by Tj Dixon
I suddenly find myself dodging and shielding against acidic water dripping randomly from the tunnel roof. As it hits the stony ground there is a hiss and a large hole forms in the ground. I put up a weak shield just to be safe. I really don’t want it melting me like it’s melting the ground.
Then there is a hail of ice shards. I have no choice but to strengthen my shield and fly faster. There is no dodging these shards, because the whole tunnel is filled with them. To face all of this before I even get to Jade is going to make the match much harder than I expected. I don’t know how much of my magic I’ll use dealing with these magical traps, but this really isn’t good. She has a port block up too though, so I can’t just drop mine and port to her.
A huge fireball explodes around me. It isn’t that strong despite its size, so it doesn’t use up much of my power. I am still a long way from Jade though. I sigh and continue to fly as fast as I can to exit the fireball quicker.
There is another plant aura ahead, very much like the one in the huge cavern, except this seems more like one plant, rather than the many in that cavern. The tunnel is too small to get around the plant, so this time I must fight.
I strike with lightning three times and the plant lurches forwards at me. It sprays a red mist at me but I blow the mist back. As the mist hits and dissolves the tunnel wall I am glad I did. Lightning seems ineffective so I use fire magic and feed the flames with extra air. The fire rages and the plant howls. I dodge the huge thorns it flings at me and then dodge a hail of small stones. I keep up the flames though and soon the plant is nothing more than ash.
I lean against the wall and focus on recovering my power a little. If I continue to rush onwards I am going to use my power up before I reach Jade. If I do that I will lose. It seems that this match is going to take longer than the previous ones.
(Jade)
This maze is huge, but I managed to track down a human boy using my earth senses. It has to be Peter of course, since nobody else is going to be down here other than the two of us. The maze seems to be filled with traps though. He’s stopped now, but whilst he was moving Peter was triggering traps with his every move.
I can’t sense the traps until they are activated, so moving to Peter seems foolish. I’ve created a small army of golems now though, so when he arrives I am confident I can beat Peter. Well, semi confident. He did beat Ash, and she had some powerful demons on her side. I am in my ideal environment now though, so my golems combined with my own powers should be enough to win.
Just to see what happens I send a golem along the tunnel. It doesn’t appear to be triggering any traps. Perhaps that means there aren’t any, but it could just mean that the traps are only triggered by real people. That could work too though. I decide to test the theory and have the golem continue through the maze. I stop my golem just before it reaches Peter. This could work.
I order the rest of my golems to advance. They may not be enough to beat Peter, but if I can attack and he can’t, he’ll be forced to come to me. I can always create more. I just need to be wary not to use too much power.
(Peter)
It seems that Jade has decided to use golems. I suppose it makes sense under the circumstances. They aren’t that powerful, but I get the impression they are going to be pretty tough to destroy. In other words if I remain here I am likely to be worn down until I run out of magic. This battlefield is truly ideal for Jade. At least I have recovered some of my power though.
I jump into the air again and this time I find myself dodging jagged shards of metal. They are fast, but not fast enough to hit me. The golems are surprisingly fast too and the one Jade sent out ahead of the others jumps into the air at me. I dodge it but find myself dodging a second and third time in quick succession. I blast the golem with lightning three times and it falls to the ground in lumps of charred clay. I can’t afford to use that much power against each golem in the horde that Jade has sent against me.
I drop my port block and decide to attempt to port through Jade’s block. Her block is fairly weak, so I may be able to use brute force. It will put me at a disadvantage as I will need to use a lot of power, but I am already at a disadvantage. I gather my mana and carefully attune it to the dimensional element, just like Professor Schwarz taught us to. I am using a lot more power than I did in class though.
I close my eyes and try to slide past Jade’s port block. I can tell it isn’t going to work so I use all the power I have gathered. Sure enough I manage to barge straight through the port block. I raise my own to prevent Jade simply porting away from me.
The golems are nearly where I was before I ported, so it will be a while before I need to deal with them. I need to beat Jade quickly though, because the longer the battle takes the more power I’ll use and the closer the golems will be to returning. She is only about seven feet away from me.
There is a spray of metallic sand but I blow it back down the tunnel. Unable to resist my wind Jade is forced to cancel the sand before it hits her. Then three golems jump out of the ground below and one out of the roof above me. I dodge them all and blast Jade with lightning. She easily shields and then I am dodging the golems again, so I turn my blasts on them. They soon fall into charred lumps of clay like the first one.
Jade summons a huge boulder, which I blast into tiny pieces. Jade then throws those at me, but I dodge and lunge through the air at her. My shield hits Jade’s shield and blue sparks fly. I then find myself having to jump back and dodge a hail of metal spikes.
The battle is taking too long and my power is starting to really feel drained. I can sense the golems have made better progress than expected and will be here again soon. If they make it here the battle will be lost.
Jade’s shield is all around her, except for the ground she is standing on. Earth isn’t my specialty and she knows it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t use earth magic. I summon a small metal spike below her and attempt to throw it into her leg. She reacts quickly though, forming the shield below as well now.
I decide to use everything that I have in one last desperate attack. I strengthen my shield and again lunge at Jade. I throw lightning and wind slices ahead of me, before hitting her shield with mine. I feel a sharp pain in my leg and realise she has used my own tactic against me. My leg has been pierced with metal and the pain disrupts my shield.
My shield gone I am thrown against her shield by my own wind magic. As my right hand hits her shield, instead of feeling the pain I expected, her shield shatters. I am shocked, but not as shocked as she is. My leg feels like it is on fire, but I guide myself towards her and my lips land on hers. I drain almost all her power. She is too shocked to even resist, and drops to the ground unconscious.
We are ported back to the arena and Rin ports to me with a healing potion. The metal spike was left behind when we were ported and the healing potion stops the flow of blood from my leg. As the pain fades I sigh in relief.
That was a bit too close for comfort. If I had gone up against Sor in that environment I would have lost. I can only pray that my next battlefield is a better one for me. It is hard to imagine a worse one.
“The winner is Peter of the Wind. Jade, with approval of the royal judge, is hereby declared by royal decree slave of Peter, and Peter will advance to the next battle. The rights of the family of Jade are eternally forfeit. Now only one match remains. Will the boy beat the infamous Sor, or will he be defeated in his final battle?” The commentator says, and the crowd is silent. I don’t even look at them though, because right now my concern is Jade, who is lying unconscious on the ground.
“I’ll meet you there in a few minutes.” I tell Rin and then taking Jade’s hand I port to my room. I lean over Jade and kiss her again. This time though I am returning some of her power. Not a lot, but enough that she wakes. Jade looks at me in shock and then glances at our surroundings.
“I lost.” Jade says dejectedly, putting her right hand on her forehead.
“Sorry.”
“There’s no need
to apologise. Sorry about your leg, but it was a serious fight. How did you break my shield though?”
“A little dwarven magic.” I tell her and her eyes go wide.
“You’re a dwarf?!”
“No, but I have a little dwarven magic. My arms and hands were made by a dwarf.”
“So that’s how you got your arm back? I assumed you had help from some miracle healer. Oh well, you know what they say about assumptions.” Jade says shaking her head in frustration.
“What do they say about assumptions?” I ask curiously.
“The potion of assumption will make an ass out of you and me.” Jade tells me.
“Oh, that’s easy to remember. I wonder who thought it up though.”
“Who knows?” Jade shrugs. Then she turns serious and rather nervous. “So do I have to live as your slave, or will you free me and take me into your club?”
“You can join the club. You just need to sign this contract. We’ll also need to deal with the admin at the town hall of course.” I tell her. Jade gets up as I get the contract.
“Thanks.” Jade says and quickly signs the contract after only a quick glance. “I thought you would free me, but…”
“If you had won, what would have happened to me?” I ask curiously.
“I’m not sure. I never really thought that far ahead. I was more concerned about what would happen to me if lost. That and making sure I didn’t lose.” Jade admits.
“Well, it’s not important. Let’s port to class. We have a celebration there. It also doubles as a welcoming party for you.” I tell Jade and I port us just outside our classroom door.
“So what sort of celebration is it?” Jade asks nervously.
“It generally involves food and there’s been some sort of entertainment recently too. They did games once and a singing contest, though that turned into just listening to Sakura sing.”
“Is Sakura one of your club members?”
“No, Sakura is a fairy.” I say and then knock on the door. Jade stares at me.
“No wonder I lost. Dwarves, faeries… Next you’ll be telling me you have the help of elves too.” Jade says as Rin opens the door. The classroom is surprisingly dark, though a glowing blue ball hovers near the ceiling at the front of the classroom.
“How did you guess?” Rin asks with a grin. Jade just laughs nervously. “Anyway come in both of you. We’ve saved two seats in the front row for our guests of honour. Welcome to the club Jade. You did join, right?”
“Yes. I’d hardly choose to remain a slave.” Jade smiles wryly.
“Asuna and Angelika did.” Rin says, rolling her eyes. Jade doesn’t know how to react to that and to be honest I don’t either.
There are three rows of seats just like in lesson, but the desks are all around the edges of the room with food and drink on. Almost everyone is sitting, though Yusa, Midori and Aventurine start walking through the rows with trays of snacks as soon as we take our seats in the front row. Unlike everyone else they are not wearing their usual uniform but instead are wearing black trousers and shirts. Midori is serving the front row and smiles as she reaches me.
“Well done Peter.” She says as she shows me the snacks. There are six rows of dishes with different snacks in each row. “I’d recommend the dishes at the back. I made them with a little help from Yusa. I think Jade will prefer one of the front dishes though. They’re really spicy, though not as spicy as Niji’s spice balls.”
“How did you know I like spicy food?” Jade asks in surprise as she takes one of the little dishes. I take one of the dishes from the back. I taste one of the crunchy sticks in it. It was a good choice.
“You were fighting Peter, so I made sure I knew everything about you. You didn’t seem a threat so I didn’t tell Peter anything though.” Midori says and Jade opens her mouth wide in shock, unable to reply.
“As it happens you came very close to beating me.” I tell Jade and then look at Midori seriously. “Have you been spying on all my opponents?”
“Of course.”
“Did you learn anything about Sor?” I ask cautiously.
“Sorry, but nothing useful. She caught me spying on her a couple of times and threatened to port me to hell if I did it again. Of course that’s not going to stop me.” Midori says and I gulp.
“She was probably serious. Please don’t spy on her anymore. Just trust me to beat her on my own.” I tell Midori.
“It’s not that I didn’t trust you!” Midori protests.
“Everyone’s waiting.” Yusa says, having now served everyone on our left in the front row.
“We’ll talk later.” I tell Midori.
“Ok.” Midori says reluctantly and goes back to her seat.
The blue ball, directly in front of me, glows brighter and then two green balls appear, one at each of the front corners of the classroom. Then one after another faeries become visible in front of us. They are already brightly coloured, but in this light they appear almost like spirits floating through the air.
Then the faeries begin dancing in the air and singing. I can’t understand their words, but their joyful emotions come through clearly and the beauty of their song is undeniable. Then Sakura begins to sing and her voice can be clearly heard even with all the other faeries singing. The beauty of the performance is so enchanting that it seems like they only just started when it ends. I check the dimensional timekeeper though, and it was over three hours.
“If you liked it, it’s polite to clap.” Sakura tells us as we sit there in stunned silence. Hearing her words though, we all begin the clap loudly. I hear someone whistle and then there are cheers from the back row. All of a sudden the faeries bow to us and then disappear.
(Midori)
The performance was so good I completely forgot to offer more snacks to everyone whilst it was on, but it seems that Yusa and Aventurine were as entranced by it as I was. In fact everyone hardly touched their snacks during the performance. So now they are finishing off their snacks before starting on the food that covers all the desks.
I silently curse myself for telling Peter about my spying on Sor. I suppose I wanted to impress him, but it is so obvious he would forbid me from continuing. I just got caught up in the moment. I should have waited until after the tournament to tell him, unless I found out anything important.
Much as it pains me to do so, I’ll have to disobey Peter on this, because it is for his sake. Sor will be a tough opponent, so any help for the final match will mean a lot. I’m sure Peter will forgive me if I find out something that actually helps him win the match. Tricking him into thinking I’ve given up is going to be difficult given how he can read my aura though. Peter approaches me sooner than I expected. He looks serious. “Midori, let’s talk in my room.”
“Ok.” I reply nervously and hold out my hand. I smile as he grasps it. Even under the circumstances it is good to feel the touch of his hand. It feels real even though I know his hand was crafted by a dwarf.
“I already have a plan to beat Sor.” Peter tells me without wasting any time.
“But Sor must have one too.” I protest.
“She probably has a really good one, but I don’t plan to lose.”
“Of course not, but learning her plan would help.”
“You’ll only learn what she wants you to. She would most likely feed you false information.” Peter tells me and I frown. That would be bad. “So please promise me that you’ll give up spying on her. I need to focus on my training, but if I’m worrying about you…”
“I’ll give up.” I answer honestly but reluctantly. “I don’t want to be a distraction.”
“Thank you Midori, and thank you for trying to help me.” Peter tells me seriously. He can read my aura so even if I tried to hide it he would know that I’m feeling depressed right now.
“You can thank me properly when we go on our date.” I answer honestly with a small smile. “Focus on preparing for your match and don’t worry about me until after you beat Sor.”
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