139 - Circumstances

.

The sun shined a dim yellow in the cold morning, signalling the start of the tournament. From the front of the school gate was the classrooms, to the left were the dorms, to the right of the classrooms were the teacher's offices. Being the classrooms were the practical combat graded rooms, and further to its left at about 9 times the size of the usual buildings, there was a large colosseum. Boasting the largest anti-magic and physical defense in the kingdom, it was meant to be used as a shelter in times of emergency.

Chatter and noise flooded around the spectator seats that were protected by a hemisphere barrier on the combat grounds. It was around 12 pm on that Orfvadeu, the starting day of the week. Lessons ended early around 10 with only literacy class, as the students needed to conserve energy for the tournament.

Having eaten a little corn snack to gain some energy, Lilith was resting up in her dorm room. Anything could happen in the combat grounds, even if the barrier erased any possibility of losing your life, the pain was still very real. Well, typically 10 year old cannot do that much to the average person, anyway. However this year, there were many abnormalities.

At most, only up to 300 students could be admitted to this elite institution. How the tournament works changes every year, starting from 6 years ago. In this year, the first battle was a team qualifier. Student were randomly assorted into teams of 5 to fight each other or capture the other team's flag.

This team sticks with them for 2 rounds, leaving the number of participants at 75. 2 teams, starting from the opposite ends each, will try to traverse obstacles set by their opponent's, and either eliminate them through combat or capture their "flag" to win. The "flag" could be anything, though there isn't a time limit, which usually escalates the qualifiers into fights.

From there 25 teams of 3 would participate in an artificial dungeon, only the top 5 teams who could make it to the end would go on to the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, there would be a couple more fights. One between 2 teams, and one between 3 teams. Each round, only 1 team is picked as the winner. The 2 winning teams proceed onto the semi-finals, where they participate in a maze before one of the teams proceed to the finals. At the end, the 3 students in the winning team will have a final fight to determine the winner of the tournament.

Some years ago, there were rumours that after defeating the last student, the winner has to defeat one more final boss to "conquer" this school. Honestly speaking, it was rather exaggerated. Children shouldn't be fighting monsters in the dungeons, such common sense has applied for centuries, and we happened to break it. It may be remarkable to achieve such feats with our age, but even more so that we have to take precaution.

The first "flag game" commenced as resounding cheers blow through the crowd... What an unruly bunch... To cheer on children to beat and fight each other... Either way, the students were given a choice to participate in this tournament. The reward was something worth giving thought to, after all. If you were to manage to get through the 2 qualifier rounds, 30 "freedom points" would be awarded to each participant. These points could be exchanged 1 for 1 to examination points, and boost their exam performance.

If the participants make it through the artificial dungeon, 50 points would be awarded for reaching the quarter-finals. Reaching the semi-finals would earn 50 points and a ticket to private lessons for a year. Finally, reaching the finals would grant you 3 tickets and 70 points. This would basically earn a smooth life through the institution. The basis was the fact that participants were able to make it that far, would already be doing well in their studies and personal life. Only 3 people could attain this award, and the winner of the tournament's prize was unknown. People have speculated that there was no prize, and that reaching the finals would be the best possible situation.

These tickets are extremely valuable and not meant to be sold freely by the students. Though, the fact that it had a price exposes what goes through under the radar. Certain individuals are on a blacklist when receiving the prizes, due to reasons that concern the school management. Which raises the price even more, or at least that was what's being told by the sellers. The only limit present, was the fact that the tickets were being sold by the school itself for an extremely high value, this limits the price of the tickets being sold as anyone could buy a ticket and just pass it on if the primary source was cheaper.

***

Entering the barrier, a feeling similar to breaking through a water surface's tension once again brushed past my soul. A psychological effect took root as if weight had piled atop every muscle fibre of my being. Punching the air, a shallow gust blew forth into the distance. An unusual occurrence manifested right before my eyes. A full force punc would blow through the barrier with air pressure, however this punch barely scratched it before an immediate recovery.

Checking my stats, more weight applied to the centre of my chest in an immediate response. The crowd's cheering had never echoed this much into my ear drums before. Why now? Why the hell did this happen now? Is this part of the tournament? What kind of sick joke...

Name: Lilith

Class: assassin

Level: 200 Points: - 24 480

Health: 16 000/16 000

Mana: 5 000/5 000

Strength: 10 000

Vitality: 1600

Intelligence: 500

Agility: 99 000

... It seemed I had to become more serious than I thought...

"What's up? How did you get such a fearsome face?" (?)

The culprit... My thoughts had zoomed into the conclusion before rational process could even take place. The conscious breaking hint, was the voice and tone of the remark. It was only my teammate. By pure coincidence, Sakase had ended up on the same front as me, for the qualifiers.

"... My level had been reduced from the 300s to the 200s."

"5..."(?)

"The... 300s... So it seems I've been given a chance. I'll warn you one final time, when we reach position where we can fight, I will not hold back." (Sakase)

"4..."(?)

"Thanks... It seems my spirit has recovered. Even with my abilities reduced, I will defeat all."

"3..."(?)

"Tch... If I fight someone who was already dead, that wouldn't even be a fight." (Sakase)

"2...1...STARTTTTTTTT!!!"

Roars of thunder soar through the battle ground as fire spew from the ground. A mysterious phenomenon was also occurring, whereby every other magic was being sliced apart into nothingness, the range of it was unknown.

" We follow basic plan A. "

"Yeah... It seems we don't have to worry about anything." (Hisa Tsukimi)

"My defenses should hold up on such low calibre" (Fuya Deimi)

"..." (Ivar Diin)