“What are they doing?” Wesley was very confused.
“Energy transfusion. They’re channeling their mana into the caster’s mana pool, allowing her to cast a spell that would normally be far beyond her reach.
“Of course, this strategy has many weaknesses, but it’s a great weapon to pull out in the first round. After all, your opponent won’t be expecting it, and your next opponent will have to take note and work around it in the next match.”
“Hm, I see.” Wesley scratched his chin as he thought about potential ways to use such an ability.
If everyone on the team was to give him access to their mana, would be able to encase the entire central stage in ice?
He shook his head. There was no reason to stray from what they’d spent the last few months practicing.
For the past few months, they’d been practicing a fast-paced style, based around suffocating their opponent with pressure from all sides. Ideally, unprepared for such a high pressure, high tempo situation, their opponents would fold under the pressure, giving them an easy win.
They’d practiced again and again, until finally even Headmaster Farhir couldn’t handle them alone anymore, even when he was using all of his strength.
That wasn’t to say that they were going with a purely offensive strategy - those specialized in more defensive spells, such as Ryu and Kate, were still responsible for protecting the team - to give the team safety to fall back on.
As these thoughts coursed through Wesley’s mind, the mage who’d drawn the very complicated seal casted it. Seven circles of light, progressingly larger as they approached the ground, appeared in the air, stretching from just a few tens of feet above the heads of the competitors to a few hundred feet high, almost at the same height Wesley was at.
Just a split second after these circles appeared, an incredible beam of light shined from the sky through the highest, smallest circle, then continued, stronger, to the next ring of light, then the next.
By the time the light approached the last ring, the earth mages were in absolute panic. Even the referee, a Rank 8 Advanced Mage, had a grim expression on his face as he prepared to intervene.
“We surrender!”
The earth mage team’s headmaster shouted toward the referee, trying to catch his attention before the spell hit.
Just before the beam of light was about to hit the earth mage team, the referee appeared in front of them, a large mana barrier already cast overhead, protecting him and those behind him.
The giant beam of light crashed into the mana barrier, causing a shockwave to course through the stadium.
Even Wesley, who was so far up, so far away from the point of impact, was knocked backwards.
‘So strong!’
Although he’d been expecting it, Wesley was still blown away by the strength of the spell. He wasn’t the only one either. After a brief pause, the audience clapped and shouted with delight at the spectacle until their hands turned read and their throats became hoarse.
A certain someone, however, wasn’t enjoying the exchange. The referee was less than pleased - he’d had to funnel more mana into his mana barrier than expected, and his mana barrier had almost shattered under the pressure from the light mage team’s spell.
“Since when are kids these strong?” he grumbled.
After being surprised by the shockwave, the rest of the team joined Wesley and Kate by the room’s opening, but they’d missed the climax of the fight.
Regardless, having missed one explosive moment, the team wasn’t willing to miss any more. After filling themselves up on the complementary food, they sat by the opening and watched the matches unfold below.
From their position, they had virtually a bird’s eye view of the stage, and could easily tell how each team approached their battle. What formations they used, how they maneuvered around the stage, all of this was easily seen by the team.
As they watched and analyzed the various formations other teams used, they began to see weaknesses in our own.
“Hey, they formation… do we have anything to counter it?”
“No…”
“We’ll have to fix that.”
“What about that formation?”
“Yeah, formation seven should cover it.”
“Ah, you’re right.”
Words like these could be heard as the day continued on, until Headmaster Farhir returned to the room.
“Alright, pay attention to the next fight. Whoever wins will be facing us in the next round.”
Hearing this, everyone quieted down and focused on the center stage. Far below, eighteen youths ascended the stage.
The two settled into standard formations, with four mages in front, five in the back. Typically, those in front were responsible for defense, while those behind were responsible for offense.
Soon enough, the fight quickly started. Interestingly enough, both teams were made up of an assortment of different mages - neither of the schools specialized in a single type of magic.
Other than that, though, there was not much of note. As the team watched, their confidence grew.
“Don’t worry teacher. A team like that is nothing before us.”
“Mm.” Headmaster Farhir had been watching as well. “It’s strange, though. One of the schools, Northeast Elementary Institute of Magic, is rather well known, and is known for producing talents. I would’ve thought that they would be more impressive.”
“Which side are they on?”
“The right.”
As the team watched, suspicions grew. Although neither team looked all that strong, the Northeast Elementary Institute of Magic quickly secured a clean win - although they hadn’t done anything that looked impressive, none of their teammates had been knocked out of the fight.
If anything, the cleanliness of their win impressive in itself.
Tony finally voiced their suspicions. “Were they… pretending to be weak?”
Headmaster Farhir scratched his head. “It’s not out of the question, but they’re a prominent school - it doesn’t really make sense for them to try to appear weak. Either way, just be sure not to take them lightly tomorrow.”
“Yes sir!”
Chapter 20
After a few hours, the sun began to set, and the last few matches of the first round were being finished up in the stadium.
Headmaster Farhir led his students out of their VIP room. “Be sure to rest well for the next two days. Our match is three days from now, just after noon. Report to our room in the stadium two hours before noon. Understood?”
“Yes, headmaster!”
That night, Wesley dreamed of something new. He was standing in front of his teammates, facing against opponents he’d never seen before. But his teammates were not those from the Reiniad Elementary Institute of Magic, but the ones he’d met in his dreams - yet, they were no longer his age, but looked to be in their late teens.
As soon as the fight began, he stepped backwards, and his teammates formed a ring around him. In front of him stood a proud figure, with long black hair, and a slender frame. In her hand was an armor stone, which she quickly activated.
In an instant, she was encased in black armor, wielding two identical rectangular shields. Instead of charging forward, as Wesley had expected, she instead simply stood there, two shields in front.
‘What is she doing??’
Wesley was incredibly confused. From his point of view, she was wasting her opportunity as a close-combat mage to attack. This would be the best time for her to attack!
He wanted to shout at her to rush forward and attack, but he couldn’t speak. After all, this was but a dream. Soon enough, the window of opportunity passed, and Wesley could do nothing but swallow his pain at seeing it leave. In his sorrow, he didn’t even notice that he had been drawing seals the entire while.
The enemy team had finished drawing their seals, and began casting them toward his team.
“Grace, shield!”
“Already on
it!”
The girl, apparently named Grace, slammed her two shields together, and the two connected to form a single impenetrable shield - but that wasn’t all. Identical but ethereal images of the shield appeared out of thin air to create a translucent barrier between the two teams.
This barrier caught all the offensive spells the opposing team had cast, but had clearly taken damage - the ethereal shields were filled with cracks and the entire barrier flickered in and out of existence.
Seeing this, the opposing team cheered up, and prepared their next wave of spells.
As soon as the wave of spells had subsided, however, Wesley had already made his move.
“Move!”
The seals he’d drawn sprouted branches of ice, each of which latched onto one of his teammates. For those spectating, it looked as if he were attacking his own team!
However, as soon as each of his teammates had been firmly grasped by an ice branch, Wesley waved his hands, causing his teammates to rotate around him in a circle. As each was unceremoniously rotated towards the direction of the enemy team, they casted the seal they’d drawn, bombarding the enemy team’s defensive formations with spells.
Because they had six mages focusing on offense, instead of five, they were easily able to overload the opposing team’s defensive mages. The spells of the last mage, Jasmine, shattered the enemy team’s barriers and her poison landed on several mages, forcing them to withdraw from the match.
Before the enemy team was able to return fire, however, Brian, the team’s defensive specialist, had been rotated to the front, his seals already ready to be activated.
He had prepared two spells to protect himself and his team. The first was a barrier like any other, but the second seal was more interesting. As he activated it, smoke began seeping out of the seal, until the entire arena was covered.
The opposing team quickly reacted and covered their nostrils, fearful that it was another poisonous attack. However, the only purpose of the smoke had been to their vision.
One may ask, well, it’s great and all that their opponents can’t see them, but wouldn’t they be able to see their opponents anymore either?
Well, that’s the magical part of the spell - the caster of the seal could determine from which direction people would be able to see through the smoke. Hence, although the opposing team was lost in the smoke, Wesley’s team could see them fumbling around.
It was time for the match to end. Brian stayed in front as their defensive bastion until the enemy exhausted their spells - not that it really mattered. Lost in the smoke, few of their spells were placed meaningfully anyway.
After another rotation of spells, the opposing team had been knocked out of contention. As his team celebrated their win, the scene before Wesley’s eyes faded away…
He woke up, confused by what he’d seen. Could a formation like that really work? He was truly confused. From his point of view, it didn’t make sense. The circular formation wasted the abilities of the person in the center, and although it allowed for more mages to be focused on offense, if the defensive mages couldn’t stand against the spells of five mages…
He thought about it some more. Most teams almost definitely wouldn’t go all-in on their most powerful, mana intensive spells from the beginning. After all, if the attack failed, they would have no more mana to continue the fight. The other team would have to be suicidal or believe that their chances of winning were low enough to validate a hail mary.
Assuming they didn’t go with a hail mary to start out the match, the defensive mages would probably be able to last one or two waves of spells… but no more than that. After that, their mana would have been spent.
Wesley stored the information he’d learned in the dream in the back of his head. Perhaps this wouldn’t be useful now, but when he had a stronger team, perhaps full of advanced mages, he would try the formation out.
He yawned, then turned over in bed, trying to return to dreamland once more.
…
A few days later.
Wesley rolled out of bed in the morning, nerves tingling. Today was the day of their first match! With trembling from excitement, he donned the mage robes the school had provided for the team, and quickly ran to Kate’s quarters.
“Kate! Wake up, let’s go to the stadium!”
“Alright, alright, I’m coming.”
Still laying in bed, Kate yawned. “Sheesh, he’s sure energetic this morning.” Despite her promising words to Wesley, however, she laid in bed, unwilling to move.
“Kate, get up! I can see you’re still in bed!”
Hearing this, Kate instantly bolted out of bed, opened her door, and smacked Wesley on the head. “How dare you use a detection spell on a lady’s room!”
Meanwhile, young mages all over Lumient City woke up with bright, determined eyes.
The second round of the inter-school competition, was about to begin!
Chapter 21
By the time Wesley and Kate’s antics died down, it was really getting close to the time the team had been told to meet in the stadium’s VIP room. After quickly preparing themselves, the two quickly made their way over to the stadium, where the others were waiting.
As soon as they entered, Headmaster Farhir quickly motioned them over to a circle of seats set in the middle of the room. The other eight seats had all been filled, and Kate and Wesley quickly sat in the remaining two seats.
“I’ve reached around to some of my fellow headmasters, and the consensus is that while our opponents today were definitely sandbagging last round, they aren’t as strong as us. Go out there, fight like we’ve practiced, and everything will be fine. Alright, Cassandra. Go over the game plan.”
Cassandra cleared her throat and stood up and began her briefing. “We’ll be going with formation six. As practiced…”
After confirming their battle plan, they walked down to the stadium’s waiting area. Wesley wasn’t nervous, but excited - he was used to duels against strangers, but each time he remembered just how many people were in the stadium, his smile grew wider and wider.
His teammates, however, weren’t faring quite as well. Jacob’s hands repeatedly clasped and unclasped, Tony kept pacing around the room like a chicken with its head cut off, and the rest of the team had their various ticks.
Only Wesley, Kate, and Luke seemed to be at ease.
Seeing the situation, Wesley stood up and addressed his fellow teammates. “Come on, we’re students of the best elementary institute in the country. People are supposed to be nervous when facing us. Like Headmaster Farhir and Cassandra said, as long as we stick to our plan and execute well, we’ll win.
“Now come on, we’ve faced far harder opponents before. Stand up, let’s go!”
Wesley’s words brought the team back to the training fields, where they’d clashed with their seniors from the Lumient Intermediate Academy of Magic day after day.
Wesley was right. They hadn’t been scared of even their seniors, so what were they doing being scared of their peers?
An air of confidence slowly surrounded the team as their doubts faded away. Just in time, too, as their match was about to begin. A stadium worker walked into the waiting room and addressed them.
“Are you ready?”
He looked at Headmaster Farhir, who then looked at his students, who responded to him with a flurry of nods.
“Alright, follow me then.”
The worker left the room without a second glance, speedily walking through the stadium’s underground tunnels. In tow, Wesley and the others did their best to keep up. Soon enough, the tunnel began to slope upwards, and in front of them, they could see the exit.
From the tunnel walls around them, as well as the entrance in the distance, they could hear the roars of the spectators.
Headmaster Farhir, who had been leading the team behind the stadium worker, turned toward his team as they stood in front of the tunnel entrance.
He gave some simple words, but their meaning wa
s heavy. “Do me proud!”
At this, the team split into two rows of four, led by Cassandra. By now, everyone was in “battle mode”. Ignoring the electric atmosphere around them, the nine mages stood rapt at attention, unmoving, heads high with pride.
Seeing this, Headmaster Farhir nodded. This was demeanor befitting of their identities.
After waiting for confirmation from the worker at the tunnel across the stadium, the stadium worker motioned towards Cassandra. “Go, go! Walk directly to the stairs and onto the stage. Don’t do anything - wait for the referee to address you.”
Memory Seal- Volume 2 Page 9