Louise and Elliot stood there for a moment, eyes locked on each other. Louise began side stepping around, looking for an opening. Elliot simply looked at her, waiting patiently for her to strike. Louise lunged at him, and like before, vanished, in which she popped back up behind him, but when he turned to hit her, she vanished again. She re-appeared next to him and took a swipe at his side, and repeated this process, disappearing and reappearing over and over, landing blow after blow on him. From a spectators view, she was tearing him up without a chance for Elliot to strike back. However, when she finally backed off to catch her breath, he was unharmed, but with his arms up in a defensive manner. Louise looks alarmed as she searches him up and down for any injuries. He slowly lowers his arms to reveal his face, and his cold look still remained.
"Don't look down on me! You may look unfazed, but I know that must have hurt!" She yelled at him.
"I'm sure it would have." He replied calmly. His hands and forearms became a very dark black.
"I don't know what you are trying to pull on me..." She says as she walks closer to him. "But I will kick your ass one way or another!" She lunges once more, but doesn't disappear. This time, Elliot met her in the middle. He continued to block her attacks, and each time he did, the darkness progressed up his arms. She swang, open palmed, at his face, but he ducked under, and countered with a punch to her stomach. Right as he was about to make contact, she disappeared, and reappeared behind him. Her hair was suddenly a blue tint, with cat ears sticking up, with a tail. Her finger nails looked like cat's claws, and her eyes resembled that of a cat.
"Did you think I was going all out, moron?!"
"Did you think I was?" Elliot's fist ignited as he suddenly closed the distance before them. A giant wolf was lunging from behind him, and as his fist connected to her face, the wolf exploded into her, sending her flying across the gym, her body rolling to a stop in front of the templar.
"MY LADY!!!!" Theodore cried out. "Are you okay, my lady?!"
"See, you have the cat spirits, and I'm sure dogs and cats don't typically get along. However, I have wolves, and wolves aren't bothered by kittens." Elliot said as he looked down at her, before turning around to walk out.
"Next... time... I'll take... your head..." Louise coughed as she spit these words out. She was clearly struggling to breath, her clothes were burnt, and her hair was singed. "Mark... my...words..." and she passed out.
The spectators were in a baffled surprise, Juan being one of them. He ran over to Elliot as he was exiting the gym, but he was stopped as Margaret had arrived.
"Hey, Elliot, how's your day?" She said with a smile, but then looked closer at him to see his class torn. "What's this? You look like you've been in a fight?"
"That's because I was in a fight. Met the other spirit user you mentioned."
"Oh my! Are you okay? Is she okay?" Ms. Tawney looked panic strikened. "She is very dangerous. It took a gold tier guardian to catch her and restrain her. I'm glad to see you in one piece, but you must be hurt somewhere."
"Eh, not really. Shadow absorbed most of her hits, so I'm fine." Margaret continued to look bewildered.
"It's true Ms. Tawney. I saw the fight myself. It was... very one sided. I've seen Louise pick a few fights, never one that ended so badly for her." As Ms. Tawney pushed past them to see the results for herself, Elliot walked off, back to his room. "Looks like you brought a monster here, Ms. Tawney." Juan said as he looked over the aftermath. On one of the walls was a gigantic burn mark, in the shape of a wolf. "He must have mitigated most of the fire to her, cause otherwise, she might have been killed on the spot."
By now, most of the tenants were surrounding Louise, and those that could heal, were healing. After that day, and until the academy started, the academy grounds were quiet, and Louise was rarely seen, even in passing. As the time grew closer and closer to the start, more students were arriving at the academy. The grounds were rarely empty, students bustling around, developing their teams. Elliot was rarely seen outside of his room after his fight.
"Hey, Elliot, you alright in there?" Juan said as he approached Elliot's door. He had been visiting daily, but Elliot never answered back. The door swung up suddenly, and a teenager stood with slicked back red hair. He has a slender build, and his clothes looked upscale, not like Elliot's ragged clothes or the ones in the storeroom.
"Hey, would you quit banging on the front door. If this Elliot person is suppose to be my roommate, I've only seen him leave his room for food, he doesn't even respond if I try talking to him." He said with an annoyed tone to his voice.
"Mind if I try knocking on his actual door?"
"Be my guest." He replied with a shrug and turned around. "Keep quiet though. I hate loud noises." He left the living room and into his room. Juan walked over to the opposite door, and knocked. There was no answer, but Juan could sense a strange aura from the other side.
"Elliot, you have to come out some time, buddy. We need to build our team, just us two isn't enough." The door slowly creaked open, and a cold chill ran down Juan's spine. Half of Elliot's face showed, with a cold look in his eyes.
"You... still want to work with me? I-I almost killed that cat girl." Although his eyes were cold, his voice sounded like a shakened little boy's.
"What? Dude, you were amazing, and she was healed up within a couple days. The best part, is that you didn't focus all the energy directly into her, so most of the damage was done to the room, but since it's a training room, it wasn't a big deal. If anything, you proved the training room needed to be reinforced." With this, Elliot began to lighten up. Surprisingly, even his room seemed to lighten up.
"Well, I guess I could come out for alittle bit."
"That's what I like to hear! Alright, let's get you some fresh air, and maybe we can try talking to some people. How about your roommate? Think he might be willing to join us?"
"Pass!" A muffled voice from the other side of the door.
"Oh come on... guy whose name I don't know. Come hang out, don't you need a team,too?" A muffled laughter grew louder as the roommate opened the door.
"A team? With the likes of you guys? I am the ultimate undead slayer, the ultimate weapon! Besides that, my father has bought me all the best fighters. So what does a lowlife like yourself have to offer?" Juan simply looked at him, seemingly unfazed. He turned to look at Elliot.
"Your roommate sucks. Let's go look for others. We are running out of time." Elliot nodded, and they walked out the front door. The roommate just stood there, dumbfounded, watching them leave.
They spent the next few days asking around for teammates. Most were already grouped up, and each day, Juan looked more and more desperate. The final day, before the Academy officially started, they walked into the cafeteria to get dinner. Most had already come to eat, so it was very empty. They grabbed their food, and sat at their usual table to eat. Juan looked gloom, but Elliot didn't seem too bothered by their bad luck.
"This is going to suck man. We need atleast a four man team to participate in team battles, and that's atleast four. Five would be great, but healers are so hard to come by. Man, this drags!"
"I'm sure we'll be fine, Juan. Just give it some time." Elliot responded as he stuffed his face with food.
"Hi, did you say you were looking for more members?" A girl's voice suddenly intervened. She is short, with blonde hair that came down to her shoulder. She has circular glasses, and has a very kind,but small, smile.
"Yes! Yes we are! You aren't a healer by chance, are you?"
"Oh, no, unfortunately I'm not. I'm a light mage. I specialize in light magic, specifically barriers and light particles."
"Light... particles?" Juan asked, skeptically.
"Yes, see?" and the girl had a small light suddenly on the tip of her finger. "I could expand this little particle, and make it explode, or it could be a flash bang. Since the particles are so small, I could hide these particles very easily, and make them explode when I'm ready. Pretty cool, right?" Juan still looked skeptical, but Elliot looked entranced. This girl is so radiant, he thought to himself.
"You're in!" He exclaimed, perhaps a little too enthusiastic. Her smile grew large, and she practically lept at him to hug him.
"That's great! My name is Hope, and I've learned in this settlement since the beginning. I really look forward to working with you guys."
"Well, I guess I gotta say, glad to have you. I don't fully understand your power, but I'm sure we can figure that out. Besides, Elliot here looks the most excited I've seen him since he got here. Welcome aboard, Hope." They finished eating and walked out to see four boys outside.
"Come on, loser, show us what you are about? We'll find out anyway when the Academy opens, so just show us. Maybe we will want someone so scrawny if he has some super strong abilities." One boy snickered at the boy in the center. The boy in the center was very short, skinny, with long jet black hair, that was put up in a pony tail. His eyes were cold as he looked at each of the other boys.
"Hey, is there some kind of problem?" Juan asked, his voice stern.
"Mind your business. We are just having fun."
"Doesn't look too fun"
"Well, it is. Maybe you should join us, big guy."
"Is that a fat joke?!" Juan became infuriated.
"Wait, what? You aren't fat, you are just a really big guy."
"Nobody calls me fat!" The three boys started to look angry.
"Listen here, mor-" but before the boy could finish, Juan had punched him in the face, blood exploding from the boy's face. The other two stumbled backwards in surprise, but quickly recovered. They charged at Juan, throwing punch after punch.
"Ah, so you guys are physical types? How lucky am I! And how unlucky for y'all." Juan said with a grin. They continued to hit him, but their attacks were slower and slower as they exhausted themselves. Their knuckles were bleeding, and they were gasping for air. With a single swing of his fist, both boys were knocked out cold. "Did y'all see that? Turn opponents, one punch." He bellowed with laughter at this pun.
"Thank you..." The small boy said softly.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry, forgot you were even here. You okay?"
"Yes... are you by chance looking for another teammate? I over heard you asking people yesterday."
"Why yes, yes we are! What's your classification?"
"Beast tamer and hunter."
"Whoa, two of them? That's great! Man, this day sure turned around!" Juan grin broadly. "Name's Juan. That there is Elliot, a spirit user, and that's Hope, a light magician."
"My name is Wesley."
"Well, welcome, Wesley! Let's all head to bed, we can meet up tomorrow morning, for breakfast. See y'all then!" and Juan walked off toward his room. Wesley paused to look at Elliot and Hope before leaving as well.
"Well, an interesting end to the night. Want to walk together? We live on opposite sides of the building, but mage building is still the mage building." She said with a smile. Elliot nodded, and they walked over to the mage dormitories. Tomorrow, the real challenges begin.