Chapter IV.XXIII (4.23) - The New Combat Trials

  Kizu practiced an earth manipulation spell while he sat in the packed waiting room of the combat arena. Ideally, he’d like to cast this spell through his foot to solidify his stance while fighting. As it was, his monster leg could dig its claws into the earth, but he was still often knocked off balance with the other half of his body. And he especially wanted to get good at manipulating stone in particular, since his claws struggled to grip into it like they could with dirt.

  This spell experimentation was made significantly more difficult by the crowd of people accompanying him in the waiting room. It seemed the new combat ranking system had grabbed the attention of more than just the usual contenders. They were all fidgeting and glancing at one another, clearly uncertain about Arclight’s new ranking method.

  “Tomorrow’s your party, right? Down at your villa?”

  Harvey stood beside him. Like Kizu, he was an anomaly of stoic confidence amongst the sea of nervous students.

  “It’s really more of Basil’s shindig than mine,” Kizu said. “I’m just supplying a venue. Why? Are you coming?”

  “Of course!” Harvey flashed him a grin of sharpened teeth. “Decided I need to get myself out of the house a bit more. With everything going on, feel like most everyone’s forgotten about my fight last semester.”

  “I thought you had given up on socializing in lue of dedicating all your time to combat?”

  “Unfortunately, I have been taught the necessity of a rest day,” Harvey said with a sigh. “Not just my muscles. But my blood needs to recharge as well.” Harvey hesitated then lowered his voice. “Though, I recently attended the first meeting for the Battle Club. Rumor had it there that there’s a bit more to your party…don’t suppose you could give me a hint?”

  “Um. No?”

  “Damn. I get it. Gotta stay close lipped.”

  “I seriously have no idea what you’re talking about.” Kizu was starting to feel a bit anxious about tomorrow. He’d never hear the end of it from Finn if Basil did serious damage to the villa.

  “Well, Professor Arclight mentioned setting something special up and encouraged us all to attend. But she wouldn’t say anything more than that.”

  “Oh good.” Kizu let out a sigh of relief. “If Professor Arclight is involved, it shouldn’t be too bad.”

  “You guys talking about the summons?” Harumi shuffled up to them. He kept nervously glancing up at the giant enchanted stone slab that projected the arena’s image. “You know what we’re fighting?”

  “Hopefully something monstrous and dangerous!” Harvey said. “I want a challenge. Something to really prove myself. I learned a few new techniques over spring break that I really want to test out. But I’ve only ever fought humanoids. This will be a completely new avenue of training for me.”

  Harumi paled and stuttered out an incomprehensible reply. Despite them both being first years, the two boys approached the new challenge dramatically differently.

  Kizu glanced around the room and frowned. “Harvey, where are all your sparring partners at? Gob Lucas and the others?” If Harvey was so excited about a new challenge, Kizu would expect his violent friends to be alongside him

  Harvey shrugged. “Tip is helping Arclight as a member of the Battle Club. The others are in the crowd somewhere. Weston isn’t allowed to challenge Sene again until next week so everyone else decided to wait and watch today’s fights together.”

  Before they could discuss further, Arlight stepped out onto the arena and welcomed the crowd with raised arms and a booming voice.

  “So good of you to all attend today! We must have half the academy in the crowd! A new record! And the other half is all getting ready for our new contests!”

  That was a bit hyperbolic. Kizu knew a few people had stayed behind. Ione and Mort were with Anata in the crowd, but both Aoi and Basil were busy in town for the day. And he didn’t think half the academy was competing. Though he started revising that assessment as Arclight began listing off all of today’s contenders. He’d forgotten there was a second room with all the female contestants. Still…not half the student body. But…maybe a fourth.

  “Since there are so many of you today, our usual planned summoning challenge won’t work. We would be here until midnight!” Arclight’s booming laugh shook the arena. “Instead, I’ve decided to place you in groups! Higher ranks in pairs, and lower ranks in groups of three and four students. We’ll still be evaluating your performance with extreme vigilance. It’s not simply about defeating the beasts, but how you achieve that victory that matters!”

  Kizu looked around the room, wondering who he would be grouped with. It would be interesting to fight alongside a stranger who he didn’t know the abilities of.

  “If this goes well, I am also considering allowing you to sign up as groups in later weeks as well! Give us a good show if that’s something you’re interested in!

  “Now, without further delay! Our first contestants!”

  Arclight clapped her hands, flames burst to life in front of her and formed into the names of two students. The flames also listed their single digit rankings. Kizu vaguely recognized one name from last semester but not the other. A boy and a girl who were both fifth years. While they emerged, Professor Oasaji sketched a large summoning circle into the center of the arena’s ground.

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  Once the two contestants stood in the arena, every eye in the waiting room was glued to their projection.

  The summoning circle glowed a deep violet and a plume of black smoke billowed out. Then a large, black, clawed hand gripped the edge of the circle and heaved itself out of the abyss. It stood before them, its darkness shrouded body hunched but still looming six or seven meters in height. The skulled head of a deer with bone made from a material colored obsidian black glowered down at the two students, eye sockets lit with a black flame. It had jagged, broken antlers on either side of the skull.

  “Is that…a Shadow?” someone whispered behind Kizu. That statement broke the silence and muttering filled the room. Kizu was too focused on the summoned creature’s actions to learn the room’s consensus on what exactly it looked like. Whatever it was, it exuded power.

  The two combat students first attempted to blast it apart with powerful fire spells. They spluttered out as they connected with the summoned monster. It barely acknowledged the assault. It took a single step forward, its long limbs clearing half the distance between it and the students.

  “Light!” the boy cried out. He lifted a hand and blasted the creature with a dazzling display of bright white illusionary light.

  That did give the creature pause. It made no noise, but it ceased its approach and lifted an arm to protect the purple flames in its sockets from the light.

  “Nice! Now I’ve got it from behind!” The girl student clapped her hands together and as she separated them sparks of electricity leapt from her fingertips. They rapidly circulated from hand to hand until she pushed her hands forward, palms outsplayed in the monster’s direction

  The electricity crackled as it consumed the giant creature’s spindly shadowed leg. Still, despite the variety of lights shown on it, the creature’s skin seemed to absorb the light, rather than expose its flesh to the common eye. And, more than that, it seemed the attacks were little more than an inconvenience to the terrifying beast.

  “It hasn’t gone on the offensive yet,” Harvey commented, eyes locked on the scene before them. “They exposed its weakness to light, but have yet to figure out how to capitalize on that. It’s surprisingly defensive. But the way it looks screams offensive.”

  Harvey was right. Kizu struggled to see how this creature could be designed around durability. Its thin and spindly body looked frail. And yet, he watched as it absorbed a wave of fire from its opponent. It never even flinched as the girl student switched up her strategy and threw chunks of stone at it. The rocks simply shattered on impact and fell to the area’s dirt floor.

  The boy finished a summoning spell and a white tiger leapt at the monster. Oasaji’s monster finally went in for an attack. It swiped down with incredible speed, skewering the beast through the neck. Then it raised the tiger slowly, claws piercing entirely though the student’s summon. The creature of darkness seemed to revel as the mammal struggled in its piercing grasp. It flexed its boney fingers and black flakes leaked out in the place of blood as the tiger. The student’s summoned creature succumbed to the blow. It faded entirely as the spell broke after less than ten seconds after its summoning.

  While the tiger accomplished absolutely no damage, it did appear to serve at least as a distraction. One student went in with an enhanced kick at the creature’s knee, while the other peppered it with sharp stones fired at its eyes.

  A flash of light and then a crack as the kick actually landed. The beast stumbled.

  “They timed the light to hit right at the moment of damage,” Harvey said. “Not bad. Simultaneously casting a light illusion on his leg while keeping up an enhancement strong enough to hit the creature. Takes some skill to juggle two different types of spell at once."

  It took several more hits, all the while dodging the monster’s swift strikes, but the duo of high ranked contestants managed to bring the creature to its knees. It looked like a done deal for them. The audience was relaxing.

  Honestly, Kizu couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. The monster had a terrifying visage and extreme speed, but it was definitely a manageable fight. Alone, he might struggle more than those two up right now, but he thought he might be able to take it.

  Then the creature’s head tilted. Its deer jaw fell open. It looked broken. Only the flames in its eye sockets showed any remaining signs of life.

  The competitors, cocky from their success, went in for another attack.

  This time, they were met with a fog of darkness. It spewed out from the monster’s empty mouth. The darkness consuming them in its embrace. Kizu strained to see, his night vision barely piercing through the fog. He alone in the waiting room bore witness to the final moments of the combat.

  Both competitors fell to the arena floor. Black boils formed on their skin and then burst into dark pus just as quickly as they appeared. The girl struggled forward, scattering stones with blasts of elemental power. But her body barely responded to her struggles. A boil formed on her upper cheekbone and burst, spreading the pus into her eye and blinding her even further than the mist of darkness.

  The boy fell into a seizure, shaking madly under the fog’s effects.

  The creature’s jawbone lifted and chattered against its skull, a sickening laughter at their pain. It extended a clawed hand towards the seizing boy. Not at the brilliant speed that it had displayed earlier against the tiger. But a methodical approach. The steady approach of death.

  The boy’s bulging eyes rolled back and showed only whites as his back arched.

  The creature stopped, mere centimeters away from a claw spearing through its opponent’s eye socksocket. It shuddered. Then it slowly flaked away, dismissed by Oasaji.

  As the smoke cleared, Kizu let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

  Medical students rushed out to assist the two wounded students as Arclight announced their failure and the points they’d accrued from the fight based on the panel of judges.

  “Damn,” Harvey said. “What happened in there? What was that thing? I need to get a sight enhancement spell. This is a big blind spot for me.”

  “I thought this was supposed to be less traumatizing," Kizu muttered to himself, ignoring Harvey’s pun.

  But he supposed it wasn’t actually traumatizing since nobody else could pierce the fog of darkness. Only he, and maybe a select few others in the audience, saw what happened in that fight. Even the fighters were unaware of how close they had flirted with death. And if the healers got them back on their feet quickly, then there would be no permanent damage to anyone.

  But the fact remained that he knew the danger. He still saw that creature of death and darkness, looming. Its lipless face trapped in a permanent grin of teeth.

  And yet, despite the terror the monster inspired, Kizu also felt a rush of adrenaline. Excitement.

  He wanted to fight that thing. He wanted to defeat it and put it into the ground. Prove himself.

  And he would.

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