Coeus?

“He is hit! Oh, no! The blood! Look at all that blood! I always said that the safety measures for this event aren't tight enough!”

-Commentator

***Aether, The Floating City, above the Atlantic Ocean***

***Gideon***

Maybe joining the annual tournament was a bad idea. I close my eyes while my opponent is struggling under my foot. In absence of any mentionable opposition, the duels so far have been very boring.

I apply a little more pressure because the maggot under me is very nimble. Something snaps and my victim stops his attempts to escape.

Keeping him down until the judge counts him out is a good way to decide these fights. I just have to apply gravity magic to my foot and step onto them. It's the easiest and most energy conserving way to win.

The judge signals me that I've won and I take my foot from the back of my opponent's head. Upon giving the ranks of spectators a victory sign with my fingers, I notice that my family members are the only ones who are cheering. Hmm. Strange. Am I doing something wrong? Maybe crushing all my opponents' attempts at casting spells isn't entertaining enough?

The annual tournament is a series of knockout-matches between all students who joined. First you start by fighting the people of the same year, then you move upwards. This means that the strongest student of each year has to fight his strongest senior.

The duels are held in a huge stadium with fifty separate rings on slightly elevated platforms. Once you join the tournament, you are automatically teleported to the ring where your duel will take place. Each ring has four judges who take turns in creating barriers and shields for the students.

I can tell that this system is meant to teach the hot headed ones humbleness. There is always someone stronger than you. A student has almost no chance of winning unless he belongs to the older years. But I am not doing this to win, I am doing it to test my strategies and limits.

Beating the students of my own year was easy enough. The difference in our spells isn't that big, but I've already started feeling a slight disadvantage. The next matches are the reason why I am even doing this.

I want to learn where the problems start showing, so that I can start thinking of required countermeasures. The student whom I just defeated stands up and leaves the arena, holding his nose with a strange expression.

The judges are shielding us with layered shield spells, so it's highly unlikely that somebody gets hurt. Though I already noticed that physical contact doesn't seem to activate the shields.

The rules of the duels are clear. You win either by immobilizing your opponent for longer than ten seconds, throwing him out of the ring, or by causing their first shield layer to fail.

So far my strategy of interrupting the enemy's spells worked. I used Force to interfere with their hands, so that they weren't able to form the runes properly. Many children at my age rely on hand movements while speaking the name of the spell, though speaking the spell out loud is just a mental help. If I break their concentration, I can rush in and end it before they have the chance for a second try.

Though I can already tell that this strategy won't work with experienced opponents.

My thoughts are interrupted by the appearance of my first senior. It's a girl with blonde hair and a chubby face. Otherwise I can't make out any features which I would deem as distinctive, though her expression seems troubled. Maybe she dislikes having a younger opponent?

The judge gives us a signal and she doesn't lose time in activating a spell. I recognize the rune system which is intended to create a strong electrical charge between her and me. She seems to be an electro-mage and she wants to take me out quickly.

It's lucky for me that I have exactly the right countermeasure for this. Raising both hands I ready myself and wait for her to finish her spell. If I am judging her rune-system right, then my left hand is exactly where her energy discharge will hit. Now all I have to do is ready myself and send it right back at her by increasing it with my own power. Once I create a high enough pole, the energy should lash out right back at her.

In the next moment two dancing streams of white blue light appear between us. The energy is leaving her hand and entering my left hand, then exiting my right hand and returning right towards her. The thunderbolt dances over her body and eats away at her shield.

She hurries to cancel her spell, but the damage is done. She lost two layers of her shield and the judge calls for the end of the match.

I wince and move my fingers. Channelling a few thousand volt through my own body is a very twitchy experience. Though I won against someone in a higher class. I expect to win one more, maybe two or three matches. Then the difference in our power levels should get too big. Once again I notice the unnatural silence of the spectators. At first they were cheering, but then they went quieter and quieter.

Earlier I didn't notice it because there were so many fights taking place at the same time. By now the fights are being held one by one since there aren't many students left. The champions of each year are already set in stone, so all that's left to do is for the younger fighters lose properly to the older ones.

This time I am the one who is teleported to another ring. The world around me changes and I find myself at another position in the arena. A tall boy is waiting for me with a smug grin on his face. Upon a signal from the judge he starts the match with a strange spell. I've never seen the runes he is using before, but I can tell that it has similarities to the rune system inside my amulet. My amulet has a passive healing effect, so I guess that he is casting some kind of buff. Probably something similar to Ralph's physical enhancements.

I try to interrupt him, but he has the expertise to finish the spell despite my interference. Once a mage achieves a certain level of experience he isn't reliant on his hands any more.

He rushes forward and I have no choice but to resort to my strategy against physically superior opponents. Manipulating my own body with several force spells at once, I avoid his fist and force my leg towards his chin.

But he avoids it by a hair's breadth and I manage to divert his second strike by applying force to his hand. Unfortunately the simple force rune isn't strong enough to seriously influence someone. It can only apply a force of five kilograms at most. It's enough to divert an attack, but I can't control my opponent as I wish.

My body tumbles through the air while I try to avoid his arms and legs. Somehow it's like playing Toribash with myself while my opponent has perfect control over his body. I only wish that I was really playing one of those ancient games, but this time my real body is at stake. It'll hurt if he actually hits me.

Barely holding on while manipulating my legs and arms I tumble through the air like a drunken stick-figure. I don't know how this looks to an outsider, but I myself don't think that this fighting style has any elegance. Suddenly, I fling my hand towards his face and manage to apply Force on it twice before it made contact which his cheek. There you have it! Ten kilograms of slapping power!

The shield spells of the teachers only activate upon sensing a certain elemental attack or an object with a velocity above a certain threshold. Physical strikes are too slow, so they aren't registered.

I admire my open hand impacting his cheek and the waves which are sent through his flesh. But I regret hitting him as soon as I realize that his spit and blood is now all over my hand. Is that a tooth which is spinning out of his mouth?

Turning in a perfect pirouette my opponent goes down and I somehow manage to land on my legs without breaking something.

After watching him for a while I decide that he is out cold and I deactivate my ability. My hand is full of spit, and a smear of blood is also on it, so I bend forward and try to clean it as well as possible on his clothes. He is unconscious and lying face down on the ground, so he isn't able to object my actions.

I only manage a half-assed job of cleaning my hand before one of the judges lifts me up by grabbing me with his hands under my armpits. He sets me down a metre to the side. A second later all four judges are tending to the boy on the ground.

The crowd should be cheering by now, but all I find upon looking up to the ranks of spectators is chilly silence. What a disheartening fan-club. I managed to beat the strongest student two years above me, why aren't they going rampant? Where is the clapping and howling from all the fighting games I played?

Once again I am teleported to another ring, again with a guy as my opponent. Seems like they don't even want to wait until they are done with checking on my previous victim. This time my opponent immediately takes a guarding stance upon the judge's starting signal. He also casts several shields and barrier spells until he is wrapped in a blue shimmering bubble of energy. Is that his fighting style, or is he afraid of me?

Seriously, am I that dangerous? Though I'll admit that my current appearance is a little threatening. I wipe the blood from my hand by using my trousers and raise the other, looking to one of the judges. “I give up.”

“What!?” my opponent calls out, flabbergasted.

Nobody is cheering, so I don't want to go on. It feels wrong. “My body hurts and I feel sore all over from the previous fight.”

In addition, I've already reached my goal, so exerting more energy doesn't gain me anything. I can already tell that even if I manage to beat one or two more opponents, I am at my limit. Better to end it without actually getting beaten. “And I have no idea how I should break that many barriers.”

I walk out of the ring and let myself slide down the slightly elevated platform, ignoring my opponent and the judges.

The silence throughout the stadium still doesn't feel right. At home I'll sit down and hold my plush cat for a while. Maybe I'll gain enlightenment.

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