Diamantine (Weapons and Wielders Book 2)
Page 32
I set the document down, considering. That was good information, especially the bits about simulacra and flight. I’d have to watch out for duplicates and prepare myself for attacks that could come from above.
Aside from the document on Hartigan, Lia handed me a few others to look at, mostly for dangerous opponents that she didn’t have memory crystals for.
A few of them contained people that I’d seen during the opening ceremonies. I paid particular attention to the one on Alexander Theas, both due to his fighting abilities and his possible ties to my own homeland.
Aside from the people I already knew about, two of the documents stood out to me. The first referred to combatants from Dalenos.
The nation of Dalenos has an unusual tradition for the Tournament of the Sacred Sword — they hold their own preliminary matches in Dalenos, then send their six winning candidates to represent their nation. Other people from Dalenos can enter independently, but it is considered a cultural taboo, and thus, Dalenos tends to have fewer representatives in the tournament than any other major nation.
All six of these candidates are highly talented, but two in particular are noteworthy.
Takeshi Kurita is the heir to a famous family of martial artists and possesses two attunements — Champion and Swordmaster. Both of these attunements contain Enhancement mana, creating a synergistic effect that allows Kurita to bolster his physical combat abilities to unfathomable heights. He is known for simply overwhelming his opponents with raw strength, speed, and technique — he rarely uses any form of ranged magic or attack.
Haruka Saito is, perhaps, even more intimidating. Her attunement and background are unknown. When she entered the placement tournament in Dalenos, she never lifted a hand to fight. Her opponents would simply take a single glance in her direction, then cast down their weapons and surrender. It is believed that this is some kind of powerful mind-effecting ability, potentially distributed through her shroud.
Both of those sounded very dangerous, but the latter was more concerning. I’d have to spend some time practicing resistance to mental compulsion at some point. Fortunately, I’d already done that in the past, and my bond with Dawn already provided some extra resistance to mental spells.
Neither of them was quite as interesting to me as the last file, however.
Satoshi Muramasa is a true rarity. He is not from Dalenos or East Edria as his name might imply, but rather somewhere far more distant — the continent of Artinia, far across the ocean.
Muramasa is one of only a handful of known foreigners who have been permitted to visit our continent from the Tyrant-controlled lands outside of Kaldwyn. He was brought here by Kerivas personally, and it is believed that he has her favor to place in — if not win — this tournament. If that is true, it would be the first time in decades a visage directly supported one specific candidate, and it might imply that Kerivas is displeased with the current state of Edrian leadership.
We know precious little about Satoshi Ueda’s abilities, save that they involve a foreign form of Pre-Attunement Sorcery that draws from the human spirit. These so-called “Spirit Arts” have allowed him to dominate any opponent he has run across in raw swordplay. Our studies of Spirit Arts indicate that he likely has a specialization called a Dedication, which may give him powers similar to an attunement. If this is true, it may be simply related to physical combat, or he may be deliberately hiding his abilities.
He is said to carry a cursed sword, but we have few details about its exact capabilities.
Learning about Satoshi was extremely important. As another foreigner, he might have more information on the state of the world outside of Kaldwyn. He was also Artinian, much like my friend Wrynn, and I hoped that might mean he had insight on how to track another Artinian based on her powers.
I asked Lia to send him a message on my behalf, but unfortunately, he didn’t have an address listed. I spent some time asking around about him, too, but I didn’t have any luck.
I’d just have to hope I could find him on the battlefield, and when I did, that I could convince him to have a talk.
I tried to find Alexander Theas to ask him some questions about the current state of House Theas in Valia, but I ran into the same problem. Like she’d mentioned, most foreign visitors simply hadn’t listed any address information, and Theas hadn’t been seen around much after the opening ceremonies. I was curious about why, but it wasn’t a priority.
For the moment, I had other things to worry about.
***
When the news reached the arena island that the wielder of Dawnbringer was going to be fighting in a sponsored solo match, word spread quickly.
I’d left it up to Lia to figure out how to determine my opponent, since there were several possible methods. First come, first-served would have been easiest for everyone involved, but wouldn’t have generated as much hype as some arrangements.
The only thing I forbade was setting up any sort of rigged match. I wanted a real fight, even if someone was willing to lose against me.
I figured she probably would have chosen the highest profile opponent, but she went with a slightly different route — the person who was willing to bid the most points.
I had to admit, it was a smart move. I’d only been thinking in terms of earning two hundred points from the big match, since that was what I was risking. Lia’s strategy made the risk much more worthwhile.
From my opponent’s perspective, it made sense, too. By risking a greater number of points, they were showing they were confident in their abilities. That would both boost their reputation and interest in the match.
Even knowing that, I was more than surprised when I discovered the winning bid was one thousand points.
Chapter XIII – Shining Wisdom
I was very interested to see who had bet such a large pool against me, but I couldn’t find out right away. By then, it was the end of the week, and that meant it was time for the next round of the tournament.
Walter led the way to the waiting room. Meilin, Reika, Ari, and I trailed behind him. Ari had finished recovering from his fight with the crown princess and he was in great spirits.
“I can’t believe we finally get to fight together!” Ari pumped a fully-healed arm in excitement. “This is gonna be amazing.”
“You’re going to be amazing.” Reika smiled and gave him an affectionate nudge.
“I know! I can’t wait!”
I couldn’t help but smile at their enthusiasm.
Lia had told us ahead of time that this round was designed for a team, and that it had a “sports” theme of some kind. I’d spent some time studying local sports, but after the last test had proven to be extremely straightforward, I hadn’t worried about it too much.
Walter had spent the points on an advantage, and as a result, he’d been given a sign-up form that allowed him to form a team ahead of time. Obviously, we’d signed up.
We didn’t have the world’s most coherent team — we simply hadn’t trained together enough for that — but I hoped that our raw power and flexibility would be enough to compensate for that.
There was just one problem: we’d been short one person. Fai had failed out in the last round. His healing abilities would have been fantastic for a team battle like this one, but they hadn’t been well-suited to the solo flag capturing competition.
In spite of my inability to speak to Fai, I missed his absence. I hadn’t known any of these people for long, but I liked the feeling of having a team of people I knew. It reminded me of simpler times when I’d played a sport professionally back at home for a while.
“We’re meeting our last team member in the waiting room. I’ll introduce you, then we’ll talk strategy.” Walter looked a little agitated. I couldn’t tell if it was just the stress of the match getting to him, or if he was irritated about something else.
More likely he’s just annoyed at Ari’s enthusiasm. I don’t think th
ey get along very well.
We reached the waiting room. There were two people waiting for us there, one of which was wearing an arena worker’s uniform. Walter led us toward the latter, which was presumably our last team member.
Reika froze in the doorway as soon as she saw him.
He was sitting with his legs draped over the armrest of his chair, reclining oddly with his arms outstretched above him. He was holding a book, apparently reading it, but the book was definitely upside down.
He paid no attention as we approached, which was probably good, given the intensity with which Reika was staring at him.
I could see why. Beyond the oddity of his book reading style, he stood out pretty strongly in general. His skin was a tad darker than most Edrian natives, which only made it more strongly contrast the bright green of his hair. I might have assumed that was just a strange color of hair dye — dyed hair colors didn’t seem uncommon — but it matched the brilliant green of his eyes almost exactly.
His nails were the same shade, and they were a little longer and sharper than ordinary. It could have just been an odd style of trimming and nail polish, but all together, the bright green sent a surge of suspicion through my mind.
Dawn noted it almost at the same time I did.
Another dragon or hydra! I concluded.
...Or that, I admitted. I suppose that’s more likely.
“Everyone, this is our last team member, Shun.” Walter waved at the man on the chair, who was pointedly still ignoring us. “He’s a bit eccentric, but very capable. Shun, do you want to tell us about your abilities?”
“Not really.” He went back to reading after saying that.
Walter sighed. “Shun is...people are not his favorite thing. But he’ll be our healer, and he has some useful support magic as well.”
“What sort of support magic?” I asked.
Shun turned his head away from the book for a moment, narrowing his eyes at me. “I improve people. Some improve more than others.”
“He’s a Biomancer,” Walter explained.
That told me very little, but Meilin’s eyes widened a little, so apparently it was a big deal. She finally chose that moment to speak up. “That’s...very rare. And from Caelford, I believe. How advanced?”
Shun gave a shrug. “Advanced enough. Ari, can you move? You’re blocking my light.”
Ari gave him an abashed look and shuffled out of the way. “Sorry, sorry!”
“Can you give me a better idea of how you ‘improve’ people?” I asked.
“I could,” Shun replied.
“Hey, you’re being a little rude.” Reika folded her arms. “We’re trying to get to know each other here.”
He didn’t even bother to look at her. “Not interested.”
Reika looked so affronted that I had to put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.
“Now, Shun, we had an agreement. We’re going to need to know more about each other if we’re going to cooperate properly.”
“There are too many people,” Shun replied.
I glanced around. There weren’t any other people in the room, aside from our team and the arena worker.
Maybe he’s worried the arena representative is going to leak information to another team?
Maybe. Or he’s just not good with crowds. I know some people like that.
Either way, pressing him on the subject seemed like a poor strategy. “Maybe we can just go over some basics?”
Walter nodded to me. “We’ll discuss some generalities here, then get into more details once we’re inside.” He turned to the arena worker. “Can you tell us about what sort of competition this is going to be?”
“Since you’re all here now, I’d be happy to.” The arena worker smiled. “I’m pleased to announce that for today’s event, you will be playing Mana Core.”
***
Wizards should not be allowed to invent sports.
That was the thought running through my head as I slipped out of my clothes and into a Mana Core uniform. The form-fitting one-piece body suit was pretty flattering to my muscles, but I still looked absolutely ridiculous in it.
Even more ridiculous were the comically oversized “weapons” we were supposed to use. I was encouraged to leave my own weapons behind, since I wasn’t allowed to hit people with them during this round, but I didn’t trust whatever security they were leaving on a changing room to be sufficient to keep my gear safe. Keeping two extra swords on me would slow me down a little, but at least I wasn’t the only one doing it. I saw several other people doing the same.
We all knew the Phantom Thief Ravenshade was in the tournament, after all. And beyond that, while we couldn’t strike anyone with our weapons, we could use any other magic the weapons provided. In my case, that meant I could try to find ways to use Dawn’s power without physically hitting anyone with her. Presumably, other people would use similar strategies.
Once we finished getting changed, we met back up in a central room.
Reika turned toward me as I walked in, a brief expression of surprise showing on her face. I didn’t know if that meant she was impressed by how I looked or shared my opinion about the absurdity of our costumes.
I chose not to ask. That way, I could try to hope that her impressions were on the charitable side, as unlikely as that seemed.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and someone will accidently hit you on my belt and get a spell reflected in their face.
Can you even reflect spells while you’re sheathed?
We’re not...you know what, never mind.
Walter gestured for us to have a seat. “Take a few minutes to review the rules. We’ve got about an hour before the match starts.” There was a table nearby with several rule books on it. I’d read a little bit about Mana Core and several other sports prior to the match, when I’d first heard that this would be a sports challenge, but I’d only skimmed the rules for each. The main rule book was almost as thick as my fist.
I found one in Valian and started reading.
Mana Core is a sport derived from Valian “Affinity Ball”, which is in turn an adaptation of the older Caelford tradition of...
I skimmed ahead.
At the center of the field is the mana core, a sphere marked with a variety of enchanted runes. The Mana Core has six different elemental affinities, and rotates between these every three seconds. Each player also has an elemental affinity. If someone attempts to touch the core while they have the wrong affinity, they will be affected by the elemental aura, causing harm to the player and counting as a “hit”.
Players also begin with one elemental weapon, which they may use to hit other players. Players are immune to weapons of their own element, but take a “hit” from other elements.
Players who are “hit” three times are teleported out of the arena bounds for one minute, unless the final hit against them was from a dominant element. If the final hit was from a dominant element, the player is instead out of the game entirely.
Magical attacks are permitted, but only count as “hits” if they are of an element that is used in the game. Thus, grey mana attack spells do not count as “hits”.
The goal of the game is to get the mana core onto the pedestal in the other team’s base. Placing it on the other team’s pedestal earns one point and resets the core to the
center of the arena. Notably, this does not pause the game, and players do not need to return to their starting positions.
A team wins by scoring two points against the enemy team.
Each match has a time limit of one hour. If the time limit passes without two points being scored, the game ends with a victory for a team with a single point, or a draw if both teams have one point or zero points.
The rules went on and on for pages and pages. There were a ton of individual notes and exceptions, as well as rules for how certain attunements could and couldn’t be used. There was an entire chapter on Enchanters and how they could and couldn’t mess with the enchantments used in the game. Unlike a certain Corin that I know, however, I didn’t have to worry about that sort of thing.
I skimmed ahead again, looking for some details that I considered more personally relevant.
Destroying the core is against the rules, and will result in the destroying player’s immediate removal from the match. Any action that permanently prevents the sphere from being usable is considered “destroying” it for this purpose.
I grunted in dissatisfaction. I’d been hoping to score one point, then destroy the core and just wait until the match’s time limit was up.
Destroying the pedestals is also against the rules. Any action that permanently prevents the pedestal from being usable is considered “destroying” it for this purpose.
That meant I couldn’t just destroy our team’s pedestal and prevent the enemy team from being able to score, either. A shame. Destroying things was fun.
About fifteen minutes later, Walter interrupted us. “Everyone understand the basics?”
“It’s pretty much a ball game, right?” I asked. “Glowing mana ball in the center, changes elements every few seconds, don’t get hit by it.”
“That’s...a charitable way of putting it.” Walter sighed. “Mana Core is a very complicated game. The version of the rules they distributed to us was just an introductory primer. It’s sort of infamous for how complicated the rules can get.”