The Splice of The Realms

Phase.09

"Let the end of the semi finals—begin!!"

The students leaned forward in anticipation as they heard Go strike the gong. But, to their surprise, nothing happened.

So far when the competitors heard the instrument, they'd rush in and start their attack. But not these two. These two were taking their time, glaring at each other with a look that read, "what are you waiting for?" "I'm not moving" and "come and get me."

After what felt like an eternity, Alex swiftly lunged forward onto his knee and shot an arrow towards Clara.

As the arrow cut through the air at a speed most people would find terrifying, the white-haired girl stayed completely still.

"What is she doing?" Zill asked in concern.

"Is she crazy??" Carter continued.

"I think she's up to something," Tess said quietly.

"I think you're right," Zack agreed. "Think back to his fight with Bow. Remember how his arrow just vanished?"

"Yeah? it was awesome!" Zill exclaimed.

"Well, she's most likely expecting it to disappear again. A scare tactic is all this is on Alex's part."

Sure enough, as the arrow drew closer, it suddenly vanished. Within a few seconds it reappeared behind Clara.

As the arrow continued its trajectory, a glacier suddenly arose from the ground, catching the arrow in it.

Clara quickly turned her head, her white hair flying out to the side, and smirked slightly as she raised her hands and shot an ice attack at Alex, leaving a trail of ice behind.

The curly-haired boy quickly dove and rolled out of the way of the attack, then fired two more arrows with his bow.

This time, Clara put an ice wall in front of her instead of behind, and the arrows got trapped in it once again.

"Did she predict my arrows weren't going to disappear?" Alex hastily thought to himself.

Clara shot another attack, Alex dodged, then made a counter. They continued this back-and-forth game for quite some time until Clara got tired of it.

She hit his hand with an ice blast, creating a case of ice around it so he was unable to draw back his bow, then made two ice walls form around Alex on either side of him. Gradually, she made the pathway smaller and smaller, then proceeded to encase his feet in ice before walking down the pathway she made.

She approached Alex and whispered softly, "Maybe next time you'll have better luck," before she tapped his shoulder with enough force to register it as a hit.

"Clara moves on to the Finals! Zill, Tess. Please go see if we can borrow Nate again."

"On it, Go!"

"Back in a sec."

"Clara's ability is impressive. But she really needs to learn how to reverse her power."

                
                          ________________

"Couldn't stay away from me, huh?" Nathaniel said teasingly.

Zay then walked up behind him and smacked to back of his head

"Ow! Hey! What's the deal?!"

"There'll be a lot more of that in your future if you don't cut that out."

"Okay, okay, fine."

"C'mon, we really need your fire ability again," Tessa said.

"I'll only come with you guys on one condition."

"And what's that?"

"Your class partners with mine for the semester," Nate said with a cheeky grin.

"That sounds like a great trade off!"

"We'd have to check with our classmates first, though, Zill."

"I'm sure they'll agree!"

"So? What's it gonna be?"

"Well.. we do need a fire user considering Clara doesn't know how to fully use her ability. But so far we only know two people from class 7-G..," Tessa pondered for a moment on before given their reply. "Okay fine. We'll agree to partner with your class."

"Woo-ho-."

"If you agree to give us a rundown of your classmates after you help us."

"Sounds fine to me. Let's go!" Nathaniel said excitedly as he skipped down the hallway.

"Yeahhhh!" Zill exclaimed as he followed behind him.

"Just saying, it would be nice to work with you, Tess."

Tessa smiled sweetly at Zay before agreeing with him. "It would."

"You best get a move on. I'll see you later," he said with a loving smile.

"See ya." They returned the affectionate smile then made their way down the hall.

"We're backk! And we brought Nathaniel!" Zill said energetically.

"But, there's a catch," Tess continued.

"Which is?" Vira asked?

"If Nathaniel helps us out again—our classes have to combine."

"Oh, I see. Hm."

"He'll be giving us a rundown of all the students in class G, but that's not until after he get's Alex out of the ice.. so we would already be agreeing to his terms."

"I don't care what we have to do! Al's freezing! He'll turn into a popsicle if we don't get him out of there!" Carter interrupted.

"He has a point," Clara continued. "Alex has already been surrounded by glaciers for some time now. It'd be best if we got him out sooner than later."

"I'm down for anything!" Bow chimed in.

"You already know I'm game," said Zill.

As all the students started to agree, Zack stepped forward.

"For our classmate's sake, I believe we should take the deal. Seeing as we need to have a fire user in our ranks, and not knowing if any other class has one—it would be smart to partake in this trade off."

"Looks like everyone's agreed!"

"Great! Now get Al out of there!"

Nate let out a satisfied chuckle, "Pleasure doing business with you."

He made his way to the arena and started to slowly melt the ice glaciers surrounding Alex. Once Alex was free and made his way off the platform, Nathaniel created a large ball of fire in his hand and pressed it against the ice walls scattered throughout the arena, causing it to explode into small fragments while letting a joyful laugh escape him as he did his work.

"Al!" Cater exclaimed as he ran up to the curly-haired boy and hugged him.

"Ugh, can you not?" He groaned.

Most of we other students giggled while watching the two's interaction.

"They certainly are something, aren't they?"

"They really are, Vir."

"Alright! Everything's good to go! I'll see y'all later! Drop by after class and I'll debrief you on my class!"

"Bye, Nathaniel! Thanks for the help!!"

"Please, call me Nate."

Zill's face lit up with excitement, "Ooh okay! Then you can call me 'Zil!'"

"Isn't that just your name?" Vira asked

"Noo! 'Zill' is my name. 'Zil' can be my nickname!"

"Did you just take out an L??" Tessa cut in.

"Hehe, yep."

"Oh my god."

"What are we going to do with you Zill?" The two said is unison before the three of them began laughing together.