The next day at Montem middle school, the class was about to begin. The history teacher Mr. White stood at the front of the class holding a stack of papers in his hand.
"Remember finals are coming up soon, so today we're going to do a mock test."
One of the students in the class stood up and screamed.
"No way!"
Novis had woken up from the scream, but his eyes were only half open and his mind all jumbled.
"My head is all messed up still. There's no way I can take this stupid test," Novis muttered while staring at the blank test paper.
"Maybe I can help?" The spirit asked.
Novis jumped up from his seat causing his chair to fall to the ground. The teacher and other students gave him the death stare.
"Sorry about that." Novis nervously smiled and quickly sat back down in his chair.
"Are you still scared of me?" The spirit inquired.
"Just go away!" Novis shouted, again causing everyone to again stare at him.
"Is there something wrong Novis?" Mr. White asked, the irritation on his face apparent.
Scarlett raised her hand and said, "Novis said that he is being haunted by a ghost, sir."
"One of your silly pranks again boy? You better not cause another disturbance in class again or you're out of here."
Novis cursed under his breath and began planning his revenge on Scarlett for this humiliation.
One of the students sitting next to Novis leaned over to whisper to him and said,
"Hey, is it a sexy girl ghost or one of those creepy old dudes?"
Mr. White furiously banged his pen on the whiteboard. "What did I say about interrupting the class?" he exclaimed. The veins on Mr. White's head looked like they were about to pop any second now.
Novis then lifted the collar of his shirt up towards his mouth and begin to whisper.
"I told you not to talk to me! This is my mind, not yours."
"But I..."
"Did I ask you to speak to me?"
"No" The spirit replied in a soft quiet voice.
Seeing the spirit in its dejected state, Novis began to feel sorry for it. He decided there was no harm in speaking to it.
"What's your name?" Novis asked.
"Arthur."
"That's an old name. So who are you?"
"I was a knight for the king of Avrion."
"He really is like those princes from fairy tales." Novis thought to himself.
"It was my duty to serve the king and act as his champion. I battled with other knights from other kingdoms nearly every day. One day, I was tasked to duel a knight from another kingdom. During the fight, I suddenly felt ill."
"What happened?"
"I was poisoned, betrayed by someone from my kingdom. When I lost the duel, I was unable to pass on to the other side. I had yet to complete my final wish."
"So if you're dead, does that mean you're a ghost?" Sweat started to run down the side of Novis' cheek.
"Yes. After I died, my spirit attached itself to my sword. I don't know how long had passed by but it was many years until my sword came into the possession of a young boy. My sword had been passed by many people but it was the first time someone could hear my voice."
"Was this boy like me?"
"The child was interested in swordsmanship so he allowed me to become his teacher. He became a well-renowned knight, but died at the young age of 25 due to a sickness."
"So why are you still around? Why are you haunting me?"
"I have yet to achieve my dream…my dream of creating a sword style that is unbeatable."
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news but people don't fight with swords in this era."
"That's ludicrous! How would people fend for themselves if they were attacked?"
"Look I don't know how old you are, but people haven't used swords for like a 1000 years. We have technology now, things like nuclear bombs and guns."
Suddenly Novis felt his body being taken over and stood up in the middle of the class.
"What are you doing!"
"I need to see if what you say is true. A life without swords…I cannot believe it."
As Novis and Arthur were fighting for control over Novis' body, he began to walk out of the classroom in a robotic manner.
"What are you doing? Sit down Novis."
"Sorry sir, I need to go to the bathroom."
Novis' mind was feeling tired. It was as if his brain was having a tug of war match and eventually, his mind had lost.
Now Arthur had full control of Novis' body and started to roam the school halls.
"Where are we now?"
"Why should I even tell you? Give me my body back!"
"If there is no way for me to use the sword there is no purpose of me being here."
"Okay okay look, fine I'll try to find a way so you can fight with your sword again, just give me my body back."
"You promise?"
"You have my word."
Although truthfully Novis was just saying anything he could to get his body back, Arthur believed that Novis would keep his word. A knight's word was their honour.
As soon as Novis had regained control of his body back, he rushed to the toilet to splash some water on his face. He couldn't believe that everything was happening right now.
If Arthur was able to take control of his body like that whenever he wanted then Novis could do nothing about it. He had no choice but to keep Arthur happy and find some way for him to use his sword again.
Scarlett had noticed that Novis was acting strangely. She was worried he might have gone crazy. After all, she had seen Novis repeatedly talk to himself while staring over his left shoulder.
As Novis sat back in his seat to continue class, he started to think about ways he could keep Arthur happy. Then he overheard two students talking about a popular game.
"Hey did you see that VSW game last night between team Psychic and Aqua?"
"Yeah, Zion carried the whole team. His skills are out of this world!"
The students were talking about a game called Virtual Sword Warrior or VSW. It was currently the most popular game out on the market and had been for the last ten years.
Esports had become a worldwide phenomenon but still hadn't overtaken traditional sports in popularity until the introduction of virtual reality. In the last decade, virtual reality had advanced to the point where only the mind was needed to fully control a character.
VR changed the gaming world making Esports mainstream. It had become so popular it even had its own Esports Olympics that attracted more viewers than the standard Olympics.
"Why didn't I think of it before? We can play a VR Game."
Arthur started to feel a rush of blood go to his brain.
"I don't know who this VR is but I will defeat him."
Novis slapped his forehead realizing this was going to be harder then he thought.