After an excruciating day of waiting the moment was finally here—Vior's last fight, and one of the last fights of the selection process. Her vs. Persimmon. Vior's breath shook as she walked down to the arena. She might have already proved enough to get her selected into the church's apprentice program, but that didn't matter to her at the moment. She had to beat Persimmon. Had to beat this cocky girl who hadn't even bothered to watch her first fight. She would prove that she was better, no, that she was the best. And this was her chance to do it.
Anticipation filled the arena as the two lined up at their marks—two unbeaten fighters, probably the best of the whole process, were now lining up to fight against one another. Who would win? What magic would the kids finally get to witness?
The Father walked to the middle and primed the starting artefact. Vior took a breath steadying her thoughts as she reviewed the strategy she had prepared. She locked eyes with her opponent. Her brown eyes seemed tinged now with red, she wore a confident smirk as if daring Vior to prove her confidence wrong, to show her something she hadn't seen before. Vior glared back with a grin. We'll see who's smiling when the fight's over.
Fshh. The starting flare went off. Vior had magic primed through her whole body. She wasn't sure how long she could keep it up if she surged the spell to full capacity, but it just might be a turning point in the match. She closed in slowly on Persimmon, who once again stood there unmoving, watching her opponent with a smirk. Vior's eyes flashed grey, a curl of grey smoke rising as she released a throwing knife at the same instant. Persimmon's face flashed with surprise as a dagger sunk into her shoulder.
[two days earlier]
"My lady, I've arrived!" A girl stepped into the underground stone room she and Perci called home, pulling back her hood to let her cat ears stand up again.
"I've figured out one of that girl's trump cards, want to hear it?"
Perci put down the mirror, contemplating for a moment. "Hmmm, sure! I guess I can decide to ignore it if I want to."
"She has control magic. She said she isn't very good at it, which is probably why she didn't use it in the last fight with the magician girl, but she was considering using it to counter you."
"Hmm," Perci sat up in the hammock, facing her cat-eared friend. "So freeze me and combine it with an attack, huh? I wonder if she saw that knife throw and decided to emulate it…Yes," She grinned, a scene moving in her head, "I can work with this."
Vior closed in on the wounded Persimmon for a final move, but right as she went in for the closing move the form of Persimmon with a dagger in her shoulder flickered then disappeared. Then at lightning speed Vior flooded magic through her body and ducked with all the power she could muster, shifting her movement away from the Persimmon that had just vanished. She felt the wind move across her face as an invisible knife plunged through the air her head had just occupied. Her grey eyes flaring once more to reveal the real Persimmon lunging through the air, completely unharmed. The Persimmon she had stabbed had been fake!
[One day earlier]
Kelly and Vior sat together at the orphanage's cafeteria, eating their lunch in peace. "You know who could help?" Kelly rasped.
"Who?" Vior was roused from her thoughts about how to deal with Persimmon.
"That magician you faced in the second round. She saw the mana you cast around your legs, right? Maybe she'll know what magic Persimmon is using."
"You're right!" Vior's eyes widened. "And she's in the orphanage isn't she?"
"One of my friends knows her," Kelly nodded. "She just came in not too long ago."
They finished their lunch, then went in search for Evelyn or anyone who might know her. At last they found her in one of the orphanage's dormitories.
"Evelyn!" Vior called. The girl turned, a frown crossing her face at sight of the girl who had beat her.
"Vior Eversmith," Evelyn replied. "You're quite the fighter," she said in grudging respect.
"Hey, I wanted to ask, what do you know about that Persimmon girl? I'm fighting her in the last round, but I can't get my head around what magic she's using."
"And why should I help you?" Evelyn crossed her arms, looking with suspicion at Vior.
"Hey," Vior scratched her head, "I know it sucks to lose, but they're not going to disqualify you for the apprenticeship program just because of one loss. Especially…" She baited her hook. "If it was an especially powerful opponent."
Evelyn's eyes lit up in recognition. "So you're saying if I help you beat Persimmon in the last round, it'll make my loss look better." She put her hand to her chin thinking. She sighed, looking at Vior with newfound appreciation. "You wanted to know what magic she's using right? It's illusion magic."
Vior twisted under her opponent's knife thrust, having expected an attack after she went for the fake. She came back onto her feet on the other side of Perci, but her eye twinged, her control magic spinning out of control. She dismissed it quickly as a searing pain burned in one of her eyes, blurring her vision. She readied herself for another attack but Persimmon vanished once more from her eyes with a mocking smile.
She closed her eyes and tried to zone in on her other senses. Footstep, footstep. She leaped backwards, trying to play for more time. She threw her other throwing knife into the void where Persimmon had been, hoping to at least incite a reaction. She felt her muscles burning. I can't keep the enhancement up for much longer. Even with her foreknowledge, Vior felt her chance for victory ebbing away. If I can't see her, and can't sense her, how am I supposed to fight?
"To your left!" She heard a voice that sounded suspiciously like Evelyn's call out. Vior spinned left, her outstretched knife meeting unseen steel as Perci just barely blocked the attack. Then suddenly she saw it, the dust spinning around the unseen form, the barely visible curvature of light around the edges. She struck at the form, but again Persimmon blocked her. Vior flung herself into a flurry of blows, burning through the last of her enhancement magic to attack as fast as possible. If I can't see her, I can't defend against her, but if I at least know where she is I can still attack! Persimmon blocked blow after blow, her form retreating step by step.
The kids in the audience watch the invisible exchange of blows wide-eyed and breathless—they never knew combat could be like this. They were sure they wouldn't last two seconds against either of them. Even Evelyn, having given the critical hints to Vior watched in silent admiration. She knew for all her talent at mage-craft she could never do anything like this.
At last a cry of pain went up as steel met flesh. Persimmon's form flickered into view as Vior's dagger sank into her side. But Persimmon's red-brown eyes flickered not with defeat, but with an angry triumph. She used Vior's knife strike to pull her in. Off-balance Vior had to let go of her knife. Her muscles burning, and her enhancement magic gone, she wasn't able to spin around in time before Persimmon's blow came at the back of her head. She stumbled, the pain darkening her vision, then collapsed.
"End match!" The Father called. Persimmon pulled Vior's dagger out of her side, her eyes alight with a frenzied kind of joy. She threw the dagger down to Vior's crumpled form.
"Excellent, excellent!" She shouted with a crazy laugh. She crouched down by Vior's ear and said in a low voice, "till next time, pet." Vior's vision swam, and then she lost consciousness.