Survival

      Everyone woke up early in the morning feeling so fresh because of the song they had listened yesterday. Zes and Rai prepared themselves for the matches. Veejay lent Zes his sword. Reese tried to persuade Rai to use the transparent liquid but Rai didn’t want to. He kept on persuading until he got bored and finally stopped.

      Zes’ match was before Rai when he walked into the field... the spokesman started his job.

      “Yeah! And that’s Jocasta! Tough girl from Saoirse and Zes, Lathaniel freshy. I heard that he’s nearly as good as our handsome Vejay!!!!” Although Zes tried hard not to listen to him but his voice was still leaking into his ears. “But will Zes really okay with that. It seems like a kid is going to fight with a giant.”

      Zes’ opponent was a wild, huge girl. (I didn’t really want to use the word “girl” here, it made me feel so ashamed writing that down.) She was much bigger than Zes so he was quite worried. But when he thought of the Felis and Chaus versus Iolo’s match, it made him felt better.

      The field for this Weapon Line match had already changed back into the solid soil ground since the Drug Line match yesterday. When the starting sign was given, Zes attacked first, using his small and nimble body approached Jocasta and swung down his sword. However, Jocasta caught it easily and only with her naked hand.

      “Is that how you fight? This slash’s so light.” Then she hurled her sword to Zes. He moved back to avoid it but his sword wasn’t in his hand anymore.

      “A swordsman without sword is nothing but a kitten!” barked Jocasta. I also don’t understand why kitten, maybe it’s cute. Jocasta, first, threw Zes’ sword away and, second, threw herself toward Zes, hoped to kill him. Yes, killed him, I didn’t write anything wrong. Fortunately, Zes was short so he could just stooped to avoid the heavy blade. Zes, fetching the chance that Jocasta wasn’t looking, quickly ran to pick up his sword and stabbed it at her left leg.

      Zes really had a good sense in fighting. The legs were the base of the body. They were the important pillars. Moreover, because of Jocasta’s weight, only one incapable of leg was a serious problem. That was why she fell down.

      Zes didn’t want to fight anymore but Jocasta didn’t think like that. She resisted the pain, running over to Zes, hoping to hurt him just one cut. But because of her wounded leg, she moved a lot slower than before. So, Zes stabbed at her sword holding arm.  

      Jocasta didn’t want to give up but because of the pain that was irresistible. Zes defeated her in three minutes.

      Everyone cheered, clapped their hands and whistled to Zes after the match. The sword techniques, Zes didn’t show much but what had impressed the spectators was his wit to defeat the person who was bigger and stronger.

      Then, the field had changed, fives trees grew up from the ground and some bushes around the area. 

      “Haley’s on the field!!!!!!!!” said the spokesman again. Next was the high level of Weapon Line’s turn. There was no middle level match because none of the student had registered their names.

      Haley was a tall good-looking boy with the age of seventeen. He looked calm and mature. When his opponent, a girl about his age came out, they raised their bows.

      “Oh! Wow! They’re ready to fight but please let me finish what I’m going to say…And here comes Ciniaa….”

      They strung an arrow at each other. Ciniara, which was her full name, ran aside and released the arrow. Haley swung himself up on the tree, took aim and also quickly released his arrow. He missed. Because Ciniara jumped into the bushes. Everything was silent for a while except…

      “Hey! I haven’t finished what I want to say. Can’t you hear that!!!” but, of course, no one listen to him.

      Haley fit another arrow to his bow and looked around for Ciniara’s track. Then, the bush on his right shook. Haley turned and aimed at that place immediately but his eyes suddenly flashed backward, he didn’t release the arrow but turned around to where Ciniara was standing. She was right behind him, her arrow hissed through the air and struck into his right arm. Haley somersaulted down onto the ground while the arrows rain from Ciniara was following him. He quickly jumped aside and pulled out the arrow from his arm and aligned ten arrows with his target. Cinniara raised her bow preparing to wave all the arrows down yet the arrows wasn’t aim to her but to the branch above her head. The branch broke and fell down on Ciniara’s head. She fell down from the tree but Haley catch her before her body touched the ground. Suddenly the arrow , which was in Ciniara’s hand, flew pass, almost cut Haley’s neck. The blood from his neck leaked out one small drop. Ciniara smiled with her victory but then she felt something cold around her neck. She turned around and saw that Haley’s other hand already placed an arrow against her neck.

      “Oh!!! This is a draw. I can’t believe that there’s still any archer as good as Haley!!” (Where’s Ciniara?)

      Next was Rai’s match            . Rai’s opponent was a little girl who had flame red hair. Looked like she was a bit rash because her reddish magic powers which formed into the small balls around her immediately darted to Rai after the match started, Rai was able to summon the silver magic shield in time, and then the silver magic power appeared in his hand. It split out into millions and millions pieces of needles after he murmured something. Those millions pieces of needles rushed straight through the girl’s body although she waved her full of red magic power hands to ward some of them off. She, still was pierced by many of the needles. But the needles were very thin so it was as if she didn’t hurt a bit.

      “Rai’s wicked.” mumbled Reese.      

      “Huh? What’s it, Reese?” Zes wondered if those tiny needles could do any harm.

      “That’s a very dangerous magic. Maybe he found it in the library. You see those needles on her body. If Rai summon them again, the needles on her body which are made of Rai’s magic power will combine together. You know what that means? Yeah, that girl’s body will be torn into pieces.”

      “Rai won’t do that!” Zes said confidently.

      The needles on the girl’s body disappeared in a few second. She jeered and summoned the fire. The fire circled around them. She laughed and spoke out a screaky voice “Ha! You can’t escape now!” Then she summoned a big fire ball, as big as the circle fire. It floated above them.

      “What? Is she going to burn herself altogether?” Zes was shocked.

      “She’ll be okay because she’s a fire using mage. She will never die because of her own fire.” said Reese “The problem is Rai.”

      The fire ball fell down into a circle and burned madly for about five minutes. When it died out the little girl smile with her victory while Rai was lying motionless on the ground.

      “What?! Rai who could fight with me lost to a girl like that?” blamed Reese.

      Rai, then, didn’t disappoint Reese. He got up to his feet and faced the girl.

      “H…How… could… you…” said the girl startlingly.

      “Your fire’s beautiful! Err… I was using the magic shield and laid down looking at your fire. But it already died out.”

      The fire girl fired up, although Rai didn’t want to provoke her, but she’d already thought that he did.

      Rai didn’t wait another moment, using another magic. He looked really serious, his lips formed the frantic words and a silver bolt struck right at the tip of the girl’s toe. The fire of anger in the girl suddenly died out just like her fire ball. She fainted.

      After a moment of amazement, the applause slowly grew louder until it was resounded through the stadium. Especially the masters, or the teachers of the Magic Line, stood up to honour him. Only between the mages would know how hard it was to summon the bolts, you need a good deal of power to do that.

      “Umm… fabulous… apart from Reese, I’ve never seen anyone who can summon the bolt.” Said Veejay, his eyes still show the astonishment in Rai’s match. “Even the masters wouldn’t be able to do this.”

      “Umm…yea, yea…” the others agreed.

      When Rai came back to the seat, everyone rushed to shake his hand exultantly. “I…I just followed what they say in the book!” said Rai bashfully.

      “You found those magic in the book?” asked Zes.

      “Yea, but I’d never tried them so I think this is a good chance.”

      “Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaai……….That match was great!!!!!” the voice came from Marvis who dragged her friend, Mei, along (although it seemed like she didn’t want to come.) and Oralia and Cora followed them. 

      “I’ll watch, Reese” Oralia sneered at him “Don’t cause Veejay any problems.”

      “I dare not, Orie, I’m afraid if I make your Veejay in trouble, you’ll kill your beloved cousin.” teased Reese and ran down to the field as fast as he could. Veejay, turning red, walked passed Oralia silently.

      “All along the past year…” the spokesman spoke again “We’ve been waiting through the bitterly cold of winter, the hay fever of spring, the twisted ankle in autumn…(because you slipped over the fallen leaves)…, and the painfully dump from your girlfriend or boyfriend in summer, just to watch this match. And now it’s right in front of us SURVIVAL!!!!!!!!!”

      The applause and cheering voice were louder than every match that it could make the big stadium trembling, rhymed with the cheering word “SURVIVAL! SURVIVAL!”

      “Reese-waoda!!!”

      “Veejay-waoda!!!”  (..This..is even louder than the survival word…)

       The field suddenly changed into a wild jungle. There were so many trees that the spectators wouldn’t be able to see what had happened inside. So, the monitor appeared floating in the air beyond the jungle. In the middle of the jungle a big tall rock raised high in the sky with a golden crown on top of it.

      “This jungle has many monsters, creatures and traps. The rule is who can get that golden crown first will win. And now both pairs are on their position.” said the spokesman.

      The cheering voice still carried on. Veejay with Reese and Mairi with Scarlet were at the opposite side of the jungle. The whistle was blown and they all disappeared into the jungle. The monitor began its work; half of it showed Mairi and Scarlet, the other half zoomed at Reese and Veejay.

      The moment they stepped into the jungle, a mass number of ogres hurtled toward them. The ogres weren’t their problem but there were too much that both pairs couldn’t go any deeper.

      “Oi!!!!!! I’m fed up!” barked Reese and he mumbled something. Then a black shield that glowing blue light at the edge covered both Reese and Veejay. Without having to fight, they ran through the flock of the ogres. Along the way they met the arrows that were shot from every direction, the mad wolves, the poisoned snake and many other traps. But because of Reese’s magic shield, those things couldn’t even touch the tip of their finger.

      “Can we call this cheating?!” The voice of the spokesman came up with a serious accusation.

      “That’s not cheating!” The spokeswoman who had gone for a very long time unexpectedly appeared beside the spokesman. Zes had just remembered that she was one of the girls who sent Reese a letter. “The magic shield is a high level magic so it’s really hard to summon. Yet, compare to the controlling method, summoning has become a piece of cake. Some of our masters still can’t do that, am I right?”

      Some of the masters glared at her.

      Reese and Veejay easily ran through the jungle until they reached the tall rock in the middle. The huge monstrous creature that looked like a snake but it three heads emerged up from the ground. “Hydra!!!” screamed Reese and Veejay.

      “Wow! Never thought that hydra, the masterpiece of the Creature Line of Saoirse would have a role this quick! Magnificent!!!” said the spokesman.

      “Yeah! This is much more fun!” said Reese and the magic shield slowly melted and vanished. Veejay, then, slashed one of its head but two heads grew instead of that one.

      “Just like what they say, if you cut one of its head off, two will grow instead.” said Veejay.   

      “Its blood is poison too. Be careful, Veejay!” said Reese while glancing at the rock which was melted by the hydra’s blood.

      Without giving them any time to rest, hydra attacked Veejay and Reese. What they could do were only times number of its heads and dodged from them. There were almost a hundred heads now.

      “Reese! I remembered the way to kill it!” said Veejay while dodging from five heads that beset him.

      “Quickly! Tell me!! I really want to kill it!” and Reese cut three more heads with his magic.

      “I heard that…whoa!...” the hydra’s heads gathered around him.

      “What?!”

      “The middle head! If you destroy the middle head, it’ll be dead. Yaaah!!!! That what they say.” and Veejay increased four more heads.

      “Okay!! Veejay, can you allure the other heads?”

      “Right!!”

      Veejay ran around to allure all the heads except the middle one. During that he also increased ten more heads. Reese was trying to attract the middle head. The head followed him; widen its mouth, ready to swallow him.

      While he was almost swallowed by it, the black glowing blue bolt struck down right in its head. The head turned into dust. The other heads then stopped moving.

      “S…s…..s….” the spokesman stammered, the spectators fell silent. “s…su…su… SUPERB!!!!!!!!!!!!” and the cheering voice came after “Have you ever seen the summons of the bolts two people two times in one day?!!!!!!!!!!!” The applause echoed the stadium “Look at the hydra! Whooooooooaaa!!!!!!”

      While everyone was excited with Reese’s magic, Scarlet thrust out of the jungle, grasped at the rock and stretched out her arm to the golden crown.

      “Hey! Scarlet!” yelled Reese when he saw that the crown was in Scarlet’s reach.

      “Thanks for killing the hydra for us, Reese.” Mairi who had just walked out of the jungle, looking dirty, smirked at Reese. “Even if I can’t control the magic shield or summon the bolt but I’ll win at last he…he…”

      But then the rock suddenly melted down because of the hydra’s blood that was splashed by Reese and Veejay. Lucky that Scarlet didn’t touch it. However, it was harder to reach to the crown now because although the rock had melted down yet the crown was floating still in the air.

      Reese jumped and stretched out his arm but Scarlet leapt after him and hurled the sword at him “No way! That’s mine!” she said and Mairi tried to get it herself but it was too high so she couldn’t reach it.

      “I think I have to defeat you guys before thinking of the way to get that crown.” said Mairi. As for Scarlet, when she heard what Mairi had said, she started the fighting with Veejay. Mairi was going to help but Reese suddenly came in the way. “Your opponent is me.” he said and the black glowing blue flame in his hand beamed at Mairi.

      Mairi summoned the glittering silver blue magic shield, then she mumbled something and the sharp pointed ice crystals were formed around Reese. The ice crystals then hurtled down at him.

      “Can’t you remember that this magic wouldn’t do me any harm? Only my magic power and I’ll be able to take care of it easily.” The black glowing blue light glowed around Reese’s body and the ice crystal crumbled and fell onto the ground.

      The light around his body slowly gathering in his hand, burst into tiny pieces and disappeared. Mairi stunned for a while, then, the ground started to tremble violently until the land turned inside out. This could stop Mairi’s attacks a while.

      Back to when Scarlet was going to fight with Veejay, Veejay was slashed at his torso, but it wasn’t very deep. Quickly, he swung his sword up and it made Scarlet’s forehead bleeding. Her blood ran down into one of her eyes and made her right view blurred. Veejay was able to wound her with this advantage even if he didn’t want to. Certainly, hurting the girls was not the thing that the gentlemen supposed to do. Thus, many of the cuts that Veejay had harmed Scarlet weren’t deep. Scarlet, too, had a good sense in fighting even though one of her eyes couldn’t see, but she could give Veejay many cuts.

      “Veejay! Jump on me!” called Reese when the land began to tremble. Veejay knew exactly what to do. He left Scarlet and hopped onto Reese’s hands. Reese used all of his power sending Veejay high up in the air. Veejay grabbed the golden crown and they succeeded.

      “We got the winner!!!!!” the spokesman spoke louder than ever. ”Wonderful! How wonderful! I’m so impressed!! Give them the applause, please. This match is worth it! Louder! Louder! Hey! That’s not loud enough! Yeah! Like that!” not only the applause but the calling of Veejay’s and Reese’s name also grew louder. Mairi and Scarlet silently admitted their defeats.        

      The medal giving ceremony was arranged after the tournament. Every winner lined up in the field, waiting for an announcement of their names.

      On the medal, which was made of iron, had the pictures of both castles of the schools that were embossed and coated with gold. Saoirse principal was the person who gave them. She particularly shook Reese’s and Rai’s hand longer than others because of their ability to summon the bolt.

      “Rai! This part is gold! If we scrape it out and sell it, how much do you think we’ll get?” Zes said, considering the medal he’d just received.

      “It’ll be more valuable if you leave it like that. You can use that medal finding the job. ” said Reese.