Even just setting foot in the arena, it was obvious Ander fully intended to target Erik. He was gesturing toward the other Sun Seats, making angry motions in Erik's direction. Caeden had no doubt Erik's little digs earlier had moved him up on Anders shit list. He was worried. Erik was good, really good. Caeden wasn't sure if he was 'fighting three people at the same time' good. For all the training they'd done, fighting multiple opponents simultaneously was one they'd touched on the least.

Erik, for his part, looked completely relaxed and unconcerned, which made Ander's anger visibly increase. He wanted Erik to be afraid, and he simply wasn't. Which was unsurprising. Caeden had never once seen Erik afraid of anything. He seemed to be the very antithesis of the emotion. So Ander was fighting an uphill battle in a blizzard with hundred-pound weights on his ankles if he wanted to get into Erik's head. Unfortunately, that also meant Caeden was never really sure if Erik had a proper sense of danger.

"Begin!"

The start of the battle was a spectacle. Erik was positioned on the opposite side of the arena from Ander and his two lackeys. Once the start was called, all three launched attacks straight for him. Ander fired a bolt of lightning, while the one to his left created a stream of molten metal, and the one on his right created chunks of reddish-brown rocks to hurl. Erik stuck his hands into the sash of his robe and started walking.

Once the attacks got within a few feet of him, Erik's shroud kicked in. Strands of white, clothlike shroud intercepted the lightning bolt, redirecting it around their shrouded into the wall behind him. When the molten metal came flying in, Stitch pulled Erik out of the way without interrupting his stride. The rocks were caught in nets of Stitch and deflected to the side. Through it all, Erik didn't change his pace. He just kept walking casually, completely undaunted.

This was actually Erik's one and only mnemonic he had made, freewalking. Caeden had been astonished when he showed it off. It used Erik's overwhelming overdeveloped defensive aura sense to redirect all incoming attacks or adjust Erik's position if the attack couldn't be deflected. He was practically untouchable like this. As something of a trade-off, Erik couldn't use his shroud while freewalking was active. It was wholly consumed in forming an impenetrable defense. Erik used it solely to close distance to melee range, where he could go on the offensive.

That was exactly what he did. Ander and company continued to throw everything they could at him while Erik walked through it all. It was such an unbelievable display of skill that others in the arena stopped fighting to watch Erik casually walk into a storm of attacks without them getting within a foot of him. Ander grew more irate with every passing moment that Erik approached him, his face growing redder and redder.

Finally fed up and seeing the absolute lack of results from his repeated attacks, Ander decided to change it up. His customary blue-white Lightning shroud shifted into roiling storm clouds. Ander's Weather shroud was finally being put to use. He started filling the ceiling of the arena with storm clouds, darkening the entire space. With an incoherent scream of rage, Ander threw his hands down, starting a rain of lightning, dozens of bolts hammering down all across the arena. Several uninvolved students were caught in the crossfire as Ander attempted to take Erik down with sheer, massive force.

Erik avoided it all. His shroud deflected bolts and pulled him out of the way, forming a dance of constant motion, letting Erik barely avoid taking a hit. He swept and weaved through the onslaught, barely making it through even this. Ander wasn't done, though. Even as Erik dodged, he formed a massive blade of pure wind, big enough to cover the whole arena and sharp enough to do real damage. It came sweeping across the space at chest height. In tandem, the rock-throwing Sun Seat stomped his foot, sending a wave of earth right in Erik's direction.

Naturally, Erik's only real option was to move up, Stitch managing to attach him to the ceiling, even through the storm clouds, and pull him above the incoming attacks. Ander's face shifted in a smug grin as he made a grabbing gesture towards Erik's floating form. Five lightning bolts came at him from different angles as he was stuck midair. Erik's shroud wouldn't be outmatched. A line of Stitch swept out in an arc, leading each bolt into the others in succession. They all circled around and down, diverting into the ground.

Caeden wondered how long this could continue. Both Erik and Ander had to be burning through their shroud at a rapid pace. Caeden would guess that Erik was being much more efficient with his than Ander, but the Sun Seat almost certainly had bigger reserves. Plus, he had backup, forcing Erik to expend shroud against the other two as well. He couldn't guess which one would come out ahead in what had turned into a massive battle of attrition.

The light show marched on, with Ander adding massive, arena-sized blasts of wind to his attacks in an attempt to mess up Erik's positioning. Erik couldn't advance anymore under the sheer number and scope of attacks coming for him. Something had to give.

In the end, it was Erik. For all that he hadn't been hit even once, he was running low on shroud and no longer making any headway toward his opponents. He raised his hands, surrendering. Ander, unwilling to accept not landing a single hit on the man who had insulted and belittled him, still threw another bolt, even as Erik attempted to leave the arena.

Of course, the teacher put a stop to that immediately, the bolt dying in the air before it could get halfway to Erik's retreating form. Everyone still in the arena, which was all of five people since most had been taken out by Ander's lightning, were instantly stopped where they stood. "Ander Meteoris, you have attacked a student who clearly and obviously surrendered. This is a punishable offense. As the injured party, the attacked student is allowed to dictate the terms of the punishment if they want. Erik, you can void this right and allow the school to decide his punishment. Understand that there are limits to what punishment you can incur. I will deny any you put forth that exceeds the limit." The teacher's voice boomed out over the arena and through the observation room.

Erik laughed. He laughed so hard he was actually holding his sides and wheezing. Every time he was about to recover, he would look at Ander's angry, red face and start up again. "Oh, man. You were so close. We were all set for you to start making trouble next week, and you get yourself a punishment, again. You are so dumb; I can't even right now!" Erik managed to speak through his laughter. Finally, after a couple of minutes, he calmed down, though he was still wearing a massive shit-eating grin. "Yeah, I want him not to be allowed around Lily Meteoris for as long as the punishment will allow."

The teacher nodded, "That is acceptable. Ander Meteoris, you are hereby prohibited from approaching Liliana Meteoris for a period of one month, outside of ranking days. This will begin today."

"Excuse me," Caeden spoke up.

"Yes? You have something to add?" The teacher didn't look happy to be interrupted.

"Sorry, but Ander is already under a punishment to not go near Lily that ends at the start of next week," Caeden said apologetically. He would squeeze as many days out of the opportunity Erik had created as he possibly could.

The teacher looked at Caeden and saw Lily sitting next to him. Something passed through his eyes. A spark of understanding, perhaps. "Very well. Ander Meteoris, your punishment is revised. You are prohibited from approaching Liliana Meteoris for the next two months, outside of ranking days. This punishment will begin as soon as the previous one has elapsed." Caeden couldn't help but grin. It seems the teacher had picked up that Lily wanted nothing to do with her brother and was willing to pitch in.

The match ended only a minute later, with Ander taking out his anger on the remaining two independent students and his tag-alongs surrendering. Ander was beyond angry; he was literally shaking as he made his way back up to the observation room. He sat down with his group in a huff, crossing his arms and frowning at Caeden and company, his eyes trying to bore holes in their heads. Caeden thought he looked like a tantruming child.

Lily's entire demeanor relaxed upon hearing Ander's new punishment, and she seemed to return to her usual self. "Thanks, Erik." She said softly as he made his way back to his seat, her voice warm.

"Hmm, I don't know what you're thanking me for. He's the one throwing lightning around like an idiot." Erik jerked a thumb toward Ander. "I just sat there."

Lily shook her head, smiling, "You baited him."

Erik shook his head rapidly, "Nope, don't know what you're talking about. I'm innocent, promise." He covered his heart, trying to affect an air of solemn seriousness. Too bad it was Erik, so his efforts failed entirely.

Lily didn't press, however, and just let him sit.

"Now, on to the second round. These will be non-combat matches. Once again, groups of ten will compete against each other. The goal for this match is to destroy as many of these-" He held up a hand containing a small spherical piece of ethertech made of brass. A line ran the circumference of the device with a small, circular yellow ether crystal set into it like an eye. Two blue flight crystals stuck out opposite ends, perpendicular to the line. "-flightbots. They will move about the entire arena erratically at high speeds. The number you destroy will be tracked until the last one is gone. Most destroyed wins. There are no limits on equipment. Use any method you see fit to effectively take out as many as you can. Now, let's begin."

The following matches went incredibly well for the entire group. Cat was a bit worried going into hers, but she designed a new specter ahead of time and went into the match with spectral archers. They could replenish their arrows from Cat's shroud, and it cost her next to nothing to make a bunch. She made ten archers and out-competed everyone in her group.

Lily was next. She flooded the entire arena with fog and then sniped the flightbots with icicles. No one else had refined enough investigative sense to hit anything in the thick fog, so Lily ended up taking out every single one, taking over the entire round.

Erik opted for a more interesting tactic, flinging himself wildly through the air of the arena on lines of Stitch in pursuit of the little ethertech constructs. It looked insane but worked out surprisingly well. He didn't dominate his match like Lily and Cat did but came in second, which was respectable for a melee-focused fighter against flying opponents. Caeden just wished Erik would take up a weapon. He was hamstringing his capabilities.

Caeden's match wound up the most interesting by far. He was up against Ander and a couple of other Sun Seats, much like Erik in the last round. It all made Caeden immensely suspicious, as the participants for every round should be random. For the same situation to happen twice was unusual, to say the least. Caeden just wasn't sure how Ander could influence the round participants, if he actually was.

The match itself involved Ander making another lightning storm, like his match with Erik. A lot of those lightning bolts landed around Caeden. Close enough to do damage. For his part, Caeden moved Physical Enhancement to bronze body and ignored the glancing hits, his enhanced physique utterly unaffected by the electricity. Then Caeden made dozens of thorns and sent them shooting wildly around the room without any rhyme or reason. Trying to control so many thorns with any kind of specificity was more than he could handle, but sending them careening through the air at top speed? Child's play.

In the end, Caeden and Ander tied. Caeden wondered what the odds of that were in general but decided it wasn't worth thinking about. It was funny seeing how mad it made Ander, though. Honestly, if he hadn't spent so much effort trying to injure Caeden, Ander could have won handily. His ability to produce area attacks was just so much higher than Caeden's. But, he let his childish grudge lead him and ended up nearly in second place. At the last minute, Ander seemed to realize how badly his own actions were crippling his ability to win and stopped attacking Caeden. Otherwise, he would have lost.

"On to the final round," Their teacher seemed genuinely excited. "This will be a complete battle royale, with everyone participating. Last one standing wins!" He pressed a button on controls set into the walls of the observation room, and the arena itself silently stretched and grew before their eyes. Has to be some kind of spacial infusion. That's grandmaster stuff. Caeden looked on in awe. Space and time infusion were the pinnacle of ethersmithing. Only the best of the best ever tried. The ether for it was beyond rare, and couldn't be artificially refined.

"Well, this ought to be fun." Erik laughed.