Emotionless: (Prototype: Zero book 1)

by Shaina Anastasi

  “Our other mage is going to be picked by the random generator we have up here.” He raised his hand, and the large screen he was on flickered to the crowd now. One camera flew into the air high above and then descended into a fall. “The Camera will spiral into a fall, and when it gets close to the ground, it will shoot up and pick a mage at random to participate. Now, you can refuse, that is fine. The camera will go back in the air and repeat again.”

  The camera flew to the right after its spiral, and the gust of wind of the stop made the wind billow in my hair as the man beside me fell back from surprise at the camera plain in his face.

  The man extended his arm and bellowed, “Will you join us, in the Coliseum?”

  “No.” The man beside me shook his head and went wide-eyed. “I have seen what she can do. I will be humiliated.”

  “Ok, camera, up,” he shouted.

  However, the camera tried to fly back up, but it was stuck, as a vice grip hand grabbed hold mechanically. Hopper exhaled an exasperated breath as I stood, camera in hands.

  “Would you like to participate?” he asked curiously, and I nodded. Amazed, he laughed a little and waved inward. “Well come on in!”

  “Eileen – I mean Mistress, please reconsider.” He tugged the sleeve of my top when I tried to wiggle over. “I cannot condone this type of behaviour.”

  “But, Hopper . . .” I trailed off. Looking away from the arena and towards Hopper who went wide-eyed, I murmured, “please let me play.”

  Those magic words, as if I was placing someone into a spell with a single sentence or word. His hand on my sleeve relaxed and dropped to his side. Puffing cheeks, I jumped down into the laid out flat dirt surface below and walked towards the other rune table on the opposite aspect of the arena.

  The man stood on the other side of where I am supposed to be standing. He grabbed my arm and said, “If you win against Fiona, you will be the new champion and allowed to participate weekly until someone defeats you. If you do get defeated, there is a three-month wait until you may be involved by list again, understand?”

  “Ok,” I answered in a whisper.

  “Do you know how to play?” he asked and I shook my head.

  Grimacing, he guided me to the small round silver medal stand. Stepping on it, a holographic screen with three sections came up. Once the grid screen came up on the table, an illuminated canary yellow colour, the ground shook and two square stands with a red and green button came on either side of me. One had, ‘activate’ in green while ‘cancel’ was in the red. Looking up, Fiona who was on the other end of the arena had hers up and stared directly at me with narrowed eyes. The yellow holographic screen before her made her look more intense, as she glared.

  “Now, you have three sections.” he tapped the first and said, “Defence. You can have up to six defensive summoned creatures, but only one of a kind. The centre section is where I would place an attack. Only two creatures and the last is for healing and only one. You will have two minutes to create in these sections, however, if you screw up a rune and press clear, all the runes on the grid will be erased. So, be careful.

  “Ok.”

  “Ah!” he reached into his pocket and popped open a small case that revealed rune contacts for your eyes. “Put these on and think of a creature and the rune will appear on the screen for you to design.”

  “No, thank you,” I refused and looked forward at the screen before me. “I don’t need them.”

  “Then this is going to be a quick fight,” he muttered under his breath. Looking up, he smiled and asked, “What is your name?”

  “Eileen Frost,” I responded.

  “Hmm, Highborn,” he grimaced and stepped away. He ran to the centre but further back, so he wasn’t in the white lines that appeared when the holographic grids came up. “Ladies, gentleman and children, I now would like Fiona Martel and Eileen Frost to begin creation!”

  His words bellowed in the speakerphone, and the timer on the top middle of the grid powered down from two minutes. Staring at the screen for a moment, I looked at Fiona and noticed she had the contacts in and the rune outline. It was vague; however, I knew what her defence, attack and healing creatures were and that gave me a sense of relief when I raised my hand to create mine.

  Fingertips brushed against defence while my right hand started to work on attack and healing simultaneously. I heard the intake of breath from the speakerphone, as one hand twisted, dotted and weaved fingers in the defence section. My eyes never left the other screen Fiona was drawing on. Hands moved as if under a strange spell of accuracy and precision. Every curve I felt was perfect. Six defence creatures. Fiona’s are more creative than mine is. I see with the curve of theK that she was going for knights clad in iron to protect the dragon. Her single attacker. She is cocky and believes that she can eliminate me with a single creature of attack. Her healer is worrisome. It can be used for healing and have short spurts of attack.

  Raising my hand with a minute to go, I slammed it against active and the runes shined up on the screen. Six large eight-legged hairy black spiders appeared in the arena on my side where the defence runes are on display. The spider’s critter along in the arena and the runes on the screen moved as well. I see now. I figured I would still have to manipulate them, so I created a small mind reading symbol on all the runes to communicate inwardly. Next, in line, I created a Chimaera and a cheetah built for speed. The chimaera is beastly, to say the least. A large animalistic lion with a long thin tail that had spikes sticking out of the end. The mane on the chimaera was also clumped with large spikes. Puffing cheeks, the last burst out in fiery flames. Its wings flourished, and feathers were dripping in cinders. The shiny crimson phoenix flew up and circled around the attack and defence creatures I created.

  Half a minute later, Fiona pressed activate, and the creatures she designed came out and lined the front of her holographic screen. As assumed, ironclad knights with shields appeared. All six of them. Next was the singular dragon. Its tail lashed, long and dangerous. However, it is the breath I am worried. Charcoal and smoke wisped out of the black dragon’s nose as it circled around the front. Next was her healer. As she came out, her blue robes flapped revealingly in the wind, and I could hear the deep monotone cries of the male audience as she circled around with her small stick wand.

  I puffed cheeks when I noticed the crowd was growing even more outrageous and loud. One of the many cameras zoomed in on her, and the witch winked.

  Nauseated from the loud cheering crowd, I shuffled from foot to foot and placed my weight on my right leg. If this Rune War takes very long, I am going to get pins and needles in my feet.

  Fiona seemed to be smug with her lineup, as she touched the screen and dragging the moving runes to a designated position. The ones in the arena moved and walked over to where she pressed. They were mainly defending the witch that is on the other side of the stage. The dragon, she didn’t move at all.

  “Both place your summoned rune creatures in position,” the man bellowed. He then eyed me because none has moved.

  ‘Spiders. I want three to come close to the iron knights and watch their every move. If they move, you move. Now go near the line but not too close. I will tell you when. Now, I want one to go where the Phoenix was summoned. You do not move from that location. If anything appears behind you, hide it. The other two clings to the chimaera. Cheetah, your duty when this start is to see how far that dragon breath reaches. Phoenix, I want you to sacrifice yourself by diving towards that witch after I give you the word. That is all. Thank-you.’I spoke through mind manipulation.

  “Woah! Look at the spiders moving without her touching the screen or shouting at them. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to move a camera towards one of her runes. If you look when it zooms in, she created little mind symbols that are connecting her thoughts through to theirs, so they receive her orders. It is going to be reticent on her end mages. This will be a very intense battle. Not knowing what is going on!”

  I
t was silent afterwards. Fiona seemed annoyed that the attention was focusing on me. It wasn’t as if the runes were hard to create. I figured in this arena, if I draw a rune with enough thought on what I want it to be, it will appear. None of these runes can be created so quickly in real life. In fact, I doubt the dragon can be summoned at all. They are hostile creatures, and if they could be summoned, they wouldn’t be sitting there listening to her every order.

  I seemed to have been placed at a disadvantage. As the white line that was dividing the arena in half vanished, Fiona instantly shouted her orders for her creatures. While her dragon stood still, it was the iron knights and the witch that was protected in the centre that moved forward. The witch is the main enemy, however, if I get too close, I may be burned by dragon breath, and it is game over for me.

  ‘Cheetah, circle the dragon. Don’t get too close, but enough for him to believe you’re a threat. If he sucks in a breath, run further back.’

  The cheetah prowled forward slowly at first. Its front legs bent lower as it circled the dragon. Fiona stopped dragging pieces across the screen, and her eyes focused on my rune that moved towards her larger one. I noticed from the screen above that she narrowed her eyes and double tapped the dragon when the cheetah was getting too close from the rear. The black dragon turned around, and I noticed the smoke that always lingered out of his nose sucked into his throat and turned a deeper fiery red. Cheetah noticed immediately and ran backwards, not to the side. I need the length, as the dragon opened his mouth and a billowing fire roared out of its mouth. I couldn’t notice length from the arena. However, I watched the screen, as the cheetah rune ran backwards, I tapped the rune, and he stopped. Making him turn around, I looked at the screen intensely as the dragon flames stopped short ten feet away from where the Cheetah halted.

  On the other side of the screen, the iron knights and the witch advanced towards my spiders that were watching them. It has already been two minutes, and I know her strategy. She wants my defence eliminated. She doesn’t seem to care for the Phoenix flying around my end.

  ‘Chimaera and cheetah, I would like you to distract the dragon but stay at least eight metres away from the dragon at all times. Steer him towards the defence side. Spiders on the chimaera back, I need you to make sure the dragon cannot turn around quick enough to use dragon breath on Phoenix. Your job is to make his feet stick with your webs.’

  They ran forwards, the Chimaera, his paws remind me of hammers as they slammed against the ground. The sound of a horse galloping. It wasn’t very silent, and that is the most interesting part because Fiona instantly stopped advancing her iron knights and witch to move her dragon towards the cheetah and chimaera that was acting more of a distraction for what really is to come. The dragon advanced on my defence line. The distance between Phoenix and dragon were separating as the spiders started to spit out white sticky webs. They were acting as protection and was trying to immobilise the beast.

  ‘Phoenix, dive down towards the witch and the iron knights. Get as close as you can at the highest speed drop that you can. Break their defence by sacrificing yourself.’

  The red Phoenix did a backflip in the air, slow, as his wings stretched and he flipped into a speedy dive towards Fiona’s defence. He dove down, similar to a launched missile. The iron knights are the target for destroying.

  At first, I noticed Fiona tried to rely on her dragon, but whenever she dragged the rune across the screen, it crossed out. She then screeched but the dragon was stuck by the webs, and my Chimaera and Cheetah were overexerting the dragon because she kept on double tapping his dragon breath, but it didn’t reach the distance.

  “IRON KNIGHTS! SHIELDS UP!” Fiona screeched.

  As expected.

  ‘Spiders, the three iron knights at the front. Grab their shields with your web, now.’

  As soon as the shields were in position, the spiders spat their webs. Once they stuck on the shields, they yanked them forward. The Iron Knights’ shields flew out of their grasp. The stickiness and strength of the web are more reliable than expected. The shields gone, there was a large opening, and the Phoenix drove into the witch at the same time as Fiona screeched something, but I couldn’t hear over the loud cheers of the crowd.

  A massive explosion rocketed the screen. Runes dropped and disappeared instantly. Billows of wind rushed towards me, and I raised my arm to shield my eyes from the fierceness.

  ‘Chimaera, attack the dragon. Cheetah, attack the witch.’

  Fiona, she pressed dragon breath, and with the dust that swept up, in the burst of it, red hot flashes erupted, and I noticed my runes on the screen disappear. I couldn’t see a thing with all this black smoke, but the witch vanished, all her knights, my spiders, Phoenix are all wiped out with the scuffle. My heart was pounding in my chest, even knowing it has been five minutes, this rune war is very intense and is taking its toll on myself with all this communication. I want this match to be done.

  Lowering my hands, when the smoke cleared, the crowd in silence, there stood my Chimaera and cheetah that prowled towards the lone dragon. Tapping the egg that appeared behind the spider, I reached my other hand at the Chimaera and removed the spiders.

  Fiona was flustered. The stress and sweat were beading down her face on the screen above. Her line destroyed and with nothing to heal her dragon, she was coming to the end of the game while the health of my creatures was growing.

  Fire phoenixes have two lives and can resurrect. The witch used her attack, and when a Phoenix's first life destroyed, it goes out in flames. With the spark of the witch-magic, it caused a mass explosion. Similar to placing fuel on the fire. It creates chaos. I figured it out because I noticed her magic was spark based. She was a protector. So, getting close to the enemy with iron knights, she wanted to paralyse my team with her magic. The iron knights advance her magic. If she were to touch the Knights, which Fiona made her go on protecting and defence, it was inevitable. She saved herself by sacrificing her knights and killing off three of my spiders. The witch pressed her health inwards. That was the only part of the plan I didn’t expect Fiona to do. I was lucky she got flustered with the dragon because she expected the cheetah and chimaera to attack so she swept up a lot of smoke that shifted with the dust and the wind that caused her failure in the stadium. My cheetah killed her witch because she couldn’t see. All the screens seemed to glitch with the wind and smoke, so it was hard to see. In the end, it was only her dragon left. It was at full health, but I now had a young Phoenix that was flapping their wings behind the spider. I won’t be able to use destruction again it seems, but now my health is filled.

  Fiona wanted the dragon to fly. It was her only way to survive. I tapped the screen, and a web coiled around its neck and slammed the dragons head to the ground while the other one had its tail so it wouldn’t lash out. The dragon isn’t going to go anywhere nor attack with its last defence, the tail. Dragon breath started to suck in, and towards the chimaera and cheetah, that was prowling forward. Hovering my hand over the last spider, when the dragon took a deep breath in, I double tapped the screen, and the web coiled around its mouth and snapped its mouth shut.

  ‘Chimaera, use vibration roar.’

  The chimaera that hasn’t really done anything but to cause a distraction slammed a paw backwards and hunched its back. Inhaling, a loud rumble shook the arena ground, and I assume seats as well because mages stood and wobbled.

  I puffed cheeks myself with anticipation.

  The chimaera roared, and it sounded like thunder was overlapping each other a thousand times. It beamed towards the dragon that had its fiery breath held. The vibration is strong so that I couldn’t see. Closing my eyes, I raised my arms and protected myself from the fierce billowing rumble that shook the arena. After a second, I heard the mass explosion of dragon breath. The searing smell of burnt flesh. With the vibration of chimaera roar and stored dragon fire in the dragon belly, the fire needed to be released, and with no place to go, it went outwards.

&nb
sp; The screen disappeared, and the creatures that were in the arena shattered along with the runes. The dust, smoke and fire suddenly disappeared, and I now stood in an empty arena with Fiona and the announcer. She looked angry. Her face turned a dark red while the anchor's face was ashen and dumbfounded.

  “Uh, ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have a new winner!” he roared after he regained composer. “The Highborn!”

  The crowd has fallen silent. The only ones who cheered were children and the air brain brothers. Hopper clapped modestly. Then, a couple of seconds later, after they regained surprise, the crowd went up in cheers.

  “Do you have a few words to say, Highborn? Explain to us how you defeated Fiona!”

  “Strategy,” I answered.

  “Anything else?” I shook my head, and he sighed and turned to the crowd. “Alright mages, that is all for this week’s rune wars. We will start fresh with two newbies next Monday!”

  Turning away from him, I spotted the exit. Starting towards it, when I was halfway, I heard the ravenous shouts of someone enraged with me. I turned around as Fiona launched towards me. My veins throbbed and turned white. I was about to defend myself when the mage in the arena slammed his staff down, and she flew up in the air frozen.

  “I see someone is angry that she lost,” he laughed.

  Blinking slowly, I turned away from them and went to the exit of the entrance. Down the narrow tunnel that leads to the back-entry room for the arena contestants and mages behind the scene, someone was leaning against the tunnel wall. They were small and childlike. It wasn’t until I got close enough to see that they were a young boy. Probably around ten or eleven years old. He had his head bowed, and legs crossed over. Walking past him, I didn’t acknowledge him. He was the one who initiated the conversation.

  “You did very well, Eileen Frost,” he spoke, and his voice held authority and power.

  I just nodded and kept walking. My veins are throbbing. They were agitated by this unexpected encounter of this small child who smirked at me as I walked past. His bronze eyes squinted, his black hair smoothed under his grey beanie and he was dressed casual formal for a child.