Like the ancient gladiators in ancient Rome, Dahila entered the battlefield with a menacing look on her face, and with a confident stance. Her team mates cheered her on, along with other visiting members from their school. But Dahila didn't acknowledge anyone of them. In Fact, in her own mind, she was the only one there. She was used to being the star in any situation so it wasn't hard for her to maintain this state of mind that basically put her in the spotlight.
It was noon day, and the sun was at its zenith and high up in the sky. The battleground had been transformed from an ordinary field into a true battlefield by the reason of the live battles that had been held here by the previous contenders. Parts of the ground had been scorched, burned, pulled out or maligned. The stench of sweat and blood soaked up the ground. Dahila was a bit disgusted and wished she had been called up much sooner to battle.
But she turned up her nose, and decided to focus. Her enemy was a big burly lad with cropped blond hair. He must have been at least five foot eleven, if not six foot tall. He looked like a man by all standards, but he was just an overgrown fowl that had been overfed like a dairy animal for slaughter. Of course Dahila saw all this, and already knew how the fight was going to end up.
She made up her mind there and then not to go easy on him. She planned to be over with this really quickly. She was going to hit him hard and fast, without giving him any opportunity to fight back or recover. The battle started with Dahila rushing towards the burly lad, the boy thought she wanted to start with a hand to hand combat and smiled gleefully. He thought she was making a big mistake and therefore prepared to destroy her. But it was he who was making the big mistake of underestimating her.
Dahila's magical attribute was ice, and it always neutralized all other magical attributes. But this time, she had invented a new and creative way to use her ice magic for close range assaults. As she drew near to the boy, with her eyes focused like that of a vipers, her balled fists that looked very ordinary suddenly froze up and turned into burning cold hard ice that could be likened to liquid nitrogen.
When the boy finally caught on that her fists were now rocks of ice, it was way too late for him to even launch any kind of counter with magic. After all, he had assumed this attack was going to be a hand to hand type that was totally devoid of magic. Boy was he wrong. Dahila's iced up fist slammed head first into his jaw automatically dislodging about half a dozen teeth in that side of his mouth.
The boy couldn't believe how destructive the force of the punch was. He felt like he had been gored by a bull, only in the form of an iced wrist. The pain was excruciating, but Dahila wasn't even close to being done. With her other wrist poised and ready for action, just as the unfortunate fellow was falling down, she brought in the other one in an uppercut and smashed up his lower jaw.
The impact was so much that it defied gravity and temporarily uprooted him from the ground.
This was a monumental attack of a staggering propensity, because the young boy was already falling, and yet, somehow, the uppercut had managed to eject him from his own trajectory and shift him into a vertical projectile. In all this, Dahila still wasn't done yet.
The poor guy was still only half conscious in that moment, and that seemed to not be enough for Dahila. So, as he came crashing down to the earth, midair, she unleashed a blast of ice that knocked him out cold. Even before his body touched down on the ground, he had already fainted. It was all over in less than sixty seconds. Every single attack had landed home, and squarely hit the intended target on the boy's body.
Her speed had been nothing short of diabolic too. Definitely, the judges would be sure to take note of that when they would eventually begin their assessment. A roar of victorious cheer erupted from the stadium. Even those from other high schools cheered Dahila on. Truly it had been a fantabulous display. It was basically the most entertaining thing the crowd had seen all day. And it had all been over in under a minute.
Everyone clapped and clapped as they cheered her on. Except Calista. She had watched the whole battle and knew that Dahila's victory had been sealed the moment her opponent saw her as an ordinary girl. But that was all over now. Calista knew that her next opponent wouldn't be foolish enough to make that mistake. It was all hinged on how Dahila could shift her strategy to match the new challenge.
Calista wasn't bothered. She knew her student well enough to know she wouldn't lose.
Dahila fought two more opponents that day. And Calista was right. The next two had seen only a small fraction of what she was capable of, and they didn't take it easy with her at all. But Dahila was more than equal to the task. With the ferocity of a tigress, she fought bravely until she had vanquished all her opponents. Her ice magic proved to be very helpful against her enemies whose attributes had been earth and water respectively.
Sure, they had all demonstrated some level of creativity and skill in their individual battles against Dahila, but Dahila held her own together. She fought very seriously, not trying to put on a show or appear delicate. Ordinary high school students couldn't really stand a chance against her ice magic though. Nevertheless, she actually depleted a ton of mana during her fights. And by the time her third battle was over, she looked mentally and physically drained.
But she had given it her all. Also, no one really knew it, but another reason she had fought so hard was because she wanted to show Zavier just how powerful she was. She wanted him to see that he was powerful enough to join the organization. Hopefully, he had seen it all. Hopefully, he had been impressed. The echo of the applause all around her didn't matter the least to Dahila in that moment. The only thing she could think about was getting into the organization.
This second round was an elimination stage. So, each team could only compete once a day. So, Calista made the executive decision that was aimed at preserving the strength of the team. After Dahila's last match, Calista summoned the rest of the team together outside the venue.
"Alright students, huddle up. First off, I would like to say big congratulations to Dahila for making us and herself proud today. Good job there Dahila, not like we had any doubts, but good job all the same."
The others chorused their congratulations too. Calista continued;
"But that's not the reason I summoned you all here right now. As it stands, you all have no more business here. Our team's last match has been won by Dahila, so I want you all to go back your dormitories and rest up."
Someone groaned in complain; "But I would like to watch the rest of the matches, isn't it a good idea to scout out the fighting techniques of the others, just in case we end up fighting them?"
Calista knew where this was going, and expertly nipped it at the bud.
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to scope out your enemies. But we both know that what you really want to do is entertain yourselves some more. Yeah, nice try."
There was a slight giggle.
"I know you all, and I can proudly say as your lead teacher that I know you can take on any one of them out there. Don't worry, I will stay behind to gather the information about your potential opponents. But in the meantime, I need you all to go back and rest. Understood?"
"Yes ma'am!"
And with that, Calista dismissed them and sent them off to rest.
Calista had good intentions. Her desire was that everyone got enough rest for the rest of the day, it was a noble thing to wish for her students. But unfortunately, as was the case with all rebellious high school teenagers, they all decided to go anything but rest. This was actually funny because, if Calista had commanded them to do something academic (in nature) to pass time away, they would have opted for rest instead. However, as teenagers, they were always prone to do the exact opposite.
A couple of hours later, much like the others, Zavier also had other plans of his own. And none of them included resting. Actually, he wouldn't have minded having the rest of the day to himself, but the fact was he couldn't have that even if he wanted. It seemed like Nadia had made it her priority to occupy his free time any opportunity she could. Now that Calista had openly declared that the rest of the day was pretty much free for everyone, it was just a matter of time before Nadia was onto him like a flea.
Honestly, Nadia simply couldn't take a hint. Not even Kacie could stop her. Poor Zavier loved Nadia and all, but she could be too much sometimes. He needed a break. Zavier knew he had to move really quickly or risk running into her at any given moment.
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