That is how barbarians work, isn't it. When they're not angry, they just... stop. And sometimes drop dead from their wounds, but he hasn't been hit that hard.

Well. Fine, she will admit that's a good decision. It's kind of disappointing, with how far he'd gone, but there is no wealth in failure. If he knew he was done, better to stop now and not pay for a Resurrection later.

The crowd eventually calms down.

The third contestant is a well-dressed man in a purple suit, wearing a monocle. A large book is clipped to his belt, and he carries a gem-tipped staff.

The wizards cheer as he crosses the field. "Our next contestant is the Acadamae's very own Professor Javier Vargas of the Hall of Shaping!"

Professor Vargas walks through the hole Takota made and up to the wall of liquid metal. He appears to be inspecting it with his monocle.

...she did just say there was no such thing as cheating, but that's pretty cheating as "not cheating" goes. If you want to rely on the work of another to get there, don't show that off to everyone! When you're going against the general expectation, even if it's not a rule, you should let people assume you did nothing unusual!

But it is a lot of money, and if he thinks he has an actual chance the headstart is worth a lot. Fine.

After about a minute, Professor Vargas nods to himself and leaves the hole.

He walks over to the double doors at the front of the Hall, casts a spell, and the wooden set swings open.

Oh. Right. That was something new, which hasn't been seen any time recently, and he's a wizard. He was just there to study it. Not all humans are that bad at handling other humans.

Alright, fine. Time to see how he handles the doors.

The stone doors are now visible.

He casts three spells on himself in quick succession. For a moment, his body becomes formed of gleaming ice, before disappearing. He flickers through the stone doors.

They open behind him. He phases through the doors of iron, and they open too.

There is clapping from the crowd, and cheering from the wizards.

And that spell is Transmutation, of all things. She still doesn't understand that one, but it supposedly hangs that way on a scaffold, so it is what it is.

As the iron doors open, Professor Vargas casts a spell.

The Doors of Steel, gleaming like silver, are visible. Hundreds of arrows pour forth.

The rain of arrows slams into an invisible barrier. He snaps his fingers and the arrows fall to the ground. He walks up to the doors, but cannot seem to flicker through them.

He points the end of his staff toward the doors, and a green ray streaks out from its gemstone tip. One of the doors turns to dust.

The crowd cheers! There is much discussion among the wizards.

Ooh, Disintegrate. And the doors weren't warded against that somehow? She doesn't actually know if that's possible, but the Hall of Wards is the sort of place which would have done it. He's making nice progress.

The fifth set of doors, deep and shifting blue, appear. Lightning streaks toward the Professor from a glowing brilliant white rune.

It slams into his body of ice harmlessly. Professor Vargas walks through the hurricane-force winds without issue. He fires another disintegrate from the staff—

The door reflects the ray back the way it came.

He blinks out of the way just in time.

The crowd screams!

Oh come on, surely he was expecting that. This is the Hall of Wards, if you could Disintegrate your way in it wouldn't have been unbreached for one and a half centuries. But, well, humans. Some of them may be competent, that doesn't mean she should expect any better from giant masses.

The Professor stands still for a moment, his frozen hair refusing to blow in the wind.

He casts a spell. One of the blue doors shudders, before swinging open.

"—through the Doors of Storm, but whether he can pass the Doors of Night remains to be seen—"

The sixth set of doors, reflecting the night sky, shine brilliantly. Their deadly constellation flashes.