Smack!

Ziann felt the wind knocked out of him as the big guy in the other corner of the ring slammed a big icy fist of magic into his stomach. Ziann's magic was weak to Frost-type magic, so this mage had been walking all over him during this fight. The Wind-Make Mage struggled to form a Buckler of Wind against his arm to protect against the next assault. "Wind Make: Buckler!" With his typical stance of ring finger pressed against his palm, Ziann slid his right hand down his left arm to form the Wind shield. His opponent just laughed. "That again? I told you before, that just won't work against my Magic."

To explain how Ziann got in this predicament, one had to go back a few hours...

It started with the job from Big Bro Akabo that had him tracking down Tom the gambler that had unpaid debts. During that request, Ziann had tripped into a Manic mood that hadn't gone away in four days. He struggled to sleep, he twitched with anxiety, and he felt himself lash out at the smallest annoyances. Feeling like he had more energy than he needed, he tried to blow off some steam with a jog. That just hyped him up more, unfortunately, and he found himself itching for a fight. Something to knock him out of this mood he was in. Finding a fight club in the Crimson Quarter of Hosenka, Ziann walked in and signed up for the next Mage tournament so he could practice his magic at the same time as he could blow off the steam of his Manic mood.

The first mage he went up against was a big, burly guy with Frost magic. The icy fists he created and manipulated freely were strong, capable of blocking high amounts of damage while dealing plenty also. It didn't help that Ziann's Wind magic didn't hit as hard against the ice fists, leaving him in a bind as the other guy could hit more times with one spell than Ziann could. The ice mage just taunted him as he formed his shield to block the fists.

"That's not going to work against me..."

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Ziann's shield broke against the icy assault again. The fists looked ready to crumble so Ziann cocked his arm back, pressed his ring finger to his palm, summoned a large ball of wind, and thrust his arm forwards to cast a C-rank spell. "Wind Make: Gust!" The orb flew towards the Ice mage, who used his icy constructs to block the entirety of the attack. They shattered as he did so, little bits of ice scratching his face as he stood too close to the breaking spell. "You've spent quite a lot of Mana so far... And here I am as fresh as can be. I'll give you a fighting chance though... Because I'm kind like that." To the kind comment, Ziann just blew wind out his nose in a haughty "Pfft". "Take your best shot at me, with or without magic. We'll see who stands on top after that."

Ziann suspected some sort of strings attached, so he paused for a moment. But his opponent just stood there, with arms open, waiting for his attack. What would be the best course of action? Another Gust spell for the maximum damage, at risk of running out of Mana? Or simply a good punch even though his physical strength wasn't as strong as his magical strength? There was a choice Ziann had to make, and he opted for reserving his mana and slugging it out physically for now. He lunged at the man, quickly covering the distance between them, and went for a right uppercut at the man's jaw.

The punch connected and Ziann felt something give way that shouldn't have done so. It was like the target of his punch wasn't made of flesh and bone... The punch carried through and the "mage's" head popped off of his body and flew towards the crowd around the ring. Shocked gasps filled the room as the body crumbled into icy shards. It had been some sort of magical ice clone he had been fighting? Where was the real mage? Hiding somewhere? Ziann spun around, very confused, but didn't see anyone else in the ring with him.

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A chuckle came from the crowd as a woman stepped into the ring. "How did it feel, punching solid ice?" She wasn't wrong, Ziann's hand did kinda smart from connecting with the clone's jaw. He didn't know what to say, to be honest. She was short and stocky, heavily built without a lot of height. Ziann looked a little on the skeptical side, as if he was fighting another child albeit a really heavy one. "What, you never seen a Dwarf before?" The wind make mage just shook his head. He was speechless at the sight of this dwarf. She looked ready to fight, though. "Prepare yourself!"

She lunged forwards, punching towards Ziann's gut. He leaned out of the way of her movement, dodging the attack with his superior speed. Why was she suddenly fighting in close quarters when she had such an advantage over him in Magic? His magic was half as effective to her doubly effective attacks. "Where'd your Magic go? You won't be able to touch me if you move that slow." It was more jest than actual fact since Ziann didn't have the physical endurance to keep up running away for long. She ran at him again, punching below the belt this time. She punched low enough that Ziann could vault over her, planting a hand on her head as he jumped up and over her.

He landed on the ground and spun around in a kick towards her unprotected back. She went sprawling but quickly popped up, very angry. She barely looked harmed by his weak kick. "You want Magic? I'll give you Magic then... In just a moment." What was this, a joke? Maybe dwarves just weren't as proficient in magic as humans were? They definitely were sturdy and durable, but maybe she had burned herself out on maintaining the clone and the fists of ice. Whatever the reason for the delay, Ziann responded in kind. "Wind Make: Breeze!" Forming a small ball of air, he cast it towards her and struck her in the chest. She was knocked to the ground by the force, but she stood up just as quickly as before. Her near limitless endurance was matched only by Ziann's near limitless Manic energy.

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Ziann's endurance was being pushed to the limit. He'd used most of the spells in his book already, and while he felt ready mentally to use them again, this dwarf already knew his tricks and could overpower them with her magic or her raw constitution and endurance. This was going to be a tough match up, and it was only the first fight in the tournament. To compensate for the lack of power his physical punches had, Ziann knew he'd have to land a solid Wind Make spell to a vital area to knock her out. It had been some time since he used his most powerful spell, Gust, but he still needed a bit more time to prepare that one again.

What spells did he have left? Wind Make: Sandals. Wind Make: Buckler. Wind Make: Spring. Hmm... How would those help him defeat the dwarf. His Sandals could improve his speed slightly, his buckler could take a bit of damage, and his spring, well, could help him jump higher and land safely. That one wasn't much help in a fight. Getting into his casting stance, with his ring finger pressed into his palm, he again cast Wind Make: Buckler by running the hand down his opposite arm in order to allow the shimmering solid wind to form a defensive structure. "Another shield, again? You really must be desperate."

Ziann didn't like being called desperate, so he charged at the dwarf, buckler held to the side of his body as he ran towards her. Stretching out his casting hand, the one without the shield, he scooped downwards and caught the dwarf at the neck with a wrestling lariat. Clotheslined by the attack, she struggled to breathe as the wind was forced out her throat. Continuing to run, Ziann slammed her into the ropes of the ring. Now her legs were kicked out from under her and he could throw her to the ground head first. Her skull hit the ground with a thud and for a moment he thought he might have overdone it and killed her but she stirred slightly and groaned.

"Ow... Okay, Okay, I concede..." The Buckler had done its job, faking out the dwarf into thinking Ziann would remain on the defensive. It dispersed into thin air as he ceased concentrating on the spell and stopped sustaining it. He was a little winded, but the win felt exhilarating. Soon came Round 2, with little rest in between. His endurance was to be tested completely, it seemed.

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Round two of the Fight Club tournament here in Hosenka was about to begin. Ziann hadn't had much time to rest, just long enough to recover his breath and get mentally ready to use all of his spells again. His Mana was already about half spent from the first fight, and there was at least one more to go after this one if he succeeded in taking down this second opponent. He'd have to be more conservative in this round. As he stepped up onto the ropes of the ring and pulled himself up and over to land on the other side he immediately felt uneasy about the state of the crowd. They were whispering between each other, snickering, and smiling. Huge smiles from ear to ear. They knew something that he didn't...

All of a sudden, he was tackled from behind and felt something wrap around his neck. Stumbling forward, he barely had a chance to lift his hands to the arms around him before he was struck behind the knees by another force. He fell over in a heap of limbs and tried to extricate himself by thrashing around and punching at whatever was within reach. The crowd started laughing hysterically as he floundered and tried to stand up. "The Twin Tornadoes do it again! The surprise open, their signature move!" Finally connecting with something, the pressure around his neck loosened and Ziann was able to push off and get some air. He fought to stand up and was able to kick whatever was holding his legs, at which point the "Twin Tornadoes" scurried off to their corner of the ring, satisfied at having humiliated Ziann. Brushing off his cape, he observed the "Twins" and examined them closely. They weren't built like the dwarf was, having a much lankier build, but were about the same height. Ziann assumed them to be children, but their pointed ears made him think otherwise.

"More weird people? I last fought a Dwarf. What are you?"

Offensive to a fault, the Twin Tornadoes stuck out their tongues and just laughed. "We  are Elves!" The weird talking at the same time unnerved Ziann, but he just kept up his guard and prepared his fists for the fight...

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The elves continued to talk in unison and taunted Ziann. "Just try and stop  us!" Ziann intended to do just that. He ran towards them, swinging a right hook at the more feminine twin and hitting nothing but air as she ducked. The more masculine twin responded with a kick to Ziann's ankle which caused him to drop to his knee as the leg was pushed out from under him. "Wind Make: Spring!" Using his supplementary spell, he formed a ball of wind on the ground that he stepped on with his good leg. Pushing off the ground, Ziann swung his other leg in a flying kick aimed at the jaw of the more masculine twin tornado.

The elf raised two arms up to his head to block and managed to deflect most of Ziann's energy away from his face and into his crossed arms. It would still hurt, but wouldn't be the kind of knockout blow that Ziann was hoping for. He wanted to try and end this quickly. That probably wasn't going to be happening, though. Now five feet up in the air, Ziann landed harmlessly as the ball of wind dispersed. The tornadoes were on him as soon as he landed, trying to grab his arms and prevent him from casting any more spells. Like a tornado of his own, he spun around until they flew off of his arms having lost their grip. They scattered to the ropes of the ring and recovered quickly, bouncing back at Ziann.

They stopped talking in unison for a moment, which was unnerving as well as they spoke at the same time but said different things. "Nature" "Wind" "Magic:" "Magic:" "Constrict!""Twister!" A green magic circle appeared beneath Ziann, and he was too tired to try to lunge away from it. Vines grew up around his ankles and pinned him to the ground. The white magic circle of the male elf was in the middle of the ring and soon grew a swirling vortex of wind over it. It looked powerful enough to do some serious damage, and Ziann was trapped to the floor by these vines. It started to move slowly as the elf guided it forwards. It tore at the floor and scuffed it up as it was lead towards the mage at the corner of the ring...

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Ziann tugged at the vines holding him down as the tornado grew closer and closer to him. It seemed that this twin pair's combo was going to be highly effective at taking him down and for good reason too. They were both concentrating heavily on their spells, but the didn't need to worry too much about being distracted as their opponent was held down and there was a large swirling vortex of wind in between them. If he had to guess, this spell was probably B-rank due to the size of the magic circle and knowing his own wind magic's dimensions for his C-rank spell. It was more than he could handle in one spell, so Ziann was starting to worry. A spell like that could hinder him very effectively.

Knowing little about more advanced magic, but knowing the differences between his D-rank Breeze spell and his C-rank Gust spell, Ziann tried to estimate what would happen if he threw everything at this tornado. He would still come up short if he threw Gust and Breeze at it, that much was for certain. But, he could potentially weaken it to a point where he could handle it. That was just going to have to be his plan if he wanted to survive this round of the tournament. "Wind Make: Gust!" Ring finger pressed to his palm, he generated as much wind as he could muster and flung it at the tornado. It reduced the size of it by about half, but the elf's spell kept coming at him. Good thing it was so slow...

"Wind Make: Breeze!" The second orb reduced it by half again, to a quarter of its original size. Out of magic spells that could deal damage, though, Ziann waited for it to get close enough then lashed out with his right hand, punching at the tornado. It definitely hurt to do so, but the spell dissipated without having torn Ziann apart. Right hand having taken more pain than he could handle in the last fight and this one combined, it drooped uselessly at his side, hindered. Continuing to fight would be difficult with just the one hand, but for now, it wouldn't be the end of Ziann.

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The feminine elf let go of her Constrict spell, having already sustained it far too long and having exhausted herself of Mana. Angry at having been thwarted by a couple "lame" spells, the masculine elf charged at Ziann. The Wind-make Mage was used to casting with his right hand, the hand that was hindered at the moment, so fighting with magic was going to be difficult to say the least. The wood elf wasn't necessarily faster than Ziann, but he was nimble and acrobatic. He bounced off the rope in an acrobatic twist that ended up with his whole body sideways and tensed up for a double legged kick at Ziann's face. The human barely managed to bend backwards enough to dodge said kick that would potentially have put him out of commission right then and there.

The flying kick lead the masculine elf to the other ropes of the ring, upon which he back flipped off and landed without harm at the center of the ring. Ziann was soon upon him though, grabbing him by the hair with his left hand. Spinning around, Ziann in a fit of manic rage threw the elf towards the crowd. The feminine elf was soon up and angry at Ziann's move, but instead of attacking the human she went to catch her twin instead. She caught him, turned her reckless dive into a front flip, and landed safely next to the ropes on one side. "Bad move, elf." With her hands occupied with her twin, Ziann's charge towards them was not going to be pretty. With a large booted kick, he slammed his foot into her twin in her arms and sent them both into the ropes. The ropes did their job and pushed them back towards Ziann, who slammed his left fist into the feminine elf's face.

She went down and the masculine elf tried to get up but was having trouble extricating himself from his twin. "Here, lemme help." Picking him up again by the long hair, Ziann slammed the elf into the floor of the ring face first. The crowd wasn't sure how to feel about their favorites having been crushed like that, with their blood on the mat as their noses bled. But, a winner was a winner and the Twin Tornadoes were helped off the ring and the finals of the tournament were prepared. Ziann had enough time to recover use of his casting hand, but even the slightest hit might send it back into uselessness...

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The ring was scrubbed clean of the blood and was ready for the final match of the Tournament. Ziann didn't want to be the first into the ring and get surprised like last time, so he held back and waited for his opponent to get in first. A large human man with a tiger pelt over his back as a cape jumped onto the ropes, bounced off, and landed in the ring. This was the champion, El Tigre. He was known for being big, strong, and supplementing his power with self-buff magic. Even Ziann knew this about him from the whispers in the crowd between rounds. This was going to be a challenging fight, especially because El Tigre looked completely fresh as if he had easily won his previous matches and was ready to win the third no problem.

Ziann, on the other hand, was low on Mana, low on stamina, and low on working limbs. His casting hand still throbbed in pain and was barely working for movement, much less casting his Wind Make Magic effectively. He climbed into the ring much less dramatically than El Tigre and prepared for the worst. He still had enough manic energy to keep him going, but he was starting to feel like the bipolar mood was losing its hold on him. He had come into this tournament to try and blow off steam and that was working apparently. El Tigre just laughed at him and cast his tiger pelt aside leaving his entire upper body bare and incredibly muscular. "I won't even need my Magic on you, puny punk."

Ziann just raised his fists in a boxing stance and growled. El Tigre laughed and charged at him. He wasn't fast, but when his hand connected with Ziann's gut, the wind mage felt himself lifted up off his feet and thrown into the ropes of the ring. He coughed and a little bit of blood spattered on the ground. This was not good, not good at all. Ziann was headed towards the grave if this continued for much longer. "See? Puny."

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Ziann was in a bind. His right arm hurt tremendously, his stomach felt upside down from the last punch, and he was coughing up blood. El Tigre had nearly downed him in one punch and was capable of increasing his power with Magic if necessary. Ziann didn't feel like he'd be able to get that out of his opponent at this point. "Wind... Make... Sandals..." Using his limited mana pool, Ziann covered his feet in wind and increased his speed slightly. That might help him at least be able to dodge El Tigre's next blow. "So you still have fight in you... I like it. Come at me!" Ziann did so, charging El Tigre and punching at his gut with all his might.

It felt like hitting a wooden two by four.

El Tigre just laughed as his abs repelled Ziann's weak assault. "If that's all you've got..." Another blow landed on Ziann, this time underneath his chin. He felt a tooth or two break as his jaw was crushed by El Tigre's fist. He was lifted up and off his feet again and landed on his back, groaning in pain. His spells wouldn't save him from this beating. But, he pushed through and picked himself back up to his knees and hands. El Tigre was at him in a moment, kicking him in the gut and sending another spatter of blood onto the ring. In the crowd, Ziann could see the Twin Tornadoes and the Dwarf smiling as he was hit repeatedly.

The elves high fived each other and the dwarf just stood there self-righteously, like El Tigre beating down Ziann was deserved and was like vengeance was being served. That was the last thing Ziann saw as El Tigre came down with a piledriver on his back, slamming the wind mage to the floor and knocking him unconscious in a moment. He was dragged off the mat and dumped unceremoniously in a vat of cold water to wake him up. Sputtering and forcing himself out of the tub, Ziann felt his energy drain away as he finally came out of the manic mood he'd been in. Curling up right there and then, he fell into a deep sleep the likes of which he hadn't had in over four days...

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