Chapter 4: Tournament

    In good bureaucratic fashion, the workers managing the staging area were supernaturally inefficient.  In the thirty minutes that Deklos had been waiting in line, not one new match had been started due to some holdups in paperwork.  Apparently, one of the winners from the lower brackets couldn't get his paperwork processed readily because he did not have any proof that he was an archwizard.  For the past half an hour, the man had tried to make the workers in charge of the staging area understand that he did not need proof that he was an archwizard because he had won all his matches in the lower brackets, thus making him eligible to compete against the archwizards.  Eventually, the manager cleared up the confusion by showing the workers the current results of the tournament along with the listing for the office betting pool on the tournament.  This somehow made the paperwork completely in order as the worker realized that he had won three times what he had originally bet.  After this minor incident, the staging area began to work smoothly again.

    As he waited in line, Deklos reviewed the variety of battle tactics that he planned to employ in his matches.  He knew that the tactics he had employed while learning the craft of combat magic would be expected, so relying mostly on magic that directly damaged his opponents was mostly out of the question.  However, he would easily lose if he relied on just one set of tactics, so he kept the direct damage strategy in the back of his mind for future use.  Most of the battles he had watched so far also relied on traditional tactics, so until he was at the front of the line Deklos thought of odd ways to use the spells that he could cast at almost a moment's notice.  At last, he was at the front of the line, and the worker directing wizards to the appropriate rooms called him forward.

    "Name?" the worker asked in a monotone.

    "Archwizard Deklos."

    "Hmm...lets see here..." the worker said to himself as he read the list in search of Deklos' name, "Ah, here you are.  You're thirty minutes late for your match.  Proceed to combat room 127 in the north wing.  You'll be competing against Archwizard Tierth in this match."

    Deklos walked out of the staging area wordlessly.  He knew very well that he was probably thirty minutes late for his match, and he also knew that the government employees managing the staging area were responsible for it.  He walked toward the north side of the Registration Hall, looking for the appropriate door to the north wing.  After a few more minutes of searching, he found the entrance cleverly hidden between the stalls for two artifact merchants.  As he entered the north wing of the tournament hall, he thought about his upcoming match.

    'Archwizard Tierth, huh...who is that?  Let's see, there aren't any professors named Tierth that teach combat or tactical magic, and he certainly isn't a professor of applied magic.  That leaves...theory.  My first match is against a mage who spends more time in his office coming up with ideas than in the lab testing spell variations.  Great, just great.  At least this will be an easy match...lets see here...room 125...127...I'm here.'

    A man, who Deklos recognized as a professor of combat magic at the university who had retired a number of years ago, stood in front of the doorway to room 127.  At first, Deklos thought that this might actually be Archwizard Tierth, but then he realized that retired archwizards tended to judge the matches in the tournament.  Deklos looked at the man for a few moments before speaking up.

    "I'm Archwizard Deklos," he said to the older man, "I believe I have a match here?"

    The older wizard simply looked at him and said, "You're late."

    "I know, I know," Deklos began, "Paperwork and such at the staging area."

    "Oh," the other said in response, "well then, you might as well get started.  Tierth is inside waiting for you to show up right now."

    With this said, the ex-professor opened the door to the combat room and entered.  A man who looked a few years older than Deklos stood at the far end of the room.  He wore the dark blue robes of an archwizard, and on his chest lay a silver medallion with a book engraved on it, indicating that he was indeed an archwizard of magic theory.  The man was of average height for a denizen of the Dark Lands, and had short brown hair that looked mostly unkempt.  He seemed to be starting at the ground, as though he were lost in thought.  The voice of the ex-professor woke the wizard from his reflection.

    "Archwizard Tierth, your opponent has finally arrived.  Are you ready for your match now?"

    "Of course, of course," the archwizard said a bit sleepily before yawning.

    "Archwizard Deklos, please stand in the red square on the side of the room opposite your opponent," the old wizard commanded.  Once Deklos had complied, the man spoke up again, "All right, when I close the door to the room, that's your signal to begin."

    Both combatants nodded toward to the ex-professor who would judge their match.  The judge, seeing this, turned around and walked out of the room.  Once he closed the door, both archwizards began preparing spells.  Tierth was the first to finish up his spell, a fireball that flew toward Deklos.  Deklos hurriedly finished up his own spell, and managed to create a pale green barrier before the fireball hit him.  The fireball, however, changed its course at the last minute, splitting into two smaller fireballs as it did so.  Each fireball stayed on a course parallel to the ground, and flew in an arc around Deklos.  The fireballs' paths met once they were behind Deklos, and became a single fireball again before striking Deklos' back.  There was a minor explosion accompanied by smoke as the fireball hit its target.  When the smoke settled, Deklos stood where he was, unscathed.  His barrier spell was sphere shaped and surrounded his entire body, so it protected him from his opponents spell.

    By the time his opponent could see what had happened, Deklos had already prepared his second spell.  He simply smirked and pointed at Tierth, sending a beam of yellow light in his opponent's direction.  The beam traveled quickly, and struck Tierth before he could react.  However, nothing seemed to have happened.  Tierth grinned when he realized that he was unharmed, and began to gather element for a barrier spell of his own.  A few moments later, a frustrated look appeared on the man's face, and he began to gather element again.  After a few tries, a look of helpless defeat came over the man's face.

    "Alright, you win," he said to Deklos, "Still, I managed to actually get one of my new spells off this time."

    "Okay..." Deklos said with a bit of a frown on his face, "That was quick.  Still,  you did a good job.  I haven't seen anyone due something like that with a fireball spell before."

    "Uh...thanks," Tierth said, not quite knowing how to take what Deklos had just said.

    Before either could say anything else, the judge opened the door and walked into the room.

    "Deklos," the ex-professor said in commanding tone of voice, "Report back to the staging area in ten minutes or so for your next match.  Tierth, you can go home now.  Your matches are over."

    With that said, the judge turned around and left the room, presumably headed for the staging area to report the results of the match.  Both Deklos and Tierth followed him out of the room and into the hallway.  The three of them returned to the Registration Hall wordlessly.

* * *
    The next match wouldn't be for a while, so Deklos took some time to grab a bite to eat.  He hadn't eaten anything since leaving his house, and it was now starting to approach the middle of the day.  Since he wouldn't have time to eat a full meal for lunch, Deklos bought a small loaf of bread and a cup of tea from one of the merchants selling food.  He ate this snack while he waited for his name to appear on the board listing the matches that would start soon.

    While he waited, he watched those lined up by the staging area.  Most of them wore dark blue robes like his own, though a few black robes and one or two gray robes were seen in the crowd as well.  Deklos knew that those wearing the gray robes were mages who didn't receive training at the university, but it took him a while to remember what kind of person wore a black robe.  Then it struck him: Magi.  Those wearing the black robes were the leaders of the Dark Lands.  The thought that he might compete against mages of that caliber startled him at first, until he remembered that his entire purpose in coming here was to defeat one of them. 

    As Deklos thought about robe colors and the Magi, the government lackey who had registered Deklos for the tournament changed the names on the board listing upcoming matches.  As befitting a proud bureaucrat, the man took his time doing the task, even going as far as taking a coffee break in the middle of the job.  When he had finished, Deklos saw his name on the board once more.  He returned his cup to the vendor that had sold him the tea, and then proceeded to the staging area to be directed to this next match.


* * *
    This time around, those in charge of operating the staging area were much more efficient in getting people through the line.  This time, Deklos only experienced a ten minute wait while waiting for the unmotivated government workers to process paperwork.  They probably would have taken longer had not a magus politely asked them to hurry it up so that he wouldn't have to use them as a target to dispose of a fireball with.  Since Deklos had made it to the staging area on early this time, the ten minute delay would serve to make him merely on time.

    "Name?" a worker inquired as Deklos stepped forward to get the information about his next match.

    "Archwizard Deklos," he replied.

    The worker looked at his list for a few seconds before turning back to Deklos and saying, "Sorry, your not on the list.  Next!"

    "Wait a minute," Deklos interrupted, "I do have a match coming up.  My name was on the board.  Check the list again."

    "Fine, fine," the government worker grumbled as he checked the list, "Eh?  Where'd this come from?  Your name's on the list this time.  Your next match is in room 110 in the south wing."

    "Thank you," Deklos all but spat at the employee.

    Deklos walked out of the staging area and headed toward the south wing.  The entrance to the hallway where the combat rooms could be found was much easier to find this time.  He walked into the hallway and began to look for the room he would be fighting in.  As he passed the first door on the right, he noticed that the pair of mages he had seen earlier that had been insulting each other instead of dueling were still at it.  Shaking his head, Deklos continued in search of his room.

    Near the very end of the hallway, Deklos found room 110.  In front of it two people were standing: an older gentleman who was very likely the judge, and one of the professors from the Tactical Magic department at the university.  The archwizard that he was going to duel soon wore a dark blue robe much like Deklos', and wore a single silver medallion around his neck.  The medallion was engraved with a picture of an arrow surrounded by flames, indicating that the man held the title of Archwizard of Tactical Magic.  He also wore a pair of cloth casters' gloves and a bracelet of some sort.

    "Ready for a duel?" Deklos called out to the two.

    The archwizard simply stared at him, and the judge muttered something that sounded like "Finally..."

    The judge opened the door to the combat room, and both archwizards followed him inside.  The room was equipped with far more shielding artifacts than the other rooms that Deklos had seen thus far, causing an alarm to go off in his head.  Usually, large numbers of shielding artifacts were not needed for duels unless a large amount of offensive magic was expected to be thrown around.  Since he had given no one a reason to expect such a thing from him, this indicated to Deklos that there was a good chance that his opponent relied on offensive magic.  On the other hand, it could just be that this room was equipped with those artifacts before an earlier duel, and they were simply never removed.  Just to be safe, Deklos pulled his leather caster's gloves and put them on.

    "You probably know the rules.  When I leave the room, the duel starts," the judge said to both combatants.

    In response, both of the archwizards nodded to him and watched carefully as he left the room.  When the door closed, both wizards started gathering element for their spells.  Deklos closed his eyes and didn't move, while his opponent held out both hands in front of him and concentrated on the patterns on his caster's gloves.  Deklos opened his eyes before his opponent finished casting, but nothing seemed to have happened.  Flames began to form in front of Deklos' opponent, but Deklos ignored this and held both hands in front of him, much like his opponent was doing.  As Deklos began concentrating on his own next spell, the flames that his opponent was forming leaped forward and engulfed the half of the room where Deklos stood.  Smoke and flame prevailed for a time, but when they cleared Deklos stood where he was, unscathed and still casting a spell.  A wispy green glow appeared around him for a second before disappearing entirely as the flames dissipated.

    A look of shock appeared on the face of Deklos' opponent.  He hadn't seen the barrier spell that Deklos had somehow cast, so his flame spell fell short.  However, the man quickly recovered and ran to the side of the room as far from Deklos as possible, all the while seeming to be casting a spell using his caster's gloves again.  Before the man could reach the other side of the room, however, Deklos finished his spell.  A yellow beam of light flew across the room toward the other archwizard.  At the last second, the man moved to the side, and the yellow beam of light harmlessly collided with one of the walls.  A few moments later, darkness covered the room, preventing Deklos from seeing his opponent.

    Deklos began preparing another spell this time, though without the caster's gloves this time.  A glove of while light appeared in front of him, and slowly began to grow.  A few moments later, the glove flew to the center of the room and began to expand, banishing the black fog.  Before Deklos could see where his enemy was, however, a wave of small rocks emerged from his globe of light, flying straight toward him.  Deklos braced himself.  The spray of gravel hit his shield head on, and Deklos had to concentrate completely on maintaining his barrier.  A few of the rocks got through, though, tearing Deklos' robe in places and cutting his face and hands.  When Deklos could see again, he found his opponent standing at the other end of the room and preparing another spell.

    'This cannot go on,' Deklos thought, 'I'm just a target if I'm this far away from him, and one of those wide area spells will eventually get through my barrier.  Wait! What if...'

    With that thought, Deklos began casting another spell.  He gathered wind element and shadow element to himself and began crafting a spell.  His opponent saw this.

    "That won't work," the other archwizard shouted across the room, "I can beat down your barriers eventually.  Give up!"

    Deklos merely smirked as he put the finishing touches on his spell.  A faint green glow engulfed him for a moment before disappearing from sight.  Then, he disappeared from sight.  The other archwizard laughed, and began to gather a large amount of water element.  Before he could form it into a spell, however, Deklos appeared in front of him for a second before disappearing again.  The archwizard of tactical magic took a step backward in surprise, but found his back against a wall.  Deklos reappeared, and one of his hands shot out...and the other archwizard found a blade of magical ice at his throat.

    "Give up?" Deklos said with a laugh, "No, you give up!  You're the one who's trapped now."

    For a second that spanned eternity, nothing happened.  The two archwizards simply stared at each other, neither moving a muscle.

    "No!" The other archwizard shouted as he pushed Deklos back, "I will win!"

    Just after the word "win" escaped the man's throat, the blade of ice reappeared, this time embedded in the man's chest.  He gasped for air, and sunk to his knees.  The door to the room opened and the judge rushed in, preparing a healing spell as he ran.

    "Either help me heal this man, or leave!" the judge shouted at Deklos.

    Deklos turned his back to his defeated opponent and left the room.

* * *
    An archwizard in a slightly torn blue robe sat on a stone bench in the Registration Hall, sipping a cup of tea as he waited for his next match.  The line in front of the staging area had certainly died down by now, so he expected that he was very likely approaching the final rounds of the tournament.

    'I never thought that a spell I used for crafting artifacts would end up becoming so useful in combat,' Deklos thought as he waited, 'I wonder if I should have made the blade duller, though?  I might have killed the guy if I stabbed him in the wrong place.  Still, that would be a good spell to make some additional variations of for combat use.  The next round should be much more difficult, so I should probably keep that in mind.  Since I was beaten so badly when I stood still to cast, maybe I should be more mobile next round and stick to my fast spells...'

    Deklos saw some movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see what it was.  Someone was going around changing the signs that listed the upcoming matches.  He waited patiently for the man to finish his task, and then read the board nearest to him.  At the top of the board, the words "Semi-Finals" could be seen in large, bold print.  Just below this were the details of the final matches.  Apparently, all of the matches in the Semi-Finals and Finals would take place in the main arena on the western side of the building.  All combatants were to report to either the north or south waiting room.  Below this was a list of names, ordered in pairs.  About halfway down, Deklos found a line that read:

Archwizard Deklos - North            Lideus Magus - South

    He didn't move a muscle upon reading this.  Rather, Deklos stood staring at the sign for a few seconds in pure astonishment.  He knew that he was in the Semi-Finals, but to compete against a magus already?  After a few seconds, he returned to the real world.  Realizing that he was still staring at a sign, Deklos began to go look for a bench where he could sit and think for a while.  However, he stopped himself and instead decided to go to the north waiting room of the arena, and prepare for his upcoming match.

* * *
    The arena was stunning in both detail and scope.  The inner hallways were made from the same stone as the rest of the Tournament Hall.  However, this part of it seemed to be much more worn, as though it had existed here since people made their way to this immense underground labyrinth known as the Dark Lands.  The hallways were lined with tapestries depicting great battles that had been fought in this place in the past.  Upon entering the inner parts of the arena from the Registration hall, three paths were available.  The first was an immense doorway -- though it was an opening almost too large to be called such -- that led to the stands where spectators could sit and watch the proceedings.  The other two paths were hallways that stretched out to the left and right.  These were actually one long passageway that ran the perimeter of the arena and connected to the north waiting room, the judge's booth, and the south waiting room.

    Deklos took the right passageway, and walked toward the north waiting room.  He mostly concentrated on thinking about the tactics and techniques he'd use in the upcoming match, but once in a while he'd let his gaze wander to the tapestries that lined the hallway.  For the most part, they merely depicted dueling mages wielding arcane powers, but a few disturbed him.  These few tended to depict a mage dying in an agonizing manner while another mage dressed in black looked on.  One that particularly made him nervous had a picture of a mage being impaled by gigantic lances of ice that shot forth from the hands of a black-robed magus.  After seeing this tapestry, Deklos looked at the floor until he arrived at the north waiting room.

    The waiting room fit in with the rest of the arena architecturally.  It was an immense room built from the same worn stone as the rest of the arena, though it had more furniture.  There were several benches and cots lying around the room, presumably for the conveniences of the mages waiting for their turn to fight.  In the corners of the room were a few practice dummies for those who wished to test their smaller spells.  A few mages were already here, waiting for their turn to fight.  Most of them wore the dark blue robes of the archwizard, though a few of them also wore black robes and one or two gray robes were also to be seen.  Deklos recognized a few people from the university, mostly professors who taught combat magic.  Each one of them, however, didn't interact with the others, instead concentrating on the upcoming matches.  Deklos did likewise.

    Most of the matches that took place in the arena took quite a while to finish.  The first few took over half an hour since they were mostly match-ups of archwizard fighting archwizard or magus fighting magus, battles among equals that were decided on the basis of tactics rather than raw power.  The few that involved an archwizard fighting a magus, however, were over quickly.  Most of the magi had held their position for quite a few years, so consequently they tended to practice quite a bit in order to maintain their positions of power.  Deklos waited uneasily, knowing that he would likely be dispatched within minutes seeing as he would be facing a magus.  Finally, his name was called.  Deklos walked slowly out of the room, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself.  He had never fought in front of so many people like this before.  Here, his very reputation was on the line.  Either he would bask in glory after defeating one of the magi, or else he would be disgraced before the very eyes of most of the populace of the Dark Lands.

    Deklos walked out onto the dirt field of the arena, trying his hardest to ignore the fact that he had so many onlookers.  At the far end of the field, he saw a black shape emerge from the shadows of the south waiting room: his opponent, Lideus Magus.  The magus seemed to move like a very wraith across the field, slowly and soundlessly.  His face was concealed by the hood of his robe, but it seemed to Deklos that glowing red eyes peered out from it.  Deklos fought against himself, struggling to maintain his ground and not give in to his fear.  Both contenders continued to walk toward the middle of the field.  Once they were both reasonably close to the center, one of the judges walked out to inform them of the rules for this match.

    "Alright, you probably both know the drill," the judge said, "But these are the rules that you must abide by when fighting in the arena proper.  Keep all your spells inside the arena.  Anyone whose spell gets into the stands is automatically disqualified.  No artifacts are allowed to be used.  The use of caster's gloves and caster's medallions is, of course, allowed.  Anything else is fair game.  The match begins once I return to the judge's booth and fire off a light spell.  Understood?"

    "Yes," both combatants replied.

    Upon hearing that, the judge walked back to the judges booth.  Deklos and Lideus watched each other closely, looking for anything that might betray a weakness.  A light spell rose from the judge's stand, and the duel began.  Deklos concentrated a moment, and cast a quick barrier spell like he had practiced earlier.  His opponent cast a barrier spell as well, though he used a caster's medallion for it.  The two of them seemed to make their next moves simultaneously.  Deklos shot out a beam of yellow light at his opponent, in an attempt to incapacitate him.  The magus shot a fireball at Deklos, and accidentally intercepted Deklos' spell.  The two spells didn't cancel each other out, however.  Instead, they fused together.  The fireball sat suspended in the air for a moment, a pale yellow glow surrounding it.  Then, the fireball began to shift, to become more solid.  As the yellow glow disappeared, the altered fireball fell to the ground, changing the dirt into a sea of lava.

    The two wizards ran away from the center, each preparing a different spell as they fled.  The magus acted first, summoning a wave of ice in an attempt to eliminate the pool of lava.  His spell did indeed work, but Deklos used this opportunity to cast a more complicated spell.  Deklos concentrated on his caster's gloves while his opponent created an ice spell, and finally pointed his finger at Lideus when he had finished.  Immediately, six glowing white spheres surrounded the magus.  Lideus tried to run out of the circle, but the spheres moved as he did.  The six spheres glowed for a second or two, and then began to emit beams of white light that homed in on the magus.  The beams of light struck his shield, each weakening it more until at last it shattered.  The next beam that shot at Lideus after his shield broke managed to nick the magus' robe.  While the beams had assaulted his shield, however, the magus had been preparing his own spell.  Shortly after his shield broke, a fog of darkness engulfed the spheres of shining light.  With a brief flash, the dark fog and the bright spheres disappeared together.

    Deklos had exerted most of his energy in managing the spheres of light, so when the spell was broken, he was no further ahead of his opponent toward the next attack.  He used one of his quick spells, and shot off a small hail of gravel in his opponent's direction.  His opponent easily dodged this, and continued forming a new barrier.  Seeing that he had some time before his opponent's next attack, Deklos began casting a slightly more complicated spell.  He glowed for a moment, and then disappeared.  In a semi-visible blur, he rushed across the field with his magically enhanced speed, forming an ice dagger as he ran.  He reached his opponent, reached out his hand and struck with the dagger.  However, the dagger did not meet the flesh of his opponent, but rather a wall of rock.  For a few seconds, Deklos stood there with his dagger of ice embedded in the shield of rock.  Rationality then returned to him, and he attempted to run off.  However, it was too late.  His legs became stiff as stone began to form around them, and within a few seconds he was unable to move his legs at all as the stone encasing rooted him to the spot of ground he now stood on.

    His advantage lost, Deklos hurriedly began to cast barrier spells and shields in a desperate attempt to block the Lideus' next attack.  In a flash, ice formed around his barrier and pressed in, threatening to crush him if he did not maintain his barrier.  He held his ground for five minutes straight, resisting the wall of ice with all he had.  As quickly as it had come, however, the ice disappeared.  In its place, flames engulfed him, and winds blew about turning the blaze into a firestorm that spun around him like a tornado.  In the midst of this, Deklos still held his barrier.  What happened next, however, shook him to the core.  As the fires raged all around him, he heard faint laughter.  The laughter grew louder, and for a second Deklos thought that the crowd was laughing at his expense.  However, he soon realized that only one voice laughed: a single maniacal voice laughing at his predicament.  The flames died down, and Deklos looked up across the battlefield.  His opponent stood there laughing like a madman.

   Fury took over Deklos' consciousness, and in anger he prepared a spell that he had developed while studying combat magic: the Midnight Flux.  Dark energy gathered around him, and he poured all of his energy into creating the spell.  Black bolts of power cracked in the air about him as he formed the raw element into its final form.  The infuriated archwizard held forth both of his hands, and cast the dark power at his enemy.  The energy disappeared from around Deklos, and reappeared around Lideus.  The energy formed a sphere around him, and darkness shot forth from the sphere to fry the magus inside.  After a few seconds, screams could be heard from within the black globe.  Then Deklos began the final phase of the spell.  He poured more dark element into the globe, causing it to swell in size and power.  The screams grew louder as he did this, driving him to further intensify the spell.  When the power in the spell reached its peak, the archwizard molded the spell into its final phase.  The immense sphere of darkness suddenly contracted, crushing the magus inside and engulfing him in its power.  Then, the darkness disappeared, and a battered body fell to the ground.

    Lideus' body lay there on the ground, motionless.  Deklos watched it for a few moments, and then cautiously walked over to it.  He had not intended to kill the man, but the laughter had made him snap.  He could not take it that the man had toyed with him like that, made him look like a fool as he desperately tried to maintain a simple barrier spell against the onslaught of elemental power.  But now, Deklos had won.  He had defeated a magus in a duel of magic, ensuring his place in the ranks of the magi.  As he walked over to the place where his opponent lay, Deklos looked up at the crowd, clenched his right hand into a fist, and thrust it into the air.  The crowd began to cheer him, the newcomer to the Tournament who had managed to defeat one of the most powerful wizards in the Dark Lands.  Deklos based in the praise of the people of the Dark Lands, and finally felt accepted for the first time in years.

    Finally, Deklos arrived at the body of the fallen magus.  He looked down, and saw the broken form of a man who wielded great power for years on end.  The broken body of a man who had his day in the limelight, only to have the limelight stolen by a newcomer.  Deklos looked at the body for a few more seconds, and then began to turn toward the judge's booth.  As he turned, though, a movement caught his eye.  He turned quickly to face the body of Lideus, and found the man looking at him with a smirk on his face.  Before Deklos could react, a yellow light slammed into him.  The crowd fell silent.  Deklos backpedaled, and began to gather element for a barrier spell.  However, no element would come.  Another beam of energy hit Deklos, throwing him to the ground.  His head slammed against the hard stone that lay beneath the dirt surface of the arena floor, and a loud crack rang in his ears.  He looked up one last time, and the grinning face of Lideus Magus was the last thing that he saw before losing consciousness.