Chapter 40

Darcy: Hype Girl Extraordinaire

Days passed, full of training and preparing. Despite how high the stakes were, there isn't a lot to report on. We just bucked down and got everything done and before we knew it… the final day was upon us.

There's no better time than this to drop a Dawn of the Final Day Zelda meme. A classic, but still somehow always relevant. We met inside the writing nook about an hour before we were supposed to meet with our teacher.

Stephen and Angelia were already sitting at our booth when I phased in. There was no laughing or joking around today. Dead silence.

Except for the occasional sipping of the girls pink drink. I think she’d ordered one every single day since we met her. Would there be one more later today, to celebrate?

I sat down beside Stephen. “Hey, guys.”

They mumbled their hello’s. Angelia was focused on her drink and Stephen was in his menu, doing who knew what.

“I’m guessing spirits are not up today, huh?”

“I’m trying not to barf,” Stephen said, exiting out of the menu and looking at me for the first time that day. He smiled nervously. “I’m fucking terrified.”

“Me too,” I said. “But we can do this! After today’s training, we can totally do it.”

“We can.” It was the weakest agreement I’d ever heard. And Angelia still hadn’t said a single non mumbled word.

This wouldn’t stand. We couldn’t win like this.

I slammed my hand on the table, making Angelia inhale her drink, she started coughing.

“Guys, I’m telling you, we can beat that monster. We are all moving onto the next round of the tournament today. Get fucking psyched! Are you okay?” I walked over and sat beside her, patting her on the back.

She recovered and took a deep breath. “You gotta give me some slack for not being super cheery today. I have been trusting you guys almost completely by faith. I’ve seen you do some weird things, sure. But I’m still not convinced all the—“

I held my hand over the table and lifted the whole booth into the air.

“Holy shit!” The girl exclaimed, holding on for dear life.

I directed us around the room. Stephen looked terrified but not for the traditional reason. He probably was worried about her asking questions. She’d proven she wouldn’t. I tried to communicate that through looks only. Not sure he picked up on it. We really need to learn how to mind read when all this was over.

“Stephen, you can do this, too, just as easily. Now, think back for a second to when we first started. On that first day we could barely lift a feather. Now? Table.” He smiled a little but I could tell he still was lost in his worries. “You’re right, one booth isn’t that impressive.” I lifted every booth in the room.

I waved my hand, making them bob up and down. “We can do this, damn it! Have some faith in yourself! She believes in us.” I pointed to Angelia who did actually appear impressed by my display, she was getting into the ride, giggling and kicking her legs.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Everyone who has teamed up with us? They believe! In YOU. Don’t let that give more pressure—own it! We are going to give them all one hell of a show. Whoops!”

I faked losing hold of the tables and let them drop. Reacting on just reflex alone, Stephen held his hand out and caught every last one, bringing them down to the floor safely.

I’d sealed the deal. He gave me a real smile. “You’re right. You’re SO right!” He stood up, one foot up on the table. “Those people think I’m a god. I AM a god!!”

“Stephen, that’s a little far don’t you—“ Angelia started but I shushed her and whispered, “Let him have this.”

“We’ve trained, worked our fucking asses off, every single day since we awakened that stupid monster. We are going to fuck her up!”

An alarm went off, signaling that it was time for our session.

“You guys gotta go?” The girl asked.

I nodded.

“I’ll send out where we want everyone to meet. Is the clearing still good?”

Stephen stood all the way onto the table. “You better believe it is! There is no better place to make our final stand! FUCK YEAH!”

Angelia laughed. “I think you may have created a monster.”

“It takes one to kill one.” I winked at her before vanishing into our session.

Stephen was still shouting when we landed onto our spots on the couch.

“Whoa!” Kenzo said, waving his hands, motioning for Stephen to settle down. “You are fired up! I guess you guys are ready, huh?”

Stephen and I shared a look and then shouted, together, “Hell yeah!”

The teacher laughed. “Okay then, I won’t keep you. Let’s get this started.”

He clapped and the field of brains popped up, hopefully for the last time.

I want to save some surprises of what Stephen and I learned, so I’ll just give you the receipts of our training:

[ {Mind Link} increased! Level 3 -> 5

{Mind Link} Cost down! MP per use: 25 -> 5

MP Increased! 350 -> 500 ]

[ {Conjuring} Level 1 -> 5

{Conjuring} Cost down! MP per second: 50 -> 10 ]

So, we just narrowly made it. With these new Stats, we could do 50 Mind Links… and that would completely deplete our MP.

I exited out of the notifications. Kenzo turned the room back to his office. He was about to say something but I cut him off. “So, this is enough, right? I can make fifty Mind Links and have enough MP left over for twenty-five seconds of the Conjuring.”

Stephen whistled. “That +1 has come in handy, I’m one level behind you in everything. I can’t manage twenty five seconds.”

He threw his Stat screen at me and I frantically scanned it. He was right, he had one less level than me in every area. Of course that made sense, but it meant that we had less than twelve seconds to work with.

I threw both our Stat screens over to the teacher. He read them, quietly. “This doesn’t change a thing. It’s still completely doable. You’ll have to time it right though. Wait as long as you can to start the formation.”

“And I’ll start my half first, okay?” I said to Stephen. “That will give us some more time to work with, too.”

“Capital idea, Darcy.”

Stephen sighed. “She is your favorite again already, huh?”

“I’m not sure… let’s see how you both do today,” Kenzo said with a wink.

“There’s still hope!” Stephen shouted and we all laughed.

"Here, let me refill your energy." Kenzo walked over to us and put his hands near our foreheads, closed his eyes, and gave a mental flex. Energy rushed out of him and went straight to my brain, filling me back up.

"Holy crap!" I exclaimed. "That felt weird. But thanks, I totally didn't even think about being empty after training."

"I look out for my students," he said with a smile.

The alarm cut through our brains, interrupting the touching moment. Ten seconds.

I equipped my fishbowl and my transformation was complete; easy. Stephen had a lot more to equip, he frantically sorted through his menu, pieces of his commander gitup slowly popping up onto him.

He managed it with three seconds to spare. I walked over to him, not enough time to say anything, so all I did was hold up my fist.

He slammed it with his own, perfectly in sync with the teleportation. But something was off, as soon as we completed the transfer, the world was way darker than normal. The sun was clearly shining everywhere else but where we stood we were dipped in darkness.

Oh. Oh fuck.

Stephen figured it out at the same time. We both looked up, our fists still touching.

The psycho monster girl stared down at us, smiling with a toothy grin before giving a massive world shaking roar.