The next day came, and Vior thought about little else all morning other than her upcoming fight with the magician, Evelyn. She reviewed her strategies in her head as she ate breakfast with Kelly, before doing some warmup training to make sure her skills were sharp.
Their fight was pretty early on in the day, so Vior didn't have to wait too long before she was heading to the arena once more, eyeing the blue-haired magician opposite her. She charged her legs with mana. No holding back this time. A magician with unknown skills was much more of a threat than an inexperienced boy, however strong he might have been. She held her dagger in front of her as the Father charged the starting artefact. Speed was her best friend in this fight. She watched her opponent, her body tensed for the moment the flare went up. She saw mana gathering around the stone at the tip of her opponent's staff.
Fshh. The flare went up. Vior darted diagonal to her opponent, a blur of speed as she watched her opponent's staff. An ice crystal formed and darted towards where Vior was heading. Vior broke suddenly, twisting and changing directions as the crystal smashed into the ground in front of her. Another crystal was forming, and Vior began wondering if she should use her trump card. Too late. She hissed to herself as she jumped, narrowly dodging another crystal. It was all she could do to focus on the timing and trajectory of the crystals. She skirted around the magician, closing the distance a little, but wary of being too close to the next crystal forming to dodge. Right as the crystal seemed about to release, she began pivoting to shift directions, but she suddenly saw the girl's eyes light up in delight. A trap! She plowed through what should've been her breaking to shift directions, and a crystal smashed into the ground where she had been about to turn into.
She took advantage of her opponent's slight surprise to finally close the distance bringing her dagger into to slash at the magician's side. She recovered and blocked with her staff just in time, but the impact left her off-balance. Vior took the opportunity to push with her dagger, instead of following with another slash, and the magician fell to the ground. Vior grabbed her staff with one hand, shoving it to the side while the magician was still reeling from the impact, and quickly she brought her knife to her opponent's throat.
"End match!" The father called, as Evelyn blinked in shock at the knife at her throat.
Phew. Vior took a breath, sheathing her dagger and standing back up. Her body was jittery from all the adrenaline rushing through her system. "Nice fight," she said, looking down at the magician and extending her hand to help her up.
"You too." The magician said, still in shock, as she accepted the hand to help her up.
Vior looked up where Kelly was seated, a sly grin across the shy girl's face. Vior grinned, waving as she returned to the stands. As she turned she caught the gaze of her third opponent, Persimmon. An eyebrow was perked up. Nice going. She mouthed. Something tingled in the back of Vior's spine. Fear? She shook off the feeling, basking in the excitement of the fight as she returned to Kelly's side.
They watched the fights together for another few hours until it was time for Persimmon's second fight. It was against a thin boy with a dagger, one of the boys Vior had noted on the first day of the exams as potentially being trouble. The fight began and the boy closed in slowly on Persimmon as she stood there smirking at him, making no moves. He watched her closely until he was near close-combat range. Suddenly he made a move and a throwing dagger shot out. At the same time he lept back, wary of any potential magic movement. Persimmon's form flickered again and the knife passed through her, clattering uselessly against the opposite wall, as she continued standing in the same spot, smirking at her opponent.
The boy suddenly furious, but still trying to be cautious, closed in again. After closing the distance he made a probing attack with his dagger, his body tensed against any potential movements. To his surprise Persimmon's arms shot up grabbing his wrist and twisting him around the girl. She let go as he began stumbling past her, then brought her elbow down on his exposed back, crumpling him into a pile.
"End fight!" The Father called. Persimmon walked away unbothered, before flashing a look at Vior in the audience and giving her a wink. Vior watched her go, shaking her head. "I have no idea how I'm going to beat her," she sighed to Kelly.
"Do you think the control magic might work?" Kelly rasped in return.
Vior shrugged. "I don't know. I don't have that good control over it yet, but it's the only thing I can really think of." After watching the door Persimmon had disappeared through for a moment longer, Vior snapped back to her friend. "Come on, let's head back upstairs." Kelly nodded and they made their way through the stands out into the rest of the church.
A small hooded figure who had been sitting right in front of them silently watched them go, waiting a few key moments before getting up herself and followed after them.
Upon returning to the church above she made her way out of the doors into the street, following a few curving alleyways before slipping into an innocuous hole in the ground normally covered by some street detritus. Slipping down a haphazardly constructed staircase she made her way into a small stone chamber that had likely served as the cellar for some long-forgotten building in the past.
There a girl sat lazily in a hammock, strung up with dirty fabric across one of corners of the room, one leg drifting in the air as she held up a fragment of a mirror looking at herself. "The dye's already starting to fade," she muttered to herself, her previously brown eyes, now tinged with a hint of red.
"My lady," the newly arrived girl announced, slipping off her hood to reveal two black cat ears. "I've arrived."