“Sounds good. Uh, by the way, are there any fighter/mage duo fights at the stadium here?”
“Yes, but the participants must have won at least five duels prior, each.”
The lady looked at Gust and cast and eye over his flamboyant outfit. “If you ever reach five wins, let me know…”
Gust’s chest slightly deflated.
“Will do. Let’s go, Wesley.”
The two left the registration office and went to the stands to scout of their competition.
The stadium was far larger than the one in the village they’d previously fought in, with a far larger crowd as well - nearly a thousand people could be seen in attendance.
To keep the audience entertained, and to accommodate the numerous fighters who were continuously look for duels, there were multiple arenas at the center of the stadium simultaneously hosting fights.
Gust and Wesley walked around the stadium until they reached the part of the stadium closest to Arena 1, where Gust would be fighting shortly.
It seemed that Arena 1 was the designated arena for light-armored fighters, as the two fighters currently on it were both clad in light pieces of armor, designed not to take the brunt of any direct hits, but to catch and deflect any glancing blows.
One was equipped with a short sword in one hand, a large, weighted net in the other. The second fighter was equipped more similarly to Gust - he held two long knives, one in each hand.
“Oh?” When Gust noticed that the second fighter was also a dual knife wielder, his interest was piqued, especially because the dual knife wielder was holding his own against the the one with the net.
After all, a weighted net was many times more dangerous than any shield or sword, especially in the medium to long range for melee combatants. This range was the perfect distance to attempt to catch an opponent with the weighted net, and once the opponent was caught, it was a simple matter to simply walk up to them and end the fight.
Furthermore, at that range, the net could also be used as a legitimate defensive tool.While it wouldn’t function like a shield in the traditional sense, if one attempted to strike the wielder on the net’s side, an effective warrior could use the net could catch the weapon, effectively disarming the attacker.
Hence, Gust knew the only way for the dual knife wielder to win, was to…
Just as Gust’s train of thought reached this point, the dual knife wielder on the arena stage faked an advance, leading his opponent to throw the net out. Without
Before the net wielder could retract the net, the dual knife wielder dashed to the right, attacking the net wielder’s left side.
Seeing that he wouldn’t be able to retract the net in time to defend against this attack, the opponent released his grip on the net, and jumped backwards.
After a flurry of exchanges, the fight had been more or less reset to its previous state, except that the weighted net was still left, unused, on the arena floor.
As the battle drew on, the dual knife wielder eventually eked out an advantage, slicing open a wound on his opponent’s leg, then his chest, leading his opponent to surrender.
‘Hmm.’ Gust stroked his chin. ‘I wonder how much better than him I am…’
Chapter 19
A few fights later, it was Gust’s turn to ascend to the arena stage.
The stadium announcer gave the usual introductions, then handed off control to the referee present in Arena 1.
Standing between the two combatants, the referee first looked towards Gust, who had changed into his fighting gear, complete with his two kukris and his leather armor.
“Ready?”
“Yeah.”
Then, the referee looked toward Gust’s opponent, a young, but experienced spear user by the name of Kay.
“Ready?”
She nodded.
“Fight!”
Before the referee’s shout even ended, Gust dashed forward, trying to close the distance between himself and the opponent. Similar to the situation he’d seen earlier, he would be at a disadvantage in the medium to long range.
Unfortunately, just as Gust was about to come within striking range, Kay adjusted her grip on her spear so that she was gripping it at the halfway point, then rested the lower half of the spear against her back, and swept the spear across her front, while stepping to the right at the same time.
To dodge the spear, Gust was forced to dodge to the right, which increased the distance between him and his opponent.
At this distance, and no way to flank the opponent, Gust waited for Kay to make her move, keeping his eyes on her spear in order to react at the earliest moment possible. However, after a few seconds, his eyes drifted from the tip of her spear, to her eyes.
As their eyes met, a tremor ran through Gust’s body, and he almost unconsciously lowered his kukris.
As soon as Kay saw this, she stabbed forward with her spear, hoping to secure a quick win by taking advantage of Gust’s momentary lapse.
Luckily, Gust’s instincts saved him from injury - jolting out of his momentary trance, he hurriedly intercepted the spear with his kukris, using the curves of the blades to trap the spear below the kukris.
“Ha!” Gust pushed downward with his kukris, forcing the spearhead toward the ground.
Instead of trying to withdraw her spear, as Gust had expected, Kay instead rushed forward, causing the head of the spear to hit the arena floor. Then, she raised the back of the spear, causing the spear to bend.
At this point, if Gust were to keep holding the spear down, she would be able to make use of the built up force from the spear bending to push herself backwards, again resetting the fight. However, if he were to stop pressing down on the spear, the spearhead would “spring” upwards with great force, which would cause the spearhead to slice open the front half of his body.
“Do you really think I haven’t seen this trick before?” Gust smirked as he kept the pressure on the front end of the spear, but lifted his right leg and kicked the shaft of the spear, forcing it sideways.
At the same time, he lifted his right arm and pushed rightward with his left kukri, forcing the spearhead to escape to the right.
This combination of forces, along with Kay’s initial momentum, caused her to lose her balance and teeter toward her right. Furthermore, because she had been rushing forward to increase the pressure on the spearhead, she was now within Gust’s striking range.
In an instant, he’d rushed up to her, and placed his right kukri against her neck.
Kay stared at Gust, still unsure of how exactly she’d lost. Despite that, however, the results were clear.
“I yield.”
The referee nodded, and signalled Gust’s victory.
With this, Gust lowered his kukri from Kay’s neck, and stepped back.
“Good fight.”
“...” Kay wasn’t exactly happy with her loss. “Did you just pretend to be distracted to get me to attack?”
It took a few seconds, but Gust was quickly back to his usual form; “Psh, do I look like that kind of idiot? I’ll have you know, I’m never distracted. What you perceived as me being distracted was simply me achieving a higher level of concentration, the likes of which have only been replicated by the former King Le-”
Kay covered her face with her palm. How exactly did she lose to this idiot?
Smiling, Gust waved at her as he descended the arena stage. However, as soon as he made it back to where Wesley had been sitting, he collapsed next to his only friend, and let out a large, long sigh.
“Hey Wesley.”
“Yeah?”
“We’re friends, right?”
“Hmph.”
“Oi, kid. In what world am I not a friend of yours, you ungrateful brat?”
“You stole my breakfast this morning.”
“Your breakfast was dry and disgusting, I did you a favor by eating it!”
“I wanted to eat it, the inn worker said it was a present for how cute I was…”
“Th
at in itself was suspicious. Hell, you should be thanking me for checking your food for poisoning. ”
After joking around with Wesley for a bit, Gust thought back to that moment on the arena stage, when he’d made eye contact with Kay.
Gust sighed. ‘I wonder how strong a fighter she would have been…’
After a few moments of contemplation, Gust shrugged, then shook his head a few moments to clear it of extraneous thoughts.
“Hey Gust, can we head over to Arena 3 now? We need to see the caliber of the mages here.”
“Yes, esteemed young master. As you wish.”
“...”
Wesley and Gust sat in front of the Arena 3 stage, on which two Rank 4 Elementary Mages were competing.
It was quite an unusual sight, as the first mage did not seem to specialize in any form of magic, and looked to just be haphazardly casting as many spells as he could before his mana pool ran dry in an effort to win the battle through sheer force, while the other seemed to specialize in reinforcement magic.
Part of the arena stage floor, which was made completely out of stone, had been ripped up to form a barrier around the second mage, and was currently bearing the brunt of the spells cast by the first mage.
Reinforced by magic, the stone barrier tens of times more resilient than it would have been. Despite that, the storm of spells cast by the first mage continuously wore down the stone barrier. Every time the stone barrier was about to fall apart, or had holes blasted in it, the second mage wrote a spell to repair the barrier, before again writing spells to further reinforce it.
Although Wesley couldn’t see the fight, judging from the energies he detected, he could tell that compared to the duel he’d previously fought in, this fight was on a far larger scale, in both terms of mana consumption, as well as the complexity of the spells being cast.
Then, just as Wesley was about to begin meditating to prepare for his upcoming duel, he felt a surge of energy coming from the arena stage that seemed almost “familiar” to him. However, this feeling quickly passed.
“Hey Gust, what kind of spell was just cast?”
“Uh, one of the mages just cast a spell that shot a bunch of icicles toward the other.”
Wesley waited for another minute or so, before he felt the “familiar” energy again.
“What did they cast this time?”
“Uh, one of the mages froze the stone wall… don’t know what good it did him though, it’s still there…why’re you asking?”
“I think I’ve figured something out, but I’m not sure how I can test my theory…”
Chapter 20
Wesley was curious as to whether his conjecture was correct, but he other tasks closer at hand, namely his duel, which was due to start in just over an hour.
Casting his newfound discoveries to the depths of his mind, he focused his mind and meditated, preparing his mental state.
Meanwhile, Gust simply sat back in his seat and enjoyed the view before his eyes. Since he could remember, he’d wanted to be a mage, to be one of those that stood at the top of society. He’d wanted to feel the power to fully control one’s life, to have enough power at one’s fingertips to command the respect of the masses.
Unfortunately, life had clearly never planned to give him the opportunity to learn magic. Even if he were to start now, at 16 years of age, the prime years to nourish and develop one’s mana pool and channels had almost completely passed for him. Even if he were to start learning now, he’d never reach the level of power he yearned for.
“Haha…” Gust chuckled to himself, then looked down at his kukris, then at Wesley. “Oh well, at least I still have this stupid little bugger.”
Still, there was a certain shine in his eyes as he watched the spectacle on the arena stage.
Time passed, and soon it was nearly time for Wesley to ascend to the stage. Meanwhile, a young man by the name of Marcus, had likewise arrived at Arena 3.
Marcus was quite an interesting case. A genius at birth, he’d quickly attracted the attention of the Larwin Kingdom’s royal family, and had been placed in a prestigious position at the Larwin Institute of Elementary Magic.
With servants at his beck and call, a personal chef at his service, and bootlicking “friends”, Marcus had lived like a king at the larwin Institute of Elementary Magic. However, this treatment, unsurprisingly, swiftly crawled its way into his head. As the years passed, he’d developed a sickening arrogance, to the point where even his family, nevermind the Larwin Royal Family, had grown sick of him.
This all culminated until one day, finally, Marcus crossed the line. At the beginning of his second year at the Larwin Institute of Elementary Magic, he’d already become a Rank 3 Elementary Mage, a full rank higher than any other second-year student. However, his achievement had been met with muted reactions. Other than his “friends” who praised his every action, the majority of the students look up not to him, but instead a fellow student by the name of Law.
Widely recognized as the second most talented student of the institute, Law was not only talented, but had a very kind disposition, and was humble, everything that Marcus wasn’t. Jealous of Law’s popularity, Marcus had ordered his “friends” to “invite” Law to a corner of the institute, and had used his stronger power to kill Law in a life-or-death duel.
Almost immediately, however, one of his lackeys had promptly betrayed him, and reported this to the institute’s Disciplinary Committee, who promptly expelled Marcus from the institute. On the same day, his actions prompted not only the Larwin Royal Family from condemning his actions, but also his own family to disown him.
Of course, all of his bootlickers had suddenly disappeared as well.
Despite all of this, however, Marcus hadn’t simply dropped everything and given up on life. Instead, he, a pampered ten year old, had made his way to Border Town in order to cross the Alaki Mountain Range to the Reiniad Kingdom. With his talent, as long as the Reiniad Kingdom’s Reiniad Royal Elementary Institute of Magic was willing to look past his personality, he’d be able to flourish yet again.
However, in the few weeks he’d been here, he’d yet to find a sizeable group that was looking to cross the mountain range - and he certainly wasn’t willing to risk his life to cross the mountain range with an incompetent team.
In the meantime, he enjoyed bullying the less talented mages he usually encountered here at Border Town.
Today, apparently his opponent was a young, blind mage initiate who’d overestimated himself and had requested to be paired against a Rank 3 Elementary Mage. Looking for his opponent, Marcus cast his eyes over the surrounding audience members, finally settling on a boy who look around eight years old, in an outfit that reminded him of a colorful chicken, next to a rough looking teenager gazing at the stage with starry eyes.
Of course, he was looking at none other than Wesley and Gust.
“Heh.” He confidently smirked. “Another easy battle today.”
As if on cue, one of the stadium workers walked up to Wesley and Gust, and motioned that it was Wesley’s turn to go on stage.
“Hey little man, wake up. Your turn.” Gust prodded Wesley a few times before the latter finally responded.
The two walked toward the arena stage, then Gust helped Wesley onto the stage, where Marcus was already waiting.
“Tch. Are you just trying to stall for time because you know you’ll lose? Come, let’s get this started.” Marcus motioned for the referee to begin the duel.
Ignoring Marcus, the referee crouched so that he was eye level with Wesley. “Hey kid, you sure you wanna do this? I got a kid who looks to be the same age as you, and I sure wouldn’t want him fighting around here like this, and you’re blind to boot.”
“I’m sure.”
“...” The referee kept his gaze on Wesley a little longer, then shrugged and backed off. He’d done what he could.
“Ready?”
Wesley nodded.
“Ready?”
Marcus nod
ded.
“Fight!”
Wesley quickly began drawing his first seal, but he concentrated partially on the seal his enemy was casting, curious as to whether he would feel that “familiar” feeling again. Unfortunately, he didn’t feel the same sensation this time around.
‘I guess he’s not casting an ice-based spell.’
Despite wanting to win, so that he and Gust could afford more “fancy” food later, Wesley wasn’t exactly confident in dealing with a Rank 3 Elementary Mage, and had requested said level of opponent to test his limits after weeks of learning from Thomas in the dream world.
Memory Seal- Volume 1 Page 13
