151 Registering

Once the arena was full, a teacher that Jayde did not know walked out into the middle of the arena.

"Welcome first years to Damonia battle arena," said the teacher, then pointing to two large stone tablet behind him he stated: "This here is our battle board, it records the top one hundred students for the outer doors. The top fifty students earn listed on our battle board will earn an extra Qi gathering pill every week, whereas the top twenty will earn an extra two Qi gathering pills per week. The top ten students will earn four extra Qi gathering pills per week, and the top three students will earn the right to battle for a position to enter the inner door."

At the teacher's announcement, all the first year students began to chat excitedly with their friends.

"Quiet! As you can see there are two boards behind me, one is for magic combat, and the other is for martial combat. As long as you make it onto either board, you will qualify."

The moment Jayde heard that the school allowed for martial combat, her eyes lit up with interest, as she wanted to hide her silver status, she had already determined that she wouldn't be participating in the school combat system, but now that she found out that she could enter martial combat, she was very interested in taking part.

"Any first-year student who wants to participate needs to register at the lobby, you have one hour."

With that final announcement, the teacher walked off the platform. Most of the first year students immediately stood up and rushed to the lobby to register.

Seeing Jayde standing up, Ash turned to look up at her.

"Jayde you going to register?" he asked his voice betraying his surprise.

"Yup,' Jayde said nodding.

"Great! Oh, that just great, then I am going to bet on you," Nova exclaimed jumping up.

"Me too," said Raven climbing to her feet to follow Jayde and Nova. Ash seeing the three walking off sighed as he left his seat to follow them.

"Hey Raven, I thought you said gambling was for losers?" Nova accused.

Raven turned to Nova and said, "Idiot, when you bet on unknown fighters that is stupid, betting on Jayde is a sure thing, that make me a genius."

Nova was struck mute by Raven's comeback since he couldn't think of any retort he just gave Raven a dirty look, while he followed behind Jayde.

When the four of them arrived at the lobby, there was a group of students queuing up already.

"You guys going to enter as well?" Jayde asked.

Raven tapped her finger against her chin as she thought about entering the combat arena fights, while Nova's head bobbed.

"Of course," Nova answered.

"Ash? Raven?"

"Hmm, I think it might be a good experience," Ash answered.

"Ash is right, I think I will also sign up," Raven said.

When Jayde arrived at the front desk, the student registering the students looked up.

"Token?" he asked.

Jayde handed over her small wooden token.

"Magic or Martial?" he asked.

"Martial."

"Huh? Jayde, you going to register for martial combat?" Nova whispered.

"Uh-huh."

"Why? You a powerful mage?"

"Because it looks interesting."

Interesting.... what about my betting, Nova thought. At least he knew if Jayde entered the magic combat, she would definitely win.

"But... what about magic combat?" Nova whined.

"Not interested," Jayde said in a bland tone.

Not interested? Nova stared at Jayde's back in disbelief.

Once the student had registered Jayde, he handed her a wooden disk with the number thirty-three on it as well as her school token.

"They will call your number when it is your turn to fight," the student said dismissively.

Jayde stepped out of the queue and waited for Ash, Raven, and Nova to register, the three of them received their own numbers, Raven was thirty-four, while Ash was thirty-five and Nova was thirty-six.

Nova and Raven immediately rushed over the betting tables to lay their bets on Jayde. Since Jayde was a newcomer and her skills hadn't been graded yet, they were not allowed to place any bets yet. Grumbling about how unfair the whole system was, Nova stomped back to Jayde and Ash.

Since the four of them had registered to fight, they were directed to the waiting area set up on the lowest level on the right-hand side of the arena.

All the first year students who had registered were sitting down, their face's glowing with excitement. While Jayde and her group took their seats, Nova was still complaining about how he hadn't been able to place any bets yet.

"Oh for all the gods' sake, shut up!" Ash ordered, he had run out of patience with this idiot twin of his.

Nova's bottom lip quivered, and his eyes filled with a grievously hurt look at his brother's harsh rebuke. Jayde thought that Nova looked just like a small puppy that had been kicked, throwing a small sympathetic smile at Nova she again marveled at how these two boys could look so much alike but were so different.

***

Since this was the first time for the first years to take part in combat, the regular duels had been postponed until next Sixday, this was to allow the first years to gain their rankings so as of the next Sixday they could start to challenge higher ranks.

Damonia did not distinguish between students, it made no difference to them if you were a first year or fourth-year student. Only your rank on the battle boards was significant.

The referees for all the fights were teachers of the school. For magic combat, a ward would be raised around the combat platforms to protect the spectators. Jayde was surprised to see that many students were holding a flat rectangle piece of metal which they were watching intently.

Just as Jayde was about to contact Isha to ask him what those pieces of metal were, Nova bumped Jayde's shoulder as he pointed to one of the students holding one, Jayde turned to look at Nova her eyebrow raised.

Nova's eyes gleamed as he said: "Oh look, they have picture plates, gods I wonder where I can get one, it would make watching the fights so much better!"

"You couldn't afford one," pointed out Ash.

"Says who," snapped Nova.

"They are twenty gold pieces each," a female voice said behind them.

Turning around Jayde saw that Atia and her cousin Camelia were sitting behind them, it was Camelia who had just spoken.

"Atia, Camelia! The two of you are also participating in the combat arena challenge?" Raven asked.

Camelia and Atia both grinned widely while nodding. Nova noticing that Camelia was holding a picture plate exclaimed: "Oh you have a picture plate, where did you get it? You said it was twenty gold pieces, damn that's expensive!"

"Hmm, you can buy one at the stall over there," Atia said pointing to a small stall not too far away from where they were all sitting.

"They pretty good too, the images are clear. Here have a look," Camelia said as she turned and held up the picture plate up, which allowed Jayde and the rest to see the surface of the metal piece.

Jayde's eyes widen slightly as she watched the screen, it was showing a close up of one of the platforms. Jayde noticed that one the side of the screen were numbers one to four, as Camelia touched number two the image changed to show another platform since there were currently no fights going on the picture plate just showed the teacher who would be acting as referee standing in the middle of the platform.

Turning back to the platform's Jayde noticed that number two was the second furthest platform from where they were sitting. The display had shown a close up of the teacher's face.

"Hey, can you see all the platforms, or only one?" Nova asked.

"All if you want, but the screen really to small to see them properly," Camelia explained as she demonstrated by selecting all four numbers. The small surface then divided into four separate blocks, but as Camelia said the screen was really too small to see the platforms clearly.

"Ash, I want one," Nova begged as he turned to look at Ash he light brown eyes pleading.

"So get one, but that's your whole year's allowance."

"Let's go halvies," beseeched Nova.

Raven noticing the contemplating look on Jayde's face asked: "Jayde you thinking of getting one?"

"Mm-hmm," Jayde nodded as she stood out.

"Ash pllleeeeaaaseee!"

As Jayde strolled over to the stall, behind her Ash was rubbing his head, while giving his brother a disgusted look.

"Fine, here you go," Ash said as he dug out ten pieces of gold from his money pouch.

Grabbing the ten pieces of gold, Nova then grabbed his brother in a hug while exclaimed: "Yay! You are the best elder brother in the whole world."

"Sheesh! Get the hell off me," Ash yelled pushing his brother away.

Nova giggled as he jumped up and ran to follow Jayde.

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