First Battle

I consider the two people in front of me for a moment. On one hand, I'll need mana to fight the mage, but my close combat will be relying on my magic for enhancement. On the other, I have more mana than most people would have at my level, so I can probably afford a bit of leeway. Plus, don't have to win. I just have to show my skills. I just hope I have some.

"Ok, I'll fight Trel first." With him, I'll be able to minimize my use of mana if I feel like it isn't worth it. The receptionist nods.

"Very well. Both of you enter the floor, and I will give the start signal."

The two of us step down to the arena and stand ten feet away from each other. He gives me a smile. "Good luck, but just so you know, I won't be holding back."

I give him a nervous smile, but a bit of excitement colors my voice. "Of course. I would be disappointed if you did."

The receptionist raises a hand. "Ready? Start!" A small blast of magic leaves her hand, causing me to give a small jump.

Trel is already moving towards me at a fast pace. I steady myself as he closes in and extend my claws. Once he reaches me he takes a wide swing with his right fist aimed at my head.

I duck and shout as I thrust my left hand up. "Watch the face!"

He scoffs as he uses his built up momentum to turn his upper body, dodging my thrust. "Nobody is gonna care about hurting your face in a real fight." He follows his rotation by bringing his knee up towards my chin.

I feel the wind pass my face as I manage to roll back, followed by leaping towards him with my right arm cocked back, my fingers straight. "Slavers would care, I wouldn't sell as well if my face was damaged."

He stops for a moment in surprise at my genius rebuttal, and I take advantage of that to thrust my claws towards his face. It's fine since he's a man. Might even give him that 'I fought hard and survived' look some ladies go crazy for.

He starts to turn his head to the side, trying to dodge my claws. But I won't let him get out of this without a single injury! I infuse wind mana into my claws like I did when I killed Kyle, but instead of reinforcing them, I create an overlay in order to increase their reach.

Trel manages to get out of the way, but his eyes widen as on his cheek a thin line of red appears, showing that I did in fact injure him.

The next thing I know I'm flying backwards. My back hits the stairs and I cough up a bit of blood.

It takes a few moments for me to realize what happened. While Trel turned, he brought up his right fist to strike me in the stomach with the bit of momentum he managed to gather.

I sit there groaning after that, but I can still hear it when the receptionist shouts that the match has ended. Once the pain fades, I take in my surroundings. Trel has approached me and is holding out his hand, looking a bit sheepish.

"Sorry about that, I guess I used too much strength. But you really surprised me with that move! I was sure I dodged your claws, so how did you get me? Some kind of martial art skill?"

I take his hand and he pulls me to my feet. "Nah, I'm a magic brawler, remember? I focused some wind magic on my claws to extend their reach. Cost about..." a quick glance at my mana shows that I have 380 left. "forty mana."

He winces. "Ah, that much? Will you have enough mana for your mage spar?" I give him a weird look.

"Yeah? Why wouldn't I?"

He blinks at me. "Er, well, judging by how you moved, it seemed like you put a decent amount of your stats in physical abilities, so that would lead to a lower mana pool. How much do you have, one fifty?"

I just look at him for a moment before I remember that my *Magic Instinct* ability affects my INT and mana to a considerable degree. Obviously I'm not going to tell him about that though.

"A bit more than that, two hundred." He frowns, and I can tell that he's about to go on a lecture about not neglecting any of my stats. I interrupt him before he can speak. "A decent amount of my INT comes from studying a lot as I grew up. Not much else I could do."

His frown eases and he slowly nods. "Ok. Just make sure you don't have too narrow a focus with stat distribution, you never know when a little extra something can get you out of a situation alive."

I nod my head. "Don't worry, I'm aware." I'll do my best not to get arrogant, afterall, in nearly every book I've read, arrogance will lead to a tragic development for anyone.

Seeing my serious expression, he doesn't say anything else. Behind me the receptionist coughs. "While this is a nice bonding moment, I do feel the need to remind you of the guard waiting on you, miss Seka. Are you fine to continue, or would you like a few minutes to rest?"

I give a quick glance at my bars.

Health: 123/150

Mana: 405.2/420

Apparently we've been talking for two minutes. A good way to tell how much time has passed. Too bad it only works if you're injured or used mana recently. Plus the quick math you would need to do. "I'm good to go when Tesk is."

She steps down into the arena as she looks at me, a gleam in her eyes.

Trel chuckles as he climbs the stairs to stand beside the receptionist. "Careful what you ask for miss."