Derrick's smile was making everyone uneasy, not just his opponent. Though his opponent was confident, that look made him hesitate. The referee seemed concerned as well. As if this young man may do something a bit extreme. After asking if each was ready he announced that they could begin. The transfer student took some distance backward to see what this weird young man had planned.

“Well, if you plan to just run I suppose now is a good time to test out some ideas.” He put his hand against the stage floor and wall of earth magic appeared between the two. It was enough to block out the view of them between each other. The transfer student wasn't sure what this wizard was planning so he took a few more steps back and prepared to block any attacks that were to come.

He heard the crowd watching grow louder and louder in shock pointing the the stage. What the hell was that bastard doing? It seemed like it was going to be something big. He fired a few spells at the earth wall but the weird wizard didn't seem to fire any back. He took a few steps closer to the wall and launched a few more spells at it.

The crowd only grew louder. What was going on? What was he doing?

“Come on, with the way to crowd was acting you should have been more alter.” The voice came directly behind him by only a few feet. A strong water spell hit him in the back and he fell forward doubled over in pain. That was impossible! How could he possibly get behind me?

“ You seemed confused for some reason. Did you really get fooled by such a simple trick?”

“There's no way you could have gotten behind me! I was watching the whole time!”

“Well you were locked in 2 dimensional thinking I'm afraid. You didn't even consider another area I could be. I wasn't on top of the stage while you were shooting spells at that wall.”

“If you go outside the stage that means you lose. Why were you not disqualified?”

“Actually, the rules state the one to touch the floor or anything besides the stage that connects to he floor loses. As long as I don't do that I can choose to be not on the stage if I so please.”

“But, it's not like you can fly? How?”

“Well, I thought of making a tunnel under the ring but that would use far too much mana. Instead I decided to use earth magic to make a ledge around the corner of the ring just above where the floor is. It's connected to the ring and not the floor so it's completely within the rules to walk, or in this case, crawl on. I simply went around and get behind you. Like I said a rather simply trick.”

Derrick seemed almost disappointed such a thing worked. He was hoping his opponent would be smarter and he would get to try some more elaborate ideas outs. At least the transfer student was standing up. He was glad he had some guts. He may as well try another idea. He gathered water in his hand and looked straight at his opponent.

“I'm going to do something else now. You are pretty strong but if you fall for silly tricks it means nothing. Try to see through this one okay. I have a few more ideas I want to try before this match is done.” With that he turned the water into mist and it soon covered the entire stage. It became hard to see more than a few feet in front of you. Soon water spells were being fired at him through the fog. He blocked them with his own water spells.

Mist was a fairly common trick to do with water. Did he really think such a thing made him special? He started to get the hang of this game and matched the spells quicker and easier. His opponent may be a bit sly but they were just about equal strength he thought. It wasn't like he would lose to such commoner trash.

Soon the mist fell to their knees. Seems this trick was wearing off! He saw the commoner brat shooting water spells at him on the end of the stage. He started to return the spells with more and power power. In his other hand he was building a fairly large amount of water magic.

This was a technique his house taught him and it seemed only fitting to be the thing to shut this uppity commoner up. He ran towards him in straight line. Then he remembered the mist was still covering below his knees. No doubt there would be something he was suppose trip on between the two. Like he would fall for such a thing! He took a detour and ran wider.

“What's happening? Are you getting lost?” Derrick continued to launch spells at him amused by this little maneuver.

“I'm not going to trip over whatever trap you sent. You won't fool me again you commoner traaaaa!”

He screamed as the floor completely came out from under him. He was only about 10 feet from this commoner? What happened? Did he dig pits everywhere?

“Jeez, I told you not to fall for such simple tricks didn't I?” Derrick shook his head and lifted the fog. The transfer student had fallen completely out of the ring. But why? Derrick we clearly standing on the ring in front him. At least that is what he thought. Derrick was actually onside the ring but standing on a plank made of earth magic that was attached the the ring in a long curve so a to leave a big empty gap between himself and the ring. The same gap the student fell to the floor between.

Derrick shook his head and jumped off. “That was rather disappointing. I hope they send me someone with a brain next time. You need some deception to win a match you know. Brawn alone will get you no where.” Derrick walked over to his friends among the chirping of the crowd. They were disappointed they didn't get to see a clash of magic but this was something new and interesting. Though he didn't do much damage to his opponent it was clearly one sided.

“Good job Derrick. Very fun and interesting.” Lee really enjoyed watching matches like these. It was a nice change of pace.

“It was only okay. I mean, would you have fallen for either of those tricks?”

“Well, I guess we'll never know now that I've seen them haha.” He rubbed the back of his head.

“You wouldn't have. When it comes to fighting you have a great sense of how top avoid traps like that. I need to think of more creative ones. I'll use one or two on my next match. Winning purely with magical skill could be nice too but I'd like to avoid showing off my magic a much as I can.”

David patted Derrick on the back. “That was a good job. You really have turned into a bit of a trickster haven't you? But you're not the only one whose changed. My match is next and I can't wait for everyone to see how strong I’ve gotten.”

Mary simply looked bored “I can't believe I have to go last. I would have much preferred to see some action by now.”

“Come on Mary, don't be like that. We need to support each other. Don't you also want to see what David can do now? He has been training his body every day with workouts and sparring on top of his magic training. I think it will be exciting to see him use that!” Amanda gave David a friendly smile.

David returned it two fold! “You just wait Amanda. If you want to see my fighting so much I'll win this next match without even using magic!”

“Haha, come on now David, you don't really need to do that. It seems pretty risk and...” Amanda was trying to talk him out of it but he had already run on the stage. She shook her head. “I hope he doesn't get hurt. His opponent isn't one of those transfer students but beating a 3rd year without magic sounds pretty tough.”

“Let's wait and see how he does. If he looks like he is having trouble just yell at him to use magic along with the rest of us. You'll need to yell the loudest though as your voice doesn't really carry well.” As it turns out, her voice carried just fine. But if they needed to get a message to David; Tom knew the best way was to hear Amanda loud and clear.

The opponent walked on to the stage. The referee asked if both were ready, and when they said they were he let the match begin. David wasted no time and ran straight at his opponent. He had gotten strong, fast and agile to go along with his martial arts techniques. He was able to close the distance by foot quickly, but not quick enough. The opponent summoned fire magic and launched it at David.

David jumped and then rolled to the right to avoid the spell. He used the momentum of the roll and turned back on his feet quickly to continue to run at his opponent. A few more shots came. He had to dodge going backwards. He knew if he used magic it would be much easier to close in, but he wanted to see how far these skills could take him. If he just so happened to impress Amanda with his strength and fighting ability; well, he couldn't help that.

The match went on and the more spells fired at him the more use he got use to dodging them. The young man shooting the spells realized from long range he was just wasting mana and would need to get closer to have a chance to land a hit. David ran forward when his opponent closed the distance. Before he was in striking range, a large fire spell was cast. He had no choice but to roll backwards and to the side. He took a nasty burn on his arm.

He could still fight but it was disheartening. He couldn't get in fast enough no matter how much he tried. Surely Lee could have figured out someway to get in. Something to throw his opponent off. He looked around the stage. It was flat and empty with nothing in it. He decided no matter what he wouldn't go back on his word, but this was looking bad. Wasn't there something he could do?

“Just use magic already you idiot!” Amanda scream at him from inside her group of friends. She looked around them and then the crows was now looking at her. She grew bright red. She hated all these eyes on her. She mumbled to her friends “weren't we all going to shout it at the same time?”

“Oh, I think we all agreed to shout it on 5.” Derrick lied.

“You said 3!” Amanda shot him a glare.

“Oh did I? My mistake.” He did say 3 and then told everyone else to not say a thing. He figured this would have the best effect. That idiot David better not lose here. They couldn't afford that.

David smiled and shook his head. Was this all he could accomplish hand to hand? Was this what he had put in all the time and training for? If this is all he could do then he would never be able to keep up with the others in total strength as they grew stronger. He hated to ignore Amanda's plea but he hated more the thought of being weak and needing her to save him again. He wanted the strength to save her next time.

Like lightning, an idea came to him. He dropped down to fix his shoes. This would be a little tricky but it could work. His opponent observed him. He knew using magic before he closed the distance was a bad idea and would just waste mana. If he moved toward him too quickly it would just make it easier for his opponent to try to close in. Moving slow and steady was best.

He didn't know why, but his opponent either couldn't use magic or refused to. If that was the case this would be an easy win. He built the fire magic bigger and bigger in his palm. He would end this match with the next strike. He noticed something was weird about the way his opponent was running but couldn't place it. It was almost like his leg was hurt. It didn't matter. Without magic he had no chance.

David was now about as close as he got last time he was struck with a fire spell. He knew his opponent was about to use his magic. It was time to counter attack. After thinking about it, he realized though the ring was flat and had nothing inside it that didn't mean he had no tools he could make use of. He kicked his loosened shoe off using great force. It flew towards his opponents face. He covered himself by instinct.

His did the same with the 2nd shoe as the opponent was recovering. This missed slight but it was close to the opponent and he protected his head with his arm. When his arm went down he was finally able to see again. David was only a few steps away. He put his hand in front to launch the fire. If he shot it point blank it may burn himself a little, but it be a KO for sure.

To his shock, David used one if his hands and pushed the hand holding the fire spell away as he ran in. What was he doing? Did he want to burn his arm off or something? Ignoring the pain and the smell of burning flesh David gave him a full strength right hook. The student was knocked out before hitting the ground. David was declared the winning and teachers rushed in to see about his injuries. Burns could be tricky. If not healed immediately they would leave scars. They were able to heal him quick enough and avoid any scarring luckily

As he walked over to see the group the first one who spoke to him was Amanda. She looked like she was about to slap him across the face. She settled for a smack on the top of the head. “What the hell do you think you were doing? Why did you have to get all burned like that just to show off for everyone? From now on, use magic! You could have had serious scars too!”

David apologized but was very happy to see her reaction. Nobody else really stepped in to say much as they didn't want to ruin a nice moment for David

“Enough of this silliness. It's time for the main event. I just hope it's someone worth fighting. I'm not here to play games or test my power. I will do as any Saint Cloud would and go all out from the start immediately and crush them. I plan to show my family's transfers weren't needed when a Saint Cloud was here all along.”

David rolled his eyes. He got close to Amanda and whispered in his best imitation “Hi, I’m Mary and I'm from the great Saint Cloud house. You don't know about it? Then let me tell you how great it is! When we take a bath, it's left cleaner from us having used it. When we use water spells, the rain get jealous. When we Saint Clouds pass gas-”

“Did you say something about the Saint Cloud house?” Mary turned wondering what they were whispering, but she was sure she heard Saint Cloud.

“Just how lucky they are to have you Mary!” David lied.

“Ummm, thank you. I guess you're right. I mean it's pretty great anyway but still, their lucky to have me to be their standard one day.”

As Mary turned around Amanda tried to contain her giggling. She failed but was able to be silent enough not to be heard.

Mary had to wait for a few more matched to finish and then was able to get on the stage. It was some 3rd year from their school. She was frustrated she didn't get a transfer student. This one would have to do. When the referee let the fight begin Mary's opponent instantly shot a wind spell at her.

Mary dodged using wind in one hand and then used the other to help close the distance. These were not the straight and predictable movements she had used before. She had learned to control both hands independently and cast magic at different times in different directions. She wanted the complete freedom of movement River seemed to have.

She weaved between the spells shot by her opponent, all the while closing the distance. During one very close attack she pointed both hands below herself to go into the air and over the spell. She then used magic to rush back to the ground straight at her opponent. He almost certainly wouldn't have time to block if she went at him straight. That would have been the same technique she tried to use on 'The Shame'.

She decided to evolve it further. The last second before the attack she added yet another quick change in direction. She built up wind magic in both hands and right before she was about to collide with the opponent she used one hand to launch herself to the opponents left which in this case was away from the hand casting the magic. She only missed colliding with him by a few feet. It was still a little sloppy.

Mary let the spell go and hit clean knocking the opponent out. The match took only 15 seconds and was the fastest match of the first round.

Derrick shook his head. “So much for holding back I guess.” No one was really listening. Well, nothing he could do about it now. With that the round ended and only 32 students remained.

The next round was much like the last. Mary won by overwhelming and outclassing her opponent. Derrick used trickery and well time magical attacks. Amanda used her mana stamina and quick casting to suppress opponents.. Tom used his agility to make most attacks useless and then finished with his high level magic. David used a devastating mix of hand to hand combat and magical attacks. Lee did only the minimum amount to win and hide his power.

All of them could have won their matches in a straight up magical duel without their honed specialties. But this tournament was a chance to really practice and define their own styles. They found what worked best for them and were preparing it for the tournament yet to come.

They advanced steadily round to round. All made it into the final 8. These 8 would make up the 5 man team and 3 ranked alternates. Lee and Derrick threw their matches against Amanda and Tom. Mary and David were able to win their matches and place in the top 4 and lock up spots on the team. Derrick and Lee both beat their opponents and then Lee threw his match against Derrick to become the first alternate.

They didn't yet know whose spot Lee would take when it came time to fight the Star house. They decided it would be a problem for another day. The continent was in shock to hear the news of a team made entirely of first year wizards. Never in the history of the tournament had such a thing happened.

The plan was now for the 6 young wizards and Peter Leaf to finally meet this mysterious teacher of Lee River. Perhaps the next challenge would prove to be more problematic than the tournament. How were they to keep the meddling Cloud and Star houses out of their affairs?