The Mage Tournament

On the day of lighting, the last day before the tournament, Alice was in her lavish bedroom in the Marcellus mansion, plotting on how best to humiliate Rosalie during their battle in a way that would make the audience laugh at Rosalie mercilessly and in a way that would make her look elegant and refined and not stain her character. She was having trouble finding a way to meet both requirements though...

Riley and Cornelius were in the library, Cornelius was trying to beat all the most visually appealing yet useful spells into Riley's head so that she would be able to captivate the audience in the arena. Riley was trying to get everything in her head but the long and complicated names of the spells were making the process longer.

Rosalie Stanburg was grinning to herself at the thought of Alice taking a bite out of the rosenplum and her mouth filling with the stinking black goo from inside the fruit she had given her. She laughed thinking that Alice's foul mouth. That stupid Alice thought she was better than Rosalie just because she was a rank or two above her. She would show her at the tournament who was better than who. Rosalie had spent months ever since the last tournament perfecting her families secret Flower magic technique that was sure to make her beat Alice. She couldn't wait to beat Alice in front of the whole arena tomorrow. As for that dark haired-girl Alice was with, she planned to observe her see just what kind of mage she was, and to see if she was worth sucking-up-to.

The knight's from the Knights Order who were boarding within the palace started to place bets on who the winner would be. Lucian didn't take part in the gamble, because he didn't believe in throwing away money carelessly, unlike the many very wealthy knights that belonged to the order, but if he had he would have placed his bets on Riley. Maybe a few coins on the very beautiful Lady Alice. Lucian laid back in bed and thought about the gorgeous Lady Marcellus.

Down in the general sect of the Gismead, the commoners talked excitedly about the Mage tournament. This was their chance to get a glimpse of the shinning nobles that were always so far out of their reach. They would get to see the wealth and power and beauty of those that ran their kingdom. The commoners in the pub also wanted to cheer on one of their own who had qualified to become a Royal Mage. A talented hardworking boy who had grown up on the mean streets of the poorer side of Gismead, who had through a sheer determination made it into the Royal Mage Society. His parents, his friends, his family would all be at the arena tomorrow to come and support him.

On the East side of Gismead, where the docks and the harbour were located, guests from the other nations stepped off their boats to come and watch the tournament. These nobles from the other kingdoms didn't come to Gismead just to watch the tournament and have a good time, they primarily came to see what kind of power Girannon had at its disposal, what kind of mages they had in their courts, and were they greater than the powers of their own kingdoms.

That night, the whole of Gismead slept restlessly; eagerly awaiting the tournament.

Finally, the Day of Wind was here. People got out of their beds early and put on their best clothes to wear to the tournament.

At the Marcellus house, the family wasn't only there to watch their daughter participate in the competition, they were there to promote their household as being very capable in educating the youth on magic. Since the Marcellus's ran the Royal Mage Society, they had to show that they were the best family for the job. The tournament had to be as spectacular as possible and they had to look the part. Lord Marcellus wore his military uniform that was highly decorated with badges of honour and medals and sashes, to show his prowess and show off all his accomplishments. Cornelius also wore his highly decorated Knights Order uniform. Lady Marcellus wore another stunning gown. A silk gown with jewels and beads sewn in, that fitted her slim figure perfectly.

Alice had to wear something a bit more toned down since she was participating in the tournament so she wore a relatively more simple copper-coloured frock, to represent her family:

Although Alice and Lady Marcellus had told Riley that their outfits were simple, looking at them, she realised that their idea of what simple was very different to her definition. Riley settled with one of the simple frocks that she had bought with Alice on their way to visit Lucian the other day. A black overall dress with. White blouse underneath.

Alice and Lady Eleanora had tried to get Riley to wear something fancier but she didn't want to wear anything nice that could potentially be damaged by her opponents' magic. Cornelius defended Riley's decision, saying that a plain dark coloured dress would help her stand out since everybody would try and wear something colourful.

The two youngest of the Family, Tyrion and Audrey, wore the sweetest little outfits. Cornelius had gifted his little brother a small dagger, that Tyrion took the greatest pride in. Little Tyrion fastened it to his belt. While little Audrey wore the sweetest, prettiest little pink dress, with little flowers in her hair. Riley noted that this world was very sexist, but swept that thought under the rug to deal with it another time.

The whole family besides Alice and Riley got into their carriage and rode away to the arena. Riley and Alice had to wait for a special carriage that went around collecting all the tournaments participants.

Soon the carriage arrived and they climbed in with the help of one of the cart drivers. The carriage was a very long stretched out carriage. Riley thought that the car equivalent for it would have been a limousine. There was only one seat left in the front of the carriage which Alice took, Riley walked down the long carriage and sat next to a boy with curly green hair. She noticed how excited he looked, his eyes were practically sparkling with anticipation. When she sat down next to him, he immediately greeted her.

"Morning milady." He bowed his head to her.

"Oh no, don't bow, I'm not a noble. I'm just an ordinary person." She told him.

The guy's eyes shot open "Really! I thought that I was the only commoner who was participating!" He exclaimed loudly, excited to meet another commoner.

"Well, now there's two of us..." Riley smiled back at him, immediately finding a kindred spirit in him. "I'll be rooting for you." She told him.

What Riley said only seemed to make him even happier.

"Thank you." He said. "If I don't win, I'll be rooting for you too." He said back happily. Riley giggled at him, pleased to have made another friend.

The boy didn't want to ask about her dark hair because he didn't want to be rude, but he had never seen anyone with such dark coloured hair before. He almost didn't believe her when she had said that she was a commoner just because of her amazing hair, and her clothes were not the extravagant style that the nobles usually wore, but they were still good quality. However they didn't have any jewels or lace sewn into them, so she must be a commoner. He was glad that he would have someone there to support him because he doubted that his family would be able to miss work for a day and come and watch him.

"I don't think commoners should be allowed to participate in the competition. What do you think Edgar?" Asked Cedric, with a cruel smirk on his face. Riley scowled at the comment peering over the seats to see who could be so rude.

"Give it a rest Cedric." Replied the boy sitting next to Riley, angrily.

Cedric only laughed at him and was about to say something mean when the carriage came to a stop. A loud voice told all of the participants to get out of the carriage, and a man led them all to their special section of the arena.

Riley

My eyes almost popped out of my skull at the sight of the arena. It looked like a roman styled arena filled with hundreds of thousands of people on the stands. When they stepped out onto the stands I heard people start to cheer and call out some of the contestants' names.

"Lady Alice!"

"Lord Cedric!"

"Lady Rosalie!"

There were a total of twelve participants. Consisting of four girls and eight boys. Another way to put it was two commoners, a three wealthy merchant's children and six nobles.

Then a booming loud voice declared the arrival of the royal family, "All rise for the Royal family!" Everybody stood up and watched in awe as they entered.

"The Third Prince Alfonse Ulric Tybalt Ambrose!" Announced the booming voice. The crowd cheered as a young boy (maybe 12 years old) stepped out, he was young but he was already so beautiful.

"The Second Prince Kristopher Theodore Bastian Ambrose!" I immediately recognised the Knight I had met at Willow's town. He looked even more handsome in his prince outfit.

"The First Prince Geoffrey Loefrick Hadrian Ambrose!" The first prince was possibly the most gorgeous man in the kingdom. I sucked in a breath as I saw his face and I heard many other ladies around me do the same thing.

"Queen Mirabelle Ariana Winifred Ambrose!" The whole crowd gasped at her exquisite dress, and so did I, countless numbers of sparkling jewels and crystals covered her garment, I didn't even want to imagine how much gold that cost.

"My word, Queen Mirabelle always outdoes us..." Whispered Alice in my ear unable to take her eyes off the dress.

"King Leofrick Theodore Ulric Ambrose!" Everybody around me started to cheer at the arrival of the king. I could tell from here that he was a sharp and strict man, maybe it was something in his gaze that told me so, maybe just the air about him, I don't know, he just had something to him... But besides that, I noticed that the whole family had the same Golden hair and golden eyes, and they were truly like gems even amidst a sea of beautiful people.

After the Royal family was seated. The arena sat down again. A large board was carried out by two men; on the board was written the schedule for how the matches would be carried out. In the first round, there would be six matches between two opponents, only the winning opponent would move onto the next round. The second round had a total of three matches. The three surviving contestants would then have a match between them to determine who would come first, second and third. Every match was to be done one by one in the arena

For the first round, I was paired up with somebody called Dimitri Vassaltross. Alice was paired with Rosalie (which I doubt was a coincidence) and my new friend Edgar was paired with a noble called Oswald Albertine. Edgar's match was first.

The announcer called Edgar and Oswald to the middle of the arena, the crowd began to chant, most of the chanting was for the noble, but I could still hear some praise for Edgar.

The announcer spoke up again, "This is a friendly tournament, the objective is not to kill the opponents, the objective is to disable them to the point that they can't fight anymore! Anybody who uses excessive force on their opponent or tries to strike at their opponent after the match has been ended by the umpire will be disqualified! With that, Let the Royal Mage Tournament Begin!"

When the two opponents were standing a few meters apart a trumpet blew announcing the start of the match.

<----------------------<<<<

Oswald was the first to act: He immediately concentrated his fire magic in his hands. Quickly the fire began to blaze. Then as the flames got hotter the fire started to burn a blue colour. Then Oswald fiercely sent the fire flying like around towards Edger. The crowd was already captured, the gasped at the sight of the flying blue flames. However, Edgar smoothly countered the attack by using his wind magic, which countered the fire magic by blowing air from the opposite direction and thereby extinguishing the fire.

Oswald scowled at his failed attack, realising that he had underestimated his opponent. He decided to take it to the next level, "Great Burning Spear of Courage!" He shouted out. The crowd cheered wildly as a spear started to form in his hand made completely out of blue flames. Oswald gave Edgar a smirk before hurling the flame spear at him, thinking that he had won the match.

However, Edgar one again smoothly countered, but this time with an incantation, "Wind storm!" He called out. A mini-tornado formed in the middle of the arena that violently blew air everywhere, people laughed and gasped as their hair and hats blew in the wind. The tornado caught the Fire spear in its centre and soon the flaming spear dissipated.

The crowd gave loud cheers for Edgar who smiled pleased at the attention he was getting. He saw from the corner of his eye that Riley was cheering for him just like she had said she would.

Oswald, on the other hand, was burning with fury. His rage was so deep, how could a mere peasant be giving him such problems. He knew it was early in the match to bring out his ace but he decided that he had to use it in order to defeat Edgar.

Oswald let the flames take over his whole body, they encapsulated him, they flowed over him like a suit of armour, the flames rose higher and burned hotter and Oswald could feel his true power coming forth. However, Edgar had taken one look at the fire magic emanating from Oswald's magic and had decided that it would be a problem if he attacked with his flames the next time. So Edgar saw the opening that Oswald had left open in his suit of armour, probably an opening Oswald had created to allow air to enter into the flame suit so that he could breathe. Edgar called out, "Wind blade." A blade-like gust of air travelled at lightning speed to the opening in Oswald's Flame suit and made contact with his bare chest.

Oswald's eyes opened wide with shock, at the feeling of the blunt force on his chest. But then he felt a searing pain, Edgar had broken a rib with that hit. Unable to stand Oswald fell to the floor coughing violently and holding his chest. The umpire seeing the situation waited a few moments to see if Oswald could get up. He didn't. So the announcer declared Edgar the winner.

The crowd cheered gayly at for the performance they had seen. Edgar congratulated himself on winning his first match but wished that his family could have been here to see him win.

He was walking off the stage when a big banner caught his eye, it read: Edgar Heathson for the Winner! Edgar looked up and saw all his family holding up the banner and cheering for him. He was elated and waved back at them joyously. Now that they were there, there was no way that he could lose. He grinned at the sight of his father and mother in their best clothes and his older siblings shouting his name. He would win this for them.