Lori
The *Cilnia & Montagne* Amphitheater — more universally known as the Caeli Noctis Amphitheatre, or simply the Noctis Amphitheater — is one of the two major amphitheaters currently owned by Astra Cantum, and the only in existence within Caeli Noctis. It is a significantly downscaled version of the *Patera Caeli* Still present at the original headquarters of *Astra Cantum,* Its decrease in size largely due to the work behind its replication being expedited to occur in just under a year. Still by no means a humble display of architecture, the *Noctis Ampitheater* Is a 100m-wide marvel of arcane construction, three stories tall, possessing integrated enchantment to support weather control.

Seeing as the *Noctis Ampitheater* Lacks many of the more desirous features of the *Patera Caeli,* Plans have been made to slowly deconstruct it and reconstruct a more faithful recreation of the classic *Astra Cantum* Viewing arena over the course of the next two years. As such, the *Noctis Ampitheater,* While still used for some specific formal occasions, is now mostly used by Academy students for private expositions and for proctored faux-combat.

Stepping toward the open central gate of the *Noctis Ampitheater,* The subtle sensation of rumbling beneath one's feet that could be felt within about a half-kilometer radius of the viewing-arena could be felt growing subtly more and more intense, as though growing closer to the origin of the reverberant noise. The hum of magic can be heard in the form of a low, whirling screech, mana aflicker before Alexis' eyes in various, effervescent, and violent spectra — the clear evidences of combative magicks at play. 

She could hear pure mana coalescing in the distance — a simple, but evidently powerful spell — crashing with an irritating whine as it clashed against resistive energy — a similarly simple, but powerful barrier. To an exceedingly skilled practitioner of magic like herself, merely the flow of mana around her and the distant sound of spells being cast her told the story of the battle happening beyond her: the magician on the offensive had taken flight, projecting a great mass of mana into a singular point, then diffused it into three beams that descended upon their opponent; the magician on the defensive gathered their mana to project a deflective barrier, splitting the oncoming beams and dispersing their energy into the ground surrounding them, releasing a loud rumble into the earth below. The magician on the offensive shifts in the air, seeking a new angle, and strikes again, and the cycle repeats itself once more. . .
Hazel
```
"Surprising...!"
"You can manage it too, huh?!"
"——Messing with the flow behind my spells... Competing for control over them!"```

One hand upon the form of a crystalline orb and the other firmly grasping her long-brimmed hat — fluttering chaotically amidst the gales of wind she had stirred with the shockwaves of her own attack — the sorceress stared down upon her opponent, her eyes flaming with her crimson-red mana. She remained suspended mid-air, a visible flux of pale, swirling mana engulfing her body and maintaining her aloft over ten meters in the sky above the man below, stationary in-flight toward the center of the Amphitheater.
Lori
*Leoni Eisenstadt.*

She was the first person that Alexis would lay eyes on upon after passing through the open gates of the Amphitheater. It was relatively hard to miss someone with such an impressive magical presence, especially when they were in flight. Beneath her was a black-haired man of a much more modest, but adamant magical presence, a barrier of mana, so stable it seemed more like it was made of stone than magic, slowly dissipating at his fingertips.

Further to her right, two men remained seated at the foremost benches of the Ampitheater — one very aged and the other somewhat young — both closely overseeing the fight, both with some form of observational magics currently in use. The older of the two, a white-haired man, was additionally maintaining control over a much more subtle, but extraordinarily refined spell that encompassed both Leoni and the man whom she had challenged: it appeared to be some sort of potent flow-control, seemingly in use to regulate the boundaries of their combat trial.
Maggie
```
"It's a little trick I picked up from your teacher, actually," he cocked his head with a small grin.```

*Han Chen* — the challenged party. He was a transfer student with a significant amount of grit and a drive for improvement, having taken this combat-trial as a major opportunity to evolve a certain defensive spell he was working on. Average-statured, Han was a black-haired man with cheery brown eyes, a glittering, green-and-orange-hued mana flickering from the surface of his hand, which he used to support the fading barrier ahead of himself. A wide, but superficial gash cut across the left half of his face, very recently inflicted. She had struck him once, but only just barely, a soft trickle of blood flowing from where the wound slightly cut past his skin and into his flesh.
Hazel
```
"Oh, really?" 
"Un-fortunately!" —she yelled, outstretching her arm with her crystal orb toward him. Explosive fluctuations of mana began to swell within the vessel.
"I've learned that trick, too. And how to defeat it!"```

Leoni's grin grew, her sharp canines revealed from beyond her lips. The chaotic detonations of mana within her orb slowly grew more orderly, as though she was using the vessel as a means to more fluently control her own output. From a superficial observation, it may have seemed like the magician's equivalent of using training wheels. A more thorough examination, however, would reveal that Leoni's control over her own mana-flow was great enough to call her an adept — she was merely using the orb in addition to existing fundamentals.
_ _

All-the-more, the flow over the offensive spell she was wielding was great enough that, before it had even been set forth beyond the crystal vessel she suspended it within, it had shifted tinctures and quality from combustive crimson waves to that of a smooth, pale-white, bursting forth into existence with laminar flow: a single stream of snowy-white mana. It hammered down on yet another barrier that Han manifested in a fraction-of-a-second, splitting into multiple beams upon impact that, then, again, gravitated back inward towards their initial target, now from multiple angles.
Lori
Shockwaves ripple through the air the moment that the attack makes contact with Han's defense, and the ground again rumbled. Their battle was still in-progress, so she would have to either see it through, interrupt it, or search for information adjacent to Leoni — the two men in observation of their duel an apparent lead to follow for the time being.