Colosseum

A/N: I just realised I completely forgot to add Jack to the DC. He is a member, making the number of DC members 12. His dagger colour is white. My apologies for forgetting!

"....

We call it... the Colosseum," Claire spoke mysteriously.

"The what?"

"Follow me." She ran off down the hall and out of the main building. She continued to run through the campus, taking various turns left and right down alleys and cracks between buildings.

We eventually arrived at the entrance of a large stone amphitheatre with possibly enough seats to sit the whole academy. In the middle of the amphitheatre was a large stone arena with two students fighting. Claire stepped in front of me, spread her arms wide, and announced, "This! This is the Colosseum!"

"What is this place...?" I asked, stunned by the vast stone structure that didn't match the rest of the academy buildings.

"This is where the strongest of students fight. First-years aren't really allowed in here, so they duel using their artefacts on their uniforms outside of the Colosseum. But, in here, the strongest students of each year fight without barriers or artefacts until one either yields or cannot continue!"

"Why can't first-years come in?"

"They are generally far weaker than even a weak second-year, and this Colosseum is supposed to be for the strongest students only. First-years aren't prohibited from entering - they can come and watch - but a first-year fighting is very rare. It's also a right of passage for students of this academy after reaching their second year and becoming Level 2 mages. Starting in your second year, off-campus activities start and the strength of mages skyrockets, meaning even though second-years are only one year older than first-years and perhaps also the same core stage, the second-years have way more experience and are therefore much stronger."

"Hmmm... If there are no rules, how do the duels stop?"

"Either the loser admits defeat, or a stronger student or teacher steps in and forcibly stops the fight, usually by subduing the victor. That job has now been given to us, the DC." She answered.

"Is that why you showed me this place? For patrols and duty?"

"That, and I knew you would want to fight strong students." She gave me a knowing grin.

Ada will love this place...

"Thanks. How do I sign up to fight?"

"You see that big scoreboard over there? It lists the names of the 30 strongest students in the Academy based on amounts of wins. As you can see, I'm third.

If someone challenges another student from that list, they will be required to fight. The other way to fight is to register your match and who you want to fight, usually you will have to wait a few days - maybe even a week - until your match. Right now, Chase Squire has been challenged by another student who wants to take his place, Evelyn Cooper."

"You do you think will win?"

"Chase will win. He's top 10 for a reason. Evelyn is barely top 20, sitting just barely above the guy in #20. She's by no means weak, but the difference in strength between 9th and 19th is just too much for her."

"You said you're third. I thought you'd be first, being the captain of the DC and whatnot."

"I probably could be. The two in 1st and 2nd are probably weaker than me, but I'm quite busy. I normally show up to referee matches and if someone challenges me."

"Where do you think I'd be placed?"

"Judging by the fact you are that man's disciple, and the fact that you are a first-year DC member, I'd wager you are easily top 15. All members of the DC should be top 30 at least - or it's a disgrace to our reputation.

You see over there. That's the medic bay. Upper-classmen medical students volunteer there for practical experience. The Colosseum is something funded purely by parents and used to bear no responsibility for injuries, so a medic bay was introduced to heal the fighters so they could return to class. Since the academy has recently accepted the Colosseum as a part of the school, medic students can actually get extra marks on their grades if they volunteer at the Colosseum, so most of them do. They work on a rotation schedule, much like the DC patrols. The guy in charge of the medic division of the Colosseum is the head student of emitting, Kabuto Volkov. He's the top emitter in the whole academy, so he was given authority over the medic bay.

The Student Council has various meetings with the academy branch groups - like the 'Colosseums Docs' - to discuss the overall quality of facilities in the academy and to make sure every group has enough funding.

Alright. I think I've explained the basics. I have a class to get to, so see you later." She concluded her long explanation and turned to leave.

"Oh, what class do you have?"

"Team-Fighting Mechanics."

"Me too! We can head over together." I took one final look and the ranking board to see who my strongest opponents would be, before the two of us raced over to our class.

1 - Levi Abraham , 6th year

2 - Jack ___ , 4th year

3 - Claire Bladeheart , 6th year

4 - Theodore Maxwell , 6th year

5 - Estel Ouroboros , 4th year

6 - Tessia Eralith , 2nd year

7 - Curtis Glayder , 5th year

8 - Lee Savoy , 3rd year

9 - Chase Squire , 5th year

10 - Hibana Merigold , 2nd year

.....

Claire and I arrive at the large grass patch in front of a small gated forest. Most of the other students were already here, and many were giving me dirty looks - likely because I was a first-year who got on the DC when they didn't and I was taking the hardest class to get into. Their jealousy is understandable. Claire and I spotted Curtis over near one of the trees and walked over to him.

After roughly 10 minutes of waiting around, the rest of the students and the professor arrived. Arthur walked up to us with his cute white fox sleeping on his head, Ada behind him trying to get his attention and make him fight her, and the President and Vice-president of the SC walked in from the other entrance. A loud squawk came from above us and we all looked up to see a massive red bird descending down upon us. "My name is Professor Glory, and this is my Flare Hawk bond, Torch."

She snapped her head towards us and stared at Arthur, before showing a wide grin. "Well, if it isn't me newest colleague, Arthur Leywin."

Her statement caused outrage among the students with Claire needing to quieten them down. "What do you mean, Professor?" One student asked. 

"I mean exactly what I said. Arthur Leywin in my newest colleague. After defeating Geist, he was promoted to interim professor of the level 2 PMM class. Very impressive, if you ask me."

This caused another outburst, with some students shouting rubbish like 'Most 5th years could easily defeat that lousy professor!' and 'That's ridiculous!'

"Now, now. I'm sure the Director knows what she's doing. If you are all so curious as to how Arthur got the position, why don't we test him? Huh?" The crowd roared in agreement

"What do you have in mind, Professor?" Arthur asked calmly, obviously not intimidated by anyone yelling at him.

"I was thinking, War! Conquest! How about it kids!?"

Curtis slowly raised his hand. "I have a suggestion, Professor. How about a team battle, DC vs SC? It would be a good opportunity for all of us to practice our teamwork."

"Hm. Not a bad idea. But 5v2 simply isn't fair. If only we had more.."

"Sorry I'm late." Jack leisurely walked up to the group, almost 20 minutes late to class.

"Jack, good. I thought you weren't going to show up. That gives me an idea. A few members of the DC join the SC side to make it fair, and we pick someone from the class to join in." The Professor announced before telling us the teams.

Arthur, Claire, Curtis, Ada and I vs Clive, Tessia, Jack and ...

"Hmm, still down one. Ada, switch to the SC side and -"

"I'd like to volunteer." A snobbish voice came from next to a tree. A half-elf with yellow hair and an annoying mug stood lent up against a tree.

"Lucas Wykes, another prodigy first-year! Alright, but that's still 5v4."

"I don't mind sitting out." I raised my hand. "Either that or we grab another volunteer."

A random student raised his hand and Professor Glory picked him for the SC team. We walked into the gated forest and put on the simple tunics that were waiting for us. "These tunics will not protect you. Let me make that very clear. As students of my class, you should be very well versed in augmenting your body even if you are a conjurer. The tunics serve as a sensor of sorts. Should the tunic take enough damage, a buzzer on your back will blink and buzz loudly, signifying your loss. Should either party continue fighting after someone has lost, I will kick them out of my class and have them removed from this academy. Do I make myself clear?" After we all yelled back in response, we scattered out around the forest, the DC taking the left side and the SC taking the right.

After the Professor's 10-second count down, all 10 of us ran towards the middle section of the forest and chose our opponents. Arthur and Lucas ran towards each other, Ada ran to Jack, Claire and Clive used their longe-range augmentation spells, Curtis and Tessia ran towards each other in the very middle of the forest, and my poor sod of an opponent stood roughly 10 meters in front of me with a confident smirk on his face.

"Don't hate me too much when I take your place on the DC, first-year. If you surrender, maybe I won't hurt you too-"

"You done?"

"Excuse me? I'm trying to be nice to you-"

"Shut up." I reappeared behind him, closing the distance of 10 meters before he had time to react, and grabbed the back of his head, slamming his face into the dirt. I reappeared again under a tree a few meters away from his lying body. 

Surely he's not done, right..?

He began to stand up, mud dripping from his red-hot face. He yelled something along the lines of, 'How dare you!' but I wasn't really listening. As he was preparing a large water spell, I turned around to look at Ada and Jack's fight - probably the most intense match-up of the whole 5v5.

Jack was expertly keeping Ada at a distance despite her ability to 'blink' around the forest faster than he could react by increasing the vibration of normal forest noises like rustling leaves and bug sounds around him. If she entered his sound domain, she would likely lose focus and feel very dizzy from the subtle attack on her eardrums. Ada channelled lightning from her hands and the lightning slithered along the forest ground like snakes, penetrating into the formless sound domain.

"Don't ignore me!" I snapped my attention back to the moron, a large vortex of water spiralling my way. I stood my ground, unwavering with my hands still in my pockets. I conjured a large mirror in front of me which blocked the attack and sprayed water around me.

Quite a strong spell... Guess he's not in the class for nothing. Still, he's revoltingly weak.

"Speed is weight. Have you ever been kicked at the speed of light?" I vanished from his line of sight and appeared with my foot next to his head. I kicked him through the forest, sending him flying through Jack's sound domain and through the volley of long-range spells from Clive and Curtis, his tunic buzzing loudly. Surprisingly, he lived.

"What to do now... Should I go mess with Ada?" I hopped from tree to tree, arriving above their fight. I sneakily got closer to Ada, just a few meters behind her, hidden by the trees. I conjured a thick vine of light from the ground and grabbed her ankle, tripping her over and sending her plummeting into the ground. She looked around furiously until she saw the yellow vine around her ankle. "Dammit Solis!! I'll kill you!"

Hehehe

"I'll be in trouble if I mess with her any more. I wonder how Note is doing..."

I headed off to his fight with Lucas and saw him trapped in a dome of fire.

A dome spell! He's pretty strong. Still, Note should be handling this quite easily. Can't he just form his own larger dome around it and cancel Lucas'? What's he doing just standing there?

I focused harder, activating my Eyes, and noticed that every third or so fireball completely dissipated before reaching him. "You're kidding..." A devilish grin formed on my face and my eyes grew wide.

Note! Just how crazy are you!?

.....