We sat down on the Gallery as they began gearing up.
I see Tessia help Arthur equip his gear.
'She does realize that they're on opposite teams right?'
'I'm positive she does, maybe their 'friendship' extends so far that she decided to help him even if he's a opponent currently.'
'You humans and your hormones.'
I crack a smile at this.
'Eh, you're not exactly wrong there Zeke. I'm sure you'll find someone one day.'
'Like hell I will...'
I chuckle, making a few students near me look at me weirdly.
'We shall see Zeke, we shall see...'
'What's that supposed to mean?'
I don't reply, instead focus on the match.
I see Arthur going close to Tessias face.
Oho, he's become bold.
Go on, just a bit further...
Remove the hand damnit!
But before either could do anything, not that Tessia would judging from her red face, Professor Glory came and separated them.
Talk about blue balling someone, "You two! Enough fraternizing with the enemy! We'll be starting in two minutes!"
'I wonder why he's not letting Sylvie help him? Its not that unnatural is it? I mean the red haired boy's bond is helping him. And even I helped you against the Director.'
'Your abilities aren't that uncommon, well some of them. Sylvie on the other hand doesn't have anything like that, and her ability requires her to transform as well. He can't let everyone know about her true form.'
'Fair enough I guess.'
"Before we begin, here are the rules," Professor Glory began, "The match will have a timer of 30 minutes, after which we will have a short discussion and analysis of what plays out."
"Team DC will have a handicap," She continued, "Since Curtis and Claire have had more classical training than team SC with two first years. The handicap is..." She paused for dramatic effect, before saying something that made me smirk, "Arthur Leywin will play the role of King. Knock him out and the whole team loses."
Fitting.
'What do you mean?'
'Nothing Zeke, nothing at all.'
"The gear you're using is specially designed by artificers to measure the amount of damage dealt. If the amount of damage dealt passes the threshold encrypted, it will release a shrill noise. Anyone who chooses to ignore this warning and continues to fight or cast spells will be immediately banned from my class, and may be up for expulsion," She warns.
Good, now only if a certain brat could ignore this and get expelled.
"Let me be clear : " She speaks again, "The gear will not protect you, you should be advanced enough to protect yourself with mana, but you can be injured while wearing it. Don't forget it."
"Now, let the battle commence!"
Instantly they lunge towards each other, already having picked their opponent.
Curtis vs Tessia
Claire vs Clive
And
Arthur vs Lucas.
Kick his ass Arthur.
As if hearing my thoughts Arthur smirked evilly.
I see Lucas saying something to Arthur, possibly trying to rile him up.
Careful, that might just kill you someday...that is if I don't murder you first.
*VWOOOM*
So, you released your bloodlust huh?
This is gonna be one heck of a show.
I never once noticed the creepy smile on my face, neither did I notice the weird and somewhat afraid looks I was getting.
After all why would I?
They are unnecessary compared to the match.
Lucas managed to get his bearings just in time to chant a spell.
"Infernos Cage!"
Resembling Ember Wisps, this spell was not to be taken lightly.
And thankfully Arthur didn't.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of fireballs hone in on him, which he barely dodges zigzagging around the field.
Still with the spell active Lucas creates a barrier around himself.
He has impressive amounts of mana.
Checking his core I see he's still dark yellow.
He didn't improve one bit?
As Arthur was about to reach him, he banged his staff on the ground creating an explosion.
While dodging it Arthur suddenly stops, and takes a deep breath in.
What are you doing dumbass! This is not the time to catch your breath!
Wait...knowing Arthur he has something up his sleeve...
Well he has a lot of somethings up his sleeve, but one that he can show...
What is he planning.
A green aura surrounds him as any flame that gets close is extinguished.
Is he doing what I think he's doing?
Creating a area without oxygen around him, take away the fuel and the fire won't burn.
Impressive brother.
Some flames do manage to hit him though.
So its not perfected.
Its so like him to use experimental spells mid battle.
I see Professor Glory widening her eyes.
So she has figured it out eh?
"Flame Guardian!" Lucas shouts.
And this time an armored figure arose behind him.
Arthur gets in stance now, ready to face Lucas' last ditch effort.
Before a surge of mana washed over the area.
Suddenly Professor Glory rushes ahead, panicking.
'Aunt Tessia is in trouble!'
'What?'
Hearing the urgency in his voice I didn't even question his use of the term aunt.
Swiveling around towards Tessia I see what he meant.
I see Curtis unleashing his beast will, as his hair and eyebrows get longer and messier as he has a line of fur below his eyes, his canines also grow.
His bond unleashes a burst of dense Earth type mana, while Tessia, whose face is pale for some reason, fails to put up a barrier.
Shit!
I activate my own first phase, not caring if anyone sees me.
Since using Canine Divinity some of its abilities have bled into my body, but its more apparent in my first phase.
While before I could only use the two abilities of it, now I can use a very limited amount of nacht in it.
Using both mana and nacht I focus on creating a protective barrier in front of her.
An Ice shield, with one of shadow in front of it.
But before I could complete it the spell reached it, which shattered to pieces but not before reducing the impact of it even if it was only a bit.
I should've Void-stepped to her!
Damn it!
When the smoke cleared I thought I would see an injured Tessia, never did I expect to see my brother shielding her with his own body.
I saw Sylvie Growling at anyone trying to get close.
Shit, I can't let her reveal her Dragon form in front of all these people.
'Zeke-'
'I know, get on me.'
I see Zeke already standing beside me, not wasting a second I grab on to him as we entered the shadows
Emerging on the other side we startle the medic workers.
I try to advance but she growls at me too.
"Sylvie its me, let us through please, he needs the medical attention,"
Sylvie reluctantly moves away.
"Thank you," I breath out.
"Oh my," I hear Director Goodsky speak.
"Director, if you could get them on Zeke's back I can get them to the infirmary right now.
"How-Oh yes, yes your bond does have that ability," She says.
"Director Goodsky..." Professor Glory began.
"Please, I'll hear what happened later, getting them to the infirmary takes top priority. Contact the guild hall and have them send over their top healers." She say as she levitates them unto Zekes back.
I don't need to tell him anything this time as he turns his neck towards me, asking me to hold on.
"Come Sylvie," I say as she hops on my head.
Grabbing on to Zeke's head as instructed we once again descended into the cold embrace of the shadows.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Making a change to Aevium ability 'Chronic Incarceration'
[1] Chronic Incarceration : Put someone to chronosleep/suspended animation. Needs a continuous source of Nacht. Stop time around a particular target, like Static void but instead of stopping everything around you, it stops the portion you want it to stop. Like stopping time around someone's wrist while they are moving very fast, it will rip out his entire arm from its socket. Drawback, can't use it indefinitely, people with enough influence over time can counter it, somewhat, while they can't stop it from happening they can speed up the time in the area, making the frozen target able to move albeit much slower. (Might remove this defect later when he gains complete control over pure aether.)