Ancient Barons and the Returned Assassin

by Weiqi Wang

  ‘And you made a mistake.’ Omifo spoke up too. ‘When Jemario asked you to leave, you shouldn’t have listened.’

  ‘What? What should I have done, then?’ Soarame looked at Omifo, not convinced.

  ‘You should have insisted on staying with her, of course.’ Kardiac claimed. ‘Omi is right — don’t listen to her!’

  ‘You do that.’ Soarame rolled his eyes. ‘I’m not gonna be brazen-faced like that!’

  ‘Dude, you are supposed to!’ Kardiac claimed. ‘Girls say different things from what is actually on their minds, you know it!’

  ‘What the heck?’ Soarame turned up his nose at this. ‘I don’t know it.’

  ‘Then you just learned it.’ Omifo seconded Kardiac. ‘Do it right next time!’

  ‘Kriagon, tell them they are being absurd.’ Soarame had to turn to Kriagon for help — the boy had been reading a book quietly.

  ‘Okay.’ Kriagon closed his book. He raised his head and looked at Soarame. ‘You are being absurd.’

  ‘What…’ Soarame was stunned. ‘You are facing the wrong direction, right?’

  ‘You should have learnt about this long ago, seriously.’ Kriagon tidied up his hair and made a pose. ‘Spare some effort from magic and learn something real, Water Captain!’

  ‘Holy crap.’ Soarame was not convinced at all. ‘You don’t even have a girlfriend, dude!’

  ‘Neither do you, captain.’ Kriagon’s words stunned Soarame again. ‘Who’s your girlfriend? Jemario?’

  ‘…’ Soarame was choked and had to stay silent. Kriagon was right; although Soarame liked Jemario and he believed that she liked him too, both were too shy to confess and make it official. Every time he tried to say something serious, he was overwhelmed by shyness and blushed from head to foot. Therefore, although after being close to Jemario for years, Soarame, the brave boy in everything else, just couldn’t toughen up and say the words.

  ‘What are you waiting for, man?’ Kriagon looked at Soarame. ‘You are the best talent in Libral, and we all think that Jemario likes you.’

  ‘See? That’s what I meant when I said, “You should do something”.’ Kardiac was certainly proud of himself.

  ‘You mean I should have confessed?’ Hearing this, Soarame was blushing already. ‘When she was upset with me?’

  ‘Oh ya!’ Kardiac nodded hard. ‘Trust me, I’m not a captain on magic but I’m a captain on this!’

  ‘No, you’re not.’ Soarame was amused. However, he had to admit that Kardy had done an amazing job of capturing Catheray’s heart.

  ‘You should listen to Kardy, he’s good.’ Omifo patted Soarame’s shoulder. Soarame was surprised at this; he looked at Kriagon subconsciously, and found the chubby boy nodding hard too.

  This made Soarame hesitate. He pondered a bit and had to look at Kardiac again. ‘Fine! What do you suggest then, captain?’ With that, Soarame was curious to see what this unpredictable boy had to say —

  ‘Kiss her!’

  Kardiac’s words almost bowled Soarame over. The brave Water Captain had to roll his eyes again. ‘You do that!’

  ‘Oh, are you sure?’ Kardiac laughed. ‘I can try if you really want to let me.’

  ‘Kardy, you dog!’ Kriagon barked. ‘Soar, he’s got Catheray… how about let me instead?’

  ‘Wow, wow, wow!’ Kriagon had to run right after saying that, because a mad Soarame was about to do something to him. Surprisingly, this time the chubby boy actually ran very fast, making Soarame actually have a faith in him for the Resurgers.

  ‘Man, I was kidding about that but…’ After getting out of the building, Kriagon turned around and yelled. ‘Seriously, go kiss her!’

  ‘This brat…’ Soarame was amused and had to shake his head. He turned to a chuckling Omifo. ‘Omi, what do you think? Don’t joke around; be serious.’

  ‘Sure.’ Omifo stopped chuckling. He looked at his best friend in seriousness. ‘You should kiss her.’

  ‘What the heck? I said be serious!’ Soarame so wanted to spell a piercing wave. ‘Wait… you are serious?’

  ‘God help this poor kid!’ Kardiac looked frustrated. ‘He seems to have language problems… even Gaga understands us!’

  ‘Gaga, gaga.’ Hearing this, Gaga walked over, with his chubby butt shaking around, followed by Icer with Pipi sitting on his back. To the boys’ surprise, the naughty monkey was kissing the white tiger on the back of his head, in a grimace.

  ‘You kids need to stop.’ Seeing everyone cracked up by the naughty young ones, Soarame was anxious but also amused. He couldn’t help muttering. ‘But… Jem wouldn’t slap me on the face, right?’

  ‘No, but she may slap you on the butt.’ Omifo couldn’t help teasing. ‘Kidding! No, she won’t.’

  ‘Just do it, man!’ Kardiac hastened forward, grasped Soarame’s shoulders and shook him back and forth. ‘You are Soarame! You are the Water prince, and Jemario is the Water princess! Wake the heck up, and do what you’re supposed to do!’

  ‘Yeah! Even Kardy can get over it and kiss a spider, you should at least be able to kiss Jem! She looks much better than that, doesn’t she?’ Omifo barked.

  ‘Good point!’ Kardiac barked too.

  ‘Your majesty prince, may I come in?’ Just then, Ericson’s voice sounded outside. Soarame blushed and opened the door, and Ericson walked in laughing. ‘Kardy, you should pursue an auction career. I’m sure the buyers can hear you clearly.’

  ‘Eric, any news from the auction hall?’ Soarame hurriedly switched topics. ‘When is the auction due?’

  ‘Next Friday evening. The Libral gate will open by then, so I’ll definitely go.’ Ericson said. ‘Are you sure you don’t wanna be there yourself? It’s your first auction!’

  ‘Yes, I’m sure. Sorry.’ Soarame sighed. ‘You know why… Plus I’ve got lots of things to do.’

  ‘Especially to kiss the Water princess?’ Ericson teased. ‘Good luck with that.’

  ‘Okay, now that you’ve heard what they think, what do you think?’ Soarame stared at Kardy for that.

  ‘I don’t know. Ask yourself.’ Ericson waved his hands. ‘How long do you think you’ll stay in school? What if you graduate but Jemario doesn’t?’

  Hearing this, everyone was silenced. Ericson was very right, but this just made Soarame even more unsure as to what to do; so he decided to leave aside the bold plan for now.

  At about the same time as Soarame’s internal disturbance started, so did the Dragon&Empires Championship. This year’s championship meant a great deal to the friends, because they wanted the Expert soulcore as the final award. This used to be a mission impossible, because they lacked a Darkness player. But, fortunately, this time things had changed a lot —

  ‘3 to 0, the Resurgers won!’

  ‘5 to 1, the winner is the Resurgers!’

  ‘7 to 0, what a brutal game! The applause is for the Resurgers!’

  ‘Oh my god, the gem just got stolen! The Resurgers made it!’

  Thanks to Ericson’s presence, the Resurgers were largely strengthened. Despite his claim that he was not good at games, he was a very quick learner, and he had solid capacity in Darkness. What made the friends marvel even more was that this boy was surprisingly smart — he always had good ideas on general tactics, and his suggestions on team formation and so on worked really well. Even Brian, the captain of the Pathfinders, had to admit that Ericson was not only a good Darkness player, but also a good commander. Because of that, the smart boy had gone from a supposedly secondary Darkness to being the vice-captain of the team.

  Strengthened by their determination to save Rodka, the Resurgers had been winning all the way along, with impressive scores. All the other teams had sensed a sharp threat from this resurging team that had lost halfway last year, due to the lack of a good Darkness player. This year, they seemed to have completely turned things around; and for some reason, the whole team had been fierce and cruel, as if they wanted to bite people. Even the duckbear boy could run so much faster,
and became more like a “dashbear”. As a result, the Resurgers had made it into the quarter final smoothly.

  ‘Everyone is talking about our double-bears.’ Alicey was hanging out again in Soarame’s dorm, with everyone else. ‘The mad bear plus the super duckbear, we are the black horse this year!’

  ‘And the ghost gust.’ Soarame supplemented, holding Ericson’s shoulder. As a bonus to the team, Ericson actually had a Wind minor so that he could speed himself up, thus he had been a pain in the butt for all the Resurgers’ rivals. Once he hid himself in shadow and started a sneak attack, it was really hard to defend against him. Besides, if he showed up by the rival’s base and took the gem, he had a much better chance of escaping, due to his speed — then it’s a victory.

  ‘Excuse me, but I don’t really like that nickname.’ Kriagon cracked a bitter smile. ‘I’d rather stay low key.’ Since Kriagon had recovered from the mind ocean injury years ago, he had been pleasantly famous for a while until he got the nickname.

  ‘Too late. Get used to it.’ Omifo patted the super duckbear’s shoulder. ‘That’s the cost to be the headline of the campus newspaper.’

  ‘Okay guys, it’s time.’ Soarame clapped his hands. The Resurgers were going to have its quarter final in a couple of hours, so the team followed Soarame to the arena.

  ‘Look! The Resurgers arrived!’

  ‘The double bears!’

  ‘The ghost gust!’

  ‘And the mermaid!’

  Obviously, the Resurgers had a lot of fans; even Dileys was famous for her nickname “mermaid”. As a comparison, the Water Captain was an old topic now, especially since Soarame had been playing things very low key so far — he had not used flying spells in a single game this year, so that his teammates could practise more. However, the Resurgers’ rivals had never forgot what he’s capable of.

  ‘Soarame is defending their base, so there’s little chance of getting their gem. Remember that and don’t make stupid moves!’ Hearing the audience’s loud cheering for the Resurgers, the rival team, named Furyflame, was rather tense. They used to be a very strong team — in fact, they still were — but their rival was the blackest horse this year and it was so hard to even win a score from them. Years ago, the Water Captain’s “incantation choker” skill could already scare off many attackers; now that he had levelled up to the “Ice Captain”…

  ‘We must defend well.’ The captain of the Furyflame, named Matt, finally made his decision. ‘Focus on the ghost gust, try to seek him out. Unless there’s a golden chance, we don’t push.’

  With that, Matt was feeling such a bitter taste inside. The team Furyflame got its name because most of the teammates were Fire wizards, including the captain himself. They used to be famous for winning confrontations, followed by hard pushing and scoring; yet this time they had to lower their proud heads to a Water boy!

  How could Water overcome Fire! Matt clenched his fist hard, making his finger joints click. Although he was not yet resigned to defeat, he could do nothing but yield to Soarame this time. Ben, you’d better not wimp out when they push us!

  ‘Ben is the dragon?’ Dileys frowned on realizing this — the dragon player for this game was no other than the cheating captain from two years ago, Ben. Back then, Rodka had still been the captain of the Pathfinders, and Soarame had taken part in a practice game against Ben’s team. In that game, Ben had cheated by cooperating with the dragon player, yet they still hadn’t won it. The reason was actually what had made the famous Water Captain the Water Captain — Soarame had used his legendary incantation choker skill for the first time. It had wiped out Robert, kicked away the dragon player and beaten Ben and Soarame had led the Water pride since then!

  This time, when Soarame’s own team was competing in the championship, the old rival showed up again, but this time he was a dragon player himself. Soarame looked towards the familiar face in a flightcloak, with a sneer on his face. ‘Omi, stay close to me. This guy can do Fire and Earth, plus he has a Darkness magigear with nightfall spell. With two more magigears offered by the school for the game, he’s a five-lineage dragon now.’

  ‘That’s no good.’ The team was worried. ‘And what lineages would he choose for the two extra magigears?’

  ‘They could be Water, Light or Wind. It’s hard to say.’ Soarame pondered. ‘The good thing is that we don’t need to worry about Lightning — unless a dragon player has five lineages already by himself, the game doesn’t offer a Lightning magigear.’

  ‘Because Lightning is supposed to be the rarest gift, even for dragons?’ Ericson asked. Seeing Soarame nod, he continued. ‘Then it’s probably Water and Light, not Wind. The reason is simple; the unique advantage for Wind is not its attacking spells, but its flying spell. He’s already got a flightcloak, so he is not likely to choose a Wind magigear.’

  ‘That’s right!’ Soarame was happy to see Ericson make an incisive point once again. ‘So he’s a five-lineage dragon: Fire, Water, Earth, Light and Darkness. Everyone note that!’

  ‘Yes, captain!’ The team replied in union.

  The game started soon, and the Resurgers were taking a clear lead. Because the Furyflame had only been defending, the Resurgers decided to send five out for attack, leaving only two for defence. This gave Ben a good chance to attack the Resurgers’ base —

  ‘Soar!’ Omifo suddenly barked. ‘Watch…’

  ‘Been waiting.’ Soarame winked at his friend and turned around to face the approaching Ben with a sneer.

  ‘Soarame, down!’ With a loud roar, Ben waved a number of icearrows from his magigear, aiming at Soarame’s full body. At the same time, a blast of darkness covered Soarame’s eyes — it was the nightfall spell from Ben’s own magigear.

  ‘Get off!’ Omifo was waiting for this; he instantly neutralized the nightfall on Soarame. Soarame regained his sight in an instant, so he was almost unaffected. The next second, Soarame’s icearrows knocked into Ben’s — one for one, all hitting the target!

  Shit! Although aware of his rival’s skills, Ben still began to sweat on seeing this. Fortunately, Ben had never expected that Soarame could be taken down that easily, so he carried out the real deal that he’d plotted to get Soarame with — dazinglare, from the Light magigear.

  ‘Ahh!’ Sadly, Ben found himself dazed by a beam of overwhelmingly strong light. At the same time, Soarame was not totally happy doing what he did — he’d had to use mirrorface to reflect the dazinglare back to Ben. It had worked well for sure, but also exposed his secret — in fact, Soarame had been praying for this not to happen. However, everything comes at a cost, and Soarame certainly understood that, so he would by all means make that cost worth paying.

  ‘Awww!’ Ben’s pained voice sounded again, followed by the scream from the audience — the Water Captain, for the first time this year, rose into the air — he knocked over the dragon player with a firm punch to his stomach!

  ‘Screw you!’ Ben was covering his belly, blindly trying to fly away. But how could Soarame let him? With another punch, Ben fell down from the air, crashing into the grass.

  ‘WHAT?!’

  The audience couldn’t believe what they had just seen — the dragon, the five-lineage dragon that could either advance or retreat at will, had just been crushed and captured?

  ‘The dragon slayer!’ Someone screamed; followed by many more.

  Sigh… no gem on his body? While everyone was marvelling, Soarame wasted no time searching Ben’s body. Ben was resisting like mad, even in his blindness, and Soarame was annoyed enough to knock him out completely with another hard punch. The audience were dumbstruck to see the dragon player pass out; an overwhelming wave of acclaim, screaming, yelling and cheering burst out all over the stadium. For years, they had not witnessed a live scene where a dragon player was beaten in a formal Championship — and this one was beaten so badly that he passed out!

  ‘Soarame? What happened?’ Meanwhile, both teams were dumbfounded to hear the sudden burst from the stadium. They to
ok a few seconds to understand the situation. ‘He took down the dragon?!’

  The gem! Ericson immediately realized what to do next. He gave up the Furyflame’s base at once and rushed towards the dragon chair — if the gem had been on Ben, Soarame would have taken care of it.

  The rest of the players were not too slow either; everyone was chasing Ericson towards the dragon chair. However, even before Ericson arrived, a blurred figure showed up by the chair — it was Matt!

  ‘Crap! He’s a Darkness too, we all forgot that!’ Kardiac barked while dashing.

  Matt had been defending all the time, so he hadn’t used his shadowcape until just then — he was observing the entire game as the captain and was the first to see Ben get crushed. In a gamble, he had instantly hidden himself and dived towards the dragon chair. Now he had arrived at the chair, and found something that made him ecstatic —

  The gem! Holding the gem in his hand, Matt screamed inside.

  ‘Stop him!’ Soarame’s yell cut off Matt’s brief excitement. Matt knew that he was actually facing a very tough mission — to take the gem back to his base. As an Adept Darkness, he could only walk slowly if he wanted to stay completely invisible; if he rushed, he would be spotted. Matt knew that he had been lucky enough to sneak here only due to the Resurgers’ neglect, and there was no way he could sneak back as easily. Plus, the toughest part was that the gem could not be thrown for passing — it had to be passed hand-to-hand. Therefore, it was very hard to steal a gem from one team’s base and take it to the other, and that’s why Ericson had earnt his reputation as a “ghost gust” — he was so fast that he didn’t have to worry about being spotted.

  Right then, Matt had to slowly dodge the entire Resurgers’ interception, then either walk the gem back to his base by himself or physically pass the gem to his teammates. With that in mind, Matt disappeared again.

  ‘Where is he?’ Kardiac was anxious. ‘Find him out!’

  ‘ATTACK!’ At the same time, the Furyflame burst out firing, and a brutal battle broke out in no time. They finally got a chance to initiate a confrontation that they had been longing so badly for, so right then they didn’t care about a “flying captain” or a “dragon slayer” or anything, they wanted to crush whoever dared to stand in their way.