All at once, every levitating stone dropped.
Nemo sheltered his head, wincing as they hit him, hail against his skin.
He didn’t dare look away from the field.
The Overbeast’s ear twitched, recognizing the building power before it. Once more, the Overbeast had Tilo in its sights, no longer as prey, but as an unavoidable adversary.
Tilo’s arms lit up as, one by one, the magic circles were imbued with power.
He spread his arms out wide, palms forward, fingers outstretched, announcing himself as a target.
A student gasped.
Tilo turned and ran the other direction.
And the Overbeast followed.
The students took the advantage to run, Neal and Mila leaving the arena, Rayden and Wren rushing over to Silos.
Nemo heard the clamber of footsteps up metallic stairs, watching as Neal and Mila ran towards him. He gestured to the booth, to them, then himself and their stairwell. They nodded and he sprinted down and over to their stairwell.
“The panel!” He called as they passed each other.
Tilo glanced back. Half of the kids were safe; the other half, not so much. Rayden and Wren were still struggling to do something about Silos. Just above them, he caught a glimpse of Nemo approaching the stairwell. Assistance was coming.
He just needed to get them some time.
He stopped, having reached the other side of the field, spinning around to face the Overbeast.
It came barreling towards him, only to plant its foot into the dirt and swing its body around, tail whipping in Tilo’s direction. The end of it was armored and heavy, a mace made of organic matter.
He dodged it, sliding backwards.
“Missed.”
A thin smile misted his lips.
Nemo skidded as he turned the corner, searching for the collapsed kid. Upon finding them, he scrambled over, looking to both Rayden and Wren for their inputs. Both bit their lip, but neither seemed aggrieved. Silos was still alive. For now.
“We can’t move him. It’s dangerous to move someone who’s hurt,” Wren added.
“He can’t stay here. It clearly isn’t safe. If you didn’t think the same, you wouldn’t have come here, would you?”
Both students stayed silent.
“Do either of you know any defensive circles? Healing circles?”
Rayden and Wren shared looks. “None that would be of use,” Wren murmured. “Neither of us have the levels of mana for the ones I know anyway. They’re all high level.”
They all jumped at the sound of a heavy object ramming against the floor.
Nemo turned, following Tilo with his eyes for a second. Tilo’s eyes glinted, that same purple from their first class day. Every second that passed, Tilo’s smile grew wider with pure, innocent joy. And something about it made Nemo anxious.
“We need to move him. Now.”
“But-”
“No objections.”
Nemo slid his arm underneath Silos’ head, trying to keep it steady. He slid another arm beneath the small boy’s legs, lifting him from the ground in one smooth motion.
All three raced to the exit.
Again, Tilo dodged.
He was struggling to keep himself in check. Everything was a challenge and despite the inherent danger of the situation, he was beyond exuberant. It was a feeling that scared him as much as it invigorated him.
It was a feeling he knew all too well.
He’d drawn this power all week, if only in small increments, telling himself just one day more. With this extra day, at this level, he was overreaching.
He had almost breached the point in which he would lose himself to his own euphoria.
The only reason that part was currently being kept at bay was because Nemo and his students were still in the arena.
The Overbeast swung its tail once more at him. He readied himself to dodge, only to watch as Nemo disappeared with all of his students into the exit.
The tail came for him.
And he tore it away.
The stump left behind poured black ink.
He tossed the tail’s end to the ground.
“Hah. Hah. HAHAHA!”
He laughed. A grin, pure and ecstatic with glee, pulled his cheeks. He remembered this feeling. This feeling he had when he fought anything.
The sensation of magic power running through him.
The sound of his heart pounding in his chest.
He loved every second of it.
He propelled himself upwards with only his strength. He flipped above the Overbeast, landing on its back on his feet. He sidestepped from its back, relaxed, his hands sinking into the Overbeast’s flesh as he slid down its side, tearing into it like gelatin. Its innards were revealed, somehow still contained within its body, blackened by magic overexposure.
The Overbeast yowled in pain, withdrawing with all the strength it held.
Tilo threw his hands into the air like he’d just scored a goal, a permanent smile embedded in his cheeks. “Yes! Woah-”
The ground beneath him shimmered, the myriad of magic circles embedded below activating. From each, a spire of rock rose, one of which separated the two combatants.
Neal and Mila had managed to get the panel working, activating whatever magic circles they thought would be of assistance.
The Overbeast growled at Tilo. He sprinted around the spire towards it, this time charging straight towards its face. It had been so long since he’d fought like this, he wanted to beat it brutally with his bare hands.
Nemo set Silos on the ground, leaning him against a wall. Rayden and Wren both sat next to him, propping him up. If Nemo could have brought him outside, he would have, but the small boy was being flung around too much. For now, Silos just needed to be out of the way.
Nemo’s heart skipped a beat as the Overbeast cried out. Still bent on one knee, Nemo looked to Tilo, only to launch himself to his feet a second later. He hurried to the arena railing.
Tilo was having the time of his life, a beast in the ring. He practiced moves he hadn’t used on a living target in ages, avoiding any action that might kill it so that he could fight with it a little longer.
He flew overhead, slid underneath, and dodged between spires, doing every disorientation technique applicable to a creature such as this. His fingers tore away skin and bone with every move, until, at last, it could barely stand. Prepared to charge, Tilo raised one hand-
From above, a voice rang out.
“STOP!”
Over the edge of the railing leaned Nemo, a look of sheer horror on his face.
Tilo stood still, hands slick with blood and dirt, but otherwise clean.
Every reason Tilo why he hated fighting like this flooded back to him, allowing him to briefly regain himself. He’d been so caught up in the whirlwind that he didn’t even think.
The Overbeast saw its opportunity and took it.
With the last of its strength, it flew forward.
Out of pure instinct, Tilo felled it with a single hit to its neck.
It dropped to the ground.
Broken.
In the booth, Neal and Mila gasped.
At that same moment a flood of people, all armed, entered the stadium.
They never had the chance of witnessing the scene of Tilo killing the Overbeast, only seeing its corpse. They chattered with a combination of confusion and fascination, crowding around the field.
Tilo’s eyes were on one person and one person alone.
“Nemo? Nemo!”
Nemo sent him a pained look.
Tilo couldn’t move.
He could only watch as Nemo disappeared into the crowd.
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