A Magic Competition

It took until the afternoon for Ofstein to manage to organize a magic competition for anyone interested in ‘being flexed on by Sato’.

“Let us have a friendly competition,” Ofstein announced,
“YEAH!” Sato clapped infectiously, causing some of the mercenaries, mages of the Lira, levees, common folk, and the rest of the hero party to clap along.

“Thank you.” Ofstein also joined in the clapping. “The competition will be about endurance; whoever can hold a fireball the longest will be crowned the strongest mage of the army! Anyone interested in facing off the hero Sato-” Sato didn’t even need to be instructed as he waved to everyone as he stepped forward. “Please step forward!”

“Idalec, step forward if you dare.” Luna taunted Idalec as she stepped forward into the crowd of over two dozen people.

Idalec was thinking about it as Ofstein started forming everyone up into a line. “Pss, Idalec, you should go show them what someone studying at Roux is made of,” Prix whispered to Idalec,

“I guess I should.” Idalec agreed, stepping forward into the crowd of confident mages,

“I can probably hold my fireball for five minutes es-” “Five, get out of here if you don’t want to embarrass yourself!” “Who do you think’s coming in first?” “Sato? The real question is who’s going to be in second.” “I’m first!” “Nah- you're not even better than your neighbours.” Everyone kept joking around as General Ofstein walked around spacing people out, until he was satisfied,

“Everyone palms up! Your fireball has to be at least fist-sized to count on three! One!” Ofstein said as everyone raised their hands, or paw in Luna’s case, “Two!” Ofstein yelled, the crowd started cheering, and some mages started chanting, “Three! Fireballs up!”

Everyone cast their fireball within a couple of seconds of each other. Idalec looked around; most had been made nearly exactly fist-sized, Luna was showing off by making her nearly five times that size in diameter, and a few mercenaries and mages stepped up to match her.

“Make your fireball bigger, Idalec!” Prix cheered for Idalec, so Idalec obliged, increasing its size to be a hair bigger and brighter than Luna’s.

Not even a minute passed before everyone but Luna and Idalec had shrunken their fireballs back down to the minimum. “Sato, you have to increase your fireball’s size,” Ofstein said as Sato’s fireball was beginning to waver,

“I’m done.” Sato crumbled onto the ground in exhaustion to dozens of gasps. A couple more mages quit to go help Sato up and carried him off. The murmurs around the remaining mages started.

Doubt: “Do you think he was low on mana before?” “That’s crazy, the hero?” “That was the hero?” “Is our destiny already set?" “Well, things sure will be hard.”

But there were also whispers of excitement, of relief: “You know we already beat the hero.” “First place is mine~” “Haha, good luck with that!” “I beat the hero.”

Everyone kept joking around as nearly every ten seconds someone dropped their fireballs, sputtering out, or they simply became unable to maintain the minimum size.

“Five minutes have passed,” Ofstein announced as only six people, not including Idalec, were left; Luna, still among them, held her massive fireball. “These are our top seven… six.” fell to their knees panting,

Sato, having recovered, moved his hands up and down. “Six seven.”

“Yes, there are now six people left.” Ofstein confirmed, “You must make your fireballs at least the size of two fists or else you will be eliminated.”

The four mages who weren’t Idalec or Luna put in some more effort and increased their fireballs.

Within a minute, it was down to the top three: Luna, Idalec, and a large-looking man. His hands were violently shaking as Ofstein announced to the top three that everyone’s fireball must now be doubled in size again. “I’m dropping out,” he huffed, stopping his fireball from moving out of the line. “Well, we’re down to our last two. Luna and Idalec, I believe?” Ofstein asked,

“That’s right,” Luna smirked, her fireball growing to have a radius tall enough to reach her height. Idalec followed,

“Oh. Everyone, please stand back a little.” Ofstein said with a little bit of worry.

“I can go on for a long time, Idalec.” Luna sneered,

‘This is only about you, Revrho.’ Idalec looked over with a flat expression, which Luna misinterpreted as Idalec being on the verge of defeat. Ten more minutes passed, then another, and another. The crowd only grew with time as Luna and Idalec moved their fireballs above their heads to allow them to grow even bigger in size. At the hour mark, Luna crumpled onto the floor, her fireball going out moments before she lost consciousness. ‘A completely expected outcome.’ Idalec put out his own fireball and calmly walked over to Luna.

“Congratulations to Idalec Yeve!” Ofstein clapped as Idalec floated Luna off the floor,

“Thank you.” Idalec raised a hand to everyone before leaving to put Luna into his tent. ‘I always heard stories about these from my father. Before these competitions fell out of fashion.’ Idalec recalled his old life; these competitions had started to decline when breakthroughs had been made on the perpetual magic widespread. So these competitions ended up devolving into true tests of endurance where men would stand for days trying to see who would succumb to sleep first.

“That was impressive.” Prix ran over to Idalec, who had just finished laying Luna down into his tent.

“Thank you,” Idalec said, not feeling any sort of satisfaction in winning.

“You know.” Sato walked over, "Honestly if Luna hadn’t slammed my head into the table twice, I would have gotten last.”

“Sato! You were an embarrassment.” Prix turned on Sato as he approached. “People expected you to get first, maybe second, but you passed out first!”

“Sensei, can you teach me how you did that?” Sato bowed to Idalec. “I want to be just as based as you.”

“Master Sato, first trying to put water in a reed. That to Idalec is equivalent to teaching you how to understand what he did just now. The feel of Idalec’s magic simply exudes something different; I can feel the flow is utterly and fundamentally different from what you, Luna, or I. None of us can do as he can, so Master Sato, if I had to say, rest well and learn more.” Garia said, brushing her face afterwards.

‘That is well said.’ Idalec looked on at Garia. ‘Perhaps not as prolix, but she got the message across.’ “How about you learn from Garia for a bit, Sato?”

“Is sensei giving up on me?” Sato teared up,

“No, I just think it’d help you learn,” Idalec instructed.