• My first true and Official Spirit Battle! I walked onto the field feeling very nervous and anxious, so I forced myself to calm down, feeling stressed in these ways would make my mind think like an animal, which is very predictable, especially from novices like myself. My first opponent, I wonder what he’s…. A little girl?! She couldn’t be more than 8 years old! What the hell?! My mouth was wide open at the sight of her. She looked like one of those heroines from the magical girl genre I watched just yesterday( I was browsing the tv). She even had a stylized wand on hand! And here I was, a man that’s biologically 17 with the power to kick a 40 pound weight 50 feet across in length! I had been training like crazy just to enter the regional tournament and I have to face an opponent like this! This is too much to bear… If I use my own attacks on her, I’d be yelled at for the rest of my career onward for hurting a little girl! But she entered! It’s her fault! You can be killed! She must have known! How could her team not tell her?! I’ve got to at least ask her in the few minutes before the match starts. (We were supposed to be warming up at the center of the field facing each other)

    “Hey…. Umm, do know what’s happening here?” I asked very cautiously and quietly, so the broadcast flyers wouldn’t be able to hear our conversation. She answered with a giggle and bright smile, “Yup! You’re my opponent, right?! Good luck on the match! I hope it won’t be as short as other ones! It gets wayyy too boring that way!” She giggled again. “Wai-, WHAT?! Isn’t this you’re first match too?!” I yelled, forgetting the cameras and the crowd hearing it. “Nope! This is my…” she counted on her hand, “twentieth…” (she had trouble pronouncing it) match!” I was dumbfounded… not a scratch on her to show that…. I asked to conform it. “So… How many did you win?” “All of them!” she answered instantly with that smile again. She was having the time of her life, I was yelling in my intercom…. “VASK!!! I thought you said I’d be facing an opponent with 3 or less matches!! Damn it!!!” Vask spoke softly and calmly like always. “Well, I said most likely, but the matchmaking is all randomized in the end; it’s just extremely rare to get cases like this… I’ll try to find out more about her on the database, just act defensively until I update you on her strengths and weakness. I honestly didn’t think you’d face anyone in the beginning with enough info for a complete database on their statistics. Sorry.” Meanwhile, the crowd was laughing at the situation of my just finding out about her…

    I was embarrassed about the crowd laughing, frightened from her winning potential and confused at what to do even before the match started. She was almost 100% guaranteed to be an apprentice to advanced magic-user, while I was a just a novice weapon-user! Even a novice magic-user could blast me to hell in a sec in this combat triangle!! My type mainly used melee type moves, so all she needed to do to avoid my attacks was to fly in the air or some other common method of escape, so if I went on the offensive it’d be useless. But I had no defensive protection whatsoever either, all she needed to do was cast her preferred type of element at me for maximum effect, so running is my only option. 30 seconds until the match begins on the timer… Yes, running at the start is my best and only option, I’m a user of speed and agility so I’m natural at dodging and running; and magic-based attacks weaken considerably over spatial length and time, so by the time it hits me, it would be weak enough to do only minimal damage. 20 seconds on the clock. No, wait, I’m forgetting something, magic-users are vulnerable body-wise with their spirit power concentrated on spells instead of their bodies, so I should attack in surprise at the second the match starts (as we start off at a close range to each other), I could end this in just one hit if I give it my all. Nooo…, if I kick her with all my spirit power and speed I’d kill her instantly; not only is that against my morals, I’d be disqualified from the tournament for several years! But if I don’t take an advantage in the beginning she’ll blast the hell out of me! Damn! 2…1….START!!!

    I was stunned at this moment; I didn’t know what to do. She pulled out cards… CARDS?! I never knew about any magic-users that used cards in anyway! Crap! Just one surprise after another! The center field was a flat rocky plain this time, so I ran to the nearest rock for cover just as she threw the card up in the air and called out “Come Out! Boulder Drill!” She closed her eyes and smiled as she swung her wand at full speed like a baseball bat and hit the center-back of the card. A huge creature roared our of the card and into the air, it had a snake-like body with boulders as segments of it’s spine and four razor sharp iron blades on each segment. The head (which consisted of a spiral iron blade like a drill) began to spin downward along with the rest of its spine and bladed tail. It dug underground!! Shoot!! The ground beneath me started to shake wildly. I ran with all my spirit power, boosting me out of the way just in time as the rock I used for cover blew apart as the rock-snake pierced 20 feet into the air and roared!! It spiraled downward right at me, I dodged barely by using my spirit power to boost myself out of the way again. I coughed at the huge amount of dust generated from it digging down again. Damn, staying here is suicide I got to get away! That’s it! She can’t see me in the dust; I’ll run to the outer field and into the forest, that rock snake won’t be able to detect me if I step on only the soil and not the rocks and she wouldn’t be able to follow my tracks into the forest. I dashed as fast as possible before the dust lifted and into the trees. She looked around the field, “Aww… I was just starting to have fun, most just go for me at the start, so the match ends too soon… (I’m now glad I didn’t…) … Hey! I know! Let’s play hid-and-seek! You hid! I’ll start counting! Ok!” she shouted.

    Was she serious at all? She’s got her head to the tree and counting to 100! Ouch… I just noticed… I got cuts and bruises all over; I must have gotten them as the rock blew into fragments like a grenade does and as I rushed into the trees, I must have cut myself from the branches too. Dang! And these were new clothes too! I got a first aid from one of my pant’s pockets and started on stopping the bleeding. I tried to think of a plan, but there were too many unknowns, damn… “Myko, are you there?” Vask said on the intercom. “Finally! What do you have on her?” I was too hasty in my voice. Vask started to explain, “Ok, first off, her full name is Velena D. Tesela, she is actually just an apprentice, not an advance-class, so you don’t have to worry about complex attacks, but she is very overwhelming in sheer power with those cards. She took out every novice or apprentice class with them, so don’t underestimate them… (well, duhh) … Second, she’s not a summoner, as only advanced or higher can do that, so the cards are not a standard in anyway.” I ask while still finishing the bandages, “So the cards are spells? How can that be?” Vask answered instantly, “They are not spells either. It stores spirit energy like djinn do in the national tournaments, but as a more predefined values that are easy for weak-minded people to “summon” with minimal spirit energy. Surely you’ve noticed that she is just a little girl, she can’t think or concentrate enough for the spells or summons required in even this tournament, so she uses the cards as a medium for her lack of it. What she has as an advantage over every opponent she’s faced is her overwhelming amount of spirit energy. She’ll be able to use two or three cards at a time, but she’s only recorded to have needed to use two at a time, so I don’t know if she can summon a third. Also, she has a card that has stopped ever melee class attack so far in her matches, so you can’t attack her directly. (just great…) I think you can figure out the rest, I don’t want you to rely too much on me in later matches, so good luck.”

    I wish I could get more info out of him, but he’s right, if I can’t improvise in a match like this, I won’t be able to even get into the nationals, let alone the WLST(World League Spirit Tournament). I can think fast in the action, but against a magic-user, it’d be useless. I have to plan right now… What are her weaknesses first? Velena shouted in a high pitch and but cute voice, “Come out, come out where ever you are…” Crap! She’s right next to me! I can’t make a sound. “Crack”, damn, I stepped on a twig. She shouted “Wind Dance!” I ducked as a reaction. A blade of air sliced through the trees and cut all that I could see! Doesn’t she know she’s out of the tournament if I DIE!! She looked around, saw nothing and hovered on (she was on a summoned air staff)… How?! How did she summon air spells? You can only choose one element attribute when you’re a novice or apprentice! It must be the cards again… Damn… She doesn’t have any elementary boundaries either… How do you fight someone like her? And I still haven’t thought of a way to hit her with out killing or permanently injuring her. I don’t want to cripple her. All I can do is avoid her attacks, but she’s bound to hit me at least once, and that one time will end me right there for sure!! I’m not built for long-term battles or getting hit by major attacks like that! I have to end it soon… Wait! I’m thinking all wrong here, I can’t beat a magic-user conventionally anyway, so why think like a weapon-type or tactician? This battle is too lop-sided, no amount of planning will get me through this. I have to think from a totally different perspective… from her perspective! She thinks this is a game like “hid and seek”, so with only me to seek! I can’t win this game, so I might as well giv….. Wait, that’s it!

    I came out of the bushes and start walking up to her back. She instantly turns and shouts that wind spell again. I duck like a desperate idiot. “Hey, hey, I give up!! I give up! You’ve found me! Just don’t kill me!!” I start walking up to her even as she points her wand at me. “Wow, you really are gifted, I don’t think I can win against you at anything we play. Those cards are really something…” Velena looked instantly interested, “You really think so?! I got a ton more to show you! Like this one , Poison Breath, Magma Blade, Winter Snowman…” She continued on as she showed me a ton more cards with vicious names…. (Holy crap…., I’m glad I didn’t fight her face-to-face) … “And this one’s my favorite! It lets me summon this cute little creature right here! Isn’t she adorable?!! Here! Hold her!” She handed it to me, “Her names Cuddly!” As she said that, Cuddly proceeded to scratch my face into oblivion. (Ouch…. This hurts a lot…). “Hold on! Hold on!!” I gave Cuddly back to her, “Umm, how do you summon from your cards anyway? Can you tell me?” Velena answered happily, “Ohh, I do it with this cute wand I was given by a special person. He was so kind!” She was going to get off topic so I stopped her, “Wow, that’s incredible… can I see it? It really is a masterpiece (it really was).” She kindly said, “Sure! It’s purple, but I like pink better, I’m going to change it later.”

    The true is, I planned on taking the wand from her, and then threaten her with a dagger, with her defenseless, therefore, making her have to forfeit, but for some reason, I just continued to listen to her and I even started talking about my own life and hobbies. 20 minutes later, with everything quiet on the battle field, the crowd started getting annoyed. We started to here yells, so I decided to finish it up, “Well, looks like my time is up, I won’t be able to see you again after this, I’ll lose and you’ll advance to the semi-finals, I can’t come back to this town, we’re only here temporary, so I can’t visit you either. Guess I better give up now.” I started to walk out into the open so I could show the forfeit signal. Velena protested though, “No! You can’t leave now! I was having so much fun with you! You’re the only person I’ve had a real fun time with! Please don’t go!” She was starting to cry at this point, so I tried to think up of something fast, “Hey, I know! Why don’t you join my team? They’re all great just like me! We could really have a fun time together! Like going to parks, having parties, playing games, traveling the world, meeting new people. It’s a really great time! Trust me!” Velena smiled again, “Really?!” I smiled back, “Well, unless you still like your current team better” She pouted, anger, “No way! They’re no fun at all; they just use me for these matches cause they say I can use lots of spirit energy!” “Well,” I started to say, “let’s settle for a draw then!” “Ok!” she smiled.

    And that is my first match, I can’t say I came up with a super complex plan that would make me win fairly, but I think I got something way better….. My team just keeps getting bigger and bigger!