Having no choice but to accept his elimination, he stared at the incoming attack.
Light flashed, and the attack shot directly back at the sender.
The woman raised an eyebrow in surprise, but caught and quite easily dissipated the blast.
She stared at her steaming palm and looked back at him.
"Reflection? How did you..."
He did not answer; in fact, he was already sprinting toward the woman.
He reached towards his pocket, the actualization was already getting ready to attack, but he had hope that he could produce the seal and use it before the attack hit him.
However, as he did so, he froze.
After reaching into his pocket, he had grabbed and pulled out an object shaped a lot like the seal, indeed.
But what he held in his hands was not the seal.
It was a rock, a damp rock.
'Where has it gone!?'
The woman smacked it out of his hand with such force that he felt the bones in his fingers break.
The rock shattered and blew apart, turning into dust and flying overhead.
But the strange dampness suddenly exploded into a mass of water just above them.
And from inside the water, Eira appeared.
And in her own outstretched hand was the seal.
Sacril understood what had happened. For him to successfully fake out the Actualisation, he had to believe he had the seal, when in reality, she had taken it off him either when they had avoided the first attack, or sometime before that.
She hurled it towards the woman, who now wore an expression of sheer rage.
She swatted one final time, trying desperately to deflect the seal with a narrow wave of energy.
However, she was thwarted entirely, as a flash of light appeared and the trajectory of the seal was altered just enough to avoid the oncoming attack, and land directly on her head.
Nothing happened for a moment, everything seemed to stand still, and then the seal exploded with marvelous tendrils of golden light that instantly wrapped around and sealed the godlike actualisation.
The seal shrank back into the original form of the small talisman and fell to the ground with a soft thud.
A voice rang out throughout the arena.
"Game Over."
.
.
.
Just a few minutes later, every student in the area was gathered in a large clearing.
It seemed Unel had not been on the other team after all. Sacril felt a Little disappointed but didn't bother asking anybody about it.
Instead, he just assumed that of all the academies in the five cities, he was facing one of the other classes, although with everyone dressed in the same uniform provided by the academy, it was hard to tell exactly which one they were from.
He was, however, eagerly anticipating what came next.
And that was, of course, the awards ceremony.
Their teacher spoke at last, addressing both groups, who he assumed were the other classes' combat instructors, who stood in the back with somewhat annoyed expressions on their faces.
"Thank you all for participating, and do not fear, even the losing team will be rewarded, of course, rewards are based on your participation."
Sacril narrowed his eyes, silently cursing.
'What!? No rewards up front for me if when I won this whole thing? What kind of scam is this?'
"Of course, this will all be decided when you are sent back to your respective schools. The number of points you have allocated will directly correspond to your rewards. If you didn't fight, well, I suppose better luck next time."
This made sense, of course, maybe there was some logic to not fighting, as in a real-life scenario, it can be the smartest thing to preserve your life.
But, this was not that; the class they were in was, after all, literally the Combat class, and this was an exercise with extensive safety measures that was clearly intended for full participation.
Some students seemed to exchange nervous or just outright shamed looks, and their teacher observed all of this calmly.
He suddenly motioned with a hand, and Sacrils' entire class walked over to him.
He looked directly at Sacril and held out his hand.
Sacril stared at him with a confused expression. The teacher sighed and spoke.
"The seal, the administrators wouldn't take kindly to an actualisation being stolen."
Sacril hurriedly reached into his pocket and withdrew the thin seal, handing it over to the teacher without a second thought.
He left with the seal and handed it to a masked man, who nodded and bowed in response to a short and unintelligible sentence from the teacher, who turned and made his way back to the class a moment later.
He looked from person to person before nodding
"Everyone seems to be present; if anything is in order, we can head out. Remember not to move this time, everyone."
With that, the familiarly unpleasant shifting sensation took hold of his body, and his vision faded to black.
.
.
.
After returning, the students had actually been instructed to relax for a few hours, and let the day's events sit in their minds, as it was important to digest combat to figure out one's own strengths and weaknesses.
It was only after what felt like an eternity that they were called to the auditorium to get the results.
There was a hooded man whose face was half covered by an ornate blindfold. Once everyone had arrived, the combat class instructor finally turned to him and nodded.
The man's hands extended, and many strands of light burst forth and wove themselves into a massive tangle.
He could see it marked the names of the participants, far more than just their class and the opponents class, so Sacril supposed it must have been the results of every class in the five cities.
On top of it, in a column next to it, were the points of each individual
Finding his own name near the top ten, he saw that he had amassed 25 points throughout the event.
A bead of sweat ran down his face, and a slight grin traced his lips.
Because at the very top was an absurd sight.
[Unel Aardines] [100]