The Hikari clone lowered his head, letting its shaggy hair fall over its face as it drifted side to side. The Real Hikari would float until he was right above the smoke cloud, checking his surroundings to make sure he was in the clear before he peered downward. He could see the outline of his clone drifting side to side, before two buffoons nearly destroyed it. Soon, six other figures emerged and completely obliterated the clone. He didn’t care to see what happened to the other two.
‘Idiots, like you, were able to find me in my own ability before I found you? Yeah right! No one fuckin’ thinks anymore.’ Hikari shook his head as he floated higher into the clearing, near the top of the dome away from the chaos in order to secure his position.
Hikari just runs away, no shirt on, two balls in hand...
For an opponent like Invisigirl, Parin needed to make the most out of what she got. Missing the tiniest opening could give her target a chance to flip the situation, and the girl can disappear, so there's no telling if being a hair too slow would make the difference. Plus the last collision got too sticky for Parin's own good... though, she'd be lying if she said it wasn't effective.
Parin made her choice on what to do, but she'd need the right timing. She had the freedom - Ludo's assault served as a wonderful diversion. For a second, Parin felt like she'd flew herself back into the bustling Common Realm streets, eyes daggering through crowds of people to monitor her prey, and now everything seemed almost too simple. Their target had been stuck between two choices to avoid his snakes, up or down, so she didn't have time to notice the one slithering around the back. She lulled before choosing to go up, and Parin wasted no time soaring upwards in pursuit. She conjured a few of her water-ball magic bullets about her as she flew, holding them ready for the right moment.
Which Invisigirl decided to hand over on a silver platter, firing her spell so carelessly. Her trusty bullets were launched straight for the girl's back. Then she pushed mana into her broom, zooming herself to match pace with them. Her focus true, she flew out to the side. The wind whipped around her. She pulled her arm back and felt it, tensed with anticipation as time seemed to stretch, her vision filled with the girl's figure.. With one last burst of speed she committed, her arm swinging in a blur of motion converging on Invisigirl's flank.
Kora felt like whooping with joy as she grasped the sphere she'd been chasing, but she forced herself to remember that the trial wasn't over. Now that she had a sphere, she had to defend it, and she'd wager a good amount of money that she'd made a whole swarm of enemies with that cyclone of hers.
Before she had a chance to think of a defensive strategy though, Hikari's steam cloud overtook her. She felt the oppressive heat around her as her vision became clouded and the steam entered her lungs. Suddenly, she felt as though she was no longer in the Kikka colosseum. No, instead of flying through the air, she was in her childhood home, surrounded by roaring flames. Smoke was choking her lungs as she heard screams from the rest of the villagers outside.
No. NO!
"Hey, I don't guess you could blow this away, huh?!"
Kora's eyes snapped open. As she came out of the vision, she realized she had wrapped both of her arms around her broomstick, angel sphere clutched tightly in one hand as it fluttered its wings in a desperate attempt to escape. No, this wasn't the time to fall apart. She wasn't a child anymore. She was a capable young woman and this was her chance to prove it.
She looked towards the source of the voice that had pulled her from her flashback. It was the red-haired boy who had been harassed by Pompadour earlier. Though she felt she barely knew him, she recognized that he wasn't much further up the rungs of society than she was, and that was enough for now. Before she could formulate a response though, Elyssa came charging up from below.
"Begone you tramp!"
Though she was stunned by the appearance of her icy claws, Kora's temper flared at the slur tossed her way. In that moment, she decided what she would do.
Alright, two birds with one stone.
"Conjure Whirlwind!", she yelled, bring forth a surge of wind from the hand that was free of the angel sphere. She did her best to control it, being mostly used to this spell with both hands free. She aimed to use the winds to clear the steam and knock the incoming ice mage off balance without harming Tristan.
Tristan covered himself with one arm, but it seemed the girl's wind spell kept him in the eye of calm along with her. The banks of thick steam around them parted--though unfortunately for others caught up in it, what was blown away from Kohra and Tristan instead rolled over into the rest of the steam cloud, thickening it.
But this also revealed a somewhat unhinged girl bent on attacking the sphere-holder! Kohra's whirlwind blew Elyssa upward, causing her to almost fall off of her broom--thankfully for her, it seemed those huge ice claws weren't too big to grip objects.
"Damn you! I won't let you stand in my way!" screeched the ice-mage as she righted herself. Slipping her hand out of one claw as if it were a glove, she instead directed the now free-floating blades of ice to shoot towards Kohra from multiple slanted angles. "Jilted Ice Blades!"
However, the next moment, a flash of red followed by two streaks of steel appeared. With loud CLANGS and the sound of shattered glass, Tristan floated unsteadily in front of the wind mage amidst a sparkling cloud of ice fragments.
"Your whirlwind pulled a guy off my back earlier--so I figured I'd repay the favor." he said, glancing at Kohra over his shoulder.
Truth be told, though, I just sorta...acted without thinking. he admitted to himself. Probably because that attack seemed too personal--what's this girl's problem?
"Whaddya say to a trade--I help you protect your sphere, you help me get one?" he asked. But before Kohra could answer, another screech came from Elyssa, who seemed even more pissed that someone had decided to help her unrequited enemy.
"WHY DO YOU KEEP GETTING COZY WITH ALL THE HOT GUYS?! IT'S NOT ENOUGH YOU'RE TRYING TO STEAL MY MAN!?"
"Steal your man!? I've hardly talked to anyone today! What are you on ab--", but then, Kora stopped speaking abruptly, thinking of the singular encounter she'd had today that could be considered social. Was she talking about Hikari?
"Hot?" Tristan said dumbly next to her, his cheeks flushing pink.
Whatever, there wasn't time. Maybe they could have a more civil talk on the ground, but somehow Kora doubted it would be that much more civil.
"You've got a deal, redhead!", Kora shouted back at Tristan. "Help me with her, and help me keep ahold of this thing, and I'll try and clear you a way to a sphere!"
Secretly, Kora wondered if the ice mage would ever back off with the way she was talking. However, Kora felt she needed some allies in this mess, and if this kid was willing to team up then she'd take the offer.
"You got it!" Tristan confirmed, just as Elyssa conjured up two more ice coverings for her hands and tried to leap past him at Kohra.
"Ice Widow's Nails!"
Tristan jerked with his legs as if he were riding a horse with no saddle, steering his broom before launching between the girls once again. The two Created Swords in his hand, simple arming weapons with no flair, clashed against the sharp, frozen claws. Elyssa snarled at him like an animal as she gripped the blades and tried to tear them from his grip--which he was happy to let her have. As she fell back with the force of her own pull, he simply created a brand new weapon that was more suited for dealing with her element.
"Please block this!" he shouted at her, before thrusting forward with as much weight as he could manage while leaning over his broomshaft! Elyssa seemed to understand the danger presented by that heavy, ice-pick style blade, as she dropped the other swords and crossed her ice-claws in front of her body. With a crystalline SHUNK, Tristan's sword went through one frozen construct, barely missing the fleshy hand inside it, and then the other. It didn't pierce all the way through, but--
"You--! She won't give you what you want, you know! She's just playing you--you can't trust girls like her!" The ice-mage shrilled. However, before she could try to slash at them again, she noted that her hands were actually pinned together by the pick blade! Grunting and screeching, she began trying to pull her arms apart like someone trapped in a finger-trap toy.
Tristan reached out, grabbed the end of her broom handle, and gave it a spin. Elyssa's screeching only rose in volume as she spiraled away from them.
"Alright, let's find someone else with a sphere!" he told Kohra, as all three of the blades he'd summoned disappeared. He didn't have a terrible amount of mana to spare--going forward, he needed to be careful. "There, what about that guy doing the weird dance?!" He pointed to the deeply tanned, dread-locked individual wearing distinctive robes.
Kohra glanced up at the dread-locked boy tossing his sphere from one hand to the other. She had no idea what sort of magic he could wield that would let him comfortably showboat like that, but maybe it was overconfidence that could be exploited.
"Stay behind me! Follow and I'll try and knock it out of his grasp."
Kohra adjusted her broom towards her target and rocketed forward while still staying low to the ground. Though she had finally gotten used to flying, she could tell her energy reserves were definitely running lower than she was comfortable with. She felt she could handle two, maybe three more spells before she'd have to focus on just staying airborne. Behind her, Tristan bent lower over his own broom and stayed close to her wake to minimize his own air resistance.
"Don't know what magic he has, so be ready for anything!" he called out.
The wind mage and her companion flew through the swarm of broomsticks, dodging and weaving in and out of the mess of bodies and spells. She screeched to a halt directly beneath the tanned skin young man, waiting just long enough for Tristan to catch up to her before surging upwards. Gripping her broomstick with her legs, she reached her free hand out, palm upward.
"Shockwave!"
She tried timing her spell with when the sphere was being tossed from hand to hand before returning her hand to the broomstick, willing the mana to swerve the broom to the side hoping to avoid a collision. As she shot up and past the tanned youth, she hoped her spell had had enough of an effect for Tristan to seize an opportunity.
"Whoa deah mon!" The young man leaped from his broom a moment before Kohra's spell blasted him, riding the impact as he flipped backwards. "From catch to keep away, yah?!" He grinned as he landed foot first, crouching vertically on the wall of the arena. As one palm touched the wall, however, something sprouted up from between the bricks and kept growing--something bright, and pink, and porous. "Coral Majeek: Undah Sea Forest!"
Like an enormous tree that hosted numerous types of fungi, vines, and fruit, an entire ocean reef in vibrant colors began to blossom over the bricks! Soon, their opponent was entirely hidden from view--but Tristan wasn't going to let that stop him. This time, he created a long Zweihander, which he drew back with both arms as his broom closed in on the mass of sea-structures.
"Sword Magic: Spin Slash!" All along the length of that greatsword, his molten-metallic colored mana surged! As he spun, turning into a bladed top almost as fierce as one of Kohra's whirlwind, bits and pieces of coral flew all over the place!
So, that's what he's got. Not bad. Kohra thought. I could never have touched him inside that shell of coral he built. Good thing he's in the process of exposing himself.
And as the Wind Mage watched from above, she saw their opponent climbing and jumping through the reef. In his attempt to get away from the bladed storm, he would soon step into an opening she could reach! Grinning, Kohra dived.
She adjusted her course so that she was to the side of her target and shot forward straight at the coral mage. Her new plan was to ram him, the idea being that, if he could dodge a shockwave, maybe it would be harder to dodge a full person on a broomstick. As the dreadlocked boy emerged from his coral shell, Kohra braced for impact.
Just as the scale-robed mage emerged from a forest of pink and yellow ridges, his eyes went wide with shock.
"Bloody fyah!" he yelped, just before the Wind Mage tackled him! His broom already being left behind, he was knocked back into the crumbling Undersea Forest. He managed to do a flailing backflip, and landed on a large, flat shelf of spongey coral. Behind him, a shadow holding a gleaming bar of steel loomed.
Kohra was tumbling end over end after colliding with the coral mage. Wrapping her arms around the broomstick while still keeping her fingers clasped tightly over her sphere, she willed her tumbling to slow. She finally ended up slowing her rotation, just barely avoiding a stable but upside-down position. Having recovered herself, she turned her attention towards the two mages.
"Sword of da Seven Seas!" A piece of red, sword shaped coral with six distinct prongs coming out of its double-edged blade grew right between the mage's hands. It clashed with Tristan's Zweihander, catching the greatsword's edge between one of the prongs, and the two of them wrestled in a blade lock. Tristan had jumped off of his broom, so now both were standing on the coral platform. "Ya be wantin' da li'l ball bad-like, ye mon?!"
"Sorry, no hard feelings!" the swordmage replied, before he grabbed the upper part of his own blade and used the whole weapon to wrench and lever his opponent. The coral sword was pulled off balance, and Tristan slammed a boot into the dark complexioned man's ribs. He chased after his opponent, and pressed the advantage as their two magical blades clashed again and again!
Kohra wrestled with herself for a moment as she watched the exchange. None of her spells were precise enough to guarantee a hit on the dreadlocked boy without endangering the redhead. All she could do was watch from afar while keeping a lookout for anyone attempting to take a swing at her.
"Nah mon! All good by mi!" smiled the seabed mage, before jumping up and flipping over one of Tristan's big swings. "Bryce be mi name! Who you be, mon?"
"Tristan!" He parried the coral sword tip-to-tip, and even though Bryce snagged him again in the crook of those prongs, Tristan used it for his own benefit--he was a bit stronger than the other boy, and his sword heavier. He was able to pull Bryce along with him while their blades were stuck together, and forced both tips down into the coral surface at their feet. With a shove, he pushed the zweihander into the crunchy material, and then let go--creating a smaller arming sword at the same time he leaped at his opponent!
But Bryce only continued to smile, and made a gesture with his hand as if he were throwing something. Tristan hesitated for an instant---to continue with his attack, or take a defensive stance?--and thus barely avoided the broom that swept between him and the seabed mage like a missile!
"Watch ya step, bruddah Tris!" As he laughed at his red headed rival, Bryce made another gesture with his hands--and the coral they were standing on, shattered! Both mages fell through the air, but Bryce quickly summoned his own broom to him once more. Tristan's, however, was nowhere to be seen.
As the coral shattered, Kohra dived. She wasn't sure what she could do to help at this point, but it felt wrong to not try anything. Weaving in and out between the falling chunks of coral, she found herself losing sight of her erstwhile partner--it was hard enough just to defend herself! Yet, it seemed like she wasn't going to make it...
"Dammit!" Tristan's mind raced as he plummeted, looking up at scattered fragments of the reef all around him. What if he just...threw his sword? No, it wouldn't reach--even if he could manage the same trick Bryce had, his own broom was too far away...if only he could shoot his swords like projectiles!
Wait. If my swords could fly...
He reached out with one hand. His zweihander hadn't been dissolved yet--it was falling only a few arms' lengths from him. Why, exactly, did mages fly on brooms? How, exactly, did mages move their magic? With this insight, Tristan's inspiration ignited.
A glowing aura surrounded the zweihander. It ripped itself free of the coral sword, and spun end over end towards its master.
Bryce zigzagged through the crumbling pieces of his own construct, and once he was in the open air again he looked for that wind mage. He saw her as she came out of the other side of the collapsing coral forest--without Tristan in tow. Out of genuine concern he also glanced down towards the nets near the arena floor--his coral pieces would probably dissolve before anyone got hit, but Tristan was falling a long way without a broom--
"Waitaminnit, where did mi bruddah go--?!"
A streak of molten bronze light arced up at him from one side, and as he turned to look he saw the redheaded swordsman flying towards him--surfer style, standing on the greatsword!
"Again--no! Hard! Feelings!" Despite himself, Tristan whooped as he shot past the other mage! His second sword sliced open Bryce's voluminous robes--causing the Angel Sphere to tumble out into the air! The other mage sent out a grasping limb of coral, which forked into more arching branches to try and entrap it once again--but Tristan smoothly turned and flew back towards him!
"Azure Edge!"
Bryce raised another coral branch to block the sword--but it wasn't the blade in Tristan's hand that he focused the spell through! The one under his feet glowed hotter, until molten brass turned to a blue-white color like a welding flame! Riding straight past his opponent, Tristan's flying sword easily pierced through the tumbleweed-shaped coral with its enhanced blade--and on his way out the other side, he snagged the golden sphere.
He waved at Bryce, who couldn't help but laugh as his opponent sailed away.
As she floated nearby, Kohra's grin reappeared as Tristan shot past Bryce, sphere in hand. Satisfied that the exchange was over, Kohra peeled off in the opposite direction, silently hoping the two of them ended up on the same squad as she returned to a position above the cloud of mages...
@Duthguy@Th3King0fChaos "Oh, it won't kill ya! Maybe just scald a little--a mark to remember me by, maybe!" Bryant cackled.
But Albie and Illios were both of the same mind when it came to conflict avoidance in the air. As the two defended themselves as best they could, they each dove straight down to try and get below the fray. Funnily enough, it seemed the timing matched for both of them as well--as each one opened his eyes, he'd see the other falling straight down alongside him in almost a sort of "You too, huh?" solidarity.
Above them, however, the struggles were shared in a different way. Illios had avoided most of Byrant's spray, some of it hissing and sizzling through his mana barrier to eat at his clothes--but the greater part of it, instead shot through empty air. Meanwhile, Albie's magical bullets had hit their mark with the same accuracy he displayed in the target-trial, sending Snyder into a hysterical rage as his broom spun out of control and two of his blades shattered in the explosion. He sent the others hurtling forward in the last direction he'd seen Albie with a scream of rage!
Thus, as both Albie and Illios pulled out of their dives, they would hear some rather disturbing sounds--acid searing flesh, and someone being stuck by something large and sharp, and two pairs of pained, agonized yelps. @imia@Remram As Ludo grinned, his opponent blinked in confusion--just before she was struck from behind by a volley not dissimilar to her own! Parin appeared, as seemingly out of nowhere as their erstwhile vanishing foe, and with her magical bullets knocked the previously invisible girl from her broom!
With a yelp as the impact battered her, she lost her grip on the Angel SphereTM! It spun in place as she fell, its wings starting to flutter as it tried to regroup itself--but Parin's eyes were sharp and her reflexes sharper! With a pickpocket's grace, she snagged the golden construct just as it had been about to launch itself away! @ReusableSword@Expllo For the moment Rio and Maverick were as lost in the cloud of chaos as anyone else. Thanks to Kohra's whirlwind a few broomlengths over, the steam redoubled on itself and grew even thicker--which aided Hikari in confusing the situation further with his clone. But, just as he was rising up, the opponents were attacking--that barrage of various elements struck his clone, and itself, all at once!
A monstrous explosion of many colors swept what was left of the steam cloud away--along with a great number of the mages who were inside it. None of them were dead, thankfully, but unconscious forms and superficial wounds abounded as brooms and riders fell out of the sky. Hikari, up above, wasn't spared--the shockwaves of the blast would feel like he'd been tackled by someone his own size, thudding into his body hard enough to send him and his broom careening into the arena's wall! The impact sent crackling ripples through the barrier that protected the audience around the arena's balcony...Nonetheless, at least he was able to hold onto his prizes...
The Third Trial
Nephertys, Solveig, Isvelt, Kohra, Tristan, Hikari, Parin, Ludo, Albie, and Illios had all managed to obtain and keep hold of a sphere. Others, both named and unknown, throughout the trial had done the same. As soon as the 100 spheres were in hand, the magically enhanced voice boomed out again.
"ALL CONTESTANTS, CEASE FIRE! THE THIRD TRIAL HAS ENDED! I REPEAT, THE THIRD TRIAL HAS ENDED! RETURN TO THE ARENA FLOOR!"
As shouts of both triumph and despair echoed out, everyone who was still able-bodied returned to the ground. Those who were wounded were directed to an infirmary tent set up on the right side of the arena, where a handful of officials with potent healing magic, potions, and mundane first aid were available to quickly tend to everyone. But the older man who'd been running things thus far once again raised his voice:
"Attention, attention! Ahem...The Captains have decided to, er, review the results of the previous trial! Due to the...surprising amount of magical power this year's applicants have put on display, we have elected to use this time for a short rest period! Those of you who were injured, or who need to recover your mana, make good use of this recess! The doors to the rest of the coliseum shall be opened--men's restrooms on the left wing, ladies on the right--but do not exit the building! Anyone who goes outdoors will fail the exam, regardless of their previous performances!"
While some rested, others recovered, and a few might have even chatted in a friendly manner with their so called "competition," about an hour passed. It had been roughly mid-morning when the exams had begun, and now was past lunch-time for certain, but there was too much adrenaline and excitement for most to worry about their stomachs. Then, the Captains returned to their seats...
The Final Trial
The officials ushered anyone who had strayed--restrooms, infirmaries, audience members who tried to sneak food in--and once everyone was gathered in the center of the arena floor, Captain Argos of the Golden Dawn stood to make the next announcement.
"Ahem! Well done thus far, applicants, on the exam! Even many of you who did not complete the objective in the last trial have shown us a great many feats of skill and bravery! Raw power alone is not everything--we have paid careful attention, even to the bearing of your character! And, given the results we have seen, we have elected to make one more change to these trials: The next, shall be the last!"
There were murmurs and gasps of surprise at this--the sparring trials were often the highlight of the Magic Knight Exam, but were they really going to fight again so soon after so many people had exhausted themselves trying to play keepaway earlier? Even after being granted a rest period, that might be hard, especially on those commoners or other unfortunates who had low mana reserves...
"Therefore, as preparation, everyone please turn your attention to the officials! They will give you a small Magic Tool to be placed on your LEFT wrists! Please do so now!"
It looked like a simple, hinged bracelet made of blackened glass, or some kind of thickly glazed ceramic--maybe even obsidian. The officials went line-by-line across the field of applicants, passing them out from large canvas bags. It took a bit longer than passing out the brooms, which had simply been dumped out of a spatial magic portal...
But, once everyone had put on their bracelets, which Argos confirmed by a show of hands, he turned to the older gentleman in the green robes and nodded. At a signal, the officials around the arena activated a sudden glowing sigil on the floor...
And they were transported to another world.
Well, not really. There was a "crack" in a wide blue sky, a circle that moved with the applicants any time they took a step or turned their heads. Through this circle, they could still see the arena's audience and the Captains in their high seats.
"This special Combination Magic we have prepared has created a separate dimensional space, which is where your final challenge will take place! Put simply," Argos announced, "This is an obstacle course! You have only to cross the field before you and reach the end before the time limit--20 minutes--in order to pass! With one caveat, of course!"
The applicants would look down to find themselves standing in a deep trench, marked with a white line at their feet from which sprang a magical barrier to keep anyone from getting a head start. Above the lip of the trench, a green, grassy field seemed to stretch on towards infinity--but there were also:
fields of barbed wire that would need to be crawled under,
a set of bars suspended over pits of mud that would need to be crossed,
tall vertical walls with a confusing set of handholds,
a deeper pit that could only be traversed by jumping between upright wooden logs,
another path over a mud wallow that seemed clear, except that it was narrow and surrounded by spinning constructs tipped with oversized red boxing gloves,
and finally, a vertical ramp covered in oil, at the top of which was a platform.
In addition to that, the whole time, various magical projectiles were going off from who-knew-where, bombarding the field and sending sprays of dirt and dust into the air.
"And the caveat is--"
Their bracelets suddenly latched on even tighter, and every applicant felt a sudden rush of their strength leaving them.
"You must do so without your magic."
Then, with a wave of his hand, Argos gave the starting signal.
"Well done, my new friends! We all surely left a good impression after this display, no?" Nephertys exclaimed excitedly as the trial was announced to have ended. Looking around, at both those who had and those who had not managed to obtain their own spheres during this time, the Setet heiress couldn't help but smile.
Though she, like the rest, soon began to descend back down onto the coliseum's floor, where apparently the ones in charge had set up the necessary means to treat and deal with all the applicants who'd either been hurt or knocked out during this 'flight trial'. How wonderfully efficient! Truly professional and well-prepared, but what else could she expect from the realm's Magic Knights?
Touching down, she bid a courteous thanks and farewell to her two former allies, and listened with peppy up-and-down bouncing on her tippy-toes as the Master Of Ceremonies relayed his words. At the notion that there'd be a bit of a brief intermission though, Nephy frowned slightly. She'd been hoping to get to go right on ahead with the next exam... But, given that so many of the applicants had to get themselves cured of minor or major scrapes, the girl eventually figured that perhaps a quick respite was in the best interest of everyone.
The tanned beauty herself didn't bother with leaving the arena, nor with going to the bathroom. Instead, she stayed pretty much where she was, talking and listening to the other participants and making unimportant small-talk or comments about the various magic and mages she'd seen and run into during the third ttial. Doing so somehow managed to the hour-long recess fly by in no time at all.
The Fourth Trial
"Oh~? Complimentary accessories? How delightful!"
Nephertys reaction to the strange, clasp-like bracelets that were being handed out was... Optimistic... And naive... Given that they looked more like shackles than any sort of decorative jewelry. But the girl nontheless somehow managed to misunderstand or mistakenly assume that they were some kind of memento or 'participation award'... A comment that got her a few raised eyebrows or mocking snickers from nearby other wizards. Still, she didn't seem to notice the side-eyes or tittering vitreal, so perhaps it didn't matter.
Besides, after this, the big shock came.
Nephy couldn't help but gasp in astonishment, as the whole of the 300+ applicants were suddenly and abruptly spirited off from the grounds of the coliseum, and sent to... Well... uh... Where was this exactly...? And why... Why could she still see the crowds of spectators hovering in the air, albeit inside weird little... Were those.... Windows? To say Nephy's mind was blown would be an understatement, and she stood there for a good, decent bit, blinking, looking around, rubbing her eyes, then repeating the process in a stupified manner. Luckily, her confusion was interupted as the Master of Ceremony spoke up again.
And again, the Setet heriess let out a gasp, as her fun and happy present of a bracelet suddenly chomped down, locked itself around her wrist and then, likea hungry mosquito or greedy leech, began to suck her mana away! Gross. In a feeble attempt of desperation and surprise, she tried to force the shackle off by pushing and pulling on it... Though, when the old man revealed that this was supposed to be a part of the final trial, the desert flower calmed down and let out an elongated 'Oh............' as if she'd just been introduced to something incredibly profound and enlightening.
The heterochromatic lass looked out over the strange 'field' that was before herself and the ohters. A seemingly endless grassland, stretching off in all directions, with a series of pits, pillars and other doods scattered about in a sort of slithering and path-y but-not-entirely-clear sequence. Still, they were apparently meant to go to each of these obstacles, pass through, over or under them, and get to the end... Which nephy assumed was the big platform with the ramp that was the furthest away from the collective group of aspirants.
When spells of all manner and flavor suddenly started to rain down all across the grassy plains though, the girl let out an excited squee... Whch was not an appropriate reaction when you saw fireballs, lightning bolts and other manners of prjecticles and hazards falling from or coming out of seemingly nowhere.
"This must be one of those battlefields, yes? Father used to talk about how they'd be full of spells and magic and tough terrtain to overcome. What a splendid idea for a final trial!" Her enthusiasm was... Refreshing...?
And then, the signal was given. The fourh trial had begun, and Nephy, like her peers, took to taking the first steps to reach the goal.
Which was getting out of this ditch that they'd all be shoved down into. A tougher prospect than you'd think, especially when everyone was trying to do the exact same thing all at once. To say there was a cacaphony of voices that ranged from screaming, cussing, shrieking, roaring and making other noises would be an understatement. it felt like a chaotic chorus of discord itself, as everyone raced towards the end and of the tight crevice and attempt to get up and out of it. Some were pushed or elbowed aside, others were stepped on or tossed to the ground, others still were climbed or jumped onto... There was even this one guy who was using everyone else as stepping stones, trying to walk ontop of his adversaries.
Neph herself did what she could, what with her magic sealed and all, to reach the point of exit and get herslef up and onto the obstacle course proper...
"This is so excitiiiing~!" She cheerfully chirped while moving forward.
Actions & Interactions: - Nephy thanked Isvalt and Solveig for their cooperation during the Third Trial, then landed. - She didn't go anywhere during the Rest Period and just made small-talk with random other applicants to pass the time. - She mistakenly thought the mana-eating bracelet was a present for participating in the trials when she got it. - She panicked slightly when the device began sucking her mana out, but calmed down when it was revelaed to be part of the final exam. - She was initially flabbergasted by the mass-translocation done for the final trial. - She squeed with excitement when the actual fourht trial was revealed. - She's now trying to get out of the starting ditch and up into the grassy plains where the obstacle course is located.
Relevant People: - Solveig von Brandt (SilverPaw] - Isvalt (Remram/Zeroth)
Ludo drifted down to the arena floor at the behest of the old man proctoring the exam, along with the rest of the contestants. While he felt no need to go to the tents to receive treatment for what only amounted to just some bruising, he appreciated to have a moment of peace to recover his mana. To get away from the crowds, Ludo hung around the edge of the arena with his back pressed against its walls while he glanced around the crowds of happy and disappointed faces. However, he tried his best not to think about his rivals. The only thing he needed to focus on was himself and on what the next would be.
Meanwhile, Solveig got herself checked by the medics first thing of all, just in case the alcohol still lingered in her. She received a bottle of water and two energy bars to help with her exhaustion, but was otherwise deemed alright. She wandered the testing grounds, looking for somewhere to sit when she spotted a familiar face. "Oh, hello!" she greeted Ludo, jogging closer. "That was an awkward way to part ways before," she admitted with a lightly embarrassed smile. She soon perked up, however, when she showed him her meal. "Hey, look! I got a snack! Want one?" she offered him one of the bars. It appeared awfully dry, like someone had compressed oatmeal and bits of dried fruit into a small cuboid. She bit into one to demonstrate, chewing thoughtfully. "Sourer than I thought," she commented, "but not too bad."
Ludo's eyes glanced down at the thing that she called food and then gave her a once over. Armor, a sword, and enough magic power to conquer a village. Definitely a noble. He thought to himself though he also felt perplexed by her. Every interaction he had with a noble had always been an unkind one to put it nicely and yet there was no condescension with her, only kindness. Ludo was not entirely sure what to make of a friendly noble though perhaps it was only proper to treat kindness was with kindness in return,
He returned a smile and took bar she offered him. "If it's any consolation, I distracted you. Sorry about that." Ludo bit into the bar with a crunch and immediately felt the moisture in his mouth sap away followed by just sour with only enough sweetness that kept him from spitting it out. Or maybe it was just glued to the inside of his mouth? After a forced swallow, he said, "Yeah, that definitely tastes like it's good for you." It definitely counter-balanced the fried pie on a stick from earlier.
Solveig chuckled. "That it does." She waved away his apology though. "Don't worry about distracting me. It's like my father says, you can't fault someone else if you're not paying attention." She ate the last of her energy bar, drinking water immediately after it. "You should get a bottle, too." She wouldn't share that with him, it would be much too intimate to do with someone she had just met. Speaking of. "I still don't know your name," she pointed out with a smirk.
Ludo mirrored her smirk. "And you never finished introducing yourself," he pointed out to her lest she forget that her introduction was interrupted by getting rocked by that noble with a sword. "But it's Ludo, Ludo Liszt in case you were wondering." He flashed her that charming, snarky grin that was a trademark of his at this point.
"Fair," she smiled wryly. "Solveig von Brandt," she introduced herself properly this time. Not noble-style properly with any curtsies or the like, but she wasn't getting thrown off a broom midair either. "Pleasure to meet you, Ludo."
Introductions done, she stretched, and suggested, "Shall we find somewhere to sit? I would rather not stand around for the whole break." They did; one of the proctors had been tasked with creating benches, chairs, stools, and a stray table here and there. Once they were settled in, she asked, "So, how did you fare in the last trial? Conquer all with the venom snakes?" she guessed, wriggling her hand in a serpentine motion.
Cute, was the single word that went through his mind when he watched her wriggle her hand like a snake.
He leaned back on the bench and shrugged. "I passed, but can't say it was smooth sailing. Some slimeball was able to get the jump on me and was able to keep up with my own mana, which is a first for me. A wildcard helped me out and I ended up helping her to return the favor." There was a bit of a bitter taste left on his tongue when he thought about Edward and that perverted grin of his. However, his focus was on Solveig. "What about you? Did you raze the competition down to the ground?"
"Oh, I had my share of troubles," she admitted easily. "I fended off Dawnthorne - that's the guy who knocked me off - and honestly even impressed myself with an aerial maneouver," she chuckled. "Then, an alcohol mage of all things got the better of me...I crashed into another girl, Nephertys Setet, and things ended up working out." She eyed the crowds, but despite the star mage's unique look, there were too many people to easily spot anyone. "I don't see her right now, but I would say she and I are friends. Or on the way there," she nodded. The noble heiress seemed done with her recount, then threw in as an after-thought, "Oh, and there is actually one royal in the mix, did you know? We ended up teaming up with him for the last stretch." Solveig said it more so as a potentially interesting gossip tid-bit, but wasn't all that interested herself.
Ludo's eyes narrowed when Solveig mentioned a royal was part of the fray. "Can I venture a wild guess? Light blue hair, gold eyes, somewhat tall, punchable face, uses Gold Magic, probably tried to be very charming in an attempt to impress you? Perchance did he call you an 'Innocent Dove?'" He asked with a knowing grin. It was very oddly specific because there was literally only one royal that Ludo knew of that was taking part of the test. "I'm very aware of Isvelt. A bit more than I would wish, but alas I am both friend and humble servant to that blowhard." It was better to put it out there the idea that they were friends, but he was certainly not going to go out of his way to paint a pretty picture of his young master.
Solveig's eyebrows raised in surprise. So, she had managed to happen upon someone who actually knew the royal. "He tried," she stressed, because she hadn't found him charming. Exasperating, more like, and Isvelt's 'innocent dove' remark had rubbed her the wrong way. "He seems like a difficult person to work for," she remarked. She couldn't help but wonder what sort of friendship the two had. If it even was that.
"Oh, you have no idea. Once you get to know him, you realize that he's so much worse," Ludo said with a dry chuckle. "You're in the minority. There are so many nobles that eat that shit up because it means that they had the attention of a royal. God the things I've heard. Makes me want to puke." He commented vulgarly, recalling the things he had to witness just by being in the same room as Isvelt putting on his 'charm.'
Ludo took a chunk from that granola bar and forced it down his throat. "Have to say though, I have no idea what he saw to call you that because I watched what you did in the first round and you sure as hell don't strike me as a dove. More like a forest fire. I wouldn't mind going a few rounds with you." The young commoner looked at her with challenging grin. There was no facetiousness in his tone, only honesty with one desire; to throw down with someone that was strong.
"Well, I can't say working with him isn't useful. And with us nobles, there is always this," she waved her hand in a vague motion, "social aspect to everything. Because it would be too ruinous if any of us let our grudges escalate into full-scale magical or armed conflicts, we settle it with words...In theory. In practice, a social 'death' can be just as damning," she shrugged. Not because she didn't care - of course she did - but she didn't exactly have a solution.
Thankfully for them both, they transitioned to a pleasanter topic - that of competition. "Why, thank you, I thought the same of you, Mr. Killer Viper," she laughed. "How about it - shall we see who comes out on top in the next trial? Oooh, if it is the traditional combat round, I hope we get a match." The prospect of a one-on-one match ignited a spark within her eyes, and though they were blue, it was still easy to see the resemblance to flame.
Ludo could not help, but laugh at the silly nickname that Solveig gave him, his yellow cat-like eyes wrinkled with his grin. He liked the look in her eyes, burning with eagerness for competition, but saw him as a rival than a doormat. "Well, I like to play with fire. Don't be too down when I come out on top." He declared playfully.
Just in time, the last trial begun. They were handed out bracelets which were clearly, "Suspicious."
"Indeed."
Solveig and Ludo inspected it cautiously, but did end up putting it on, of course. After everyone had put it on, they were suddenly transported into another magical space. They had no idea when or how someone could have worked such a large-scale magic in so little time with no sign of anything being cast whatsoever. There was no time to wonder, however, because they'd all been funneled into a trench. In front and above of it, there was a complex obstacle course.
"Oh, my..." Solveig marveled at the sight. Then, their magic was suddenly sealed away, and she sucked in a breath. "Ooof," she grimaced as she grabbed her stomach area. That had been unpleasant, to say the least. She physically shook herself out of it, and eyed Ludo, who was standing next to her as he had been at the start. The only difference was that now the 300 participants were crowding each other in from all sides. It was suffocating - so much so the young lady didn't want to think of it, and would have preferred not to breath either if she didn't have to. "Let's go, then," she declared tightly, beginning to clamber out. The tight press of bodies, wriggling around and on top of each other, the multitude of limbs grabbing, shoving, smacking around...It made her nauseous, to be honest. If nothing else, that did give her the extra push to make her way out of the trench as soon as possible, however.
To say Ludo fared better was not an accurate statement. For all of his life he lived blessed by mana with all of the benefits and that was sapped away from his body. It wasn't just uncomfortable; it was a shock to the system. The color in his faced drained as he felt his physical strength leech away and was not helped by being packed together among hundreds of screaming, shouting, and grunting contestants. His stomach churned. However, there was no point in complaining. There was only going forward.
"Ayo get your armpit out of my face!" Ludo shouted as he pushed through the flailing cluster of limbs and bodies. An errant hand punched the back of his head, and he could only grit his teeth and bear it. He could only move forward. The moment he looked back he would've been swallowed by the stampede, so he could only just push onward.
After what felt like ages, he stumbled out of the conglomerate and for the first time to check on his competition and saw that Solveig was almost out. He stretched his hand out to grab hers before he pulled her out of the narrow ditch. "It ain't a race if I run away with it." He said before he turned to look at the field of barbwire and mud.
With a surprised smile, Solveig accepted the hand up. "Thanks," she huffed. "That's more sportsmanship than I thought you'd show." She realized as soon as she said it that sounded rude. "Uhh, no offense. I figured you might focus on getting ahead. I might have," she admitted. "But, well...We have a good start now. Let's not waste it, hm?" That said, she jogged to the start of the wires, and lowered herself onto her front with a grimace. She began crawling, feeling awfully like a worm. Then there were those damn magical projectile going off here and there. Crawling as she was there was really no avoiding them, just hoping for the best. The good thing was, that as a swordswoman, her physical conditioning was decent, and her core was up to the challenge. Even so, she'd never done exercise like this, so while she did best than most, there were certainly still people better out there.
Ludo was going to have to put a pin on whether or not he should've been insulted lest he fell behind Solveig. He ran towards the field of mud and angry wire and lowered himself. Mud coated the front of his body, clinging to his clothes in thicker and thicker layers while clumps splashed up to his face. This was awful. Everything about this was awful. Sure, he wasn't unfit. He was a commoner, of course he did manual labor, but he wasn't fit in this way. Even with what he thought was a decent core felt like his abs were screaming at him to stop making them work so hard. The only consolation that he had was if he was doing this then Isvelt was suffering even worse than him.
Eventually, Ludo and Solveig pulled themselves from out under the wires and climbed back up on their feet. Between pants Ludo said, "I taste... so much mud. It's gross."
She was trying not to spit out the aftertaste; it would be unbecoming of a lady. Solveig brushed herself off as much as she could. "Best not to fall in there, then," she nodded at a long set of bars set over a deep mud pit. Those participants who were ahead of them had muddied the bars already. A few unfortunate victims had fallen into the pit, and were waddling out very, very slowly. Bracing herself for the trials, Solveig climbed up the starting ladder, and once her hands were positioned at the first rail, swung herself across onto the next one. She wasn't looking down, only straight ahead. Rail by rail, she progressed. Her arms were burning, her abs protesting with the occasional spasm, but she made it to the end without falling in. Seeing the next obstacle, however, she groaned. "Not another climbing task," she complained. She took a moment to study the handholds, seeking the easiest path up the wall. Each section seemed to hold its own challenges however. Still, she observed the wall until she had a route planned - the break also serving as a rest for her arms - then begun the ascent.
Ludo was not far behind. He swung his arms to each bar wracked by the sensation that gravity was going to pull his arms out of his sockets. His palms burned as the bars dug into his skin while his core began to radiate with a hollow ache. Near the end, his grip on one of the bars faltered due to the slick mud that caked it and slipped off. He held himself up with one tired arm, gasping for breath while he watched Solveig get ahead of him. "Maybe chivalry should die," he muttered to himself. The commoner forced his body to swing forward and catch the next bar before he quickly made contact with solid ground again.
To his abject frustrations, he looked up at the wall with disgust. "Oh fuck me." Ludo walked around, looking for the best path of least resistance or really the best options out of multiple bad ones. Biting the bullet, Ludo started to climb. It was uncomfortable to say the least. His wrist and ankles twisted in strange angles; the tips of his fingers gripped the holdings to get what little leverage he could get. All the while, he had to avoid getting his fingers stepped on by other contestants climbing the wall. However, despite the efforts of the captains to give them hell, Ludo was almost at the top of the bouldering wall, except he felt his foot slip. Quickly, he grabbed onto a rock with one arm and dangled there while he looked around for a way to get out though he needed to be quick because his grip was beginning to give out.
Fortunately, his newly minted rival had just managed to drag herself onto the top of the wall with a heaving grunt while he was still hanging there. Not seeing her competitor in front of her, she looked back down. "Oh, shi-" she almost cursed as she saw him hanging one-armed near the top a few paces away. Though all she really wanted to do was lie down to rest, she hurried to position herself at the top of the wall, and stretched one arm down. "Can you grab onto me?" she called.
"Yeah, I think so," Ludo called back. He stretched his dangling arm up towards her while his fingers gripped the rock as tight as he could.
Solveig lowered as much of her upper body down as she dared while still keeping most of her weight on the solid surface. Her fingertips stretched, brushed Ludo's wrist - and grabbed.
Suddenly finding herself weighted down with almost half of his weight, she felt herself starting to slip from the top. "I swear to God, if you make us crash down-!" She desperately braced herself with her free arm, digging into the ground with her legs, doing a slow back-crawl while dragging Ludo just far enough until he could get himself up top. When they were both safely on the ground above, Solveig remained sprawled out on the ground "I want a bath," she whined.
"I'll never take my magic for granted again," groaned out Ludo who laid on the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Just then, one of those magical projectiles flew straight at her, and she barely avoided it by rolling over. "Damn whoever came up with this," she muttered. She felt like an overcooked noodle, but managed to stand up. She was literally trembling for the effort, and they were what, midway? "I wish I knew how much time has passed already." Since she did not, however, there was only one option remaining - move forward, as fast as possible.
The two newly minted rivals walked up to the pit which awaited them shortly after the rock wall. "I believe I can manage jumping," she commented. "The logs better not fall over," she frowned. With a deep inhale, Solveig made the first jump. Afterwards, she continued hopping onwards, unafraid of the deep drop below. She was confident in her balance, and her legs weren't as tired. Of course, she still had to be attentive to the task at hand. At the very least, the logs did not appear at risk of toppling.
Ludo followed beside Solveig for he was certainly not going to get left behind by her. "This isn't so-" As if the universe knew what he was about to say, he watched as one of those nondescript projectiles crash into someone and flung them off the log they were balancing on into abyss below. "Okay, it's pretty bad," he corrected himself. It was very soon that Ludo was watching out for errant projectiles, jumping when it was clear and ducking and weaving with as much space as he was afforded on the wooden pillars. By the time he was back on solid ground, he could feel his calves, quads, and hamstrings begin to feel like they were ripping and to his horror it wasn't even over yet.
"More mud?! And what the fuck is that cartoony nonsense?!" He gestured incredulously at the literal punching gloves spun around by a contraption in the ditch of mud. Ludo watched as some poor soul got bounced around by the gloves like some demented game of pinball. "Clearly someone had way too much fun making this." Well, there was only one way. Back into the mud Ludo and Solveig went. While he was not a trained swordsman, what he was, was a brawler. Ludo held his arms up in a boxing stance and waded through the mud slowly, taking his time as he eyed the spinning punching bags. A glove was blocked, another was ducked. One gut checked him so hard that he felt the air flee his body in a rush and he held his stomach in place before he forced himself to move forward. Slowly, yet surely, he waded through the mud as he adapted to the rhythm of the spinning contraptions.
"If anyone ever tries convincing me that mud baths are healthy again..." She huffed. Solveig was a swordswoman, and had her sword with her, but did not expect this would be anything like sparring or combat. Even so, she unsheathed her weapon, standing at the beginning of the path with narrowed eyes. She was focused on trying to predict the speed of the constructs' spinning, the timing she would need, the force she might be hit with if she failed. She inhaled deeply, braced herself for what might come, and marched onto the path.
One glove was ducked, another, she barely jumped over, one was parried. One hit her in her back, but whether by sheer luck or reflexes, she ended up being propelled forwards rather than into the mud wallow. She weaved through, blocked, slid under, clambered over, parried, evaded, and emerged at the other end with only an aching back as far as injuries went. Her muscles were pulsating in pain by now, waves of it spreading throughout her whole body. But finally, they were at the last obstacle.
A vertical ramp covered in oil.
"That is pure evil," she glared at it. "Any clever ideas how to get up?"
Ludo watched their rivals dash up the greased ramp only to flop over and slide back down to the base. He took his jacket off and gave it a strong flap, flinging off wet and dried off earth. The jacket was slung over his shoulder. "Hand me your sword." He held his hand out. "I'm not going to do anything weird. Just give it to me." Solveig passed over the weapon, and watched him create makeshift bandages.
Once the sword was in his hand, he held the edge against the old black jacket without a second thought and began to slice off swaths of cloth that had the least amount of mud before he handed the sword back to her. "Not an elegant solution, but a solution." Ludo said while he sat down and tied the cloth around his boots and then around his palms before he tossed the remaining scraps at Solveig. He stood there rolling sleeves up as he waited for Solveig to do the same. First she took her blade back. Next, Solveig dubiously began wrapping the torn leather strips around her hands and booted feet.
"Let's see who can get up there first." Right after he said that he dashed forward onto the ramp and clambered up the slick ramp, fueled only by adrenaline. The cloth he wrapped around his shoes and hands just absorbed enough of the oil to give him enough of a hold to climb up the ramp. His clothed hands grabbed onto the edge and pulled himself forward onto the platform, rolling onto his back panting from exhaustion. Ludo punched his hand up into the air in celebration before he looked towards the nearest attendant. "Get this fucking thing off me."
The young lady blinked once, then dashed after Ludo. It was more so like running on all fours than climbing, and she felt herself slipping with every step. She got up top a moment after Ludo, and flopped down onto the groun next to him. "Next time, I'll be first," she proclaimed, exhaustion lining her tone.
@Zeroth ] And so, the proverbial whistle was bleeted, and the third and seemingly final trial began!
In an instant, Nephertys Setet could feel the sensation of dozens of bodies all around her suddenly get pressed up against and intruding upon her own personage. Arms, legs, torsos, backs, necks, feet, hands, fingers, all of them and everywhere, grabbing, touching, pushing, shoving, clawing, scraping, stomping. It was... Unpleasant, to say the least, but also unlike anyhting she'd ever experienced before. So many people, packed in such a tight space, all trying to escape at the same time without any order or discipline or guidance, a mad scramble where it was every man, woman and child for themselves. Everyone and anyone geting in each other's way, swears, curses, yelps of pain or indgination, it was a right mess.
Somehow, after a not insignificant amount of time, the throng of applicants had managed to shuffle and squeeze around enough for the young desert dweller to get to the edge of the trench, and with eager hands, she grabbed onto the side and edge of this very ball-free ball-pit and began to heave herself up. This initial part hadn't been particularly tiring or straining on her phyiscally, more so mentally. Never had been in such a crowded and chaotic place before, the girl took a moment to recollect and gather her composure. She also took in the sight of the various obstacles that lay ahead.
... And watched as some poor guy got hit in the side of the head by a flying magic missile just as he was getting ready to reach the first of the many road blocks, and subsequently get flung off like a ragdoll... Nephy gulped.
But there was no time to hesitate. She'd already forgotten if the Master of Ceremony had stated if there was a time-limit or not, but the quicker she got this done, the better. With that mindset flooding her (limited) mind, the dark skinned girl moved forward, on to the first hindrance.
She watched with a face that screamed Oh ye gods, do I really have to do this!? as she looked at the muddy ground that hada a bunch of strange, thorny metal cord stretched slightly above it. What kind of madness was this!? There were no plants made of metal or with thorny barbs like this in the wild, was there? Watching as others knelt and began crawling, or slithering, underneath the menacing hurdle, Nephy eventually relented with a deep sigh and bent down as well. Getting onto all fours, like some beast or toddler, she tried to lower herself as much as she could.
Unfortunately, when you've got rather sizeable bazongas, trying to get flat on the ground isn't exactly easy. Furthemore, when you've got really long hair, that doesn't make things easier when there's sharp and pointy things above you. As she tried to move forward by dragging herself, she coudld feel her low twintails more than once get caught in the wire, and she had to pause to roll over on one side and try to wriggle herself free from the snag. This made her progress under the barbed wire very slowly and frustrating. She pouted quite fiercly while wriggling around down there. The ick factor was also a problem.
Hailing from a place that was very dry, things like mud wasn't exactly a commonplace natural obstacle. Sure, there was sand, but it was as mentioned, dry. If you got it on yourself, you could brush or sweep or shake it off. But this... This stuff was wet, brown, sticky and gooey. It clung to your body and clothes and had a slightly below room-temperature, making it a constant unpleasant reminder... Also, it got stuck in places that were really inconvenient, especially when you were wearing light clothes with a lot of openings...
"Gwaaahh... Finally...! This was most certainlky not splendid."
A mud-caked Nephy at last emerged from the wirey mud pit. Standing up, she looked down at her rather sorry state, frowning deeply and, futilly, tried to scrape and brush as much of the sticky and unpleasant mud off as she could. But as she stood there, a bolt of electric energy straked by her face, leaving an unpleasant smell of ozone behind, and the young wizardess was reminded that this wasn't exactly a safe place to stop and dust yourself off. Looking around in an almost frantic way, she spotted where the others were moving to and followed quickly. As she was used to excersising and moving about, this hand't been as hard on her as some others, but it had done a number on both her hair and her clothes, and she was more worn down from having had to repeatedly free her hair and clothes from the barbed wire than from the act of crawling.
Reaching the second obstacle, Nephy looked a bit confused. How were they supposed to get across if the bridge was elevated above their heads with no ramp? Then, she watched in stunned horror, as people tried to cross this mudpit not by walking on the thin railed bars, but by clinging underneath and swinging themselves back and forth, using their hands and arms.
"M-Madness...!" She stated, blinking a few times just to make sure this wasn't a mirage or something. It was not. Most unfortunately.
Stepping up, she tried to watch how the others did and handled themselves, before putting her own hands onto the bars. They were uncomfortable. And there were countless traces of muddy prints and wet dirt left all over them. But as she watched people do swinging motions with their whole bodies and moving like a pendulum, the Setet heiress couldn't help but feel like this might actually look to be... Well, fun! Though judging by the grunts, groans and words of outrage that kept spilling out of every other contestants mouth, along with the spine-chilling screams of those who slipped and fell down into the sloppy soup of sludge below, perhaps it wasn't so fun...
Regardless, she had to get past this too! So, with a heave and ho and a hefty swing, she started on her path! ... And immediately lost her grip, let out a girly 'Aiiiieeeeee!' and fell down into the mud below with a comedic 'splat'. Yup. She'd never done anything like this before, and having to be good at it, on the spot, without any prior practice or preparation, was obviously going to result in this outcome. Undeterred however, Nephy rose from the goopy gunk, like some kind of monster from an old movie, mud and gloop sliding off and trickling down her fetching form as she stood once more, looking up at the bars that mocked her from the heavens above.
"I will not be defeated." She swore, shaking her fist at the rails up above.
Exiting the pit and returning to the starting-point, because thankfully there was a sloped path for those who didn't manage to get across on their first go, Nephy returned to the start. She was drenched in even more muck now, but that didn't matter. With narrowed blue and golden eyes, she once again attempted the crossing. This time, she didn't fail to grab the first set of bars, at least. But... She also kinda just... Hung there... Dangling... She tried kicking her legs and shaking her lower body, but she couldn't seem to get the hang of how to swing her whole body... Or, so it was for a fair of time though... Eventually, thanks to watching those who passed her by, the young lady eventually picked up on how to do it herself.
Sadly, at this point, she'd been hanging there for a while, and keeping yourself suspended while trying to hold up your own body's entire weight did do a number on your arms. Nephertys could feel hers start to hurt and ache in protest. But despite the pain, desptie looking like a mud-monster, and despite being contineously off-balance in her swings due to her own proportions, she somehow managed to get past these hellish bars. Once she had crossed, the star mage had to sit down on the ground and panted furiously, brushing off more of the mud from her form.
But when a chunk of ice, the size of a pumpkin, landed next to her and sent icey shards flying all over the place (and herself), she reckoned it was time to get back up and keep moving!
The third obstacle was a wall. A wall with wonky, strange and unnatural indents or outcroppings. Apparently they were supposed to scale it. Nephy watched as other applicants scampered up and tried to conquer the vertical surface. Some succeeded. Some slipped and dangled precariously. Some fell and plummeted back down, or hit others below them and brought their rivals down along with them. No matter how you sliced it, this clearly didn't look safe at all.
"What sort of person could even come up with something like this...?" she asked, while looking at the bizarre surface before her.
Approaching cautiously, she reached a hand out and touched the wall, then one of the lower... Grabby-hold-y things.. Coarse. Hard. Uncomfortable. Yup, it all tracked. Rubbing her hands together and shaking off some of the clinging mu slop, she grabbed her first hold. Then placed a foot on one of the lower indents. With a hefty huff, she pushed herself up and grabbed the next hole. Initially, it seemed to be going alright, but as she got higher and the grabby things became more infrequent and more angled in unnatural and inconvenient ways, young Nephertys could feel her wrists, hands and fingers beging to hurt. The fact that her ample chest was also constatnly getting in her way and bumping into the outcroppings when she tried to go higher was also a concern, a concern that almost knocked herself off the wall several times.
At one point she slipped with one hand, banging her shoulder and arm into the hard, unforgiving object and nearly losing her entire footing. Only by some miraculous stroke of luck, did she manage to grapple onto a new fastening and keep herself from falling aaaaaall the way back down. This was not excersise Nephy was used to, and her limbs all yelled at her for making them do this. But the stubborn youth refused to yield or listen to the complaints of her frail physical form, and forged on, eventually flinging herself up onto the flat floor at the peak.
Lying on her side, breathing heavily, sweaty and with a slow-panning camera that went from her feet and worked its way up her body until it reached her face, with flushed cheeks and half closed eyes as she took quick, repeated breaths...
... Anyway...!
Once recovered, if only a little bit, the wizard got back up, looking around for where to go next. And there it was... Nephy's eyes went wide and her mouth slightly dropped as she saw the next obtsacle. A deep pit, filled with more mud - what was up with thist rial and mud?! Did the guy who designed this have some kind of weird, obsessive mud-fesish or something?! - with upright logs placed in it... And when she saw what the other applicants did, she could feel her stomach lurch.
"That's... That's crazy..."
While Neph was usually optimistic and undaunted by most things, this was... A bit out of her wheel-house. Never had she done anything like this, or even remotely similar to it before, in her entire life. People had to jump between this upright pillars, without falling down, in order to get to the other side. And given that many of those who crossed were liek Nephy - that is, covered in mud - plenty of footprints and mud-remnants were left on the surfaces of where you were supposed to land and leap from. She could feel her legs shake slightly. This wasn't... This didn't seem fair... Were Magic Knights really supposed to do this sort of thing? Was needing to jump between thin, vertical platforms a common thing in their line of work? The Setet-girl couldn't help but feel uncertain about that.
Her mother's words echoed in her head agian though. And she knew. She knew that no matter what, she had to do this. She had to succeed. Otherwise, what was the point of having gotten this far?
Steeling herself with a few slaps on her own cheeks, she moved ahead. And watched some poor unlucky sod get hit by a water sphere right in mid-air as he jumped between two pillars, promptly sending him to the bottom of the pit. Nephy gulped again, louder this time.
Reaching the edge, she looked out over and observed the log-filled pit of mud. She looked down, and instantly regretted doing so, having to back away from the edge for a moment. Shaking her head, Nephertys then re-approached, sucked in a deep breath of air, locked her eyes on the closest log, crouched aaaaaaaaaand.......!
JUMP!
It was a odd sensation, flinging yourself over an open pit, aiming to land in a specific place, having to judge distance and apply the right amount of force and angle and momentum, all by yourself, with no help from magic or spells... It felt so... Heavy, and clumbsy... Speaking of clumbsy...
"Gwuh-hooohk!!"
Nephy made the first jump... But just barely... Rather, she sort of hit the log itself with her lower body and legs, and her upper body flopped onto the actual 'landing zone'... It was incredibly unexpected, not to mention painful, but somehow she managed to scramble and clamper back up onto the pillar's top, keeping herself from fallling down. Her legs really hurt after that though, and she'd likely end up with bruises on her upper thighs from it. And this was just the first log, there was still a not-so-few more logs to go before she was across. Watching as spells flew past and whizzed by, watching other applicants jump and get safely past her, or fall to their fate, Nephertys spent a good while on that one pillar, taking deep breaths. Just breaths.
Eventually, she stood again. Repeated what she'd done for the first jump, and once more took the leap! The second time went better, but not by much. She still miscalculated the distance and landed with one her shins slamming into the top-edge-side of the pillar, which again, hurt quite a bit. This... This wasn't good. If she kept hurting herself like this, there was no way she'd make it across. But she had to. She just had to succeed. Preparing for the next bounce, she stood again...
... ANd then, a sudden gust of wind blew.
A really strong wind. Just as she jumped.
Was this it? Was she doomed to fall down? She wasn't sure she'd be able to keep going if she did. The fall was far, and her body already hurt. If she took more damage, would she even be able to go on...?
... But the wind, surely meant to blow contestants off the logs, did not seal her destiny this day. In fact, like a spring-loaded pinball-launcher, it propelled Nephy forward and upwards, in a soaring arc that you would never be able to achieve with a mere human's physical prowess. The wind carried her past the log she'd aimed for, and the next, and the next, and even the next! Until she finally came falling down, and landed on the one after that... Almost perfectly...
The desert girl looked back, blinking and with a face of stunned bewilderment. How... What... had somebody...? No, nobody else could use magic either, thanks to these bracelets, so... Huh? She saw a few of the people behind her, staring in shock or confusion as well. It seemed she wasn't the only one who was surprised. But, hey, on the bright side, there was only one jump left, and she managed this one just fine, as it didn't require as much mental math and precision!
"Th-That was scary... So scary..."
Nephy's heart was beating like a drum, her legs hurt, he breath was labored and she felt like her entire body was shaking from nerves, and perhaps a bit of adrenaline. Wanting to get as far away from this pit of doom as soon as possible, the star mage didn't stick atround to catch her breath or contemplate the evvents that had just benefitted her in a blatantly favorable way, and moved to the next station.
"Oh... How... Peculiar." Nephertys stopped in amazement.
Rotating, spinning machines... With colorful gloves on them... And a narrow path inbetween them. What were they supposed to d--
"Gwakkk! Aarghh! Narrh! Pfah!"
She watched as another girl tried to run between the constructs on the thin walkway, only to get pummeled repeatedly as one of the spinning gloves caught her, and sent her flying into the opposite row of rotating fists, which sent her careening back to the first lot, and so forth and so on. Ah, so that was it... They had to get past this rotato-fist without getting punched. How insidious. And barbaric. But at least this seemed more in line with a Magic Knight's work... Dodging enemy attacks and motions seemed far more in line with what she'd imagine them to deal with, as opposed to jumping over pits...
Reaching the machinery, muddy, aching, heart pounding, breathing heavily and feeling weariness setting in, Neph had no choice but to try and conquer this unrelenting obstacle as well. Readying herself, she tried to do a cool, protagist slow-mo moment, where she watched, figured out and perfectly meanuevered through the spinning boxing gloves in an awesome, matrix-like fluid movement without getting hit once and making it unscathed to the other side!
Obviously, that isn't how things went.
"Gah! Oof! Nahn! Pwuh! Ack! Sonova--! Bwof! Ow! Dangit--!" ... Precision, timing and coordination with anything except magic was not Nephertys forte. But somehow, despite being slugged, socked and slapped around like she was the world's biggest punching bag, the pretty dark skinned girl made it through. Exactly how she did it... Well, she can't really recall, one of those fist things hit her pretty hard in the head...
However, there it was. The final challenge.
"... I'm... I... So... Close..."
Her body was trembling. Every part of her hurt now. her face, her chest, her lungs, her arms, her back, her legs... Everything felt sore and battered, heavy and tired. She wanted to do nothing more than lay down and rest. But before she could do that, she had to get up this... This thing. a ramp, coated in oil, placed at the very end when everyone was hurt and exhausted... How evil... She watched as her exhausted, battered and bruised peers tried to run up the sloping ramp, only to slip, fall on their face or belly, and come sliding back down to the ground. Some weren't even trying, choosing instead to sit next to the ramp and try and recover... A smart move, if you didn't think you had it in you to make it up right when you arrived.
But Nephy wasn't smart. I eman, Nephy wasn't about to be stopped by this final hurdle!
She watched. Some tried to run straight. Some tried to zig-zag up. Some tried to jump or make tiny leaps. Some tried crawling. Some tried running like a pair, with one pushing a person infront of themselves up ahead, and the person infront trying to drag and pull the one behind along with them. But none of these plans seemed to work. They all ended in face-planting bellyflops and humiliating, slow-sliding back down.
However, it seemed someone had seen something. Nephertys noticed a girl wearing a light cape, who was taking said cape off, and began to tear it apart. Confused at this sight, the dsert dweller approached her. To savetime, the conversation went by as follows:
The cape-wearer was surprised to be talked to. Nephy inquried why she was ripping up her clothes. The cape wearer was rude and told the star mage to buzz off. The star mage asked if she was doing it in a fit of frustration. The cape-wearer indignantly stated that she wasn't angry and shoo'd Nephertys away.
But, the cape-wearing amge then tried to run up the ramp... And to the star amge's surprise, she was actually doing it. But ho-- Wait... Her feet and hands... They were wrapped in strips of cloth? But why...? Wouldn't they get soaked in the oil and become slippery too? Well, perhaps they'd remain frictional long enough for you to get up? How curious... That girl must've been quite clever! Perhaps even a genius!
... Thougn in all honesty, she'd seen a pair of other applicants do it before, and was now just mimicking them... But Nephy didn't know that.
Finding some left over scraps by the capeless cape-mage, young lady Setet picked them and replicated the idea, as best she could anyway. She then returned to infront of the ramp. Looking up the daunting run ahead of her, she once more took a deep, deep, deeeeeeep breath, then exhaled... Closed her eyes, cleared her mind, was reminded of her much her fudging legs hurt, and then... Took off!
Like a shibainu hopped up on sugar, the star mage charged forward in a frantic blind surge, yelling - very heroically - all the way as she raced forth, reaching and planting the first foot on the ramp, then the second, then sliding, both hands came down, the pulled, her feet pushed. It was an undignified, inelegant and unsightly scramble, voif o grace, poise or composure. And yet, this mad flailing of arms and legs, constant yelling and unbending determination to GODS-DAMNED-MAKE-IT-UP-THIS-FORSAKEN-ASS-RAMP managed to somehow, by some force of the universe, drive and allow the noblewoman from the golden-laiden desert, to claw and crawl her way up the slippery surface... Until she finally, finally, reached the top...!
"I-- Hwaaaah-- made it...!"
With a voice much deeper than her usual tone, and an elongated, hollow breath, Nephertys Setet climbed onto the flat surface of the platform... And then promptly collapsed where she was, falling into an unceremonious heap. her vision was blurry, her hearing was muffled, her breaths were ragged and hastened, her limbs pounded and hurt, her lungs were on fire, her mouth was dry and she felt as if she had the coldest of sweats. She trembled and quivered as all the adrenaline drained away and gave rise to the exhaustion and aftermath of excessive intense physical activity.
...
...
But...
".. I ... did it... Mother... I... did... it...."
Actions & Interactions: - Nephy took on the obstacle course. - Nepgy completed the obstacle course, albeit battered, bruised and completely exhausted, now unable to stand or even move.
From Illios’ dive to dodge his assailant, he saw that another person performed the same action. Illios looked up quickly and then back to the one diving with him, ”Hey! Name’s Illios!” Maybe they could help each other out.
Albie didn't respond to Illios immediately as he was distracted by the sounds of the two contestants getting hit by Snyder's attack thanks to his dodging. He felt a bit guilty about getting them involved but he had no choice and still felt like he couldn't let Snyder pass.
"I'm Albie, nice of you to drop in." Albie would have facepalmed if he wasn't holding onto his broom, this wasn't the time for bad jokes.
Illios would have laughed to that response, yet he began to feel a great deal of heat spread across his back, at first he thought it was the sun, until the pain made his body scream out. It stopped moments after yet he could not stop himself from yelling out, ”AH!”
Illios winced as he pulled out from the dive and looked back to Bryant who was still chasing, he turned to Albie. Seeing they were both in a similar situation, he thought that maybe teaming up will be useful. Illios called out to Albie, ”Hey! Wanna help each other with our problems?”
To his surprise Illios wanted to team up, an offer Albie wasn't going to refuse given his condition. "Not gonna lie, I can use the help." he responded, desperately trying to generate enough mana to stop falling and pull up as well. "Fair warning though I'm almost out of mana."
Illios gave a winced chuckle to Albie, ”I’m not too much better”. Illios continued to fly as he lifted one of his hands and said, ”But if we keep away from acid boy we can focus on glass guy!” Illios focused his mana into his hand, and began to fire bolts of golden light at the glass that began to descend upon the both of them. With the high speed of Illios’ magic bolts, they flew with enough force and energy to intercept the glass. Melting the glass completely as it came near and stopping what would be more painful attacks.
"Another fire user?" Albie assumed since Illios's blasts were melting Snyder's glass, but he didn't have much time to think about the coincidence that both people he teamed up with used the same kind of magic. "Guess I'll have to handle the offense this time." Albie formed a magic bullet, going for a beam this time. Instead of aiming at Snyder himself Albie fired at his broom again, hoping to do enough to make it unusable.
The two of them began to fire out at Snyder, one to defend themselves and their momentary ally from the enraged noble’s terrible wrath. Meanwhile, the other deftly struck out at the angered noble. It was not in retaliation, but in an act to sabotage his ability to chase them. The bolt landed cleanly as his broom began to shake and wobble under him. Yet it did not stop him in his pursuit.
Yet that wasn’t their only issue, Bryant continued to chase them as he tried to strike out at them with his nasty acid magic. Bryant was a much tougher one to escape, his acid attacks were not only hard to defend against but also to get around. Acid burns were not easily escaped and to make Bryant leave would be more difficult. His Acid magic was quite powerful, being used in a defensive manner, he is able to coat any attack in acid, either melting it or weighing it down and making it miss.
Illios and Albie however did not allow themselves to be taken out easily, They constantly dashed around upon their brooms and lashed back with their own magics. Using bolts of energy to try and make space and defend themselves from more attacks. Their combined efforts allowed for the both of them to survive the constant onslaught that they found themselves under. And after a few minutes, it felt as if they were left alone, as a few moments later they heard a yell ring out across the arena.
"ALL CONTESTANTS, CEASE FIRE! THE THIRD TRIAL HAS ENDED! I REPEAT, THE THIRD TRIAL HAS ENDED! RETURN TO THE ARENA FLOOR!"
Illios let out a cheer, ”YES!” He was happy that he had made it with his prize. He flew over to Albie as he raised a hand for a high five, ”We did it!”
Trial 4, Part 1 Tristan stumbled as if he'd suddenly gained fifty pounds. He clutched the arm that had been fitted with the magic-draining device as if he'd been wounded, and looked down at it in shock.
Was this what life was like for the Anti-Magic King? Every single day? He clenched and unclenched his fists, and shifted from one foot to the other. He remembered the feeling of when he'd first gotten his grimoire, how a whole new sense for magic had opened up for him, but he had never been magicless. Being weak wasn't the same as not having anything--this felt as if one of his senses had somehow been completely cut off, like he was blind while still seeing or like the air had lost its flavor.
But there was the signal! The crowd lurched awkwardly---many of those who had considered themselves shoe-ins were now filled with sudden doubt. Some of those who feared vengeance for their actions in the third trial now had their heads on a swivel. Yet, amidst the boom of a magical shell that came down somewhere to their rear, the applicants managed to get moving--and began to pick up speed.
Just getting out of the ditch was the first challenge. Tristan was practically crushed among the throng, but dug in his heels--and his elbows, in the case of one set of ribs--and managed to follow the flow up the slope. Then he started running.
This was absolute chaos! The ground next to him exploded as a fireball whizzed past, and despite choking in the smoke he managed to keep his feet. He saw someone get splashed with an orb of water that arced through the air like a catapult shot, and wondered if non-lethal still applied in this new trial. His heart was already pounding in his ears.
Up ahead it looked like things were getting crowded again--apparently, some kind of invisible walls kept people from going around the field of barbed wire, so everyone was getting bottlenecked after sprinting across the field. Tristan recognized the material as something farmers used to keep strong-willed cattle from breaking through their fences. He pulled off his cloak, and tied it around his waist--it was inevitably going to snag, he figured, but he didn't want it pulling at his throat or face when it did. Steeling himself with a deep breath, he dropped to his belly and began to inch along.
It's like a bramble bush, it'll hurt more if you go slow...they already healed us before, might as well take the scrapes and try to get it over with as fast as possible... The cold mud was already soaking the front of his shirt and pants. He dared to lift his head a few inches, just enough to keep the muck out of his eyes and nose--
@Xaltwind And, just up ahead of him, happened to see a rather shapely pair of legs attached to a swaying rear that was just barely avoiding the prickly bits of the spiraling wires above them. His face immediately went hot, and he had to resist the urge to check for a nosebleed with his mud-covered hand.
What do they FEED these noble girls?! Focus! Fooooocusssss--
No, there was no way. She was in front of him, there was absolutely no way to focus on anything else. He could practically hear the steam coming out of his ears.
They finally made it out, one after the other, and the girl commented to herself that this was "most certainly not splendid." Tristan was in complete agreement, but started running again while she seemed to be cleaning the mud off herself. His neck had to work very hard to keep him from turning back to watch her do it.
The next obstacle reminded Tristan of when he and the other village boys would climb trees, or play on old rope swings. He had the upper body strength, but the real challenge was the mud that now coated his arms, and that left behind by other competitors. He rubbed his hands together, and then tried the only technique he could think of--
"Hawk-tuah!" The blacksmith's son clapped his palms together after spitting on them, then leaped and grabbed the first bar. His shoulders protested the movement after all that sword swinging he'd done in the previous round, but his grip held firm! With a rock of his hips and a kick of his legs, he was off. By the time he made it to the other side his palms were red and burning--but he actually made it without falling!
Amidst a shower of magical pebbles, he landed on the other bank and covered his head, running serpentine towards the climbing wall. Again, his significant upper body strength helped him here. His feet slipped more than once, and he had to let go on purpose once to avoid a barrage of snowballs that splattered the tower structure--he wasn't sure what was worse, the icy slush or the mud. People passed him up--and at one point, he paused. @Remram@SilverPaw A pair of people, somewhere up higher, were talking to each other as if they were working together. Tristan squinted, and tilted his head to try and see around other bodies in the way--and almost lost his balance. But, as he secured his grip again, he shook his head.
"Ludo? Haven't heard from him in ages...Would he really be here?" Tristan and his father had been to the Liszt family inn many times over the years, traveling to markets or shipping goods to and from their smithy. But on their last few trips, the innkeeper's son hadn't been seen--Marco Liszt had fallen badly ill at one point, and the last Tristan had heard, Ludo was working somewhere else to try and pay the bills. Was he trying to become a Magic Knight for the money?
Not that I'd have a problem with that...I just never really figured this kinda thing would be up his ally. Although I guess I did hear Ludo's magic was really strong...
Of course, more than that, Tristan knew he didn't have the right to question anyone else's motives. He himself was only here because...well...what else was he supposed to do, with something like Sword Magic?
It was that moment of distraction that saw his grip slip, coming down the other side of the wall--not because he got hit by the projectiles, or because someone pushed him. He just...faltered. Luckily for him, he had already passed over it, and was only a few feet from the ground. Still, coming down on one's rear end, with no magic to reinforce the body, was an unpleasant impact. With a groan, he picked himself up and kept going.
Leaping between the pillars marked his first fall, as only three logs into it he stepped in someone else's goopy footprint, and down he went. The plunge was cold enough it nearly took his breath away. But, as he swept the fresh coating of muck away from his face, he noted two more familiar faces--Bryce, the Coral Magic user, and that guy who'd tried to take his head off before--Mack Fuely, or something of that nature?
"Ha! Got you too, huh Red?"
"Brudda Tris, take mi hand!" The mage with dreadlocks reached out and helped the commoner dislodge himself from the mud, and the two of them headed up the ramps. Tristan pulled his arm away from Bryce, tensing as he stared Mack down.
"Hey, hey, no hard feelings, yeah?" Mack shrugged, holding his hands out and empty as a sign of peace. "That was then, this is now."
"And what is this, then?" Tristan asked, as the three of them now proceeded back to the top of the pit and examined the antagonistic course anew. "Are you guys working together?"
"Ain't nobody said we couldn't!" Mack pointed at some of the logs in sequence. "Look, some of 'em are closer together than others! Me and Dreads here have fallen twice now, but the second time we, uh...ran into one another by accident."
"Ya grabbed mi sleeve, ya bumbacl--!"
"I was falling, it wasn't like an intentional thing--!"
"But because of that, you figured out that if you had multiple people standing on the closer pillars, you can reach each other?" Tristan crossed his arms as Mack nodded, eager to re-focus on this apparent plot.
"Yeah! With three of us, it's like that old riddle with the fox and the boat or whatever! One of us goes, then he reaches back to grab the next guy, and helps him to the next pillar, then the first guy goes again and the second guy grabs the third guy, and the third guy holds the second guy steady so he can go again--!" Mack's arms moved in confusing patterns as he tried to demonstrate his logic.
"Right, right. I don't think we have time to rehearse it all." The redhead looked at the bronze-skinned boy and the ruffian for a moment, sizing them up, then nodded. "But I'm game to try it at least once."
"If dis dun work, I may have anudda idea..." Bryce tilted his head, and the other two boys looked in the direction he indicated. They saw a huge youth (Maverick) accompanied by a smaller, much better dressed one (Isvelt). Only, the big guy was laying down at the moment...using his enormous frame like an actual bridge, feet hooked around one pillar and arms gripping another for dear life.
"You're doing it, Maverick! You're amazing! Tremendous!" said the poncy git as he carefully walked across the other boy's backside. "Just make sure you squeeze those glutes! I need a firm surface!"
"Muh, Mr. Isvelt...A-a-are y-you sure y-you'll be able to, uh, p-pull me up afterwards?" said the carrot-topped giant, clearly straining to support the other boy's weight as his back sagged.
"W-well, you know..." Isvelt pulled at his collar as he chuckled nervously. "N-nothing's impossible with, um, the power of friendship! Or whatever." He lackadasically waved one hand.
"...What an asshole." Tristan muttered under his breath, completely unaware that insulting royalty could very well get him a fine or even a prison sentence.
"Right?" Mack said, with a surprisingly empathetic expression for someone who'd tried to cave Tristan's head in earlier. "Guys like that, their day's comin' sooner than they think..." The blacksmith's son blinked at that comment, but then the punkish young man grabbed both him and Bryce by the shoulder and dragged them towards one side of the pit. "Now c'mon, let's go!"
It was touch and go, teeter and totter, for an uncomfortably long time. But somehow, Mack's plan actually worked! Tristan was the second one across, and both he and Mack held their hands out, leaning precariously over the pit from the other side. Both of them eyed each other warily--if there was ever a time for betrayal, it would be now.
But Bryce leaped, and both of them caught his arms, and all three of them fell onto solid ground.
"Hahaha! We did it, bruddahs!"
"Hell yeah! When Mack Fuely makes a plan, he's gonna see it through!"
"...Good work, everyone." Tristan couldn't help but smile. However, they were only halfway done. "Now, hopefully we see each other at the finish line!"
Once again, they had to cross the field between mini-trials amidst a hail of explosions and raining debris. Tristan lost sight of his two conspirators as a fist made of stone sprang up in front of him, forcing him to leap-frog over it, and then dodge under a rolling cloud of mist. He saw someone else get caught in it, and somehow they ended up running in the complete opposite direction--which caused them to collide head on with another applicant, and sent both to the ground in a tangle of limbs. The commoner picked himself back up, was nearly knocked back down by someone charging into him shoulder first, then again made his way towards the next test.
"Oh, great! It's THIS guy again, fellows!" Tristan narrowed his eyes and growled between clenched teeth.
