Chapter 4 Part 2

The great wall projection showed each contestant's faces next to their names in great detail. Every person started eyeing each other up, looking for the people they would be going up against.

Someone who is presumably Christophers first opponent approaches him and says, "Looks like we're the first match." This person is an Orc. He looks like a brawly, tough looking man, his muscles are taut and defined. His skin very tanned, covered in battle scars. His hands are very dexterous and weathered, the kind of hands that a blacksmith or farmer would have.

Christopher holds out his hand to greet the friendly looking man. "It's nice to meet you Jaenshan. I look forward to having a match with you."

Jaenshan grabs the boy's hand, giving it a good squeeze. "Your hands are very soft, boy. You haven't done much labour have you?"

"No, not much anyway. But I have been training so don't hold back on me, or I may just kill you." Christsopher sounds very cocky but could have just been joking. Unfortunately the Orc took this literally.

"I'll put it into consideration. but your rude and deceitful nature will be your undoing boy. Have more respect." Jaenshan turns and disappears into the sea of people. Christopher scratches his head, confused about what the Orc meant.

A minute or two later the projection gives a notice to the first match participants telling them they will start in 5 minutes. Two portals open in front of them.

"Alright. Wish me luck!" Christopher stands up and brushes himself down.

"Be careful out there ok? This man is experienced." Heather advises.

Haider gives his brother a nod of encouragement. Christopher takes a deep breath and walks through the pulsating portal as it keeps the fold in Space-time open.

On the other side, Christopher finds himself in a dimly lit room filled with melee and long range weapons. None of which he was ever gonna need to use. He pulls out his staff and waits for the match to start.

On one of the walls, a projection shows a Live broadcast of the event, shown across the entire kingdom for free. It is such a large event that anyone that reaches the quarter finals is recognised by someone. Fans will pop up everywhere, people will make merchandise like figurines, art, art on stuff. It's a culture brought from your world, some shameless opportunist I'm sure.

"Hello and welcome, people of the Kingdom of Maranus, to the 49th annual Dragon Festival!" A feminine voice yells out. "It's a perfect day for some serious fighting, am I right?" The crowd starts to roar as the commentator hypes up the event. "As always the royal family will be watching this whole event! Even King Shavyk joins us this year! It's bound to be an exciting tournament this year for sure! We have so many applicants that even when we increased the amount of people competing, we still had to turn people away! These fighters are powerful this year and are sure to leave a splash!" The crowd produces a deafening positive response.

Relov slips into the crowd, taking a seat somewhere in the middle. "Christopher is in the first match huh? That puts him at a slight disadvantage but I think he'll be fine."

A little boy next to him asks who he wants to win this match, he obviously said our...slightly unstable protagonist. Being as famous as he is, the little boy intensely watches as the first match of the Dragon Festival is underway.

"And now, let me introduce the contestants for the first match! On the left side we have a powerful human mage of the space attribute; surprisingly he's only 13 but don't underestimate him! Give it up for Christopher Newman!" The crowd woos and whistles as the gate to the arena opens and Christopher walks through, staff in hand, and looking the coolest he's ever been.

As Christopher takes his place on the stage, the announcer introduces his opponent. "And on the right, we have a blacksmith, one powerful orc indeed. This man is the definition of a hardened and determined artisan. His magical attribute is metal. Please give it up for...Jaenshan! Here's a fun fact for you, typically, orcs don't have family names unless they marry!"

Jaenshan takes his place, wielding two longswords.

(Narrator) What, in the actual fuck.

"Never thought I would see anyone able to carry two longswords like it's nothing. Very impressive Jaenshan." Christopher complements.

"Thanks little Christopher. You have the space attribute. I better be on my toes." Jeanshan takes a battle ready perfect stance, waiting for the match to start.

"Now let the first match of the Dragon Festival begin!" Hearing the announcer say this Christopher takes several large steps backwards as he casts the spell Fireball, and launches it at his opponent.

"Cmon now, are you underestimating me?" Jaenshan says, charging directly at and into the ball of flames, disabling it with a torrent of focused strikes.

"Magic imbued weapons I see. This could be interesting." Relov says.

"Since when was brother able to cast fire magic?" Haider yells.

"I have no idea." Heather says, watching his match closely.

Christopher lets off an irritated grunt as the orc closes the gap, disabling all his attack spells. "Alright then. How about something invisible?" He whispers.

Christopher jumps up onto one of the four pillars decorating the sprawling field and starts casting Mana Drain, his invisible mana sapping spell. For the first time, Christopher fires it without saying anything. Jaenshan, waiting for something else, doesn't see the spell until it passes through him, stealing a large portion of his mana. This one spell causes Jaenshan to stumble to a knee for a brief moment.

"You little brat, what did you just do?" Jaenshan asks, catching his breath.

"Why would I tell you? Thats such a stupid thing to do if this was a real battle." Christopher says.

"It's good match edicate boy. Plus, isn't it more fun when someone can adapt?" Jaenshan says.

"This is so stupid. *Sigh* Fine. That was the Spatial spell called Mana Drain. It's an invisible attack spell that absorbs mana around it until it is full. When it passes through something dense in mana, like a person for example, it quickly sucks up as much mana as it can and stores itself in my pocket dimension for use another time. The downside of this spell is that I cannot use this stolen mana until it has converted itself into environmental mana. Does that answer your question?" Christopher says with, frankly too much detail.

Jaenshan gets back on his feet, reading himself. "A short explanation would have been fine but I guess that's something I can't battle very easily."

"Actually it's probably one of the easiest, but it would mean you are still losing some of your mana anyway." Christopher says.

"Oh ok, so if I launch spells at you, you'd be able to absorb them?" Jaenshan asks.

"Exactly, with environmental mana being used to cast most spells in junction with your own, it would cost less to counter instead of taking it directly. However, I have another spell that isn't invisible by default that hurts you physically." Christopher says.

"I see, I guess I should've invested in some mana detection magic." Jaenshan jokes.

Suddenly Christopher gets caught off guard as Jaenshawn launches a steel lance at him. The lance disintegrates against his defences but the shock knocks him off the pillar and hard on the ground.

The orc gives no time for Christopher to breathe as he charges at him, swinging both his longswords with remarkable accuracy. Struggling to get away, Christopher gets caught a few times with Jaenshan's enchanted weapons, scratching his left arm, chest, and face. Christopher teleports away to the other end of the arena and heals his wounds with Healing Light, a holy magic spell taught to him by Engilram.

Christopher digs his staff into the ground and casts dozens of Physical spatial spells, all the size of a pea. Because these were rushed, he had no time to make them invisible. As each one flies through the air Jaenshan accepts his defeat and takes the spells head on, taking damage in the joints of both his arms.

Jaenshan drops to his knees and yields.

"Looks like we have a winner! That was so exciting for the first match! Christopher makes it to the next match!" The crowd starts cheering, applauding both Christopher for his victory, but also Jaenshan for his valiant efforts.

Christopher walks up to the orc and gives him a Healing potion to close his bleeding wounds. Christopher helps his opponent back to his feet and bows before leaving.

Back in the waiting room, all the contestants start strategizing for their matches, most of them realising it's not going to be as easy as they thought. As Christopher enters back through the portal and the next contestants enter. The next match is Gushu versus Johnpuff Sugarcloud.

Christopher joins back up with his siblings and they congratulate him on his win.

"So, was he tough for you?" Haider asks.

"I mean, I won fairly quickly so I'm going to say no. But he did catch me off guard and scratch me a few times." Christopher says.

"Drink a low mana potion or something, that was bound to have used a bit of your mana." Heather informs.

"It's fine, I used some of the mana I have stored to restore it already." Christopher says.

"I thought you said you weren't going to use it?" Haider says, a little befuddled.

"It's only a tiny bit, I can get that back whenever. Plus it would have been a waste to drink a mana potion." Christopher says.

"I can't believe it!" the announcer says. "Johnpuff Sugarcloud won in an instant! Causing his opponent to pass out from a sugar crash!"

(Narrator) I have a horrible feeling that this Mr. Sugercloud is going to be a problem.