Randolph slammed his fist against the enchanted glass panel blocking him from his students. As much as he didn't want to lose, he still cared about his students' lives more than winning this competition. "End it," he said quietly. "End the tournament."
"We can't. It's against Interschool rules," the first judge said.
"My students might die. Stop the competition," Randolph snarled.
"Stop it," Headmistress Silvia said. "This is enough. Interschool is supposed to be fun. End the tournament."
"We can't."
"My students are being sent to the hospital in critical condition as we speak," snapped Randolph. "End the competition! Now!"
"End it," the fourteen other Headmasters and Headmistresses agreed.
"We can't," the judges replied. "We would if we could, but it's an Imperial Decree, from the King himself."
"He's not the Emperor," snapped Headmaster Ikari.
"But he'll become one very soon. And we cannot afford to offend even a King," Judge Henry said.
"We have to get in there. While we've been needlessly arguing, another two of my students were nearly killed," Randolph growled. "I only have two more before my roster is out. They can forfeit. Please, let me take them out."
"What about that monster of yours? The girl?" the judge asked, trying to give them a bit of hope. "Where is she?"
"She vanished after the second task. I don't know whether or not she'll make it in time," Randolph replied.
"Vanished? Where could she have gone?" Headmistress Lunalite asked.
Randolph shrugged. "She's always been like that. She's by far the most mysterious person in this school. Her, and the Snow Owl friend of hers."
"Really? How much do you know about her?" inquired Headmaster Trey.
"Very little, though I know more than most. She showed up about three to two years ago, filthy, like an animal. Just showed up at the gates one day. I let her in, and she quickly climbed the tierarchy. Even before she revealed her Amorai, she was already seen as strong. And once she did, she challenged the God-tier students I'd trained... and won, one after another. After she grew used to everything, she started taking the steps as Queen. She would vanish, then reappear. Nobody knows where she goes. Well, maybe the Snow Owl, but he vanishes just as often as she does."
"So, she could win against Jordan?" asked Headmaster Capuel.
"Maybe. I'm not sure."
"Well, I hope she can," Headmistress Silvia said. "For all our sakes."
∽
Blyke walked onto the stage, shivering slightly as a large, cold gust of wind blow over his body. If he didn't already know Asha wasn't there, he would have thought she was standing right behind him. He just hoped he could buy enough time for Asha to arrive.
Because if Daniel couldn't beat Jordan, Blyke wouldn't be able to, either.
So Blyke stood in the cold wind, shuddering from it's cold, silken touch, like a young woman with her frigid personality and sharp bite. Wrapped in her cold-yet-warm embrace, Blyke prepared himself.
∽
Headmaster Randolph couldn't watch as the arena floor became even more painted in scarlet. As the medical team rushed out of the arena. He dragged his nails down the glass, his power threatening to slip his controlled leash and shatter the glass.
"I am so sorry," Headmistress Silvia said. "I'm sure you noticed before, but I have no control over that young man."
"It's not your fault," Randolph said, voice cracking. He could barely keep from tearing the walls down. "It's not your fault," he repeated. 'It's mine,' he thought.
"Last student on the roster, Asha Phantomhive, please make your way to the arena."
"Will she come?"
"Maybe not. She didn't come last year for the second trial. But that was because she had full confidence in the others to win," Randolph said. "Now... I'm not sure if I want her to even try."
"Why? Don't you like winning?"
"At the risk of my students' lives? No! And that girl... that poor girl went through enough as it is. Any more would just be too cruel."
The others looked at him, interested, but didn't pry.
"Please, don't come," Headmaster Randolph whispered. "Please, be selfish for once in your life and stay away from here. Please."
"Asha Phantomhive, please come to the arena."
"Don't come. Whatever you do, don't come. Please, stay were you are."
"Last call. Asha Phantomhive, come to the arena. Thirty seconds until disqualification."
"Don't come. Don't come. Save your own life. Please, stay away. Please, live your life like you should be able to."
"Ten seconds."
"Please, stay away."
"Five seconds."
"Stay far, far away. Please."
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
Zero.
...
A thick mist rolled onto the arena, turning Jordan's waiting figure into a dark blur.
The Headmasters and Headmistresses squinted, trying to make out what was happening though the thick fog.
A cold wind blew a bank into the arena, obscuring everything. And when it thinned out, Jordan was smiling at another blurred figure. "Glad you could make it," he purred.
"No," Randolph whispered.
The figure pointed a finger at the box holding the judges and teachers. "Asha Phantomhive, here."
∽
Asha barely made it. As soon as she was done, she'd flown as fast as she could. She would have just left the cadre to fight on their own, had she not recognized the owner of the Evolution Dragon.
"Good of you to join us," Jordan said from across the arena.
"I'd never pass up the chance to pulverize your ass," replied Asha. She silently thanked the cadre for putting up such a fight and buying her enough time to arrive.
"Battle begin," the judges said.
Asha glanced over to the box, her sapphire eyes meeting the Headmaster's. She looked back in front of her, bending her spine almost in a ninety degree angle back, a leg passing out of the fog, aimed to take her in the neck. She flipped all the way around, putting up her arms to block another kick. Her arms burned from the blow, but she stood her ground.
Asha moved fast, arms snapping from a defensive position to snag the ankle. She turned and heaved, tossing the figure onto the floor in front of her.
Jordan coughed, rubbing his back. "You've improved."
"Years on the run do that to you," Asha replied.
Their eyes met.
"Icicle Crash!"
"Torrent Spear!"
They shouted at the same time, huge icicles appearing overhead, already falling at an alarming speed.
A spear of water formed in Asha's hand, and since she'd added the ice element as well, the spear froze, only a small casing of water remaining, covering the spear. Asha grinned as she vanished.
As the icicles started to crash against the arena floor, they shattered into small chunks and snow, as if the arena floor had proven tough enough to withstand the attack.
But down in the stands, the teachers watched in awe as the icicles shattered only six feet from the ground, a figure appearing before darting away, another icicle disintegrating.
Asha ran, flipped, and twirled across the arena, standing under each icicle and using her spear to pierce through the hard tips. She ran to the last one, turning last second and jumping backward, flipping in a graceful, neat circle, the spear finding its mark.
Asha landed on her feet, planting the butt of the spear as the icicle splintered into fireworks of snow. She tossed hair out of her way. "You're going to have to try harder than some sneak attack transcendental."
Jordan's lips twitched up, as if he was both amused and slightly proud. "Very good. But I'm not quite done yet."
Asha raised her spear. "Of course not."
"Seed," Jordan said, that huge dragon appearing behind him, spreading its huge wings and all six heads roaring.
"Quetzico. Tezcatlipoca." Asha smiled slightly as the two flying serpents appeared on either side of her. She turned her eyes back on Jordan.
"Now," they said together.
Their Amora charged each other, even as they did the same. Jordan sent tongues of flame at her, which Asha quenched with a swing of her water-covered ice spear. She sent blades of sharp, cold wind at Jordan, that he deflected with two swords of ice.
Asha jabbed with her spear, using the extra reach to attack before Jordan could. She changed the strike of her attack as he jumped, turning a stab into an arching slash, managing to scrape him on the side of his body, just below his ribs.
He returned the favor, dropping both swords as he sailed over her head, points down.
Asha growled. That bastard. She easily dodged the first, but the second clipped her on the ear. Asha carefully felt where the cut was bleeding, fingers coming away dripping with crimson blood. She sighed. At least it hadn't hit her in the forehead of something. Fighting with blood dripping into your eye was a pain.
Jordan was standing there, feeling where the blood was leaking from the three to four inch scratch along the underside of his rib. Not bad. She'd improved speed-wise. 'Not so much defense-wise,' he thought, watching the blood drip from her ear.
Asha and Jordan both unfurled huge black feathered wings, launching into the sky. The battle turned aerial.
∽
"Hey... you awake?"
Tim's eyes fluttered open slightly, then closing tightly once more before opening fully. He winced as he shifted in his bed, a hospital bed, with the rails to keep tossing patients from falling out. He tried to sit up, but pain flared, leaving him panting, eyes still on the ceiling.
"The remote is to the left of you. Reach about two feet. A bit lower... there you go."
Tim pressed the button for the bed's head to rise up, putting him in a sitting position. He looked around.
"Nice to see you're alive."
He just smiled weakly at Rosaria, who was propped up like him. "Are we the only ones here...?"
"No. Look around."
Tim did as she said, noticing four other beds in the ward, occupied by Daniel, Ethelyn, Amelia, and Blyke. He grimaced as he saw their wounds. Then turned back to Rosaria. And gasped. "Are you okay? What the hell did that bastard do to you?!"
Rosaria just smiled slightly sadly. "Spears through my tail. But, of course, all damage done in the Third Form is transferred over to the host's body. My legs were pretty much shredded by the time I was sent here."
"You'll be able to walk again, right?"
"With this medical technology, yes. I'll recover quite easily in this ward. The healing acceleration in this room is multiplied by nearly fifty times. I'll be out of here within the week. How about you?"
Tim shifted again, cringing. "Hurts. I don't even know what happened to me before I blacked out."
"I think the nurses said you exploded from the inside. All I remember was all of the scratches you had on you were bleeding what the nurses said was a 'gross mix of blood and guts.'"
Tim grimaced at her explanation.
Someone groaned.
Tim's eyes snapped to the bed beside him, where Ethelyn, with her platinum blond hair almost white in the bright lights of the hospital. "Hey," he said quietly, softly. "Are you okay?"
Ethelyn's lips pulled up in a snarl of pain as she struggled to sit up.
Tim reached over, ignoring his own pain, grabbing her remote and pressing the button, raising the head of the bed until she could see.
"You alright there?" Rosaria asked.
"...Yes." Ethelyn sighed, frowning at her two arms wrapped in plaster. "I feel like I'm in a straitjacket," she grumbled.
Tim and Rosaria laughed softly.
"Why aren't you in bandages?" Ethelyn asked Tim.
"Because I had very few outward injuries. Apparently, I exploded from the inside out.",
"...Gross."
"I agree," a tired voice replied.
"Are you alright?" Ethelyn asked, turning her head to the bed across from her.
Amelia was already moving the head of her bed up, not answering until she was level with them all. "I've been better. I haven't been beaten this badly since Asha challenged me," she replied, taking quick stock of her injuries. She was relatively normal, except for the mass of bandages around her stomach. "Ah," she said.
"What is it?" Tim asked.
"I just remembered how I passed out. He gutted me."
Tim almost choked. "Excuse me?!"
"That's... a bit brutal for a school competition," Rosaria agreed.
"He practically ripped apart your legs," Amelia said.
"And exploded Tim," said Ethelyn.
"WHAT?!"
"Will you please quiet down? Some people are trying to recover!"
"I'd know that complaining anywhere," Amelia muttered.
"Welcome to consciousness, Daniel," Ethelyn said.
"Yeah, whatever." Daniel pressed the button on the remote. He sighed. "How are all of you?"
"Hurting," Rosaria said.
"I heard about your legs. No permanent damage?"
"None."
"Good." Daniel nodded in satisfaction. "Everyone else?" he asked.
"Recovering," Ethelyn said.
"Fine," replied Tim.
"Doing great," said Amelia.
Daniel nodded.
"You?" Amelia asked.
"Fine. A little sore, but fine."
"A lot more than sore, you should be," said another voice.
"You... if you were awake this whole time, then SAY SOMETHING!" Amelia chucked a pillow, freezing it a bit so it actually hurt.
"Ow! I just woke up! I swear!" Blyke cried, rolling from his side onto his back. He hit the button on the remote and sat up. "How are you all?" he asked.
"Fine," they said.
They were quiet for a bit.
"We lost," Amelia said, sighing.
"Big time," agreed Blyke.
"That Amorai is just insane, not to mention it's user," said Daniel.
"It reminds me of Asha when she challenged us," Ethelyn said.
"Agreed," said Tim.
Silence again.
"L-let's see what's on TV," Blyke said, reaching for the remote on his desk. But before his fingers even touched it, the TV turned on, showing a screen full of fog. "What in the--"
"Fog? Really?" Amelia asked. "Next."
Blyke shook his head, his silence drawing the others' attention.
"What?" Daniel inquired.
"I didn't turn the TV on," he said.
"Of course you did."
"No, he didn't," Ethelyn said. Her bed was next to Blyke's, and she'd watched him reach for the remote.
"Okay, now I'm seriously bugging out here. What the hell just-- gah!" Blyke jumped in his bed as an explosion appeared on the screen. No, not just an explosion. That was the impact of elemental attacks.
A great gust of wind blew the clouds away a bit, revealing two figures battling it out, one with a spear, and one with dual swords, huge figures obscured behind them.
"Asha!" Blyke gasped. "She made it!"
"Thank God," Rosaria exclaimed, sinking into her pillows in relief.
"How do we have feed of the tournament?" Ethelyn asked. "I thought it Luminine had a closed circuit."
"Good point," agreed Amelia. She frowned at the screen.
"They look just about evenly matched," said Daniel.
Tim nodded his agreement. He watched Asha's movements carefully. It seemed that she was uninjured, except for the nick on her ear. Good. "How long do you think this has been going on?"
"No more than twenty minutes." Ethelyn checked the analog clock on the wall, nodding, as if double-checking herself. "Yes. Blyke was taken out no more than twenty minutes ago."
"And they've been at a standstill like this for that long? How?" asked Daniel.
Tim explained, "It may have something to do with the fact that they're both fast as hell, along with strong. I've noticed -- and I'm probably not the only one -- that Asha has remarkable combat strength for her size. Daniel prefers to build his physical strength, while Ethelyn trains her Amorai strength. But I have to guess that Asha trains in both, almost equally. I'm assuming this boy does the same. And seeing how both of them are so powerful, it's only natural for them to be in a standstill. Their Amora are fighting each other, leaving the users to battle it out with their own strength."
"That does make a bit of sense," said Rosaria.
Tim's eyes went back to the screen. His eyes widened.
"No!" Blyke shouted.
The camera zoomed in, past the two fighting, to show the battle behind them. The six head element dragon only had four heads, because two of them were currently swords in Jordan's hands. Quetzico and Tezcatlipoca were caught by the wings by two heads.
The cadre was horrified as the other two heads bit down on the other wings, and pulled.
Several screams mixed with the ones from the two winged serpents. Blood sprayed everywhere. two great fountains of crimson continuing long after the serpents fell to the ground.
Ethelyn put her hand to her mouth, looking away.
But it was Rosaria who voiced Tim's concern. "Doesn't this mean... Asha's Amoraless?"
∽