The Grand Magical Academy Tournament
Before the indicated time, the arena was already filled with the expectant crowd. There is a special section for magicians and magi in the arena. The rest of the seats in the arena have been sold to interested spectators, which filled to the brim. In fact, the Grand Magician Academy club tournament is an annual tradition that garners the attraction and notice of many nobles and Capital residents. In the stands, nobles and the everyday men and women sit side by side indistinguishable.
This is part of what makes the Kingdom of Dearth such an amazing place to live in. Despite certain formalities afforded of nobles and royals, socio-economic standing doesn't determine how a person is treated in general. It is an evolved society where intellectual and magical pursuit is held at a much higher regard than one's wealth and family name. Though the academy is reputed to have many students from noble houses, their number is actually a mere fraction of the those who are not of blue blood.
In fact, the Grand Magical Academy is taught and run predominantly by prolific Grand Mages who have come from humble beginnings. Their power and influence is arguably equal to, and in some cases, greater than most nobles.
Ellie and Althea went straight to their seats. Bryce and Terrick went to get drinks and nachos. The boys missed the battle between the boy from the Magical Sword club and the girl from Magical Bow club. She clearly outplayed him even though bows are generally weak against swords. She kept him from getting to close which lowered his chances to use the stronger sword attacks. From there, it was clear that the fight has swayed to her benefit. The moment the boy ran out of mana, it was over.
The next round was between a nerdy girl wearing glasses from the Magical Protection club against a girl from the Magic Runes club. This stirred the crowd since both clubs focus on defensive magic. As the bell rung, the rune girl instantaneously chants and her whole body turns black while blue runes run down her arms and legs.
The girl in glasses erects a Water shield that blocked the unending pummel of the Rune girl who changes tactic and chants another rune spell. This time, runes begin to cover the surface of the Water shield and it starts to buckle. Rune girl shrinks the rune spell and it appears to have wrapped around the body of the girl in glasses. She begins to suffocate until finally, she bursts like a water balloon.
The crowd is horrified until the she reforms clear across the circular fighting ring. She summons a Water ball around the Rune girl, who appears to be drowning until a single Rune appeared on Rune girl's forehead. The water begins to boil off until Rune girl was safe. She begins to chant and this time a rune glows on the forehead of her opponent. The rune on the girl with glasses is an ancient rune which means possession, indicating that her body has been taken over by Rune girl.
With every fiber of her being, the possessed girl slowly walks towards the edge of the ring. Leaving the ring means defeat. In the last second, she was somehow able to break the runic possession as the rune disappears from her forehead. She then calls forth10 thick chains that restraint Rune girl. The chains appear to be absorbing mana from the Rune girl until she returns to her regular appearance. The crowd is in uproar. Both girls showing how powerful their clubs are. It took a while for the crowd to settle down. Even the nobles are caught up in the moment and are seen cheering loudly and jumping around.
The next battle was between a buff guy from the Battle Magic class and an androgynous looking person with purple hair who apparently spent some time studying in in the Spirit World. The Battle Magic guy wasted no time rushing and clobbering the person with purple hair. However, purple hair was ready with spirits that took the brunt of the attack. Different colored spirits were summoned around the ring.
As Battle Magic guy moved around to position for the next attack, he would brush against a spirit and it would blow up causing him pain. These blasts are mana explosions, which garble the mana inside Battle Magic guy. Sadly, he seems to be a hotheaded "fight now, think never" type. The more he tried to get close to purple hair guy, the more damage he is taking from the explosions until finally his mana system is so disrupted that the judges ruled his defeat.
Terrick was glued to his seat. He thought about how his spell Fire explosion could be used to achieve a similar effect. He clearly can't control spirits but perhaps taking the Perfecting Magic: Fire class could teach him how to do it. With this in mind, he resolved to definitely register for this class.