"Students, practitioners, legacies of the great King Leviathan!" The headmistress loudly addressed the entire population of Attwood assembled at the ceremony grounds.
"Together we gather in the sight of the last good king during our god of destruction cycle so that we may praise their gifts and prove ourselves loyal warriors of their will." She radiated a smile down at her students. Some of which she was actually proud of producing.
"During these days, I recall one of the great questions proposed by the last good king, in times when everything is taken from you, what is it that you hold onto? Your traditions, your beliefs, hope?" Sylvia offered up to the hesitant students. "The answer is different for all of us, but one we must find out for ourselves, because life will always have destruction, but you can always rebuild with the wisdom and values you hold too."
The students beamed up at the headmistress as the teachers led the applause. Pecilia used her hands more appropriately and crossed her arms. She would have called the speech tacky but that was giving it too much credit.
Professor Ulmonwood, the fifth-year teacher of light magic, took position over the podium next.
"Now, all of you come forward and take one stone and one necklace." Each of the five years were separated into two rows facing the stage. Two teachers handled each row with a basket of stones and the other an armful of necklaces.
Lucy grabbed one of the rocks from Opperwood. She could feel the power of the transportation stone even though it was as small as her thumb, which meant they weren't traveling far. When she saw Brickwood was the one to hand her the other necklace she smiled.
The professor leaned in to lock the clasp around Lucy's shoulders and took a second to speak with her. "Can you do me a favor Lucy?" Brickwood asked as he freed her hair held down by the necklace.
Lucy's eyes and ears opened.
"Try your best to make it until the end." He said, holding up the line to speak with her. "I want everyone to see how wrong they are about you. And how right I was to believe in you." His smile was as eye-catching a sight as his handsome face and kind words and Lucy blushed as she peered up at him and nodded in a promise.
As Lucy walked back she inspected the necklace. It was a simple chain with a closed dragon's eye pendant that fell to her lungs. It had a heavier weight to it than just the metal and when she tried to raise the dragon's metal eyelid to see what was so heavy, it wouldn't budge.
"Now for the rules," Ulmonwood announced. "The dragon's eye awakens at sunset. No magic can work onto it." He announced. "Until then you won't know if your necklace is one that contains a life crystal or not." The professor held up a glowing yellow stone the perfect size that would fit into their pendant. "But if any necklace in your control has a life crystal in it by sunrise you make it to the next round." The students started to look at each other as if they could spot who had one and who didn't.
Lucy bit the inside of her cheeks as she thought about what the rules meant. The best chance of making it to the next round was collecting as many necklaces as one could. Which meant it would be every man for themself.
Sylvia took back her podium position. The headmistress gaze swept over the crowd to the one student who was sure to make this year's games the most exciting one she had ever conducted. Algernon made eye contact with the headmistress for only a second before clenching his jaw and looking away.
"May the gods look down upon you, and the last good king grant you his grace." The headmistress spoke, and then in the old language of a time long forgotten lifted her hands and announced the start of the game, "Perdaium."
Lucy felt a tingle in her hand and her hair lifted off her shoulders as the light of the transportation stone burst out. The next time her eyes opened she was in the middle of the forests behind Attwood with no one in sight. Though that peace wouldn't last long for the girl considered the easiest target of the games.
Algernon found himself near one of the streams that cut through the forest, with a newly formed headache. He was vastly susceptible to the side effects of transportation stones and it made him extremely groggy in a situation he was already not thrilled with in the first place.
He crouched at the stream and splashed cold water on his face hoping it would elevate his headache. He stood up as he brushed back the wet hair from his eyes, and calmly stepped to the left as a blast of light magic seared the ground he had just been standing on.
"Now's not the best time," Algernon grunted, as he rubbed at his temple.
The fifth-year girl didn't hesitate to radiate another attach at Algernon.
The girl smiled as her magic landed and there wasn't even a trace of dark magic to show it had been repelled.
"Let me clarify. What I meant to say is now's not the best time for you," Algernon glared, standing tall with his scythe that had barely controlled magic crackling and circulating the blades. "Because when I'm in a bad mood I'm not inclined to mercy."
"I don't need any." The girl raged as she shot out more magic.
Algernon narrowed his eyes and retaliated. Attwood did a spectacular job in making the people one step above ordinary believe they were exceptional. It was often enough what got them killed. In this girl's case, it made her the first one disqualified from the games as she was knocked unconscious with her face stuck in a stunned expression. Algernon looked down at the dragon pendant and didn't think to bother to pick it up. These games weren't something he had any interest in winning, but his passed out opponent had a light shade of hair that reminded him of another player's that was just as likely to be shown so little mercy if not out right hostility. Algernon cursed himself for caring as he started away with the necklace in search of Lucy.
Pecilia happened to transport close to Wilham and the two friends joined forces against a fourth-year attacker. A boy named Leroy she knew because his family oversaw a prominent district in the borders of Emora and their Northern neighbors.
"Pecilia," Wilham announced, "Stay behind me and I'll protect you." As soon as he made his grand proclamation a beam of dark magic hit his chest and he fell to the ground.
Pecilia barely reacted as she watched her friend get knocked out. "Did you really need to do that?" She asked, looking down at her cuticles. "He's just a harmless idiot."
"Surrender now and I won't hurt you more than I need to," Leroy demanded, his hands prepping with magic though he was hesitant to attack a Row. Right away he recognized Pecilia's striking similarities to her beautiful, infamous, power-craved older sisters.
Pecilia smirked. "If what I've heard is true, aren't you the one that likes to be hurt more than you need to?"
Leroy's cheeks blushed as he attacked with dark magic, trying to destroy her smirk as much as he was trying to take her necklace.
Pecilia protected herself easily enough. Her older sisters used her as target practice when she was younger and because of it, she had incredible defensive abilities. Especially against only one attacker.
"No need to be shy about it." Pecilia purred, as their magic streams faded into the air. "And you should know," She called upon rocks around her and molded them into a small boulder. "I'm very good at causing pain."
The boulder launched at the boy. He destroyed it in the air with his magic, but while he did Pecilia shot light magic at his chest. A trick she had learned from her sisters.
Leroy fell to his back as all the air left his lungs. Pecilia stood over him. He looked to be in pain, but even greater euphoria. His lasciviousness eyes met hers and she cringed as she made a sizable boulder, and promptly dropped it on his head. Even unconscious he had a smile on his face and the only thing that remained awake and ready for action was the lower part of him tenting his pants. She would have dropped a boulder on that too if she didn't think he'd enjoy it so much. Though Pecilia didn't fault him for such perversions. In the world she had grown up in, that was not close to the worst of the things she had seen or heard. And at least he was aware of his fetishes and the consequences of it fell on him to bear. If there was one thing she couldn't stand it was the cretins who dragged someone else into their perverted desire without thinking about the other's wants or safety. Like an innocent doe-eyed girl who wasn't even aware of the twisted idiotic fantasies of one sad little cold boy.
A loud moaning groan came from the ground, and Pecilia turned to look at Wilham.
"Pecilia," Wilham said, with his hand over his heart taking long labored breaths like he was dying. "Tell them," He took a dramatic pause and looked at her with drooping eyes. "Tell them I fought valiantly." Wilham took off his pendant and held it out in her direction as if it was his final act of heroism before death.
"No," Pecilia said, but took the necklace.
"So cruel," Wilham drawled, as he pretended to die.
Pecilia walked away with two more necklaces and even less faith in the male population.
Lucy was hit in her back before she even knew she was in a fight.
"How fortunate," Minsley snidely piped, as she watched Lucy get up from the ground. "It looks like I'll have an easy first win."
Lucy didn't usually lose her temper from the insults but paired with the physical attack it pushed her over her limits for the day. Which manifested in a huge surge of light magic thrown at the girl. Minsley wide brown eyes reflected the attack just as it landed and her snide smile blew away. Lucy bit her cheeks in concern. She never wanted to lower to their level and hurting the girl even in the circumstances didn't sit very well with her.
She went forward to check on Minsley but someone made it to her first, and calmly reached down to take off her necklace.
"It seems you can take better care of yourself than people would assume," A boy said, smiling as his thumb rubbed over the pendant eye.
Lucy looked at the prize he stole from her and the boy followed her gaze.
"Don't worry I'm not here to take your winnings," He grinned, tossing the necklace over. Lucy looked away for only a second to catch it mid air and as soon as the chain hit her open palms the boy suddenly appeared right besides her to speak discreetly into her ear. "It's not like that holds any significance in this game anyways."
Lucy jumped back. So frightened by his speed that she didn't even think to mind his ominous words.
The boy smirked as he analyzed her wide innocent eyes and soft features. He could understand why some people found it appealing, in many more ways than just pretty. "Try to stay in the game," Luke said, "I want to test some theories of mine."
Lucy was about to ask what that also meant when a blast of magic from the boy's feet sent him disappearing into the sky. As his silhouette faded into the sunlight Lucy wasn't sure but she thought she saw wings around him.
"Sorry, but you understand why we have to do this right?" Asked a fourth-year, who had his group of upperclassmen surrounding Algernon from all sides.
"Because you're all too incompetent to do it alone," Algernon calmly remarked as he watched them closing in with their hands preparing energy.
"We need that crystal." Said a girl, who was quickly running out of opportunities to prove her greatness when she had never made it to the final round of any tourney. "And there's no way you don't already have one, when you already have, what 14?"
Algernon looked at the necklaces in his possession, all of which he had taken from upperclassmen who were too cocky for their own good. "About to be 20," Algernon stated, spinning his onyx black ring with his thumb.
The familiar feel of the metal rod started to unfurl out of the ring and Algernon followed with its natural flow, exchanging it between his fingers until it was the fully formed 7-foot tall double-ended scythe.
The students all took a step back. Witnessing any of the ancient artifacts for the first time was jaw-dropping, but this weapon was unimaginable until it was seen in person. The pole was made of an all-black glistening metal that shined as bright as the stars in the parts of it that caught the light. Its two twin dark silver blades faced in opposite directions at both ends and shimmered as if the surface of the metal was constantly warping. The scythe's presence felt as if a giant monster had appeared before them that radiated ungodly powers and it only paled in comparison to Algernon's own.
With the momentum of the spinning, Algernon swung the end of the weapon into the ground sending a surge of energy blowing back his opponents who weren't able to react fast enough to dodge it.
One of the more practiced girls shot a beam of dark energy at him. He easily absorbed it with the scythe and lifted up the other end of the weapon to shoot it back at her. She hit the ground before she could even process what that weapon had done.
One of the boys who recovered from his initial attack shot a powerful beam of light magic at Algernon from a distance. Algernon used his scythe to deflect the attacks as a different fourth-year snuck up behind him in his blind spot.
Algernon smirked as he felt the release of energy and lifted the other end of the scythe behind him, while still covering his front. He shirked and redirected both of their streams of magic at each other knocking their ally unconscious.
The remaining four attacked him all at once with the greatest outpouring of energy possible. Algernon held onto the scythe although it was getting increasingly difficult to keep it straight as it took the hits of their powers. Sweat poured from the attackers as they tried to force everything out of them. Algernon stayed as steady as he could. The magic radiated a shrill hum as it fought to reach him and a more intense one was starting to come from his scythe.
"Keep going!" Yelled Norin, one of the fourth-year boys who came from the greatest lineage of fighters in Emora's military. They didn't let up even when Algernon's figure became lost in the haze of their attack.
They pushed with every last drop of energy they could muster and when they all got comfortable thinking he was surely defeated their attacks were suddenly severed by an invisible repulsion. It felt as if each of their streams had been sliced clean through by the scythe, and they fell to their backs as if they had been pulling with everything they had on to a rope and the other person let go.
Algernon swung the massive scythe in one complete circle around himself. The hiss of the scythe slicing through the air was heard a tenth of a second before a huge wave of magic bolted their chest and sent them all flailing back until a collision with dirt or tree stopped them. Algernon finished the swing with one end of the scythe directed to the sky, releasing the residual energy that it had stored up from their attacks. If he had redirected all the power he collected back at the students, it would have killed them or at least broken every bone in their bodies, and although they needed a lesson of who Algernon Black truly was and where they stood against him, he didn't want to cause any permanent damage yet.
For the few that had managed to survive the attack, they ogled at what was the most powerful display of magic they had ever seen. To any person without an artifact, it would be like trying to control a 100-foot tidal wave with just their hands, and Algernon wasn't even breaking a sweat. Even lying on the ground it was blowing them back with hurricane-level winds.
"No way." Whimpered the only surviving boy of the retaliation. Norin gaped up at Algernon as the last of the energy trickled out of his scythe. He had never seen anyone control such a massive amount of power and his family were the top officials and some of the best practitioners of Emora's military.
Algernon approached the remaining two fourth years still conscious with his scythe softly slicing through the air with each step.
He read the fear in their eyes. Saw their pupils shrink and their faces drain like they were registering a demon coming to eat them alive. And Algernon smelled the unmistakable stench of it. He was raised to pray on that fear, to foster it. So that the entire world knew of his place above them all, unchallenged and unparallele. It was why the burdens of everyone's stares and expectations followed Algernon, and always would so long as he lived. And it was why he could never bring someone to stand beside him. To suffer the same weight of the world's pressure. No human could survive under it. Just like no human could see Algernon fight and not stare at him in terror.
The fourth-year girl was the first to take her necklace off, and run. Algernon let her escape, and his attention turned back to her partner. With his inhuman black eyes on him, Norin cowered and crawled backwards until enough of his senses returned to run.
Algernon watched them leave and spun the scythe in between his hand. It wound back around his middle finger to its onyx black ring form as he began collecting necklaces. Algernon sighed. It was starting to get too heavy to carry them all.
Freya had come highly prepared for this day. With a space stone she broke open with food beyond everything she needed. And she had found the perfect spot for her picnic on the cliff overlooking the forest of students fighting.
She stared as the bottom of the setting sun hit the tops of the trees. It was a blazing pink color, like the goddess of creation was waving them off with a final masterpiece as the end of her three-month cycle came to a close.
Freya was pulled away from the sight by strange noises coming from behind, but she didn't let it stop her from eating her muffin as she watched a boy with golden-brown hair covering his eyes break out of the woods. He wore a dangling earring from his left ear that swayed back and forth as he sauntered. From what Freya could make out of his face he looked profoundly tired though he must have stayed out of all the fighting since he only had one necklace and no signs of physical harm. The boy didn't even look at Freya as he climbed into one of the nearby trees and found a limb big and flat enough to hold him. He laid out across it like some sort of big jungle cat with his foot hanging down one side. He looked about to fall asleep, but the dragon necklace he wore irritated his rest, so he took it off and threw it away. Freya watched it land a few feet before her and made no moves to pick it up as both of her hands were busy with her muffin. And the boy got in a comfortable position for a nap.
"I really don't mean anything prejudiced by getting rid of you." Said the third-year upperclassmen. A lanky boy named Arnold, who spoke down to Lucy as if he had already beaten her. "If anything you should be grateful I came upon you and not someone less progressive. Some want you dead for just the insult of being in our presence, and lowering the overall quality of our school's reputation."
"Did you want me to thank you?" Lucy asked. She had long ago come to realize how they all looked down upon her, as upsetting as it was.
"No. No." Arnold denied, feigning humility. "Maybe later, after you've realized what a kind person I am."
Arnold lifted his hands to aim a blast of dark magic at Lucy. But he was overconfident in his mediocre abilities.
Arnold's blast could at must have knocked a small child down and Lucy simply stepped aside and shot light energy at the boy. He fell to the ground against the tree he was blown back into and moaned as he clutched his chest. He wasn't injured much at all, but he had such a low pain tolerance that she might as well have stabbed him.
Lucy approached him for the necklace and Arnold's blue eyes turned dark with hate.
"Everyone was right about you commoners." He spat. Lucy paused where she stood. "You're all so filthy and worthless."
Lucy stored the hate in the same place she had been putting all the insults and shot another bolt of light magic above the boy.
"You missed!" Arnold shrieked and let out a shrill laugh. "How ridiculous! You can't even hit an immobilized tar-" He was cut off when the branch Lucy was aiming at fell down on top of him and knocked him unconscious. It wasn't even a big branch, but even if it was he still had done much more damage with his words.
Lucy took his necklace but still felt like she lost more than she won.
When she turned around she noticed a human figure looming near her. The sun had almost completely set, but she recognized those dark eyes immediately.
Algernon stared at her between the trees, standing as still as them.
Lucy prepared herself in case he had any plans of attacking, but he only looked her up and down, with a small smirk, before walking away like she wasn't worth the energy.
Lucy felt more offended by Algernon's silence than she did with either of her assaulter and huffed her chest as she stamped away in the opposite direction.
Algernon didn't let her know it, but he was glad to have seen Lucy triumph and stand up for herself. He was also glad to see she only had three necklaces and the likelihood of one of them containing a life stone was so small that he didn't have to worry about her making it to the next and far more dangerous rounds.
"You've got quite an interesting look on your face." Algernon heard the boy's voice but didn't notice anyone around him until he looked up. From high in a tree, standing on a limb too high to climb, was a boy looking down at him. The setting sun made it hard to see but Algernon could figure out who it was. He was the only person in this school that had the tools needed to get to such a high position.
"Not the one I thought I'd see from everything I've heard about you," Luke spoke down as the twin thin bands around his wrists and his light gold-toned hair glistened with the last of the sunlight.
Algernon heard the subtle disrespect in his voice and his black eyes narrowed upon the artifact user.
"Now that's the exact expression I expected from the all-powerful Algernon Black," Luke said, before jumping down 50 feet to land in front of him. His landing came with a gust of wind making Algerrnon's clothes and hair fly back, while he himself remained as firmly planted as a statue.
"You should be more careful who you let see those expressions," Luke advised. He didn't look relatively big or strong. With a height similar to Algernon but with a much leaner and stretched-out frame from years of a very specific training. Algernon looked past him to see the shiny gold wings attached to his shoulders. They glowed even when there was no more sunlight to reflect off of them. "You never know what people are going to make of it," Luke smirked, showing off perfect white teeth. The wings on his shoulders collapsed in on themselves and turned into thin gold bands around his shoulders before they fell down his arm and back onto his wrists, where they tightened and returned to their resting state.
Algernon tried to make his appearance as unaffected as possible, but the look behind Luke's eyes mocked him with a secret he wanted to make sure Algernon knew he was aware of.
Jasper was being pursued ruthlessly by a fifth year in prime condition for a fight. He was already injured from the previous battles that had won him four necklaces, but every win had been hard-fought and exhausting. Now only minutes from sunrise, all his efforts would be for nothing as the conniving fifth year who had hidden the entire time had come out to prey on the weak.
"I'm sorry about this." Sang the girl. "But more honestly I'm really not at all sorry."
Jasper tried to stand, but couldn't lock his knees to get up. When the beam of light energy shot at him, he raised his hands to protect himself figuring this was his end.
He felt a breeze pass beside his neck and the light energy burst apart in front of his eyes. From behind, Pecilia appeared with a bolt of dark energy directed at the girl.
"Pecilia." Growled the fifth-year girl, barely able to keep standing as she clutched her side. "Are you trying to steal my prey?"
"No," Pecilia said back to Reign, a close friend of her sisters that used to also partake in the unwanted defense lessons. She stepped in front of Jasper. "I'm making you mine." The girl shot out a great channel of light magic and Pecilia matched it with just as much dark magic.
Jasper was amazed that Pecilia was able to stand against the girl as well as she did, but he thought surely the fifth year's skill and power would overcome her.
Pecilia wasn't so sure she could outdo her magic skills but she was sure she was much savvier. She directed their energy to the sky, and in an instant used destruction magic on the ground underneath Reign. The girl's feet faltered before she had time to mount a counter-attack and Pecilia hit her in the chest with light magic. Regin fell to her back and Pecilia retrieved her necklace.
Jasper was barely able to keep himself up on his elbows as Pecilia approached him. She knew he lacked the energy to fight her off, though still had the good sense to glare up at her. Pecilia knelt in front of him and slipped her hand under the necklaces he won. Jasper grabbed her wrist as she did. It was as weak as a child's, but his eyes remained strong and she found his will-filled stare......intriguing.
"Are you not going to beg me to let you keep your precious earnings?" Pecilia asked a sly mocking tone.
Jasper didn't falter even as Pecilia pulled on the necklaces to bring his face within inches of her own. "I don't think you're the type susceptible to begging."
Pecilia didn't expect the answer and almost let out a genuine smile but caught herself and pressed her lips together, though Jasper could see dimples in her cheeks, that almost never made an appearance. It momentary stunned him.
"Don't assume you know anything," Pecilia warned as the sunlight disappeared into darkness. "It'll get you or someone else killed."
Jasper questioned the meaning behind her amber eyes until he noticed the necklaces she wore started to vibrate and shift until the metal dragons opened their yellow eyes.
Jasper looked down at his own and saw the same yellow crystals shining.
All the necklaces Pecilia collected and the few Jasper managed to as well, shinned yellow. Of course, they would plan it like this, she thought.
Lucy panicked when the sunset. She only managed collect three necklaces, but all opened to a yellow stone. She doubled checked that they were all life stones and looked about herself confused.
Algernon lit up so bright from all the necklaces he collected he had to shield his eyes.
Luke smirked at the confusion on the boy's face and took off his one necklace also glowing with the yellow light. "See you in the neck round," Luke said, turning to walk away. "And word of advice, give the next one some more thought."
Algernon sighed. This meant that anyone who still had a necklace had made it through, and he didn't like to think all of who that included.