The days leading up to the tournament saw a flurry of activity from the students. Kyle was not the only one whom the boss battle movie made an impact on. There were some days when there were not enough regeneration rooms to go around and Kyle’s group had to run dungeons instead.

Li seemed like the only one who was slacking off. The other three never discussed it, but it was evident they each had their own reasons for getting stronger. Perhaps it was good that Li was able to relax. She made the other three take a day off before the start of the tournament, and in retrospect it would have been a pure folly to try and do otherwise. Super humans were still humans, and all humans needed rest.

Li’s insistence on taking a break was not her only contribution to the party. One day they were practicing their team work when Li made an offhand comment about wishing they had people to practice with. Firing skills at imaginary opponents and pretending you were being attacked could only get you so far.

Kyle thought about what Li said, and they next day brought up with the group the idea of asking to practice against the other group from their Guild. Li and Walt did not have anyone they knew at the school, so if the group wanted to keep their cards close to their chest for the tournament it would be a good idea to practice with people who were a known quantity.

It was quickly approved and the next day Kyle’s group had found themselves sparring partners.

The other group consisted of Thomas, Derrick, and Carlos from the Guild compound with Vihaan as the fourth person who joined their group. Thomas was their main magical DPS with his rare chain lightning starting skill while Derrick supported the group with heals and the occasional damage skill. Carlos had taken the tank position and Vihaan fought with a bow.

Not even five minutes into their first practice session it was immediately evident that both groups had no clue about team combat. Kyle’s group ended up winning the spar, but it was a complete mess.

The tournament used a special artifact and some enchantments to allow the students to project spiritual avatars to fight in a dreamlike space. This way they would be able to go all out without actually killing each other. For training purposes, Kyle just shielded everyone with a two hundred power shield and when that ran out you were KO’ed. The purpose was teamwork and tactics not a raw power fight.

Raw power ended up being king as tactics took a back seat. Kyle’s group’s plan was simple. Sarah would run at the enemies with supporting fire from Kyle while Li cast a two target Shadow Suppression. Walt would block for the two backliners so they would be protected.

Kyle’s group had two things going for them. The first was Li’s powerful CC and the second was Sarah’s insane speed. Sarah ran towards the enemy team and was able to dodge all of their skills and arrows. Her speed almost made it trivial and it was clear that Thomas and Vihaan were not used to firing at a target moving that fast. That part worked well.

The backline, not so much.

Kyle started by firing off Rapid Air Bullets. He should have known better as there was no reason to assume Carlos would not be at least as good a tank as Walt was. The rain of spells had the same result as if Kyle had attacked Walt. The spells were all absorbed and the reflection damage helped put Kyle out of the fight before it had even really started.

Thomas had a slightly better result when he attacked the enemy backline. He attempted to target Li with his chain lightning skill, but the bolt was redirected to Walt. The spell was a chain lighting spell though, and it jumped from Walt, interrupted Li’s casting of Shadow Suppression, and put the nail in the coffin for Kyle by draining the rest of his shield before he could finish doing so himself by attacking Carlos.

Li had never been attacked while she was casting a skill before and her concentration broke causing the skill to fail to activate. Another cast of the chain lightning skill put Li out for good leaving only Walt and Sarah.

Walt’s main purpose was to block the back line. With no backline he was almost useless. He would most likely get some more damaging skills eventually, but currently if he tried to attack Carlos it would end up as a wet noodle fight. Even if he could twist his way around Carlos and advance to the backline he would not do much damage. That only left Sarah.

While Carlos had a skill to absorb ranged attacks flying at his backline, he did not have a rare taunt skill so he was limited to physically blocking Sarah’s way. That was impossible with her speed and much higher physical power stat. Sarah easily avoided the skills and arrows flying her way while lunging past the tank and then eviscerating the backline before finally turning and finishing Carlos off.

Both teams had a lot to work on after their first spar.

The biggest things were Thomas and Vihaan’s ability to hit a target like Sarah and Li and Kyle’s ability to cast skills while receiving damage. Even if the battle might have had a different result if they could go all out without fear of killing each other, everyone agreed the training was still immensely valuable and once the first session was finished they scheduled a few more before the tournament started.

The day before the tournament was Li’s insisted resting day. They played some video games, played a few more rounds of Dungeon Settlers, and watched a few TV shows. Not having to get up early Walt stayed in bed until noon.

The tournament was a double elimination bracket, so if you lost once you would fall down to the loser’s bracket and eventually the undefeated team would face off with the winner of the loser’s bracket in the finals.

The group figured they might get unlucky and go out early, but with double elimination they could hopefully get into the top twenty. Obviously winning was the final goal, but they purposefully set their expectations low. While people revealed their stats online almost no one revealed their skills so the team had very little info for a litmus test.

Their stats and skills had certainly increased, and while there were quite a few people ahead of them on the leaderboard, Kyle in particular was not far behind especially when factoring in his mana pool.

Name: Kyle Anders

Health: 200

Mana: 520

Physical Power: 2

Magic Power: 26

Skills:

Exponential Mana Regeneration, level 23: Actively meditate to regenerate mana equal to .25 of the user’s current mana with an additional .025 per skill level every five minutes.

Mana Bolt, level 31: Fires a small bolt of mana that deals magic power plus one per odd level of this skill in damage. One second cast time. Costs two mana.

Small Fireball, level 30: Fires a small fireball that explodes on impact. This fireball deals two times the user’s magic power plus two per skill level in damage. Three second cast time. Costs five mana.

Mana Pool Extension, level 11: Creates an extended mana pool that is attached to the user’s original one. This extended Mana pool is equal to two times the original mana pool times this skills level. The extended mana pool can only be filled by active regeneration skills. The extended mana pool cannot be filled by mana crystals. The extended mana pool must be drawn from before the regular mana pool. The extended mana pool cannot have mana transferred to it or from it by any outside source and can only be channeled by the user.

Basic Health Regeneration, level 12: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.

Fortified Mana Shield, level 30: Creates a shield around the user that blocks magic power plus X plus one per skill level damage, with X being the mana spent to cast this skill. Costs ten plus X mana. One second cast time. Expires in five minutes.

Ally Shielding, level 24: Instead of shielding the user, you may instead use a shield skill to shield a target less than ten feet per skill level away. The shield costs an additional twenty mana to cast and shields the ally for an additional two damage per skill level.

Rapid Air Bullet, level 31: Fires a condensed bullet of air that deals magic power plus one per skill level in damage. Costs five mana. No cast time.

Basic Ball of Light, level 30: Creates a small ball of light that hovers above the user’s head. The ball of light lasts for five minutes plus one minute per skill level. Costs five mana. Two second cast time.

Compressed Mana Explosion, level 18: Creates a ball of compressed mana that can then be fired and then explodes causing wide area destruction. The explosion deals 200 plus five times magic power plus five per skill level in damage. Costs 500 mana. Takes twenty seconds to cast. This skill cannot be used twice within five minutes.

Water Purification, level 30: Channel mana to cleanse water of impurities. The user can cleanse water faster at higher levels of this skill. Costs two mana per second.

Basic Earth Shaping, level 30: Channel mana to slowly sculpt the earth to form rudimentary shapes. Greater precision and faster speed is possible at higher levels of this skill. Costs twenty mana per second.

Basic Mana Gain, level 13: Gain ten mana for every odd level of this skill.

Compressed Mana Bolt, level 31: Fires a bolt of compressed mana that has great penetration power. This bolt deals 20 plus two times magic power plus two per skill level in damage. Deals double damage to mana shields. Costs 100 mana. Takes one second to cast.

Basic Magic Power Gain, level 6: Gain one magic power for every odd level of this skill.

Name: Sarah Bailer

Health: 240

Mana: 220

Physical power: 42

Magic power: 2

Skills:

Improved Physical Speed, level 15: Doubles the effective speed of physical power and increases physical power by one per skill level.

Basic Slash, level 32: Deals damage equal to your physical power plus one per skill level. No cooldown or cost. Cannot be combined with other active attack skills.

Basic Health Regeneration, level 19: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.

Basic Mana Regeneration, level 23: Passively regenerates mana equal to ten plus the level of the skill every five minutes.

Mana Blade, level 24: For ten mana you can form a blade made out of mana. This blade lasts for ten minutes. Any attacks made with the blade deal an additional one damage per skill level. It takes five seconds to summon a blade.

Extended Mana Blade, level 20: Creates an extended blade of mana from the user’s weapon. The extension length is up to one foot per level of this skill. Costs five mana per one second duration. This skill is passive and can be combined with other active and passive skills.

Basic Health Gain, level 6: Gain ten health for every odd level of this skill.

Basic Awareness, level 8: Improves your ability to notice things you may not have otherwise. Each level of the skill increases your passive perception by a very small amount.

Dual Wielding, level 17: When fighting with two weapons your damage is increased by one per skill level. Dual wielding mastery is also slightly increased. This skill is passive and cannot stack with any other passive skills that give a bonus to dual wielding.

Basic Physical Power Gain, level 5: Gain one physical power for every odd level of this skill.

Whirlwind Strike, level 8: Spin your weapon(s) around in a circle to deal damage to everything in your immediate surroundings. This skill deals three times your physical power plus three per skill level damage. Costs 60 mana. Spin time is two seconds. This skill cannot be used twice within 120 seconds.

Basic Parry, level 14: Swing your weapon to deflect an incoming attack. This skill can deflect damage equal to your attack amount. At higher skill levels the chance of completely nullifying damage increases.

Name: Li Chang

Health: 100

Mana: 400

Physical power: 2

Magic power: 31

Skills:

Shadow Suppression, level 12: Shadows prevent an enemy from taking any actions for a number of seconds equal to twice the user’s magic power plus one per skill level. Cannot be used on the same target within 120 seconds. Costs 50 mana. Five second cast time. Can target anything within sixty feet of the user.

Mana Regeneration, level 30: Passively regenerates mana equal to 20 plus the level of the skill every five minutes.

Mana Bolt, level 22: Fires a small bolt of mana that deals magic power plus one per odd level of this skill in damage. One second cast time. Costs two mana.

Basic Mana Shield, Level 20: Creates a shield around the user that blocks two times magic power plus one per skill level damage. Costs ten mana. One second cast time. Expires in five minutes.

Dual Target, level 3: When the user activates a skill with only a single target, this skill allows the user to select an additional target. If two target are selected, the skill used costs three times as much mana. If Dual Target is used to select an additional target, the skill used to target cannot use Dual Target’s effect for ten minutes. This cooldown time is reduced by ten seconds for every level of this skill.

Basic Health Regeneration, level 10: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.

Basic Magic Power Gain, level 7: Gain one magic power for every odd level of this skill.

Basic Ball of Light, level 20: Creates a small ball of light that hovers above the user’s head. The ball of light lasts for five minutes plus one minute per skill level. Costs five mana. Two second cast time.

Pillar of Light, level 7: Designate a target area within ten feet per skill level of the user. After ten seconds, a beam of light falls from the sky in the center of the target area with a diameter of six inches per skill level dealing ten times magic power plus two per skill level in damage. Costs 100 mana. Takes ten seconds to cast. Cannot be used twice in five minutes.

Name: Walter Drussel

Health: 450

Mana: 160

Physical power: 10

Magic power: 2

Skills:

Self-Healing Crystal, level 30: Creates a crystal above the user’s head that after five seconds heals the user for one health per skill level per ten mana channeled into the crystal. The user or others are able to channel mana into the crystal. Spawn time, instantaneous. Cannot be reactivated for 30 seconds once activated. No cost.

Basic Mana Regeneration, level 22: Passively regenerates mana equal to ten plus the level of the skill every five minutes.

Basic Health Gain, level 12: Gain ten health for every odd level of this skill.

Basic Health Regeneration, level 21: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.

Firm Mana Shield, level 17: Creates a shield made of mana that can be used to block. When blocking, prevents an additional ten plus one per skill level damage. Costs ten mana to summon. The shield lasts for ten minutes. It takes five seconds to summon the shield.

Basic Shield block, level 24: Block an attack with your shield. When blocking an attack this way, you prevent an additional ten plus skill level damage. No cost.

Basic Blocking Damage Reflection, level 10: When using an active blocking skill, you return damage equal this skills level as reflected damage. The reflected damage ignores all armor and resistances. This effect cannot be stacked with another passive blocking damage reflection skill.

Improved Blocking Passive, level 12: Whenever you activate a blocking skill, you block an additional damage per skill level. This skill is passive and can stack with all other skills, including ones with the same name.

Vitality Enforced Strike, level 16: Empower a strike with your own vitality to deal an additional ten plus one per skill level damage. This skill can be stacked with other non-health sacrificial skills. Costs twenty health.

Magic Attraction, level 10: Within an area of six inches per every odd level of this skill, low leveled magic attacks targeting or fired towards the user’s allies will instead target or fly towards the user. Costs five mana per second to keep active. This skill cannot be activated for 30 seconds after it is deactivated.

Basic Natural Armor, level 15: The user takes one per skill level less damage from attacks.

Skills leveled up slower the higher in level they got. But thanks to the synergy between Exponential Mana Regeneration and Mana Pool Extension the two skills almost seemed to be increasing in leveling speed as they reached higher levels. Kyle was no longer gated by mana and was now gated by time and resources.

The morning of the tournament Sarah was called in to wake Walt up and the party excitedly set off.

The tournament brackets were not announced so you would not know who you were fighting until the start of the battle. To avoid giving too many unfair advantages by revealing skills, the students were not allowed to watch any matches until the end of the tournament when word of mouth would have spread people’s skills anyway. There were only two battles that could happen simultaneously, so the tournament was separated into two days. Generally you needed to make it to the second day if you wanted to earn a prize.

Kyle felt he was prepared to fight. He was confident in their success and ready for battle.

He was not ready for the waiting.

Because there were only two battles able to happen simultaneously, despite the battles generally being over within a minute or two most of the group’s time was spent waiting around.

The people waiting for their turn to fight were waiting in various class rooms surrounding the main auditorium where the fights would take place. Only the teachers were allowed in to watch currently, so everyone else was twiddling their thumbs waiting for their number to be called.

Kyle resolved to bring a deck of cards if they made it to day two. The wait was killing him. It had been an hour and they were still waiting for their first fight. Walt and Sarah had been stuck in a silent game of rock-paper-scissors for a good half hour or so and Li seemed to be meditating. Kyle didn’t know anyone else in the room and didn’t really want to try and start up a conversation. Thankfully their number was called a few minutes later.

The group of four headed to an area behind the auditorium. This was where the students created their spiritual avatars that they would fight with. It worked in three parts. First, someone would sit in a circle and channel mana through the circle. The circle would allow them to create a spiritual avatar. Second, a virtual room was created in which a spiritual avatar could take pseudo physical form. And third, all of the spiritual avatars were then drawn into the same created space so the teams could fight each other.

It was akin to lucid dreaming. Whoever had thought it up and designed the magitech was truly a genius.

Kyle took a deep breath as he sat down in his circle. All the confidence he had before didn’t disappear, but it just might have wavered a little.

Kyle closed his eyes and seconds later opened them in a large open space. Fitting a dream, the edges of the space were rather fuzzy. It was rather disconcerting looking into the distance and seeing literal nothing, as if whatever was past the boundary was a void that nothing could penetrate.

A transparent wall divided the two teams. The match would start as soon as it fell. Their skills other than ones that summoned weapons or lasted at least ten minutes were inhibited until then to prevent cheating. Kyle took his position in the backline behind Walt as he observed the enemy team.

Based on their formation, it looked like they had a rare three frontline composition. Most likely the person in the back was some sort of healer, while there was what looked like a tank in the front along with a spear user and some sort of rogue wielding two daggers.

“I’m going to target the person in the back and the person with two daggers,” Li said after thinking over the enemy’s formation. “Any objections?”

Kyle and Walt shook their heads.

“I agree,” Sarah said. “It looks like those two would have the highest utility and mobility. I think those things are our biggest worries other than sheer power.”

“I think we should assume taking out the backline is key,” Kyle said turning to address Sarah. “Once I give you a shield you should be able to take care of the other three if they don’t have any big surprises. Hopefully you can reach the backline even if Li is interrupted.”

“They don’t look prepared to be flanked so it should be a cake walk,” Sarah replied confidently.

“Get ready guys,” Walt said. “It looks like the barrier is about to fall.”

The barrier soon fell, and as it did eight people immediately took action.

Li’s job was Shadow Suppression. The group was assuming that if that worked they would win so she didn’t have any particular actions planned after that point. Walt was standing in front of Li and Kyle blocking with Basic Magic Attraction active. Kyle was first on shielding duty, and then on shooting covering fire for Sarah with a skill like Compressed Mana Bolt. Sarah was going to receive a 4,000 mana shield from Kyle and then would move to flank the enemies.

The plan was for her to control her speed, and then rush in with a surprise burst of speed to reach the enemy team and finish off their backline either when they were CC’ed by Li, or when they were focused on interrupting her skill casting.

The enemy team seemed to be using a juggernaut strategy. They all advanced as one in a rough diamond pattern, with the tank in the front, the presumed healer in the back, and the spear and dagger wielder taking the sides. Their idea was most likely to have the tank allow them to get into close range to make use of their close range specialty.

Kyle and his group never got to see their enemies in action. Once Li succeeded in casting Shadow Suppression the battle was over. At her current power, Shadow Suppression locked down someone for seventy-four seconds. While that may not sound like a lot, in battle it was a lifetime. The suppressed backliner and dagger wielder fell almost immediately under Sarah’s vicious assault before she turned her attention to the spearman. Without any support the tank fell after ten or so of Kyle’s Compressed Mana Bolts and he switched targets and helped Sarah finish off the spearman. The entire battle took less than thirty seconds from start to finish.

The group was soon back in the waiting room, but after their first victory Kyle no longer felt that same tension he had felt before. Where before he felt a bit like he was the rabbit, skulking around to avoid being seen, he now felt like the wolf.

And this was one wolf hungry for victory.