The sixth set of doors are a brilliant moving night sky. The stars glow, and the constellations form a vast symbol. It flashes.

She steps forward and draws a card. Her scarab necklace shines like the sun before crumbling to dust. She places the card on the doors.

The symbol glows a second time.

Madison goes still, collapsing against the doorway.

The crowd is silent.

...ah, yes. The Doors of Night. She's only seen them twice before now, but someone just dying does leave an impression.

Still, it was an impressive showing! Mother said you can't be Raised the normal way if you die like that, but surely a master thief did some research and had some plan. Now, who's next?

The Headmaster levitates Madison's body away from the Hall of Wards. One-by-one, the doors shut of their own accord.

The second contestant is a large shirtless man. Held in two hands, slung over his shoulder, is a truly ridiculously large sledgehammer.

The announcer's cheer is already back! "Our next contestant is the legendary Shoanti adventurer Takota! Slayer of the mighty vampire Rum'zel, among many others great deeds!"

Takota walks up to the Hall, stopping around thirty feet away from one of the windows.

For a moment, he sets the hammer down, still gripping it. He drinks a potion, and doubles in height. The hammer grows with him, now truly sized for a giant. He shifts his grip, crouches down, and leaps. The ground cracks beneath him.

A deafening gong vibrates through the ground. The glass has shattered—but it was never glass at all, part of the illusion covering the Hall melting away in a second. A five-foot section of the plainly decorated wood and glass building is replaced with a solid rectangular wall, fashioned of a strange green crystal. Takota's sledgehammer smokes, embedded inches within the wall.

Physical force: still not a great idea. She thought this had gotten around. She is not expecting as good a show as Madison's.

Takota backs up thirty feet and leaps again.

His hammer disintegrates another few inches of the strange crystal, moving through it like butter. When he lifts it, a deep black metal can be seen inside the hole.

The regular crowd is excited, and the wizards up in the raised seating are notably louder!

Takota backs up thirty feet and leaps again. This might be a pattern.

He chunks out a few more inches, this time mostly of the black metal.

Again. Again. Again. The metal gives way to stone, which he chunks out by the foot each swing. His pace grows quicker.

...alright, she will grudgingly admit he seems to be managing something here. What he's doing which vast quantities of brute force couldn't is unclear, but there's no point pretending he's just hitting hard.

That just means they get to see the defenses on the Hall which weren't on the doors, though. This should be fun.

Takota backs up thirty feet and leaps again.

His skin burns and blackens when he crosses some invisible line. Past the stone layer is a strange flowing molten metal. It behaves oddly like a solid, refusing to not be shaped as a wall.

The sledgehammer bounces off harmlessly. He pauses for a moment, and then slams the hammer again. The sound of something shattering echos from the Hall.

"—that's the wall of force, down in a single swing!" The announcer yells.

The crowd is definitely cheering!

Takota backs up thirty feet and leaps again.

The molten metal falls quickly. Again. Again. Behind it is a foot-wide empty space, lightning cross-crossing the gap.

Again. His hammer slams through the web of lightning and it ceases to exist. There's a wall made of roiling black ooze. Again. Again. The ooze shrivels up like a raisin.

—How is he doing that? That's not how spells work! He shouldn't be able to just 'hit hard enough' like a badly written song!

Grumble grumble. He's managing it, clearly, and there's not really any such thing as cheating here. She still wants to know how though.

Takota backs up thirty feet and leaps again.

Past the ooze is some kind of grey stone with glowing iron runes spread throughout it. He shrinks abruptly. Behind him, more of the illusions surrounding the Hall die.

Again. Again. The stone breaks and the runes wink out. Takota doubles in height. The illusions reform.

Behind the dead-magic wall is blue sky and a burning sun. The clouds in the background become a river of fire.

Takota's skin blackens further.

He slams his sledgehammer though the sky. It shatters like glass. 

Behind the sky is a shimmering wall of neon red light.

Takota backs up thirty feet and leaps again.

The sledghammer slams into the red wall, and it flickers out. A bubbling orange wall sits an inch behind it.