As everything happened and unfolded in front of Aeryn, he had to wonder whether fighting Blaise or fighting him was the mercy. Well, Aeryn might not have gone that far, but in exchange he might have taken the boy's dry clothes to suit his own needs. Aeryn was one of the top ranked fighters after all, despite only being twelve years old. In truth, the reason he did this was to establish his own, personal reputation as Aeryn and not let his own reputation be "Lord Jace's Son".
That was why he worked really hard on his training, with both his weapon and training. Although, in truth, while they were considered Magi-Combat Tournaments, due to the advancements of the current era advanced technology and powers not based on magic were allowed as well now. Technically, no one had to use any of those and could try to use their own power...but people like that were unlikely to win.
"Hmmmm. I hope this will end all of this nonesense, but....well, I know better then that by now".
Aeryn had tried himself various times in the past, but it was really hard to change opinions apparently. Well, its not like everyone believed them though. There were some exceptional students that didn't, and most if not all of the oddballs didn't.
"At least I am not completely hated here. Especially Ollie, he absolutely refused any discussion on the topic and announced himself as my friend".
Ollie was one of the more well known and eccentric students of Astrius Academy. He was one of the very, very few, maybe the only, student that did not reside in the dorms, but rather in the tower where all of the various birds used by Astrius Academy for a variety of things and reasons were kept, and personalized it into his own space. Normally this would not be allowed, but because he single handedly takes care of everything there, they decided to make a rare exception.
Because of his eccentricness, and possible insanity, he could not be considered the norm though. But, he was often enjoyable to be around and talk to sometimes.
However, when he realized that she had not even heard of the updated dueling rules, he considered she might not know about Ollie too.
"By the way, have you heard of him or met him yet? Ollie Luna?"
Meanwhile...
Rio, who was still in shock, heard people who were likely calling out for him. He tried to keep himself calm, but his current mental state was confused and he did not really want to communicate with anyone right now. And so, he kept running and hoped they did not notice her, only he ended up tripping and hitting the ground.
And it was quite painful too.