Haochen gave Calibri a reassuring smile. The Verbatian prince did not look like he wanted to cry anymore, and it made Haochen feel infinitely better.
"I won't go easy on you either." Cloud said. He dusted his armor off. "Please do not. I wish to grow as well." Calibri said with a small smile.
"Then I'll go stand over there." Cloud said.
"Ah! I should tend to Kol first. He must be aching." Calibri said, suddenly remembering the cause of his inner turmoil.
Cloud threw and arm around his shoulders. "Nah, Kol is stronger than that. 'Sides, we'll all probably be patched up by the best of physician's when we get back. Why else would they tell us it was okay to injure our opponents? They must know a way to make sure everyone is okay, and there must be spells and enchantments that prevent us from actually fatally injuring each other in here. So don't worry your pretty little head." Cloud said, petting Calibri's hair.
Haochen narrowed his eyes at him. "Don't wipe your hands on his hair. We don't know what you've done with those hands."
Cloud stuck out his tongue and looked at Calibri. "Say, Sweetheart, you wanna know what I can do with my hands?"
Calibri's interest was piqued. "Yes, what can you-"
Haochen's foot flew up and kicked Cloud several feet away. He then looked at Calibri and calmly went to dust his hair and shoulders as if trying to remove any remnant of Cloud's presence.
"Calibri, if someone asks you that question again, you need to say no." Haochen said as he dusted the spot of hair that Cloud had touched.
"Why?"
"Well, there are some boys in this school who are very perverted. Cloud is one of them." Haochen said.
"Hey!" Cloud said, jumping off the floor.
Calibri glanced at Cloud. "Perverted?"
Haochen nodded. "Very."
"I am not. Haochen's jealous he's a virgin." Cloud said, crossing his arms in irritation.
"Ah! Are you also saving yourself for marriage?" Calibri asked with bright eyes. He glanced at Cloud quickly, "Of course, what I mean to say is there's nothing wrong with not saving yourself if you love someone, but it's also lovely to wait for someone." He added quickly.
Cloud made a face. "Saving yourself? What shit is that? You'll lose your youth that way."
Haochen sighed as Calibri tilted his head at the word 'shit', not having heard it before.
"All you need to know is that if he ever asks if you want to do something with him, or if he can sleep in your bed with you, or if he can show you something interesting, you need to say no, because he's most likely trying to do something awful to you."
Calibri frowned and looked at Cloud whose eye was twitching at Haochen's statement. Haochen stared at Cloud straight-faced and quirked a brow.
"But... he looks reasonably docile…" Calibri reasoned.
"I assure you, he is anything but docile."
"Now that's unfair Haochen, let him figure me out himself." Cloud said, huffing.
"He doesn't need to figure out anything involving you."
Calibri fiddled with his necklace. "Perhaps we should discuss this later. I believe this match is still being timed." He said, noticing the palpable agitation in the air.
"Oh yeah! Okay, I'll go over there." Cloud said, pointing at a corner.
"I'll stand over there, and you can stand where you are." Haochen said to Calibri, while gesturing to another area of the stage.
Calibri nodded. "Good luck to both of you."
"You too, oh and don't hit my face okay, love?" Cloud said.
"Don't call him 'love'." Haochen said.
"Alright." Calibri said to Cloud.
"I'll count us down then, three…two… one…" Cloud said, ignoring Haochen.
Calibri closed his eyes and clapped his hands together, making the stage turn black again. Haochen had already cast an enchantment causing a ring of blue fire to form in a large circle around him.
He couldn't hear anything happening and he could see Calibri or Kol approaching the ring of fire. If he knew how to light up the stage, it would have helped, but he hadn't reached that level as of yet.
Suddenly, something slashed down from above him. A large scythe.
Haochen dodged. "No hard feelings, you aimed for my face before." Cloud said. Haochen stayed quiet, jumping back and gripping his sword.
Cloud was very stealthy and jumped back under the cover of darkness. It was quiet once more. With a deep breath, Haochen looked around the room, wondering why Calibri kept making the room dark. It couldn't have been easy for him to see through either, and he had no form of lighting around him.
Again, Cloud slashed from the side and Haochen lifted his sword to shield his ribs from the attack.
"Aww man." Cloud said, clicking his tongue. He then began to slash sporadically at Haochen who blocked every attack.
Haochen then kicked Cloud back and pulled out his bow, starting to release strengthened arrows. Cloud just laughed, flipping around and dodging them.
Meanwhile, Calibri stood exactly where he had before, tapping his cheek. Earlier when he'd fallen into the room, his hearing had returned, but the enchantment on his eyes had been lifted too, which meant it was increasingly difficult to keep his eyes open in the awful lighting without suffering. By extinguishing the lights, he was firstly trying to save himself from any decapitating migraine or dizzy spell, and secondly, he wanted to gauge his opponents.
He wasn't sure how Haochen and Cloud used their weapons, and he knew it would be detrimental to go in blindly, literally. And so, he stood still and watched in the darkness.
From what he gather, Haochen was a skilled swordsman, very timed, precise, and calculated.
Cloud on the other hand was a volatile explosion of head-on attacks. It wasn't that he was unsure of what to do, but rather, it was as if he didn't want to have a pattern of combat that could be followed or predicted.
Kol groaned from the other side of the stage and Calibri's eyes left the battle between the two to look at him for a moment. Suddenly the grumpy-prince's green eyes opened.
He looked livid.
Calibri's own eyes widened, wondering how Kol had gotten up that quick, but when his eyes drifted lower down, he realized Kol had slapped a healing talisman on his own leg earlier on, and it was still working.
"Calibri! You little… Come out! I know your tricks now." Kol said. Cloud glanced at Kol as he dodged Haochen's attack.
"Oh! Kol, welcome back. You hit your butt really hard before. You okay? You need a soothing massage?" Cloud asked, using his scythe to block one of Haochen's arrows.
"Shut up! Where is he?"
"Who?"
"The frigging princess!"
"But you said 'he', Kol dear, I think you don't understand how pronouns work." Cloud said. Haochen jumped up and spun through the air, aiming to slash down Cloud's back but Cloud jumped away laughing.
Calibri stayed quiet as Kol went slashing away at the darkness, hoping his glowing green blade came into contact with Calibri.
Calibri took out his daggers. He'd watched the fight long enough. It was time to get involved. Moving his hand across the air, he teleported right next to Haochen and kicked him hard across the stage, making him land on Kol's back.
Then he disappeared and reappeared next to Cloud, aiming to get his scythe away from him, but suddenly, he found himself having to jump back at the last second when a saber blade missed his throat by inches.
He landed on the ground and looked at Kol. "Found you," Kol said.
Calibri pursed his lips and looked down at his right arm. A talisman had stuck to his clothing and the markings had seared into his sleeve. It was some sort of spell that made him feel very light-headed, nauseous, dizzy, and sick.
Why did Kol have to throw a deabilitating talisman at him? He could handle any of the others that didn't weaken the physique, but a simple one like this was not something his body could handle as of late. He knew it spelled trouble and he needed to get away soon.
It didn't burn him, but somehow the sleeve was now glowing orange and he had no way of hiding.
"What are you going to do now, princess?"
Calibri stood up then clapped his hands, making the room bright again.
"Alright." Calibri said, more to himself. If he knew his illness, then he knew he had less than a few minutes before he fainted, or vomitted, or both.
Haochen and Cloud were still immersed in their own battle.
With a harsh crackling sound, his whips were out. "Not going to fall for that again." Kol said.
Calibri rotated his shoulders, spun his left lighting-whip in a circle above him, and disappeared. He reappeared outside the invisible barrier of the stage."
Kol paused. "Hey…"
Haochen looked over and frowned too.
Cloud who's jumped back from an attack looked at Calibri outside the barrier.
"How did he get out there?"
Calibri turned his back to the stage and looked at the golem, freezing when it's head tilted to look down at him.
" I'm most likely going to have to fight you, right? " He said rhetorically to it. He was definitely in trouble.
The announcer's voice from earlier spoke again.
"Your cultivation level is high enough that you know how to breach the barrier by combining teleportation with a nullifying spell. Congratulations. However, you are not allowed to leave unless you participate in combat. You have not taken down your opponents on the stage, as such, you have breached the given instruction. You will now need to fight the secondary reinforcement prepared in the case of a breach such as this. The attack will begin in thirty seconds. Please prepare yourself. You may not leave until you have defeated it."
Calibri sighed. He needed to end the fight quickly before one of the others, or those watching the fight from wherever they were learned about how weak his body was.
Kol's eye twitched. "He's going to fight that thing?"
"Hey, concentrate on your own fight," Cloud said sending a slash through the air, forcing Haochen and Kol to jump up and tear their eyes away from Calibri to avoid it. Haochen landed and looked at him with annoyance, then began a new round of attacks; this time at both Cloud and Kol. Cloud grinned, Haochen was finally concentrating without Calibri there.
Meanwhile, the Golem's eyes began to glow red as it began to stand, rust falling as it moved; and in return, Calibri put away his daggers,straightened up, looked back at it, and his eyes began to glow gold too.