Chapter 53.2- Doom Days

The first duel was called, and I went up to the competitor’s box. Unlike with the qualifiers, there was no option to just retreat to my own box to watch the duels. There was even a rule against it. Apparently, the spectators were going to be getting a special kind of view that would give me an unfair advantage in the matches if I used it as well. I called bullshit, but who was I to argue? Quickly, I marked one of the seats near the front as mine and moved to it even as the others began to socialize among themselves. What a concept. These were my competitors. As far as this tournament was concerned, we were enemies. What business did I have socializing with them? What did I care for where they were from or their hobbies. Maybe I could have used it as a form of information gathering but I knew I was their better.

With how far the chasm between us stretched, trying to get any other advantage to use against them would probably qualify as some form of bullying. When the bell rang, signifying that the duel was about to start, the socialization taking place behind me died a quick death as everyone moved to find seats of their own. I watched everything below me with rapt attention. It wasn’t about the duelists competing now…what did they matter to me?

It was the arena. That ECSR thing. Something told me it was going to matter way more than Russo had let on so I watched to see it in action. A wheel sprung up on the screen. It had five sectors, each one equal in size, but beyond each one being a different colour, there was nothing to be gleaned from it. Still, the wheel began to turn. It started slowly at first, until it accelerated to the point it became a dizzying kaleidoscope of colour.

When it stopped, the colour was blue.

“Harry Potter right?” I heard a voice to my side. It was feminine. I lifted a single hand, telling the speaker to hold on as I watched. This was important. The blue sector glowed and then the entire wheel turned blue.

“The chosen environment for this duel is water” I heard Russo speak, and then the ground beneath us began to rumble. I flinched, almost grabbing my wand before I raised that the rumbling was more likely than not coming from the arena floor rather than the stadium itself. I’d missed part of the transformation. The platform on which both participants had stood on opposite sides, shrunk until it was about a third its former size. And then the grass around it began to change. It was a slow process, but a thorough one.

I pointed my wand at myself and cast multiple finites, but what I was seeing did not change. They were now somehow in the middle of a lake. The whole thing screamed with magic even to my ill-developed magical senses. It was a powerful enchantment for sure. I couldn’t even begin to theorize how it worked.