Round Robin (2)

As Mark's voice rang out and his hand dropped signaling the start of the match the shadow of the serpent had fully soaked into Rosalind's form. Her muscles tensed and she pushed off the ground with all her might to close the distance between the two in a few short movements. Since Jien wanted to finish the match quickly she would oblige by showing him the strength of her body after so long training not only with her mentors but before the forge in their home and the mines in their territory.

As Rosalind began to take long strides toward him, her footsteps sounding like the hooves of a wild stallion beating on the ground in a gallop, he finished casting his first spell using body casting. The mana had finished circulating and had been pushed to the soles of his feet. He lifted his feet up as if preparing to sprint. As soon as the mana had exited from the sole of his feet and beneath the heel of his boot it finally took action as dictated by the circulation pattern it had traveled within his body. The air beneath his heel seemed to be pulled in as if a miniature cyclone were forming. The collected air then compacted on itself once, and then again before it seemed that the air itself in that small area began to shimmer as if it were ready to ignite any second.

Two small bangs rang out rang out, their sound almost overlapping. Jien felt a large force push at the back of his heels as if wishing to lift him completely off the ground, but because he had purposely angled himself forward as far as he could without falling down, all the force was focused on propelling him forward with fierce momentum.

Jien did not fight the force at his heels, using it to create what appeared to the observers to be an extremely exaggerated step forward. Most thought that he had miscast his spell and was going to end up in a bad spot because he was too excited. Only Mark and Emily who had trained him up to this point knew that he was in full control.

As Rosalind closed in Jien was still in the middle of his long leap forward. She smiled wildly, her muscles tensing from her arms to her firm torso as she wound up to swing her pole hammer at full force to Jien while in mid air. Her body seemed to glow with a mixture of dark red light and a slight black mist as she swung forward, knowing that if it would threaten her opponent Mark or Emily would be likely to either stop the blow or save Jien.

What she never expected was that while mid air and looking her in the eye Jien would quickly draw out a few sigils that quickly formed. Suddenly, just as her hammer was about to strike Jien's cheek he seemed to vanish entirely as if he had never been there to begin with. Her hammer swung through the empty air and she landed firmly from her mid-stride strike only to see a blur curve around her figure in a semi circle, a trail of dust left in its wake as if a stampede of horses had kicked it up.

Before she could even adjust her posture Jien had appeared to her back, striking out like a viper and letting the blade of his rapier rest only an inch from her throat. He obviously didn't wish to truly strike to take her life. This was meant to be a friendly spar after all and he would prefer if everyone left it without injuries.

Rosalind knew when to admit defeat, she may be a bitter over-energetic but that did not mean she was empty-headed. She lowered her hammer to the ground and then raised her arms in defeat saying "I give up!" in a cheery tone as if a blade wasn't hovering at her throat.

As soon as she said this Jien swiftly withdrew his blade and sheathed it before letting out a long breath of relief. As short as the match was, being only a single exchange, what he had done to win it was not as simple as it seemed.

First of all was his first spell. It was a spell used to draw in air in a certain area and compress it to a point that it seemed to distort the very light around it. After the air was compacted to a large enough degree it was released in what became a blast. To conserve mana he did not try to force this blast of released air in a single direction but used the general burst of energy to propel himself into what became a long jump. If he had not practiced this very method many times in the past many things could of gone terribly wrong, from blowing apart his own feet to shifting his weight incorrectly and being sent flying in a direction that would lead to injury or worse.

After he had succeeded in the creation and execution of his long jump he was then stuck in a movement forward and in the air, leaving him open to be attacked. This in itself was a planned opening and a large risk. If the opponent understood the goal and planned to evade his follow up offensive or even counterstrike then he could easily end up on the back foot.

Luckily for him Rosalind had been an opponent who seemingly wasn't attempting to read that far into how he wanted the match to go. She had struck at him mid jump with such ferocity that she left her back open. Latching onto that opening he had cast a spell using drawn sigils that gathered air to push him forward and carry him, as if surfing around his opponent to strike at her opening.

Unlike the prior spell he did not try to compress the air to create a thrust, instead invoking it into strong draft to his back and beneath his feet. He then used the force of the draft and his own leg strength to redirect himself in a semicircle around Rosalind, finally striking out as quickly as he could to make full use of the element of surprise. 

Maneuvering using the draft was not exactly pleasant in the least. His legs were sore from the pure pressure put on them when he forced his movement into a semicircle from what would have been a straight line. Not to mention that the bottom of his leather boots felt like they were burning due to the friction with the dry dirt.

It was great that his first opponent had yielded after he had completed such a tactic because a continued fight in this condition would not be great. The problem now, was that everyone had seen what he had done and he still had four others to try and beat.

He sighed internally, as he made his way to the side where the other young nobles sat on his aching legs.