At the front of the final group was the mage. How did Kat know she was the mage? Well it was because the person in question was a dwarf. A dwarf riding a floating metal disk, with several smaller disks orbiting her as she moved. Kat frowned at that. *I know that means she's a metal mage… but how does that work? Doesn't metal interfere with magic for the most part.*
[Not sure. Perhaps we can ask Nixilei?]
Kat thought that was a good idea, but before she followed up on the questions, Kat wanted to finish examining the dwarf woman in question. Her name would later be revealed as Romilda. She had an impressive chest for her size, and the robe she wore was cut low to reveal a deep valley of cleavage. Though… what was a bit strange, for Kat at least, was the beard that was excellently braided. Apparently, female dwarves do, or at least, can have beards.
Romilda's shoes seemed to be immovable metal bricks pretending to be footwear. Perhaps whatever magic let her float around on a metal disk helped her wear atrocious footwear but Kat could feel her feet hurting just looking at the woman. It also made the fact that Romilda was wearing robes somewhat confusing. The rules for metal mages really didn't make much sense at a glance.
So Kat decided that needed to be investigated. Extending her stride a bit to catch Nixilei, Kat asked, "So… how does metal magic work because… like…" Kat waved her hands over in Romilda's direction.
Nixilei squinted, her eyesight was good but not as good as Kat's was naturally. "Kat, I'm going to need a bit more information. I can't seem much through the team on the middle pier and none of them have metal magic from what I can tell,"
"Oh…" Kat looked over and found it so odd. She could focus on the furthest team without too much trouble despite Nixilei being correct. If her eyes were working purely based on what she could see as a human, then she'd be much more limited. Kat shook her head, determined to test that at some point later, "There's a dwarf floating around on a metal disk and I'm wondering how that works,"
"Ah," said Nixilei with a nod. "Right so… metal affinity. It's an annoying affinity that operates on its own rules. Summoning up metal is basically impossible for them, and this includes using it for normal spells. Instead, they have to completely saturate a piece of metal with their mana, and attune that metal piece to their whims. Then they imbue a spell into the metal, before retracting their mana.
"They can activate whatever spell is in the metal chunk later by filling it with mana. Based on what you've told me? I'd assumed that the disk is charmed to move according to the dwarf's mental commands. Perhaps it was made with multiple chunks, or they have a secret family technique to make the disk responsive. Or… I suppose they could be a Rank 3 mage, but that's unlikely considering the age limit on this tournament,"
"Makes sense," said Kat with a nod. "Though now I have to ask, why is it that they aren't wearing metal armour?"
"The bigger the piece of metal, the more mana it takes. My best guess is that they don't have enough mana to keep it imbued in armour and everything else. Metal that a metal mage has enhanced, but isn't currently trying to power will still suck in mana if it can, making it very hard to wear metal armour, and charge other metal. That's my best guess anyway," answered Nixilei.
Kat nodded, "I suppose that makes sense… though they have a few bits of metal circling them, and metal boots as well," explained Kat.
Nixilei frowned at that and said, "They must be powerful, or their family figured out something special. That's a lot of metal to be controlling so fluidly. There has to be some sort of limitation you're not seeing, or perhaps they have some way of providing extra mana to the metal, a crystal hidden somewhere perhaps?"
Kat shrugged, "I don't see any crystals. Is it a concern?"
Nixilei returned the shrug and answered, "Too early to tell,"
Kat accepted that answer for now and went back to examining the rest of the final team. Behind the dwarf was a human man with a pair of tonfas strapped to his waist. His name was Carl and would happily share that information with anyone who asked. His armour was made up of a mix of metal plates and leather strips. The upper half of his chest was guarded with metal, while the lower was just covered with leather. His arms had plates on the forearms, alongside metal pauldrons that sat somewhat awkwardly above his shoulders. Kat didn't think they would protect him from much.
His helmet was made out of leather with a metal cap over just the top for extra protection from overhead strikes. It looked a bit like a mess if Kat was being uncharitable. The fact his leg armour looked to have once had metal plates that had since been remove didn't help that impression at all. Any hair he might have was also tucked inside the helmet, but there didn't seem to be that much room up there so it was probably on the shorter side, and his eyebrows were black… but Kat had seen a number of people with black eyebrows and blonde hair, so that didn't necessarily mean anything.
Kat then moved on to the next person who had a sling as their weapon, not that Kat could see that right now. They had a bag on their back filled with heavy metal balls and the wrapped-up sling. Their name was Cyan, and they were a fae with hair to match their name. Cyan was a tall fae man… though he still wasn't as told as March. His armour consisted of light leathers that seemed to be fairly popular. Nothing else really stood out about him, and Kat couldn't even see his weapon to speculate on it.
So she turned to the next second last contestant. Another dwarf, and this one had a miniature cannon as a weapon. Kat had no idea how that was effective in combat, and Borgick, the crazy dwarf in question, wouldn't be revealing that secret before he had to. Of course, the answer was that Romilda would use his cannon to fire one of the floating bits of metal before pulling it back to them afterwards. Though Borgick's bag of black powder was plenty deadly by itself if you weren't immune to fire. Then again, nobody was completely immune to being smacked over the head with a couple hundred kilograms of stone and metal, which made it a surprisingly effective weapon.
Though weight of the whole ensemble did mean that plate armour was off the table. Borgick needed what mobility he could get because the cannon itself was already near his carrying capacity. As such, Borgick settled for some nice steal greaves and sturdy leather gloves alongside padded leather armour.
Then last, and potentially least, was an elven girl that had to be part dwarf. If she managed to reach five feet, Kat would eat her hat. Her name was Asteodia The girl was much thinner than the dwarves, but still stockier in the arms and especially legs. Her face was still made up of sharp lines, and her ears made it clear that she WAS an elf, regardless of her lacking height. Her hair was cut short and hung loosely around hair head and was a light brown that caught the light well.
Asteodia wore a magician's robe and carried a spear with a wooden tip. The elf in question hid her talent for fire magic well. No acting on the urge to burn things down, and the wooden spear was a reminder of her resolve not to give into pyromania, something that awakened in many a fire mage. It was mostly the fact that Asteodia's mother was a farmer with a healthy respect for the land that kept Asteodia's darker impulses in check. Good thing she never asked if ash was considered good fertiliser.
*An interesting team. Not really sure what to say about them though. There's just nothing that really jumps out at me combat wise, and I don't feel like commenting on the elf's height overly much. Ok no… I really want to ask what the fuck is up with the cannon. I mean… what good is it? Where is the ammo?*
[I'm guessing that he just hits people with it? If not… they might have a good storage ring somewhere?]
*Maybe? I don't think I saw any of them with jewellery on but I guess the metal mage could be hiding it somewhere, ready to bring it out once the fight starts.*
Lily indicated towards the fae with the sling, not that Lily knew that. [Maybe Blue Hair has the ammo? I mean, that's what the bag's for right?]
Th𝗲 most uptodate novels are published on free(w)ebnov(e)l.𝒄𝒐𝙢