Chapter 409: Huh?
Early Morning - Mid Winter : Eikasía | Eastern Bahamut
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"Ack- I missed something like that?!" Krystallo instantly tensed up with a playfully regretful look as I gave her a summary of the fights she missed.
"You didn't ever wonder why you were the only one in the spa?" Watching genuine anxiety slowly weave into her expression, I wanted to laugh. "Everyone else was busy watching the other fights to see who they'd be up against." Since neither Hera or I said anything though, I couldn't be too harsh. "Regardless, I don't think you need to worry for a while."
"Hm? What do you mean?" Tilting her head as she continued out of the 'combatant-only' area of the arena, we finally got walking.
"Well, I'll just say that your performance will probably get you advanced up the bracket a fair bit, but I highly doubt you'll go up against anyone too strong for a while." Knowing people of all skill levels would be grouped together in the tournament, the managers had made it so not only was there a winner and losers bracket, but based on one's performance, they would be advanced up the bracket a certain amount.
It was a somewhat arbitrary system made to keep the weaker dragons in the tournament from getting one-sidedly pummeled every match and encourage everyone to show what they could do without needing to worry about pacing themselves.
After all, to most people, the tournament was an opportunity to make a name for themselves and show the elites of Bahamut everything they had to offer, whether they happened to be paired with a good or bad opponent.
But I honestly wasn't sure how far Krystallo would advance with her fight. While she clearly showed that there was an excessive gap in strength between her and her opponent, her inexperience and naivety shined through as well. -There's a chance they'll want to see her fight more to get to know how her skills since her fights ended so fast.-
And sure enough, as we got to the booth where the tournament organizers would tell her when her next fight would be, we were told, "Tomorrow night, just after sunset. Many of our sponsors have voiced that they would like you to have one more fight before you are advanced any further, however, because of your strength, rather than fighting someone in the normal bracket you will be up against Alyssa Epómeno, who was advanced in a similar fashion to you."
Hera and I instantly shot a look at each other before looking down at a very confused Krystallo.
"We wish you the best of luck in your fight, just please remember to do your best!" The older man behind the booth smiled like an old grandpa looking at Krystallo. "I, like many, am excited to see what you have to offer, so give us a show, alright?"
Finally sliding a silver medallion across the booth, he went on to explain how exactly she would go about getting back into the arena when the time for her fight came, before sending us off, wishing us luck with having fun and enjoying the festival in the meantime.
But, we didn't really have anything we urgently wanted to do, so, to kill time, we traveled around the city to check out the various competitions going on in order to try and scout out promising talents, similar to many others. With everything from architectural to smithing competitions, we were bound to find a few we could recommend to the Cabinet, or even to Siratha.
And while that remained true while we cherry-picked promising young dragons, as we got to more obscure gatherings for topics like mathematics or more niche areas of magic, the number of unbelievably talented individuals we found skyrocketed, with nearly all of them being from non-noble backgrounds, and many even being self-taught, or unofficially educated.
It was like we walked into a diamond mine, with so many unpolished gems that we had to actually raise our standards rather than lower them.
And that included Hera. "What a terrifyingly talented generation..." Even she was taken aback by the sheer number of people seemingly coming out of the woodwork.
But she wasn't going to just let any talent rot.
So, for the next day and a half, we went to more niche events in lower-privilege areas to help guide as many young dragons to the right sectors as possible, while idly hypothesizing how she could address the influx of mentees coming to the Cabinet.
After all, well over a hundred young dragons who still needed teaching couldn't all be personally mentored by current-standing members of the Cabinet.
So, after much thought, Hera came to a quick decision. "I think we should make an academy."
To summarize, her idea was to create a small private school, only accessible through recommendation, that would allow members of the Cabinet to recruit promising young dragons a little less frugally, improving the efficiency at which they could thin the herd while also improving the final quality of the young dragons they could later decide to personally recruit or mentor.
And while she never mentioned it directly, it also made it so those who were recommended but perhaps didn't quite make the cut for a spot in the Cabinet had something for their resume that would make them more enticing recruits in their field elsewhere, improving the odds that less fortunate, but still talented dragons could use their talents for the betterment of the draconic race.
So, just a few hours before Krystallo's next fight was set to begin, we made a quick trip to the Cabinet in order to inform everyone of the sudden change, and make about a thousand small silver medallions that the Cabinet members could hand out to anyone promising. That way, once the 'academy' was eventually constructed, they could all come back and use those medallions to enroll.
It was honestly quite a rushed decision, but after getting everyone on board, telling them to simply give the medallion to anyone saying they came via our recommendation, and encouraging them all to visit more obscure competitions in search of talent, we had to stop and to go back to the arena.
Before we knew it, the time for Krystallo's next fight arrived, and after a good bit of actual warmup this time, her time to come out on stage arrived.
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- Krystallo Ragnarok ~
-Alyssa Epómeno, huh...- It was a name I was quite familiar with, the daughter of Mother's closest friend within the Cabinet, and someone Mom had always wanted me to meet. -According to her, she should be a pretty talented mage...-
Previously, we had never met. With her being in the adult stage at 41 years old, her mother had kept her out of the loop when it came to the existence of my brother or Hera, so she was never brought to the Cabinet, left to do her own thing, but still somewhat remaining under the care of her father, a rather well-renowned fighter who was once a high-ranking general in Akri. -If I had to guess, she's probably sticking around to get trained by her dad, so I bet she'll be a physical fighter...-
Walking up to the gate, waiting to be called out to the stage, my mind raced to think of how I wanted to fight her, taking Brother's warning to not get cocky and call or accept a best of three with her to heart. -If she is strong enough that a best of three is disadvantageous regardless of whether I win or lose, she must be at least as strong as me, so how should I approach this one...-
*Cl-l-l-lank* "And now, for her competitor, let's welcome back Miss Anthisi!"
Finally hearing my name get called as the massive metal gate to the arena opened, I quickly walked out and made my way up on stage, only to catch the cold gaze of a young basilisk-like dragon standing proudly on the other side of the arena.
Sizing each other up, we both rather quickly tuned out the ref before walking to the center of the arena, turning around, and thumping our tails together in the air as a formal exchange of greeting, before walking back to opposite edges of the stage.
It was how seemingly every fight began, but while I didn't think anything of it in the first fight, as our tails hit, and I felt the looseness in hers, every assumption I had made up until that point was thrown to the wind. -She isn't a physical fighter.. is she..?-
Finally reaching my end of the raised stage, I turned around and used the final seconds of the announcer talking to come up with some sort of plan.
But I was going in blind.
"Hoooh..." Letting out a long, stress-filled breath, I lowered my head and raised my tail, never once pulling my eyes off her.
But unfortunately, that kind of vigilance wouldn't help me.
*Zip* As the beam of light crossed in front of her, neither of us moved.
At least that's what I thought.
*WOOSH* Jolting my head to the side as a conflict between senses blurred my mind, a white paw slammed down right next to me.
She was using light magic while massively suppressing her aura to mess with my senses, but as I looked up into the slightly warped patch of sky, a spark of confidence found its way into my eyes. -Alright.. I get it now.-
*Fwip-WOOSH* Recognizing I had the speed advantage, I jumped across the arena to make space again and started focusing more on my other senses, only idly following the slightly warped space with my eyes while tracking her with my aura.
But it, unfortunately, wasn't that easy.
Even though I was confident I could throw her down if I got my paws on her, she was more slippery than a salamander.
Dodging her jaws as they snapped just under my neck, I leaned back and went to kick her away, only for her to hook her wing around my neck, throwing her entire body weight into it to whip herself around and throw me off my balance. -UGH!- *CRACK* Getting irritated, I dug my claws into the arena and turned into her, opening my mouth before firing a blinding beam of light right into her face. *FLASH*
Almost instantly, her light magic, unable to adjust to the flash, exposed her body. -I got your number now...- Finally slipping out from under the grip her wing had on my neck, I used my own wing to send a blow into the side of her head, pointing her face down into my paw where another blinding flash erupted. *FLASH*
But as I confidently went to slam my other paw down on the back of her neck to end the fight, she lunged forward, biting my paw before slamming her shoulder into me, twisting my body, and forcefully ripping my legs out from under me.
-Oh, you have to be fucking KIDDING!- *WHAM* Feeling my side finally hit the ground as she replaced her jaws with a paw, and set her other paw on my side, an explosive anger flooded my mind, and I shot a vicious glare up at her.
It was my defeat, but I didn't want to accept it.
At least until she got off me and helped me up with a shockingly happy voice. "I apologize if I bit down a little too hard. I was nervous you'd do whatever you did to the first guy and break my grip if I didn't give it my all."
-What?- Her voice was soft, with a slight shake from excitement.
I couldn't understand her at all. "Anyway, I hope we get the chance to fight again in the finals!" Finally getting me up on my feet, she smiled wide. "I want to personally see the magic you used in your first fight, okay? So, when we fight again, don't hide anything!"
"And the winner is the young Epómeno!!"
Cheers instantly erupted as she finally turned to the crowd.
But their noise didn't even make it through the fog of confusion that filled my mind. -What just.. happened?-
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