Chapter 170: Chapter 170

After a few fights, Damien’s crystal lit on the dashboard.

“Finally,” he exclaimed, hopping over the railing. Sylph and Nolan wished him good luck as the gold light brought him to the stage.

“I hope everyone’s just as excited for this as I am!” the announcer called. “We’ve got two mages that might have made it to the finals in this matchup. Now, only one can continue on in the winner’s bracket! Representing Blackmist, we have Damien. And, from our very own Kingsfront, Gaves!”

Damien touched down on a rocky hill. Gaves had already arrived and was standing across from him, his arms crossed.

“Who would have thought,” Damien said, grinning. “We meet again.”

“You won’t beat me so easily this time,” Gaves said, cracking his knuckles and lowering into a fighting stance. “I’ve looked into your powers. You haven’t shown much here, but it wasn’t hard to get some information on you from kids at Blackmist.”

“Let’s see if that helps at all,” Damien replied.

“You can’t hear this, folks,” the announcer said. “But it sounds like Damien and Gaves have some history! I’m excited to see which of these two talented mages takes the victory, so let’s get to it! Mages, you may begin channeling Ether.”

Damien called on the Ether, drawing it from his core and into his hands. He briefly considered trying the same strategy on Gaves that he’d done before, but discarded it. It would be better to take Gaves seriously, especially given how much confidence Yui had initially had in the boy.

The air around Gaves hissed and popped as his mace and armor formed out of lightning. His weapon was considerably smaller than Bartholomew’s, but Damien didn’t doubt for a second that it would be devastating if Gaves landed a hit.

“Three… two… one… go!”

A lightning bolt tore out of Gaves’ hand. Damien dodged to the side and the spell struck the rock beside him, spraying fragments of stone everywhere. The air pressure changed with a pop, and then Gaves was standing where the spell had hit.

Damien’s training overruled his surprise and he flicked a gravity lance in Gaves’ direction. Gaves countered with another lightning bolt. The two spells struck each other and vanished with a hiss.

The air crackled as Gaves sent another bolt screaming for Damien’s chest. Damien Warp Stepped to the mount that the other boy had started on and shot the other gravity lance at him.

In the short time it took Gaves to deal with his spell, Damien dashed around the mountain, casting Enlarge on several rocks and then holding it in place with his mental energy.

He dove out of the way as lightning screamed past him and struck the stone. Gaves appeared and brought his hammer crashing down over Damien.

One of the Enlarge spells went off. The pillar shot out, catching Gaves in the side. It knocked the air from his lungs and sent the boy flying. He twisted midair and launched a bolt at the hill, appearing where it struck a second later.

Damien greeted him by triggering two more of the prepared Enlarge spells. Gaves weaved away from the first, but the second struck him in the back. Gaves stumbled forward with a grunt, staggering right into the path of a gravity sphere.

His eyes widened and he dropped his lightning hammer, bringing his hands together. A purple shield appeared just before Damien’s spell struck him. Cracks tore through the earth as the spell detonated, but the shield held firm.

“You’re going to need to do better than–”

Gaves launched into the air as Damien released his mental hold of the rock beneath him, allowing it to expand into a pillar. He screamed a curse down at Damien, then launched a bolt of lightning to the other side of the field.

“How many of those did you prepare?” Gaves complained, shifting the shield to his left hand. The hammer reformed in his right.

“Enough,” Damien replied, allowing his mental hold to release over the remaining spells. Three pillars exploded around him, obscuring the other boy’s view. Damien blinked over to the base of the hill behind Gaves and nearly caught a lightning bolt to the face.

He fell back and the spell hissed past him so close that it singed his eyebrows. Damien hurled himself to the side and Gaves’ hammer obliterated the ground where he’d been moments before.

Damien Warp Stepped again, appearing on the hill and rolling to his feet.

“Need help?” Henry asked, amused. “This kid is pretty decent.”

Not yet, but you’re welcome to act if it looks like I’m about to lose.

“Sounds good. Just be aware that he hasn’t used his battle manifestation yet. That’s just a spell.”

Wait, what do you –

Damien’s neck prickled. Instinct took over and he threw himself down the hill. A beam of purple energy flashed through the air and struck an invisible barrier at the edge of the arena. He scrambled to his feet as Gaves appeared at the top of the hill.

Stones floated around the boy’s head, sparking with purple energy. Gaves grinned and pointed his hammer at Damien. Damien swore and started drawing the rune to cast Devour. Three beams tore from the makeshift crown.

A dark circle sprung to life just before they hit Damien. The spells vanished into it and Damien teleported to the other side of the arena.

“You can’t run forever!” Gaves called. “Where’s your confidence, Damien? Scared?”

Damien scrunched his nose, annoyed to realize that the other boy’s taunts stung a little. He wasn’t quite willing to demonstrate the multicasted Devour spell, as it was one of his two trump cards.

Instead, Damien grabbed a rock from the ground. He overloaded an Enlarge spell on it, then teleported to the center of the arena. Bolts of lightning blurred towards him and he dropped the rock, releasing the spell.

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An enormous pillar erupted beneath him, launching Damien into the sky and to safety. He pressed his hand against the rock and thrust even more Ether into it, casting Enlarge a second time.

Dozens of spikes shot out from the pillar’s surface, continuing until they struck the ground. A crack followed by a curse told Damien that one of them had caught Gaves.

Purple energy lit up the arena.

“Protect yourself in every direction!” Henry ordered.

Without a second of hesitation, Damien traced several runes in the air and surrounded himself with a cube of black disks. Not a second later, an ear shattering explosion tore through the arena.

The spells around Damien wavered and his pillar shattered, his control over it broken. He teleported back to the ground, taking cover behind another hill. A huge cloud floated above the arena, lightning crackling around it.

Smoke rose from several spots around the rocky stage. It started to grow brighter above Damien. He swore and raised a hand, casting Devour right before a huge bolt crashed down on top of him.

“What do you think of my full manifestation?” Gaves called. “My companion is a lightning elemental. If you want to have any chance of winning, you’re going to need to manifest your own companion. Assuming you can, that is.”

“We’ll see about that!” Damien yelled back. He’d stored quite a bit of Gaves’ lightning with that last Devour, and he was curious to see if the boy could handle it as well as he could throw it.

Damien formed a gravity sphere and teleported towards the sound of Gaves’ voice. He appeared a short distance to the boy’s side and threw the spell before Gaves could attack.

Gaves raised his shield to block the spell. As it detonated, Damien cast Devour in front of himself.

With a laugh, Gaves launched a bolt of lightning straight into it. Damien let the spell vanish into his own, then cast Expunge. The disk bulged, giving him just enough time to see Gaves’ eyes widen before a beam of lightning the thickness of his torso exploded forth.

The other boy ducked behind his shield, but his own gathered up spells struck him like a cannonball. They ripped the shield to shreds and struck Gaves in the chest, blowing a hole clean through it. The beam of purple energy continued on and struck the invisible barrier with a loud explosion.

Gaves staggered, grasping at the cauterized hole in his chest. Before he could recover, Damien teleported in front of him and drove his elbow into Gave’s throat. Sylph had used that move on him more than a few times, and a flicker of satisfaction rushed through him at not being on the receiving end for once.

With a garbled choke, Gaves crumpled. Healers appeared around them, dropping to their knees and enveloping the wounded combatant with golden light.

“I’m uninjured,” Damien said as one of them turned to him. The healer nodded and assisted in healing Gaves. Once the wound was repaired, they vanished. Gaves stared up at Damien, then let out a bitter curse.

“You didn’t even use your battle manifestation.”

“Sorry. Saving that for later,” Damien replied, extending a hand. Gaves took it reluctantly and let himself get pulled back to his feet.

“How much more do you have saved?” Gaves asked.

“A good bit.”

“Then I hope you don’t end up against Yui,” Gaves said. The announcer yelled out the results of the match for anyone who had somehow managed to miss it.

“What about your first ranker?” Damien asked, cocking his head. “What do you think my chances are there?”

“Fishing for info? Really?” Gaves glared at him. “Not like it matters. You’re going to need more than what you showed here if you want to beat her. She’s much stronger than me.”

Gaves stormed over to his glowing bridge to rejoin his team. Damien shrugged and did the same, heading back to his own viewing room.

“Well done,” Nolan said once Damien had returned to his chair. “That was a pretty exciting fight. I thought Gaves had you when he used his full manifestation.”

“He nearly did,” Damien admitted, recalling Henry’s warning. “I didn’t expect him to be able to attack so fast with that much power.”

“It still wasn’t enough, though,” Sylph said, a note of pride in her voice. “You didn’t even use your combat manifestation.”

“I had to keep a few secrets,” Damien said with a grin. The next match started and they all settled down to watch.

The Goldsilk students watched Damien out of the corners of their eyes, but their discretion was pointless as Henry noticed it almost instantly. Since they didn’t bring anything up, he didn’t address it and instead settled for talking with Henry.

Don’t you think it’s strange that Goldsilk only has three students? I thought everyone sent four.

“I wasn’t paying all that much attention to them,” Henry replied. “It is a tad weird, though. Maybe their fourth ranked student was so weak that they didn’t want to get embarrassed?”

It’s possible, but I was under the impression that Goldsilk was at least decent. All three of them have done okay, and I suspect they’ve got at least some degree of strength if Bartholomew bothered them.

“You could always ask,” Henry offered. “Otherwise just wait. If they don’t all get knocked out by the finals, you’ll figure it out then.”

He couldn’t argue with that logic. The girls were all focused on the fight, so he put the matter to rest for the time being. If the opportunity presented itself, he’d ask. Otherwise, there really wasn’t a point bringing it up.

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