Chapter 10: Elimination

The dawn of the tournament rolled around. The whole of the next seven days, up until the beginning of the next weekend, would be specifically reserved for the tournament. The elimination rounds would take four days, two rounds each. And the final three days would bear witness to the finals: three on the first day (three of the four matches on the bottom of the ladder), two on the second day (one of the matches on the bottom and one semifinal), and two on the last day (one semifinal and the final match). 

At seven thirty in the morning, Lucas and the other competitors were to go to a specific room and organize themselves into their respective teams. When Lucas and Eren arrived at the classroom they were instructed to go to, they found that it was giant, almost a third of the size of the dining hall. They quickly arrived at the side of Cairen. Iriyen was already there. There was a hallway that seemed to connect the classroom, which was underground, to a place rather distant. The door creaked and a deep, magnified voice yelled, “Quiet down!”

It was Coach Flint. His impressive figure waded through the sea of students, though Lucas could barely see him, what with the domineering heights of his seniors. When the coach arrived at the entrance to the hallway, he spoke again, “You will all be heading into the colosseum from this hallway. There is another one that leads to the opposite side. Leading up to your battles, we will inform your team leader of which one to take. The school has already arrived at the stadium, so without further ado, let us proceed.”

With a wave of his hand, the coach beckoned the contestants to follow him through the tunnel. At some point, Vaelith had already arrived and found them. The youngest team attempted to stick together through the torrent of older students. After around two minutes of walking, they were met with a right turn. A speck of light appeared in the distance after the turn. The light grew with every step, until it revealed the battlefield of the stadium. 

The entire colosseum was built by stone with Coach Flint’s magic. It had a diameter of three-quarters of a kilometer and its lowest row of bleachers was ten meters from the ground. The terrain of the battlefield would not be flat stone like it was now; after all, it changed every match. 

Cheers resounded from every corner as the one hundred and twenty competitors stepped into the circular stadium. A stone block beneath the coach separated itself from the rest of the ground, rising to the shoulder level of the taller students. The coach’s voice rose above the cheers, silencing them immediately. 

“Let us begin the eight hundred and forty-fifth annual tournament since the foundation of the prestigious academy of Sacred Heart!” This exclamation was met with applause and more cheers. “Let us allow our juniors, seniors, students, brothers, sisters to display their hard work in preparation for this cumulative occasion!”

With that, the cheers became more amplified than ever. The coach continued after waiting for the voices to die down. Lucas noticed that the stadium could contain much more than the one hundred and thirty or so other non-competing students, but it was still full nonetheless. Squinting a little, he could tell that there were indeed many more people than merely the students of the school. 

There were what looked like nobles, with their shiny, gilded clothes. Each one was accompanied by numerous servants. There were also businessmen, distinguishable by their shamelessly protruding stomachs. They had fewer servants and looked a little more interested than the aristocrats. 

Lucas also saw a few people who were dressed magnificently, but not exactly the same as the royals. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but their clothes bore a style that allowed freer movement than what a traditional dress or tailcoat would provide. They didn’t seem any less affluent than the nobles and much richer than the businessmen. Clearly, this tournament was also to allow hirers to find prospective employees. In the face of these impressive people, Lucas could not help but draw his own figure up a little. Not that it really changed much, since everyone else was a good head taller than him. 

After the coach finished speaking, the students retreated to the tunnel and returned to the waiting room. Lucas just now found out that there were chairs and tables. The fifteen students whose round was about to begin had already begun warming up. A few had already left the room to go to the other entrance. Suddenly, Lucas was struck with a problem. 

“Aren’t there three teams in each round?” he asked Cairen. 

Cairen understood what Lucas was confused about. “The third team gets teleported to the middle of the field. Because they don’t spend any energy to arrive, they also get a disadvantageous starting point.”

“I see,” said Lucas. 

Cairen checked the clock on the far wall and gathered the team. “We’re going to be in the second round. This one will likely last for about two hours, so we’ll have about two and a half to wait. We’ll be going from this tunnel. It’s currently seven fourty-three, so we should meet up at ten, if we split up at some point. That way, we’ll have about fifteen minutes to prepare. Should we go watch their round?”

“Sure,” Eren said. He was munching on what looked like a golden flower. 

As the team, led by Cairen, walked to the room where the teleporters were, Lucas asked Eren, “What’s that?”

“These?” Eren replied, holding up a handful of golden flowers. “These are just snacks. I made them. They really don’t do anything for me. I use my Azla to create them and replenish it by eating them. Of course, it would supplement others.”

“I see.” Hearing this explanation, Lucas, who had originally wanted to try some out of curiosity, decided not to ask, out of concern that it would be detrimental to Eren’s performance. 

They arrived at the teleporters. Lucas originally thought that they would be some sort of artifact that teleported them, but instead it was a group of five white-robed people who, according to Cairen, held a bloodline magic technique that would allow them to, among other things, transport people instantly. 

A quick flash of white light later, the team found their other members appearing with similar white flashes. They found a small open space along the benches and sat down. Before them, a small mountain made entirely of rock was slowly rising from the ground. This was about to be the terrain for the incoming battle. 

After the mountain’s peak just barely reached the level of the stands, Lucas noticed Eren’s hand twitch a little as the featureless stone suddenly sprouted greenery. Small blades of grass came first, originally one at a time, progressing faster and faster until the whole mountain was green. After the grass was populated, small sprouts, almost invisible from the height of the nosebleeds, popped up and instantly exploded into thick trees. The patch of land left unelevated was now verdant with grass. A small stream, wide enough and deep enough to drown an adult meandered through the southern side of the mountain. 

After a few minutes of waiting for the final touches of the terrain to be added, Eren pointed out a number of floating crystal balls. They were completely transparent but for the slight white glow from their centers. Then, immediately after Eren’s observation, four giant vertical, rectangular slabs made of the same material as the floating balls shaped themselves out of fragments that phased in from thin air. They also emitted the dim light and faced in the four cardinal directions. 

Almost as quickly as they appeared, they began displaying visuals. Lucas could see the terrain from different angles on the screen. He saw a small beam of white light stream into the crystal screen. He traced it back to a ball. Then he realized — this was light magic. He hadn’t really known what light magic looked like previously, but now he realized that it really did fit its name. The crystal wasn’t actually solid — it was a visual side effect from the refraction of the light from different points across the stadium. 

A male commentator mounted on a floating podium zoomed in from who-knows-where, blasting the colosseum with his amplified voice. He seemed small from the distance that Lucas was viewing him. 

“Now that our dear Coach Flint has provided all of you with an enthusiastic opening to our tournament, I will not be boring you with a reiteration. Instead, I shall introduce the rules of the tournament.”

The distant figure gave the rules to the tournament, which Lucas had heard from Vaelith previously. After he had finished, he announced the teams. 

“From the east side, we have Astraev Marinthor, Lyrion Vaestrel, Serathe Ilvandar, Vaelora Therys, and Kerynth Solmarin!” the commentator said, pointing to Lucas's left. Lucas was also facing the school, which meant that he was indisputably facing south. 

“A giant, two elves, one orc, and one dwarf, huh? Not a single human…” Eren’s voice trailed next to Lucas. He had clearly recognized the ethnicity of the contestants through their last names. 

“They’re the only non-humans in the second year,” Cairen clarified. “They formed a team together because they wanted to make a statement.”

Lucas's mind wasn’t on this rather political topic. “How does a giant fit in the tunnel?” He didn’t see any particularly large figure when he saw the contestants, either. 

“The giants are given size restraints when they enter the school. When Astraev comes out of the tunnel, he will most likely instantly explode into his true size,” Cairen said. 

At this time, the team whose members were mentioned emerged from the east gates. True to Cairen’s words, the giant indeed grew to the height of four normal humans. The giant was rather far away, so Lucas could only rely on the large screens to get a good look at him. He wasn’t like how Lucas was picturing him to be — disheveled and rugged. He seemed just like a muscular but normal human, if it wasn’t for his size. His clothes were much nicer than Lucas's, too. 

The others had much more ordinary sizes compared to the giant; the orc had skin the color of cooked lettuce and was a head taller than the elves. The dwarf wasn’t as small as Lucas had imagined them to be. She was only a head and a half shorter than the elves. The male elf, presumably Lyrion, had short, blond hair and wore a complementing vest of white cloth, laced with gold. The female elf had straight, black hair and distinct dark blue eyes. Her attire was similar to the other elf’s, though black and blue instead of white and gold. 

“Lyrion is the great-grand nephew of the current elven king,” Cairen felt the need to say. “And Serathe is the grand niece of the current elven king. They’re on opposite sides of the family, so even though they’re the same age, Lyrion has to call Serathe ‘aunt’ during elven gatherings.”

“That’s… interesting,” said Vaelith. 

The other two teams had already been announced and had already arrived at their positions in the arena. Every screen was split into thirds, each displaying a different team. Lucas missed their names and didn’t have enough time to observe their appearances before the commentator yelled, “Begin!”

Lucas saw that both of the elves had instantaneously disappeared. The one holding the crystal was the dwarf. Suddenly, a bright flash of light told Lucas what had happened; Lyrion had used light magic to transport both himself and Serathe to the peak of the mountain to track the positions and movements of the other teams. 

“Won’t this alert the other two teams that there are only three people protecting the crystal right now?” Lucas asked. 

“They’re not going to stay there for long, since they need to report the results of the scout back to the other three. The other teams still need time to traverse the landscape to make full use of their numerical advantage, which won’t last for long,” Iriyen replied. 

At this instant, a rumble shook the entire stadium. A giant mass of dirt, carved straight out of the starting point for the team in the west — Team Two, Lucas unconsciously decided; Team One was the one in the east and Team Three was the one that had been transported into the middle of the verdant mountain slopes — rose from the ground. It carried five tiny figures, magnified on the screens. Wind blew their hair down and behind them. 

“They’re fourth years,” Cairen said, instantly recognizing them. This statement was rewarded by an outburst from Eren. 

“That’s not fair. They’re two years older than the second years!” exclaimed Eren. 

“It was their choice to join,” Vaelith shrugged. “The organizers for the tournament split up the teams from the same year, to create more ambiguity between the teams that might be familiar with each other. Besides, we stand more of a disadvantage than they do, in terms of both experience and age.”

Lucas, who had been intently watching the battle, saw that the elves indeed flashed back to their team. The team paused for a while and quickly began moving. The giant, Astraev, shrunk to a normal human size, a little shorter than the tall and slender elves. From the screen, Lucas could tell that they ran into the forests in pursuit of Team Three. 

After one or two minutes, the effects of an ongoing battle immediately made themselves public. A large blast had shaken the forest, resulting in a dust cloud that left a few spectators coughing. From the blast came blue shards that spiraled around in the air before diving in, striking at something Lucas could not make out. Looking back at the screen, he realized that a water mage had created ice and was currently in pursuit of Serathe. 

Team Two, alarmed by the sudden explosion, began moving towards it. Lucas saw the large mass of dirt float towards the battlefield. A mass of rock tore free from it, plummeting towards the combating teams below. This was a bid to end the battle quickly — a boulder of this size would instantly crush both of the crystals and the team members carrying them. However, just as the rock brushed against the canopy of the trees, a massive stone hand of iron-red and gray shot out, grabbing it mid-fall.

With a crash that resounded throughout the stadium, the falling boulder shattered into numerous fragments and yet another dust cloud.

When Lucas looked at the screen, he noticed that he had lost track of the dwarf carrying the crystal. He assumed that the giant, who had evidently been the one who created that stone hand, had hidden him somewhere else. Underground, perhaps. 

Then, a raging flame broke out as a Team Two member jumped off of the floating clump of earth. A Team Three member had sensed the descent and created a malevolent landing pad!

However, the Team Two member was prepared. Using monstrous winds, he uprooted the flaming trees and flung them away. Seeing this desecration of nature, the orc, Vaelora, let out a shriek of rage. A wave of fear instantly washed over Lucas. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his teammates shiver.

Vaelora’s eyes turned vivid red, becoming two tiny scarlet dots in a sudden wave of black fog. Perceiving extreme danger, the other two teams immediately turned and ran. The wind mage who fell to the ground was immobilized, seemingly tied down by the mist. Lyrion and Serathe began chasing the retreating figures, shooting concentrated beams of light and water. 

Team Three was doomed from the moment the trees began flaming. Vaelora, who seemed to have gone feral, gave chase on all fours. 

However, she didn’t lose all of her reason. Snarling, she shot straight towards the crystal carrier, a short boy with straw-colored hair. A barrier of ice obstructed her pursuit, but not for long. Her magnified muscles shattered the ice upon contact, barely slowing her down. The cracked chips of ice were swept up by the black mist and launched, nearly smashing the arm-sized crystal tied to the back of the carrier. 

At this point, Lucas could tell that curly black markings had manifested on Vaelora’s dark green skin. Her tusks had elongated, too. 

Suddenly, a development invisible to the screen occurred. The large mass of dirt carrying Team Two shook. The culprit was already onscreen — the giant, Astraev, had used his Will to disrupt their magic. 

After thirty seconds of struggle, Team Two decided to abandon ship. They dispersed on smaller rocks, landing around the river area. The dirt came crashing into the canopies of the forest. They decided to stay and consider their next course of action. 

His goal accomplished, Astraev ran after his teammates to add pressure on the fleeing Team Three. Two of their members were immobilized now, adding onto the one from Team Two earlier. Astraev raised his hand, causing a large stone fist to appear in the air above Team Three’s path. It crashed down, forcing them to jump around to avoid it. The ice caster wasn’t so lucky, though, and was forced to maintain a dome of cracking ice to prevent himself from being crushed. 

Thus, only two Team Three members remained, including the crystal carrier. Since it was a four-versus-two, the outcome was quickly decided. 

After the crystal was destroyed, Lyrion transported himself, Serathe, Vaelora, and Astraev to the top of an upturned stone palm that Astraev had conjured. The strain of teleporting twice was beginning to show up: Lyrion was hunched over on his knees, panting. The stone fingers formed merlons that protected the team from the slicing wind fired by Team Two. 

From their height, a sort of trench warfare began. Lyrion compressed light into balls and attempted to blind the enemy while Serathe pelted them with heavy spheres of water. Vaelora was taking this chance to calm down from her rampage. Astraev periodically drew rock fists from the ground and sent them flying. He was a short-ranged mage, so he could only throw the boulders at a speed that would hopefully carry them to the enemy team. 

An opposing mage created a wall of dirt that shook with every hit. It would not hold for long. 

Just as the wall was about to give way, Team Two revealed their trump card. They were fourth-years, after all. A pentagram, glowing with bright yellow brilliance, quickly materialized on the river. It was filled to the brim with sigils. 

The pentagram disappeared. The instant it did, a dragon made entirely out of the water of the river shot into the sky, prompting thunderclouds to immediately form. 

Team One, who had already foreseen this, encased themselves in a dome of rock. Yellow flashed through the dark gray clouds. The clouds were like a polluted sea, full of blackness that allowed only the glimpses of a golden koi through. 

Then, without warning, a bolt of yellow that caused Lucas to taste metal tormented the air as it thundered downwards, raging towards the ground. It was as thick as the school itself, frying the trees that it came into contact with to a crisp. Amidst the ashes and glowing coals, only the hand holding a hemisphere stood with a distinct shape. 

Just as Lucas was about to exclaim in triumph, the commentator’s voice boomed over the stadium. “The crystal of Team Astraev has been destroyed! Team Thalric moves on.”

Stunned, Lucas's eyes scanned the field. Then he spotted it. A glowing orb, indicating the smashed crystal, shone next to the smoldering but alive body of Kerynth. 

Team One could not help but lower their heads in disappointment. Cairen also seemed a little sad for their sake. Lucas noticed that they didn’t seem angry, as if they had foreseen this outcome. 

“Well, let’s hope we don’t go against a crazy sigil mage like that,” Cairen sighed. 

Their match would begin in one more hour, so they decided to loiter a bit before arriving at the end of the east tunnel. A food trolley moved across the aisles, providing the waiting spectators refreshments and snacks to refill their stomachs. 

Lucas grabbed a small piece of bread, letting it melt in his mouth before chewing and swallowing it. Now that the match was over, the stands erupted with chatter. Lucas took the chance to look around. They were placed with the businessmen, some of which had brought their family along. They shot the team with some glances while talking about the previous match. They seemed to think that Lucas and the rest were too young. 

Lucas tried to repress his anxiety and appear unconcerned, since he had just noticed a rather pretty daughter of a businessman look at them. She had black hair and was about his age, and of course his first thought was, I’ll be able to impress her soon enough. 

Eren leaned over and asked Lucas, “Can you maintain your reinforcement on yourself?”

“I think I can. I haven’t really tried, though.” It had been clarified that Lucas would be allowed to use the Will for reinforcement, since it was among the only useful things he could do. 

An hour more of pointless conversation, the team headed to their tunnel. They were teleported back by the teleporter who was stationed at the stadium and immediately walked through the tunnel to the turn. Lucas stretched and practiced lifting small objects to warm up. The others, since they were about to use magic, used the preparation methods that the professors had taught them. 

Before long, the team heard their names called. Lucas grabbed the belt that held onto the crystal. Team Cairen stepped into the light. 

Lucas was wearing a black, but rimmed with red, swallowtail greatcoat, a greatcoat that split into two “tails” at around one’s waist, hence the name. Underneath it, he wore a black vest entwined with similarly scarlet, swirling markings. His pants were entirely black. These were all supplemented by Eren, who had notified his family ahead of time. After all, Lucas couldn’t wear his normal commoner clothing to the most important tournament of the year. 

Eren was wearing his normal bright green clothes, laced with gold as usual. Cairen was wearing an entirely golden cloak that complemented his bright yellow hair. Iriyen and Vaelith were both wearing dark blue, although the patterns on their dresses differed greatly; Iriyen’s had slightly lighter blue in straight lines, starting and ended at random intervals. Vaelith’s had purple, symbolizing her wind, streak in spirals across her arms. 

While the opposing team members were being mentioned, Lucas scrutinized the terrain for this match. It was nothing more than a dense jungle, with what looked like a small World Tree in the middle. World Trees were a species of sentient trees that possessed sub-human intelligence. They often manipulated the trees around them to, in one way or another, benefit themselves. 

World Trees that were fully grown would stretch nearly two thousand meters into the sky. The highest recorded one reached three-and-a-half thousand meters high before it ultimately perished in a skirmish between the giants and the elves. They were often described as broccoli with roots. 

Now, this mushroom-shaped species had one of its members in the center of the battlefield. It was about seventy meters tall, dwarfing the common jungle trees, which were about half its height. 

Lucas's review of his lessons was cut short as the commentator announced the start of the match. He scanned the stands out of instinct. His gaze snagged on a girl with blond hair sitting beside a boy with the same shade. Rebrixi — and the prince.

With an invisible hand clutching at his heart, Lucas provided his teammates with reinforcement. Team Cairen immediately ran into the forest, with Vaelith flying above it, trying to spot the opposing teams. 

Lucas chose a place to hide. He saw a crystal orb, issuing white light, whiz past his face. Leaning on the trunk of a tree, he heard the sounds of battle commencing in the distance. He felt periodic blows to his stamina — his team was being attacked. But the fact that the blows were continuing with the same frequency was proof that his protection had not been breached. 

At some point, his connection with his teammates became weak. He quickly made for the battlefield, stopping just as a boulder was chucked in his direction. Enforcing his arm with his Will, he smashed it to pieces with a loud bang. 

Suddenly, with the apparent addition of a new combatant, all of the attention was drawn onto him, besides that of the ones currently embroiled in extremely unpredictable battles. Five distinct attacks soared in his direction, converging into a blast of pure white light. 

But Lucas didn’t flinch. He trusted his Will as the white light blew the trees around him into flying shards of wood and leaf. He, of course, remained mildly unharmed amidst the jagged trunks of the splintered trees. He survived with a mere first-degree burn on his left arm. 

Entirely unworried, Lucas looked around. Five opponents were held up in a position of crucifixion by Iriyen’s water. One was caught up in a relentless fusillade of Cairen’s knuckles. Eren was supplying Cairen and Iriyen with strength, allowing them to continue fighting, barraging the scattered and fatigued teams with indefensible attacks. 

Vaelith was likely perched somewhere on the innumerable branches of the World Tree, attacking the enemies. The thick smoke and steam were telltale signs of her fire-and-water attacks. Lucas's connection with Vaelith still maintained its hum in the back of his mind, so even being unable to see her, he wasn’t worried. 

Lucas drew a breath and uprooted a shattered trunk with his Will. This sort of haphazard battlefield was perfect for his current abilities. He locked on to a rather conspicuous enemy wearing bright white clothes and chucked it. 

The trunk, already weak from the blast that Lucas had taken, exploded upon contact with the opponent. The recipient of the hostile gift immediately began fleeing. This was unexpected until Lucas noticed that he was the crystal bearer. 

His mouth curled into a large, unsettling smile completely unbefitting his nature. He reinforced his legs, giving chase. Of course, this wasn’t without ensuring that his crystal was well protected beforehand. He made sure to encase it in stone, solidified by his Will. 

Seeing the crazy twelve-year-old chase him down, the opponent, who had a rather hulking build, abruptly stopped. On his face was the look of a hunter who had caught its prey. 

He clapped his hands together, causing two giant, golden projections of palms to form around Lucas. Sensing danger, Lucas jumped back with his enhanced speed, narrowly avoiding the immense pressure that burst the air trapped between the projections. This wasn’t something his Will could protect against. 

Lucas instantly realized that what he had done was very unintelligent. He hopped back, drawing distance between himself and the other crystal carrier, who had drawn his right fist back. A giant, golden projection of a fist materialized behind the carrier, launching forward and evaporating anything that came between it and Lucas. 

Lucas used his Will to blast the air, launching him to the side. His elbow was skinned, the exposed flesh cauterizing instantly. 

Without a chance to even whimper from the pain, Lucas dodged all of the incoming attacks. He hid behind a tree after losing the enemy crystal carrier, catching his breath and considering what had just happened. 

He flexed his hand in front of him. Hadn’t he blasted the air? Since when could his Will affect the air? He blew some of his Will out of his palm, letting it mingle with the particles in the air. A feeling of power washed over him. 

Manipulating the air with the Will was easier than manipulating solids! But this contradicted with what he knew. Wasn’t it harder to control air than it was to contain a solid? 

The crystal carrier had not given up his chase. Hearing a roar come from behind the trunk, Lucas rolled to the side and tried out what he had just learned. Extending both of his hands before him, Lucas created several layers of hardened air, shielding himself from the resultant blast. 

Lucas had sort of figured out his opponent’s magic technique now. His hands could create large projections, and if his motions used both of his hands, it would result in pressure converging between them. If his motions used only one hand, it resulted in a constant output of pressure that culminated in a burst. 

This knowledge didn’t help him much though, as he dodged and blocked fist after palm, palm after fist. Lucas flung rubble at the pursuing attacker, as if he was throwing sand into a rampaging beast’s eyes. The shards were ground into fine brown mist. Then, when Lucas felt that the opposing crystal carrier had reached a fast enough speed, he hardened the air between hunter and prey. 

This broke the carrier’s sprint, but the air shattered under his pursuit like glass before a charging bull. The attacker still stumbled, however, allowing Lucas a good, enhanced punch at his stomach. 

The crystal bearer was once again temporarily immobilized. When he regained his bearings, he locked onto the opposing twelve-year-old, who had appeared behind him at some point. When he was about to launch another flurry of projections, he heard the magnified voice of the commentator boom, “Team Nysera’s crystal has been destroyed. Two remain.”

He quickly undid the strap on his belt. Dread rising, he saw, much to his chagrin, that the crystal that he had been carrying behind his back was indeed shattered. Disappointed and slightly shameful, he did not disgrace himself. “Good game,” he said, offering a burly fist. “Marveth Draylith. You?”

Lucas blinked and fist-bumped him, surprised by the sportsmanship. “Lucas. Lucas Drake.”

“Good luck.” The large figure receded, finding his companions before exiting the battlefield.

Now that this had been resolved, Lucas once again followed his connection with his teammates. However, having learned his lesson, Lucas hid approximately twenty meters away, where he could quietly observe without being found. 

Suddenly, Lucas's knees gave way — his constant reinforcement of five people at once and the fight that he had just undergone had wiped away his stamina. Keeping the reinforcement alive was now all he could do as he slumped against the trunk of a tree, hyperventilating. 

But this was all he had to do. The other team was likely made up of third-years, which meant that they wouldn’t be able to break through the reinforcement that he had placed on himself. As the sounds of battle reverberated throughout the forest, Lucas felt that it was becoming incrementally harder to maintain his connection. 

It began slowly. First, he lost the feeling in his fingers and toes. It gradually expanded to include all of his body besides his head. When will this end? Lucas's inadvertent voice roared in his head. It shocked his slipping consciousness awake. His surroundings were hazy and had the features of a rippling pond. 

A strange buzzing filled his ears. It became louder and louder. When he couldn’t take it anymore, it disappeared. The voice in his head continued rambling. At times, it was yelling at someone. Other times, it was quietly admonishing someone else. 

A tree before him seemed to become larger. Then it shrank. Lucas's impaired thoughts suddenly formed something coherent — he needed Eren to get him vitality!

But how? His positioning not only made him hard for opponents to find him but also made it difficult for his allies to locate him. With no other solutions, Lucas could only half-heartedly tug at the connection with Eren, hoping that it would go through and that Eren would be able to discover him. 

After a while, he heard the rustling of bushes among the silence of paused fighting. Slightly disheveled, Eren appeared before Lucas. He conjured a cage of vines. A buttercup bloomed beneath Lucas, its yellow specks infusing into his skin, revitalizing him nearly instantly. 

The first thing Lucas did was gasp, his eyes bulging for an instant. Then he said, “Thanks for coming. I almost died.”

“No crap. Cairen told me to tell you to stop being so stupid. He said that we could have lost if he hadn’t increased the chances of your full discovery of your abilities as a channeler. He said that if you really knew what your status as a resonant Will practitioner meant, you would’ve had no trouble dealing with that fourth-year. 

“Anyways, this is what he said. But I agree. We almost lost because you’re so impulsive.” Eren paused before continuing, “But then again, you helped us deal with the other team, so I guess it wasn’t all for nothing.”

Lucsa nodded and hung his head in shame. “Why isn’t anyone fighting anymore?” he asked. 

“They ran. Cairen, Iriyen, and Vaelith are trying to track them down right now. There are only two of their team members left.”

Hearing this, Lucas decided to activate his Enhanced Eye. After all, Eren was providing him with energy. The tint of red in his eyes became slightly stronger as he scanned the forest. The blue of Eren’s Will was the most prominent, bobbing around like liquid encountering high winds. Then he spotted two tiny blue dots in the distance, moving away from each other.

These were likely Cairen and Iriyen. Another blue dot was stationary, elevated by the World Tree’s branches. From this, Lucas deduced that the opposing team was outside of his range. But how was he supposed to pass this information to Cairen? 

Tugging on the connection to prompt him to come to Lucas's side, just so that Lucas could tell him that the enemy was nowhere near him seemed like a waste of time. Lucas decided to recover for a bit and then rendezvous with Cairen. That way, one of them would scout and another would provide protection. 

After he felt that his strength had mostly returned, Lucas stepped out of the cage and told Eren to follow him. Eren had begun perspiring, so Lucas chose to piggyback him to Cairen’s location. 

The whole journey took a bit of a toll on Lucas, what with his maintenance of reinforcement, his constant use of his Enhanced Eye, and his carrying of Eren. Thankfully, Cairen wasn’t too far and they caught up to him quickly. 

Lucas briefly explained his plan between pants, scanning the area for traces of the enemy’s Will. Cairen nodded and said, “Good idea. In this case, it’s probably better if we don’t split up. For some reason, their crystal carrier is a melee mage, so we can probably expect an ambush if we each go alone. I’m not entirely sure what the other mage leans towards, but I have a vague feeling that he’s a control mage.”

Lucas nodded and tugged on his connection with both Vaelith and Iriyen. Suddenly, Vaelith’s Will signature became faint. Lucas had noticed this phenomenon on Eren when he had fallen asleep when Lucas still had his reinforcement acting on him.

Vaelith was sleeping!

“Vaelith is unconscious,” Lucas informed the team after Iriyen arrived. 

Without questioning how he knew, the team followed his lead as they sprinted towards Vaelith’s ghostly signature — it seemed as if Lucas’s prolonged reinforcement was the only thing that was now keeping the team together. The foliage whizzed by as Lucas caught onto the sweet scent of the jungle. Focus! he yelled at himself. 

They arrived at the foot of the World Tree. “I sense residues of magic up there,” Cairen began. “They aren’t a part of the elements granted by Dragonkin.”

Without a word, Eren halfway-extracted ascending slabs of wood out of the trunk of the tree, forming a basic spiral staircase. The four team members ran up, panting a little as they finally spotted Vaelith. She was on a branch below them, slumped sideways. Lucas saw, from the corner of his eyes, that Eren looked outraged. 

However, Lucas, who had never relaxed his Enhanced Eye, could not find any traces of the enemy. “Can’t see them for some reason.”

Cairen nodded and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, he opened them again. A cry sounded out as a series of thumps were heard. One of the enemies had slipped and fallen. 

Lucas looked at Cairen. He grinned. It was obvious that Cairen had used his magic technique. Lucas tried scanning the area with his Will vision again, finally noticing two more Will signatures pop up. He solidified the air and created an invisible staircase through the space between the branches. 

The others could not see his staircase and even Lucas could only faintly see the floating blue tiles with his Enhanced Eye. Instead, they chose to nominate Iriyen to create a slide of water to follow Lucas to Vaelith’s body. When they were close enough, Lucas augmented his legs and leapt beside Vaelith. 

Suddenly, the branch creaked. A frightening tremor went through the entirety of the bough, shaking the leaves. Purely out of instinct, Lucas grabbed Vaelith’s motionless arm and threw her to Eren. Immediately following this action, he hardened the air beneath him, so that he wouldn’t plummet to the ground like the branch had begun to do. 

A dust cloud erupted from the ground with a boom, shrouding the team’s view of the ground. Lucas stood in the air, surveying the dust cloud, watching for any signs of magic. Their Will signatures had once again disappeared. He heard water sloshing around him as the rest of the team descended to his level. 

“We’re a little lacking in range without Vaelith,” Cairen said. “Iriyen, drop a few balls of water. Eren, do the same with a few smaller plants.”

“That’s just going to add to the dust cloud,” replied Lucas.

“That’s fine. If we can’t see them, they can’t see us.”

“What if one of them is ranged?” Eren asked. 

“Not likely. Otherwise, they would have blasted us when we were climbing the tree. After all, there wasn’t anything stopping us from just falling over the edge of the staircase.”

Eren fell silent. His plants joined Iriyen’s water in the fall to the ground. Besides the new numerous, smaller dust clouds, there was no reaction. Lucas encased a leaf in his Will and rolled it into a thorn. He let it drop. This took surprisingly little of his energy. He repeated this process an innumerable number of times, creating a storm of green needles that produced no extra floating dust. 

“Good idea,” Cairen said. “Iriyen, we should do the same. Eren, if you’re a channeler, you should try, too. Otherwise, try to recover your power.” Eren, who was in the late stages of being an awakened, sat down on the platform of water and attempted to meditate. 

Suddenly, the fluffy green tops of the trees below them began moving. Eren opened his eyes and shook his head, signifying that it wasn’t a result of his actions. 

It was a few shakes at first, but then they slowly began having a direction. They congregated beneath Lucas and his team, slowly piling up upon each other to create a great stack of vegetation. It became taller and taller until the tip of the stack opened up to reveal a colossal red-and-pink begonia. A ball made of pure, green light converged upon the flower. 

In one single instant, the ball suddenly fired a giant, twenty-meter-thick beam at the team. Cairen increased the chances of the attack missing. But even though Lucas somehow knew this, within the milliseconds of the beam’s approach, he did not sense it missing them at all. 

When the heat of the beam reached Lucas, he had no choice. His Will could not do anything to an attack of this magnitude. They had clearly used the World Tree’s power. 

A cloud of black. No, it wasn’t a cloud. A mass of black, with no definable state of matter, fell from Lucas's outstretched hands. It expanded to the width of the beam, forcing the attack to mold around it, shooting in a cage of green around the team. All of these consecutive events happened slowly. To Lucas, at least. 

Darkness. Now that Lucas had revealed his magic, there was no reason to keep it hidden anymore. The atmosphere turned abruptly dark, even though it was about to be high noon. It was as if the perception of light had been forcibly dimmed. Lucas and Cairen had disappeared from their platforms in the sky, materializing unseen in a nameless shadow on the ground. 

This was Lucas's use of his shadow realm. Now that he could fight unhindered, these last two fatigued combatants wouldn’t be much of an issue. He had only brought Cairen in case of an ambush. Now that it was evident that the enemy had not prepared for Lucas's magic, he decided to let loose. 

This was when the sky dimmed. A torrent of black matter surged forward from the shadows, drowning a third of the forest in an instant. The trees were swept up by the wave, a scene that would definitely result in Vaelora’s indignation. Only the tip of the massive pile of trees now remained. 

A giant black hand rose from the area under Lucas's control, grabbing onto the fifteen-meter-thick trunk of the World Tree. It easily uprooted the tree, dirt and pebbles streaming down from the tree’s roots like rain from the clouds. 

The tree was flung into the pile it had congregated itself, producing innumerable crunching sounds as the darkness subdued all of it. Lucas, afraid of harming the opposing team too severely, drew the flood of blackness back into the shadows, which stayed unnaturally dark even after Lucas's manipulation had softened. 

Amidst the flattened, rather sandy terrain, a blob of white could be seen. 

“Team Rhadamir’s crystal has shattered! Team Cairen advances to the next round.”

The stadium was perceptibly silent. A sneeze could have probably traveled the three-quarters of a kilometer across the colosseum. The audience was evidently shocked that the youngest team, a detail that the commentator had not left unannounced, had come out so incontestably on top. But what had clearly stunned them more was the fact that the human had used darkness on such a large scale and had done so with so few repercussions. 

None, in reality. But the spectators, who had had the idea of humans being rendered nearly incapable of using darkness drilled so deeply into their minds, could not be expected to know this.

Then, a mass of whispering and applause broke out. They could not go without congratulating the youngest team for winning, after all. Their victory had proved their hard work and talent. 

“Isn’t he a human?” Lucas heard someone say. 

“How can he do that at such a large scale?” said another. Naturally, Lucas was not capable of such extravagant magic normally. This result only surfaced from his ability to manipulate his Will. Cairen had also apparently affected the chances of a suitable condition for manipulating darkness, although the real meaning behind this Lucas could not grasp. 

The team walked back to their original tunnel, Eren and Iriyen carrying Vaelith on their shoulders. Cairen and Lucas were in deep thought over how they would proceed in the duels now that their trump card had been revealed. 

“They likely don’t know that I can pull others into my shadow realm,” Lucas said, half to demonstrate optimism, half to console himself. 

“That’s not a terrible last resort, actually. Your shadow realm gives you the powers of a deity when you’re in it. How far away is the maximum distance for your ability to pull them into the shadow realm?”

“As long as they’re in my sight, but it takes a really long time if they’re far from the shadows. At any rate, it’s really obvious the shadows just begin to creep towards you.”

“Yeah, that’s true. But it’s still really powerful. As long as Iriyen locks them down — Oh, but then there would be no point.”

“I feel like with things like this, it’s better to ‘accidentally’ let the information slip so that the enemy is disproportionately alarmed by it. Let’s see how our next battle goes. If the terrain has a lot of shadows in it, then just the knowledge of my ability will limit them a lot. If there aren’t many shadows, my ability will be rendered pretty much useless.”

“We’ll see,” Cairen said. Lucas had found out earlier that he couldn’t trap others within his shadow realm with conjured darkness. He could only manipulate the existing shadows to cover them. Otherwise, the plan would have been easy. “Iriyen’s ensnarement is very conditional. It only landed so many times in our fight because I upped the chances, so another course of action could be driving them to an area with shadows and then let you do your work as we try to restrain their movements.”

With Vaelith as a ranged attack mage, this plan did have a reasonable basis. However, it was still too early to think about this. They still didn’t know who their opponents would be, after all. They continued off to the nurse’s office, which was situated on the third floor. Lucas felt that he was rather lucky that he didn’t need to find out where it was prior to this occasion. Vaelith seemed to just be unconscious, but they had no way to access her dormitory without finding where her roommate was. 

After they left her there, Lucas and Eren went on to return to their dorms. As they approached the door, they noticed that Professor Morrix, complete with his mangled hair and coiled gray scarf, was waiting for them. He seemed to be extremely happy. A small silver coin seemed to swim through his fingers, a form of fidgeting that Lucas had observed during their lessons before. 

He waved to Lucas upon their arrival. “Good news, Lucas. I got permission from the headmaster to take on a mission from the local guild. There seems to be a coming beast tide in the southeast region of the kingdom. We’re going to set out two days after the tournament ends.”

“What about the solution that the Council had for me if I used magic?” Lucas asked, more concerned about his performance. 

The professor was unperturbed by Lucas's sudden change of topic. Instead, he smiled, as if he had predicted Lucas's worry.  “They haven’t told me yet. They’re probably waiting until the tournament is over. Either way, what they have told me is that you should stay in your dormitory and not come out unless it’s for food.”

“What do you mean?” Lucas said, scared. 

“Many people likely distrust you because you’re a human using darkness as your magic. It doesn’t help that you’re so proficient at it at such a young age, either. That’s not the reason they gave me — they didn’t give me a reason at all, actually. This is just my guess.”

“I see.” Seeing that the professor had said what he had meant to say and was about to leave,  Lucas added, “Thanks for everything. I liked winning today.”

The professor’s smile widened and replied, “No problem.” His normally sleepy nature seemed to have been dispelled as he walked away.

Lucas entered the room with Eren. The curtains had been opened at some point. The fields outside were tinted bright golden, as if each and every blade of grass had turned into stalks of wheat. Lucas fell asleep the moment his body hit the bed, despite the bright yellow squares of light cast by the sun into his room.