The Tournament Continues: The tale of two nobles

When Edgar climbed back onto the stands, he was greeted by a friendly hug from Riley who was so happy that he had won. He was a little taken aback by the physical contact from a woman, but he was pleased, nonetheless.

Edgar didn't miss the snarl that that jerk Cedric gave him when he walked back onto the stands, but he didn't let it bother him. Edgar vowed that he would beat Cedric, and he would do just that.

"Now for the next match! Alice Marcellus versus Rosalie Stanburg!" The crowd went absolutely wild at the announcement of Alice and Rosalie's match. Alice's many admirers threw flowers into the arena in her honour. Rosalie tried to keep in her scowl at the roses that were being thrown for Alice. She clenched her fist hard as she heard the crowd chanting Alice's name. Repeatedly she told herself to calm down; after today all Alice's admirers would be hers, after she beat Alice with the Stanburg family's secret casting spell, all the attention would be on her for once and not that vulgar tart Alice!

The two ladies stood in the middle of the arena a few meters apart. The loud gong marked the beginning of their match.

Rosalie took in a deep breath; this was her time to shine.

Alice took in a deep breath; it was time to show Rosalie her place.

Riley saw the fierce look in Alice's eyes and hoped she wouldn't be too hard Rosalie.

Edgar swooned at the sight of two such beautiful maidens battling in the arena.

The First Prince Geoffrey saw the beautiful lady Alice Marcellus. He remembered that she had been a very gifted fire magic user, he sighed and hoped that she would be better than the previous fire user... who had been beaten rather badly by that surprisingly good commoner.

Then his eyes settled on the girl with the dark hair, the healer his brother had told him about. Geoffrey didn't believe in things he couldn't see, so he hadn't taken his brothers words quite at face value, he would see what she was really made of in the arena.

Please little healer... impress me.

Rosalie immediately began with her trump card, "Oh fresh spirits of Spring, once more I beseech you to grant upon the noble house of Stanburg the blossoming beauty of your divine flowers..." everybody was immediately enthralled with her pre-casting ritual. The dust at her feet started to rise and beautiful wisps of what looked like pink smoke swished and swirled around her. Slowly a divine fragrance washed over the arena, the smell of blossoming flowers, a beautiful garden blooming spring.

Rosalie smiled smugly as she heard people starting to chant her names and as she heard people uttering

"That fragrance..."

"It is as if spring has come!"

"What a beautiful and powerful lady..."

"Ah! It has been a while since I have seen the Stanburg family spell." Chuckled the king amused that someone so young could have mastered such a technique.

"Spirits heavenly flower garden!" Chanted Rosalie, loving the feel of everybody's eyes on her.

The thin wisps of pink smoke suddenly expanded and within the film of smoke small flowers started to bloom, within. In a matter of seconds, a heavenly garden of floating flowers had appeared in the arena, the arena was filled with the awesome colours of pink roses, violets, daisies, tulips and orchids. All of the flowers grew to about twenty times their normal size and stood as tall as Rosalie.

The crowd lost the minds at the beautiful display of power: they cheered and praised and clapped.

The guests of honour, the representatives of the kingdom of Malesh also took note of the wonderful spell. One of the princes of Malesh, leaned forward in his seat to get a better look at the amazing power he was seeing. He had never seen anything of that kind in his own kingdom. It was his first trip to the Girannon, and he as beginning to understand why Girannon had reigned victorious in the last Great War: this kingdom's magical power was incredible.

Riley was delighted that she was able to see one of the famous Merge spells. Riley had learned (during her weeks of study) that although there are six different types of magic, there are some mages that are able to combine two sets of magic and create a new type of magic, referred to as: merge magic - a very revered type of magic. Riley could tell that Rosalie was using water and earth magic to create the flower garden, but she wondered what it actually did besides looking pretty.

Riley was delighted that she was able to see one of the famous secret spells, Riley had learned (during her weeks of study) that although there are six different types of magic, there are some families that are able to combine two sets of magic and create a new type of magic, referred to as, private magic,a very revered type of magic. Riley could tell that Rosalie was using water and earth magic to create the flower garden, but she wondered what it actually did, besides looking pretty.

"Heavenly garden, blossom the flowers of eternal sleep!" The moment Rosalie had been waiting for was here, with this one move she would take out Alice!

The magical flowers seemed to permeate a visible purple mist, that slowly started to float its way over to Alice. Although the lavender mist was beautiful, it seemed malicious.

Then the announcer of the ring started narrating the match, "The Stanburg family's secret weapon! A private magic that allows them to bloom a garden of flowers which produces a poisonous pollen, as soon as their opponents' breathe in the pollen, they fall into a coma!"

The crowd gasped at the words they had just heard, and became even more captivated in the arena. How on earth would her opponent, Alice, counter this.

Rosalie smirked at Alice, as she saw the purple smoke creep up to her, the smoke wisped over her garments and climbed up her body and was about to engulf her face... Finally, Rosalie had won... Finally, she had beaten Alice. Finally...

"Oh please. As if your cute little garden could harm me." Alice's voice was cold. Deathly cold. A shiver ran up Rosalie's spine at her tone.

"Phoenix of the sun... rise and burn..."

the whole crowd watched on the edges of their seats as an incredible giant bird made of fire broke through the purple mist. The bird was exquisite, it was shaped like an eagle but much bigger, and was made completely out of red flames.

The Phoenix screeched an ear-splitting screech, consequently Lord Marcellus's eyeglass spontaneously combusted.

After that mighty screech, the bird took flight and flew majestically over the flowers, causing the flowers to catch alight. The beautiful flowers all burned to a crisp at a touch of the Phoenix flames, the smoke then dissipated, the flowers burned to ash and the spell that Rosalie had cast had been undone in a matter of minutes.

Rosalie just stood there in a state of complete shock. This couldn't be real, this couldn't be happening. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. How did this? Why did this? She had used all her magic on the Merge Magic, she didn't have another plan, she didn't have any other way to fight... Was she really going to lose to Alice again...

The announcer could see that Rosalie had no magic left, so he announced that Alice was the winner. The crowd erupted with praise for Alice - the shining gem of the Marcellus house. The miracle fire mage. Her phoenix fire magic was the pride and joy of Girannon, it even could defeat Merge Magic.

Rosalie slowly walked off the arena and back onto the stands. She realised how foolish she had been to want to beat Alice. Alice came from a first rank noble family that specialised in Magic, she had been trained since they were young how to use magic and fight. She had just been so jealous of her. Everybody knew who Alice Marcellus was... but she always had to be introduced for people to know who she was. Alice was always better than her at everything: music, embroidery, singing, status, even magic – the one area she thought she could beat her at was magic, but today the harsh reality had slapped her in the face. She would never beat Alice.

Just then Alice walked onto the stands. Rosalie sucked in her breath, readying herself for the taunting Alice would put her through.

Alice walked right up to Rosalie with a scowl on her face and said, "You are smart, you are undeniable pretty, you have a sly cunning and wit to you... If you ever give up on this insane jealousy call on me. I think we would make good friends." With that Alice walked over to Riley and sat next to her.

Rosalie felt utterly ashamed. All this time she had judged Alice without even getting to know her. And instead of rubbing her win in Rosalie's face, she didn't even mention it, instead she offered to be her friend... Happy and sad tears dribbled down her cheeks realising what an imbecile she had been.

The next three matches passed by quickly, as they hadn't been as eventful as the first two. Unsurprisingly to the audience, the noble Cedric Bonenffant displayed his impressive Earth and Wind magic and brutally knocked out his opponent (who had to be carried out of the arena due to his injuries). The only other girl in the competition was beaten in the ring, leaving just Alice and Riley in the match. Two other nobles boys survived, both had blonde hair and blue eyes – the common trait of people in this kingdom it seemed.

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"Now for the last match of the first round, Dimitri Vassaltross versus Riley Delton!"

The last match of the round had come. I was finally going to compete. I wasn't exactly excited about it, I mean I never really enjoyed doing things under pressure, especially with a hundred thousand people watching me, but I owed it to the Marcellus's who kindly took me in, to give them a good show and that I would do.

As Dimitri and I made our way to the arena the announcer started adding in his own commentary, "For the final match of the first round, we have the shining star of the Royal Mage academy: Dimitri Vassaltross, who is a third rank noble!"

The crowd cheered loudly for him.

"And we also have Riley Delton! The newest member of the Royal Mage society and a commoner!" There was much less cheering for me, but I was pleased to hear Alice and Edgar cheering for me at least.

When we got into position in the arena the announcer called out, "Let the game begin!"