by Amy Mah
“Well, back to the picture. You will see she is down and so numbed by the Cold that she cannot use her so-called weak magic. As you will see later, she did have the power to defeat her opponent easily, but she left it too late. I expect it was due to a lack of correct training, but that is not for me to comment on. She now has to just rely upon her fighting skills, and that will mean she will lose and, knowing the character type of the opponent, also die.”
The screens now changed to show Alyce’s fist hit the tag barrier and then again when she was covered in Fire. At this point all the screens froze the image.
“A normal sign of frustration, perhaps, but no; we are talking of a young Heat or, put another way, a young Fire Demon who when really angry would not produce a few flames on a hand like she just has. No, she is very calm, so it is more likely that she is testing the barrier to see if she can help her friend. Of course, we all know that this would not be possible; the only part of the body that is able to pass though would be the tail, as the game is called tail tag, I believe, and certainly the barrier is magic-proof.”
The screens now realigned to show Alyce from different sides, and one was focused just on her tail.
“The following actions are not what you would expect from a 4-year-old hothead or, rather, they are what you expect to see, but that is not what is going on. A hothead bursting into flame is not that uncommon, but to cover herself in such a way is more like a static body charge than a Heat ability. It is very nice and very showy, and all eyes are now upon the hothead who can’t control herself under stress. Later people would call it a clever ploy to get the Ice to look away from her opponent so that the Spark could attack back at the last minute.”
“And this, I believe, is what was recorded in the fight records; the opponent distracted the Ice, giving her teammate the chance to attack. This most certainly did not happen! Look at the screen showing how her tail is not covered in Fire and is just poking through the barrier, proving that the barrier can block outside magic. Now the colored bars on the top left of our screen show background magic as well as magic used by combatants, and from what it shows, there should be a full magic battle taking place.”
As she said this the screens now showed still frames of Alyce’s tail, Alyce covered in flames, and Pink on the ground about to be struck. The Mind then carried on with the commentary.
“The flames now look to fade away on the young hothead unless you are looking at the background magic levels, which spike at this point, showing a massive power discharge as the Ice is stopped in mid-fight and hit with a charge of electric current to immobilize her, giving plenty of time for the grounded Spark to knock her out.”
Slowly Dream asked what her sister was also thinking.
“Magic cannot pass through the barrier, so what are we failing to see?”
The Mind turned on her, and the look she gave was like receiving a slap.
“Failing to see? Yes, that is the point: failing to see what is happening! Even after seeing it in slow motion, you still have not the wits to see what is happening! You are watching not only excellent team action but a real Cloud in action: not the fancy team actions of the Ices, which they call Cloud action. No, real Cloud action happens but goes unnoticed, as it is just natural.”
“We have just witnessed a charge built up in the Cloud and passed to the member who needed it. The pyrotechnic show was just to hide what was going on, and that was a magical charge traveling between Cloud members. The tail tip was on the other side of the barrier, so it could act as a conduit to pass power through and then discharge it to look like it had come from the fallen female.”
“Want to see more?”
Without waiting for an answer, a different view appeared on the screen, and that was of Pink standing naked on her balcony. They watched as she lifted a hand. There was a flash, and in the grasp of her tail was a fallen lizard, which she promptly ate.
“That is known as a close-range minor battle bolt, or to us non-Electrics, she just used a small bolt of lightning to catch a snack. It is quite common amongst midterm 5 year olds, but they normally have to rest afterwards. As you can see, this female uses it for snacking with no visible aftereffects, apart from maybe putting on weight!”
“All right, you are the smart ones; so what should we do about it?”
The Mind and the Light swapped glances, and the Light was the first to answer.
“We? I don’t think you understand; there is no we here. All that we are doing is letting you know that two of your students have now completed all the correct procedures to form a Cloud. I am sure you will be able to answer any questions if this causes a problem in the future.”
“This stupid mess is your own fault, so clean it up yourselves. Let’s hope for your sakes that they pass the next exams, as it will be interesting to watch you as an exam moderator request for them to be culled. They may be a very small Storm Cloud, but I expect it will be an interesting event to watch a Cloud be culled and may be best observed from a distance. Personally, I am going to record the forthcoming exams, as this year should make entertaining viewing during the dark time.”
Smoking Hot: (23)
Day: 562
Spent like forever trying to explain role-playing games to Pink then even longer trying to get her to forget about wanting to be an elf! I finally succeeded by telling her elves were like Airs, and that stopped her dead.
After Sleep she has agreed to come and help me look for people to join our team.
The room was a meeting place for the dregs: the ones hoping to think of a new way to make extra points at the last minute or to join some two-bit group on the off chance that if the others died, they could get their share of the points.
Alyce’s first try was a Light who was reading a floating panel containing point listings for low-level magic. Alyce did not know the correct way to recruit team members, but it was apparently not the way she tried with this Light. She looked down her nose at Alyce and told her where she should stuff her offer, which was a pity as she was the only Light in the place. Without one of her kind, they would need plenty of torches.
When she turned away she felt someone punch her arm. It was an Earth.
“What do you want with a stuck-up, dim Light when you could make an offer to have me? I need some points and fast, or I will have to fight the cullers.”
“How many do you have?”
“I only have 510 today. I used to have 8,010 until some uptight Moa slapped a penalty on me for fighting.”
“A 7,500 penalty! That is steep!”
“Tell me about it! And I didn’t even kill the Air Moa; she only lost three teeth. I was expecting just a 10-life point penalty, not 1,000!”
“Wait, 1,000 points? But you said it was a 7,500-point penalty?”
“Yes, well, I got an extra 6,500 penalty on top of the first 1,000 for then breaking both the Moa’s arms; I was only expecting 100 points, so I lost my temper.”
Alyce knew Earths were strong; she had fought matches with them in the past and normally lost, as you could hit them and hit them hard, but they did not go down. She had even tried to burn one once only to discover they are mostly flameproof. Their magic was weak, but they made up for it in other ways.
“I am happy for you to join our little team, and it will be equal shares all around. There is a joining fee of 500 points, and you will be free to leave if that is your wish after the exams.”
“You’re on! All the Earth groups need a 1,000-point joining fee, so that Moa really had it out for me for some reason, but you are in luck. After the fees, I can still bring to the point pot a whole 10 life points.”
The Light was opened-mouthed at the discussion that had just taken place a few feet in front of her.
“You are mad! No one takes in people with 10 points! The three of you will need 30,000 points between you. What is going on that you are not telling me?”
Pink, who was thinking the same question, hoped that her friend really did have a pla
n.
“What is going on? Well, we just wanted to round our numbers up, for we are going for maximum points as we will be heading for the hardest, darkest parts of the exam. We did hear that having a Light would be useful, but seeing as how you are smart and can see that it is not worth it, I quite understand,” Alyce said. “Besides, after further consideration, I think an Air would be of more use to us, so I will go ask one. Nice talking to you.”
As all Lights were thinkers, that was nothing to be surprised about. With weak powers, you think or you die. True, she was not like the powerful Minds or Dreams, but she was a thinker nonetheless. The major thought currently in her mind was that after a few sleeps she would be culled, and just because she could not personally see at this moment what they were planning did not mean she did not know that they had some super fantastic plan. Yes, she could see that they had something to hide, and not just a nice, pulsating pretty Cloud link between a Fire and an Electric, which was, of course, not possible (or, rather, should not be possible).
Knowing this place, she expected it was just something more that they forgot to tell her, so perhaps at most it was just odd. But they were planning something special. They were well known as fighters, and now they had stupidly picked a zero Earth… But Earths were the best hand-to-hand fighters around…
She tried to put her mind into overdrive, as the possible offer of a lifetime was walking away. They did not care about life points, which meant they planned to get more than they needed, so it was not the points. They had just picked up one of the strongest 4-year-old Earths here, yet she needed them more then they needed her. That was clever. Perhaps they needed four for some magic reason where a square was important. They now had between them all the best attack and defense types of magic apart from Air and Cold, and they had offered her a place, which she had turned down.
She was a Light, and Lights could see things. She just wished the ability also came with an understanding of what the heck she was looking at. Half the time she had to say things like, “I can see something shimmering in the corner, but what the frigging heck is it?” No, here was a stupid Fire with dyed black hair when her real hair looked far better being a lovely deep red that would show off her power. All the black color did was make her look weak, and what idiot would want to look weak in this serpent pit?
Fake black hair would just attract every Ice to attack at first sight, and she hung around with a dyed-pink haired Electric, as if a poor Light like her could not see the real silver of a full Electric Demon under such poor camouflage. Crap, crap, crap! Of course no one saw it, as they were not as good as she was. It was a trick and a trap for stupid Colds and Ices that needed group instruction on how to pick their own noses. Even the uniforms were not correctly colored, as they had a few color blotches that were also fake. Even that dumb zero of an Earth was wearing almost pure brown.
The Light looked very pale as she realized all three walking away were, despite appearances, full-color Demons! Why did she not think of even looking at their power auroras before she told them to stuff an offer of a lifetime? She only had 5,000 points, and she would need twice that to stay alive. As a magic specialist she was crap and would be lucky to get just another 2,000 in the exams.
“Wait! Wait! Airs are not that much use when going deep down. No, for the dark you need a Light, and not one who is too involved with magic to give her full help. No, no. What you need is a general-purpose Light who can see traps and know what is real. You want one who is great with mapping and, well, someone like me! I have 5000 points to bring to the magic pot. After much thought and consideration, I can inform you that I will be happy to join you. Please?”
Pink had to cover her mouth as the Light now dropped to her knees in front of Alyce.
“I am not asking for any high position in the group, and I am very good at taking orders! I will not let you down. Please let me join you?”
Alyce cast a look dirty at Pink to try and stop her laughing, but the best she got was that she walked further away but was still shaking with her held-in laughter.
“Of course you can. The offer is still open, and now we do not need to look for anyone else, so let’s get you both registered!”
Pink passed her the coin-sized disc they had been given for registering new team members. As Pink did not have any pockets, Alyce wondered just how she carried it or, rather, where she had put it, as it felt warm. She decided she would not be the first to ask in case she regretted knowing the answer.
The coin made a funny noise when touched by the two new members, so Alyce suspected it was telling them that registration was complete.
“Our first job is to sort out the exams that give the highest points, so I want everyone to check the display stands. We will meet up in the refectory then go and find an empty Cloud meeting room to discuss our plans.”
Smoking Hot: (24)
The Dream’s Air viewing screen was not as good as those produced by the Lights, but Poisen strained to see what was going on.
“Why the frigging heck can’t you get sound on this? I can’t read lips! A Light has just begged to join them! First an Earth and now a Light: they will now need 40,000 points to pass as a team!”
Dream flicked off the image, as all it did was give her a headache.
“It is what we were warned about; that smartarse Mind could see it but did not say. They look like a small fringe team working together for the good of all four, but I feel it is more like them slowly building up a Storm Cloud. They have just registered the two as extra team members: what use an Earth and a Light could be to them, I have no idea.”
“Well, for one, with a Light I expect they will have a better viewing screen than the ones you create, maybe even with surround sound!”
The special abilities of the newest members soon came into play when they found an empty Cloud meeting room. The Earth’s touch to the stone door meant that not only was it locked but it would be easier to smash down the wall itself than open an Earth-locked door.
The room lit up as the Light looked about, and Alyce, not to be outdone, laid a hand on the central stone table and held it there till it started to glow red, which only left Pink. She informed them that their abilities were all very fancy, but she was the only one to remember to bring some snacks from the refectory.
The first comment made by the newly formed group meeting was from the Light.
“We are being watched!”
The rest all looked about but could not see anyone in the room with them until the Light said they would not as it took a different sort of looking to see the floating viewing eyes, as they caused a little blur where they were placed.
With that it was agreed that a change of location was needed, and Alyce softly sighed when Pink suggested their Dorm room for the meeting.
Alyce was thinking it was getting to be more of a slumber party than an adventuring team of highly trained magic Demons as they all moved into their room. No matter how large Pink said it was, it was nothing more than a college dorm room that would normally be okay for one human student but not four Demons. The Light looked about.
“It’s okay. No one is watching us now, so we are free to talk and plan.”
The Earth and the Light sat on Pink’s bunk, and Pink sat close to Alyce on hers: too close, Alyce thought at times. She wished that Pink did not try and link tails with her, as it made them look more like a couple than just roomies.
Alyce also wished she had never told Pink about role playing, as she was now explaining it to the new team members, which after introductions Alyce discovered were named Shale and Alaula. Shale sounded nice and female and earthy, and she suspected Alaula was something to do with light. She had found out long ago that “Pink” was the name of a desert electric storm, and she wondered what hers translated to. True, it sounded like “Alyce” to Alyce, but she often wondered why no one asked, as Heats had hot type names like Ember or Blasé or something fiery.
While this was going through her mind, Pink had
sorted out group walking positions as if role-playing and had started to also explain that she was going to take the position of Paladin as she liked the name. Alaula would be a cleric, as they had lots of wisdom and would need to be kept safe at the rear, lighting the area in front. With her view screen, she could see the front and back to check for danger or traps.
Alyce was going to try and stop her, but the plan sounded good, so she kept quiet. Shale wanted to know her position. Pink explained that she would go in front, as the strongest should be the warrior leader of the team, and she could spot any physical traps not seen by Alaula.
In the middle would be Alyce as a Fire Mage, producing lots of heat to keep them comfortable and warm. As Paladin, Pink would move where needed and carry extra food supplies. If attacked, those at the front and rear would drop to the ground so Pink could blast anything coming towards them with a lightning bolt.
It was at this point Pink suggested they have a snack, and she unpacked a small picnic for them on the single table.
As they ate, they murmured between mouthfuls that it was a great plan. Because they had a Fire Mage to keep them warm, they could all carry extra food and blankets and sleep down in the tunnels to save time between locating the exams.
Alyce just nodded along with everything that was said but wondered how suddenly she had been so sidelined. It was now Pink’s team; she had the membership coin and the plan and the support of everyone. The others felt they were important with words like “wisdom of a cleric” for Alaula as she hid in the background. Shale was the one in greatest danger, so she was given the title and role of warrior leader.
Sometime during the meal it was also decided that they needed to get to know each other better, so they all stayed together for sleep time, discussing which exams to do in what order. Pink pointed out that even though it would have to be mutually agreed between them all, Alaula should put forward her idea first, as she had the better training in planning. Then after sleep it would be off to the refectory to stock up on food before starting the exams.
