The main arena was divided into ten smaller fields each had ten rings on them for fights to take place. Each field represented a power level with the first holding the weakest and the tenth holding the strongest. I had been assigned to field two. So in comparison to others I was still helplessly weak.
Walking over to the field did not take me much time at all. The field had a couple of hundred people hanging around each waiting for something. As I was trying to work out what they were waiting for. I felt a searing pain on my wrist.
"Fuck." I let out a little curse quietly. Looking around no one had heard me or at least they did not show that they had anyway. On my wrist was the number three hundred and forty seven.
Then there was a low buzzing noise in the air. Looking up I saw above each of the fields two numbers appearing. As each one did, the people with which had the number seared onto their wrist moved up to the first platform. This happened again and again, until all ten of the platforms were filled.
"BANG!"
With a loud bang, the people in the rings all began to start casting spells at each other. Their aim was to knock the other person down or out of the ring or have so that they are in a killing move. Once you lose a fight, you are disqualified and have to leave.The aim is to have ten victors in each field. Then the same will happen again and again, until there is a total of one hindered victors from each field.
The fight itself did not take as long as I had expected it to. One of the mages who appeared to be a wind mage. Used what seemed like a simple wind blade, and sent their opponent flying out of the ring. Just before the loser smashed into the floor. The number on his wrist lit up and he disappeared.
Once the winner had left the ring, the numbers appeared again. Choosing the next opponents. The fights after this all took different times. Easily showing the difference in the ability of the mages present. After about one hundred fights my number appeared in the sky, I also felt a slight shock from my wrist, indicating that it was my turn as well.
I walked through the few people left where I was standing and reached the ring. My opponent reached the ring at the same time as I did. As I expected her to be she was a fire mage. The main thing that Lars and Alyx had taught me, or at least showed me was different ways that I could use my core.
Neither of us talked. A couple of seconds later I saw a transparent barrier appear, that I had not seen before. Seeing it my opponent immediately began casting a spell. Not wanting to fall behind her in the least I casted some mana in the shape of a sword.
I could see that as soon as I did that, she looked at me with a sneer. Obviously thinking that she had won already.
In response I used one of the most basic shadow spells that I knew. It was aptly named shadow. What it did was make the area I could control pitch black. Now even with my fire sword in my hand she could not see me exactly. Unfortunately it only stretched about three meters out in all directions. Not quite reaching her, but it was big enough that even if she used an exploding spell it would not hit me.
In the cover of the darkness I began to move forward approaching her quickly. Even at the edge of the darkness which I was now at, she could still not see me. I smiled at this.
She in response was sending fire balls into the darkness over and over. None of them came near me at all. I moved along the edge until I was as close to her as I could get. This way only two metres separated us. Once I was ready I dashed out of the darkness with the sword in a revere grip. I arrived in mere seconds to her side. The sword against her neck.
Before she or me could say anything she disappeared and all that was left in the ring was me. I casually strolled out not wasting any time and joined the other victors. As I did I got a few gazes, all of them curious. Getting near them I had quite a few complaints on the use of the two spells together.
After that they all went back to watching the fights. It didn't take long for this round to end. What was next was a similar thing to before just that there were a lot less people who would be fighting.
I went up fifth this time, not having a long wait at all.
In the ring my opponent this time was a wind mage. Unlike the previous fight however he walked up to me first and offered his hand. Shaking it.
"Your fight before looked interesting, good luck. This will be fun."
It seemed to me that he was some kind of battle manic. The joyful smile on his face however disappeared and was replaced with one of extreme focus and determination. As soon as the barrier came up, he sent multiple wind blades at me.
I immediately rolled to the side and made the fire sword appear in my hand like last time. With it I blocked some of his attacks as well as dodged them as I slowly moved closer towards him.
After getting within three metres of him, the amount of wind blades increased as well as an occansal wind ball, which was very painful and impossible to block with a sword. This forced me to go back a bit where I could at least survive.
I tried lots of ways to get closer but all failed. I was also unable to cast the shadow spell again as he wasn't giving me enough time with his barrage of spells.
'Damm, guess I will have to use that already.'
I raced closer to him, getting to the three meter point again. This time I got rid of my sword by throwing it at him making it a spear as I did. He blocked it easily but this gave me enough time to prepare my next attack. I casted multiple shadow blades very similar to his wind blades, but instead of sending them at him. I wove them around him, forcing him to focus on defence and not attack me.
Unfortunately he was able to stop them actually hitting him each time.
Once he had finished dealing with them, he looked around for me. Seeing me he sent multiple wind balls at me. They all passed straight through me as if I wasn't there.
'The shadow clone spell worked well.'
As soon as he had attacked my real body appeared behind him, I had a fire dagger at him. Making him lose. Just before he disappeared.
"That was a good spell and trap. Though against over opponents be careful. A lot of people have tricks up their sleeves." He then disappeared.
I walked off the ring to the other winners, thinking of his words. It seemed like I was not the only one who had some tricks but I was more surprised that he told me about it.