Vernon rushes Vargas before he finishes. Vargas changes plans and grabs down on the plasma balls turning them into blades. Each blade is six feet long and three feet wide, and pulsing with enough energy to take down a small army. He swings both horizontally, hoping to connect with at least one. Vernon stops both blades with his hands unfazed. To Vargas it doesn’t even look to be giving my any distress at all. Vernon grips down on them and they shatter like glass.
Before Vargas can blink, Vernon’s fist is planted into his stomach. The punch itself vibrates throughout his whole body. Then he feels the connecting to his mana slip away from him leaving a tingling sensation of sharp pin pricks. He watches Vernon pull a pillar of black light back along with his fist before it retracts back into Vernon’s fist.
The mana he has left inside of him, which he knows isn’t much, feels like it is boiling him alive and it could explode at any moment. But all he can do is lurch forward expelling what breath he has. The boiling fades slightly before another punch comes across his chin and another round of pin pricks. He spins around dropping to the ground. Once the world stopped spinning and the feeling of lava worms crawling though his veins subsided, he could see that Vernon is starring down at him.
Vernon’s eyes slowly regain their blue color again, as he stumbles backward. Vargas lifts his head to watch as Vernon’s heel catches a small break in the ground and falls over. Vargas still on the ground himself struggles to find the strength to stand. His brain still can’t wrap around what just happened but that will have to be for later. First he gets to his knee before falling back to the ground. He takes a deep breath and pushes past the dull aches to stand.
The first thing he tries is to gather magic. Nothing comes. Closing his eyes for a second he refocus his efforts on what Master Sel had taught him. Gathering the magic from around him to get the first spark. Mana starts to trickle in and then comes back up to a full stream.
Opening his eyes he sees Vernon still on the ground and in an instant, the stasis shell covers him. He had won. He didn’t know what just happened, but he lets out a sigh of accomplishment and a smile comes over his face all the same.
The paladin judge watching the bout walks over and declares Vargas the winner. The crowd has a moment of silence before erupting into cheers. Looking over to the sideline showed his next opponent, Duke Keragus, waiting patiently. With him being from group two and Saint Anthony, that had to mean he was Vernon’s number two. Vargas knew he didn’t have enough left to make dinner, so there was no way he was going to win a fight with a somewhat rested challenger.
Vargas goes through with the match anyway. It goes quickly. The darkness of the stasis shell covers him.
5
Vargas wakes up in the locker room. Amber’s face was the first he saw. She was standing over him, greenish white light coming out of her fingers and palms. Bailey was first to tell him how well he did offering her congratulations on the second place spot and the extra points for their team. Amber looked over his body and told him that she didn’t see any surface wounds other than some bruises. Vargas knew his injuries were not on the surface, but in the deep tissue and nerves. He leans in close and asks her to check on those.
Her face lights up with concern. He tries to brush it off by telling her it was his techniques that he used. She gave him an overly worried look, like a sister would, but begins to work her healing magic without pressing the subject. A bright white light covers his body and accelerates his bodies own healing process. She finishes healing him in time for the team matches.
As Vargas reaches the coliseum floor for the second time, it had changed from a barren dirt covered rock to a tree filled environment full of lush greenery, sweet fragrances and a breath of hot air as they walked in. It was amazing to him to see the change over in action.
Their team was surprisingly well balanced. Vargas had planned on trying to win the team battles alone, but he didn’t have to. Shannon was out in front keeping her shield spells active or on the ready, Julie was able to distract the other team with her illusions or conceal the group when the other got too close. Bailey and himself were attackers, with Amber healing and mending the group as needed. Five battles later they had come out on top. Every team they had faced was so disorganized that when Vargas’ team would coordinate an attack, there wasn’t a single player left afterward.
The locker room had a powerful positive vibe going on between everyone. It was something he wasn’t used to. For the first time Vargas had truly felt he was a part of something that was more than himself and that he belonged. It was a feeling that he truly enjoyed.
Vargas looks at everyone and asks, “Did anyone sign up for the free for all coming up here in a second?”
“Yea, we all did.” Bailey answers, “I asked everyone after I got knocked out of the one on one’s but you were still out there winning. Forgot to tell you.”
“That’s cool. Any plans?”
“Not really, no”
Shannon says with a little skepticism, “Why do you got one?”
“I think I just might. I know this trick that I learned recently, and it is only supposed to be for emergency situations but I want to see what it does. If you can keep a shield up and Julie conceal us long enough for me to prepare it I might just be able to get everyone in one go.”
“You’re crazy, you can’t know something like that!” Julie says in disbelief.
“I learned it from Seleaf Mativ, the sage. I have been his apprentice of sorts for a few years now.”
“Well that explains how you beat that guy earlier with those crazy skeletal lightning wings. For a second I thought you were an elemental and just hadn’t been telling us.”
“No I don’t think I am, but I do have an affinity toward it. When I am ready, I will tell you all to back away and move me out of the shield. I think its going to be a big blast, and I don’t want you guys in it.”
All the girls nod, and Vargas feels this is a great time use the last technique. He could already feel how much stronger he had gotten over the last couple of years, but if he would have asked himself the same question yesterday he had doubts. All of that is gone now, and he knows just how strong everything he knows is.
Every single student in the tournament signed up for the free for all, and they are all standing next to their other teammates. It would have been a let down to Vargas if it was anything less. He turn to the the girls and asks if they are all ready, and they nod their heads. Scanning the crowd he can see that most of the people there are staring at Vernon's group. He thought for sure that since they had won all of their team matches they would be targeted first but they had somehow managed to fly under the radar.
With the official’s go, the coliseum floor turns into a magical war zone. Spells of all colors, sizes, and elements are flying every which way. The once lush greenery gets repeatedly pummeled from the barrage. Frozen, shattered, and burnt to a crisp. The earth beneath it all splits in twain and the smells mix in the air.
Vargas draws the rune in the dirt, standing at it’s center. He closes his eyes and imagines the rune drawing on the ground filling up with his power. A viridian glow slowly creeps from Vargas’ feet filling the circle. His head starts to feel woozy but he remains focused. Master Sel had told him that something like this might happen.
With the rune filled, it starts to softly vibrate and give off a soothing hum of energy. He looks back at the girls and gives them the signal to step backwards. He goes through each of the techniques shown to him before activating the rune. He aligns his flow of magic over his nerves once more, followed by drawing in magic from around him to let his wings of lightning form. They spread open wide, and are fully plumed out like the wings of a bird from all the extra magic.
As he emerges from the retreating shield and invisibility spell, the battle stops. Everyone turns and stares at him floating above a viridian glowing rune. The hair on every ones head begins to discharge static and stand on end. The smell of the air clears as it ion
izes. The coliseum is quiet save for the hum of electricity coming from Vargas.
His hands and arms are encroached with electricity. Opening them wide he activates the rune, and turns himself into a living conduit for his lightning. He releases thousands of bolts of lightning within the blink of an eye.
Lighting bounces around looking for a target and Vargas floats back down to the ground. His hands touch the dirt and can see the rune fading as it burns a crater into the ground. Vargas tries to keep his eyes open. Master Sel had told him that it would take a toll on him, and he needed to remain conscious to get healed immediately after using. He couldn’t do it. The world was closing in around him, and all he wanted to do was close his eyes.
He wakes to Seleaf’s face smiling over him on one side and his father’s smile on the other. Amber, Julie, Shannon, and Bailey are all in the room as well but are at the end of the recovery table. Taking in a deep breath he feels extraordinary, knowing he should be at least sore or in some kind of pain.
“So you used the rune I showed you....when it wasn’t an emergency.” Sel says with a small amount of aggravation in his voice.
“Sorry Master Sel, I just wanted to see it work. That and I wanted to win.”
Vargas’ father says, “Son you were amazing, but you shouldn’t risk your own life like that.”
Vargas looks up, “My life? What do you mean?”
Master Sel says, “Like I told you, the rune is emergency only and you made it way too big. It uses your life force to overcharge your spells. If you use too much, you die, and you almost did. Luckily I was here to see another pupil of mine and saw you use what I thought you were smart enough not to. I couldn’t let my pupil die in my presence, so I come down here to aid you.”
“Thanks Master, you are a lifesaver. Literally.”
Master Sel smiles, and waves everyone out. “Alright everyone go back to the locker room and gather your things, your teacher will be here shortly.”
Vargas’ Father says, “Son, I’ll head out and get the car. Like I said the other day I am going to take you home myself. I already talked to Coach Hillborn and he said it was ok.”
“Alright dad, see you in a minute.” Vargas says as he gets up and off the table and watches his father leave the room.
“Now that everyone is gone let me tell you what I did for you.” Sel says in a commanding tone. “I had to use a special magic to replenish your life force. It’s called cypher energy and you can only get it one way and is very difficult to get.”
“Wow, I have never heard of anything like that before.”
“There are maybe ten people in the world that I know of that can extract it, let alone use it.”
“Incredible, is that why I feel so amazing right now?”
“Yes, it is. Since you know this now, you cannot share that information with anyone. It can put your life in danger if you do. I know telling you this puts it in danger, but just having cypher used on you leaves a residue of sorts. If someone or something comes for you, you would know to run. The people who can use this like I do are stronger than I am. For now anyway. There are things I am going to need to teach you. You’re going to become a true apprentice of mine and I will start showing you how to fully use what I have already shown you."
“You have done so much for me and showed me so many things already, it would be an honor to be your apprentice.” Vargas says with the excitement of learning more.
Sel says with excitement in his voice, “Excellent, because there are many things left to learn, many many things.”
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My whole life I had a large imagination. When I played, with my Legos or running around outside with my friends, it wasn’t just playing. I was in a different place, I was making worlds. I would dream up stories and settings, where I would normally be the lead, or at least be looking through their eyes. Playing video games was a normalcy for the escape into some uncharted and untold world where adventure awaited, which fueled my own creations.
Insomnia had been a problem for me most of my life. This was another area that I was able to fill the space with waking dreams, praying that I would be able to get to sleep. It wasn't till I met my wife in July 2011 that I really started to contemplate what I wanted to do with my life. She was able to show me how happy I could be, just by coming into my life. So I figured that I could, and should, do that for my professional life.
I started to read more books. I had been a visual entertainment consumer for much of my life, even though most of my gaming consisted of role playing games, of a heavily text base nature. Not having the visual feedback was a different feel. I liked it.
It wasn’t until after reading a few self-help books that I started contemplating what made me happy and how I might be able to turn that into a career. In August of 2012 I had a long conversation with my wife, who was supportive of the idea, and I started to write.
Cypher Theorem: The Zero Class was finished and self-published on October 5th of 2013. From there it’s all history.
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