Chapter 165: Chapter 165

Damien lifted a hand into the air at the same time as another boy. As soon as the boy realized that Damien was the only other one with his hand up, he quickly lowered it. Whisp clicked her tongue.

“No take backs,” Whisp said. “Get up here. Damien and – what’s your name?”

“Evan,” the boy said, hiding a grimace as he and Damien climbed onstage.

“Get it on with, then,” Whisp said.

Damien used Warp Step, appearing directly in front of the boy as a sphere of destructive energy formed in his hand. He held it below Evan’s chin. The boy’s eyes widened.

Whisp cocked an eyebrow. “I don’t see anyone surrendering.”

Damien narrowed his eyes. He dodged out of the way as a pillar of stone burst from the earth, narrowly avoiding him. Another one erupted below him, launching him a foot into the air before he used Warp Step.

He reappeared directly behind the Evan and drove a powerful roundhouse kick into the boy’s side. Damien was still far from Sylph’s physical strength, but the other boy hadn’t been expecting it.

Evan rolled with the blow, coming to his feet at the edge of the Arena. Rock started to gather around him in an imitation of the armor that Mark and Nolan used. Damien didn’t let it finish. He formed a gravity lance in his hand and hurled it at Evan.

The spell caught the boy in the shoulder, launching him from the platform even as it detonated, breaking his arm and collarbone. Sean flashed over, catching Even and healing him before he could hit the ground.

“That fight was already over,” Sylph said, sending a cold frown at Whisp. “He’s completely inexperienced. He didn’t have a chance and you knew it.”

“He was just slow to call on his companion,” Whisp said. “His powers aren’t insignificant. He would have had a chance if he were faster.”

Damien just shook his head. He hopped off the stage and walked back over to stand beside Sylph. She took the next fight against a girl that Damien didn’t recognize, but it didn’t matter. Sylph won within the first move, driving a fist into her opponent’s throat and knocking the girl from the stage without even bothering to use magic.

The next few fights weren’t particularly interesting. Mark won just as easily as Damien and Sylph had. One by one, competitors were eliminated from the competition. Reena made it to her second fight against Loretta, but Loretta just barely managed to eek out a victory.

Damien fought another boy he didn’t recognize, claiming victory within three moves once again. Sylph, Mark, and Nolan all had similar luck. After some time, it became quite clear who the top four were going to be.

Nolan had to struggle for his last victory, barely managing to defeat the girl he’d been placed against. He didn’t dare challenge any of the other three, and nobody blamed him for it.

“Well, that does it,” Whisp said. She cast a critical eye over them and then let out a heavy sigh. “All four from Delph’s class. He’s going to be insufferable. If anyone feels that they can defeat the winners, you may challenge them for their spot.”

There was a long silence.

“What about you, Cody? If only to tame my instructor’s ego. You wanted a shot, no? Do you think you can take any of these kids?”

Cody examined them all before his gaze settled on Nolan. He rubbed the back of his head, then sighed. “Forgive me. I misspoke earlier. As much as I’d like to have another chance against Nolan, he won fair and square. It would be unfair to try to fight him again now that he’s tired and I’ve seen his moves. I’m not dumb enough to try against anyone else. Mark, Damien, and Sylph have all yet to reveal their companion’s manifestations. They’re the strongest ones here.”

“So you don’t want to challenge them?” Whisp almost sounded disappointed. She probably was, Damien decided.

“Not this year,” Cody said, shaking his head. “I believe the students that won have the best chance of representing Blackmist, Dean Whisp.”

“Of course you do,” Whisp grumbled. “Fine. Go get back to training. Don’t forget that the ranking battles come shortly after the intramurals, so even if you weren’t able to make it to this tournament, you’ll still have a good shot at proving your worth. Now scamper, I need to speak with our lucky winners.”

Everyone other than the top four promptly dispersed, not wanting to draw Whisp’s ire. Once they had all gone, the woman curled her nose in distaste.

“There’s one week until the intramurals begin,” Whisp said. “During that time, your teachers will not give you extra assignments. You’ll be free to either practice or relax as you wish. Just make sure you’re prepared to do Blackmist proud.”

“Can you tell us anything about the tournament’s format?” Nolan asked.

“It’ll be two main parts,” Whisp replied. “The first will be similar to what we just did. The top ranked students will receive gold, contribution points, and resources. The second part is much more interesting. The Deans of the schools will work together to open the Labyrinth. It’s stuffed full of just about everything you could want, and it even has some stuff that draws the attention of powerful mages. That bit is basically a free for all. We don’t care what methods you do, but your goal is to gather as much treasure as possible. You can either keep or sell what you find, I don’t care.”

“Do you have information on our opponents?” Mark asked.

“No,” Whisp said, curling her lip up in either a smile or a grimace. Damien couldn’t tell which. “If you want to learn about your opponents, go find out yourselves. That isn’t my problem. Any other questions?”

“Where’s the tournament?” Damien asked. “Is it being hosted here?”

“No. This year’s intramurals are held at Kingsfront. You can all report to the arena before sunrise in a week,” Whisp said. “I’ll have Dredd waiting to teleport you.”

When nobody else asked any questions, Whisp gave them a satisfied nod. “Don’t kill yourselves before the tournament. I’ve got high expectations, and I would be very displeased if Blackmist doesn’t acquit itself well.”

With that, she floated into the air and shot off into the sky. Everyone watched her go, then waited a minute just to be safe.

“Interacting with Whisp always fills my stomach with happy little butterflies,” Damien muttered.

“She’s a bitch,” Mark agreed. Everyone shot him a wide-eyed glance, but the boy just shrugged. “What? It’s true.”

“You don’t just out and say it,” Nolan scolded. “What if she heard you?”

“She’d probably take it as a compliment,” Mark replied.

He was probably right. Damien held back a chuckle. “Either way, I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone can do. Are you all planning on practicing more before the tournament?”

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“I’m done,” Nolan said, shaking his head. “I can’t learn anything new in a week. I’m just going to try to find out what we’re up against and then relax.”

“Then you’ll be the only one that isn’t training,” Mark observed. “I can hear you and Sylph training sometimes. Usually in the middle of the night. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what the sounds of stone shattering are.”

“Oops,” Damien said. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t care,” Mark replied. “I hear it because I’m also training.”

“We can’t all work ourselves to death,” Nolan said with a good natured grin. “I’m more than aware of my capabilities. I don’t stand a good chance against any of you, so I’ll work on bettering myself in other ways.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Syph said, giving Nolan an approving nod. “Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is important.”

After a few more minutes of unimportant chitchat, the four of them dispersed. Nolan and Mark returned to their rooms while Damien and Sylph dropped by the mess hall to buy some food. They hadn’t gone hunting recently and their stock of meat had depleted.

Over the course of the next week, Damien continued practicing with direct casting. He made decent progress according to Henry, but it felt like he was trekking through mud. The new form of casting was completely foreign, and the Ether bounced between completely refusing his commands or just misinterpreting them.

Henry stopped working on making a full manifestation, deciding that a week wasn’t nearly enough time to get anything working nearly up to his standards. He vacated the training room so that both Damien and Sylph could use them. Instead of practicing, Henry carefully studied the new clouded runes that had taken residence within Damien’s mind.

The week ground on faster than any of them could have expected. Both Damien and Sylph took the last two days off as break, resting their bodies and relaxing. When the week came to an end, they found themselves waiting at the arena along with Nolan and Mark.

Nolan had donned his green armor once more. In addition, he carried a leather pouch at his hip. There were several rings of protective runes covering it. Damien got the sneaking suspicion that Nolan had packed some form of runed device or paper in there. He’d done the same and carried several sheets of paper that would go up in a brilliant ball of fire if he sent a dash of Ether into them. He’d given some to Sylph as well. Even still, if it weren’t for Nolan’s armor, Damien could have mistaken the boy for a scholar.

Mark made sure nobody could have similar misconceptions about him. He carried two swords – a large, jagged blade had been strapped across his back and a more normal short sword rested at his hip.

“I hope everyone’s ready,” Dredd said, eyeing them all with a critical eye. For lack of a better word, the professor looked tired. There were slight bags under his eyes and he leaned more weight than normal on his wooden staff.

“As ready as we’re going to get,” Nolan said. “So how does this work? Do you–”

Dredd tapped the butt of his staff on the ground. A red portal sprung open beneath the group, swallowing them whole. Someone let out a quick scream as they plummeted through it. Flashes of red and orange shot past Damien’s vision.

He grimaced, the familiar feeling of his body stretching and warping as it tunneled through space threatening to unsettle his stomach. The last thing he wanted was to have his first impression at Kingsfront be last night’s dinner.

A jolt shot up his legs as they hit hard ground. The world shifted back and the group found themselves standing in a large gold bricked courtyard. Tall arches containing portals stood around them at the edge of the open space. It looked almost exactly like the one at Blackmist. Damien pressed his lips together, fighting off the nausea until it passed.

“That was a long teleport.” Damien grimaced, pleased that none of the Blackmist students had been separated from the contents of their stomachs.

Several other groups of kids were already standing around the courtyard, and a fair number of them were doubled over. He didn’t see Princess Yui or her retainers anywhere in the courtyard.

A small portal hissed open before the group. A thin man wearing bright purple robes trimmed with gold emerged from within it. He was bald and had a trimmed moustache that curled down around his lips.

“Welcome to Kingsfront,” the man said. “You are the Blackmist group, correct?”

“We are,” Damien confirmed.

“I am Casper. The tournament will be starting in a few hours, so I’ve been assigned to show you around.”

“Nah,” Mark said. “Take me straight to wherever the tournament will be taking place. I don’t care about your fancy buildings.”

“Control yourself, Mark,” Nolan said with a frown.

Casper chuckled, apparently unbothered by Mark’s curt words. “Eager, are you? I remember being quite excited for the tournament back when I was a student, although I didn’t actually take part in it. I can bring you to the arena, but you won’t be allowed to enter. Everything is still being set up.”

“Fine with me,” Mark said. “You can show the others around if they want.”

“We can stick together,” Damien said, giving a polite nod to Casper. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” the man replied, waving them towards a portal. “Please follow me and try not to get lost. Kingsfront is quite large.”

The portal Casper led them through dropped the group off along a well kept road that was presumably somewhere in campus. Kingsfront had spared no effort in reminding everyone present of its wealth.

Beautiful statues that must have taken countless hours to carve served as simple signposts, directing students to buildings. Lights floated in the sky of their own accord, illuminating the gold rimmed pathway in the early morning light.

Each building was several stories tall and stuck to a gold and white theme with purple banners flying from several roofs. Casper led them on a brisk walk towards a huge circular building at the end of the road.

It resembled Blackmist’s arena in shape, but not in size. The Kingsfront arena was probably three times the size of the one at Blackmist. Huge marble gargoyles statues sat around the lip of second floor, looking down at them with glimmering gold eyes.

“This is as far as I can take you right now,” Casper warned them as they drew up to a closed door about twice Damien’s height. “When the everything has been prepared, the tournament organizers will let you in.”

“Works for me,” Mark said, sitting down against the Colosseum wall. Everyone else bid Casper farewell as the man set off at a brisk walk towards the portal they’d come from.

Damien could feel a mixture of excitement and trepidation building in his stomach. While Mark’s methods hadn’t been the politest, he agreed with the other boy. He couldn’t care less about what Kingsfront looked like.

He was curious to see how his power would match against the strongest students of the other schools. But, more importantly, Moon was going to be somewhere at the tournament. Anything that could interest Moon was something that Damien couldn’t afford not to pay attention to.

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