Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Since she had gotten herself into this to make me feel better, I felt a little obligation to ease her suffering. I turned to Derek. “What does she need to know about this? What sort of monsters will she be facing in there?”

Derek leaned back against the balcony, looking precariously close to falling onto the stage. “Typical tower stuff, mostly from the first few floors. I suppose you two haven’t done much of that yet, have you? No matter. You’ll get a chance to watch a couple rounds before we get in there. The important thing to know is the general structure.”

He raised a single hand, and then put a finger from his other hand in between his thumb and his pointer finger. “The stage will be sectioned off before we start. We’ll be in a section here. My other fingers represent walls. There will be monsters in each section.”

Derek lowered his pointer finger. “As soon as the match starts, they’ll lower the first wall, and we’ll have to fight the first set of monsters. After about a minute…” He lowered his middle finger. “They’ll lower the next wall, and another set will attack, regardless of whether or not we’ve dealt with the first set. This happens until the whole stage is revealed.” He closed his hand. “Then…”

He raised two fingers again. “The last monster will be much stronger than the rest. If we survive that, we’ll move to the opposite side of the stage, and the walls will reset. We get a brief reprieve while Summoners call down more monsters in between each of the wall segments. Once they’re done, the process starts over. Stronger monsters each time.”

Sera nodded. “How long do people typically last?”

“People? Most teams tend to get stopped by the large monster at the end of the first set. Me? My partner and I usually clear two full sets, at which point the Summoners are typically out of mana, and we’ll win for the evening by default.”

I really wanted to ask how much of that was due to his partner. I couldn’t think of a political way to phrase it, though.

Sera solved that problem. “How far do you expect us to make it?”

Derek’s eyes narrowed, and he folded his hands in front of him, looking at Sera with a serious expression. “I wouldn’t risk asking a first-year student to come in here with me if I didn’t think I could take care of this. If for any reason it looks like I’m going to let a monster through that could hurt you, though, step out of the ring. You’ll be out of the fight after that, but you can avoid being hurt that way.”

I frowned. “How do these things usually end, aside from exhausting the Summoners or the contestants leaving the ring?”

“Oh, usually the matches end when the contestants are too badly injured to stand.” Derek chucked. “But you’ve got me here. What are the chances of that?”

After that little statement, I took off my shield sigil and demi-gauntlet and handed them to Sera.

She blinked. “Can I even wear these?”

I nodded. “The shield sigils are weak enough that two probably won’t interfere with each other, but wear them on opposite sides of your tunic just in case. If you had five, they probably wouldn’t work. As for the gauntlet…the glove will be big on you, so it might be uncomfortable, but it should function.”

Derek furrowed his brow. “What does that glove do? I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.”

Sera slipped her normal glove off, and I helped her put the gauntlet on in its place. “It’s basically a dueling cane in glove form. Stronger than a typical practice cane, weaker than a full war-cane.”

“Hrm. Interesting. Magical items are legal down there — I have several myself — but I can’t say I’ve seen a glove with an offensive design. Should be quite interesting. Hopefully the crowd will like it.”

I wasn’t sure why that was relevant, but I realized Derek probably was here for more than coin. “Do more popular combatants get paid better or some such?”

Derek smiled. “Ah, an excellent question. Better fighters win both glory and more rewards. Each Survival Match is a self-contained event, with specific prizes for the winner and much smaller prizes for everyone else. Winning matches consistently, and in entertaining ways, has the potential to earn sponsors for additional sources of income. Finally, excellent fighters can earn their way into championship matches.”

Sera nodded along with his explanation. “And I take it you’re looking for sponsorship?”

“Oh, no, I don’t need that. I’m much more interested in an invitation to this year’s championships. They often have crowds of thousands, and the summoned monsters are often spectacular.”

In it for the glory, then. I sincerely hoped that attitude wouldn’t put Sera at risk. It would make him look bad if Sera was hurt down there, wouldn’t it?

I certainly hoped so.

My left hand settled on the hilt of the saber at my side.

Even if Sera was carrying most of my equipment, I wouldn’t hesitate to intervene if it looked like she was in serious danger.

I hoped it wouldn’t have to come to that.

“It’s time.” A well-dressed man appeared behind the box, bowing toward Derek.

“Ah, thank you Thomas. Miss Cadence, we’ll need to head below to prepare. Shall we?”

He offered Sera his arm. Sera flashed him another grin and accepted.

“Don’t get killed down there.”

Sera snickered. “Don’t get killed up here, either.”

“I will endeavor not to, but no promises.”

My grip tightened around the hilt of my sword as the pair disappeared.

Given what I’d seen of Derek’s attitude thus far, I was barely even surprised when he and Sera appeared on stage as the first contestants of the evening.

I’d been given a program booklet by one of the attendants, and he scheduled to be going toward the middle of the night. He was listed along with a partner named Elora Theas.

Had the organizers decided to move him and Sera up to an earlier part of the show, or had he deliberately manipulated this turn of events for some reason? I couldn’t be sure, but I was leaning toward the latter.

Perhaps even more interesting was his partner’s name. Elora Theas. Was she the Councilor Theas that had been working with my mother? That woman had been roughly Derek’s age.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” The voice seemed to emit from all around me. No announcer was visible. “Tonight, we present three-time champion, Derek Hartigan, alongside a new partner. Sera, of the legendary House Cadence!”

Polite, but subdued clapping from the crowd. The only cheering came from the bleachers sections, which seemed to be mostly populated by other students. The well-dressed nobles in the boxes were much more restrained with their applause.

A light emanated from a rune-etched tile above the theater, marking a line that divided off a small section of the stage. “Contestants, proceed to your starting area for the raising of the walls!”

Sera looked vastly less nervous than I felt. If anything, she just looked intense, her eyes focused straight ahead and her jaw clenched tight.

Derek looked joyous. He twirled on his heels, raising his hand to wave, and occasionally blowing a few kisses into the crowd.

When they reached the marked-off section of the stage, a voice boomed again.

“Contestants, ready yourselves! The summoning is about to begin!”

Sera glanced back and forth, showing a hint of nervousness for the first time.

Derek just stood with his back straight, his head held high.

“Walls…ascend!”

As the announcer spoke, four walls of solid mana appeared at equal intervals across the stage. I couldn’t see the casters, but I could recognize Shaper work. Walls of that size and thickness were fairly impressive. No student my age could manage anything on that scale. It would have been trivial for my father, but most magic tended to be.