Punishment discourages and corrects the behaviour of children. But where lies the line between discipline and abuse?
* Sometimes you can hear things outside of the Heavenly Ruler’s Great Wall, something is out there within the Final Order Existence.
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The Royal Gladiatorial Academy prided itself on its colosseum, the greatest of its kind. It was built many centuries ago on the small island within the lake of Valon and stood near Order-Citadelis, the castle visible in the distance. The academy was created with the sole purpose of fostering the next generation of warriors, adventurers, soldiers, guards and heroes of Avangarden. However, this was much different than a military academy, as the school also focused on the academic well-being of the students. Of the world ranking, the RGA was rated one of the great institutions in the fields of Mana Sciences, Mathematics, Sommniology and of course, Gladiatoring.
It wasn’t always this way. Siege could vividly remember his early years within the academy walls. It used to have a distinct grassy smell, though now it was replaced with gravel and sand to simulate the modern battlefield. Back then, it was focused solely on the battles and power, and the race for glory blinded them. If only they could see what the academy has become today.
Siege had spilt many pints of blood within these walls, and he was ready to do saw again. He could sense that he did not need to hold back against his opponent this time.
“You nervous, Siege?” asked Gallatin.
“No.”
“...It’s a bit nostalgic, isn’t it? You, me and Alveolo… Are you intending to attend the next entrance exam? It’s supposed to be next week Friday,”
“...Heh, if you go, I’ll follow.”
“There’s the leader of the Endlegion! Loosen up mate, it’s just a spar.”
“You shouldn’t let your guard down. You know what Yuta said about him, right?” said Mal.
“I was going easy, okay?! Also, a bit of a correction, I never fought Reginn, only the demon guy,” added Yuta.
“Be quiet,” interjected Alveolo, “You guys are delaying the inevitable.”
Reginn organized at the other end of the colosseum. In his mind were a racing myriad of computations and potential paths for the flow of the battles. The purpose of this encounter was to extract as much information as possible regarding the potential of the Endlegion as well as to impress the royals. The hero considered this a simple mental exercise before creating his grand plan regarding Kyriekaos.
“Before we begin, how about a wager?” said Siege.
The man spoke with his chest, and Reginn could hear him across the terrain.
“Fine, what do you want?”
“If we win… You have to join the Endlegion Silverguards.”
The royals and officials shifted in their seats. If such a promise was fulfilled, the power dynamics of the nation would shift tremendously. The influence of the Endlegion would increase dramatically and its consequences were unforeseen and unimaginable. Such a merger could spell the beginning of a new time of Avangarden — though whether of peace or conflict, they did not know.
“Sure, and if I win, how about you guys never bother me again?”
“Deal.”
The King stood from his seat, his booth reserved specially for himself with the rest in their own under him.
“We must alert you that this spar will be recorded for future analysis, but the information nor the footage will ever be revealed to the public. The school is vacant and with the wall of water surrounding us, this battle should be in secrecy.”
Reginn knew that the message was targeted at him. They must’ve recognized the tectonic events as a consequence of his own meddling. Of course, he wasn’t stupid enough to cause such a storm once again.
“Well then, let us begin this match.”
The general signalled the start with a whistle, its shrieking waves travelling across the field. However, Reginn was already on the move before the sound hit his ears, gaining two, no three steps ahead of his opponents.
Gallatin was able to compensate for this mistake with his exceptional reaction time and speed, though he soon realized that he could not compare with speed alone. While the individuals within Endlegion were not particularly remarkable against Reginn, together they could put up a good fight.
Gallatin acted as the distraction for his team, always approaching but never intending to hit Reginn. As he rushed up to the ancient hero, he was barely able to dodge the arm raised in order to break his run. This split second was enough to signal the others, and Yuta began firing his photon ray.
As the light travelled through the air, turning it into a plasma state, Reginn had already reacted to the anticipation beforehand and created a mirror using the mana of the atmosphere. This colosseum was especially rich, as many spells, charms and seals were used within the vicinity. The reflected ray hit Siege’s armour directly but to no effect.
Reginn quickly knocked out the distracted Gallatin, sending him flying toward the wall. Siege’s armour seemed extraordinary even compared to the technologies of the time — but also oddly familiar. It had the signatures of the Goddess, its design, material and form all remnants of her creations. However, since she was sealed, it must’ve either been an ancient relic or created by one of the children.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
While Reginn was busy contemplating, Alveolo took advantage of the situation and began casting a spell with a winding chant. Of course, it would’ve been elementary to dispel the spell by disrupting either the mana within her body or the mana in the atmosphere, but it was more impressive to the royals for him to tank the massive beam of ionizing radiation directly. As long as they were created from mana, Reginn’s body automatically destroyed all traces of it, like a black hole disposing of all but information.
So far, Siege had been waiting and watching the battle unfold alongside Mal. Both were experienced warriors and geniuses of tactics, and Siege soon recalled his teammates knowing the Reginn would give him time. Gallatin, whose regeneration recovered his health to a reasonable state, rushed the rest to the end opposing Reginn alongside Siege.
“I’ve got it,” said Siege with an almost certain, confident aura, almost making Reginn question his guarantee of victory.
He whispered his tactics in a code Reginn did not understand — correctly assuming that Reginn could hear their whispers from paces away — to Alveolo, who then cast a tier 4 information-type spell to instantly transmit the entire plan to the rest of the team.
Of course, Gallatin was the first piece to move in Siege’s predicted game of chess. His movement was swift and flowing, unlike the steps from before which destroyed the ground beneath him with each step. It was almost as if he was gliding toward Reginn, but it would be no matter.
He turned his back against the speedster and instead stared Yuta directly in his eyes. Yuta was sure that Alveolo’s enchantment made him completely silent and invisible in his movement, but to Reginn, each step anyone took produced a massive wave of disturbed mana in the air, making it difficult to ignore. Reginn directly grabbed Yuta’s face, and let Gallatin punch him directly on his spine, which only damaged the speedster. However, everything so far was within Siege’s plan.
Reginn noticed that Alveolo was casting a tier 3 spell, which even for a genius of a century would take around eight minutes to deploy and even for Reginn, it would take some time to master and a few minutes to cast. The warrior was unsure if this was another bait similar to Gallatin, but as he saw the amount of mana drained from Alveolo’s body, he assumed it was not — it would be foolish to deplete a core member for a simple trap. Additionally, thousands of spells had been created since Reginn’s death, and he was unsure what kind of spell this was going to be. Perhaps it could even be something Reginn was not immune to.
He quickly smashed Yuta’s head against the pavement, colouring the sand red. Reginn knew he could shake it off from his recovery against Zealot, but now he would be decapacitated for the rest of the match. As Reginn marched toward Alveolo, he was interrupted by Mal’s mace penetrating through the barrier of sound to reach him within milliseconds. The hero reacted by grabbing the mace but found it difficult to shatter. This must’ve also been a divine artifact, similar to Siege’s. He chose to throw it toward Alveolo instead, aiming for her leg faster than it had ever been thrown. As the mace began to glow a lava red within microseconds reaching a velocity thought impossible, Mal was able to recall the mace just before it reached it target.
‘A neat trick,’ thought Reginn. However, it would not amount to much other than convenience at the end. Finally, the only opponent between Alveolo and him was Siege in all his glory.
“What kind of leader watches as their teammates are torn apart?”
“I’m just waiting for my part in the script.”
“Well then, impress me.”
This would be a good beat within Reginn’s plan for the battle to show off his set of abilities, and Siege seemed to be the perfect punching bag with impenetrable armour. However, Reginn had a different idea in mind.
Twelve red spheres formed around Reginn, and the hero sat down leisurely as if announcing “I only need this single spell to defeat you”. If the hero was worth anything, they would at least be able to destroy the six red spheres, composed entirely of an extremely dense iron alloy.
Like an airshow, the red spheres cut through the air at impossible speeds, leaving behind a trail of void instantly imploding with the air. The spheres were heated to liquid form instantly, but Reginn’s control over them kept their spherical shape. Siege unveiled his lance — black, blue and gold — to block some of the attacks, but his armour tanked many of the hits.
On his back, four more lances emerged from their slots, each piloted automatically with a target. As the lance zoomed toward his face, Reginn simply recalled one of the metal spheres to block them. However, Reginn soon realized the true durability of the armour, and while he gained many clean strikes against his foe, time was running out as Alveolo began finishing her spell. Against an impenetrable shield, he would need an unstoppable force.
While Mal was off guard helping Gallatin stand back up, her mace was borrowed by Reginn’s red spheres. While she tried to react, the spheres were far too hot and fast to approach. The heat did not affect the mace, however, confirming his suspicion that it was of divine origin. Reginn’s experiment was: Which would break first, Mal’s mace or Siege’s armour? Unstoppable force versus impenetrable shield?
Now, Siege was bombarded not only by the iron but by his own teammate’s mace as well.
“Well, got any more tricks up your sleeve?”
Reginn already knew he had more tricks in his armour. It was similar to an entire armoury as it pertained to a myriad of weapons, shields and special equipment. However, he soon realized that Siege did not know of their existence, and was only bluffing about his confidence in battle. He should’ve recalled the time Sivrit described him as weaker than Yuta, and Siege’s main role in the team was not as a damage-dealer, but as a tank.
The hero quickly turned to face Aveolo, but it was too late. The spell had already reached completion and a ray of light immediately descended upon him, blasting him with every single form of damage. With the combination of all forms of death, the light was not white, but black, shining strangely against the coloured world.
The Endlegion Silverguard watched in anticipation to see its effects, and Alveolo hoped that she didn’t accidentally kill him.
“I’m disappointed.”
Before the spell could even end, Reginn walked outside of the blast radius himself with an unenthusiastic expression. He had expected some trump card — and perhaps it was to them — but all he was met with was a simple blast of light. No subspace manipulation, no time dilation, no dark matter creation, but a simple blast of light. Disappointing.
“Well then, I hope that this was an entertaining enough demonstration.”
Reginn ended the duel not with a powerful spell or a show of feat, but by leaving the stadium knowing that the winner was obvious to all.
As the royals watched on, some with terror, some with strange excitement, the King simply closed his eyes and began devising the plan C.
The hero walked by Siege before entering the exit but did not turn his gaze.
“I’ll see you again, Siege.”
But then again, perhaps if Alveolo’s spell was a tier 1 spell, a hidden talent she possessed, he could have possibly lost the spar. But then again, if she had such a spell in her cards, she would’ve been able to solve most of the world’s problems.
Now, he would begin his grand cascade, the trial of the century as the judge, jury and executioner. During the battle, he was shocked with inspiration, and Reginn was sure that none would stand in the way of his entrance.