by Tj Dixon
I quickly close the distance and dodging the fire demon’s slow attempts to block me, I grab Ash’s gem from the metal chain around her neck. The chain breaks and we are suddenly standing in the arena. The demon isn’t with us.
“I’d better unsummon the fire demon.” Ash tells me and I nod. She chants for a few seconds and then nods. “I’ve sent it back to its hell.”
Chapter 24 (Multiple)
(Peter)
I port in with Ash just outside our classroom. Rin made it clear I was not to enter the classroom until she said it was ok to do so. Something about today being special, because it is also a welcome back celebration. Also she made it quite clear that she would make me regret coming back if I entered before she was ready. That means the two of us are now stuck outside the classroom.
“Are you sure your wounds are fully healed?” Ash asks me rather apologetically.
“Of course. Rin’s healing potion did the trick.”
“I’m really sorry. I commanded the demon to get your gem without harming you, but my control was too weak.”
“Don’t worry about it. We both survived, which is the most important part.”
“I wouldn’t have thrown the match, but I’m glad you won it. I hope that I can make amends for what I’ve done, by serving you for the rest of my life.” She says and though her reasons are very different, she reminds me a bit of how Asuna pledged to serve me when I beat her. If she had taken me by surprise I would have protested, but I’d rather she served me than risk her taking more drastic action, such as killing herself. So I just nod. Then the door opens and Rin is standing there.
“You can come in now.” Rin says with a smile.
Rin is wearing something a bit different to normal. Actually not just a bit different, but so different that I wouldn’t have even recognised her if I didn’t see her face or hear her voice. She is wearing a weird costume that looks like some sort of green scaly lizard minus the face. From the tips of the claws on its feet to the very top of the head, the whole costume is made from one piece of wood and painted very realistically. Other than the missing face, which reveals Rin’s head inside. The details are not just painted, but carved as well.
As Rin moves aside to let us pass I realise the room is set up a bit differently to how I expected. There is food on the tables, but they are around the edge of the room. There is magic to keep the hot food hot and the cold food and drinks cold, but it isn’t the food or the drinks that draws my attention. It isn’t just Rin who is wearing a weird outfit, but the whole club.
Not everyone is dressed as a lizard, but they are all wearing costumes made from wood. The wood seems flexible enough to move comfortably in though. It reminds me a bit of the dwarven clothes made from stone. I wonder whether they got some elven help. Elves are good at manipulating wood, just like dwarves are good at using stone. Perhaps Dairon helped Rin prepare this surprise. But why?
The other thing I notice is the circular pattern on the floor. It seems to have been painted onto the white marble floor. I suppose it will come off with magic. It had better come off, or Professor Schwarz will not be happy, and if she isn’t happy she’ll make sure we aren’t either.
There are eleven golden circles evenly spaced to form ten rings. Those rings have elaborate patterns inside and within those patterns are smaller circles. Every member of the club other than Rin, and of course myself, is standing inside one of those small circles in the outermost ring. The patterns in each ring alternate. From outside to inside they are black, blue, green, red, grey and then the colours repeat in the same order.
“Have you ever played elemental cascade?” Rin asks me.
“No, I’ve never heard of it.” I admit.
“I figured as much. Normally you play with a small enchanted wooden board and little wooden figures. There’s also a version where you play with real people, but you need so many people it is rarely played. Since the club is so large now, we figured we would have a go at it.” Rin explains.
“So how do you play?” I ask curiously.
“You have to get as many of us as you can into the centre ring. Every time you move someone the circles move to try to stop you. Every two moves one circle disappears and when there are no circles left in a ring you lose everyone who hasn’t passed through the ring. There’s also a gold circle over there. It moves every time you do and you lose anyone it comes into contact with.
“There are five class types. Lizards, cats, elves, dwarves and faeries. I’m sure you can tell which we each are. If you say you can’t though, I may have to dissect your eyes to find out why not. You need to get at least one of each into the centre or you lose the game. The costume has an enchantment so you just have to activate it to port us between circles. This is the control.” Rin says and hands me a plain silver bracelet.
Rin walks into one of the small circles in the outer ring as I put the bracelet on. I immediately sense the link between the enchanted costumes and the bracelet. I can tell right away that all I need to do is feed a little mana through the link to activate the enchantment. I can control how far and in which direction to port the costume by controlling the amount and attunement of the mana. Naturally anyone wearing the costume will be ported at the same time. The circles each pull any dimensional magic towards them, so by porting someone close to the circle they will end up inside the circle.
Now I understand the basic mechanics of the game, but I still have no idea what tactics to use to win the game. I can just port anyone randomly into the next ring and I suppose I should avoid porting anyone near the golden circle Rin pointed out. Beyond that though it is complete guesswork. Rin looks at me as if she knows exactly what is going through my mind.
“Just have a go. It’s only a game, so it doesn’t matter if you mess up. You’ll only really understand the game once you start playing it.” Rin tells me.
“Ok, but don’t complain if I lose badly.” I warn Rin.
“Don’t worry.” Rin says with a gentle smile.
It turns out that I not only lose badly, but lose in less turns than Rin has ever seen anyone lose. I am beginning to understand the game a bit better now, but I’m not confident I’m going to be able to win it without a lot of practise. There is a certain logic to how the golden circle moves, but trying to outguess it is much more difficult than I expected.
Seeing the whole club in our classroom reminds me we now have more people in our club than in our class and seeing them in these costumes is amusing. The cat costumes remind me of the Kuroneko, whilst the elven costumes seem very much like real elves. The faery costumes look more like Contractians with wings than real faeries and the dwarven costumes look like weird Contractian boys with twisted features.
I try five more times and am no nearer to winning than the first time. Then everyone else has a go at being controller and I get to put on a lizard costume similar to Rin’s. I port back to my room to get changed in private of course.
After everyone has had a couple of turns and I’ve had a few more turns we all port back to our rooms and get changed back into our uniforms. Apparently there are other games to play, but first we have food and chat with each other. It sounds like we aren’t going to get any training done today, but I don’t mind. Lucy doesn’t seem concerned either. In fact it sounds like she helped Rin organise everything.
The food is really nice. There are little bite size sausages, mini pastries with mushrooms and some sort of meat inside, sweet pastries, sugary sweets, sweet fruits and that is just to name a few of the delicious foods that the club has prepared. It is clearly intended to be easy to eat standing and it is. I’m not sure what Rin did with the chairs but they are not in the classroom. So we stand and chat and eat.
Ash seems to get on fine with everyone but spends most of her time talking to Asuna. I hope Asuna isn’t teaching her anything weird, but I’m glad they seem to get on so well. It feels a bit like every member of the club is taking it in turns to talk to me, but it is good to talk to them again a
fter so long away from the academy.
“Well done in the match.” Yusa tells me.
“Thanks.”
“I was wondering, are you’re planning to bring Jenny and Jimmy back from the Hoshi land?” Yusa asks. Since they were living together it makes sense she would want to know, but from her aura I can tell she seems really worried. I thought they got on well so I am confused.
“I hadn’t really had a chance to think about it yet. Is there a problem if I do?” I ask.
“No. I want to see them again.” Yusa says and I can tell she means it. In fact from her aura I would say it is an understatement.
“I’ll have to think about it.” I answer. I could have Elucia and Kai take their place if they are willing. I will need to talk to them first though.
“So did you enjoy the game?” Yusa asks.
“It was interesting. I thought the costumes were great. I will have to practise the normal version if I ever find time.”
“It was difficult for me too, because I’d never played it before either. I don’t know how Aventurine, Lilian and the Rainbow Twins did so well. I guess it must be because they’re nobles. Asuna didn’t do very well though, and she’s a noble. Well, sort of. Are you still a noble if you’re a slave?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t think it really matters whether someone’s a noble or not. Aventurine, Lilian, Lily and Rose have probably played the normal game a lot.”
“Actually that was my first time too.” Aventurine tells me. I turn around, not having realised she was there.
“That was your first time?” I ask incredulously.
“Yes. Mother never allowed me to play games like that. ‘If you have time for fun, then you have time to practise your flame.’” Aventurine says shaking her head.
“So how did you do so well?” Yusa asks, sounding a bit dubious.
“The game is very similar to controlling water.” Aventurine says and Yusa frowns.
“But I’m just as good as you at water magic.” Yusa protests.
“If you try it again, think of it as if you’re trying to reverse the flow of a river.” Aventurine tells Yusa.
“Ok. If you’re just making fun of me though, I swear I’ll get my own back.”
“I’m not.” Aventurine replies sounding a little hurt. “I’ll even help you when you try if you want.”
“How much do you think the board and the pieces would cost?” Yusa asks.
“I have no idea. Less than all the costumes Rin had made for today. Perhaps Rin could get her mother to make it cheaply, like the costumes.” Aventurine replies.
“Who paid for all this today? Did the club split the costs?” I ask.
“No, Lucy paid for it.” Aventurine tells me.
“Where is Lucy, anyway?” I ask, rather surprised. It has been a while since I last saw Lucy. She was watching the games earlier, but she stayed here when we left to get changed. I don’t remember seeing her when I came back.
“I’m not sure.” Aventurine admits after taking a quick look around the room.
“Maybe she’s not feeling well and decided to get some rest?” Yusa suggests.
“I hope she’s ok.”
(Lucy)
“So what did you want to talk about?” I ask suspiciously. Sakura is actually visible so I am staring her in her bright red eyes.
“I’m not teaching that boy the secrets of the faeries.” Sakura tells me firmly. Her short red hair swings as she shakes her head vehemently at the suggestion.
“Is that so?”
“Yes. I’ll help him because that is Dairon’s wish, but we didn’t even teach the elves our secrets so if you think I’m telling Peter, then you can think again.”
“All he needs is to know how to prevent that Sor from beating him in the final round of the tournament. She specialises in dimensional magic.”
“Then just put up what you refer to as a port block, or better yet, a port barrier.” Sakura shrugs.
“Will that really be enough?”
“It should be.”
“It had better be.”
“Why do you serve the boy?”
“I decided to be his pet on a whim when he saved me, but… Peter is special to me now. It might not be too much to say that I love him. I see a lot of my old self in him. I don’t know what awaits him, but I doubt his fate will be an easy or pleasant one. Perhaps I can help him change it. I’ve come within an inch of death for Peter and I would gladly do so again.”
“I will help Peter whilst it is Dairon’s will, but my only loyalty is to Dairon. Perhaps one day we will be enemies. When that day comes, expect no mercy.”
“I never expect mercy, and neither should you.” I shrug.
(Peter)
It seems Rin and Lucy went to a lot of effort on today’s celebration. We really don’t get any training in, but the food and games are fun. Seeing everyone and having time to catch up is the best part though.
I port back to my room with Asuna, Ash and Hermes. Asuna has prepared a fourth bed so we all have somewhere to sleep, but the sleeping area of the room is now feeling really crowded with Asuna, Hermes and Ash’s beds each almost touching. Mine has a little space between it and the other three beds. There is still enough room where we eat, but I wouldn’t want to try putting a fifth bed in here. Ash has brought her clothes, a little money and a few books. Apparently that is all she owns. She seemed worried I would take the money away from her, but obviously I’m not going to.
“Did you have fun?” Lucy asks as we port in. She is sitting on my bedside table with the same green blanket she used last night wrapped around her.
“Yes. It was great fun. Thank you for helping make it such a fun day.” I answer with a smile. “Where were you though?”
“Here. I was tired. Still am…” Lucy yawns. “Do you know how to put up a port barrier?”
“Is that the same as a port block?” I ask.
“No. A port block just prevents anyone porting. A port barrier is exactly what it sounds like. You put a dimensional barrier up that prevents any ports passing through it, but doesn’t affect ports within that don’t pass through it.” Lucy explains.
“No. I can do a basic port block, but not a port barrier.”
“I’ll teach you after tomorrow’s lessons. You can skip your normal training to do it. If you can master this you should be able to beat Sor.”
“Didn’t you say I should get Sakura to help with dimensional magic?”
“You don’t need to be a fairy to do a port block. Why, would you rather have Sakura train you?”
“No!” I protest.
“That’s good, because she’s refused to help with your training.”
“She did?” I ask surprised.
“Yes.” Lucy yawns. “Anyway, I’m going to get some more sleep.”
“Are you feeling unwell?” I ask.
“Just tired from the strain of opening that gate. I’ll be sleeping more than normal for a couple of weeks or so. Then I’ll be the same energetic Lucy I normally am. You’d better enjoy the peace whilst it lasts. Don’t worry about being quiet. You’re not going to wake me.” Lucy yawns and then lies down. A moment later she is asleep. I can tell from her aura. I hope she was being honest and that she is just tired. I’ve been tired a lot lately too, but nowhere near as tired as Lucy seems to be. It makes the work she did to help organise today seem even more impressive.
“Thank you Lucy.” I whisper. Then I turn to Ash.