The Master of Ceremonies soon presented himself at the center of the arena. He was a tall, beefy man wearing colorful clothes and held a peculiar device near his mouth, used to increase the volume of his voice so that everyone may hear him. After a few pleasantries, he announced…

“The first part of the tournament will be… A Survival Game!”

“Yeah!” the crowd went wild and shouted.

“In this part,” the Master of Ceremonies explained, “we will have all the contestants gather in the arena and battle amongst each other. Each one will be given a gold ribbon which they must protect from being stolen or damaged at all costs! Anyone who will lose or damage their ribbon will immediately be disqualified and only those who manage to steal ten ribbons from other contestants after the end of an hour will proceed to the next round!”

The contestants’ faces turned deadly serious. They looked at each other with great animosity while the crowd cheered even louder. But Asha, in particular, remained calm and smiled at everyone who glared at her, making them think she was easy prey. This belief, however, was soon abolished when the match started.

“Everyone at a ready—“ the master of ceremonies announced, “In my signal, let the Survival Game… begin!”

FWOOSH!

One after another, the contestants lunged at their chosen targets, seeking to steal their gold ribbons. Some tried to cast offensive magic, while others defended. Some witty ones made themselves invisible and tried to sneak past a head or two. But the wiser ones ensured they cast spells in their eyes to see “traces” of magic—one that would allow them to see even those who hid with charms. After all, they were all in a tournament and surely, everyone must have prepared beforehand in hopes of being hailed as the champion.

As for Asha, she was soon attacked by several competitors at once. One tried to trap her in strong vines, three summoned magical beasts to attack her, and five cast magic with their wands or chanted with their rods to steal her ribbon.

“Take this!”

“Your ribbon is mine!”

“Hyaaa!”

Their words sounded funny in Asha’s ears as they yelled, making their presence known to her. With nothing but a stomp of her foot, a magic circle appeared beneath her feet, creating a strong barrier around her that exploded upon contact with another’s powers. Because of this, those near Asha at that time suffered the impact of magic from the attack and had their ribbons damaged. Aqua and Solum immediately flew past the devastated contestants and took their ribbons. And just like that, she was able to gain six ribbons at once! She hadn’t even let her elemental spirits fight in battle yet!

For the remaining four contestants who attacked her previously, and were luckily far away from her when the barrier exploded, they were soon met by another competitor who took the chance of getting their ribbons when they flinched in surprise at Asha’s powers. Not even a minute in, and a lot of contestants were already out of the game.

Asha then decided to distance herself from the rest, not wanting to get caught up in their battles. After all, fighting would be much easier once there were few people in the arena.

“Zephyrus, I summon thee.”

Heeding her words, another elemental spirit appeared from nowhere. Like Aqua and Solum, she had a tiny, child-like but subtly glowing body. Her hair was short but silky and green, with eyes of luminous silver. As her name suggested, she was a wind spirit. Her complexion was pale and she wore leaves as clothes.

“You called, master?” her voice was more mature and calm than the others.

“Yes, Zephyrus,” Asha nodded. “Please help me levitate above the rest. A few hundred feet above should be good. And create invisible cyclones around me in case anyone tries to approach me.”

“As you wish, master.”

Zephyrus did as told and channeled her magic to Asha’s body, making her freely float in the air. Flying was considered another advanced magic so not many could do it. Looking at the stage, only a handful managed to use levitation to their advantage. One was a brawny mage, another was a young-looking witch, then a serious-looking druid, and a few other wizards and sorcerers.

“The view here is quite nice,” Asha said. “Thank you, Zephyrus.”

“You are welcome, master,” she blushed and bowed her head. “Though I must apologize that I am still too weak for your to fuse with me and use my powers freely without having to command me.”

“No need to apologize, Zephyrus. You’ve done great! You’re still cultivating so it’s expected that there will be things you can’t do yet. Keep practicing and cultivating and you will eventually get there!”

“Thank you, master!”

And so, Asha quietly watched the chaos transpire beneath her. The other flying contestants seemed to have come into a silent agreement not to touch each other lest they become like the weak, chaotic people from below.

Minutes passed and what once were thousands of contestants easily went down to a few hundred. When their numbers dropped down to exactly one hundred participants, Asha descended and started stealing the ribbons of those near her.

Fwoosh! Swish! Click!

Spells one after another flew in the air, aiming at Asha. Fireballs, water blades, wind cutters, and the like were used against her. She easily evaded them with the help of Solum’s defensive magic—an earth barrier that was one of the strongest defensive magic there was. One, two, three, Asha managed to quickly steal more gold ribbons, totaling her collection to nine ribbons. Just one more, and she could pass the first round.

But suddenly, a tall shadow of a man appeared behind her.

“I’ll be taking these, missy,” the shadow said, and in a snap, managed to steal all nine of Asha’s ribbons!

He came out of nowhere which surprised Asha herself. Such undetectable stealth skills! Why didn’t she notice that before? Had he been hiding from the beginning?

Truthfully, Asha didn’t simply watch in vain from above when she waited for the commotion to die down in the arena. She also observed the skills of her competitors since that would be useful knowledge in the next coming rounds. But for this particular shadow man, she didn’t remember ever seeing him!

“Whoa! Amazing!” Asha exclaimed in joy—something she shouldn’t be doing given her situation.

There were only a few minutes left before the round ended and she just lost all of her ribbons! Even the shadow man himself blinked his eyes in bewilderment seeing her reaction.

‘Is she crazy?’ he thought. ‘Oh well, at least I have nine ribbons now. Better look for the last one.’

As he glided towards another, Asha suddenly sprung forth from his side, giving him a bit of a jumpscare.

“How did you do that?” Asha’s eyes glimmered in curiosity. “I didn’t sense your presence at all!”

“Good heavens! You’re gonna kill me, missy.”

“Come on, tell me!”

Her formal speech completely disappeared from her lips because of the excitement she felt. Asha had always been a little curious—or perhaps, not little, but quite a lot. Whenever she found new knowledge or skills, she wouldn’t stop until she figured them out.

“I… Ugh, I don’t have time for this now. We can talk later—“

“Please? Pretty please?”

Asha blinked her eyes, obviously using her charm toward the man who was still in his shadow form. Despite his misty form, a faint blush could be seen on his cheeks.

“T-That’s unfair! D-Don’t think you can seduce me!” he yelled, quickly using his stealth magic again to disappear.

Asha cast magic in her eyes, trying to search for traces of him, but she didn’t manage to find him.

“Hmm… If I’m not seeing traces of magic,” she pondered, “then does that mean he’s using a device instead?”

“Asha! Quit your mystery-hunting and go steal some ribbons if you don’t want to lose!” Aqua yelled at her own master. “Come on! I don’t like losing so you better snap out of it!” Her tiny hand tried to pull Asha’s clothes.

“But if it’s a device, isn’t that… not allowed? We’re all supposed to be magic users here. Unless he’s an alchemist and he conjured the device in the arena unnoticed. An alchemist who can do that, huh? It will be hard to fight him in a match later on if I can’t see him.”

“Ashaaaaa! Terra to Asha!”

“Hey, don’t yell at her too much, Aqua,” Solum reprimanded her.

“Master, please come back,” Zephyrus on the other hand, calmly called her.

“Oh! You were calling?” Asha replied, finally coming back to her senses.

“At last!” Aqua sighed in relief. “We have been calling you for ages! Now, come on!”

Asha then focused back on the tournament. The huge hourglass at the side of the arena suggested there were only a little over three minutes left. And worse, only fifty more contestants were left on stage with three of them as one of those magicians who could fly and were with her earlier in the sky.

Thus, the first round continued. Given the situation, how would Asha manage to steal ten ribbons from the remaining participants who managed to survive until the last few minutes of the Survival Game? Would she still be able to pass to the next round?