by Tj Dixon
“Thank you Midori.” Peter says and hugs me for a moment. It is a bit like a dream come true even knowing he is just trying to comfort me, but like a dream it is over before I realise what’s happening. Peter grasps my hand and ports us both back to the classroom. I have a good time and follow Peter around lots, but all too soon the celebration is over. I port back to my room and find Tomo already there.
“Hi Midori. Today was fun. A pity we only have one more left.” Tomo grins.
“I’m glad Peter is so close to winning. Every match he has to risk his life and his freedom.”
“I know, but it’s not like he can actually lose.”
“He could lose the next match. I don’t think he will, but from what I’ve heard about Sor…”
“Relax. Peter is Peter, so he’ll win.” Tomo assures me. “I thought you were his number one fan anyway, so I would have expected you to be the one telling me he’ll win.”
Chapter 30 (Multiple) – Final Chapter
(Peter)
The final match is tomorrow but I don’t need to tone down my training, because I’m going to be borrowing some power from Elucia for the final match. She’s training with Rin at the moment. I’m training with Lucy for the first time since we returned to Contractia. Lucy finally seems to have overcome the after effects of opening the portal to bring us back from Nirvali. Unlike everyone else I have no intention of swapping training partners today.
“You already know how to raise a port barrier and port block so you should be able to stop any dimensional magic that Sor uses. If she manages to get past those you just need to make sure her attacks miss. What I’m going to teach you is difficult magic. There’s no way you’ll learn it in one training session, but what you can learn today should help you understand dimensional magic better.” Lucy tells me.
“That would be good.” I admit.
“To start with I’m going to share the basics. After that you simply need to practise until you reach the point where further instruction is required.” Lucy tells me and places her forehead against mine. Her thoughts and feelings flow into me.
“So it’s just a different way of porting?” I ask as I understand what Lucy is trying to show me.
“It is, but it is much more difficult.” Lucy warns me.
“Ok, I’ll give it a try.” I say and close my eyes to focus my mana. It isn’t really that different so I don’t know why Lucy thinks it is so difficult or important. I open my eyes and try to port. I gasp and fall to my knees. “That hurt.”
“I know.” Lucy grins. “It always hurts the first time, but it will get easier. Now try again.”
“Ok.” I say cautiously and stand before making another attempt. This time I’m ready for the pain, so I don’t fall, but it still hurts like hell. “This is torture.”
“It took me just over seven thousand attempts to get it right. Mother had a servant count them.”
“Seven thousand?” I ask in horror. “Is it really that important that I learn?”
“Without full understanding of all the elements, including dimension, healing magic is impossible.” Lucy tells me.
“I can learn healing magic if I do this?”
“This is just one of many requirements, but this technique is also required in order to do other very useful magic. This is also the way Sor ports.” Lucy tells me. “It is just a shame we don’t have more time before your match with her. If that damned Grunti hadn’t mucked up when he restored my power, we could have been practising for weeks.”
“Don’t worry. Whatever happens, I’ll beat Sor.” I assure Lucy and then attempt to port again. “Damn, this is painful.”
“Peter?” Tomo calls nervously from behind me.
“Tomo?”
“Have you seen Midori? She was in class, but she doesn’t seem to have turned up for training. She didn’t tell me anything, so I’m really worried about her.” Tomo tells me and from her aura she really is worried.
“I haven’t seen her. Have you any idea where she might have gone?”
“I was wondering whether she might she have decided to spy on Sor again.” Tomo tells me and her voice is shaking.
“Lucy, do you know any way we can find Midori?” I ask, just as worried now as Tomo seems to be.
“We could get the faeries to look for her.” Lucy suggests.
“Why didn’t I think of that?” I ask shaking my head.
“Too many things on your mind already, maybe?” Lucy sighs.
“I’m sorry!” Tomo tells me, bowing really deeply.
“Don’t be. Thank you for telling me about Midori.” I tell her and then port over to Dairon.
“Peter?” Dairon and Cherry both ask at once.
“Dairon, could you tell the faeries to search for Midori? She seems to have gone missing.”
“Sakura?” Dairon calls out. Sakura becomes visible and bows. “Could you please have your legion search for Midori and bring her here?”
“Of course, your majesty.” Sakura says and bows once more before disappearing.
“Let me know if they bring any news or better yet, Midori.” I tell Dairon who nods. “How’s your training going?”
“I doubt we will make much progress. Cherry is already a very good wind user, and not being an elf it is difficult to progress beyond a certain point in terms of elven magic.” Dairon tells me apologetically.
“I’ll do my best though.” Cherry tells me enthusiastically.
“Good luck.” I tell her with a smile and then port back to Lucy and Tomo. “The faeries are looking for her. I’m sure they’ll find her soon enough.”
“I hope so.” Tomo says.
“We’ll let you know when they find anything. You should probably return to your training for now.” I tell her.
“I will do, and thank you.” Tomo says before porting away.
“Now back to your training.” Lucy tells me and I prepare myself for the pain as best I can. It is every bit as bad as I expected.
(Sor)
Peter enters the arena looking a little tired. Is he not taking me seriously? If so he is in for a surprise. Actually he is in for a surprise anyway. Of course he could just be pretending to be tired to make me lower my guard. If so he’s seriously underestimating me. I’ve seen him fight, so I know he is not to be taken lightly.
“Want to give up?” I ask Peter just for a laugh. He shakes his head and grins.
“That should be my line.” Peter tells me.
“We’ll see.”
“Have you seen Midori since yesterday?” Peter asks and I frown.
“No. Why? Did you send her to spy on me again?”
“I didn’t even know about the spying until after the last match. I told her not to do it again when I found out, but I was wondering whether she decided to spy on you anyway.”
“No. If she had tried I would have spotted her. Her technique is good, but not good enough to fool me. Now focus on the match and deal with Midori afterwards. If you let her distract you, I’m going to punish you.”
“Don’t worry. I know better than to underestimate you.” Peter tells me. Good. I wouldn’t want to win just because he took me lightly.
“It’s time.” I tell Peter who nods.
“The rules are slightly different this time.” The judge tells us. This was unexpected. Nobody told me anything about a change of rules.
“So what are the rules?” I ask suspiciously.
“There are no gems in this match. Whoever kills the most in the allotted time is the winner. If you kill, knock out or force your opponent to surrender you win the match regardless of kills, but you still have to survive the enemies until the time limit is over. Of course you don’t get to know what the time limit is until it is over. If either of you leave the battlefield before the time limit you will be executed for cowardice.”
“What are the enemies?” Peter asks, even though it is clearly pointless. If she were willing to tell us that she would have done so already, instead of being
deliberately vague.
“You’ll find that out soon enough.” The judge tells us, rather predictably.
“Why weren’t we told about the new rules earlier?” I ask, rather annoyed.
“You would have to ask her majesty that.” The judge tells me.
“Whatever. Just port us already.” I tell her with a glare.
“Good luck both of you.” The judge tells us and then we are ported.
The smell of blood and death assaults me the moment I port in. It is dark, but I use my dimensional senses and quickly realise where I am. We are below the arena in the same huge cavern that Peter fought in last time. The tunnels have been sealed off so we will have to stay within the main cavern until the match is over.
I was fairly sure when I saw the last battle but this time I am certain of it. These are the same plants that Yu Kii despised so bitterly in the Sky Gardens during our school trip. So if these plants manage to kill me they will eat my soul. Not good.
Of course it means I can kill as many of these plants as I want without worrying about it. That is fortunate given that I need to kill as many as possible. The nearest plant has already pulled its roots up and is racing towards me. I smile and port it into a thousand pieces. One down, lots to go.
(Peter)
As soon as I port in I know where I am. This cursed place again. Yu Kii explained what these plants are, so I don’t hold back. I send lightning at the first five only a moment after I port in. I then quickly check for Sor’s location. She is a fair distance from me so I don’t need to worry about her getting in the way.
I send twenty powerful wind slices all at once, tearing apart all the plants in that direction. To my annoyance most survive and reform. Oh well, looks like lightning is the answer. I create a huge blast that rocks the entire cavern. That killed the damned plants in that direction. It didn’t hit as many as my wind slices did though.
I send a second blast just as powerful, followed by a third, fourth and fifth. I’m not sure how many plants that killed, but surely at least a couple of hundred. I check on Sor’s progress and gulp. There’s no time to waste. She’s killed at least twice as many as I have.
I send blast after blast, each rocking the cavern and killing more of these hell flowers than I can count. There seems an almost endless supply though, as each time I kill them more spring up somewhere else. I check on Sor again and sense her aura is fading. She seems to be running out of mana.
I keep watching her with my senses as I blast more and more of these wretched plants. I am glad I took power from Elucia. If I hadn’t, I would have stood no chance against these plants. To have your body and soul eaten by a plant would be beyond awful. All I could have done was try to dodge their constant attacks until the end. Of course that would have meant losing the match.
I feel Sor lose consciousness. It seems she pushed herself too hard. I instantly port to her and resume blasting the hell flowers. I’m not letting them eat her no matter what. I’m not sure if her falling unconscious like this counts as my win, as I didn’t personally knock her out. Either way though, I need to keep killing these hell flowers.
Even with the power that Elucia gave me I am starting to feel the drain of constantly creating such powerful lightning. How many of these foul things are there? Just as I am thinking that though, their numbers seem to be dropping. Am I almost there? I hope so, because I’m really not confident that I can keep this up much longer.
Finally the hell flowers stop sprouting from the ground and it isn’t long before I have killed all that remain. I sigh in relief, but then feel a sharp pain in my chest. A moment later I sense an aura that looks like a silver ball. It seems familiar somehow, and its presence fills me with dread.
I shield both myself and Sor. It takes a lot of power to do so. The attack isn’t elemental. It is pure magic and worse it is constant with no sign of even weakening, let alone stopping. I can only sense the enemy’s aura, but hopefully that is enough. I send a blast of lightning, but to my shock the enemy’s attack pauses momentarily and my own attack is flung back at me.
“Idiot.” Sor gasps. “It can control the four basic elements. Dimensional magic is the only way to harm it.”
“I don’t know any dimensional attacks. Take power from me and kill it.”
“Uck.” Sor says, slowly standing up. As soon as she is upright I kiss her and send some of my power to her. The rest I need for shielding, because I am far too close to running out of power. I sense Sor’s attack, but it is too weak and has no apparent effect on the enemy.
All of a sudden we are ported back to the arena. I blink in the sudden light. Thank goodness the time was up. I breathe a sigh of relief, but then gasp in horror as I sense the enemy approach us from below. Sor clearly senses the same thing, but we are powerless to stop it. Sor at least manages to port us both out of its direct path at the last moment.
In the light I can now see the enemy’s shadow, though that is all I can see. I raise my shield again, but then there is a cracking sound, that makes my very soul shudder. Both the aura and shadow fade.
“A quick reaction from Professor Lily. I have no idea what that spell was, but it certainly did the job. And a great win for the boy Peter! No wonder this boy has the favour of her majesty, Queen Emily! It seems even the infamous Sor was unable to stand against him. This must wash away the shame of the other students he beat.”
“I would have won, if it had been the same rules as before.” Sor tells me with a shrug. She seems to have recovered her physical energy as well as her mana. “So what are you going to do?”
“Do you know where my room is?”
“Yes.”
“Then meet me there with Emi.” I tell Sor who frowns but nods.
“Don’t forget your reward for winning.” Sor tells me.
“Oh, I had forgotten actually. I was too busy worrying about beating you, to think about that.”
“I thought so.” Sor sighs and then ports away.
“The prize will be sent to your room this afternoon.” The judge tells me as she approaches from the other side of the arena. “There is also a victory ceremony to attend in Portalis. It is scheduled for tomorrow. You’ll need to leave sometime today. Meet me in the head’s office. Don’t leave it too late in the day though, because we need to get past all the security checks. You can bring a friend or a slave if you wish. That is all.”
“Thank you.” I tell her with a small bow. I then port back to my room. I sense Emi and Sor are standing outside my door, so I open it with magic. Sor enters first with Emi behind her.
“So what did you decide?” Sor asks bluntly, though her aura shows she is really nervous now. Back in the arena she seemed confident.
“I need both of you in my club and my company.” I tell her with a sigh.
“So it’s that or slavery?” Sor asks.
“Yes.” I lie. Of course I wouldn’t keep her as a slave, but without the threat of slavery I doubt I’ll be able to convince her to join.
“Fine, we’ll join. We would have anyway, but it seems your honourable talk back in Portalis was just talk after all.” Sor tells me. I wince at her words.
“With your help everyone’s chance of survival goes up. If it was just for my sake I wouldn’t have forced you to help, but for everyone’s sake, I can’t afford to throw away this opportunity.” I tell her and hand them both a contract.