Andrew Rowe - On the Shoulders of Titans

I also suspected Teft knew that, and that he was expecting a few of us to pick up on it.

“A few rules, of course. First, you will be given an attachment called a sigil monitor to put over your shield sigil before the match starts. When your shield sigil is depleted, the monitor will immediately detect this and teleport you out of the arena to the Mender unit.”

He pointed to a nearby door on the side of the arena. “When you’re teleported out, you’re done. The Menders will see to any injuries you sustained in the fight, then you can return to the stands to watch the remainder of the battle. You may not return to the fight, even if you can recharge your sigil.”

Well, that’s one idea down right away.

Was Teft looking straight at me when he said that? Probably just my imagination.

“Second, the match has a time limit of ten minutes. If neither team has eliminated the other in ten minutes, it will be considered a draw. Since eliminating opponents is the primary way to earn points for the exam, a draw will not be advantageous to you. While you may feel obligated to allow a draw if you are fighting against your friends, I assure you that this will not be the way to earn the highest amount of points.”

But it’s not expressly disallowed. Interesting.

Sera shook her head at me as soon as I looked back to her.

Fine, fine.

Teft continued. “You may not leave the arena during the match to maneuver. If you leave the arena, you will lose immediately.” He glanced at Kyra Dyson’s team, one of the few teams I considered almost as likely as my own to try to find a loophole in the rules.

Kyra was one of the few people with the Shadow attunement in the class, and while she wasn’t as good of a straight fighter as someone like Marissa, she was one of the most proficient at finding and exploiting weaknesses in her opponents. I liked her style.

“And you also may not interfere in matches other than your own.” He glanced at Patrick when he said that. Apparently, he hadn’t forgiven us for when Patrick jumped in on my “duel” against him on the first day of class. I brought a hand to my mouth to unsuccessfully attempt to stifle a laugh.

“Finally, you will only be fighting with dueling canes. Other magical items will be permitted, but for safety reasons, I will not be permitting other enchanted weapons.”

Another advantage gone. It was a sensible rule, however. Selys-Lyann and similar weapons could cause a lot of damage in a test like this.

“I will be watching your performance carefully. Today’s match will determine which of you are prepared for the second half of this class.”

That was an intimidating implication. Was he going to be failing some of us outright?

That was not an acceptable outcome.

From the looks on the faces of my friends, I could tell they felt the same way.

“Teams One and Two, come with me.”

Team One was Kyra’s team, consisting of her and an Elementalist named Loria Marshall. Team Two was Rupert Kent — another Elementalist and a constant subject of Marissa’s ire — and Desmond Vyers, a Shaper.

I could see why they’d assembled their team of four the way they had. Two Elementalists and a Shaper would have given them tremendous long-ranged firepower, and Kyra could have handled virtually anything else. I would have given them good odds against our own team, at least in our current state. If Sera had her Summoner abilities…

I shook my head. Hypothetical matches didn’t matter. I had a real one to watch.

Just one, presumably. We were Teams Three and Four.

We headed to the stadium seats, getting as close as possible to get a good look at the action. Teft led the two teams to the steps into the arena, where he knelt down to open a box. He retrieved four discs from within — the sigil monitors. It was hard to see at a distance, but they had some kind of prongs on them to attach to the shield sigils.

Could I disable mine to stay in the fight longer?

Probably, but it’s not worth the risk. The chance for being hurt is too significant, and it might even get me disqualified.

Fortunately, my phoenix sigil’s barrier is the outside layer — it’ll take damage before the normal shield sigil does.

And I’m a Carnelian now. My shroud will mostly be inside the barriers, so it won’t do much to help my shield last longer, but it will definitely help prevent injuries from slowing me down.

That was all good, but our opponents had phoenix sigils, too. I’d made them myself.

I didn’t regret it for a moment.

I couldn’t hear what Teft was telling the other students at this distance, but they headed to opposite sides of the arena. The tiles were just large enough for a single person to stand on them comfortably and there were a lot of them.

I also wanted to know why some of the squares had remained white, their normal color. If the other squares represented the advanced stages of an attunement, were these “white” squares supposed to be Quartz?

And, if that was the case, did that mean they had no effect?

It seemed so, since the students were stepping on the white squares on their way to the opposite sides of the arena — and there were two white squares for each team on the far sides.

There seemed to be no traps on those initial squares, but I couldn’t be confident that all white squares were the same. Teft often liked to subvert expectations.

“Bow to your opponents.”

The teams bowed respectfully.

“Begin!”

A dome-shaped barrier flickered into life around the arena as soon as Teft spoke.

The combatants surged into motion.

Kyra whispered a word, then vanished in a torrent of swirling shadows.

Instinctively, I activated my attunement to see where she’d gone — and the answer was nowhere. She was still standing in the center of the shadow cloud, reaching out with her hands.

The shadows began to spread.

Rupert and Loria turned toward each other, but Loria was a hair faster. She hurled a bolt of lightning at him. It got within inches before a glowing shield appeared in front of Rupert and deflected the blast.

That was a Shaper spell, but I hadn’t seen Desmond move. There was a good reason for that, and it wasn’t because he was too fast to perceive like Keras. He’d stuck his hands in his jacket pockets so his opponents couldn’t predict his spells based on his gestures. Simple, but effective.

A hail of glowing swords appeared in the air above Loria, descending in a glimmering flash. She dodged to the side, but that meant jumping onto a colored square. A bolt of light erupted when she landed on it, and I saw cracks flicker across her shield.

The glowing sword-storm struck the tiles where she’d been standing a moment before, sinking into the stone several inches before vanishing.

The tiles themselves aren’t shielded , I realized. I might be able to work with that.

Rupert was still gathering energy in his hands. A swirling ball began to manifest, glimmering with heat while he whispered. His Elementalist mark was on his left hand, so he didn’t strictly need to use incantations, but it looked like he’d learned to use his lungs to augment his spells further.

From the intensity of the glow, I’d say it was paying off.

The globe seemed to solidify over the following seconds. Loria hurled another blast of lightning, this time at Desmond, but another phantasmal shield appeared in the way.

This time, the lightning shifted in mid-air to arc around the shield, blasting Desmond back a step and leaving a crack in his barrier. He landed on a green square. Vines burst from the ground beneath him, wrapping around his legs in a moment. His expression was more perplexed than furious.