"If you aren't participating, and simply wish to view the event, then please head over in that direction and look for the winding path that will take you up the hill. There are benches set up over there for your viewing pleasure." Finnian was a better tour guide than the group Ares was dragging around with him, that was for sure, as his directions were precise, his stiff and flat-handed pointing gestures were pinpoint accurate, and his voice crystal clear no matter where anyone trailing after him was in the pack. As for the number of people who were here simply to cheer on others, and not take part in the tryouts, only about five percent of everyone who arrived here wasn't actually looking to get involved. Most of soon-to-be bystanders were Gram's fans but even then there were plenty who were willing to hop into the fray to participate alongside their hero. Of course the journalists were also running along after him with their bulky cameras in tow. It was somewhat impressive that they believed themselves able to keep up with whatever rigorous test was thrown at them all while capturing the prince's good side with that heavy recording equipment...
Prince, huh? Ares' train of thought unintentionally reminded him of Kazaz and now he was wondering if these two princes would happen to know each other or have any relevance to each other in the political sphere. There were plenty of kingdoms out there, so it wasn't guaranteed, but knowing Ares' luck he wouldn't be surprised if he stumbled across that sort of development as the Kazaz and Gram kingdoms were exceptionally high ranked. The more Ares thought about it, the more likely he figured it was there had at least been dealings between the kingdoms so it was more so a matter of whether they were friendly or otherwise. Not that he was going to find out, it had nothing to do with Ares anyway and he really didn't to sate his curiosity by garnering the attention of that egoistic punch-able prince.
Ares put those thoughts aside and kept walking along the stony path until he and everyone else arrived at the exact centre of the courtyard. Finnian clicked his fingers and the various decorations and obstructions, like wooden birdhouses and floor lamps, all vanished like wisps of smoke to make room for whatever was going to happen from now on. A few raised fences appeared and formed a pretty large circle around all the cultivators, like livestock, but it wasn't particularly daunting or ominous. The fence barely reached knee height for even the most average-height cultivator so the intention behind it obviously wasn't to lock anyone in and probably served a marking purpose rather than anything constrictive. As in, whatever this first trial was, it would take place within the fencing and stepping outside the defined region would result in premature disqualification. Ares' guess was confirmed when Finnian next spoke.
"Right, so, first up, we have some target practice!" Finnian clicked his fingers a second time and roughly a thousand paper lanterns, all different sizes, shapes, and colours, were seen spilling out of a newly-formed and temporary crack in the sky. The lanterns flooded the air and made it nearly impossible to see the sun above, blocking it out thoroughly like a colourful swarm of mid-day clouds. Right off rip, there were more than a thousand people here so even if, hypothetically, each person only had to shoot one single lantern down to pass the test there would still be many people going home, or at least towards the spectator area, by the time this trial was over and done with. This wasn't an 'everyone can make it' sort of deal and the contest was already on. Suddenly, bringing along friends and admirers didn't seem like such a good idea. Lets say a spacian wanted to stop someone from taking a lantern down in order to benefit Marlar... Well, at that point, they were just stealing his potential lanterns too. Ironically, the best way to help him wouldn't be to hinder and steal from others, it would be to just do nothing and silently fall out of the race here and now with grace. Marlar's spacian group wouldn't do that however, they didn't believe Marlar needed the handicap, at least not for such a simple trial, and he would be be greatly disappointed in them if they made no effort. Marlar wasn't obsessed with being in the Brotherhood himself so even if anybody else managed it that would be acceptable. He valued the result and not the process so if anybody here wasn't making an effort to strive towards that result then that would rub him the wrong way. This was a friendly competition and having his own people bow out, when he didn't even need them to as he was more than capable of fending for himself, felt terrible. he would rather be knocked out by one of his own than watch them surrender like spineless cowards for his sake.
As for the rest of the rules, once the lanterns were given a chance to spread out a bit and drift far away from the fenced area down below on the ground, Finnian continued to give his rundown of the event. "You can't leave the fenced off area but anything else goes. You can fly into the sky if you wish, or even head underground if it will benefit you, but you can't go past the fences so keep an eye out. The second you cross that line you'll be removed forcibly via teleportation so try not to overextend accidentally.
Anyway, your goal is simple, destroy ten lanterns. Once you've done so you will automatically be removed from the area as well, just this time you'll be sent to the winners area and move on to the next round. You cannot destroy more than ten lanterns, it isn't possible as your attacks will cease to hit any beyond the first ten, so go wild and use whatever means you have at your disposal. Oh and, in case it isn't obvious, you can obstruct other people's attempts to destroy the lanterns and even attack other people too if you really want to. Use gadgets, treasures, arts... Whatever you want! Just destroy ten lanterns without leaving the allotted area and that will do nicely for now. Simple!"
Finnian wasn't wrong, the rules were incredibly basic... The challenge itself, however, was going to leave a lot of cultivators in the dust. Those who didn't specialise in long range fighting were going to have a hard time getting anything done here but that was their own fault and they had nobody but themselves to blame. Who told them ot hyper-specialise at one range and one range only? Better yet, even bare fist aspect cultivators could shoot wind forth from their mighty blows so there was zero excuse! If you didn't have long range methods, and didn't actively create them to fix that weakness, you had no business being in the Brotherhood. As for why the test focussed on punishing long range deficiencies rather than short range... Even the most projectile obsessed maniac could swing the butt of his gun around or try to stab someone with an arrow-sans-bow. Everyone had options at close range, even if they were terrible and somebody had to resort to throwing last ditch fists, so this was a test to root out those who literally had no options whatsoever and never even considered the matter.
Of course it wasn't that simple either. There were other problems with this test as, at most, 100 people could make it through to the next round and even that was unlikely. Sure there were a thousand lanterns but each person needed ten and that was where things got complicated. It was entirely possible for someone to get nine and not make it through but that would then mean there were nine wasted lanterns that nobody else got to add to their own total. Every single other destroyed lantern reduced your own chances of getting one so the likelihood of exactly one hundred people each getting exactly ten lanterns, with nobody else touching even a single one, was impossible. There was simply no way. It was more likely that only about fifty people total would make it through and even that estimate hinged on the abilities of those present. Some people, like Gram and Marlar, would get all ten in on fell swoop no problem with a dominant display... But could the same be said of anybody else?
Plus the squabbling aspect was very real. If you stole somebody else's lantern, even if it wasn't on purpose, who's to say a grudge wouldn't form then and there and the victim wouldn't persist in trying to get payback? This was a game that necessitated selfishness to an unfathomable degree. 'I've got mine' was the name of the game and it was for the best to just focus on yourself... Though how 'easy' that would be with nearly... Five thousand? People all around casting and chanting... It was definitely problematic and there was bound to be interpersonal in-fighting. You couldn't take too long to chant, otherwise everyone else would be destroying your precious lanterns, but being too quick could get you caught up in the messy art extravaganza at the start. At that point you couldn't safely assume your magic would hit the lanterns instead of other people's magic so there was a perfect timing in the middle that required proper consideration to take advantage. Magical collisions were going to waste time and delay the destruction of lanterns by a great deal so the three main strategies here were incredible speed, to get ahead of the pack before chaos begun, raw firepower, that could overwhelm everything else and dominate the skyline, or excellent timing to find a feasible window and shoot your shot unfettered by everyone else. Deciding which approach to take was key to succeeding and many were already contemplating the matter the second Finnian finished speaking and let the rules sink in.
This event required concentration, will power, foresight, cleverness, alertness, adaptability, and... Ares was already sitting down on the floor... He appeared to not care about the intricacies of this test whatsoever as he wasn't even craning his neck up towards the sky like literally everybody else to check the position of the lanterns. He was getting some shut eye, if his closed eye lids was any indication, and those around him had to be careful not to accidentally step on him or kick him in the arm. What he was up to was unknown right now but it did pique the interest of those who acknowledged him earlier. Technically his seated position didn't really matter, if he had the ability to snipe the lanterns then standing or sitting made little difference. It might even be easier to use a long range weapon while sitting depending on what it actually was. And if it was an art then, again, sitting down meant basically nothing as a large majority of arts didn't require stances to activate. Maybe Ares was feeling tired from walking around the city before he got here or whatever and so he was being leisurely because he was plenty confident in his ability to succeed. Either way, people stopped paying attention to him when they judged there to be nothing out of the ordinary about his actions. They had their own worries to solve. They didn't count Ares out, they simply assumed he wasn't up to anything special and ignored him...
That would change soon.
"You cannot charge up, or start chanting, magic or equipment before the countdown so, to those of you trying, don't think you won't be spotted! I've already seen some culprits and caught them red handed but I'll let you off with a warning for this first offence because I hadn't mentioned the rule yet. Put the magic and the weapons down!" Finnian chuckled as he stared directly into the eye of one such culprit who was trying to set up a cannon-style artillery gadget he'd summoned with his magic. It seemed highly technologically advanced, with all manner of complicated interfaces to set it up, but that was it's own downfall as the setup time was excruciatingly long and not helpful in moment to moment combat. It perhaps packed enough firepower to win this cultivator this lantern event on the spot... If he could use it, that is. There was no way he had time to spend about twenty to thirty seconds on that nonsense after the match started so getting shut down like this was cruelty! Still, it was better to give up on that approach and try a different method instead of stubbornly refusing to back down and then getting removed from the competition anyway. Might as well fail instead of breaking the rules and being embarrassed in public. Plus cheating in tryouts was a surefire way to get banned from future ones and it wouldn't be the first time such a thing had happened either. Typically Finnian wasn't the type ot ban people but it wasn't impossible either and so why risk it?
"Three!" Finnian begun the countdown and the quiet murmuring all around hushed until zero decibels remained. "Two!" Everyone took quick glances at their neighbouring cultivators as they were the ones they'd be directly competing with for the nearest lanterns at their current positions they'd taken up. "One!" You could hear a pin drop in this tense atmosphere; it was like waiting to hear who the father was at the end of a long love triangle romance novel and the suspense was killing people. Nerves were taut and sweat dripped down multiple people's chins and it was in this moment Finnian gave the command to end all commands. "GO!"
SPLASH
Right out the gate, Marlar summoned a humongous water tornado under his feet that harmlessly blasted away those near him while simultaneously lifting him high into the sky. He then swam freely though the air, leaving a trail of space and stars wherever he deftly shot through the sky up above. He really did resemble a fish in water but it was strange because there definitely wasn't any liquid of any kind here. Evidently he could treat 'space' like water so swimming on land, in the air, and of course in space too, was entirely possible in addition to, obviously, normal water. Swimming anywhere, at any time, was possible and he wasn't restricted by unfavourable locations. He could also probably weave 'water' out of space and summon large amounts on demand so he'd really made excellent use of his racial quality to combine the spatial aspect and the water pillar. He had strong affiliations to both, that was determinable at a glance based on his mastery, and could summon preferable domains and environments on demand which was the sort of thing Sandy needed to learn how to do.
Ares remembered Sandy's impressive elemental form she displayed a while back and also remembered thinking she was lacking a means of forcing the opponent into her preferred encounter type. Marlar was a shining beacon of what an improvement in that direction would look like as he practically turned everything around him into pseudo water for his own convenience. He wasn't a higher domain cultivator, with a long legacy behind him, for nothing. In fact, Marlar could probably wrap everyone here in spatial water and force them to fight in a condition resembling 'underwater' if he had any reason to, he had that much control over the space here. Still, Marlar took the path of non-confrontation and simply pushed those near him aside to give him room to do his own thing peacefully. He was going to destroy his ten lanterns and not interfere with anybody else, that was just the kind of person he was. As for how he went about destroying the lanterns once he propelled himself upwards... It wasn't a finesse-laden approach but rather a blanket bombing of the surrounding area which was somewhat unexpected. It didn't come in the form one might expect, however, as the art used...
"Water Bullet."
Such a simple art!
Water Bullet was quite literally a beginner's tool, often used by young children even! Sure it had interesting evolutions depending on the cultivator using it but to pull out such a thing here... It was pretty bizarre to Area. All arts were obviously usable at a base line level but it didn't really seem appropriate to use an art like Water Bullet in this situation. He couldn't deny the end result, though, as something rather strange happened beyond the scope of his understanding of the art. Rather than blandly firing out multiple Bullets, a large bubble appeared directly above Marlar and its size increased continually until, eventually, under immense pressure, it burst. From within the bubble, scattering in random directions, about two hundred finger sized bullets flew out and pierced lanterns like there was no tomorrow. Had the limit of ten lanterns not been in place, and not been enforced properly by the simulation, Marlar might have just destroyed all thousand lanterns in one single attack before the event had even really begun. The Water Bullets he fired were capable of piercing multiple lanterns and could even curve slightly thanks to a heat seeking effect so it was entirely possible for this one basic art to finish the entire event immediately. It only took Marlar a split second to swim up high and chant his art and then what followed came in the blink of an eye. Such simple mana control, and such a plain art, had resulted in instant mass devastation and it just went to show that mastering the basics was always a solid road to success in any field. Marlar hadn't done anything fancy, he'd done what anybody else was capable of doing but way better. His movements were practiced thanks to all the repetitious years of training and so he was able to perform them all sequentially before anybody else even had time to move. He'd taken the speedy approach to this problem.
Regardless of how he chose to go about it, Marlar was the first person through to the next stage and it was looking like next up would be Gram as he coated his rapier in wind magic. He didn't have any personal favourite weapon or sword, he usually picked based on whatever his fans cheered the loudest for. This time they were all rather silent, because they were awed by Marlar, so Gram decided to show off a bit to grab their attention back and put a spotlight on his own abilities. Truthfully he could have finished already too, beating out the spacian shepherd, but he didn't want to flaunt his talents too early in the competition... Even if it pained him immensely. He was a showoff at heart but even he knew the value of hiding an ace or two up his sleeve for a rainy day. If he could show the world his true power they would inevitably be awed by his resplendence, and their estimations of him would be shattered, but, alas, being strong meant making concessions here and there for matters like this. He couldn't be an open book, nobody would want to keep reading if that were the case! Charm, mystery, intrigue... He had to keep at least some of each at all times or he risked his fans losing interest and finding another prince to go gossip about.
Gram twirled the tip of his weapon around through the air and, after stealing back the gazes of his admirers, flicked the rapier one last time and put it away in his spatial ring. This looked strange, his actions were inexplicable, up until lanterns directly above him started getting shredded one by one for seemingly no apparent reason. What Gram had done was subtly influence the direction of air flow with his rapier and imbued thin strands of magic into every sway of his weapon. The mana strands were infinitesimally small and yet sharp enough to pierce the lanterns cleanly so, as they rode along the adjusted airflow, they were slowly destroying all the objects they passed by. Gram went the extra mile to make his attack almost invisible while also looping each individual flow of air through a lantern multiple times to cut them into ribbons. He could have shot the wind in a straight line like bullets, like Marlar, but he displayed an extravagant amount of mana manipulation and control as well as weapon mastery. His flicks of the rapier were sharp and guided the wind beautifully, like a fairy of nature combined with a trained maestro. Even those who detested the man had to admit it was impressive what he'd just casually pulled off.
Gram's attack was launched about a second prior, plus his weapon was being stored in another dimension currently, and yet the lanterns were still being destroyed one by one as if his involvement was a complete fabricated lie. Gram had taken to showboating, bowing his head and blowing kisses as his ninth lantern was torn into pieces and the tenth was next in line to get slashed... But it never came. Gram's smile very nearly cracked but he kept his composure and acted like this unexpected development was normal. He could salvage this moment by launching a grand finale style attack as if he was putting on a stage show and entraining people... But that wasn't the issue here!
Why did his attack fail in the first place?!
There was no mistake on his end, Gram didn't make mistakes, rather somebody else here was brave enough to mess with the air flow around his line of attack! Who dared pick a fight with the perfect prince!? Gram took stock of the situation but was having trouble understanding the problem because there wasn't really any mana in the air... No, that was a lie. There was plenty, it just didn't belong to anyone specifically which was arguably a bigger anomaly. For some unknown reason, tons of mana was gathering in this place and converging into a single point that just so happened to be where Gram's wind magic was passing through. Gram's magic wasn't an art or anything and so it crumbled miserably in the face of this overwhelming mana gathering but he didn't care about that anymore; he wanted to know what was going on. What was causing this? Was there more to this event that Finnian hadn't mentioned? Some kind of trap? A distraction or obstacle? It was momentarily unclear what the truth was but, when the mana congealed and formed a dark black cloud that hovered over a very specific area, and everyone turned to look at the now-apparent cause, it was immediately understood what was happening and why... And nobody could believe their filthy lying eyes.
Ares...
Was cultivating and breaking through to the tenth stage of sensory enhancement...
And he was summoning a tribulation...
In the middle of the tryouts...
Things were about to get out of hand.