Knowing is Half the Battle

Adelyn watched as Wendy completely obliterated the arcane golem, over and over again.

It was some wildly impressive magic. Dark magic crackled through the air as strange bolts of energy struck the ground. The floor dented as the sheer amount of power raged through the air. Cracks began to form in the ground, and the golem struggled to keep up.

Eventually, she stopped when the golem was reduced to bits and pieces. Nearly complete ash. Wendy took a deep breath, and fell down to the ground.

“Phew…”

Wendy immediately gets struck with three missiles to the face, knocking her out of the ring.

Despite the anticlimactic end, Adelyn was quite impressed. She had taken a brief glance at the other groups performing the test, and she realized that there were so many talented magic users here. She wondered what kind of lives that these kids led. Their lives were probably all so interesting.

This place was like a storybook that came to life. A library of tales that she can glimpse into. She then looked at Cozy and Ed, who were resting after their battles. She realized that she wanted to talk to them a bit more, and get a glance into their stories as well.

However, the governor spoke up, interrupting her thoughts.

“Congratulations to all those who participated. We already have some results,” Valentia said. “Soon, you will begin the written strategy test. We have taken note of your individual abilities, so you may use them as answers to the problems.”

The golems began to get packed away, and the staff began to set down desks in front of the tables. Pencils and papers began to get set on desks, creating a more uniform environment.

“Everyone, please take a seat,” the governor said.

“A writing test should be simple,” Cozy shrugged, as she walked to her desk. “As long as your decisions have a logical throughline, then that should work.”

“They’re probably looking for something a little bit more exceptional,” Ed responded. “Anybody can make a decision, but not everybody can think of the outcomes for their decision.”

“Yeah, you need to have a little bit more foresight,” Elaina said. “Requires a little bit more than basic intuition.”

“Not that you could predict anything,” Cozy responded with an eye roll.

“Hey, I didn’t comment on your performance,” Elaina said. “It’s not like your combat foresight is the greatest either.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“Now, now,” Adelyn tried to step between the two. “You both did great! I think you can do even better in the tournament.”

The two girls stopped bickering and sat down in their chairs. Adelyn sat down between them, and Ed sat down at the desk behind her.

“You may begin the test,” the governor said, standing at the front of the room, and everybody began to write.

The test was relatively short, five questions, though expecting significantly more detailed answers. They were based on various combat scenarios. The first question was against an aggressive monster that was rampaging through the city, noted to have poison breath, steel claws, and stand twenty feet tall.

Adelyn thought for a moment. She would most likely wish to incapacitate the beast unless it was unstoppable. She had quite the combination of summons to do that, however. Eira to freeze the beast, Sylpha to dispel the poison breath, and Viridia to tie down the monster. She was confident that this would be a solid answer.

The next question involved a dangerous, urgent expedition, travelling through a marshland as fast as possible where every second counted. Adelyn figured Eira would be an easy solution once again, freezing the lakes to provide solidly walkable ground. Any monster would also be handled by her variety of summons-

Adelyn paused. She realized that if a monster got the jump on her and took out Eira, she would be left vulnerable. That would not be good at all. She would probably get bonus points if she accounted for this situation.

The issue is that she had no idea how to do that, except get better at summoning things. She could simply fight herself using her chainsaw, but it’s obvious that she could get overwhelmed very quickly.

It was a bit of a half-hearted response, but she decided to write that she could fight off any monsters by herself. The main thing is that even if she won, she would be set behind in time, and the prompt stated that this mission was urgent. She did not know if she had enough time in this scenario to stop and fight monsters, so she wrote that she would get it done as fast as possible.

She sighed. She hoped that she would think of a better answer later, but for now she kept on pushing through the test.

The question after, was once again, simple. It was rescuing a kitten from a tree. She’s read about these kinds of scenarios before. There was no reason to be fancy here, she would just use Viridia’s vines to bring down the kitten in a gentle manner. She thought that overcomplicating it had a strong chance of putting the cat in danger.

The fourth question seemed to be about dealing with criminals. With people, it was a lot more complicated. They can be more erratic than with monsters, and there are a lot of scenarios you’d need to consider. According to the text, they were robbing from a bank, and had taken multiple hostages. This was probably the most tricky question, because simple solutions would cause collateral damage.

It was also difficult to do this alone. However, she was uniquely suited for this. If she could command one of her summons to subdue the robbers while she spoke and distracted them, then there would likely be minimal damage involved. Viridia or Eira would be the best suited for this, as they could quickly incapacitate a criminal.

The last question seemed to be a leadership question. A group of five guards were stationed on the edge of the City of Battle, and they saw an oncoming threat. If you were the leader, what would you command the guards to do?

A strong person needed to take charge in this scenario. Though, they also needed to make sensible decisions as well. Adelyn figured that her answer needed both of these aspects, so when she put the pen to paper, she thought of a few answers.

Quick, and encouraging. She will tell them to remember what they have learned, and then assign a pair to alert the main force. She herself will be focused on receiving updates and observing the threats, so that she could adapt quickly.

Order the weapons to be available, and guard any specific weak points in the walls. Do not attempt to provoke it unless necessary. If it was particularly destructive, then we would try to lead it away from the city as soon as possible however.

The more Adelyn thought about it, the more small decisions came to her mind. She would need to account for all of them. She kept on writing and writing. Until, she reached the end of the page.

That was it. She had no more room to write. She looked around her, and people began handing in their test. Adelyn supposed it was her time to do the same, so she raised her hand and handed in her test.

Shortly after, everyone finished. Ed and Cozy came towards her, and Cozy looked pretty satisfied with herself. Ed, not so much.

“Did you guys do good?” Adelyn asked.

“Eh, we’ll see,” Ed said, noncommittally.

“There’s still the magical showcase, so don’t worry,” Adelyn said. “Do you guys have any ideas for what you’re doing for it?”

“Well,” Cozy thought for a moment. “I figure that if they already tested combat capability and strategy. I think they’re just looking for power with the last one. Or at least, something big.”

Adelyn held her chest for a second. She had a few big things, but there was one that she got recently that she wanted to show off.

“I’m just gonna unleash as much as I can. I would suggest you do the same, Ed,” Cozy continued.

“Yeah. I figure,” Ed responded. It was not long until the group began to get called for said showcase. However, unlike the previous challenges, they were not separated into groups this time. All of them would perform in front of the governor face to face.

They were ordered in a circle, and were pretty close to the front.

“Once you are called. Simply perform your best, that is all,” the governor said. Despite it not being properly grouped like the previous challenges, Wendy and Elaina ended up standing near the trio.

“Hey. How did you do on the test?” Elaina asked Cozy, who was standing behind Adelyn.

“Fine,” Cozy said. “Did you struggle or something?”

“What? No. I was just wondering.”

“Well, if you have any common sense. I think I will be seeing you in bracket. That way we can get a proper rematch.”

“Gladly.”

Adelyn wondered how these two seemed to get into a struggle so quickly, but it was beyond her focus. In-front of her was Ed, whose turn it was to perform his own magic for the showcase.

Adelyn watched, as the boy headed in front of the governor and her guards. He placed on his mask, and a flash of glowing yellow light enveloped his body. He summoned his luminous sword and then sliced through space.

The hole raised into the air, and rained down a set of light arrows in the circle around Ed. Eventually, they dissipated, and Ed gave his bow. The judges applauded after every round, so nobody knew exactly how well they performed.

But hopefully, Adelyn’s performance would be stellar.

She walked forwards to the judges, using his telekinesis to carry her book in one hand and her chainsaw in the other. With that, her book opened.

Magical energy flowed through her body, she imagined the gift of nature that was given to her. The strongest creature of Verdant, and the present from the Governor of Nature. An ethereal force rose from the ground. Three massive heads slowly elevated themselves into the sky.

“With nature as my heart and the woods as my guide, I call the strongest beast to life!”

She realized she needed to make up a quote to sound more impressive. It was a little bit embarrassing that she had to come up with one on the spot because she was not thinking about the coolness factor until she stepped forward. Hopefully, it was good enough.

The Flourishing Hydra stood behind Adelyn, its massive frame and glowing eyes stared down at the governor. A massive roar was let out throughout the building, as the entire ground shook.

It shook the ground a little bit too hard, actually. She noticed multiple people fall to the ground from the effect. She hoped they were fine though.

She called off her summon, dissipating it into a glittering light. After that, she attempted to do a curtsy. Unfortunately, legs could not pull herself back up and she fell on her knees after doing that.

“Agh… nngh-” Adelyn took a deep breath. That summon used a lot of her energy all at once. She felt a bit dizzy even, and tired. That was an all-out move, maybe using that all the time wouldn’t be a good idea. However, the audience and the judges still gave a grand applause at the sight. Even with the momentary tiredness, she felt pretty confident that she aced this tryout.

Adelyn pushed herself up, and stumbled towards the exit door alongside Ed. The boy let her lean on him, as they waited for Cozy to complete her presentation. With this, they only had one more challenge ahead of them. The tournament itself.