by Tom Early
“Would the team of Septimus Blackhorn and Jacob Flynn step into the Arena, please.”
Sam glanced at me, and mouthed out the word “imp”. I nodded. I hadn’t forgotten about how Septimus had won his first match, and with Aria’s help, we’d figured out what Septimus had done. Or rather, what Septimus’ familiar had done. We needed to find a way to counter its invisibility, or even my Ward wouldn’t be able to stop it. As for his fire and Jacob’s power, I had a gamble I was planning to make. My backup plan basically involved just hitting things until they stopped moving, though, so I was putting a lot of hope into it paying off.
“Good luck!” Aria whispered. “I want a chance to fight you guys too, so don’t lose!”
Sam bumped into her on her way out of the seats, and Aria squeaked as she lost her balance and fell onto Kaede, who hissed like a snake. I rolled my eyes and got up as well.
The three of us approached our circle, and on the other side of the Arena, Septimus and Jacob did the same. Jacob looked terrified, and I’m pretty sure his left eye was twitching uncontrollably. Sam winked at him, and the twitch turned into a full-body spasm. Not that I could blame him for that, Sam made a point of being showy when she kicked people into unconsciousness. Septimus was doing his whole smirking gig, and it worked. I was unnerved, but that was more due to the fact that his goat-pupiled red eyes were locked on me. We stepped into our circles, and moments later, the light faded out and the match began.
I immediately threw up my ice Wards over the three of us, grimacing as the energy loss hit me. Tyler and Sam then dashed ahead towards Septimus and Jacob at breakneck speed, Sam already summoning her Minor Orbs as she went, along with muttering an incantation I was entirely unfamiliar with. Her ercinee also soared into existence, circling above the Arena. Sam and Tyler moved smoothly next to each other, the time they spent training together showing. They closed the distance quickly, and Jacob stepped forward to engage them with his quarterstaff as he continued his own incantation.
I focused on the work I had to do. To begin, I expanded my Ward, and shifted it into a variation that would freeze slower-moving things approaching me out to five feet, instead of projectiles just before they hit me. It was more draining, but with any luck it’d work on the imp if it tried to sneak up on me. It was essentially a trap, since my Ward couldn’t be seen either. Once my Creature Ward was in place, I started the second part of my work, which would hopefully help turn Jacob’s water ability into an asset for me, and possibly deal with Septimus’ bloodfire as well.
I began my incantation, the words sounding like the whispering of snow in the middle of a storm, and the wail of loss when a person is separated from the group, and never seen again. The air in front of me began to freeze, and seconds later, the yuki-onna manifested. A woman with strikingly defined features, almond-shaped eyes and long black hair, wearing a flowing white kimono that faded into a cloud of mist and snow near her feet, visible only to me. Her eerie blue-tinged lips parted as she smiled at me, and bowed low. She did the same thing the first time I summoned her back before Aiden had taken us to practice. She was kind of the ace up my sleeve. Either way, now Septimus wasn’t the only one with an invisible companion.
It was right about then that Jacob finished his incantation, getting slashed across the stomach twice, blue light shimmering out, in return for making a complicated gesture and summoning his living pillar of water once more. Sam rolled to the side, Tyler with her, and they kept their weapons at the ready, ducking their heads suddenly as Septimus began his barrage of fire, his flaming shield safely in place.
I nodded to the yuki-onna, and she graced me with another smile, before she drifted through the air towards Jacob, the chill in the air the only trace of her passage. Unsurprisingly, Jacob soon turned his attention to me, his pillar of water twisting and coiling like some great serpent. I waved cheerily to him, as the yuki-onna continued to approach him. He continued his incantation, and another two pillars of water roared into existence, and the three began to twine around each other, a spray of mist going up as the water began to pressurize itself. I was in trouble if I let that hit me.
Thankfully, that was when I saw the yuki-onna reach him. At the last second, she became visible to him as well, and Jacob’s eyes widened almost comically as she placed her delicate snow-white hands on his cheeks, and then leaned in and kissed him. His body twitched, and then began to turn a freezing white-blue color as the yuki-onna leached the warmth from his body. The pillars of water splashed harmlessly on the ground as a burst of red blasted out from every inch of Jacob’s body, and he collapsed, spasming, before he disappeared. The water puddled around our ankles, there was so much of it, dimming Septimus’ flames slightly as a massive cloud of steam went up before dispersing. Septimus looked startled at the sight of his teammate getting knocked out seemingly out of nowhere, but he recovered quickly.
Septimus made a series of complex gestures with his hands, and then slammed his palms into the red fire surrounding him. Unlike the barely humanoid fire elementals he had summoned previously, this time five warriors made entirely out of red fire with curling horns and long tails marched out of the flames, each one holding a flaming whip in one hand and a serrated red blade in the other. Septimus uttered another short incantation, and shards of obsidian appeared out of nowhere and formed themselves into armor pieces for the bloodfire (or at least that’s how I thought of them) warriors. The five of them advanced on Sam and Tyler, the low crackling of fire the only sound they made.
Tyler ran back towards me as I mentally “pinged” him with the familiar bond. Sam just grinned, and stood still as the first one approached her. It swung its fiery blade, and a second later, its body was impacted by Sam’s Minor Orbs. The obsidian armor shattered, and its flames burst in every direction.
That was when Sam seemed to grab the air in front of her like there was some sort of invisible hilt, and cracked her own whip. The howling of wind filled the Arena as a gust slammed down out of nowhere in response to her motion, smothering the flames of another of the warriors. As a third charged towards her, the ercinee swept out of nowhere and forced its beak inside the warrior’s head, its glow intensifying as the creature stopped moving and its flames dimmed.
I whistled. It looked like Sam had gotten Aria to teach her a thing or two at some point.
Septimus growled in frustration, and began to gather a larger bolt of fire around his hands, shaping it into a flickering purple-black javelin. The air thrummed ominously, and Sam’s stance changed instantly as she registered the new threat, crouching down. I ordered my yuki-onna to try and take out Septimus’ fiery minions, while I began to use what Jacob had so graciously left me. There was a massive amount of water in the Arena now, and I could use that. Tyler took up a guarding position next to me, inside the barrier of my Creature Ward that he could sense as well.
Septimus launched his javelin unerringly at Sam, who freaking back-flipped out of the way and dashed towards me, launching her Minor Orbs at the remaining fire warriors, extinguishing another one. We didn’t have any way of getting rid of the imp’s invisibility, but my defense made worrying unnecessary.
As she ran, however, she suddenly clapped her hand to the back of her neck in horror, and seconds later, a red flare went up as she collapsed. The imp had gotten to her first. I winced as her unconscious form vanished from the Arena along with the now comforting light of the ercinee, and glared at Septimus.
The javelin had been a distraction. Septimus laughed cruelly, and ordered his last elemental towards me and Tyler as he began yet another incantation. I focused my attention on the water beneath the elemental’s feet, and yanked one hand upward as I clenched it into a fist. The water around the elemental shifted into snow that rose up and smashed into it from all sides, smothering it instantly, though I swayed a bit from the energy expenditure.
“You okay?” Tyler asked concernedly, still looking at the spot where Sam had just been.
“I’m fine,” I force
d out. “Let’s go make Septimus pay, shall we?”
I devoted the rest of my energy to maintaining my Creature Ward as I began to walk towards Septimus, Tyler helping me along. As I went, I moved the water along with me gradually, sending it in small waves against Septimus’ barrier. He glanced down in alarm as it began to steam around the edges once more and sink in towards him. All of a sudden, I heard a “thunk” next to me as a batlike creature encased in ice fell to the ground, frozen through. I almost collapsed from the sudden energy drain, but Septimus’ resulting scream was completely worth it. Losing your familiar, however temporarily, was not a pleasant experience, it would seem. His fire wall flickered out of existence as he lost any semblance of concentration. I sagged with relief as I ended my Creature Ward, now that the imp’s danger was taken care of.
As Septimus fell to his knees, still screaming, the yuki-onna appeared behind him. Even from the middle of the Arena, I could hear her motherly murmurings of comfort as she wrapped her cold, dead arms around him.
Septimus’ screams reached a fever pitch as the heat bled out of his skin from the yuki-onna’s embrace. Tyler winced, but I just enjoyed it. Music to my ears after he knocked Sam out of the fight. Seconds later, Septimus’ form also burst into red light.
The Speaker’s voice rang out a moment after that.
“The winners of the match are Feayr Hanson, Samantha Gray, and Tyler Andrews! Your team shall advance to the final round!”
Outside the Arena, Sam smiled woozily at me from a makeshift stretcher laid out by the homunculi for her. I gave her a thumbs-up and grinned. Next to me, Tyler chuckled and gave Sam the thumbs-up too, and I saw Aria do the same from her seat, albeit with a confused expression on her face. I sat down next to Sam, and waited for her to regain her strength, Tyler joining me.
Unsurprisingly, the next match was between Aria and Kaede’s team and the team of the knightly boy, Alric and the dark-haired boy whose name I still didn’t know. I elbowed Tyler, who said that the boy was called Jace.
The teams strode into the Arena, and the match began. Once more, Aria started the battle furiously, incredibly strong winds blowing into existence out of nowhere. This time Kaede seemed to be excluded from the effects, however, and she immediately slithered forwards, white light warping into two curved blades clutched in her slender hands. The smaller boy, Jace, threw his hands up, his eyes flaring gold as the wind seemed to bend visibly away from him and Alric. Alric snapped down his visor, drew his sword, and advanced on foot towards Kaede. They met in the middle, as Aria continued to send down her hurricane-force winds from above, gathering storm clouds above the Arena.
The battle between Alric and Kaede in the middle of the Arena was intense. Alric was barely managing to hold her blades back from him, and had to desperately jump as Kaede’s tail swept inwards to trip him. It looked to me like Kaede had the edge in the fight, right up until she raised her arms in the air for a devastating stroke, and then just… stopped. I glanced over at Jace, and saw that while with one hand he was staving off the wind, with his other hand he had managed to paralyze Kaede somehow, his eyes once more glowing that brilliant gold. Alric wasted no time, and used the opportunity to plunge his sword into her chest. Though the tip stopped as it touched her, a flare of red went up all the same.
As Kaede disappeared from the Arena, Alric and Jace stood side by side, staring up at Aria, who looked right back down at them.
“You can’t beat us,” Alric shouted. “Your winds and lightning can’t make it through Jace’s barrier.”
Aria raised an eyebrow, and then flicked a finger down at them, an arc of lightning following her movement. True to Alric’s statement, it stopped dead as it hit Jace’s barrier, sparks flying everywhere as Jace’s eyes glowed briefly again. He didn’t seem too bothered by the strain. I was seriously impressed. Aria made a thoughtful noise, and then began another incantation as she gathered a bolt of lightning around her raised hand.
“Wait,” Sam said excitedly, “I know that cast! She’s using some form of Dispel!”
I frowned. “Isn’t that a pretty costly spell to use, and doesn’t she have to be close to whatever she’s trying to dispel?”
“Yeah, but the way she’s casting it, I don’t think that’s the case at all.”
The air began to thrum with power as more and more lightning gathered around Aria’s raised hand. As she finished her incantation, I saw the barest outline of purple light surround the bolts of lightning. Jace’s startled intake of breath told me I wasn’t the only one. He violently shoved Alric to the side as Aria released the lightning. I saw spots as an enormous arc of lightning slammed into Jace, shattering his barrier and causing a red flare to go up as the electricity ran through his body.
Alric shouted in rage, and glared back up at Aria, who just flicked another finger at him, sending down several bolts of normal lightning, which was more than enough to knock him out of the fight as well now that Jace’s barrier was gone. Once the red light went up, Aria flew gently back to the ground, smiling up at the three of us.
“That just got more impressive the second time I saw it,” Tyler said in a hushed voice. “Are we really supposed to fight her?”
“Ask Sam,” I said glumly. “This is her thing, not mine.”
“Shut up and get motivated,” Sam muttered. “We can do this if you guys put as much energy into fighting as you do whining.”
“She just blasted the Arena with Ward-destroying lightning,” Tyler pointed out reasonably. “I think I’m within my rights to freak out at least a little, because that could just as easily have been us getting fried.”
Sam smacked him on the thigh, and Tyler yelped and edged away. I just rolled my eyes, and started to think of exactly how we were going to manage to beat Aria.
The Speaker spoke once more.
“The Trial will be on break for the next two hours, after which the team of Alric and Jace will face the team of Septimus Blackhorn and Jacob Flynn for third place. Tomorrow at noon, the final battle will be held.”
Sam gave Aria a quick high-five as she came out of the Arena, and then pulled Tyler and me in close, her face flushed.
“Look, you two, we are spending as much time as is necessary to figure out how to stop that spell from happening, all right?” She growled out.
We nodded meekly in sync. Sam was in full-on competitive mode now. It was terrifying.
The battle between Alric and Jace’s team and Septimus and Jacob’s team was quick, and odd. Alric and Jace strode into the middle of the Arena instead of to their circle. Alric coughed once as Jace elbowed him roughly in the ribs when he seemed to hesitate. He cleared his throat, and announced that he and Jace would be withdrawing from the match. Without further ado, he and Jace marched out of the Arena once again and sat down, ignoring the eyes of everyone on them.
The Speaker reappeared, looking completely unruffled by this turn of events, and promptly stated that Septimus and Jacob had therefore won third place, and that they would receive their award after the final match tomorrow. With that, the day’s events concluded ahead of time, and the three of us headed back to my room. We ended up spending more time than we should have figuring out just how to deal with Aria’s lightning, and in the end, we only had a theory to work with on how to potentially stop her. Sam had to hide when the homunculus came in to deliver dinner, as we were pretty sure that staying in our room overnight broke some sort of rule. When we finished, it was close to midnight, and Sam ended up stealing half the blankets and burritofied herself on the floor. Tyler and I got to cuddle together for warmth, though, so I wasn’t complaining.
Chapter Thirty-Three
I was woken up by Sam gently pressing her foot into my face. And by gently, I mean I was grateful that I didn’t end up with a nosebleed. I let out a muffled moan and sat up. Tyler was already eating at the table, and he looked over at me.
“You looked so peaceful sleeping, I didn’t want to wake you up,” he said.
“I, h
owever, had no such problem,” Sam said cheerfully. “I need you awake and functioning so we can go over our strategy one last time before the match.”
I grumbled and made my way over to the table, mechanically shoveling down the steaming eggs on the plate in front of me, and making grabby hands at the coffee mug Tyler slid towards me. Sam watched me impatiently, and sprang on me as soon as I was done, a few minutes later. I did my best to look alert as she lectured me.
“So, as we’ve seen, Aria opens with pretty much the same tactic every time, of blasting the opposing team into oblivion with her wind. So you’re going to use your ice Ward to hold off the wind, right?”
“Yep.”
“Tyler’s going to be Warded as he goes to face Kaede, right?” Sam asked.
“That’s the gist of it,” I replied, “and you’re sending the ercinee to help?”
Sam nodded. “Yeah. What I’m worried about is Aria’s familiar. Pip is cute and all, but we don’t know what it can do. or Kaede’s for that matter, if she has one.”
“And you’re going to help take Kaede down quickly as well?”
“And try to keep Aria from summoning her storm clouds, along with you if you have the energy after the Wards. If she can’t summon the lightning, then we have a chance. The moment she succeeds, though, we’re screwed.”
“So is that what we’re going with, then?” Tyler asked. “Striking fast and hoping for the best? Wouldn’t it be smarter to go after Aria first?”
“It’s all we’ve really got,” I replied. “In case you haven’t noticed, none of us have wings, and I don’t think Aria’s going to make it easy for us to take her down. She’ll just fly up where none of us can do much to her. We can beat Kaede, but with Aria, we’re basically playing a reactionary game.”
Tyler looked at me dubiously. “That’s not very comforting, you know. And how the hell are you so calm?”
I shrugged. “We’re already in, so I just view this as a game. It’s not like anything bad can happen to us.”
