4.07 – Competition

4.07 – Competition

Dueling was the most popular extracurricular at Tenet for obvious reasons. While delving was the fundamental building block for gaining power—and thus status and wealth—fighting monsters, even the most clever of them, fundamentally wasn’t the same as fighting humans. And since humans were always in conflict in one way or another, small-scale or large, there was great interest in honing one’s abilities in one-on-one fights.

Beyond that, it held appeal purely as a sport. Naturally, there weren’t many people who attended Tenet who weren’t interested in combat for the sheer art of it. With infinite variance in weapon choice, styles, and skills, no two duels were the same—even in instances where the same two combatants were on stage.

Natalie herself hadn’t picked up dueling as an extracurricular, but it had been on her list of possibilities. Maybe she would even change her schedule at some point. Just, with her current priorities, learning how to take down opponents in a one-on-one appealed to her ego, but not her sense of practicality. For Sofia, at least, the duelist-style fighter of the group, this sort of practice was more than a functional use of her time.

Tenet had world-class facilities in every category, and that was even more true for the dueling arena. As the most popular sport in the delving world, and with Tenet as the eminent academy in the country, no expenses were spared. The main arena could seat tens of thousands—for the big events of the year—and dozens of smaller ones could host hundreds each. The arena was even used occasionally for the larger dueling circuit, not just the collegiate one. Seeing how certain global political matters were settled through the use of dueling as a sport—as a display of military strength—that made the building political in nature, too. It was perhaps the single most extravagant structure across campus. Though not gaudy. That wasn’t Tenet’s style.

Of course, the first-year’s initial miniature dueling competition—more of an event to seed the freshmen talent than anything—wouldn’t be drawing any impressive numbers like the ‘real events’ would. Only friends, family, and a few interested people would be attending. Sofia had asked her team to come watch, and so, of course they had. It was a small waste of time, since they could easily pick up a temporary fighter and get a few hours of delving in after classes, but Natalie recognized perfect efficiency would drive a person insane. A few hours spent watching duels would be both interesting and practical too—studying the styles of her classmates was hardly a complete waste of time.

As the competition progressed, Sofia dominated the opposition. In the combat rankings that faculty put together, many factors were taken into account, not just one’s ability to face down a single opponent. Sofia’s style had many flaws, especially in a group setting, because she had few to no syngeristic abilities or tendencies, was weak to swarming enemies, and generally offered little to the team beyond her raw offensive output. The thing was—she provided a lot of offensive output, and needed very little support to do so.

It continued that way for the rest of the event, even after their two separate groups split off, and Sammy said her goodbyes. Jordan noticed it too, and asked Natalie if she’d done something. If Natalie had, she had no clue what. It had started when Sammy arrived, but as far as Natalie knew, the two of them didn’t even know each other, so she couldn’t come up with a reason why Sammy sitting next to Natalie would matter in the slightest.

The irritable demeanor only grew. By the time all of Sofia’s matches came to a wrap, Sofia was all but glaring at Natalie, to Natalie’s complete confusion. Natalie and the rest of the group came up to Sofia, but Sofia made a few brief pleasantries and said she was going to get changed. Her shortness had carried over even to talking with Liz and Jordan by that point.

Jordan watched her go, then turned to Natalie. “You should go talk to her.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Still,” Jordan said. “You should go. Find out what’s happening.” Even Jordan seemed a bit perplexed by the situation.

Natalie considered whether she wanted to do that—a confrontation with Sofia was sure to be a disaster—but considering how Sofia had seemed almost friendly at the start of the event, she made her mind up.

“Okay, fine,” Natalie said. “I’ll go see what’s up.”