Wizard and Witches: Griffith Academy

Tournament: Elimination

Walking out of the bathroom after a nice hot shower, Lisa didn’t expect to find Naomi staring intensely at a paper bag on the table. She knew her friend was kind of crazy but not to the point of borderline insane.

“What’s that?” Lisa asked as she dried her hair with the towel in her hand.

“Dunno. Rhon came earlier and gave me this. He said it’s a welcome gift from some of the students,” Naomi replied. However, she was hesitant to open the paper bag herself and opted to wait for Lisa to unpack it for her. Just in case.

Putting her towel on her shoulder, Lisa emptied the content of the paper bag onto the table. Some candies, some plastic bottles filled with colorful liquids, a nameless book, and many more. Of course, Naomi immediately grabbed all the sweets.

“Uh… I don’t think you should eat it,” Lisa checked the labels on the bottles. There were sleeping potions, performance boost potions, and…. an apple juice. Somehow, the apple juice felt like it was the weirdest thing she found in the bag.

“It tastes good!” Naomi ignored her friend’s suggestion and already put one of the candies inside her mouth. The candy tasted sweet, much sweeter than the candies Naomi used to buy.

Lisa grabbed the rest of the candy and put it back inside the paper bag to stop Naomi from eating them all.

“We need somewhere safe to keep this out of your hands. So while I take care of this, you should go and get a shower.”

Naomi was about to protest but instead nodded when she felt Lisa emitting a deathly aura toward her. She grabbed her towel and walked into the bathroom.

She needed to keep all of them as far away from Naomi’s hands to avoid causing any incident. After considering her options, Lisa decided to store all of the stuff behind her clothes. She was confident her friend would not ransack her own friend’s personal clothing just for some candies.

And while Naomi was oblivious, Lisa knew precisely why they suddenly received a lot of gifts.

The day of the tournament finally came.

The whole academy was waiting for this day. Nova said the contest this time was limited to high school students and above because of its difficulty in one of their training sessions. He also said the IS, or the Identity System, would be disabled for the participants while in the arena. Lisa wished he had told her sooner so she wouldn’t spend so much time training.

A shame, but I understand why they did it. Lisa thought.

After Naomi finished showering and preparing, the two left the dorm. The road leading to the Coliseum was packed as everyone in the academy watched the tournament. It was like everyone in the academy just stopped whatever they were doing to watch this tournament. Quite literally for the school as they had a break.

The tournament was held at the Coliseum, which looked quite similar to the real one, just more significant in size to accommodate everyone in the academy. The two managed to find a relatively high seat. Nova said that the participant’s and viewer’s chairs were mixed to add some mystery and tension.

“Welcome, everybody! To the very first tournament of this year!” A man wearing a black tuxedo shouted as he floated above the sandy arena. Everyone cheered at the man’s words.

“Man, I’m so happy to be back as the host of this event. As you all know, I’m not the type to chit-chat, but I still have to announce the rules!”

1. No attacks designed to m**m, kill, or gravely wound other contestants are allowed.

2. No attacks that could hurt anyone outside of the arena. Battles are strictly inside of the stadium and among contestants.

3. No usage of Scrolls or Power Stone is allowed. All contestants are only allowed to use their personal power.

4. Contestants who cannot continue fighting or are outside the arena are automatically disqualified regardless of their personal choice.

5. The decisions made by the judges are final.

“With that out of the way, we can officially begin our half-annual tournament!” the announcer said, and the people cheered, “Let’s get straight to the elimination round! Every contestant will be divided into five groups. Each group will come down here, fight each other, and only the last four contestants will continue to the next round. So we will start with the first group!”

The host began to call the participant’s name. Naomi’s heart started to beat faster as the host continued calling names. And then he finished, without calling Naomi and Lisa.

They were safe for the time being. However, if Naomi and Lisa had been called, they would have to fight the heirs, which wouldn’t end well.

All of the called participants jumped down to the arena and took a position in the clearing. Naomi noticed some of them moved around uncomfortably, occasionally glancing at the Heirs. What Rhon told her about the four seemed to not be exaggerated.

When the host shot a flare, all hell broke loose in there. In just a few minutes, Fox was already teleporting some people to the infirmary to get their injury treated. The brawl didn’t last very long, and everyone already knew what the result was. It was the four heirs’ victory. They fought aggressively and brutally, disregarding the safety of both the contestants and everyone else. If not for the Protectors’ quick response, some of their stray attacks would have hit bystanders.

“As usual, the four heirs wiped the floor of this stage!” the MC tried to sound excited. ”But can they finally be the champion of this tournament? Unfortunately, we have to wait for that answer, folks, because right now, we are still moving on to the second group of the elimination!”

The man then started announcing the contestants. Unfortunately, the two were not called this time either, but Naomi was sure she heard Rhon and Lirya. And after looking around for a bit, Naomi spotted them in the arena, standing side by side. 

Another flare was shot, and the contestants immediately started to brawl.

In the end, she was glad that Rhon and Lirya won. Their combo of making a flame tornado took out a lot of their contestants without hurting them. First, the flame’s heat pushed the contestants to the arena’s edge. Then the fire disappeared so the tornado could lift them up and throw them out. Some of the other contestants tried to face them but ultimately lost. The other two winners were some kind of illusionist boy and girl with unknown power.

It became apparent to Naomi that teamwork was not prohibited.

“I think we should work together too. I think the Protector would allow it,” Naomi whispered, and Lisa replied with an approving nod. If they want to have any chance of winning, it would be through teamwork. Almost everyone who had won so far also worked together.

To her surprise, in the third round, there was Nova and a girl with short black hair. Naomi saw the girl elbowing Nova, who smiled in return. Which made Naomi... jealous?

W-Why does the sight of that playboy with another girl piss me off so much?!

Before Naomi could think much about it, the next flare was shot, and the brawl started. Nova used his light to flash other contestants and to create shadows, which benefited the girl. Her own shadow extended toward the other contestant’s silhouette, and she tried controlling them to get out of the arena. Most couldn’t resist, but some could, though they had to fight the shadow titan the girl had created.

Weirdly enough, some of the contestants seemed to attack at thin air instead of the two.

The battle ended with Nova and the girl as winners with two randoms.

Naomi knew no one at the fourth battle, so she wasn’t really paying much attention, instead discussing possible tactics with Lisa. 

It was won by a bald twin and two randoms. The twins did most of the job by throwing the other contestants out of the arena with their hardened shining bodies. Many tried to stop them, but their attack fell flat before their skins' toughness and strength. She was worried for a bit that someone’s spine would be broken, considering how strong the twins were.

Without the host’s announcement, the rest of the participants stood from their seats and jumped down to the arena. Naomi’s heartbeat got even faster now. She was going to do it. She had discussed with Lisa some ways to combine their power. And they found a very safe one, allowing them to win without having to really hurt anyone.

As soon as the flare was shot, Lisa created a small dome with her roots around them, then Naomi covered it with water. They managed to do it just in time before rocks started flying everywhere. There must be someone manipulating the rocks in the arena.

In just a few minutes, the arena grew silent.

Slowly, the two opened their barrier to find that the clearing was empty, except for one boy. He was standing in the middle of the arena, with rocks and pebbles floating around him, circling him. They were lucky he couldn’t manipulate sand too. The arena floor was made out of sand, and they didn’t make anything under their feet when they were inside their protective dome.

“I must say, that’s a cowardly move. To just bunker down and let me do the dirty work.” the boy said as he playfully threw some pebbles at the two. Naomi managed to block them with her water shield.

Then, in the split of a second, pebbles started to fly toward their dome from all directions. Some rocks managed to hit them before Naomi could recover her water barrier. His onslaught continued until her water barrier was full of small stones.

Naomi started panting. She was not used to using her power continuously this long. But she must keep it up. Lisa’s roots wouldn’t stand much chance of being constantly rained by pebbles.

Then suddenly, it was all black. Naomi fell to the ground along with her barrier.

“Naomi!” Lisa immediately checked her friend. She was still breathing and alive, most likely passed out from exhaustion.

This piqued the stone user’s interest. For some reason, Fox hadn’t teleported the water user out of the arena. He grinned as he looked towards Fox on the Protector’s part of the coliseum seat. It was the first time he saw Fox playing favoritism.

“Let’s get serious then, shall we?”

Pebbles started appearing from thin air around him, crashing into each other to form more giant stones.

A screen popped up in front of Lisa.

Reading it, she found out that she had one last choice. Mustering the rest of her power, she punched the sandy floor. The root dome she made disassembled itself. Combined with more roots appearing from the arena’s sand ground, it created a golem. The pebbles harmlessly bounced off of the golem, and it launched its balled fist towards the guy.

“H-How are you already capable of summoning that?!” the man used his stones to hold the golem’s punches and was only pushed back for a bit. When the golem pulled back and attacked again, the rock mage was ready. A colossal stone hand appeared from below the arena sand floor, stopping the wood golem’s fist. A new golem slowly rose from the sand floor, revealing itself as a stone golem with the same size as Lisa’s golem.

The two golems traded blows. When one of them was hurt in some way, they quickly restored themselves. But what the golem did with ease dealt a heavy toll on the user. The stone guy was used to it, but Lisa was not.

“This is getting nowhere. If you would just surrender, your friend here will go to the next stage, you know,” the guy said as he wiggled Naomi around next to him with a floating hand made out of stone. While Lisa was focused on keeping her golem alive, the man used his stones to kidnap Naomi.

“Tch, you are a coward!” Lisa shouted between the sound of the golems trading blows.

“Battles are not won by being fair and honest; it’s by strategy and deceit. Now, are you just going to let your friend get hurt?”

Lisa had no choice. She couldn’t risk Naomi getting hurt. Lisa lifted her hand and was about to surrender when suddenly a water ball smashed the guy’s directly in his face, sending him flying and crashing onto the arena’s wall.

At the same time, the two golems crumbled.

The crowd cheered as Fox teleported the guy out. It was then revealed that there were still two other contestants in the arena, using their power to hide from both the stone guy and Lisa.

“Who knew two amateurs would win?” Fox reappeared near Lisa. He immediately ducked to avoid a water ball sent toward him.

“Who are you calling amateur, huh?!” Naomi prepared another water ball, but it dissipated before she had the chance to throw it. At the same time, her right hand fell limply beside her body like it was suddenly made out of jelly.

“Now, don’t waste your power. You are already exhausted enough. This is only the elimination stage, so you still have a long way to go. Your time is better spent resting for the next stage,” Fox said as she walked toward Naomi, offering her one of the vials he gave Nova.

Nova and The Seer approached the three.

“I-I’m fine!” she said, forcing herself to move her hand. She struggled and struggled. Until finally, she succeeded, even if her hand was shaking around quite a bit.

“Stubborn as always,” Fox sighed, putting the vial back into his coat. “Since you say you are fine, I will leave you in the hand of Nova and Seer,” Fox said before lifting Lisa and disappearing.

“That guy... !”

“Now there, calm down. Here, take this,” the seer helped Naomi sit up before offering her a bottle and a pill.

“What are these?” Naomi asked as she took both of them.

“Stamina pills. I made them myself. It will help you regain your lost energy.”

“So it’s different from Fox’s vials?”

“His vials are meant for a quick recovery but could result in fatigue and pain later on. These are much slower, but it has no side effect.”

Naomi nodded before taking the pill and washed it down with the water. And as the seer said, she felt much better than before.

“You should get back to the dorm to rest. Fox will get Lisa back to the dorm as soon as her condition is stable,” Nova assured Naomi.

It felt weird for Naomi to walk back alone to the dorm. She ate the special meal prepared for the tournament, but it didn’t feel good without Lisa around. Some people tried to eat with her, but she told them she needed to be alone. Everything just felt wrong with the absence of Lisa.

Ignoring the congratulations from other students, Naomi returned to her room.

And there Lisa was, sleeping peacefully on her bed.

She sat down beside her friend, admiring her face. There were some scratches on her face, but most were already starting to disappear.

“I promise you, I wouldn’t let this happen again,” Naomi said as she placed her hand on Lisa’s shoulder.

Feeling tired herself, Naomi decided to go to sleep herself.