Chapter 23 The Match

After recovering from her shock, her eyes zeroed in on the jug of MEL placed in front of her. For once, she didn’t have an overwhelming urge to chug it, but she drank it anyway. While sipping her MEL, she brainstormed what to do with her free time.

What do I do now? As much as I would love to play with magic, just the thought of risking sealing puffs my tail. I’m not sure what a magic sealing means as I need mana to survive, but it’s definitely not worth the risk. The answer to her dilemma presented itself when she realized her hard-earned remote was still sitting in her right hand.

With the remote, she dropped the TV from the ceiling, then swiveled it toward her position on the couch. Unlike her last attempt to watch TV in the lab, the TV displayed a connection. She pressed the guide button to find something to watch, but without knowledge of the world, the guide proved useless. Even with the descriptions, she had no idea what the show was about. Instead, she started at channel one of hundreds and flipped through them. Similar to earth, the low-numbered channels were network channels most broadcasting the morning news, which Evernya had no interest in. She continued to flip through channels, staying just long enough to get a gist of the program.

Well, one thing seems to cross dimensions. How the hell can there be hundreds of channels but nothing to watch! I have no desire to watch a bunch of spoiled celebrities fake daily life even with the added element of magic. Food channels would be awesome in theory, but it does nothing for me unless the food is in front of me. Plus, I doubt I’m any better at cooking with my new body. Even if I was, I would probably eat the ingredients raw. Movies and TV shows seem interesting, but I would rather watch something that would help me understand this world better. I mean, sure, in theory, TV shows and movies would help, but how am I supposed to know what is fantasy or real. Everything in this world is fantasy to me. Thought Evernya, while flipping to yet another channel.

She paused on channel 343, labeled the DIOM network, piquing her interest as she watched what looked like a magic duel. The screen displayed a human man and woman who appeared to be in their late teens to early twenties entering the arena from opposite ends. A skintight black and red bodysuit with a helmet of the same color covered a majority of their bodies, leaving only their face bare. The man was tall, muscular, darker-skinned while the woman was tall, pale-skinned with red hair poking out from under her helmet. The duelists stepped inside their own small square twenty-five meters apart from each other.

As the competitors took their places, an announcer spoke in a tone, eliciting excitement from the crowd. “Welcome to the final DIOM college team selection match between Ruby rank Erza Crimson fire sorceress and Ruby rank Xavier Willis earth sorcerer!”

Following the announcement, thundering applause erupted from the crowd in the packed stands circling the hundred-meter diameter stone-floored arena. A few seconds later, a translucent dome sprang to life, covering the entire arena, protecting the crowd from the dual. A giant screen lowered into view, hanging from the ceiling above the arena, displaying the competitor’s data such as mana remaining and current health state on each side of the screen corresponding to their location. A zoomed-in camera view of the dual itself took up most of the center of the screen, giving even the nosebleed seats an unobstructed view.

“Begin!” yelled the announcer.

Both competitors sprang to action. With a flick of their wrists, fireballs and rocks shot at their opponent, colliding at the center, causing detonations. Molten rock fragments pelted the arena, forcing both competitors to retreat with shields of their elements raised. Before the dust settled, projectiles continued to launch, each bigger than the last. Every collision resulted in a draw, leaving neither competitor with the upper hand.

After several minutes, the volleys ceased as they tried to formulate a plan to break the stalemate. A wall of stone shot up, blocking Erza’s view of Xavier. Erza’s eyes widened as she tried to scramble away, but it was too late. Before Erza could take a step, a mountain of sand exploded upward, entombing her. With the sand pinning Erza’s hands to her body, her control became near nonexistent, leaving her only option to explode outward blindly, hoping to break free from her prison. Unfortunately, any sand blown away by the explosions replaced itself, leaving her trapped. To make the situation worse for her, the numerous explosions super-heated her prison, making the already suffocating sand unbearable even for a fire sorceress.

Showing no concern for the struggling fire sorceress, the announcer proclaimed, “The tomb of sand! Can Erza Crimson overcome a move designed to shut down a fire sorcerer!?”

Meanwhile, outside of the tomb of sand, sweat rolled down Xavier’s face as the strain of his magic took its toll. However, despite his rapidly dwindling mana reserves, Xavier maintained a fixed expression, refusing to let up, needing a dueling team spot to continue his enrollment.

Inside the tomb of sand, Erza’s thoughts became muddy as the heat and lack of oxygen weighed heavily on her body and mind. In desperation, she used almost all of her remaining mana in one last all-or-nothing attack. Blinded and having limited control forced Erza to guess where to launch it. A muffled scream sounded from the sand tomb as a massive amount of mana ripped out of her to fuel her last attack.

A tidal wave of Crimson flames rolled out of the tomb of sand toward Xavier, who made the mistake of not moving after his tomb of sand.

In an excited tone tinged with awe, the announcer exclaimed, “The Crimson Wave! The rumors are true! She inherited her family’s Crimson flame! But will it be enough!?”

In a panic, Xavier erected a stone wall, too exhausted to dodge the approaching flames. The Crimson wave rolled into the wall, melting its way through the wall within a second. Xavier created two more barriers from his dwindling reserves. To his dismay, the wave ate through each wall, but its size diminished as each obstacle fell.

With hope, Xavier scraped together enough mana to create three more barriers in front of the wave. While swaying on his feet, Xavier watched The Crimson wave eat through each barrier slower than the last until the last barrier held. The final barrier was a barely standing molten chunk of rock, but it stood against the Crimson wave. A moment later, the sand tomb and sole remaining wall dispersed, depositing an unconscious Erza on the arena floor.

The crowd erupted at the conclusion, only to drop into stunned silence as the announcer proclaimed, “Winner Erza Crimson via mana out!”

The screen hanging above the dome displayed a replay of the last seconds of the dual. The replay showed Xavier passed out from mana depletion the moment his last barrier withstood the Crimson wave. The vital stats revealed Erza had a sliver of mana after her attack as she passed out from oxygen deprivation a second after Xavier.

Medical personnel rushed into the arena the moment the dome dispersed to tend to the unconscious participants. The TV screen displayed the participants rolling out of the arena on stretchers before the program ended with a list of the ten members of this year’s DIOM dueling team.

Evernya sat in silence, both excited and terrified. Her thoughts raced as her hyped-up mind replayed the duel in her head. I can’t wait to learn how to use magic! Will I be able to fight like them? Will I have to compete in an arena too? If collegiate dueling is this crazy, what about professional duels? I hate being so clueless! I need to know more!

She returned her attention to the TV. However, to her dismay, the DIOM network channel was running a program about wizard career opportunities. She returned to her channel flipping, only to find at channel 350 the channels reset to one. After a quick scan of the TV Guide, she turned off the TV dejected.

As boredom took hold, Evernya’s thoughts wandered. What now? I need to find out more! I refuse to be blue-balled! Not that I have the required equipment down there for it to happen. Do I even have ovaries? It’s not like I’m human anymore, and as far as I can tell, I don’t have my old dreaded monthly issue. Those cramps sucked! At least I don’t think have it anymore. I’ve been out so much since I took ownership of my new body that I can’t say for sure. Yet another thing I need to find out! Damn it, where is the Internet when you need it!

This world seems to be about on par technologically to earth plus magic, so there has to be an Internet or something similar. The problem is, where do I find it? Besides the TV, which doesn’t seem to have an Internet connection, there is nothing Internet-capable.

She wandered over to the bathroom out of boredom while brainstorming what her next course of action would be. The bathroom was nothing special, bigger than her lab hospital room, but only in open space. On the right wall was a dark wood bathroom vanity with a white tiled top surrounding a white sink and a mirror hung on the wall behind the sink. To the left of the vanity was a toilet followed by a shower taking up the end of the room. Other than support bars anchored at various strategic locations, nothing gave away it was a hospital bathroom.

Her attention turned to the mirror. I look the same as always. At least they left me clothed this time. I don’t have shoes though. Oh well, I enjoy being barefoot.

Now that I’ve lived with my new body for a while, I love how I never have messy hair. My hair is getting a bit long though, I will need to have a trim soon. For being so long, it is surprisingly light. I barely notice it, even though it falls to my mid-back. I usually kept my hair shoulder-length because it became too much for a pain to deal with if I let it get longer but even shoulder-length hair felt a lot heavier than this. At the very least, I’ll need to trim my bangs soon as they are encroaching on my vision. Plus, I don’t think I want my hair long enough to tickle my tail.

Evernya shivered, imagining the sensation of hair brushing her sensitive tail before her mind realized. Now that I think about it, why hasn’t my hair gotten in the way? I always had to brush my hair behind my ears as a human. Is it like my tail where it automatically keeps itself out of the way? Even if I’m right, I don’t think it would be good to be fighting with my hair down. It would really suck to be injured because my hair malfunctioned, momentarily blinding me. No matter what, I refuse to cut my hair short even if someone ordered me as, like my tail, I feel a strange attachment to my low-maintenance longhair.

Satisfied with her appearance, she left the bathroom. After a scan, her hospital room came up with nothing to relieve her boredom. Her ears swiveled toward the exit of the room as they picked up muffled noises and voices.

This room must have soundproofing if I can barely hear anything, even with my sensitive cat ears. Wouldn’t it be dangerous to soundproof a hospital room? Though I don’t think they would put a patient in this room if they needed around-the-clock monitoring, but soundproofing the place could cause issues. They probably designed this room to give the patient as much peace as they can get in a hospital. To be fair, it is a nice room for a hospital. If I had some way to access the Internet, I would be content here. Should I try to investigate outside? Meira didn’t tell me I needed to stay in my room, only not to practice magic. If I stay here any longer, I’ll probably become bored enough to risk it, so I probably should leave.

Evernya tried to turn the door handle, but it refused to budge. Next, she pushed her mana into the door handle, but nothing happened. Did they lock me in? I don’t think they would trap me, as they don’t want me to feel confined, so there must be a way to open the door. Evernya thought while staring at the white metal door.

She investigated the area around the door to find a clue, finding a matte black scanner to the left of the door handle. Upon recognizing the scanner, Evernya placed her left palm on the scanner while pushing mana into it. However, contrary to her expectations, her mana bounced off the scanner as if a barrier prevented access.

I am guessing I have to scan something other than mana for the door to unlock. Hmm, I wonder, will this work? Thought Evernya, after glancing down at her right wrist. Wrapped around her right wrist was a blue hospital ID band with her name and basic information such as height, weight, current hospital room, and ward printed in white font.

She raised her right wrist to the scanner, causing the light on the scanner to turn green, prompting a click, unlocking the door.

Cool, this wristband is useful for more than identification purposes. I bet they use the scanner to confine patients to their rooms easily by revoking the permissions on their ID. A smart system, especially considering most patients are in hospital gowns so they can’t carry a card around to unlock doors, but every patient has a hospital ID band on their wrist. Pretty hard to lose something when it’s attached to you. Evernya thought as she opened the door.