“Combatants, please check your badges,” Baun called, the giant hologram of him flickering as he raised his hands into the air. “They will flash green when you have been selected for a round. When this happens, send a small amount of magical energy into them. The imbuements on the badge will teleport you onto the arena floor. Should you wish to refrain from participating in a round for any reason, do not interact with the badge. Please note that this will disqualify you from the tournament. Failing to enter a round in time will similarly disqualify you.”

Lee held a plate up. “You think anyone joins the tournament and just immediately disqualifies themselves to just eat stuff for free?”

“That seems like a lot of work,” Brayden said.

“Mm,” Lee said. “Yeah. Probably.”

Noah pulled his badge out of the sheathe he had it stored in and glanced at its surface. It was still black. He glanced to Brayden and Lee. “Anything?”

Both of them shook their heads.

“Aw, damn it.” Fist pulled her badge out of her pocket. A faint green glow shimmered from a rune on its surface. “That’s unlucky. I got pulled instantly. I was hoping to sit around and do nothing for a while longer.”

“You’re going?” Brayden asked, blinking in surprise. “I thought you were just kind of going to sit around and speak with Mordred.”

Fist sent him a flat look. “That sounds like torture. There’s no way I’m letting him drag me into this tournament just so I can be his mouthpiece. I might as well kill some time having a bit of fun. I’ll do my best not to get killed and invalidate your deal with him.”

Is that really the best reason she’s got not to die? I feel like she should have a better one. A much better one.

“Good luck,” Lee said, giving Fist a thumbs up. “Have fun. Go kill someone.”

“Or don’t,” Brayden said. “Not dying would probably be a good place to start.”

Fist smirked. Then she pressed her thumb into her badge. A flash of green light lit the room. Coils of dusty magic encircled Fist and swallowed her in an instant. When it faded, she was gone.

All of them looked down to the arena. People popped into being all over the stone ground. They were so far away that it looked like a colony of ants peppering into existence. Noah grimaced. It was going to be practically impossible to see much at all of the fight from up here.

He didn’t even know what the crowd above them was going to do. Some of them must have been so far that the stage was completely impossible to make out at all.

But no sooner than he’d thought that did the image of Baun change. It blew apart into motes of light that rearranged themselves, forming into a huge, birds-eye view of the arena below.

“Whoa,” Lee said. “That’s pretty neat.”

Noah had to admit that it was. The huge image panned down to flit through the crowd of combatants like a drone. It then pulled back up, lifting until it included Baun once more. It looked like he had complete control of what the image showed. That was quite convenient. It would probably also let them isolate the more interesting fights and make sure everyone could see them.

“Combatants!” Baun called. “Congratulations on being in the very first round of the tournament! For the next ten minutes, you may do whatever you like to prepare for the upcoming round. However, you may not use any manner of offensive magic until I announce the beginning of the round. Breaking this rule will result in immediate disqualification. Now… get ready to put on a show!”

A huge timer appeared in the air above Baun.

Despite himself, Noah’s fists clenched. He could feel his own heart starting to beat faster as he squinted at the image in the air, trying to see if he could spot even the smallest sign of anyone he knew.

They’re here, somewhere. Maybe not in this round. But somewhere in this tournament. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

And I’m going to find them.

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***

Mordred blew out a slow breath. His eyes were closed and his legs were crossed beneath him. The world was completely silent. Nothing but his magic existed.

His senses slithered through the thick oppression that Aqua Terra used. It was strong enough to repress far more powerful mages than he. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t have been a particularly effective deterrent.

A small smile pulled at one corner of Mordred’s lips in spite of that. If there was one thing that he was good at, it was slithering past rules. Nobody could make a perfect barrier. Not this large. And when he was only trying to get an overall look at all the arenas rather than peering too close at someone’s domain… well, he’d done considerably harder things in his life.

The Tournament had officially started by now. All 5 of the arenas were roughly in sync. They’d all begin the preparation phase of the first round. He hadn’t known they were planning something like that, but it was practically the best gift he could have asked for. Ten minutes to scan over all the combatants and try to locate the more interesting ones made his job a whole lot easier. It let him at least start identifying who would be best to focus on watching.

Let’s see… there’s definitely no shortage of powerful mages. Everyone at the tournament is going to be competent. But which ones are worth paying the closest attention to?

Mordred’s mind brushed across the arenas. A droplet of sweat rolled down the side of his brow. His abilities were still heavily restricted. Compared to what he could do outside Aqua Terra, this was a bit pathetic. But it would have to do.

Right, then. Show me what you’ve got. Somebody do something interesting. Let’s see some magic I don’t recognize.

But, as the seconds dragged on, a small frown started to form on Mordred’s lips. He hadn’t considered one thing. Practically all of the mages in the tournament were strong. He’d known that logically. But when you piled them all into a bunch of arenas and then tried to figure out which of them was stronger before they started doing anything… well, when everyone was strong, nobody really stood out all that much anymore.

At least as long as he was looking from a birds-eye vantage point, someone would really have to be really bright to outshine all the others around them. It would be much easier to get a good look at things if he started focusing in. But if he did that, he’d lose the bigger picture. The chances of passing over someone interesting would become much higher.

Well, this is annoying.

There were mages drawing layer after layer of Imbuements into the air around themselves. Others readied defensive magic, pulled out items, or started to cast Formations. Some people gathered into groups as they located their allies. But as those groups grew larger, the people that had been left out became even more evident.

Many of the solo mages also started to group together. They were likely forming alliances with people they didn’t know well just to make sure they had a chance to survive. That was the logical move. Any mage that was left standing alone by the time the preparation time ended was probably going to be in a world of trouble.

The groups would start by hunting the weakest targets. Only when the smallest and least defended batches of mages had been wiped out would they start to move on to fighting the more dangerous opponents. If anything, this first stage was testing people’s social skills and connections more than it was their actual magic.

Interesting. But I suppose it makes sense. The whole point of the Tournament is to find promising new recruits, after all. None of the factions want some loner psychopath that’s just going to horde power and be impossible to work with. They’ve already got those in droves. What they want are mages that can be team players.

Boring.

But not all of the mages had moved to join groups. There were still quite a few that remained alone for one reason or another. Some of them just sat on the ground in apparent meditation, while others flat out got rejected by the groups they tried to join.

But, eventually, most of them ended up finding each other and banding together. It wasn’t like they had much choice.

There were a few, however, that didn’t even make a single move to try and join a group. They stood still in their spots even after their preparations completed. As the timers in the sky ticked closer and closer to zero, some mages simply just waited for the tournament to begin.

One of them was Fist.

Mordred’s mind finished brushing over the rest of her group. There were a few interesting mages in it, but nothing that really stood out to him. He was fairly certain that she’d have no trouble at all coming out as a victor. His attention turned to the other arenas, checking on the other mages who had failed to join forces with anyone.

They were the easiest spot to start looking for someone really powerful. After all, anyone who intentionally chose to fight alone was either powerful or an idiot. The only way to know which one they were was to keep a close eye on them during the tournament.

And he wasn’t going to have to wait long. The timers were already in their final seconds. In just moments, the tournament would begin in true.

Mordred did one final pass. There were a number of people he wanted to keep an extra eye on, and—

He nearly choked.

His attention faltered, then doubled back. Then Mordered’s eyes widened.

What in the Damned Plains is she doing?

In the very final moments before the tournament began, the most important thing anyone fighting solo could have possibly been doing was readying their defenses or — at worst — staying out of the way to avoid drawing undue attention.

That was only logical.

Thus, Mordred’s mind couldn’t come up with even the most godsforsaken reason as to why, with only seconds left on the clock, this particular woman was stripping off all her clothes.