Beginning of the Tournament

I stumbled at the question and since she was leaning on me, I had to grab onto Vesta to keep her from falling. Her face became even more flushed at my touch. As I stood there holding her up I could feel several pairs of eyes looking at me, waiting for an answer that I wasn't stupid enough to give.

Keeping my mouth shut I kept walking. Thankfully the stumble made Vesta forget that she asked the question. It did not make Thelora forget the question however.

"Hmm, if it's not one of us, maybe it's the fox or the priestess?" Thelora said.

"What fox? Priestess?" Vesta turned her head to glare at me.

"Or could it be the representative?" Thelora added.

I turned my own head to glare at Thelora without answering again. She had a wicked grin and I also saw a bashful looking Lariss and for some reason a look of expectant curiosity on Adalgard. There was a very awkward silence.

"Hey, what fox?" Vesta persisted after a few steps.

"Just another friend of mine." I replied.

"Humph, another beauty no doubt." Vesta said. "Why do you have so many beautiful women around you? It's not fair."

"A very wicked woman cursed me before I was born." I don't know why I answered but at this moment I was deeply regretting this so-called blessing.

"Idiot." Vesta said before falling silent.

What disturbed me at that moment was that I could faintly hear what sounded like the far away laughter of a woman directed at me.

A much quieter than normal Fulvia led us to the tent that the two of them were sharing. After helping Vesta inside I left and made my way back to our own camp. I was about to enter my tent when I was asked a question.

"Wilmaer?" Thelora said in a sultry voice. "Who do you find the most beautiful?"

"Not you." I replied before rushing into my tent.

This time I knew that the woman's laughter was aimed at me.

The next morning we once again woke up early and made out ways to the festival grounds. The rope rings were back but there were only 16 this time and they were twice as large. In the middle was a raised platform that would give a good view of several fighting rings.

To the north there was also a complex archer range set up. The east and west had two rings four times the size as the others for the mages.

A senior representative directed us to our respective rings. It was set up like many tournaments back on Earth. The highest placement faced off against the lowest placement, the second highest against the second lowest and so on. That meant that at 33rd I was going to face off against the 32nd placed.

Based just on the numbers I had the best chance of winning on our team. Unfortunately, if I did win I'd have to face off against the winner of the number 1 and 64th placement. It didn't help that the number one placement in the C ranked tournament went to Gunnar.

I soon found myself in the ring with a middle aged man named Otmar. He was tall and thin carrying a longsword and smaller handaxe.

"Don't worry kid, I'll make sure this is educational for you." He said.

"I look forward to your instruction." I replied to which he let out a derisive laugh.

At the signal he shot forward at the speed of a Master basic aura user. As I deflected his first few blows I sensed a magic aura enveloping him and his speed increased. My own Speed spell easily allowed me to keep up with him.

He was relentless with his longsword keeping my shield busy and used his handaxe effectively to reach into my weak points. I was hit a few times but my Osgar Lineage kept him from causing any damage other than a bit of soreness from the impact.

When I activated my Lightning Rebuke it threw him off enough that I was able to change into my aggressive stance and pressed him backwards. He wasn't as good at using his weapons for defense as other opponents that I faced but made up for it with his retreating footwork.

I didn't let up and started using my Moonlight Lightning Slash. His Speed spell had doubled at this point but that only allowed him to retreat quicker as he was never able to use his weapons to get an advantage on me. He had terrible luck facing me in the first round as his style was extremely aggressive while mine was an extreme defense.

In the end I was able to land a solid hit on his leg causing him to fall. The judges called the match in my favor and a witch came to heal him.

"Thank you for the lesson. It was very educational." I said.

"Oh screw off." He said with contempt.

Kay and Thelora both had their matches at the same time as I did. While I found out Kay lost spectacularly, Thelora was able to win. There were another 16 matches for C ranked to finish out our first round. Following that was the B ranked round.

Adalgard being 64th faced off against the number one placement, Buinr of the Burnished Axes. She put on a good effort, using her Spectral Chains to effectively limit his movement, but in the end had to concede.

"Looks like the Burnished Axes might do well this year. They have number one in both C and D ranks." I heard someone say.

"That's true. We could possibly have a switch in A ranked guilds." Their friend replied.

After another set of B ranked matches things got interesting as the A rankers took to the rings. Most of the major guild leaders were A ranked. We ended up watching Ludolf face off against an older woman with two longswords. I was a bit surprised to see him with just a staff and not any armor.

As the fight went on he easily deflected her attacks and when he went on the offensive elemental blades coated the tips of his staff. The elements would change every ten seconds or so. After a few blows she conceded the match.

"While the Burnished Axes might have decent showings in the C and B ranks, they only have their guild leader in A ranks. I don't think that'll be enough to advance their guild." Someone said.

"Yeah, he doesn't compare to the leaders of the current A ranked guilds." Came the reply.

For the second set of A rankers we watched Yngvarr face off against his own guild leader Fritha. While he was fast and powerful, his speed couldn't compare to hers. His major advantage was his warhammer that sent out shock waves with each strike. To my surprise as her blades turned green with arcane energy, she sliced through the visible shock waves. In the end he conceded with a hearty laugh.

With the first round finished there was a short break before the second round of C rankers began.

"Alright this is going to be a lot tougher than before." Borhildr said. "Wilmaer, Gunnar has a Whirlwind attack that extends beyond his physical weapons. He also likes to follow up one strike with a strike at the same area."

"Thelora, Jhaya likes to play it safe and is very conserative in their attacks until they feel they have found a weakness. Just be prepared for her to switch speeds on you and have a decent feint prepared." She said.

While I wasn't fond of her, Borhildr was competent at her job.

A short time later I found myself in a ring with Gunnar. It was one of the rings closest to the viewing platform. Underneath a large canopy were a few nobles, Union leaders, the leaders of the Great Coven of the North, and the Duchess with her family including Erlandr.

"I'm going to take pleasure in putting your farce of a career to an end. You can run back to wherever you came from." Gunnar said.

"Seriously, that is some of the most basic and cliche smack talk I have ever heard. You must really have some self esteem issues." I replied.

"Just wait until they have to carry you out of here. Care to guess how many pieces you'll be in?" He continued.

When the signal was given he didn't charge at me as I half expected. Instead he walked forward at a steady pace. As he did I felt a chill in my heart for the first time at the festival. I only had this warning chill when someone wanted to truly do me harm.

"I honestly don't understand what I did to offend you." I said more to myself than to him.

I opened my spiritual senses to see what effect my warning chill had on the spiritual ripples around me. To my surprise I could see dark fluctuations coming from Gunnar. When his attacks began the darkness moved ahead of his axes showing me his intended target.

Moving according to what I was seeing I blocked his strikes. Just like Borhildr said, his second axe landed on my shield where the first one did. My head began to hurt from watching the spiritual ripples and I stopped using my spiritual senses. While it would definitely be a skill I could use in the future, I was still too weak in spiritual magic to use it without hurting myself.

Again and again his strikes hit my shield. I could tell that he was a step away from becoming a Master in basic aura. With the spells he was using it took all that I had to keep myself from being slashed.

Once he got into a rhythm, I began to feel the chill deepen. Along with his physical strikes, slashes of air similar to my Moonlight Slash started to extend from his blades. The magic of the attack went beyond my shield and I had to circulate my Osgar Lineage over a greater part of my body.

What kept coming into my mind was Adalgard telling me that a true Eldritch Blade had to be creative with their magic. Now the question I had to answer was, how to do that?