The Arena (16 page)

Stuffing my face, I looked over at them. “What? I’m hungry.”

They both laughed at me. April pulled a towel out of her bag and wet it with a bottle of water, and then spent some time wiping off her arms and legs before coming to join us. I probably could have done the same, but I wanted to eat. Getting clean could wait.

While we had been working out, Marcus had apparently been out gathering some new gossip. He started to fill us in. “So, the arena is where we would have come for the end of semester tournament, but for now, it has been repurposed as our base. The big news of the day, though, is that we are still going to have our tournament, only it is going to start tomorrow.”

My mouth must have fallen open with food in it, because I felt April’s finger on my chin pushing it closed. “Seriously? Tomorrow?” was all I managed to stammer out.

“Yep.”

“Isn’t that a little unusual?” I asked around another bite of my sandwich.

“Man, what part of living in a combat arena fits into your definition of
usual
?”

I guess Marcus had a point. Nothing about our move here was usual. “So why are we having the tournament at all?”

April finally looked up and started paying attention to the conversation. We both waited for Marcus to answer.

“Well, the way I hear it, they want to evaluate us for combat as soon as possible. That way they can see who needs the work in what areas, and bring them up to speed with individualized training faster. That way, they can have us training out in the field and not just with each other. The Ascendancy now has the entire West Coast to protect, and frankly not enough field agents to do it.”

April grinned. “Do you really think they are going to let us out in the field so soon?”

Marcus looked super happy when he answered. “I sure do.”

I started to feel a little sick and put down my sandwich. “So you are saying that we might have to go out and fight Lycans and other things soon.” My heart was racing just thinking about it.

Both of them looked ecstatic when they answered simultaneously. “Yes!”

I could see why they were excited; both of them had been training for this moment for a long time. On the other hand, the thought of tangling with a werewolf still scared the shit out of me. Seriously, I knew I had magic, but it still seemed suicidal.

I moved the conversation on to something that was a little less terrifying. “So, Marcus, tell me about how the tournament works.”

I could tell Marcus had slipped into teacher mode. Time for me to sit back and relax while he rattled off a longer than expected answer. “Well, I have no idea how they came up with the rankings for this year since we didn’t finish our classes, but the highest seed faces the lowest seed from each class. Then the winners face off until there is a winner from each year. Do you watch college basketball?”

“Yeah, of course. My dad and I used to get together every year and watch March Madness. The first weekend is always the best forty-eight games in four days. Both of us filled out brackets and bet with some of his friends from work.”

“So think of it like that, except each region is a semester. The final four would then be one student from all four semesters. One versus four, and two versus three. The winners of those two matches face off against each other for the title.”

“Ok, that makes sense to me. Tell me, how hard are we supposed to fight against each other?”

“Hold nothing back; the only thing you cannot do is kill your opponent. Each match has a referee assigned to it. Their job is to stop the match if it gets out of control, and protect the students if they can. There have always been rumors of students dying, but for the most part, the worst thing I could verify was a lost arm.”

“Jesus, someone lost an arm?”

“Yeah, but even though I’m sure it hurt like hell, that is something the Ascendancy’s healers can fix pretty quickly.”

“And you guys are excited about this?”

Both of them broke out in smiles again. April said, “This is what I live for.”

Marcus gave April a good-natured wink. I could tell he loved this. He ended the conversation by saying, “They should be coming by each of our rooms tonight with more information. We should probably head back to our rooms so we don’t miss them.”

I shook my head, having a tough time getting used to the ruthlessness that was needed for what we do. Taking it easy on someone would only get me hurt or, worse than that, dead. I had to start thinking like a killer, and stop thinking like me. Hesitation would mean death out in the field, or maybe even in the arena.

I said my goodbyes and headed back to my room. I couldn’t wait to get a shower in and maybe a little more food. I was going to need my energy for tomorrow. I wondered what it would be like squaring off against a fellow student with the intention of beating them into submission. How did something like that make you feel?

A
knock
at the door stirred me from my sleep. Wow, I didn’t remember falling asleep on the couch. I guess my workout with April had taken more out of me than I’d thought. It took me a while to find the light switch in my new room. I felt pretty accomplished when my fingers finally slid over the switch. I had managed to only bang my shin once and knocked over less than five things. Seemed like a win for waking up in a brand new room shrouded in inky blackness. I probably should have made a light in my hand while searching, but I was still coming to grips with being able to use magic all the time. With the lights on, I headed toward the door.

When I opened the door, I was shocked to see the person on the other side. It took a second or two to sink in that it was Sarge standing in front of me. His head was shaved, not that that was a huge departure from his normally close-cropped cut. This was different because he also had three white lines running from the tops of his eyebrows all the way down the center of his shaved head. His lips were also painted white, and the entire look was punctuated by the deep black circles around his eyes.

The outfit he had on reminded me of the fighting tunic I had found in my dad’s chest. There were no symbols on Sarge’s tunic, either. His entire body was covered in the white cloth. Only his head remained exposed. Next to him on the left was an Asian man I had never met; he was holding a scroll out in front of him. To Sarge’s right was an African man holding a small chest. All of them were dressed and painted in the exact same manner.

Before I could think of what to say, Sarge started to speak. “Jackson Fairfield, you have been called on to participate in the arena. Do you accept this honor?”

It had never occurred to me that I would be able to refuse to fight in the arena. I wondered what would happen to me if I did. There was no way I was going to miss out on a future with the Ascendancy. “I accept.”

Sarge motioned for me to move aside. The man with the chest entered my room and set it down inside of the door. The man with the scroll placed it on top of the chest. Both of them stepped out and stood behind Sarge before he spoke. “Thank you for honoring your duty to the light.” Sarge turned and walked away, closely followed by the two men.

I might have considered that weird once, but it wasn’t the strangest thing that had happened to me since joining the academy. Picking up the scroll they left, I cracked the wax triangle that was holding the scroll shut and started to read. The text outlined the process for the tournament. The format was simple: win and move on, lose and you were done. I was happy to see that my opponent for the match was not Marcus or April. Both of them were scheduled for the second round of the day. On the other hand, I would be one of the first students to enter the arena. It must have been wishful thinking to want to watch a few matches before getting started.

Before or after your match, you were allowed to sit in the stands and watch the other fights. I couldn’t wait to see how some of the older students handled their matches. I had never seen them battle before, but if their spell work was that much better than ours, it would be amazing to see in action. While the tournament was active, all non-eliminated participants had to remain confined to their rooms after the day’s games. Food would be brought to you daily. Once you had been eliminated from contention, you could walk around our new campus freely.

It was possible that I could lose early tomorrow. I hoped that wouldn’t be the case, but wishing for something never guaranteed that it happened. My experience fighting other people with magic was limited to sparring with Marcus, and he always took it easy on me, even when I asked him not to. I probably didn’t stand a chance in the fights ahead, but deep down I could feel the twist in my gut. I wanted to win; I needed to win. This was going to be my home, and fighting was what they did. What
we
did.

Setting the scroll aside, I opened the chest in front of me. I was hoping that it would be a set of the fighting clothes that my father had worn in the few pictures I had seen. I wasn’t disappointed in the least when I pulled the black tunic from the chest. Turning it around, I noticed a neon blue triangle with an eye in it on the back. The symbol for the Ascendancy was the all-seeing eye, just like on the necklace I was wearing. Unconsciously I placed a hand around the necklace while pulling the rest of the items out of the trunk.

Inside the chest were pants, gloves, socks, and boots, all in solid black. The only color on the entire outfit was the small symbol on the back of the tunic. I was going to fight in the arena for a chance to prove myself to the Ascendancy. I couldn’t miss out on the chance to join them on their quest to hunt and remove evil from this world. My new life was like waking up from a dream only to find out that the things happening in my dream were real. This was my chance to do something important, to do more than earn a living. I was going to be part of a group whose sole purpose in this life was to save the world from monsters.

I had to try and get some sleep, but the adrenaline was doing a damn fine job of keeping me awake. Lying in my bed, I wondered if my father had felt this nervous before his first match in the arena. Once this semester was over, I needed to find out more about him. When the tournament ended, I would reach out to Professor Simons to see if he could tell me anything about him. Even if he couldn’t, maybe he knew someone who could. I wondered just what my adoptive father would have thought about all of this. He probably would have loved it. With thoughts of my family swirling around my head, I finally drifted into a fitful sleep.

* * *

T
he alarm went off
, and I was tempted to send it hurling across the room. The morning was here and with it came my first chance to battle in the arena. I slipped out of bed and took a quick shower. Still wiping the sleep from my eyes, I started to get dressed. I had to tie the laces on my boots three times just to make sure that they weren’t too tight. When I opened the door, a white-clad member of the Ascendancy was standing there to greet me. She silently turned, and I followed her down toward the arena floor.

Walking out onto the sand of the arena felt different today. Everything seemed to have a sharper edge to it than it had the day before. Today I was going to fight someone who either needed to submit or be knocked unconscious. I wasn’t extremely comfortable with knocking one of my fellow students unconscious, but I knew I couldn’t hold back. The sun was out at full strength already, and I could see a thousand faces lining the seating area.

My palms were starting to sweat, and I was trying not to get my black boots covered in too much of the red sand. A feeling of panic started to course through me. What was I even thinking, being out here? My opponent was going to make me look foolish, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. I found Marcus and April in the crowd, and they were cheering for me. Well, that was something; at least I had made a few friends who wanted me to do well.

The escort from my room led me to the edge of a large oval and asked me to stand in the box outlined at the apex. I was surprised at how large the ring for our match was. Although our area was an oval, it would have easily fit half a football field inside of it. The arena floor looked like it contained five rings of this size, from end to end. My escort bowed to me and then walked away from me toward the center of our ring, meeting my opponent’s escort there. They bowed to one another and then moved toward the outer edge of our fighting ring.

Reading the scroll last night, I had learned that the arena floor was divided into separate fighting areas, but I hadn’t understood how large those areas were. As the matches progressed, the circles would grow larger until the final three matches would be played with the entire arena floor available. The reasoning behind it was that larger spells could be put into play in the bigger spaces. I was really looking forward to watching a few of the later battles to see what kinds of spells people would use.

Pulling myself back into the moment, I could finally focus on my opponent, Grace, at the edge of the ring. I remembered her from class but hadn’t spoken to her much outside of that. I still felt weird hitting a girl, but April had shown me many times over that your sex didn’t matter in a fight. Actually, she hadn’t really shown me so much as beat it into me. I knew that I had to come out ready to hurt Grace if I needed to. She was going to do the same to me. I tried to look lazy and peaceful by stretching while I was waiting for the match to start. I wasn’t sure if the act would work. My heart was pounding. It felt as if it was trying to work its way out of my chest and into my throat. On the plus side, the stretching was actually starting to calm my nerves just a bit.

For the first time since coming to the academy, I laid eyes on Adam as he walked toward the throne at the edge of the arena. He looked to be in his mid-sixties, but recently I had found out that it was possible for the Gifted to live for hundreds of years, if not thousands. So looks could be deceiving. I thought Marcus had said he came to America in the 1700s, so I could only guess at his age. His long white hair was pulled into a ponytail and matched the color of his beard. He wore the same white robes as the Ascended did.

When he took his seat on the throne, I finally started to notice some of the details. It had been sculpted from the rock of the mountain like everything else, but while everything around us was plain from years of abuse from the elements, the throne remained pristine. The throne was elaborately carved. It was raised above a sculpture that made it look as if different types of Demons were holding the seat above them. The symbolism was not lost on me. Our job was to slay the things that preyed on humans, Demons included.

Adam’s words boomed out across the arena floor. “Fighters, prepare.”

The voice seemed to come at me simultaneously from every corner of the arena. Shutting the voice out, I worked to calm myself and pull the mana into my center. Closing my eyes, I felt the rush of the mana enter my body. The strength of the mana coursing through my veins filled me with purpose. I could do this. My father had done it before me, and it was my turn now. I hoped that he was watching over me now, to see me following in his footsteps.

Just when I thought I would burst from waiting, Adam’s voice echoed across the arena again. “Fight!”

Opening my eyes, I watched my opponent for any indication of what was to come. She hadn’t made a move yet, but I had the feeling it was going to happen soon. Deciding not to play defense any longer, I conjured a pack of wild coyotes. I sent the coyotes sprinting across the arena toward Grace. The coyotes were a simple magical distraction that I conjured to buy me some time for the fireball I was casting now. I hurled my fireball at her from the right while the coyotes were darting in from the left.

Grace surprised me by deflecting the fireball with a simple wall of ice and countering my coyotes by conjuring a pair of lynx into the ring. The two lynx smashed into my coyotes, nullifying their effect, and I used a small bit of mana to shatter Grace’s wall of ice, hoping the icy shards would knock her to the ground. She staggered to the left for a second, clearly not expecting her own wall of ice to be used as a weapon against her.

Neither of us had an attack in play for the moment. The coyotes and the lynxes had cancelled each other out, just as our fire and ice had. I could see Grace starting to reappraise me after one of my attacks had actually reached her. We both stood catching our breath for the moment, waiting to see what the other would do. I started thinking about what I knew about Grace. The only thing I could come up with was that she was probably second only to April in hand-to-hand combat. So, whatever I did, I needed to keep her at a distance.

The same thought must have crossed Grace’s mind because she started charging toward me, using her magic to boost her speed. I started using my mana to raise stone walls in front of her in the hopes of slowing her down. The four-foot-high walls did absolutely nothing to stop her, as she used magic to enhance her movements. I watched with growing horror as she effortlessly jumped over the first two without breaking stride.

I started raising the walls with sticky vines on top so she would have to hurdle them without stepping on the top. To my surprise, instead of slowing, she used fire to clear the vines from the tops of the walls and continued accelerating toward me. I could see the smile starting to spread on her face with each step she took. We both knew as soon as she reached me, the fight was over.

I did my best to sell my panic. I mean, who would blame me for losing it in my first magical fight? I started waving my arms around erratically, making the last few walls I had created slightly taller. Grace didn’t slow down at the sight of the taller walls blocking me from her. The first wall she simply sprinted into, blowing it apart while still moving forward. The next wall she vaulted over by placing a hand on it. She was like a juggernaut, and I only had one wall of defense left between us.