Reincarnated as an Orphaned Dragon!

Chapter 8 - "Tournament"

The day of the tournament arrived, and the streets were crowded with people.

'The Blooming Talent Tournament must be a great source of entertainment for this city.'  I thought.

"Lava, please stay here today and don't go anywhere. I have to go do something today, alright?" Aya says.
'What? No way! I can't miss this, and what do you have to do anyway? Do you work for that tournament or something?!'

"I want to come!" I demand.
Behaving like a child is tiring, but it gets me what I want!

"Sorry, little one, you have to stay." She declined.

What? But that always works!
Take me with you!

Damn it. There's no way I'm missing out on this!

Using magic, I go outside and use <Super Jump> to get on the roof.
After a few practice jumps, I start jumping across the buildings while invisible to bypass the crowds without being seen.

The coliseum near the middle of the city was crowded, and I wasn't sure how I was going to get a good view of what was going on.

I carefully use invisibility and leap to the top of the building, where I get a very nice view of the arena in the center.
I figured I was going to be here watching for a while, so I switched forms and laid down to observe comfortably.

It was loud, but eventually the spectators shut up when the managers of the event started talking.

"Welcome to the annual Blooming Talent Tournament! This year is guaranteed to be spectacular!" A well-dressed man announced, amplifying his voice with magic.
"We still have a few minutes before the first match, so let's explain the rules for those of you that are new." The man continues.

"This tournament is separated into two categories, and there can be one winner from each, the magic league, and the physical league. Almost anything is allowed that doesn't instantly kill the opponent. All made possible thanks to the miraculous powers of our city's finest priest!" He continues.

'So Aya really does work here, huh?'  I thought, as I spotted her stationed near the arena.

I lazily sit above the action and watch carefully, assuming this will be useful experience if I ever have to fight.

"First contenders, Rulio Silverbane versus Isolde Blackthorne!"

I felt like I could already tell who was going to win, the overly dressed young man with arrogant levels of confidence, against a more timid opponent that already looked nervous.

As soon as the match starts, Rulio rushes Isolde with <Ice Bullets>, which the poor boy barely manages to block with a wall of earth.
To him, the attacks must never seem to end.

Desperate to put up a fight, Isolde tries to cast <Wind Cutter>, but attacking was clearly the wrong choice and Rulio had already gotten close enough to use something as straightforward as <Stun> on him.
It was already over.

I know from experience that most people definitely didn't have enough power to just cast something vague like <Stun> at a distance.
Hell, even I can't just go around casting spells like that without thinking.

From what I've learned about magic, your thoughts more or less 'channel' the surrounding Mana, moving and shaping it, sort of how lightning works.
First, the charges from the ground and the cloud move together to form a path, and then the lightning travels across that bridge.
Just like lightning, magic is very hard to make work without that 'bridge'.

Most of the fights weren't that interesting but there were some exceptions.
Such as Litz Stormblade versus Elysia Cromwell.

Litz had almost nonexistent Mana compared to what most the other nobles had, so much so that I was at a loss for how he planned to fight in the mage branch of the tournament.

Elysia was well aware of that fact and immediately started casting projectiles, after which Litz used <Luck> and miraculously dodged everything.

'Wait, you can do that? I really need to get more creative...'  I thought, surprised by the creative use of magic.

Elysia was getting annoyed by the repeated dodging and started moving in to start a more intense attack.

Litz immediately blinded her and hit her with <Shock>.

It was such an incredible move that the crowd even cheered.
"What an incredible display of wit!" The announcer yelled.

Indeed, that was impressive, but how long can he keep that up when everyone else has more Mana?

Most of the fights were nothing special, but I paid close attention to Taz and Chase.
They were both better with weapons than most of whom they fought, and Taz was able to use a decent amount of magic on top of that.

Finally the fight I was waiting for came!
Ria versus Oberon Emberforge...

I couldn't stop bouncing and swishing my tail, anticipating witnessing what Ria has learned.
They seemed to know each other as well, for some reason Oberon was already sweating.
'I know she's super talented, but come on, it can't be that bad, right?'

As soon as the match started Oberon put up a strong barrier, he even used an incantation.
'Really? Isn't that defense complete overkill?!'

I was then shocked when I looked back at Ria and saw Mana doing some really crazy stuff.
Most probably couldn't see much, but my Mana perception was extremely clear.
'What the hell is that?! Are those... wings? And a dragon made of Mana? What is going on?!'

"<Fireball>!" Ria yells, creating a colossal sea of flame that envelops everything.

'Oh my god! What the fuck?! Not even my best fire breath would do that! Why is she better at fire than an actual dragon?!'  I screamed in my head.

It was so one sided they had to immediately stop the match and declare her the winner before her opponent was turned to ashes that no recovery spell would be able to fix.

None of the other fights were able to compare to that...

Litz managed to make it to the finals of the magic league, but his witty fighting style wasn't able to prevail against Rulio's magic.

The last battle, Ria versus Rulio...
They both had very high magic, but I can't imagine Rulio winning against the perhaps literal fires of hell that Ria conjures up.

Again, Ria tried to cast <Fireball>, but Rulio was able to counter it with upward wind.

Now, with clearance to attack, Rulio dashes in with <Shockwave>, creating a powerful force of wind which Ria easily blocks with <Firewall>, while sending small bullets of fire through the wall of flames that obstructed their view.

Now with enough space to attack, Ria immediately uses <Flare>.
To say that this was stronger than her <Fireball> would be an understatement.

Even to my eyes, it looked like the sun came straight out of the sky to incinerate this guy.
Probably not a good idea to stare at the sun, by the way...

Once again, they had to call the winner early...

I'm not even sure if I should just be happy or shocked, I don't even know what I did to make her so overpowered.

Even though they ended it early, they still had to have Aya heal Rulio since he was burned just from the heat seeping through the barrier he formed at the last second.
At some moments, I could swear I felt an ominous presence observing from the shadows like I was.

Whether it was from her own raw power, or my own interference, everyone started calling her "Ria the Dragon Mage".
If only they knew...