by Dixon, TJ
Flames roar at us but I steal the air from them and they fail to reach us. The earth below our feet collapses but I lift us gently into the air. Fire and earth seem to be their favourite elements, but that doesn’t mean their only ones. Water rushes out of the holes below and I am proven unfortunately correct.
Throwing caution to the wind I throw us directly towards Gabriel like arrows hurtling towards a target. Ahead of us I strike with lightning and the water pursuing us drops to the ground as Shelley shields. Grasping Gabriel’s throat I steal the air from her lungs just as she raises flames that engulf me. Ignoring the pain I keep up the lightning to keep Shelley busy and wait for Gabriel to faint as her flames fade. My power is nearly exhausted by the time she does and I desperately grab Rin and kiss her with my burnt lips. The power flows back into me and I dash towards Shelley.
“I withdraw!” She shouts as her shield drops. I stop the lightning just in time.
“Well, that was unexpected…” The woman who announced us says. “But do you really think you can win?”
“No. We withdraw too.” I say. And the already stunned audience draw a collective breath. Then the woman laughs loudly holding her stomach as if in pain. I send air back into Gabriel’s lungs and she coughs back awake. She is in no state to use magic, but she will live.
“You really are something. To think the girl was just there to refresh your power though. Normally it’s the other way round. And you just helped your opponent.”
“We were both forced to participate, so we did what worked.” I say shaking my shoulders. “Perhaps next time it might be different. Either way I have no intention of killing anyone without good reason.”
“You plan to compete again. We’ll have to wait until next year to see whether you can catch up with class A. Forced to participate though, that’s against the rules, but you would have to prove it. Anyway, please sit back down.”
As we walk back to our seats Rin gives me a small bottle and tells me to drink it. I do so and the burns from Gabriel’s flames disappear instantly. We watch the rest of the tournament with relief. Rin doesn’t say a word but she is no longer shaking and it’s like a weight is lifted from her shoulders. The next competitors are 3A students and as classmates they seem to be half hearted as if they want to avoid hurting each other. It is rather boring to watch.
“Next up are the Rainbow Twins! The infamous Water Lily and Fire Rose! They may be 3B students but can 3A stand against them?! From 3A we have Luna Stonehand and Elf Lee Ironwood! You may begin.”
This time they are serious. Luna forms a huge stone circle above the twins and drops it on them. If hit they would die instantly but Water Lily uses water to throw it back at Luna and, using the water as fuel, Fire Rose melts it into lumps of lava. Luna creates a solid stone wall as a shield and Elf summons a wooden wall. The stone melts but the wood strangely holds back the flames. The stone from the stone wall however breaks through the wood and they have to dodge flying rocks and molten lava.
The twins seem to fight perfectly as a pair but the 3A students seem to be completely uncoordinated. As the battle rages on this just becomes clearer and clearer. Individually I am sure the twins would not stand a chance but as a pair they complement and support each other perfectly. Most fire users would work very poorly with a water user. It is very easy for these elements to clash, with water putting out fire, and fire evaporating water. The way they work though, the 3A students are getting desperate and running low on power, whilst the twins have hardly dented theirs.
“We withdraw.” Luna finally calls out.
The next battle is boring again, but then the twins are back and their opponents are the 3A’s Ash Snow and 3B’s Ling Wu Fang. Lily starts with a water attack but it is turned to ice and shattered in an instant. Rose’s flames are robbed of air and the pair are grabbed by golden metal roots sprung from the ground. Their limbs spread apart by the roots and they hang there in shock. Ling ports into the air in front of Lily and puts a hand on her throat. Rose shouts, “We withdraw!” and it is over.
“Pity. I was hoping to play a bit more with you both.” Ling says with a sneer before she lets go of Lily’s throat. “We should have just pulled your arms and legs off with the roots.”
“The Rainbow twins are out and 3A’s honour is restored! Next we have…” and it continues. The rest of the battles that they are in are at least interesting because neither Ling nor Ash is willing to go easy on anyone. Of course neither do their opponents, but nobody seems able to beat them. I am relieved to see nobody gets killed, though more than a few students are badly hurt. Finally it is the last battle with Ash and Ling pitched against a quiet pair of students simply called Emi and Sor who nobody has wanted to fight. I have yet to see what their powers are, because everyone who goes against them withdraws before even entering the arena. Even Ling who has taken great joy in tormenting her foes until they surrender is clearly nervous.
“You may begin.” And both Ash and Ling fall to the ground. “Stop! The winners are Emi and Sor!” I am confused. This is nothing like my attacks that rob the enemy of their breath. I have no idea what happened. I am fairly sure it wasn’t wind magic but it didn’t appear to be any other element either. Was it a pure magic attack? If so it must have been controlled with a precision I would not believe possible.
“I’m glad we didn’t go up against them.” I say under my breath.
“Yeah.” Rin says just as shocked as I am. We watch as they are applauded and both presented a golden bracelet as a symbol of their victory, and a big bag each, of what I assume are coins. Then everyone slowly starts to leave. “So how did they do that? Was it similar to when you…”
“No. I could speculate, but I really would just be guessing.”
“The rest of today is a rest day so I have to go back home to work. I can port you to the town so you can get a job. Are you sure you want to do bounty work?”
“Yes.”
“Well try not to get killed. I want to learn more from you.”
Then Gabriel who was just going past laughs loudly. “So the failure has to learn from a boy! No wonder you were just there to be kissed!”
Rin frowns and barks back. “You got beaten by this boy, so you can hardly talk!” She then grabs my hand and ports us. We are in a town square with a busy market around us. A man who was about to walk into us stops hastily and quickly bows before turning and running away as if in fear of us. It is a little unsettling.
“So where to?” I ask.
“The government bounty notices are kept in the town hall over there, but you’d be better off starting with the local bounty board. That is at the Drake Inn, over that way. I need to get going, so good luck.” Rin says and dashes off the opposite way to me.
I walk the short distance to the Drake having to ignore the smell of cooking nuts and meats. Inside it is busy despite being so early in the morning. I look around and can’t see the board. A waiter notices that I seem lost. “The bar is that way. You won’t get a table today but you’ll get a seat at the bar.”
“Where’s the bounty board?”
“The bounty board? You’re a mage’s slave then?”
“No. I’m a mage.” I say and he laughs but then sees I’m serious.
“It’s over there.” He says and rushes off shaking his head. I push my way through the crowd and finally reach the wall he was pointing at. There are only five notices on it. I can’t read them of course, but I ask a nearby waiter who reluctantly helps me. One is to kill a group of goblins that have been causing trouble for a village five days walk from here. Too far. The next is to kill a swarm of fire bats that live in a nearby cave. Apparently they burnt some fields with their fire breath. There is a map on it so I should be able to find it. It sounds easy and the reward is ten black iron coins. That’s enough to pay for ten lunches if it’s the same type of coin that Rin used yesterday. I take the notice and ask about the others. Kill the legendary dragon, ten thousand gold. Maybe not. Kill a criminal, ten gold.
No. Destroy a Tree Ent that has killed some travellers, fifty silver. It’s unclear where the Tree Ent is, or how you prove that you completed the job though.
The map starts at the town’s east gates which the waiter gave directions to. I follow them and leave the town gates before looking at the map again. It seems I simply follow the road for about thirty minutes until I reach a sign for Westwood with handy pictures of trees on, at which point I leave the road in the opposite direction to the sign. Then walk until I reach a stream about five minutes from the road, and follow it upstream until I reach the cave. Couldn’t be simpler. Just a pity it is starting to get so hot.
After an hour walking I am really thirsty and hoping I didn’t miss the sign. I finally see it after three hours walking and leave the road the opposite way and walk. And walk. And walk. Whoever wrote these directions must have been a very fast walker! Finally I reach the stream. By the time I reach the cave though it is starting to get dark.
The bats are starting to wake up but when I send lightning into the cave they are all very much awake and sending fire my way. The lightning doesn’t seem effective on its own, so I flood the cave with water and then strike with lightning again. I then seal the cave with a stone wall. I wait for a while before making a small hole in the wall and collecting the bat corpses that float out of the cave. Using earth magic I create a makeshift stone bucket to put them in.
I need to collect the reward from the innkeeper so I port back just outside the Drake with a large stone bucket of bat corpses that weighs almost as much as I do. Using magic I lift it up and walk into the inn. Everyone moves out of my way, or more to the point out of the way of the floating bucket.
“You’re here to collect the bounty?” An old woman behind the bar asks.
“Yes.” I say and give her the notice before putting the bucket onto the bar.
“How old are you boy?”
“Twelve, probably. Why?”
“This is dangerous work for someone so young. Here’s your money, but you may want to consider a safer job.” She says and to my delight they are the same coins that Rin used.
“Thank you. This is safer than my last job, if you can call it that. I’ll only pick the jobs I can do.” I say and port back to my tent in the academy. I feel drained both of magical and physical energy so I lie down just outside my tent and go straight to sleep.
I wake as the sun rises and head straight to class. It is empty. I’m not sure what times lessons start but I didn’t want to be late. I consider getting something to eat but I decide to save the money until lunch time. I got lucky this time but there aren’t any other bounty jobs up that look practical so who knows when I’ll be able to replenish my money. It was only the day before yesterday that I ate and it was much longer between meals at the arena.
Next to enter the classroom is Rin. I had expected to see the teacher first but I am relieved it is Rin. She walks straight over to me and says “I’m glad you survived it, but how did your first job go?”
“Easy. The hardest part was getting there. The distances were much further than the notice said.”
“How far did it say?”
“The first part was only meant to be half an hour by foot, but it took me three hours.”
“For an adult it probably was about half an hour’s walk. Normally children don’t take these jobs. For a twelve year old shorty like you, of course it would take longer.”
“I suppose but even an adult would take more than five minutes to do the next bit.”
“Just be glad that this is the worst you can complain about. I wasn’t sure you’d survive the job.” Rin says and sits down next to me.
“Is it OK to sit next to me?”
“We fought together and even kissed in front of everyone. So I don’t see how they can complain about sitting together.” Rin says blushing, before her expression turns dark. “With Elucia gone I need a new partner, and since you’ll be helping me I figure it should be you.”
“What about Kelliet?”
“Elucia likes her but I don’t. Anyway she likes to work alone in class. Why, do you not want to work with me?”
“I’m fine with it. I just figured you wouldn’t want to, and that the teacher might not approve.”
“She won’t approve but after having us fight together in front of the whole school, and then you telling everyone that she had forced us to do so… Let’s just say that wouldn’t look very good.”
“Anyway, you’re going to help me with the theory and written parts, right?”
“Yes. I’ll help you with writing and reading whilst we wait.”
“How long until class starts?”
“A few hours.”
“That’s late! Wait, why are you here so early?”
“Well, um…” Rin says blushing again. “I just wanted to know whether you survived. You weren’t at the tent or having breakfast so I figured you’d be here. Is that a problem?”
“No.” I answer and so Rin shows me how to read and write the characters. There are only 52 so it isn’t as bad as I feared, but I still have trouble. When the rest of the class arrive I carry on practising but once the lesson starts it has my full attention. At first that is. The trouble is it’s so basic that I could do it in my sleep.
Once we start the practical sessions I help Rin and she is controlling the water quite easily. Everyone else is stunned by her progress. The teacher appears embarrassed that I am doing a better job of teaching Rin than she was. Having completed the lesson ahead of the rest of the class, who will be practising water control all day, we are both dismissed. The rest of the day is our own.
Rin helps me again with my writing and reading until lunchtime when we both have the same broth we had yesterday, except a portion each this time. I seem to be attracting a lot of attention, and not in a good way, so once we are finished we go back to Rin’s room where we just chat for a while. We talk about Rin’s work again, and yesterday’s bounty hunt. We talk a little about our lives before this and our hopes for the future. My plans to travel to the stars make Rin laugh but she doesn’t seem as negative as before about them.
“I still think it’s impossible but if you really want to do it then you could consider forming an independent military company. You could earn money through larger scale bounty hunts then, and you’d have a group of mages to support you. Perhaps in another dimension they might know something that would help. You’re only allowed to travel between dimensions as part of the military, and even then it’s expensive unless you’re on an official military campaign.”
“How do you travel between dimensions?”
“You use the official Port Gate at the capital. It looks like a giant skull and you enter through the mouth. It’s only there at certain points of the lunar cycle.”
“So not something you can just do yourself.”
“Not unless you’re the queen or someone ridiculously powerful like her.”
“Might the queen have the power to port to the stars?”
“No, but even if she did, that wouldn’t help you.”
“To start a company do I need volunteers to join it?”
“Yes. I’d join as part of my military service. If you make a good impression others will too. Most prefer to join an independent company as long as they respect the captain, but few are accepted so most have to join the regular military.”
“Will they really want to serve a guy though?”
“That depends on the impression you make. You made quite the impression yesterday, but if you were to compete again next year and go further, or even win, you’d get a lot of respect. In the meantime getting stronger as a pair and getting promoted would help.”
“The last pair that won this time would make winning impossible, unless we knew how they did it. What you don’t understand you can’t beat, or more importantly, defend against.”
“For now let’s focus on getting stronger, and then on getting promoted. Class A may be difficult but even if we just get to
B we’d be in a much better position. We can worry about next year’s tournament next year.”
“So let’s continue your practical lessons. Not here though. Do you think the arena is free?”
“It should be.” Rin answers.
“Let’s port there.” I say and so we do.
It is indeed empty so I have Rin continue from where she left off. By the end of the day she is making good progress. The rest of the week continues like this with lots of free time once the basic lessons have been covered and by the end of the week she is a competent wind user. I have mastered the local language’s characters and some simple words too. I am tired from the long days of training with Rin but it was worth it.
Today is a day off so I port straight to the bounty board once the sun has risen. I ask a sleepy man behind the bar to help me read it. The goblin job is gone but the dragon, Tree Ent and criminal jobs are still there. None interest me but there are some new ones too. There is a job to clear the sewers of rats. The pay is ten black coins again. There is also a job to hunt a wild animal that has many legs and is supposedly impossible to catch without magic. Another is to kill a tough shelled flying giant insect that has been eating farm animals and pets so far, but is a threat to people too. They both pay fifty black coins. I settle on the insect job, because it should be easy for a wind user like me.
I take to the sky outside the pub and feel the winds. I quickly sense it a fair way away. There is no doubt it is what I am looking for. I fly there quick as lightning and then strike it with a more literal lightning. It is truly tough and shrugs off my attack, before demonstrating surprising speed. I barely dodge it but I am quick to attack again, this time with a slice of air pressure that could cut solid stone but not this creature’s shell. It is a battle of speed to avoid its attacks whilst maintaining mine. Fire, water, earth and air all seem useless so instead I resort to pure magical attacks but they require more preparation. My leg is caught by its bite as I am preparing for an attack, but I finally slice it open with most of my magic in a single attack. I hastily create a makeshift bandage for my leg and pray it isn’t infected. I then take the shell back as proof.