"Every year, we held a magic tournament at the abbey. There was one for the boys and one for the girls. Each tournament had over 1000 participants. Winning the tournaent was a great honor, and the winner earned a title as well, usually "Sir' for the boys and "Lady' for the girls. Before I came there no first year had ever made it to the quarterfinals, let alone win it. When I entered it, I simply wanted to see how far I could make it. Remember , first-years are at a tremendous disadvantage against older students. Somehow, I made the finals, beating many powerful sorcerers along the way. My Final opponent was a tenth-year badger named Marrin, who was of a Red-3 rank, an extremely high rank. My rank at the time was White, the lowest. I gave it my all, but he steadily overpowered me.Our staffs were encircled by a ring of energy, which wound itself from the top of the staff down to the bottom. As you took hits, the ring shrank. I Was down to a tiny bit of energy at the bottom, if I took one more hit I would lose. I cast a desprate spell called "evenus", which evened the score instantly. I Transferred the energy I had gained to my staff, causing it to change in color and rise in rank. As My rank rose I desperately Jumped at him and tried to hit him with my staff. I Called out a Spell' Staff Destructus". Now, his staff was of a higher rank than mine, i would Have to power my staff up to his level or higher to have a chance of breaking it. The spell draws energy from the surrounding area, which was filled with students watching our match . Because of this I was able to reach Rose level, the highest level possible. I reached Rose level just as Marrin raised his staff to defend himself. I struck his staff, and it shattered into many pieces. The Impact threw us backwards, and caused a blinding flash of light. When I came to, I saw Marrin, with a stunned look on his face, picking up the pieces of his staff. I Raised my staff in victory, I had won. There were two ways to win a match, one way was to eliminate the ring of energy around your opponents' staff, the other way(which was more difficult) was to break your opponents staff. I had done the latter, against a much more seasoned and powerful opponent. It took a while for the audience to grasp what happened but then the crowd erupted in cheers and my classmates ran on the field,mobbed me and raised me on thier shoulders and carried me off .My crystal remained at Rose level, because my spell had worked. Had it failed, my staff would have returned to White Level, and I would have lost in the next turn. Because of my Improbable victory, I was made a Lord.Due to the fact my crystal was at Rose status now, I dominated the tournament over my remaining 9 years, winning every single year. Before I had come to the abbey, the most tournaments anyone had ever won in the abbey's long history was 5, by Darius' Grandfather. No student since has come close to my 10 victories, and i doubt any student ever will. That's how I became a Lord. Eva, if you could kindly compute the odds of winning 100 matches, against 10, 230 opponents? That's what I did." Stripetail smiled
Nick
