You've been trying to work out the fiddly details of flight spells for a while now. Your reasons are varied - a promise to help a friend, the tactical benefits against largely ground-bound demons, the sheer "Wow!" factor - but the goal remains the same, and Akatora has just provided you with your first real clue as to how it can be done. You decide to take that hint for all it's worth, going over the shape and flow and flavor of the energies the oni called upon to defy gravity, while the memory of his magic is still fresh in your mind's eye.
"Whoa!" Sakaki and Cordelia yelp in unison, as something that looks like a tiny, technicolor thunderstorm erupts above your upturned hands. "What the heck is that?" Sakaki continues.
"The magic that the oni used to fly," you reply, willing the lightshow to rotate slowly, clockwise, around its vertical axis. Although the energy seems random at first glance, longer observation quickly reveals a pattern to the pulse of the magic - several patterns, actually.
"If you wanted to learn how to fly badly enough that you'll take pointers from a demon, why didn't you just ask Briar for tips?" Cordelia inquires.
"Briar has wings," you answer. "And she's tiny. What magic she needs to fly wouldn't help me learn how it's done, not unless I get far enough into transformation magic to give myself wings."
Which isn't an impossibility, admittedly, but you're still quite a ways from turning yourself into a fairy, you don't have any human-scale winged beings conveniently hanging around for you to pattern yourself after, and you can't yet take a form as small as a typical bird's - not to mention how nervous you'd be about predators if you did. The idea of altering the shape and composition of your own body, essentially at random, until you hit upon the correct combination of factors for actual, functional wings makes your skin crawl. This isn't even getting into the fact that the transformations you can currently perform last for a matter of minutes at best, when it would take you several hours to get anywhere.
Going back to the spell - augmentation is definitely the core component, with a minor divinatory section and a slightly stronger wind-aspected elemental section. Much of the augmentation is familiar to you, being a more complex and robust cousin of the low-end telekinetic effects in your arsenal; it's this which provides the mechanisms, so to spak, which handle lift, thrust, and steering. Control is handled by the threads of divination, some of which are keyed to monitor the subject's thoughts, while others resemble parts of diagnostic and healing spells. It appears as if the oni's flight magic is directed by the movements of the body at least as much as by will. As for the wind magic, it seems to serve two purposes. One is the generation and manipulation of an envelope of air that surrounds the target; round in shape when Akatora was merely rising into the air, it "sharpened" momentarily when he dove at Ryu. The wind magic's other function seems to involve the air within the envelope in some way, but that aspect of the spell didn't take effect when Akatora used it.
Although this brief analysis isn't quite enough to fully unlock the secrets of flight, your recent studies on the subject afford you a great deal of insight. You feel very confident that you could levitate yourself now, which is a big step towards the sky.
Gained Augmentation F+++
Gained Divination E++
Gained Mage Sight F+++
Gained Wind Elementalism F+
You're so caught up in your study of the flight spell's structure, you almost don't notice when the Announcer calls for the next bout to begin - but only almost. Dismissing your construct of light for the time being, you raise your spiritual and magical senses to observe the second-to-last match of the second round. Another ninja-girl - there are a lot of them in this tournament, aren't there? - armed with a short sword and several throwing blades, is facing off against a burly youth who carries a curious double-ended weapon that looks like somebody stuck two long, broad-bladed swords together at the hilts. If it were made of metal and sharpened, it'd be a rather fearsome weapon, but as it's only blunt wood...
Okay, the big guy can throw whatever-it-is and make it spin like a buzzsaw. That's pretty neat, although voluntarily disarming yourself doesn't seem like a smart mo- oh, okay, and the spinning double-blade thing comes back like a boomerang. That's a bit less self-defeating, but it still leaves the big guy unarmed for several seconds, more than enough time for a quick kunoichi to close the distance and smack the snot out of him with her competition blade. Except that when said wooden weapon hits its target, instead of the familiar, cringe-inducing smack of wood against flesh, there is instead the dull clack of wood against rock. In the time between his throwing away his weapon and getting hit by his opponent, the big guy's skin has gone from faintly pale to dark grey, and picked up a distinctly inorganic cragginess.
So, apparently, he can turn his skin to stone - and despite being "rock," it's still living flesh, which means he can reinforce it with ki for further resillience. That's... that's really rather frightening, now that you stop and think about it. A well-trained martial artist can shatter stone, but living stone, possessed of and able to control its own ki? That's an entirely different affair. It's a shame you can't make out exactly what this guy's doing with his ki, but you do get some idea of how he's achieving the overtly magical half of the technique. The aspects of earth magic are obvious, but surprisingly, there's also water magic involved - at a guess, for helping to convert the mostly-water human body to something more resilient.
Faced with an opponent who appears to be impervious to any physical assault she can muster - as a quick, ineffectual barrage of throwing blades proves - the girl backs off and breaks out the ninja magic. Her technique isn't as flashy or violent as Ryu's, incorporating clear elements of illusion rather than elementalism, and from what you can see, it conserves a certain amount of power by creating a phantasm that only the victim can see, rather than some figment visible to the entire audience. You can't tell what the kunoichi chose to show her stone-skinned adversary, and his sudden expression of horror suggests that perhaps it's better that way. The big guy makes several desperate defensive swings at an unseen target that is nowhere near the girl, recoils from what must appear to be a completely ineffective assault... and then screams once and falls to his knees, weapon slipping from his grasp and stone skin reverting to familiar flesh.
After a moment, the kunoichi advances cautiously and nudges her opponent. He keels over to one side, still visibly breathing, but clearly unconscious.
The Announcer scratches his head and calls it a win for the girl, Kagero.
Gained Earth Elementalism F
Gained Elementalism F+++
Gained Illusion F
Gained Mage Sight F++
Gained Mana Control F+++
Gained Transformation F
Gained Water Elementalism F-
As the kunoichi illusionist leaves the ring, she passes the last two fighters for the round - and you notice Beryl giving the ninja girl a considering look.
Speaking of Beryl, you've already decided not to use divination magic on her for this round, and after what you saw of her spirit the last time, you're not about to use your ki sight, either. What about her opponent, though? The girl is slightly shorter than Beryl, but clad in a close-fitting dark red leotard that makes it clear she's in much better physical condition. Her only visible weapons are the reinforced knuckles of her fingerless fighting gloves and the steel toes of her boots, but the confidence she radiates with every step she takes towards the ring qualifies as a weapon in and of itself. If the girl can muster that kind of attitude when she's walking into a fight with somebody who pulled out as many tricks as Beryl did in the previous round, she's got to have some kind of ace in the hole - something that might be worth your while to take a look at.