Despite his tiredness, his eyes were bright; he had gained quite a large amount of knowledge last night.
Now, he still had several hours until his fight in the stadium, and he had to come up with a strategy to guarantee his victory. Although Gust had easily won yesterday, Wesley had secretly been shaking in fear the entire while, worried for the future of his only guardian, his only friend.
Strangely, although now it was his turn to fight, he didn’t feel as nervous as he had been yesterday.
Still though, he needed a plan to deal with his opponent. An Elementary Mage, no matter the rank, was someone who was capable of drawing seals - the only reason Wesley was still an initiate was because nobody yet knew that he could.
‘If I can’t beat him in casting speed, then…’
Gust was still sleeping, and Wesley wasn’t sure what time it was, so he laid in bed, waiting for Gust to wake up.
The hours passed, and Gust still didn’t wake up, so Wesley finally lost patience and punched Gust to wake him up.
“OW! What the hell, little man? I’m sleeping over here.”
“Tch, my parents always told me the early bird gets the worm.”
“...”
“Come on, I need help. I need to come up with a way to win my duel today, and I don’t know anything about my opponent. I don’t want to end up like that Eric guy from yesterday, so we need to do some spy work.”
“You mean reconnaissance?”
“Spy work.”
“Alright, kid... Let’s go have breakfast, I’m starving.”
“Wait, I thought we were going to go do spy work.”
“Watch and learn, kid.”
The two went left the hostel, then began walking down the village streets.
“Hey Gust, where are we going?”
“Just looking for anywhere with a lot of talkative people. A tavern, a marketplace, something like that.”
As if on cue, they rounded the corner of an intersection, and were faced with several old men and ladies sitting around a table on the porch of a general goods store. They were eating breakfast and gossiping about the hot news in town, which turned out to be…
“Hey, did you hear, Chad’s son was killed yesterday in the stadium?”
“Oh, that Eric lad? Good riddance I say, my granddaughter was nearly led astray by that asshat. All bite and no bark.”
“Speaking of, I saw Chad head to Fevi’s. Do you think he’s going to try and avenge his son?”
“You old hag, that’s old news! He and the kid who killed Eric are already set to fight sometime later today. Sounds like fun, don’t it?”
Seeing this, a huge smile, almost akin to that of a clown, blossomed on Gust’s face. Gossiping grandpas and grannies - this was the best he could possibly had hoped for!
Gust knew that short of going to an “agency” that sold information, there were three prime targets for gathering information.
The first, were the kids of any important officials - people tended to lose their guard near children, would speak of important matters even while children were in earshot. Of course, children are not great at keeping secrets.
The second, were those who work at taverns or pubs - those inebriated tend to blab about just about anything, and those working around them are unfortunately too sober to forget. They’ll tend to want to complain about their work environment.
The third, are grandpas and grannies. Over the years, these illustrious creatures will have built up their own information networks, so that they can best their friends in the level of gossip they have to bring to the table. Of course, grandpas and grannies are naturally talkative, so as long as you can direct them toward the information you want, they’ll gladly tell you.
Gust instantly made his way toward the grandpas and grannies, and addressed them. “Hello everyone, I was wondering if any of you esteemed ladies and gentlemen know what’s going on at the stadium later today between two mages?”
Hearing this, the eyes of the grandpas and grannies lit up. The only thing they enjoyed more than gossiping among themselves, was when they could do the same with the young!
They instantly motioned for Gust and Wesley to join them. “Of course! I don’t mean to brag, but between the few of us here, we hear about everything that happens in the village! There was this one time the village treasurer paid a-”
“Ahem.” Gust quickly cut her off as he and Wesley seated themselves at the table. “Sorry, my lady, I don’t mean to be rude, but we’re really short on time. You see, my friend here,” He motioned toward Wesley. “Is going to be fighting against a Rank 1 Elementary Mage, who should be a regular in the stadium here.
“I think I can speak for all of us here that I wouldn’t want any harm to come by this cute little kid, right?” He reached over and pinched Wesley’s cheeks, prompting some of the grandpas and grannies to laugh.
“Of course! If his opponent is a Rank 1 Elementary Mage, then it’s probably Frank. Most people don’t know this, but he used to be the son of a rich merchant. For some reason, though, he was exiled and he’s been lounging around the village ever since.”
“As for how he competes in the stadium, I heard…”
Gust and Wesley both plastered smiles on their faces and repeatedly nodded. At the same time, Gust grabbed some food off of the table and handed some of it to Wesley.
Mission success.
Chapter 15
The grandpas and grannies were truly splendid people - seeing that Gust and Wesley were hungry, they not only allowed the two mischievous kids to pawn off of their breakfast, but even ordered more.
Although, they clearly preferred Wesley; but they couldn’t really be blamed. The older one is, the weaker they are to cute little kids.
By the time the two left, they were full of food in their bellies, and newfound knowledge of Wesley’s opponent in their brains.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much time until Wesley’s duel, so they two slowly headed over in the direction of the stadium.
“So, little man. You got any ideas?”
“...Kind of. The key things we learned from the old people were that despite being able to draw seals, Frank is rather slow, using about fifteen seconds to draw a single basic seal. Despite that, he seems to be crafty and uses predominantly ice and earth type spells.
“They said he uses these two, because he likes to be able to change the layout of the arena to his advantage. This means that I have two paths to take. The first is to try and beat him before he’s able to modify the arena, while the second is to try and figure out how he’s going modify the arena as he’s doing it, and make changes myself so that I have the advantage.”
Gust rubbed his temple. “Can’t you just do the first? The second sounds complicated as hell.”
“It’s important to have a backup plan.”
“Where’d you learn that?”
“Thomas.”
“Huh?”
“Nevermind.”
Confused, Gust craned his neck to get a look at Wesley’s face. All he saw, however, was a small, amused smirk.
‘This goddamn kid.’
By now, they’d arrived at the stadium. Recognizing them from yesterday, the ticketing woman waved them through. As they walked past, she stared at Gust’s back. However, her eyes lacked the same derision from just a day ago, and held a tinge of pity.
“Ah... poor soul.”
The two entered the registration office, and addressed the fat man.
“Yo, it’s Gust and Wesley, from yesterday. When’s Wesley’s duel?”
“Hmm.” The fat man flipped through a record-keeping book on his desk. “Uh, oh, you guys are here right on time. It’s going to be in half an hour, the first duel of the day. Don’t get to see many magic battles, here, so there’ll probably be a sizeable audience.
“And you, Gust, how ‘bout fighting today? Chad, the father of the kid you killed yesterday, wants to fight you today. Honestly, you killing Eric has been spreading over
town, and it’d be a nice revenge story. We’ll pay you double if you win today, how ‘bout it?”
“Double, huh? Yeah, sure, why not.”
“Alrighty…” The fat man made another note in his book.
“You’ll be up and hour after young Wesley here. Best of luck.”
With that, he leaned back in his chair, and waved the two out of the office.
…
Gust and Wesley waited in the stands with the rest of the audience. After a bit, however, Gust grabbed Wesley’s arm, causing the latter to wince.
“What’s going on?”
“I think I see your opponent.”
“Oh really? How can you tell?”
“Uh, let’s just say it’s kind of hard not to.”
Gust’s gaze was fixated on a very interesting man who had just entered the stadium. Not only did he lack footwear, but he was covered in mud, his clothes were in tatters. More than that, he held an almost two-meter long, gnarled tree branch in his right hand.
‘Isn’t he role-playing too much?’ Was Gust’s final thought regarding this man’s unusual attire.
Meanwhile, the fight on stage ended as one of the combatants was kicked off of the arena stage. As the stage announcer waxed eloquent the results, Wesley stood up to enter the arena, while Gust followed him, giving some last minute advice.
“Remember, try your goddamn best to get him on your first try, okay? And if he starts changing the layout of the arena or whatever, be careful for traps. Just do your game plan and -”
“Shhhh”
“Hm?”
“You’re hurting my brain, you’re worrying like an old uncle.”
“...Ow.”
After a while, it was finally time for Wesley’s duel.
Gust led Wesley onto the stage, leading the few hundred audience members in attendance to point and, in some cases, shout.
“Can a blind boy fight?”
“Is he even old enough to use magic? This isn’t a scam is it?”
“I want my money back!”
Similar phrases could be heard throughout the stadium, leading the stadium announcer to quickly settle the masses.
“Hello, sirs and madams! I hear your doubts, and yes, I too was surprised when I first heard! However, uh...Wesley here, despite his blindness, despite all-too-young seven years of age, is a mage initiate! Please welcome him in his rookie battle!
“As for opponent, you should all know him, an old friend of the arena! His name has travelled as far as his stench, with a record of three wins and five losses, the one and only...Frank!”
“May the two mages enter the arena!”
Gust helped Wesley onto the arena stage, whereas Frank walked up himself.
“Ready?” The stadium announcer
Frank and Wesley nodded at the same time.
“Remember, no physical attacks allowed from you guys! Magic only! Now, 3! 2! 1! Fight!”
As expected from the audience, Frank raised his hand and began drawing his first seal. However, they were shocked when they saw that Wesley was performing the same actions.
The stadium announcer, to say the least, was hopping with joy. “Oh my lord, look at Wesley! He’s not a mage initiate, he’s at least an Elementary Mage! At the age of seven, no less!”
As the crowd began to cheer, hopeful for an interesting duel, Gust stood at the edge of the arena, his hands gripped tightly on his kukris’ handles.
As Wesley had expected, he was the first to finish his first seal. However, instead of firing an offensive spell, as Gust had expected, Wesley had chosen to to cast…
“Ice Wall!” Wesley swiped his finger across the seal, activating it.
An ice wall, six feet high, formed in front of Frank’s face.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing?” Frank was incensed. He had been casting a spell to cause the ground beneath his opponent’s feet to turn into ice. He would have then been able to just complete his next seal before his opponent could, and that would be that.
But how was he supposed to cast a spell on something he couldn’t see?
Keeping his half-finished seal active, he moved to run around the wall to regain line of sight on his opponent.
At the same time, Wesley was preparing his second seal.
This time, thanks to the time Frank had spent moving around the wall and refocusing, the two finished their spells at the same time.
Frank’s spell achieved his original goal of transforming the arena stage below Wesley’s feet into ice, causing the latter to slip.
However, before Wesley fell, he managed to activate his second seal - another Ice Wall.
Again, Frank’s vision of Wesley was blocked, and he was forced to circumvent the second wall. However, by the time he made it around the second wall, Wesley had already crawled his way off of the portion of the arena stage that had been transformed into ice, and was already on his own two feet.
Seeing this, Frank started to draw another seal, but again, before he could finish, Wesley completed his first.
This time, instead of creating another wall, Wesley’s seal simply used his mana to move the position of the previous two walls so that Frank was yet again blocked by them.
“Stop it with these fucking walls!” Aggravated, Frank couldn’t help but express his annoyedness.
This time, instead of trying to circumvent the wall, he stood still and focused on drawing a new seal as fast as possible - although he couldn’t cast spells that directly affected anything he couldn’t see, he could still cast any spell that didn’t require him to see his target.
Meanwhile, although Wesley could not see his opponent, he could detect the energy of Frank’s mana that was being used to draw the new seal. As such, he knew that Frank had stopped trying to run around the walls, and was most likely going to try and end the match with some type of projectile attack.
Realizing this, he smiled, then pushed out with this right hand, causing the ice walls to move forward. The second wall he had created crashed right into Frank, who fell off of the arena stage.
“Huh?” Frank, who was now sprawled on the ground, had no idea what had happened.
However, the rest of the audience had.
Object manipulation spells, like the mana barrier Mr. Clayde had shown Wesley oh so long ago, were spells that could be manipulated once cast.
Mana Barrier required a constant flow of mana to exist, but while the caster was supplying mana, the barrier could be warped to the caster’s will and ability. The mana barrier would only disappear once the flow of mana was cut off.
The object manipulation spell that Wesley had cast, was the same. Although he had used an initial surge of mana to move the walls in front of Frank, he had never stopped the flow of mana.
As soon as Wesley had verified his opponent’s location, he had sent another surge of mana, causing the wall to surge forward. Of course, the entire strategy had been based on Frank losing his sight of Wesley, and getting frustrated to the point that he wouldn’t try to circumvent the walls.
“And the winner… is Wesley! Everyone, give a round of applause for young Wesley, who has won his first match, giving him a record of one victory and zero losses! Unfortunately for Frank, his losing streak continues!”
The crowd gave some applause, and the stadium announcer continued. “Now, next up…”
Chapter 16
As Wesley returned to Gust’s side, the latter patted him on the back.
“Good fight, little man. All of that complicated wall stuff, you stole from his wheelhouse, huh.”
“Yeah… but I’m really tired, and really hungry now. I think I overused my mana.”
“No worries, little man. I think my duel’s next. I’ll finish the old man up quick and we’ll get our money and get some really nice food, okay?”
As if on cue, Gust was motioned to head onto the stage. Just like his first fight, he handed his bag over to Wesley, and leaped onto stage with his kukris. This time, however, he was dressed in
the leather armor he’d pilfered off of Eric’s deceased body just the day before.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the stadium a...monolith wielding a heavy, two-handed mace ascended to the arena stage.
“...” Gust could do nothing but stare at his “opponent”.
Memory Seal- Volume 1 Page 11