Pempe Byrne eyed the whole field. Their opponents were a team of five from Clan Artisia, some of the most well known hunters in the north. Kara was a northern human female with skin as white as snow that held a greatsword across her shoulder. Nov was the drakin cracking a bullwhip in intimidation. Alvina and Bakara were elven brother and sister knife wielders. The fully armoured Gordon lead them with a shield and mace. It seemed the clan had planned to brute force melee their way into victory.

Enneya reiterated, “That's intense.”

Pempe needed to make his team work against opponents as diverse and overwhelming as the one they faced. His mind raced. Out of their team of five, Trini was the only one well suited for close quarters combat, a factor which they were ridiculously outnumbered in on the small field. Range combat too would be difficult in the tiny space. He looked to Seks and thougt that he would just have to make space.

There was a drain that surrounded the battlefield and they were filled with water for hydromancers to gain an edge. Rows of bushes surrounded the two fields for those who commanded nature to have a source for their magic to manipulate.

His mind raced with plans. But the problem with the best laid plans were that they would often fall apart once a choice outside of the expected was made. The greatest threat to schemes was the power to choose. That was why while he did have plans, he placed them on the burners. They were instinctual things he would rather bring up on the fly, as and when he needed them. But at the very least, the very first move of his opponents could be read. Before things spiralled out of expectable control, the first move was always the easiest.

A loud horn blared to signal the fight's opening and Clan Artisia charged, fully intent on using their consuming close quarters prowess to overwhelm them. And Pempe was fully prepared for a fierce opening.

“Enneya,” he commanded. “Dust up!”

The girl swung her staff around her legs and as if they were sand beaten on drums. Dirt on the ground jumped up as a fog around them, shrouding them in its embrace. Their opponents halted their advance, suddenly blinded by the risen cloud.

“Seks, go over!”

He heard the drakin fire off a round of his revolver which would have hit the ground beneath him. A pillar of earth would punch out of the dirt and Seks would ride the pillar up into the sky, using it as a launcher to gain elevation and glide overhead. Pempe could not see all that, of course. But he trusted his team enough to get their parts right.

“Kingston, cover fire!”

Kingston was able to, as he puts it, “Read the wind.” Pempe never fully understood how Kingston's magic worked but knew the results nonetheless. His friend wielded a hybrid weapon of a tonfa, a crossbow, and a rifle. An immensely complex weapon of his own design. The manner in which Kingston used his wind magic had allowed him the clean record of never missing a mark, though his shots could still be blocked or dodged.

An arrow whizzed by Pempe and found its mark outside the dust storm, meeting its opponent with a clash of metal. Above, Seks rained a hail of bullets down on their enemies punctuated by the trembling aftershocks of spikes of earth erupting out of the ground where the slugs landed. Silent and unheard in it all, Enneya would be scooping up the dust cloud into balls of solid rocks in her staff sling and hurling them at their opponent's general direction, causing more chaos.

Suddenly, he was knocked off his feet. The dust around them instantaneously contracted into pellets. Opposite amidst a field churned by carnage, the armoured Gordon held out both hands in focus with the concentrated power of earth magic. His head turned to Enneya and with a sweep, sent the pellets dirt flying into her side. The force caught and lifted her off her feet before throwing her out of the ring.

The announcer shouted, “And Enneya of team Aleynonlia is out of the running! After an impressive opening salvo by the students, it seems Clan Artisia is now on the counter offensive!”

Nov cracked his bullwhip and flung it at Seks. The whip twisted around the flying drakin's ankle with vice-tight grip and threatened to pull him down.

Pempe commanded, “Kingston!”

The latter aimed his crossbow at Nov. But before a shot could be taken, Kara charged at him with her greatsword, blazing fire cutting down at where he stood, forcing him to jump back. The rogue siblings flanked from Kara's sides and converged on Kingston.

“Ice slide!”

Trini pulled water out from the drains and sent a wave of it over the floor towards the attacking trio. In an instance, the water froze solid. Because of the limitation of the hologram, ice weren't the slippery substance it should be on their opponent's side of the field. But it was for them, and that was what he needed.

Pempe dashed towards the ice floor and jumped onto the path, sliding across at speed. His shotgun had a large vertical pellet drum on a pair of short double barrels. Absolutely inaccurate at range, the weapon however was a beast up close.

He closed in on the unsuspecting brother of the sibling pair. From the side Pempe came in and, aimed point blank, he fired. The pellets exploded out of the barrel in a flowering rain, catching all of Alvina's face in the spread. The hologram flickered as it prepared to disappear. The shot recoiled Pempe's arm backwards. The drum – designed to also be a round pump – turned in his hands from the force of the recoil and semi-automatically loaded in the next two rounds. He slid past Kara and by the time he reached the sister, the gun was loaded and he immediately followed up with a second shot and dispersed the second hologram.

But before he could turn around and fire on Kara, the greatsword wielder had already slashed down at Kingston. The latter put up his weapon to block. Pempe reached out to the bushes behind him and tugged with his magic but it was too late. Kingston's body was engulfed in holographic fire and Pempe could only offer vengeance by littering Kara's body with spear sharp vines.

They were down two fighters. Their opponents were short three. But Pempe could not breathe a sigh of relief. Seks continued to struggle in the air against the bullwhip, unable to land a clean shot due to the thug and pull. Trini had engaged the heavily armoured leader in a match of quick thrusts against an immovable shield.

He had to clear Seks first. The drakin's firepower was the fastest way to overcome Gordon's armour.

“Seks!” Pempe called out.

He pulled the slide of his gun back and ejected the unspent shots inside. From his pocket, he took out two green pellets and loaded them manually into the gun.

He finished his command to Seks. “Crash down.”

The drakin nodded in the air. Seks swapped his revolvers into their hand-axe grips and stopped fighting the pull of the whip. Instead, he spun in the air and turned towards his opponent in a dive. From the handle of Nov's whip, a blade slid out. From his back, Nov furthered pulled out a short sword with his free hand, ready for the clash.

Pempe aimed down his barrels at Nov and ran charges of magic into his gun. He breathed deep and fired.

Instead of buckshots propelling out, tendrils of vines grew from the barrel of his gun as if a squid's tentacles grabbing at air. It fired out and across the field, appendages squirming as the vine net hits Nov and wrapped around him. Immobilized, the enemy drakin could only watch as his kin fell from the sky and smashed two axes into his skull. The hologram vanished on impact and the vines plopped to the ground after losing its host.

Seks turned his attention immediately to his girlfriend who held Gordon at bay. The drakin opened the cartridge of his revolvers inwards and spun the guns on his fingers. When the barrel of his guns pointed selfwards, he stopped the rotation with his thumbs and the empty shell casings ejected out with momentum. He placed both guns under his pits and retrieved new rounds from his cloth belt. In a feet of dexterity that Pempe envied, Seks loaded all twelve rounds from across his chest.

With ammunitions full, he turned his sights to Gordon and emptied all twelve shots at the man's feet, knowing full well the earth magic reinforced armour would absorb most of the impact from the shots. Pinned by Trini and flanked by Seks, Gordon could only dance from the impact at his legs.

Pempe watched as Seks's right shoulder lit up in a dark brown glow as the drakin detonated the twelve mines of magically charged bullets at Gordon's feet. The resulting earth spike shot out of the ground and reached three grounds up into the air, sending the armoured hunter flying into the energy shield. A wave of energy rippled out from the shield on impact and the leader of Clan Artisia dropped to the ground outside with a loud metallic clank.

His head was pounding with the fight and his legs shook. It was not until the adrenaline began to die down that he realized his shakes were from the uproar of the crowd that drowned out even the announcer's amplified voice. The pounding in his head was from the excessive beat of his heart.

Pempe followed his gaze on Trini who searched the spectators desperately before finally landing on her parents. The two men sat clapping begrudgingly in the crowd, though not as joyously and definitely without any of the same festivities as those around them. Seks ran up and hugged her and the two kissed in front of everyone.

Kingston and Enneya got to their feet and while nursing a few sore bruises on shoulder and side, grinningly walked over to Pempe with thumbs up. Clan Artisia was picking themselves up over on the next field, readying themselves for a graceful congratulations.

“Good calls out there!” Kingston yelled the compliment over the roar of the crowd.

Despite the clear signs of victory from the announcer's ecstatic tone to the judges waving flags of their winning side, Pempe felt only dread and a creeping sense of failure.