The Beginning Ch. 21-22

Pushing my augmentation even higher, to 60%, started draining my Power reserves faster, but I knew that time and speed were of the essence. Pumping more magic into my shield spells, I figured that surprising them was my only move.

I shifted my grip to hold my quarterstaff around the center, swinging it up to nestle it below my left arm. Keeping it flush with my body, I zoomed towards the Gazelle-Bonded Wielder, rushing past his extended polearm and well within his guard. He wasn't quick enough to match or exceed my own augmentation, and seemed to move in slow motion as he drew his polearm back to try and defend against me.

Using that precious difference to my advantage, I executed a quick three-strike with my quarterstaff, hitting him between the legs, on the head, and then spinning around to get him squarely in the abdomen. My last hit, augmented as it was, broke through his weakened shields, sending him skidding across the floor as I dropped my augmentation back down to 33%, which synchronized me with the rest of the group.

Not affording him the chance to recover, I jumped towards him, brining my quarterstaff through an overhead swing, aimed squarely at his torso. I could feel his bones shatter as I made contact, the pain knocking him out and disqualifying him.

I was suddenly launched into the air, a titanic impact severely depleting the shields on my right side. Pushing myself into a tumble, I saw that the Rhinoceros had made contact with me, and that his Wielder was just a blur, obviously having augmented himself higher than I currently was. As I watched, the Wielder vanished from my sight, which meant that he had augmented himself even further.

Before I could come up with a plan to counter, I was clutched in another set of talons. Looking up, I was relieved to see that it was Mahala's Falcon. I looked around for Auset and Mahala as the Falcon dove lower with me, but I couldn't see them either. Trusting that they weren't trying to eliminate me just yet, I went along with what the Falcon was doing, though I had no real idea what I was in for.

The Falcon pulled up shortly before we crashed into the ground, using the built-up energy from that braking motion to shoot me forwards like a bullet. Thinking quickly, I ramped my augmentation up, till I could see Auset and Mahala clearly at 43%. They were fighting the remaining three Wielders from the original group, Auset's Hawk running interference with the other Companions, but I still couldn't see the Rhinoceros or his Wielder anywhere.

It took pushing my augmentation up to 78% for him to appear, rushing towards Auset and Mahala's open flank, alongside his Companion. I had always wondered whether Companions could be augmented as well, but that was the moment that I found out. I would later learn that augmenting a Companion takes a lot more Power than augmenting yourself, which is why most people opt not to do it.

My current trajectory would actually have me crash into the three Wielders the girls were holding off, but I knew that doing so would only leave them open to being taken out by the charging Rhinoceros. Ignoring every instinct in my body that told me not to do so, I pushed my augmentation up to 88%, everyone and everything else around me now moving in slow motion. This actually caused me to shoot right past the group, avoiding them altogether, and skidding to a stop away from them.

Jumping up to my feet, I pushed myself to 93% augmentation, noting that my Power reserves were down to 76%, and dropping fast. I quickly drew a fire spell from my pouch, attaching it to the leading end of my quarterstaff. Reinforcing my shields and dropping my reserves down to 74%, I took off in a beeline towards the Rhinoceros-Bonded Wielder.

Just like before, I managed to get inside his guard before he noticed. Dropping my augmentation to 78% to synchronize with him, I let my quarterstaff make contact with his chest, before powering up and unleashing my spell. A plume of fire exploded from my staff, throwing me backwards even as it overpowered his shields and hit him square in the chest. I crashed to the floor again, rolling to my feet as quickly as I could, only to see him lying on the floor, smoke wafting up from his chest.

I rushed over to make sure that I hadn't killed him, but to my relief, he was still breathing, but unconscious. His chest and stomach were covered in scorch marks, and if his robes hadn't been fire-proof, they would have burned right off him. My reserves were down to 71%, and Mahala and Auset seemed to have knocked out two more of their attackers, leaving only one facing them.

Looking around as I dropped down to 43% augmentation, I saw that there were only seven other Wielders left, all of whom were engaged in another group brawl. I synchronized with Auset and Mahala just in time to see them deal with their last attacker, leaving only the three of us from that group standing.

Through unspoken consent, we banded up to attack the last group of seven Wielders, and honestly, we made quick work of them. It was only Mahala and myself left in the end, but she'd expended much more Power than I had, and decided that it was better to forfeit to me, rather than leave herself with even lower reserves for the next set of battles. Since my own reserves were at 69% by then, I was only too happy to oblige.

The results of the first round had myself and Rayka ranking amongst the top forty-five-thousand Wielders. Auset, Mahala, Sylvia, and Idris were amongst the top fifty-thousand and all proceeded to the next round, as well. The twins, unfortunately, had both been eliminated early— to Vaishnavi's hidden delight and my relief— and wouldn't be fighting in the Proving any longer.

While the defeated were seen to by the Healers, the victors had to choose whether to heal themselves or conserve their Power and fight on despite their injuries. The objective was to mimic an actual day of battle against the Darks. Since I'd only sustained minor scrapes and cuts, I decided that it'd be better to heal myself before the afternoon's round of battles.

While I was overjoyed that Rayka had won and placed highly as well, it just made me aware that I might have to face off against her and Tesoro at some point. Even though we'd been together for quite a while, the two of us had never so much as sparred, so I honestly had no idea what she was capable of on the battlefield.

If I'd had it my way, I never would have found out. As always, however, life had other plans. They wouldn't come to fruition for a while, but hey, a bit of foreboding never hurt anyone!

*****

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