Chapter 174: Chapter 174

There were only eight remaining people in the pool, and Damien was sincerely hoping Kingsfront would avoid putting Blackmist students against each other until they got to the finals. After all, if Kingsfront wanted to take out Drew, he and the other Blackmist students were likely the best bet.

“Alright folks, welcome back!” the announcer proclaimed. “It’s time for our next fight. I’m sure I’m sounding repetitive now, but this is going to be something to remember! Priscilla from Windseek will be taking the field once more! Her mental energy is seriously impressive. I wonder if she’ll manage to walk through the rest of the tournament without even breaking a sweat?”

Damien leaned over the railing. His hands tightened on the metal and his knuckles turned white as the crowd murmured their muted agreement through the silencing spell.

“On the other side,” the announcer continued, “Damien! Another student from Blackmist, and a strong contender for first place at that. Will his brute force be enough to handle her strange magic? I can’t wait to find out!”

Henry let out a dark laugh. “Someone’s looking out for us. This is going to be fun.”

Damien let out a shaky breath. The excitement felt like a coiled snake within his stomach.

“Be careful,” Nolan warned Damien as he started over the railing. “Her power is terrifying. I didn’t even have a chance to defend myself.”

“Don’t worry,” Damien said. “Just watch this fight. I’m the worst possible opponent she could have gotten.”

“Don’t kill her,” Sylph warned. “You’ve got a look in your eyes, and there are a lot of people watching. We can always take care of her later.”

“I wouldn’t kill her,” Damien said, affronted. “Well, I guess it depends on exactly what she did to Nolan, but I’m not about to pry. I’ll just remind her about what happens when you go poking around in people’s heads.”

Sylph nodded and Damien leapt out of the viewing box, allowing the golden light to carry him to the stage. Priscilla already stood on the other side wearing a cocky grin. She blew a kiss in his direction when he landed. Damien didn’t acknowledge it.

When she tries to influence me with her mental energy, is it possible to make it look like it worked? I know the runes on my head will stop her from getting in, but I want her close enough so that we can pull her into my mental dimension.

“I’ll intercept her commands and make it look like they’re working,” Henry said with a dark laugh. “If she does what she did with Nolan, she’ll stroll right up to us. I’ll yank her in as soon as she does.”

“Contestants, you may begin channeling your Ether!”

Damien formed a gravity sphere in each of his hands, just to keep appearances up. The announcer started the countdown and, like her previous fights, Priscilla did nothing.

“Go!”

A faint trickle of energy brushed across Damien’s mind. Henry stiffened his body and the gravity spheres sputtered out. Priscilla waved to the crowd and sashayed towards him, victory in her eyes.

“You’re all so pathetic,” she said, smirking as she reached Damien. “One little brush of mental energy and all these strong mages crumple. Open up for me, pretty boy. Let’s see what you’ve got in that head of yours.”

She leaned in close and her lips brushed Damien’s ear. The trickle assaulting Damien’s mind grew stronger, but the runes on his head halted her intrusion. Priscilla’s head jerked back and her eyes went wide. “You’re resisting it?”

Henry lashed out with powerful tendrils of mental energy, wrapping her in a cocoon. The stiffness holding Damien’s limbs faded. He grabbed Priscilla’s arm and squeezed. She only had time for a pained yelp before Henry dragged her soul into Damien’s mental space.

The arena faded and a grassy hill sprung up around Damien, but it wasn’t the one he was used to. Green grass had turned yellow and wilted, and the smell of death and decay hung low in the air.

Wind howled in the distance, and an uncomfortable heat bore down from a dim sun. It flickered in the cloudless sky as if it were struggling to stay lit. Damien’s clothes turned dark and ragged and dark purple flames flickered at his feet.

A black portal snapped open and Priscilla tumbled through it. She fell to the ground and scrambled back on all fours, her eyes wide in terror.

“What’s going on?” she stammered.

“You wanted to get a look inside my head,” Damien said. His voice came out as if dozens of people were speaking like once, much like Henry’s had when he’d first met the eldritch creature.

“I don’t know what magic you’re using, but you’ve made your point,” Prisicilla said, crab-walking backward. “Just let me out. I’ll surrender.”

“What did you do to Nolan?” Damien asked.

“What? Just let me go! I surrender. That means the match is over!”

A wooden pole rose from the ground behind Priscilla. She bumped into it and jerked her head back in surprise as chains whipped out from it, snapping around her arms and yanking her upright.

“I asked you a question,” Damien snarled. “Answer it.”

“I just searched his brain for what he’d hate or fear and made see it to break his will to fight. If I hadn’t done that, he would have been able to resist my command to surrender. That’s it!”

“What did you show him?”

“A few things, I don’t remember! It’s not like I keep track of everyone I fight,” Priscilla snapped, tugging on the chains covering her. “Let me go already. Or are you a pervert that just likes seeing me chained up?”

Damien snorted. “Taunts aren’t going to help you. You only fought Nolan a round ago, so you haven’t forgotten shit. I’ll ask you one last time. What did you show him?”

Priscilla spat at him. The chains tightened, pulling her hands above her head. A dagger appeared in Damien’s hand and he jabbed it into her stomach.

She cried out, her eyes bulging as blood started to trickle down her stomach. “Just so you know, if you die here, you’re just as dead as if I killed you in the arena. That wound isn’t deep enough to kill you, but I’ll fix that if you don’t start talking.”

“Seven Planes, I just showed him visions of his girlfriend getting messed up while he couldn’t do anything and house Gray getting torn down by its rivals. Now will you let me go?”

“Messed up?” Damien asked, his eyes narrowing. He hadn’t realized Nolan had a girlfriend, but that wasn’t important. “If I ask you to clarify on that, am I going to regret it?”

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“I might have made her enjoy it in the end too,” Priscilla sneered, growing more confident. “And you can drop this charade. If you kill me, you’ll never leave Kingsfront alive. All you can do is make threats.”

Damien’s hands clenched. “You’re right. You aren’t worth killing, but you disgust me.”

Priscilla spat on the ground. “Just let me go. You’ve got your win, oh high-and-mighty mage. There’s no reason to keep me here any longer, unless you want me to demonstrate exactly what I did to Nolan’s girl. Actually, he had a few thoughts about you and a girl called Sylph as well. Maybe I’ll find her outside of this fight and show her a few things.”

The flickering sun vanished with a hiss, plunging the hill into darkness. Icy wind tore across the hill. Henry formed piece by piece, drawing in every last drop of warmth.

“Illusions don’t scare me,” Priscilla said, jerking the chains.

“This isn’t an illusion,” Damien said, his eyes thin.

Show her what I saw when I was thirteen. All of it. This is just a recreation, so she’ll survive.

“With pleasure,” Henry whispered, approaching Priscilla. The faint purple energy coming off his body was the only light left on the hill. He extended an arm and grabbed her by the head.

Priscilla went still. The chains holding her vanished and the wooden pole slipped back into the ground. She let out a horrified cry and threw her hands up as if to fend something off.

The screams didn’t stop. The girl rolled around on the ground, completely unaware of the wound on her stomach as the vision Henry had forced into her mind played out.

“She’ll be dealing with that for a while,” Henry said in a satisfied tone. “What an amusingly evil bitch.”

“That should feel ironic, coming from you,” Damien said with a distasteful glance at the screaming girl. “But she did come here looking to peer into my mind. Maybe this’ll teach her to keep her mental energy to herself. You can take us back.”

“With pleasure. Have fun explaining this,” Henry said, snapping his fingers.

The dark hillside vanished and Damien found himself standing in the arena once more. Priscilla’s pupils had shrunk to the size of pinpricks and her mouth opened in mute horror. Tears streaked down her cheeks, but her eyes were glassy and distant.

Priscilla didn’t even budge at the sight of Damien. He put a finger on her forehead and pushed her over. She hit the ground without making a noise.

“She’s incapacitated,” he called out when the announcer failed to say anything.

A few moments passed as the announcer gave Priscilla time to get back up since she hadn’t yet left the stage. When the girl showed no signs of movement, two healers appeared and knelt beside her.

“What a shocking turn of events!” the announcer roared. “Damien defeats Priscilla, and it looks like he might beat her at her own game!”

When the silencer was released, the cheer from the crowd was loud, but nowhere near the volume of the previous fights. Damien couldn’t blame them, as he doubted the fight had been much fun to watch for a spectator.

“What magic did you use?” a healer asked, rising to his feet with a frown. “There doesn’t appear to be anything physically wrong with her, but her mind is in the worst turmoil I’ve ever seen. If you’ve still got a spell on her, you need to release it.”

“My hands are completely off,” Damien replied. “I just reflected her own magic back at her. She’s getting a taste of her own medicine.”

“I see,” the healer said as he rubbed his chin. “I won’t keep you any longer, then.”

Damien inclined his head and headed off the platform. Once he rejoined the others, he gave Nolan a nod. “I took care of her.”

“Her magic didn’t work on you?” Nolan asked. He looked considerably more composed now, but Damien wasn’t sure if it was Priscilla’s defeat or time that had helped the other boy.

“I happened to have precautions specifically for people that try to get into my head,” Damien replied. “And I think Priscilla will think twice about ever trying to invade people’s minds again – whenever she starts thinking coherent thoughts again, that is. It might be a while.”

“Good,” Nolan said. “Her magic is vile. I don’t know what you did to her, and I don’t care to find out. Thank you, though.”

“If she’d used her powers without screwing with people like that, I would have let her off easier,” Damien said. “But she started threatening other people while we were having our little chat. I’m not a huge fan of that.”

“You fancy yourself judge and executioner, then?” Viv asked, watching him warily.

“Someone had to do it,” Damien replied. “If I told you that I was going to attack Eve as soon as this tournament was over, would you just sit around and do nothing?”

“No,” Viv admitted. “But not many people have the strength to actually carry out on their threats. You’ve made an enemy of her when she recovers. Considering Priscilla is still twitching on the ground, I can tell you did some serious mental damage. When she recovers, she won’t forgive that.”

“If she recovers,” Damien corrected. “And frankly, I don’t care. If you’re going to toss your weight around like that, you should be ready to catch what’s coming to you. There was a time when I would have tried to avoid unnecessary conflict, but I’ve long since made up my mind to never revert to that state.”

“It’s probably best that Damien handled her here,” Sylph said. “Mental wounds last a long time. If I’d gone up against her, I would have had to make sure the wounds were significant enough to really last with her long after the fight was done.”

Viv shook her head. “I’m not arguing that she deserved it, but Blackmist has really raised some insane students. What’s with you all?”

“Like you’re that much better,” Mark said with a snort. “Elania got the shit kicked out of her just to make a point. That’s a lot harder than crushing a weak opponent that threatened your friends.”

Elania glanced up at Mark. She looked like she wanted to say something, but the announcer started speaking again before she could.

“It’s time for the next round, folks!” he boomed. “This one should prove to be quite explosive. Once again representing Blackmist, we have Mark. And, bringing forth the might of Mountain Hall is Bartholomew. These are two deadly mages that have both won all of their fights without much trouble at all. I can’t wait to see who comes out on top!”

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