"The next round of this trials is a brawl..."
"5 Mages will be sent to the same battlefield and only 1 will who wins will proceed to the next round."
Flester sat, it was already evening and many brawls had been finished and he was still waiting for his match, and just as his patience was wearing out, his name was called.
"Brawl 46: Amiko, Flester, Ager, Frey and Joe. Please proceed to the battlefield." The commentator's voice boomed as the five, including Flester made their way to the battlefield staying a safe distance away from one another.
"Fight!"
Flester jumped back dodging a woman's sword, she looked 5 years older than him. Flester, the blonde woman who was 5 years elder to him, a bald guy of his age, a bearded middle-aged man with brown hair and another guy of his age with spiky short brown hairs and black eyes.
The blonde woman was Amiko, Ager was the bald guy, Frey was the middle-aged man and the spiky short haired guy was Joe.
Amiko continued her assault on Flester while the other three fought each other using elemental magic. Amiko sent magic in her sword then pushed herself with magic closing the distance between her and Flester.
Flester responded to her sword by making his own sword in an instant and blocking her slash. In the time she took to think of an alternate attack, Flester ducked under the next slash of her sword and with Flame covering his sword, he sent Amiko flying back, by the time she stood up, her face met his magic infused knee.
Blood leaked from her nose, she jumped back as her eyes was fixed on Flester. She turned back blocking a punch with her sword, Joe ducked under Amiko's slash and punched her gut sending her back towards Flester who jumped far behind Joe towards Frey and Ager fighting.
"Water wall." Amiko thrust her hand front blocking a Flame burst from Joe. "He's a Flame user too." Flester noted before slashing his sword down at the two men who jumped back dodging the slash.
"Fire Vortex." Flester whispered as flame burst from his sword rotating at high speed towards Frey who blocked it with his steel wall.
"A steel user." Flester noted, though everyone did.
Ager appeared behind Flester undetected until the last moment as Flester moved front and barely missed a slash from Ager's sword though he could not avoid the next one in his back followed by booming hit by Frey using a steel hammer which sent him skidding back.
"Damn it!" Flester turned back ready to evade Ager's attack only to find no one, Flester sensed a presence behind him and by the time it seemed too late, Ager's hand outstretched reaching towards him, a powerful ball of lightning energy in his hands charging as his hands approached Flester. He knew it was the end.
Though, fate seemed to be on the orphan's side today when Frey dashed front, the same long hammer aimed at Ager's head who dodged the critical blow but also missed the chance on taking out one of his opponents.
"That guy is a fool." Flester thought. "He attacked me even though I was about to defeat a possible enemy?" Ager thought with a frown.
"There's a possibility I can't take others down with him still there, I'll take him down first. I can't afford risks." Ager sped towards Frey intent on eliminating the middle aged man.
"Maybe try reading the battle next time." Ager said as lightning covered his hands. "Lightning pierce!" Ager thrust his hand forward only to meet a wall of steel.
"I'm not done!" Ager screamed piercing the wall.
"I would not do that if I were in your place." Frey said with a dangerous smirk. The wall, made of steel, purely solid slightly seemed to change, from the same wall what seemed to be hands came out grabbing Ager's hand just inches away from Frey's neck.
"People here are weird." Flester thought. "He did not read the battle and indirectly saved me but now he already locked the lightning guy." Flester intercepted one of the weird steel hands which tried to grab him.
His sword was covered with strong orange-reddish flames as he cut the hand which came to grab him.
"Even if it's not important for this battle, I'm sure I need to figure out to use the power of the Flame Elemental Symbol." Flester thought.
"Stay there." Joe said as he rushed towards Flester with his hands covered in flames, orange-reddish with a small but noticeable tint of light blue. "He's near to breaking his way to the second stage." Flester noted.
Joe's fist tightened, a dangerous smile on his face, his punch blocked by Flester's sword who stood calm.
"I may have made small errors before." Flester said, not to anyone but to himself or maybe to no one. Flester had no emotions on his face as he remembered all his fights in the past.
"I fought tough two powerful opponents and survived but lost against some random guy here, and am now here." He looked at Joe with fury in his eyes. "I did not even eliminate one person yet and that's a disgrace for the person I ought to be." He pushed back Joe with his sword and in the next moment was in front of him and his fist connected to Joe's face sending him skidding back falling on his back.
Flester saw the bloodied Amiko standing up with trembling legs, his eyes narrowed. He appeared in front of her. At that moment, even though he pitied the woman before him, he still pulled his hand back for a powerful punch aimed at her face.
"That's not right." He thought to himself but pushed it aside as he punched her who fell back barely conscious clinging onto her dear life to not close her eyes.
"Why?" Flester asked the woman fallen to the ground. "Why struggle so much?" He asked. Hearing a question from someone who almost knocked her out should have triggered a angry reaction but she gave him a kind smile.
"It's because I grew up here." She said Flester and despite her struggle to speak and her voice muffled, he still felt her voice oddly smooth and kind and she had that look in her eyes, a look Flester had never come across, as if she would not think twice to die for the Emberhold Lions.
"That look in her eyes..." Flester thought.
Flester turned back and dashed towards Joe who dashed towards Flester too.
"He's strong but quite unstable." Flester thought dodging another slash of Joe's sword and stabbed Joe in the gut with his own.
"Gah-" Flester caught Joe by his head, Flester's materialised sword disappeared and a ball of Flame and Light magic mixed both in harmony and in rage as Flester threw Joe a few metres back and threw the ball of magic at Joe, the attack hit Joe in the chest.
Dust spread across the battlefield as Joe crashed into the wall opposite of where he and Flester were fighting just a moment ago.
This attack was definetely from the memories and he remembered its name too.
"Aurora Ignis." Flester spelled his attack, it was not perfected yet but still was strong, very strong.
"That's not the only thing I learnt... Ever since Princess has said me about these memories, I keep getting more and more memories, more clearer and with name and complete understanding of the moves, this time for truly it feels like I'm the one who made them."
"There's one more I would like to try." He muttered to himself, behind him, the woman, despite still conscious and willing to fight was taken away in a stretcher and one pair appeared in the opposite side, to take Joe away as well.
That left him, Ager and Frey. He turned towards the side they both were fighting, Ager had long escaped the steel cage, and now Frey looked helpless throwing one after another weapons made out of thin air using his Steel Magic but still it did not even reach Ager who appeared in front of the Middle-aged man punching him in the face so hard, Frey fell into unconscious.
"That leaves me and you." Ager said pointing at Flester.
Flester stayed calm as Ager headed towards him in great speed almost undetected for an untrained eye. "You think you can catch me or even keep a track of my speed?" Ager asked Flester circling him from a distance at an high speed.
Flester did not flinch, he did not overthink, and when Ager dashed closer to him, he simply turned to his direction.
"Blazing Serpent." Flester whispered.
Flester summons a serpent of fire that slithers through the air, its job is tracking his opponent before exploding, doing exactly that, the serpent made its way to Ager, twisting around his body so tightly it almost felt as if he could never escape its grasp.
Flester appeared several metres away from Ager and the Blazing Serpent.
BOOM
Debris flew everywhere as was the power behind the Blazing serpent's blast. Even then, Ager came out, harmed but still determined to win.
"Not done, are we?" Flester asked with a smirk already planning his next move.
Ager's determined look vanished replaced with an indifferent look on his face.
"Sadly, the trial matches are not until unconsciousness or death..." Ager turned back seeing nurses enter the battlefield. "It's not until they decide if you are capable for the next round or not, in rare cases more than one mage is sent to the next round from the same brawl matches." Ager explained.
"So the reason our match is stopped halfway is because they found both of us winners and there's no reason to continue this match." Flester said standing beside Ager.
"Something like that."
"Well, Flester." Ager started as Flester looked at him. "After this, let's have an all-out match somewhere else, if that is okay with you." Ager said and Flester replied with a smile.
"I'm not happy with how our match ended up, Let's do it, but where and when?"
"Come to my home, I'll say everything to you there." Ager said to which Flester gave a deadpan look. "Funny you think I know your home." Flester said to which Ager nodded.
"Go to any random citizen of this city and ask where is Agni branch house. They'll say."
After that, the referee said they were both sent to the next round and told both to come back after a week before dismissing them.
"Once again, my name is Ager. Ager Agni." Ager said as both Flester and Ager came out of the stadium of Emberhold Lions where the trials were being held.
"I'll be at your home tomorrow." Flester said dashing to his temporary apartment.
"I definitely did not like how short the match was." Flester thought.
"Ager, I'm looking forward for our next meeting."