B4 - Chapter 47 - Ambitions

When Lily returned to the group, she was met with cheers at her victory and questions about what Daphne had done or said. It seemed nobody had noticed the girl heal her, as there was barely any hint of magical fluctuations, chanting, or even gestures.

It seemed the girl had mastered her healing even more than Lily had her Nebula Veil, which really made her placement in the tournament seem a bit odd. If the schools were a bit more ruthless and allowed fighting beyond the safety of the Wards, it would be another story, and healing would've been a tremendous boon, but thankfully that wasn't the case.

Maybe her holy water is a bigger deal than I thought?

Lily tried her best to explain what happened, although even she had no answer to what had happened to her Lunar Eclipse. In the end, Daphne said she just wanted to be friends, and Lily couldn't tell whether she was genuine or a masterclass liar.

"I've heard about love at first sight, but not friendship…" Arthur teased, earning him an elbow in the ribs from Hana.

"Well, if she wants to be friends, I don't see any reason not to be," Hana replied. "Just don't give her any of your secrets, just in case."

Lily nodded and settled down, then looked at her hand, which still held some residual warmth from whatever Daphne had done. She desperately wanted to ask Arakil about it, observation or not, but held her tongue. If it were dangerous, Arakil would have spoken up, or even just moved his book slightly to get her attention, but he did neither.

The next match was already underway, and it almost seemed like they wanted to get the byes out of the way first, since the next matchup was the fire mage from Kalway against the sole remaining member of Tresnia. He'd survived purely on his bye, and unlike Daphne, he was chosen rather than picked by a lucky draw.

"I wonder if he's Tresnia's secret weapon?" Thomas suggested.

"He better be, or they will be wiped out before even reaching the quarter-finals. Kinda embarrassing for the host school," Arthur replied.

"What do we know about his opponent?" Lily asked.

"Not much, I'm afraid," Clarissa answered. "He was announced as Therion of House Morvayne, which unfortunately leaves us with little idea of his bloodline."

Arthur seemed confused at her response. "Why? Are the Morvayne's not big shots?"

"He's adopted," Hana answered. "It was the way he was introduced: 'of House Morvayne', rather than just Therion Morvayne."

Clarissa bobbed her head in agreement with Hana's explanation.

"But by the looks of things, I think he's a Lupinia?" Clarissa added with a bit of uncertainty.

"Hmm… Yeah, I think he is," Hana agreed. "Don't those ears look a bit like a puppy?"

"So what bloodline can give a dog fire?" Arthur asked bluntly.

"Hellhounds would be the obvious answer," Clarissa replied. "But the question then is at what level? Is it just your average hell mutt, or is it something scary like a cerberus?"

"Why do you know so much about other demis?" Arthur asked, clearly still confused by Clarissa's constant answers.

"It's what's required of me to fulfill my filial duty for House Viremont," Clarissa replied, almost as if it were a statement.

Arthur turned his head to Hana, as if asking her the same question.

Hana shook her head. "My parents don't expect that of me. I leave all that stuff to them, and they're happy as long as I keep performing well."

"...must be nice…" Clarissa whispered under her breath. It was so quiet that Lily thought she had misheard, especially since nobody else in the room reacted.

Me and my big silly ears…

Whatever speculation they were doing ended as the round began, and it looked like Tresnia had been hedging their bets, as the match opened with a classic fire-versus-fire duel. Flames erupted from both sides of the arena in brief clashes as the two duelists tossed out various fire spells whenever they could.

In mirror matches like this, it was important to establish dominance through raw power, better technique, or hidden trump cards like another type of magic. However, for this pair, they both seemed to have only flames, or at least were unwilling to use anything else.

To the naked eye, they appeared evenly matched, but Lily watched with her Magesight and saw that the Tresnia student needed to pour far more Mana into his spells to keep up. Whatever Therion's bloodline was, it seemed to grant him a higher-quality flame, and he ground away at his opponent's resources with little effort.

In what must have been their umpteenth clash, Therion saw weakness and pushed harder than ever, causing his fiery spell to nearly consume his opponent's and ultimately reach his Ward. A shrill cry rang out, and the multiple burning patches across the arena were snuffed out like ordinary candles, with Therion declared the winner.

It was an impressive duel, all things considered, and went on record as one of the longest fights so far, unless you count the time when Lily and Daphne were standing around. Unfortunately for Tresnia, they were now kicked out of their own tournament, at least for the first-years, but hopefully they could have a better showing in the older age-brackets.

"The next match will be Altair Valcrest from Stremweth versus Devon from Kalway!"

Lily saw Thomas twitch as the next match was announced. It looked like none of them would face his opponent this round, though they would have liked to get revenge for him. As for his opponent, it was the Kalway earth mage who decided to go on the offensive rather than the typical shield approach. Previously, they hadn't paid him much attention, but now that he was a winner, they did; he must have been of ordinary stock, as he had barely any visible demi traits, let alone any from a bloodline, and he hadn't been adopted into a noble house.

"As much as I hate saying it, I'd put money on Altair winning," Arthur sighed. "He's certainly got the bloodline advantage, not to mention the massive benefit he has in the speed department."

The rest of the group nodded in reluctant agreement; right now, the garuda boy seemed to have everything in his favor. The only better matchup would've been Arthur, although Lily suspected he had an unconventional trick or two to counter the garuda's dominance over wind.

The match began, and as expected, the garuda opened with a wind blast, trying to knock his opponent against the barrier and seal his victory. This was arguably a better strategy than a quick wind blade, as it formed faster and offered a strong chance of an immediate win; however, no matter how hard the wind blew, his opponent was firmly rooted to the ground.

Lily quickly noticed that Devon had used his rubble to lock his feet to the arena floor, letting him withstand the winds threatening to blow him back. At the same time, he was clearly working on his own spell thanks to the time his opponent had graciously allowed. This was bad news for his opponent, as the last thing you ever wanted to give an earth mage was time.

Altair abandoned his knockback strategy and transitioned into trying to break his opponent's Ward, since his gusts weren't enough to trigger it. It was a bold move on Devon's part, as few duelists would stand in the face of their opponent's spell without a shield or defense, assuming it wouldn't trigger their Ward. Whatever was going on at Kalway, he must have spent quite a lot of time fighting against wind mages.

Unfortunately for Altair, his opponent now had rocky shields to block his incoming attacks, and his wild advantage had swung to the other side. The longer the duel went on, the worse it looked for Altair, and he knew it as he lashed out wildly. Devon, on the other hand, was calm and collected, almost methodical, which was quite different from his exploding shrapnel rock from earlier.

Then, whatever preparations he'd made while hunkering down were complete, and he launched his own offensive, sending five rocky projectiles straight at his opponent. They were fanned out, meaning that even if he dodged, he risked being hit by one; in response, Altair formed a wind shield to try to divert the rock. But that wasn't what happened; as soon as the rock hit the wind wall, it pierced through to Altair's horror, and his Ward was triggered.

"Winner Devon from Kalway!"

"Yikes, what are they feeding the kids from Kalway? That's two rounds they've won already," Hana said, shaking her head.

"And against Stremweth of all people," Arthur added. "Weren't they supposed to have the advantage?"

"I guess there are a lot of surprises with this generation," Clarissa suggested, before turning to Thomas. "Feeling any better?"

Thomas was silent, then gave a quick nod. "I'm glad his cockiness was his downfall. He tried to bully his opponent, and when that failed, he lost all his momentum."

"I just wish I could've done it," Arthur sighed.

Altair took his defeat very badly and refused to shake his opponent's hand before storming off the stage. Devon, however, just shrugged and walked off, clearly quite pleased with his victory. As for how he had bypassed the barrier, Hana had the answer, as she had managed to see that the stone projectiles he had made were all teardrop-shaped. Arthur quickly explained that the extremely streamlined shape was probably enough to cut through the wind, especially given its weight and density.

"The next match promises to be an exciting one, as we have Veyrion Duskmare from Stremweth versus Hana Lucandriel from Regarth!" The announcer yelled out, ending their discussion.

"Well, I'm glad it's you and not me," Clarissa sighed in relief.

Hana smiled back. "I don't want to say it's a done deal, but I think this might be the best matchup for me."

"Just be careful, don't end up like Altair," Arthur warned.

Hana gave a thumbs-up and began heading to the stage. To Lily, she seemed the right balance of confident and cautious, and it looked like a favorable matchup for her. Even Lily was a bit worried about facing Veyrion, as she wasn't entirely sure what effect her own magic would have on shadows.

As the pair took the stage, they seemed quite formal with one another, neither showing off much bravado. Hana was a bit of a goofball in Lily's opinion, but was clearly capable of going "noble mode" when the situation required it. The countdown began, and both students looked ready to unleash whatever spells they had at a moment's notice.

"Begin!"

With a flash of light, Hana unleashed a beam straight at her opponent, dazzling in every way. It was larger than she usually made, lighting up the arena more than ever before. Her opponent's face quickly turned to worry as he immediately flopped backward and fell to the ground without any regard for his back or head.

Yet instead of slamming into the platform, he sank into his shadow, almost like someone diving into water. Against all odds, he had somehow dodged Hana's opening attack, but on a second glance, it looked worse.

"Why is his shadow so big?" Thomas asked with a frown.

"Where there's light, there's shadow…" Lily murmured, a vague recollection from something Arakil once said during her lessons involving that particular crest.

Yes, Hana's large beam of light had banished most of the shadows in the arena, but the light source in front had enlarged the target Veyrion's shadow behind him. The projected shadow was extremely large, but now that he had sunk into it, it seemed to retain its size even though Hana's beam of light was no longer there.

Lily quickly turned on her Magesight, which revealed that his shadow was practically burning with Mana. Whatever he was doing was clearly temporary and not cheap, which probably explained why he immediately shifted to the offensive.

Veyrion's enlarged shadow extended its two arms wide across the arena floor, attempting a pincer maneuver against Hana. She quickly fired another beam of light at one of the arms, and despite its best effort, the shadow failed to dodge and took the hit. The shadowy arm was practically obliterated, but no sound of the Ward being triggered came.

Hana reacted quickly and, to the surprise of the crowd, took to the skies to dodge the remaining shadow arm with an instantaneous gust. She'd clearly seen what happened if that shadow touched her, and she refused to let that happen. But as she was preparing her next spell, this time to target the large body of the shadow, the unthinkable happened.

The shadow arm, rather than giving up, continued, and its finger flexed open, taking on an almost claw-like appearance before raking against the black dot below Hana—her own shadow! By taking to the skies, Hana had kept her body safe, but by rising up she had actually made her own shadow slightly bigger. Whether that made a difference or not, nobody could've known, but it didn't seem to matter as the claws stretching her shadow made her Ward screech and trigger in response.

Hana was visibly shocked; the whole of Regarth was, and the booth where Lily and the rest were utterly dumbfounded.

"That's utter bullshit!" Arthur shouted, slamming his fist into the nearby wall.

Even the judge seemed confused by what happened, as he had yet to announce the winner. Hana landed safely, though she had to reapply a spell after the Ward defused it, while Veyrion crept out of his rapidly shrinking shadow, looking absolutely dreadful. He was out of breath and gasping for air, sweat pouring off him as if he'd been dunked in the ocean. Lily's eyes also revealed that his stunt with his enlarged shadow had spent a large majority of his Mana, a heavy toll, and time would tell if it was worth it.