My performance

"That girl has a very striking look." Whispered queen Mirabelle into her husband's ear as she saw the dark-haired girl walk onto the arena.

"Brother, she is the one I told you about," Kristopher said to his brother.

Geoffrey nodded his head, wondering if her abilities were really all they were made out to be. The youngest prince, Alfonse, noticed his brothers increased concentration as the pretty dark-haired girl walked on. Alfonse had always been a very bright intuitive child, many of the skills he learned, he picked from watching his two elder brothers. So, he focused on the dark-haired girl.

<--------------<<<<

"Let the games begin!" Called the announcer. I saw my opponent suck in a deep breath, using in his whole body and arching his back, back. Then using his powers, he projected forwards at me: the earth around his feet broke away from the soil on the ground and came hurtling at me at a great speed. The audience clapped at the display of power.

I knew I could easily counter this with some Dark magic, but remembering Cornelius's words from yesterday, he said I should save the dark magic for last. So instead I visualized a water shield in front of me that could absorb the flying rocks. The crowd clapped at my smooth counter.

Cornelius has also said that I should come up with impactful titles for my different spells because it would help the audience understand what was going on and help them get more engaged.

I visualized the water hardening and then forming bullets, "A thousand water arrows!" I chanted, not actually needing to chant, just to give the audience an idea of what I was doing and I replaced the word 'bullet' with 'arrows' since they didn't have bullets or guns in this world. All around me a thousand water droplets rose from the ground and transformed into the shape of bullets. Which then flew at lightning speed towards Dimitri.

Dimitri seemed a bit startled by my water bullets and used a windshield to try and block them, however, a few of the bullets pierced the shield and hit him. I grimaced as I saw some of his blood splatter on the ground. I didn't want to hurt him, I just wanted to put on a good show for The Marcellus's.

Dimitri staggered back, clasping his arm, where the injury was. But he was tough he hadn't given up yet.

"Rock giant!" He rasped out.

Huge boulders drew up from the ground and assembled into a transformer-like giant man-made from rocks. The rock beast gave a giant roar, and the audience around me screamed and clapped excitedly around me.

Cornelius caught my attention by waving at me. He was mouthing the word 'bigger!' To me, which meant he wanted me to use a flashier spell. I wasn't really quite sure to what level I should keep the spell since I knew that too much power would be too shocking to the audience. Since everybody's power seemed to be so much weaker than mine, it was probably a good idea to keep as much f my power under wraps as possible. However, if Cornelius wanted bigger...

I began my fake chant, "Oh great water spirit of the darkness, come and strike!" I hoped that that sounded okay.

I visualized that huge basilisk snake-thing from the Harry Potter movie. The water around me rose and accumulated into the shape of the snake monster from the chamber of secrets in the Harry Potter story. It looked awesome, it was magnificent but scary-looking and the crowd were eating it up.

I saw Cornelius clapping gleefully. Yay, I did a good job!

My basilisk gave a menacing hiss and then darted for the rock giant. Every time the rock man hit my water snake, I just reformed it, and thus my snake quickly overpowered his rocks.

<-----------------<<<<

Edgar's eyes were bulging out of his sockets. He had no idea that Riley was this powerful. She was amazing, she was an inspiration to all commoners everywhere... he couldn't believe the great water beast that she had summoned. It was incredible. And what's more, it easily defeated the rock giant...

The Royal family as a whole had their eyes completely trained on Riley. If there was someone so powerful in their kingdom, why hadn't they heard of her before... The king eyed the Marcellus family suspiciously. Where had they been hiding her?

Alice felt a huge sense of pride in her new sister displaying such unimaginable techniques. She was just extraordinary.

The young prince from Malesh was awestruck, "So this is the power of Girannon." He whispered, his throat drying from the sight of the terrifying water monster.

<-----------<<<<

My mighty basilisk crushed Dimitri's rock giant and was headed straight for Dimitri.

"Dimitri cried out, "Wind sythe!"

I could feel the adrenaline starting to kick in as my heart started racing and an itch to fight and use more magic swelled up in me. But I knew the difference between right and wrong, and to use any more power on Dimitri would just be wrong, he was already struggling as it is.

Great vortexes of wind stated slashing at my basilisk, but my basilisk just kept reforming and continuing its charge towards Dimitri. I could tell that Dimitri was low on strength and wouldn't be able to hold out much longer, so I took back some of the magic I had used for the basilisk so that he could at least have a chance of defeating it. The basilisks movement became slower and sloppier and Dimitri seized the opportunity to slash at is using one more powerful gust of air. That last push did the trick and it finished off my weakened basilisk. My basilisk slowly splashed onto the ground, reverted back into water form.

The crowd around me cheered like crazy, clapping for both me and Dimitri – who looked exhausted. He was panting loudly and hunched over holding his thighs, letting his weight rest on his legs and not his core. Sweat dribbled down his face, and the wound on his arm was still bleeding. Recognising the situation, the announcer called out to Dimitri, "Lord Dimitri, will you be able to continue." I saw Dimitri pause for a moment, thinking it over, but then he wordlessly shook his head side-to-side.

"Dimitri Vassaltross is unable to continue! Therefore, Miss Riley Delton wins the match!"  The crowd cheered for me, and I saw a few people wave at me. It made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, but it was also kind of embarrassing to have so many people stare at me.

Dimitri was already walking off the arena, I ran and caught up to him.

"Um, Lord Dimitri, let me heal your arm for you," I said, wanting to make up for the injury I caused.

"You can use dark magic as well?" He asked, sounding sceptical.

"Yes. May I?" I said carefully removing his hand from the wound. I could tell that it was quite a deep wound, but there was no damage to his bone.

He didn't resist my touch. So, I started to heal. Since it was only a flesh wound the process went by quickly.

"Thank you." He said sincerely.

"It's a pleasure," I replied with a smalls smile. Then I returned to the stands.

Alice gave me a lung-crushing hug, and Edgar showered me with praise for my performance. Rosalie said a very soft, "Well done." Cedric, on the other hand, sneered at me. I really didn't like that guy...

"Time for the second round!" Called out the announcer.

The first match of the second round was Alice against one of the remaining boys, who she easily overpowered with her fire magic. She then secured her place in the third round.

Then the second match of the second round was me against one of the surviving boys. He hadn't been as powerful as Dimitri was and I accidentally used to much power on him in my first move, he immediately went unconscious as my water bullets hit him. The emergency healer mages had to run in and carry him off the arena. It was kind of scary how much power I had compared to the rest of the population. The gods definitely gave me too much power.

The third and final match of the second round was the match I was looking forward to the most: Edgar versus Cedric.

"Good luck!" I told Edgar as he got up to walk onto the arena. He nodded at me gratefully.

"Hurry up commoner. I want to win this match as quickly as possible." Cedric sneered at Edgar. Edgar clenched his fists but said nothing. He only took in a few breaths to calm himself. I guessed that Edgar had been subjected to Cedric nasty comments and insults for a while now and had thus learned to deal with them quite well.

I really hoped that Edgar would beat Ceric. Not just beat him but wipe the floor with him because after spending a day with him, I would love to see he be taken down a notch. With the way that Alice glared at him, I could tell she felt the same way. Even Rosalie gave a disapproving glare – yes, she seemed to prefer the more two-faced, behind-your-back kind of nastiness.

Cedric and Edgar stood in the arena. Edgar looked passionate and excited for the match, while Cedric had a bored expression on his face. Was he really so powerful that he thought he didn't have to worry about this match, was he actually strong enough to defeat Edgar...? So, I decided that I would use my appraiser magic to see what kind of powers they both had.

First, I turned to Edgar and had a look at his statistics. It read:

Magic:

Wind Magic Level 10

Lightning magic Level 19

Skills:

Bartender

Chef

Academic Affinity

I was so surprised to see his statistics. I had no idea he could use lightning magic, and to have such a high level... I then looked at Cedric and used my appraiser skill. Cedric's statistics read:

Magic:

Wind Magic Level 6

Earth magic Level 10

Skills:

Artist

I blinked. Then I blinked again... Did Cedric seriously think he could beat Edgar? Seriously...? That's when I sat back comfortably on the standing bench and folded my arms.

"I hope Edgar beats that cow, Cedric!" Commented Alice.

"He will," I replied flatly.

"What how do you know?" She asked confused.

"My appraiser skill..."

"Oh right, you can see anything's value or worth, even actual human beings..."

I nodded. Cedric was going to go through the most humbling experience of his life, and practically the whole city would see it. I sort of felt bad for him, but then again, what comes around goes around...

Despite their difference in power, Cedric did fight with the best of his abilities until the very end (which was a respectable twenty minutes) when Edgar was only using his Wind magic and Cedric was only using his Earth magic. When Edgar finally used his Lightning magic, he quickly overpowered Cedric and won the match.

The crowd shouted and cheered at the sight of Lightning magic for the first time in the tournament. And when Edgar won, the crowd chanted his name, and his family threw flowers at his feet. Edgar was a really passionate determined guy, so beating the guy who had always doubted him and picked on him was a really special and meaningful moment for him. I could see the swell of tears in his eyes as he walked off the arena a champion.

Cedric sheepishly slithered onto the stands with his head down. I wondered if he felt sorry for always being mean to Edgar or if he was just fuming and plotting at ways to get back at him. I hoped that it was the former.

With that match over, it meant that we would go on to the finals. Alice, Edgar and I were the final three and would be competing for the first place.