Ignoring The Competition

Everyone but Mark, Emily, Earl and Runa were left surprised by the turn of events. Though Rosalind seemed calm that didn't mean that she wasn't stunned internally. How had he taken everything so in stride? How had he reached her blind spot before she could react? Still, she didn't let the loss hit her too hard. This was just the beginning and she could still reach the top of their little tournament if she won each following match.

As she made her way steadily back to the where the other children were seated a slight black smoke left her skin and seemed to slither back around her neck before taking the form of the same snake shaped necklace she had worn before. This left Jien curious. He had noticed what had happened with the necklace during his match and what he thought was the effect it had when it seemed to dissolve but he was unsure what the piece of jewelry actually was.

A part of him thought that it may have been a piece of magic jewelry meant to enhance the strength of the one wearing it. The trouble with that assumption was that in his studies on the topic he had never heard mention of such a craft that could join with the wearers body like that. That being said he was by no means an expert and felt that to get to the bottom of it he would likely have to ask her. He decided to do so after the matches feeling that it would be rude to try and have her give up knowledge of an advantage in the middle of their spars.

He sat down calmly despite the fact that he could almost swear he heard his legs internally creaking. What he had done was not the smartest way to win the fight, but was probably the fastest that he could think of. He had forced quite a lot of pressure on his legs to steer himself to the appropriate end destination and now had to pay the price for it. Not to mention that the first spell used up a considerable amount of his mana because it was complex in nature. Now he just had to hope that he would have time to let his legs rest and his mana replenish.

Luckily for him the round robin was designed so that the children would face each other one at a time and that they would each get about an equal space between each match. The next match was set to be Lesley Knowles against Olivia Mason. The adults had settled on this to let the children get past their feuding so that everyone could properly enjoy the occasion. This arrangement was perfect in the eyes of the two as they made their way opposite each other on the training field.

As they were walking they began trash talking each other as they usually would in their training sessions back home. This of course made their respective parents rather embarrassed. The two sets of adults faced each other and nodded solemnly. They had jointly decided that once they were back home they would be reinforcing their etiquette lessons in a much more thorough and strict manner. What if they had acted like this at a celebration hosted by the royals, how would they dare to show their faces in the court again.

Olivia and Lesley had finally finished their banter and had drawn their weapons, Lesley drawing his bow and taking a steel tipped arrow from his quiver while Olivia drew her two thin short swords. Mark and Emily remained the two in charge of watching over the match since the first was finished in a single short exchange.

Mark raised his hand and started the countdown before shortly dropping his hand on the count of three declaring the start of the match. Immediately Lesley drew back his bow with the drawn arrow, releasing it swiftly while aiming for Olivia's leg. He knew her well, she was proficient enough with magic but she had a preference toward close combat, a detriment to someone who had a preference toward attacking from range. However, at this distance if he could impact her mobility it would not be difficult to finish the match.

Olivia having immediately understood Lesley's strategy, at least the start of it, took a short step to the side, letting the arrow strike the dirt with a light thud. The thin wooden shaft quivered in the ground momentarily right where Olivia's left thigh had roughly been. Olivia grimaced at the thought of having her thigh struck by such an arrow but did not stop moving, deciding to move in a rough zigzag pattern to approach her opponent while stopping his ability to have a clean shot.

Lesley had fought her enough to understand this strategy. This was nothing more than the average starter for their sparring matches when they would train together. He swiftly moved as well, working to keep his distance as he loosed arrow after arrow at his opponent.

It wasn't long into the match that Jien grew bored of watching the pair playing cat and mouse. He reached back into the medium sized pouch connected to his belt and drew out a small book regarding the historical records of a small ruin found at the edges of the Eternal Battlefield some hundred or so years ago. The book itself was considered to be packet size and the text was fairly small so he also took out a small magnifying glass that could have been mistaken for a monocle if one didn't pay close enough attention.

While Jien put his focus on his book the match taking place raged on. He didn't notice when the painted crow on Lesley's armor seemed to separate like a shadow from the armor and take flight above the archer's head. Lesley's aim became more precise after this occurred, almost catching Olivia's thighs or feet in several instances if not for her swift movements.

It took a lot longer than Jien's match but eventually Lesley ran out of physical arrows, seeing them littering the training area like pins in a pin cushion. He was forced to use mana to create arrows of mana, and at a certain point was forced to even give up on that. He was forced to draw a knife that he kept for close combat, but the moment he drew it the wolf on Olivia's armor seemed to sink completely through it and her body lit lightly with a faint silver glow.

Jien saw this even with his focus on the book, piquing his curiosity yet again, but the match ended only a moment later, leaving him without any further details. Olivia gained a large boost of speed, in an instant covering the distance between her and Lesley. One sword batted away the knife, the other settled with it's point right between his brows.

The match was over, Olivia had won.

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