Chapter 298: Daydreaming Of It Too
Lancet tried to keep eating.
He lowered his spoon into the rice, scooped up a mouthful and chewed as though four people were not staring at him from across the table.
No one spoke.
He swallowed, reached for his drink and found their eyes still fixed on him.
Lancet sighed and finally looked up. "What?"
He saw Kasto’s mouth twitch.
"Come on, guys," Lancet said. "Don’t tell me you’re actually considering it."
They looked at one another. Then they all exploded into laughter.
Kasto folded over his plate first, laughter bursting out of him before he could stop it. Anita slapped one hand over her mouth and failed completely, her shoulders shaking as she pointed at Lancet with the other. Luke turned away, but the sound that escaped him ruined the effort, and even students at the next table glanced over when their laughter grew too loud to ignore.
"As if!" Kasto managed. "Astensia?"
Anita wiped at one eye. "Or Thor?"
Luke shook his head, still laughing. "Spectra would eat him alive."
"I mean, we love you, Lancet," Kasto said, sitting upright so he could breathe, "but you are far below their league."
"Far below," Anita agreed. "Not even close."
Luke rested an elbow on the table. "Astensia is a legendary knight. Thor is a Valkyrie Captain. Spectra is the Mother of Demons."
Kasto pointed at Lancet with his fork. "And you still complain when the cafeteria runs out of sweet rolls."
Anita laughed harder. "Imagine Astensia introducing him. ’This is my partner. He oversleeps and uses the same body soap for his hair.’"
"Heh," Lancet said. "I know, right? Yeah."
Kasto leaned closer, enjoying himself now. "You must have been dreaming of it too heh?"
Lancet kept smiling and lifted his cup to hide his mouth.
’I know I should be glad they don’t believe it, but that stung.’ He took a slow drink. ’Now I almost want to tell them it’s true.’
Min Tu was the only one who had not laughed.
She sat with her cup between both hands and watched Lancet. Her eyes moved from his smile to the way his fingers tightened around the handle, then back to his face.
Her suspicion on the matter was growing.
Lancet looked away from her before she could find more.
The laughter eased when the bells rang through the cafeteria. A moment later, the overhead speakers came alive.
"Breakfast service is now concluded. Students proceed to the transport tubes and begin ascending to the main platform for the Inter-Class Competitions. Please leave all trays at the collection points and do not delay traffic."
Chairs scraped across the floor at once.
Students hurried through the last bites of their meals and gathered their things, already arguing about which fight would be worth watching.
The cafeteria filled with names, predictions and impossible confidence from people who had never stepped onto the arena floor themselves.
"Valeria Bloodgood against Nereus Grimlake will be cinema!" someone shouted near the doors.
Kasto stacked two pieces of bread together and tried to take them with him.
Anita slapped them from his hand. "Breakfast is over."
He chased her down the corridor as she laughed playfully.
They joined the crowd flowing into the main corridor, then crossed the academy grounds toward the transport tubes. The glass tubes ran up the sides of the colosseum structure, carrying groups of students toward the upper platform in streams of blue light.
Lancet stepped into one with the others.
The doors sealed behind them. Grace lit beneath their feet, and the tube launched upward.
When the doors opened, the crowd spilled onto the platform.
They found their Class Group section and took their seats. Lancet ended up beside Min Tu this time, with Kasto and Anita on his other side and Luke one seat beyond them.
It was not as entertaining as being trapped between Kasto and Anita, but they brought enough noise from two seats away to make up for it.
Min Tu sat close enough that their shoulders remained pressed together.
Lancet shifted slightly to give her room.
She shifted too. But toward him.
He looked at her from the corner of his eye. Min Tu kept her gaze on the arena, face calm, as though she had not just claimed the space he had offered back.
Lancet decided to leave it alone.
The competition opened with Class Group-A.
The scoreboards lit above the arena while the speaker called the first names.
"Representing Elementalist-A, Kaleb Vance! Representing Enchanter-A, Silas Mercer!"
The crowd responded well to both of them. Lancet recognized the names from Hebthej. Both had taken part in clearing the Demon Break.
Kaleb entered first with storm clouds gathering around his shoulders. Thin lines of lightning moved over his arms and vanished beneath his sleeves. Silas followed with a bundle of metal plates hanging at his belt and a carving tool already turning between his fingers.
The moment the match began, Silas dropped to one knee and cut a rune into the arena plate.
Earth rose in front of him.
Kaleb’s first bolt struck the wall and split around it, lightning crawling over both sides before grounding into the floor. Silas used the cover to carve another rune into one of his metal plates and snapped it forward.
The plate expanded into a silver hound that charged on four rune-lit legs.
Kaleb stepped aside and sent a gust beneath it. The construct flipped into the air, but Silas had already marked the underside. The rune flashed, and the hound burst into a net of silver chains.
The chains wrapped around Kaleb’s arms.
The Enchanter section roared.
Silas rushed in, carving another symbol into his palm as he moved. Strength thickened his frame, and he drove a rune-covered fist toward Kaleb’s ribs.
Kaleb answered by becoming the center of the storm.
Wind exploded from him and tore the chains apart. Silas’s punch still reached him, but lightning discharged through the contact and threw the Rune Carver backward before his fist could land properly.
Kaleb raised both hands.
A ring of dark clouds formed over the arena.
Silas rolled to his feet and slapped three plates onto the floor. Each expanded into a rune shield just as lightning fell.
The first shield shattered.
The second split.
The third held for half a breath.
Kaleb closed his fist, and the scattered bolts bent inward. They struck the final shield from every side at once, blew it apart and caught Silas in the chest.
The Rune Carver hit the floor and slid until the barrier stopped him.
"Victory to Kaleb Vance! One hundred points for Elementalist-A!"
The next announcement drew a larger reaction than the first.
"Representing Summoner-A, newly promoted from Class Group-B, Nereus Grimlake!"
Darkness spilled from the entrance before Nereus appeared.
He stepped through it with his hands at his sides, black shadows moving around his boots like restless water. He could not summon his shadow army for the event, but Nereus’s shadow legion was not the only thing that made him powerful.
He knew very well how to use the borrowed shadow powers of his summons.
"And representing Specialist-A, the Grand Dragoon, Valeria Bloodgood!"
Valeria entered with a long spear balanced across her shoulders.
She was tall, broad through the back and looked very agile. It was clear she trusted her body completely. Gold fire burned along the spearhead, not wild like Frieda’s flames, but tight and clean, clinging to the steel in a narrow edge.
These two participants had also been involved in the Hebthej Raid. It was not surprising seeing them facing against each other constantly. Every Class Group brought out their best of the best to win this competition.
The crowd stood before the match even began.
Nereus started the attack.
His shadow spread across the plates and split into six black paths. He stepped into one and vanished, then rose from another behind Valeria with a blade of darkness forming over his arm.
Valeria turned before it reached her.
Her spear shaft cracked against his wrist, broke the attack and drove into his stomach in the same motion. Nereus folded, but his body dissolved before the spearhead could follow.
Three shadow copies rose around her.
Valeria spun.
The gold fire on her spear widened into a burning ring and erased two copies at once. The third ducked beneath it, solidified into the real Nereus and drove a shadow spike toward her side.
She twisted in the air.
The spike passed under her ribs. Valeria planted one hand on the spear shaft, kicked off it and brought both heels down into Nereus’s chest.
He fell through his own shadow and reappeared twenty feet away.
The arena darkened around him.
Black hands rose from the plates. Long arms with no bodies clawed toward Valeria’s legs while shadow beasts formed from the floor and snapped at her from every direction.
They were constructs not summons so they were allowed.
Valeria, agile and fast, never stopped moving.
The spear became an extension of her spine. She vaulted over one beast, drove the burning head through another and used the shaft to twist herself between two sets of reaching claws.
Gold fire trailed her steps and sealed the shadows wherever she landed, forcing Nereus to keep creating new paths.
He had more power.
Every time Valeria cleared space, Nereus filled it again. Shadow walls rose. Black spears fell from above. A giant hand climbed from beneath the plates and closed around her waist.
The crowd shouted when it lifted her.
Nereus stepped from the darkness beneath it and thrust both hands forward. A mass of shadow gathered before him, dense enough to dim the arena lights.
Valeria drove her spear down through the hand holding her.
Gold burned through the fingers and released her. She dropped, landed in a crouch and sprinted straight at him before the shadow blast was ready.
Nereus fired anyway.
Valeria jumped.
The blast tore under her and struck the barrier with a thunderous force that made the entire platform shake. She turned once in the air, caught her spear near the end and hurled it.
Nereus sank into shadow.
The spear hit the floor where he had stood.
Valeria landed beside it, seized the shaft and spun just as Nereus emerged behind her.
The blunt end struck his jaw.
CRACKKKKK!!
His head snapped aside. Before he could disappear again, Valeria swept his legs from beneath him and planted the burning spearhead against his chest.
The referee called the match.
For one second, Nereus lay still beneath the gold flame.
Then he laughed once and raised both hands.
The arena erupted.
"What a match!" the speaker shouted. "Nereus Grimlake controlled the field, but Valeria Bloodgood controlled every inch around her body! Raw magical output against unmatched combat ability, and the Grand Dragoon takes the victory!"
Nereus accepted Valeria’s hand and allowed her to pull him up. He said something Lancet could not hear, and Valeria answered with a grin before resting the spear across her shoulders again.
Anita was on her feet. "That was the best one so far."
"As expected Valeria Bloodgood keeps being the epitome of fast combat," Kasto said. "Dragoons are so badass."
The rest of Class Group-A followed, and by the end of their matches the scoreboard settled at:
Specialist-A: 200
Elementalist-A: 200
Summoner-A: 100
Enchanter-A: 100