Chapter 13 - Spirit of Phoenix and Crow

The North Arena was filled with so many spectators that we all appeared like a bunch of ants on an anthill. The North Arena is a medium-sized arena which is in the furthermost north part of the Keeper Academy’s campus. Besides many of the top Tarondar Keeper Administration officials being there, all the nobles who wanted to watch could watch the duel. 

Often this is a very much spectated event, so the current noble students can see how strong the new noble students are going to be. The noble society would happily accept the new noble student if they are strong enough, regardless of wealth or rank. If not up to standard, the student would most likely be outcasted or bullied. 

Therefore, a display of power was necessary for recognition. I was standing in a small room with massive steel gates which opened up to the arena. Do you know what this felt and looked like? It looked like I was getting ready to fight as a gladiator. We still had ten minutes before the duel was officially supposed to start.

In the meantime, I just sat on a nearby bench and contemplated my strategy. 

Tap Tap Tap

I glance up at the noise and see Justus running toward me at full speed. My back instantly snapped back into place as the scene startled me. “Why are you in such a hurry?”, I asked him, as I was concerned for his well-being. 

“I had to rush here to tell you the Keeper Principal changed the rules and updated them right now. I didn’t know the full rules until now. So I have to,” he said to me while holding his hands on his knees. 

The only way Justus ended up this tired was if he sprinted from his office. That was probably the case. “Before you tell me Vice-Principal Keeper, please don’t tell me this is the whole if you don’t use your full power or effort we will kill you, shindig is it?”, I pleaded with him. 

All Justus could do was slowly nod at me as I shook my head in disbelief.

“I assume she has to go all out as well?”, I asked, hoping that the answer I had in mind was incorrect. Justus nodded his head again. 

“I am sorry, but both of your powers extremely fascinated the Keeper Principal. He wants to know the extent of how much you have grown as well as how much Leena Grey has grown. The Keeper Principal probably wants to compare Leena to her older brother, Ignis, who will be in the audience today. Just give it your all.

The Principal Keeper has decided you both are precious pawns to him, which is only a good thing in the fact he won’t let you die this time around. If you don’t defeat Leena in this fight, you won’t have any hope of beating her brother.

Your unique magic may be strong, but without proper training, you will probably fail against Ignis Grey, who has near-complete mastery of his magic.”, Justus said while sitting down next to me. 

“As I said before in my office, Leena is capable of extremely intense and raw, powerful, magical techniques. Even her level 3 affinity techniques, though simple, can be equal to a normal person’s level 7 affinity technique in terms of just raw power.

Just know from what I have seen she can use up to level 4 affinity technique, which if you get hit by that, you would almost be dead. So you have to be very careful.

To make sure you don’t die before the Keeper healers can heal you if you get hit, I am going to teach you a valuable technique you can use in battle. It’s fine that you use it because the Principal Keeper doesn’t want to kill you yet until he can fully understand what you are and what your abilities are”, Justus said while standing up and checking his watch.

It was only now a few minutes away from the duel.

“I sent another Keeper close to me to tell Leena about the updated situation. Anyway, here is the quick rundown of the technique. It’s only a level 4 dark magic technique which I know you can do. Despite the banning of all dark magic technique books, I can share this technique with you as you need to use it in your fight. Plus, you have permission to use it, anyway.

Basically, anytime you take damage and get knocked back or get hit by something, you can use this 4th-level infinity technique to spread the damage and knock back across your entire body instead of one specific or multiple impact point.

It uses the darkness you produce to deflect the impact across your entire body. 

This allows you to spread the pain and have your body support each other body parts. The technique is called “Web of Darkness” which you don’t need to chant since it’s below 6th affinity level magic.

It’s a boring technique but will save you in the end. Try your best to win.”, Justus said as he gestured for me to stand up. 

With that, the steel gates opened up automatically before me. Here goes nothing, I tell myself as I step out onto the North Arena’s battlegrounds. As Leena and I entered the battlegrounds on opposite sides of each other, the crowd roared even louder. 

As Leena and I came to a stop in the middle of the arena, we acknowledged each other. I could see her hand twitching slightly and her eyes wavering. Was she afraid, just like I was? 

“BEGIN!”, the Keeper Principal bellowed through his massive microphone. His voice rang out loudly, like a church chiming its bells. This was the defining moment, I told myself as I quickly got into a fighting position. We both waited a few seconds after the initial starting signal to see who would make the first attack. 

As I was about to launch an attack on Leena, she launched a massive fireball in my direction. Sure enough, it was an ordinary affinity level 2 technique. However, this was no ordinary fireball. The fireball was essentially 1/6  the size of the arena, which, if you didn’t know, is freaking huge. I barely dodged the fireball.

It whizzed past me at an incredible speed, crashing into the wall behind me.

The only reason the magic barrier on the wall did not break was because the most powerful Administration Keepers created it. Otherwise, I was pretty sure that one fireball could destroy normal force fields from the shockwave it created. 

I held my ground as the impact of that one fireball caused a 3-second miniature earthquake. It only got worse from there. Leena just kept spamming fireballs at me, causing the whole ground to shake continuously. I kept dodging fireball after fireball, but a few times I kept losing my footing. 

Whoosh!

A fireball nearly hits my body, but instead it hits the shoulder part of my t-shirt. That part of my t-shirt immediately goes up in flames instantly. It was only because of my using dark magic to deflect her flames from her fireball that did it not spread to the rest of my body. I have to end this quickly because if I lose stamina before she runs out of mana; I am screwed. 

As she launches another fireball at me, I sidestep it and launch myself quickly at her, pulling my scythe of darkness from out behind me to slash her. She seemed surprised by this tactic, but despite being surprised, she created a wall of flames just in time to throw me off. My scythe missed, and all it hit was flames. 

Clunk! 

My eyes widened in surprise as I noticed my scythe drop on the floor as Leena came up behind me and side-kicked me in the gut. I fell to one knee and used Web of Darkness to spread the pain and impact throughout my entire body. Before Leena could throw another ball of fire at me, I closed the distance between us in a flash.

I threw out my hand and summoned a ray of dark energy at her. She tried to block it with a shield made of fire, but the unique magic of darkness broke straight through it. The dark energy ray hit her square in the chest, knocking her back against the wall with a massive crack thud! As her body caused the wall on her side to break. I thought the duel was as good as over. 

That was until she somehow stood up again through sheer determination and will. She raised her hand to the sky, grimacing. Did I ever mention I hate it when people hold their hands up to the sky like that? It usually means what comes next isn’t pleasant. 

Leena raised her hand to the sky, causing her entire body too well up into flames and an incredibly massive red aura that burned anything to dust within a few feet of her.

Four bright orange circles of magic appeared in the sky, covering each part of the arena. As I looked up, all I could say was “Uh oh.” 

I was about to be smashed to smithereens by fireballs the size of meteorites from the air. It may only be a 4th-level affinity magic technique, but with her mana capacity, the technique’s strength goes up by at minimum 100%. I guess I have to resort to the technique I learned in Magic and Emotions by the great Justus Amin.