by Weiqi Wang
‘GET HIM!’ The entire Victors team threw all kinds of spells at the rooted Halgon in no time. Halgon, for his part, summoned a big stone shield to cover his body, and took the attacks from the Victors.
Halgon was safe behind the stone shield for a while, but eventually it was broken into pieces. As a consequence, Halgon didn’t manage to loot the gem, but he did hit the chest with the ball before retreating.
‘Score! 2 to 1!’ The referee hurriedly announced, but his voice was cut off in the middle —
‘EXECUTE HIM!!!’ The entire Victors team pounced on Halgon, trying to capture him while his leg was still sealed in a thick layer of ice.
‘OMI!’ At the same moment, Soarame also leapt towards Halgon, with a shining ice plate in his hand. The next second, a beam of bright light shone up from the Resurgers’ base and was cast on Soarame’s ice plate. Just as everyone was wondering what Soarame intended, a concentrated dot of light appeared on Halgon’s frozen foot — the plate was not an ice-mirror, but instead an ice-lens. The light dot instantly melted the ice on the spot, and carved a thick incision as Soarame moved it. With that help, Halgon violently kicked out of the ice layer, cracking it into pieces, and walked away just like that!
Long-awaited jubilation finally burst out among the stunned audience. Many started to ask the same question. ‘Who’s that Darkness boy?’
‘Time out!’ Casavin was barking like mad. ‘That Halgon is a Grade-6 in Earth!’
‘He’s not just a Darkness player?’ Adam was still coughing due to Halgon’s kick. Even his Grade-6 healing spells didn’t manage to kill the deep pain. ‘He’s a major in Earth?’
‘No, he’s a Grade-6 in Darkness too!’ Dave looked sulky. ‘My Light spells can barely spot him out!’
‘What! A double-6?’ The entire Victors team was astonished. With all their cards on the table, they still couldn’t stop the Resurgers from scoring — how could they get a double-6 on board at the last moment!
On the other side, the Resurgers were cheering like mad. Although they had had faith in Halgon, they’d had some doubts too — after all, no one knew what had happened to Halgon in the past two years and no one knew how powerful this boy had become — until now!
With the boost in confidence in the Resurgers and disquiet among the Victors, Soarame and Halgon managed to get another score before the game ended. This time, the entire Victors team exhausted themselves in order to target Halgon, and Sophie’s Lightning spells finally got him. However, the boy just rubbed his muscles and walked away —
‘I don’t fight ladies.’ Halgon peeked at Sophie as he retreated, leaving the Victors at a loss for words.
The silence didn’t last long, though, because what Soarame did next woke everyone up in just a few seconds —
Plonk!
The dragon’s chair was kicked over by Soarame. ‘Sigh… no gem.’
‘My god!’ By Resurgers’ base, Matt was freaked out at this scene. He instantly flew up at maximum speed, trying to escape from Soarame pursuit — he certainly didn’t want to be another Ben!
What a shame… Soarame had to land. He had used a whole lot of his mind power in the previous battles. If he went to hunt the dragon, he’d have to expose his real power as an Expert wizard. So the referee announced a temporary draw in the game, and everyone was going to take a break before extra time.
‘What the heck…’ The Victors’ morale was sinking drastically. ‘What shall we do in the extra time?’ The shock at discovering a double-6 in their opponents’ team was bad enough; then the double-6 actually had a body as tough as a bull; then there was a flying Water Captain with Lightning gifts; then the dragon player was still fleeing from him — poor Matt had gone so far away that he didn’t even hear the referee’s announcement, so didn’t even know he could stop now…
‘Everyone, attention please!’ Right then, Gazbell’s voice echoed in the air. ‘All Grade-6 students, gather at Challengers’ Palace now! The rest of you, attend at will.’
‘Game paused!’ The referee was fast to respond. ‘Everyone follow the Principal’s order!’
‘Wait! We are winning!’ Kardiac barked at the referee, but didn’t receive a response.
Although confused, everyone obeyed the instruction and arrived at Challengers’ Palace. On the stage, Gazbell was satisfied to see that the gathering this time was a lot quicker, especially the very first row where the Grade-6 students were standing.
‘Sorry to interrupt the Championship, but we have an emergency.’ Gazbell said aloud. ‘Two things: one, the beastide will be arriving a lot sooner than we expected — it will hit Cylone City by tomorrow morning! Therefore, the participants must have a good rest right after you step out of this building. We will head off tonight to prepare for a block attack before the beasts arrive!’
The Principal’s words shocked everyone, but that was just number “one”. ‘Two, the rankings of the magimals have turned out to be higher than our expectations. They are mostly Adept, and there are Experts too! So, after careful consideration, only Grade-6s are allowed to participate in this mission. And you must be extremely careful and follow your professors’ leadership at all times! Never, never go anywhere by yourself, because if an Expert magimal gets you alone, you WILL die!’
‘What? Expert magimals?’
Gazbell’s words made most students pale, including an always-arrogant Casavin. He took a sly peek at Soarame and Halgon, only to find Soarame quite excited, and Halgon… that boy looked as cool as if nothing had happened.
‘Now, I have two questions for you. Answer them quickly!’ Gazbell looked around at the crowd of students. ‘First, who among you believe you are capable of Grade 6 but haven’t done the test yet? If you want to participate in the mission, step forward to the first row and you’ll be tested in a few minutes!’
‘Very well… more than I thought.’ Seeing a few students step forward, Gazbell nodded, pleased with their courage. ‘Second, for those of you already in Grade 6, is there anyone who wishes not to participate? If so, step back out of the first row.’
This time, no one made a movement. Under the staring of the entire school, no one would ever step back and get crowned as “coward” — Casavin would by no means do that, neither would Ben or Matt. Surprisingly, Sophie had joined the first row.
‘Okay then. Other than those who need to be tested, you are dismissed!’ Gazbell waved his hands. ‘Again, the participants must go and rest now, and gather tonight upon my call!’
Although the friends were not terribly happy about the end of the Championship match being delayed, they had to focus on the beastide for now. But before that, there was another important matter —
‘Halgon, what happened to you?’ In the dorm, everyone was staring at Halgon, excited. Icer was sitting in his arms, unwilling to let him go.
‘I sneaked away.’ Halgon shrugged his shoulder and offered an intentionally distorted answer. ‘From home.’
‘Wait… what?’ The friends puzzled for a second. ‘Oh dear… you mean your family had grounded you? For two whole years?’
‘Yes, dad got a big manor to lock me in. But I finally found a chance to sneak off.’ Halgon shrugged his shoulders. ‘You know I almost died last time. My dad was outraged about that. He’s convinced that I’m too reckless to be out there alone, so he grounded me.’
‘Dude, you are the least reckless one among us!’ Kardiac barked. ‘Tell him it was all my mess and you simply got implicated!’
‘Haha. Nah, it’s not.’ Halgon laughed. ‘My dad was grateful that you tried to save me using your own life, by the way.’
‘Haha, see? I told you I’m a brave man!’ Kardiac turned up his nose at Catheray. ‘Now you finally believe me? “Holy mama” doesn’t mean anything!’
Halgon briefly described his boring life of the past two years. According to him, there was really nothing to describe; but Soarame knew that was because Halgon couldn’t really talk about it — Soarame was the only one on site who kne
w Halgon’s secret.
‘I decided to sneak off because I heard about Rodka — Icer mind-talked to me once.’ Halgon offered this surprising news. ‘I’m sorry, Dileys.’
‘Thank you.’ Dileys’ eyes seemed to redden up again, but she quickly regained control. ‘Sachastain has already left to try to find Rodka. Hope he’s safe…’
‘Wait a minute… Icer could mind-talk to you?’ Soarame suddenly asked. ‘When you were at home?’
‘Only once. But yes.’ Halgon understood Soarame’s question. ‘That confused me too, because mind-talk is not supposed to work over such long distance — we were thousands of miles apart.’
‘No kidding!’ Omifo cut in. ‘Pipi can’t mind-talk to me anymore even when I just go out of campus. We have tried Niuniu, Gaga and even Snower, and the same thing happened to all of them. How could Icer do it?’
‘And why was it only once? If Icer can do it, surely he should be able to do it all the time.’ Halgon had been thinking about this question for a while. ‘And if you guys remember, it feels dizzy every time we pass the entrance. There must be something odd about this campus.’
‘Agreed.’ Soarame chimed in. ‘Ever since I first came here, I’ve been wondering how such a big campus could be contained in a small hill. I used to think it’s a space-expansion magic array, but look at the sun out there — the space-expansion array can’t create a real sun and boundless sky, can it?’
‘That makes sense…’ Kardiac scratched his head. He really didn’t want to think about complicated questions like this one, so he turned to the smartest boy in the crew. ‘What do you think, Eric?’
‘I don’t know.’ Ericson had been silent since he left Challengers’ Palace. ‘The school does whatever they want.’
‘Oh, nice to meet you, Eric.’ Halgon shook hands with Ericson. ‘I’ve heard about your amazing games. It’s a shame that the final match got cut off like this.’
‘I know, right?’ Kriagon barked. ‘We can never let it go! We must demand the game be finished, and get the award!’
‘After the beastide, we definitely will!’ Dileys complained too. ‘I can’t believe the school even changed the plan — they used to say Grade-5s were good enough for the mission!’
Both Dileys and Ericson looked upset, so the atmosphere became a bit embarrassing. Their lower graded friends tried to comfort the two Grade-5s, while Soarame and Halgon went upstairs to take a rest before the coming mission.
‘Dude, I still can’t believe it’s really you!’ Soarame grabbed Halgon’s shoulders and sized him up. ‘How come you didn’t even change a bit?’
‘You should be glad that you are as tall as me now.’ Halgon laughed and closed the door. ‘You know my thing — I don’t grow as fast as you guys. Unfortunately, I got that part from my father, so that when you grow two years, I grow only about two weeks.’
‘What the heck…’ Soarame stepped back from Halgon. ‘But you look the same age as me… Oh my god, don’t tell me…’
‘Well, believe me, I don’t want to; but your guess is right…’ Halgon performed a sound-isolation seal on the door. ‘In physical years, I’m actually a… a very old man.’
‘You must be kidding me…’ Soarame stared at Halgon and swallowed surreptitiously. ‘Either way, I’m not gonna call you “grandpa”!’
‘Good, because I don’t want that either.’ Halgon laughed. ‘But it’s true, so just accept it — I’m more than 500 years old, if you really do the maths.’
‘Holy… mama!’ Soarame didn’t know what else to say. ‘500 is older than my master! But you don’t feel like that?’
‘Of course not. I’ve been hibernating most of the time, so I haven’t been awake for any longer than you guys. And my dad always claims that I’m childish.’ Halgon sat down for a longer conversation. ‘As you may know, most high-ranking magimals, including but not limited to dragons, level up mainly by natural growth instead of active practice. Even if dragons chose to practise their magic, they wouldn’t level up much faster.’
‘On the contrary, hibernation accelerates their maturation. That’s why most dragons are in sleep most of the time.’ Halgon looked at a bewildered Soarame. ‘I inherited the hibernation tradition, and it actually worked very well. Until I reached Expert level, I grew much faster in hibernation than I would have done by practising in a human way.’
‘Wait… you are an Expert?’ Soarame was surprised. ‘Since when?’
‘Since before I came to the school.’ Halgon scratched his head. ‘That’s why we could break the Expert seal on the biography years ago — it wasn’t Rodka’s power, it was mine… Sorry I had to keep it secret for so long.’
‘Well, I thought Kardiac was the lazy one who eats and sleeps all day, but it turns out to be you!’ Soarame needed a while to digest all the stories. ‘You are an Expert in…?’
‘All seven.’ Halgon’s words struck Soarame dumb. ‘Dad is a top-tier black dragon, so he has gifts in all seven, and I’m lucky enough to have inherited that too. When I hibernated, all my seven lineages kept powering up; every time I woke up, I’d learnt some new spells by instinct. However, once they reached Expert level, the progress stopped for some reason.’
‘That’s why you came here?’ Soarame nodded in thought. ‘But why not Sunrise Alliance? The school only teaches up to Expert level.’
‘I can’t go there. Sunrise Alliance has a much harder check upon entry, they will find me out.’ Halgon sighed. ‘The school’s library has pretty much all I need, so it’s okay here.’
‘The entry to the school is not easy either.’ Soarame disagreed. ‘Don’t underestimate Aertiuno. You are lucky to have passed his persuasive whisper.’
‘I know. Dad had that covered.’ Halgon shrugged his shoulders. ‘Plus I’ve been wearing a special magigear that hides all lineages except Earth and Darkness — dad chose those for me for defence and escape. Unless I choose to show my other lineages, no one should be able to spot them.’
‘For real!’ Soarame recalled Ecrif’s words; now they were verified. ‘So you are Expert in all seven… that’s amazing! No wonder dragons used to dominate the world!’
‘Amazing? It took me almost 600 years just to reach level 7!’ Halgon humphed. ‘But even Max could crush me, remember? How old do you think he is? 60?’
Soarame was silenced. He had been thinking that dragons’ natural talent was unfair to humans, but now he thought it was actually unfair to dragons. Although no human had gifts in all seven lineages, many could focus on their best one and become a Master in a much shorter time than dragons — that’s why humans had defeated dragons thousands of years ago, and locked them up in a prison continent!
It wasn’t long before night came. All the Grade-6 students gathered by the gate and started their expedition, following the lead of three professors, including professor Greibec. Soarame had to admit that this was probably the only time that he felt safe beside the queen, and he couldn’t wait to witness her real power.
The school had provided a large magic carriage, in which everyone was now sitting. The carriage was taking them to the woods out of Cylone City, from where they would block attack the coming beastide. While everyone was talking in low voices, Soarame recognized some familiar faces in the team, including Brian, Casavin, Matt, Ben and, surprisingly, Sophie.
‘Sophie is a Grade-6 too?’ Soarame was shocked. ‘No wonder her Lightning spells hurt that much.’
‘No she’s not a Grade-6 in Lightning. That must be her Earth.’ Halgon disagreed. ‘Trust me, a Grade-6 thunderstrike hurts a lot more.’
‘Okay, but that still made the Victors a four-Grade-6 team!’ Soarame was impressed. ‘This Sophie… she hides! Even for the Championship, she didn’t show her true power?’
‘Someone hides even more.’ Halgon teased. ‘Sound familiar?’
As the two were whispering, Sophie seemed to feel something. The proud girl turned to look at Halgon, with a hint of a special smile on her face.
‘
Hey, she’s smiling at you.’ Soarame knocked Halgon’s shoulder with his own. ‘Wanna go and say hello?’
‘No.’ Halgon didn’t even look back at Sophie. Instead, he closed his eyes for a rest. Even Soarame felt this to be a little rude, but Sophie seemed to be impressed; her eyes glowed with stronger interest in this unique boy.
‘Soarame, great job you guys did!’ Just then, Brian came over for a talk. ‘You were right. Halgon did come back in the end.’ The three had a nice chat together; then they noticed there was a pair of bright eyes looking towards them. Finally, Brian couldn’t hold it anymore. ‘Looks like someone just charmed his rival right upon his arrival.’
‘Everyone, pay attention, please!’ Just then, a sonorous voice sounded. ‘We are arriving at the destination, so pull yourselves together! This is a dangerous mission, not a leisure trip! Look at what you are doing — hanging out? Chit chatting? You’d better pray for your survival!’
The words woke the chuckling students. A dapper figure walked down the carriage, followed by a graceful one — Kastico and Sandoray. Kastico was known to be a very powerful Lightning wizard; other than the Master-levelled Mr Principal, he was probably the most powerful teacher in Libral. This time, the school had sent Kastico to be the leader of the students, indicating the danger of this mission. Sandoray, although well known to be violent and powerful, wasn’t really a match for Kastico. Her role in the team was comprehensive, because she could both attack and heal. The last teacher was named Vracho, a professor in Earth, there mainly to protect the students; he had been driving the magic carriage and didn’t talk much.
‘Soon enough we’ll get off and begin to work.’ Kastico looked around at the students. ‘As you know, there will be two thousand of them, but we only have twenty of you. I really don’t know why you were all giggling. Even professor Greibec wasn’t in the mood for smiling.’
Of course, because she doesn’t smile! Soarame rolled his eyes on this. He certainly shared the same thought with many others, but no one dared to say a word.