152 First Year Duels

After Nova and Jayde had purchased their picture plates, they returned to their seats in the waiting area. Nova showed Jayde how to activate the display by injecting a small stream of magic into the metal. He pointed to crystals that were embedded into the pillars on the fighting platforms, these crystals were used to capture the image in front of them, and the picture plates then accessed these crystals.

Jayde spent a couple of minutes playing around with her picture plate, she found that by moving her finger across the metal surface she could change the angle of the display as well as zoom in or zoom out of the image.

Fascinating, she thought as adjusted the image on her display.

"The reason these picture plates are so expensive it that they require storm iron to make, not much just a small nugget of storm iron, but you can only find storm iron in the Dark Forest, so it's pretty rare," Nova explained.

"And enchanted dust," Ash injected.

"Enchanted Dust?"Jayde queried confused.

"Picture plates also need a pinch enchanted dust," Ash explained.

"Oh!" Jayde wondered just how much gold she could make selling enchanted dust and storm iron, as she had a lot of these two items, they were part of the goods left behind by the old man in the cave, which she had stored away in her dimensional space before leaving.

"Yup, I was debating between Swordsmithing and Blacksmithing, as a blacksmith can make a fortune just making these picture plates," Nova confessed.

Jayde lips curled into a half-smile, as she mentally made plans to visit the auction house tomorrow. Since it was Restday, the students were allowed to visit Aeris.

Dong!

At the sound of the bell, Jayde looked up. The original teacher who had spoken to them before was climbing up onto the third platform. Once he standing in the middle of the platform, he announced the start of the first years' combat trials.

Platform one and three were for magic combat, while platform two and four were for martial combat. Since most of the students had signed up for both, there were forty students registered for each division.

Two jars were carried into the arena by fourth-year students, the registered combatants were requested to line up in front of their respective division jars. The presiding teacher announced that only students number twenty-one to forty to come forward. They had to draw a stick with their opponents' number. Jayde reasoned that the jars must contain the numbers one to twenty. At least Nova, Raven, and Ash were in her group, so they wouldn't be fighting each other in the first round as the three of them had signed up for both magic and martial combat, Jayde was the only one who had signed up for only martial combat.

When it was Jayde's turn, she reached into the jar and selected a stick, looking at the token in her hand she saw that her opponent was number sixteen. Jayde walked over to the students who were jotting down each of the duels, handing over her two sticks, she waited while the fourth year student registered her contest, before taking back her own stick and returning to her seat.

Once all the students were seated the teacher stood up and announced the first duels.

"Magical combat, platform one, number twenty-one versus nineteen and platform three number thirty-nine versus six. Martial combat platform two number twenty-nine versus fifteen and platform four number thirty-one versus seventeen."

The four students whose numbers had been called stood up and trotted over to their respective platforms. The teacher then read out the rules, for magic combat, you were not allowed to use any weapons only non-lethal spells, you won if you knocked out your opponent, removed them from the combat arena or your opponent surrendered.

For martial combat, you were allowed to use weapons but no magic. The same rules applied as for combat magic. Medical staff were on standby to handle any significant injuries. The students were again warned that they were not allowed to kill. Deaths were rare during these combats as the teachers who referred the fights were on hand to quickly weave shields to prevent severe harm from befalling the combatants.

Jayde was looking forward to watching the duels, up until now she had little exposure to how mages fought on Doha, and she was interested in comparing her skills against these students. However, once the duels began Jayde was disappointed to see that the students fighting were very amateurish and posed no challenge to her whatsoever.

Jayde, Raven, Nova, and Ash quickly won each of their fights when it was their turn. As the day progressed, Jayde quickly lost interest in the duel happening on stage and spent most of the time chatting to Yinxin and Reiko telepathically.

Jayde made it through the first three rounds easily. Ash, Nova, and Raven had been knocked out of the martial combat during the third round but had made it to the fourth round for magical duels.

Since the fourth round only had five students that were left, one student was given a free pass. Jayde and four martial combat lined up to choose their opponents. Jayde was the only female left in her division, which causes quite a stir among the students watching.

The second young teenager drew the free pass stick, while Jayde was paired against a brawny teenager, as for the magical combat Raven pulled the free pass, while Ash and Nova were lucky enough now to draw each other.

Jayde walked over to platform four, climbing the stairs she looked her opponent over. Jayde had observed one of his fights before. From what she had seen the boy used his physical strength to overpower his opponents.

The brawny youth looked at the petite girl opposite him. Giving Jayde a scornful look, "Little girl, you best surrender now, I don't like hurting girls," he jeered while giving Jayde a condensing smile.

Jayde raised her sword and gave him a mock salute, "Better to worry over your own well-being,' she said coldly.

The youth's wide-set grey eyes narrowed as he sneered.

"Bitch," he muttered under his breath.

Sor Tycho Durio was the referee for Jayde's fight, he was a handsome medium built man of average height who looked as though he was in his mid-thirties, his shoulder-length caramel colored hair framed an oval face with sharp cheekbones. His dark straight eyebrows offset his arctic blue eyes. Nova had pointed him out to Jayde, he was a sword master and was currently teaching swordsmanship at Damonia.

Sor Durio looked at the petite girl standing on the stage, her cold and indifferent expression impressed him. He had watched her previous three rounds, and he had immediately noticed that she was incredibly gifted. What he didn't understand though was why she was holding back. He doubted anyone else had picked it up, but with his experience, he noticed that she was pretending to be a lot weaker than she was.

Sor Durio had overheard Vyctor Rallard statement to Jayde. Vyctor was one of his students, and while the oaf managed to beat his opponent he was as clumsy as an ox, his only benefit was his extraordinary strength, Sor Durio had tried to convince the boy to take up the ax instead of the sword, but the boy was stubborn and refused to listen.

Ah well, the boy is going to be sorely defeated, Sor Durio thought as his eyes twinkled. Sor Durio was impatient for these duels to be over, he wanted to approach Jayde and see if he could convince her to join his class. He hadn't seen such a talented youth in years, and his hands were itching to train her, as far as he was concerned this young girl could end up being on the great sword masters.

"Ready?" Sor Durio asked, seeing both Vyctor and Jayde nod, he shouted: "Begin."

Jayde had lost patience with these duels, and she had overheard Vyctor call her a bitch, decided to give the youth a lesson, she flashed to his side, and without giving him time to react she swept out her right leg, knocking him off his feet, as the large boy fell she immediately pointed her sword at his jugular.

"You lose," Jayde stated coldly.

Vyctor lay on the ground staring up at the petite girl standing over him, blinking in disbelief. What the hell happened, he thought.

Sor Durio lips tightened as he swallowed his laughter, ah seems like the little girl has a bit of a temper, he thought.

"Winner number thirty-three," he announced his voice slightly strangulated due to him holding back his guffaws.

Jayde sheathed her sword as she turned and walked off the platform. The students who were watching her fight stared at the young girl walking off the platform in disbelief, what the hell just happened was the prevailing thought going through most their minds.

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