Hundreds of people were passing through the Reception Hall at Pacific Arcane University, one of the most prestigious magic schools in the world. It was playing host to the Qualifying Round of the Crimson Cup Tournament of the Intercollegiate Battlemage League. Student athletes had formed teams of three fighters to compete in magical combat sports against each other to achieve various goals. 

Standing in the middle of the Hall was a young man about nineteen years old with shoulder-length black hair, blue eyes, and ivory skin. He was fairly tall and had a bag slung over his shoulder, watching the crowd for the arrival of his teammates. This was Mallory Dane. His lips curled into a smile as he spotted the bright orange hair of his best friend. 

“Conner!” he waved at the ginger, who was much shorter than him and just as athletic. 

“Mal!”

“Where’s Jonesy?” the raven-haired teen asked when he noticed the third member of their team was not present. 

“He got busted with a bag of pixieshrooms in his dorm,” Conner revealed as his friend frowned. “Needless to say, he won’t be able to fight with us for the foreseeable future. I found a replacement, though. Don’t be mad, but…”

Mal’s face dropped, his disdain clear as Conner’s twin sister approached them. Her orange hair was pulled into a long braid, her freckled skin covered in tattoos and piercings. “No. Absolutely not.”

“Come on, dude, Calista’s our last resort,” the ginger boy insisted. “Besides, you’re always saying she’s a warrior from Hell, right? Well, that’s exactly what we need to win!”

“Your despair fuels me, Lory,” she grinned as she approached the boys, her bright green eyes alive with joy. “It’s pretty great.”

“Not her! Anyone but her!” Mal groaned. She used to beat him up constantly when they were kids, and she had always called him Lory instead of Mal or Mallory, precisely because she knew it irritated the hell out of him.  

“Look dude, you know she’ll kick ass with her fire magic,” Conner insisted. “And it’s not like she’ll slow us down.”

Calista scoffed. “Ha! If anything you guys will hold me back!”

Without any better options, Mal reluctantly accepted her as their third team member. They made their way to a long table at the far end of the Hall where everyone was signing in.

“Team name and school?” a woman with a clipboard at the table inquired. 

“We’re the Sky Dragons from right here at PAU,” Conner replied as she wrote on her clipboard. “But we need to make a last-minute change to our registration. Our third team member couldn’t make it, so we have a replacement. She’s a student here as well and meets all the League requirements.”

After sorting out all the paperwork, the three teens made their way to the locker rooms to change into their combat uniforms. The base outfit was the same for all fighters - solid black pants, boots, and long-sleeved t-shirts. Over that they wore lightly-padded zip-up vests, shinguards, and bracers matching pre-selected team colors and designs. The Sky Dragons had chosen a pattern resembling blue scales with a slight gradient towards purple. Calista had one of Conner’s spare uniforms, which she had modified to fit her better on the car ride to the campus. 

The teams filed into a domed chamber and gathered around the edge of a large circular swimming pool filled with a swirling liquid-like white smoke. Bleachers filled with observers surrounded them, and League officials sat at a table on a ledge at the far end of the room. One of them snapped his fingers with a magical flash and his voice became artificially amplified. 

“Welcome to the Qualifying Rounds of the Seventeenth Annual Crimson Cup Tournament! Our fighters stand before the Pit of Ordeals, a pocket universe capable of taking any form! This year’s environment will be a tropical island with various monsters spread about! Each team will land at a different spot on the shore of the island, and then race towards the Grand Arena in the center!” he explained, then conjured a row of floating holographic screens to show everyone the image of a bronze goblet. 

 “The Bronze Cup will appear in the Grand Arena when only one team remains! Whoever wins it will advance to the Championship Rounds, where the Silver Cup, the Gold Cup, and the Crimson Cup itself await you!” He paused for a moment while everyone cheered. He then snapped his fingers again and stat sheets for all the fighters appeared on the floating screens. 

“As you can see, everyone is currently at Level One. As you fight monsters - and each other - you will earn Experience Points, which are managed by the enchantments embedded into the fabric of space within the Pit of Ordeals. With each Level-Up, the Pit will temporarily boost your magic and stats, up to the max of Level Nine. And as always, protective barriers with healing charms are in place to prevent any major harm, so please give it your all! We’ll all be watching through these screens! In three… two… one… Enter!”