Coven battle, start

Eventually, it came time for the face-off between covens. Yabei and Calli stood alone against 5 members of Onyx coven. Of their opponents, there was naturally Ema, along with an effeminate young man in sweats and a beanie, a black-haired girl in a matching black kimono and geta, a girl in full military attire with blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, and a short pudgy little man that looked like a dog.

"Just two first years? Talk about hard luck. I've got over 20, but rules prevent teams from being greater than 5. I guess as mercy we could allow second-years to participate, oh wait, that's just 1, right? 3v5, oh sucks to be you," Himesan gloated.

"How about we treat this like it's court and settle things outside. I got money," Shuna snarled.

"Sh- She's selling us out before it's even started!" Yabei thought.

"Oi, oi, we need to be fair, right teach? They get to play a second year, so shouldn't we get to play one?" a young man with shoulder-length blonde hair smirked as he stepped forth.

"Ah, Yonson. An excellent point. Equality's all the rage here, so swap out with Pucci," Himesan snickered as she pointed at the pudgy-looking boy.

Shuna didn't even bother protesting, already thinking more about how to save herself once her coven presumably lost. Thus, the matchup was as follows. Onyx coven consisting of Yonson, Ema, Shoko, Aino, and Milez vs Misift coven consisting of Yabei, Calli, and Doku.

"I've been waiting for a rematch. I'm gonna kill you for what you did," Yonson snarled as he stared down Doku.

"Why should I have to face the same opponent? I'm interested... in the new talent," Doku mumbled.

A vein burst on Yonson's head. "I'll kill your girl."

"Try. You won't."

"Doku!"

"That weak ugly hairless whore? She'll be dead in seconds."

Clack!

Everyone turned to Shoko. "Do "shut up" as they say... We require... silence."

"And I'd like it if you'd actually wear something more suited for battle. The hell are you going to fight in that dress!? And the wooden flops? Your feet are exposed," Aino glared.

"'Wooden flops'? Geta. And this is a kimono. Are you not Japanese!?"

"What gave you the impression I was?"

"Your name. Is it not Japanese?"

"Huh? Aino's Finnish, just like me."

"Then why are you here?"

"For the school. I need to learn all the advanced magic I can so I can become the top general of Finland."

Aino Sisu was a young noblewoman hailing from a family of Finnish generals. Born a woman, she felt the constant need to prove herself extraordinary in order to garner respect and admiration. Shoko Kujihan by comparison was a spoiled girl who was used to having everything served to her, and everyone she deemed beneath her to be at her beck and call. Both her and Aino were highly nationalistic though, towards their respective countries.

"Break, plz. We um, got to be co-op," Milez pleaded.

"Yeah, we blow this because you two fight each other, I'll invoke the downgrade policy to ensure you're both dumped into Misfit coven as spoils of war," Himesan glared.

Shoko and Aino went quiet immediately. As part of every battle, the winning coven had the opportunity to choose any and all members of the losing coven to become part of their coven. However, with Misift coven, no one would ever choose to poach their members, nor had Misfit coven ever won a match and had the ability to poach strong students.

"Where is that hairless four-eyes?" Ema snarled.

"Missing. Probably fled in fear of losing," Shuna growled.

"Not like we'd want to poach someone that wants to abolish the nobility, but if we could poach her, our coven would be able to hand her off to the priestess order, yes?"

Himesan scowled as she went into thought. "Not outright, but say we take a field trip outside TIUMP's borders, and we run into the priestess order..."

"You talk in big assumptions. The bald... is smart," Doku mumbled.

"Oi, no talkin' back to the teach, trash," Yonson snarled.

"And what is the beef between you two?" Calli whispered.

"... Single combat... We fought, I won, he was poisoned for half the year and nearly held back. Insignificant," Doku stated.

"You piss me off. I had to pay up a good fraction of the family fortune to advance! All because you used some illegal deadly poison!" Yonson stammered.

"Your fault for being weak."

"I ALMOST DIED, YOU FUCK! But this time, when we win, I'm gonna lynch your ass in town square."

"Uh, isn't killing forbidden?" Yabei trembled.

"Technically, but who's to say a student going "all-out" might be too much for the teachers to handle, leaving us unable to use our magic to prevent any deaths from occurring," Himesan shrugged.

Yabei began to sweat profusely.

"Now enough chit-chat, everyone, positions."

The teams hopped on the hovering platforms of stone that spawned and were flown off to opposite ends of the field.

"Time limit is 30 minutes, whichever team's got more players standing by the end, wins. Any strategy is valid, we, the school are not liable for any serious injury or accidental death. Oh, but don't just sit around and do nothing for the entire duration. If all players are still standing, we'll tiebreak by assessing which team has sustained the least amount of damage. If everyone's perfectly fine, Misfit coven wins by default as they are the weaker coven. Now, begin!"

"You hear the teach? If we don't rough em up, we lose. What a "cruel" world," Yonson snickered as he began charging for Misfit's side of the field.

The Misfits meanwhile, began huddling.

"So we have any idea what magic those guys use?" Calli asked.

"That guy can use magic? I took him out before he could cast a spell," Doku mumbled.

"Of course you did! I sure as hell didn't study anything, so Miss oh so great noble, care to impart your wisdom?" Calli growled.

"N- No... I- I keep my wisdom to myself, peon!" Yabei trembled.

In truth, she had no idea either, but sure as hell wasn't going to reveal the fact.

"Great. And thanks to that last rule, they're going to attack us, not like they wouldn't anyway. Anyone have a strategy besides "swing sword"?"

"I... uh, used my magic to curse this field with an array... of traps..."

"Where are they?"

"Well, just be careful about fighting in that area," Yabei scoffed as she nervously pointed off a little ways.

"Oh, how kind. So that means we just have to destroy you here," Shoko snickered as she and Aino suddenly appeared behind everyone.

"H- How- GAH!"

"A kick to the face! Now we could just retreat and put up a barrier to win by default. What say we do that?" Shoko smirked.

"That buffoon is charging over. If he triggers a trap, that could spoil our strategy on the spot," Aino snarled as she unleashed a blade of wind towards the area Yabei had pointed to, triggering an explosion. "Landmines? I'll have those taken care of in seconds. Shoko, you can solo them, yes?"

A red rope slowly spawned from Shoko's fingertip. "Asking me to whip the peons? Humiliating is a hallmark noble duty after all," she snickered as she cracked her newly created rope like a whip.