Alexander’s POV

“Today is the day” Anansi says as he jumps on top of my chest repeatedly. This is the first time the spider actually looks cute. He has his little fangs rise in the air, and his color on his body is different. He is normally a brownish color, but now he is a bright orange. I get out of bed. Ugh, today will be one of those days. While getting dressed, the spider is running around me jumping around and singing, “Today will be an exceptional day. Yes, whoever witnesses this, shall never forget.”

After changing, the spider jumps on top of my head. “Alexander, your teammates will join us for today’s events. How do you feel about this?”

This shakes me. Anansi has done everything in his power to stay invisible. Yet now he wants to show off.

“Anansi is today really that important?” I ask, surprised.

He stops being erratic. “The three of you have so much talent. I can’t wait to see what you three bring in this fight. They would remember this fight through the ages. Everyone that sees it will remember it forever.” He jumps from off my head. “I will be back in a few hours, so be ready. Today will be a glorious day!”

He jumps once more and disappears. Looks like today is going to be different.

Exiting the room I walk down to the practice arena. Today is close-combat day. Looks like we have a change of plans. I don’t want the entire school involved with Anansi. Heck, I don’t even want my team involved either, but there is nothing I can do. I have to take it in stride. Ugh. I walk out to the practice arena and start some light practice. Knowing that today's events will push me to my limits I cannot have my usual workout today. Because of my light workout, I have plenty of time on my hands waiting for my team to arrive. The minutes passed as I wait for my team. Today like other days I’ve arrived an hour before my team, but since I do a lighter workout. I finish forty minutes before my team instead of the five minutes in which I usually finish. The wait is killing me. Staring at the door and waiting for them is taking forever. I keep looking at my watch as the time ticks closer and closer to their arrival It’s is strange, that they are early. Ever since Sasuke started to manage their schedule, they always arrived on time. Yet, they are early with grins on their faces.

They are standing in a straight line, but one of them is missing. Wendy isn’t there. Erica leaves the group and sits in her usual spot. The rest stands still while having the biggest grins on their faces. The doors open up.

“Happy birthday, Alexander!”

Oh no, Wendy comes out with a birthday cake with the numbers twenty on it. Today is my birthday. Wait, why did they set up this event for today? Well, it really doesn’t matter. Wendy sings, and the rest joins in. I close my eyes as they sing. Ugh, this is embarrassing. Good thing no one else is here. They all walk around me beside Wendy, who is in front.

She looks into my eyes and says, “Blow out your candles, birthday boy.”

It takes all of my power not to roll my eyes. Wendy looks so excited, and I don’t want to kill her fun. So, I blew out both of the candles on top of the cake. Wendy's eyes jump up with joy. I can tell she wants to hug me, but doesn’t because the cake was in the way.

Eddie pulls out a plastic knife and says, “Cut the cake, boss. We know you don’t like sweets, but it is your twentieth.”

Without saying a word, I cut open the strawberry shortcake. I watch as the knife slices through the strawberries. Some even slide off the cake and onto the ground. I pick them up and put them into my mouth. No need to waste strawberries.

“Well, since today is my birthday let’s have a relaxing day. We will only do only ten percent of our usual training.”

I can hear Erica falling out of her chair. I chuckle at the sound and sight of her falling over. She gets up and gives me a glare.

“Let’s have some cake before we train. Also, later we will have a few visitors.”

My team shouts “Yay!” and they go to the table to set down the cake along with plates and cutlery.

Erica throws down her books and stomps in my direction. She walks up to me and pulls my arm. She pulls me away from my team, out of hearing range.

“What is with you today, Alexander? You don’t care about birthdays, not even your own. Why are you giving them a break today? Who is coming? I keep track of these things. Yet, no visitors are coming today or even this week. Heck, I make sure that no one can get past my spy network. I want to stay in the loop of everything.”

I pat her on the shoulder. “Big sister, you have nothing to worry about. Just enjoy the day. Today something is going to happen that you will never forget. Today is going to change your life forever. You will not want to miss out on this.”

She is startled by my response. She gasps when I called, her big sister and is frozen on the spot. Haha, I am finally able to give her a shock. I will remember this day forever. This is the best birthday a man can ever ask for. I’ve I finally beaten my nemesis. I walk away and get a piece of cake, watching Erica unfreeze and move again.

Someone pokes me in the cheek. I look over, and Wendy is giving me a fork. She sits down next to me and starts talking.

“Alexander, I’m surprised that you will celebrate your birthday today. We have known each other for five years, and not once have you care about it. For five straight years you have never even mention your birthday. Heck, I even hinted a few times your birthday was coming up, or that day was your birthday. I know you aren’t big on the day but understand that others care. You give us a day off on our birthdays, besides Erica’s. She is the only person I don’t know what day her birthday is. But I guess she is like you. And she told me because I guess it would annoy you. Yet here you are, eating cake and enjoying yourself. I could see that evil, brief smile you gave Erica a little while ago. So how about you tell us really why is today so special.”

I pinch her lovely cheek. “Hey, don’t worry about it. Today will change everyone’s lives forever. The people we are meeting today are really special. And when I say really special, they are really, really special. Have fun. We will meet them in a few hours.”

As I watch her leave. I that I couldn’t tell her. We are meeting monsters. And they have some special plan for me today. The last time these monsters had something planned for me, they killed me four times in four unique ways.

I watch as my team does light drills, waiting for the evil spider to come back. Erica is in the back glaring at me while I wait for him to arrive. The time seems to trickle. I count every second, waiting for Anansi to show himself again.

At noon Eddy yells, “Hey, look over there. There is a rabbit, and on its head ,there is a spider. That’s a weird combo. They’re approaching us.”

I look up to where Eddy is pointing. Looks like our guests have arrived. Everyone walks toward them. The girls take the lead, and some of them bend over to touch the rabbit.

“Stop, don’t touch them. They are our guest, and touching them might have grave consequences” I yell out.

Everyone turns to look at me, confused. And, like always Perry doesn’t listen. He pushes past the girls and tries to pick up the rabbit. Crunch! Boom! Perry flies into the equipment.

“Hey, you guys. Telling my team is one thing, but I don’t want the entire school to know about you.”

Anansi jumps off the rabbit’s head. I’ve forgotten the rabbit’s name since it has been so long since we last met.

“Sorry, Alexander. Isis here has a temper. She is way worse than me. I will keep her in check. Anyway, the moment we came we put a barrier around this area, so we can keep out any surprises. If anyone were to look in this direction, the only thing they would see is you guys training.”

Anansi jumps on top of my head. “He is lucky. If he wasn’t part of your team, he would be dead right now. People need to learn to listen. Don’t touch me filthy human.”

Isis rubs her front paw against her face. My team looks at them confused but also they were ready for a fight. It seems the training is working. And it’s a good thing they are smart enough to know not to attack them.

“What is going on, Alexander?” Wendy looks at Anansi and me. I can hear a book shut. “I see that has been on top of your head this whole time. Ever since five years ago, you have been acting like something was on top of you head. But I could never see or sense it. So the thing is powerful enough to go unnoticed.” Erica glares at the Anansi and Isis.

I look around; I think things are going swimmingly. Perry gets up and looks around. He looks at the rabbit and shrieks with fear.

“Alexander, should I introduce us or should you?” Anansi changes his body colors to a black and white with a skull shape on its back.

I look at them both. I don’t think I can introduce them both. Heck, I don’t even know who the rabbit is, and I think half of my team might attack Anansi once they find out who he is.

“Can you introduce yourself? Isis first then you.”

Anansi jumps from my head and lands on the ground.

“Anansi, why do we have to introduce ourselves to these worthless humans? Only three of them are worthy of our presence, and the rest should bow down asking for mercy.” Isis says in a stern tone.

“I’m sorry about this one. Her pride gets in the way. She doesn’t like people because of what happened on our ship. Don’t worry about her. I will make sure she doesn’t kill everyone here in a fit of rage.”

I look on in horror knowing the power they have, and one of them having a short fuse doesn’t sound good. I take two steps back.

Erica looks in my direction and walks over. She whispers in my ear, “Are they really that powerful where you are taking a step back?”

I nod my head. She sighs and stops glaring at the two. Instead of glaring at them, she pulls a pen and notepad from back her back pocket and starts writing things down.

The spider grows bigger, doubling, then tripling its size over again until it is bigger than an adult male. It is at least seven feet tall. Everyone takes a step back now, all except Erica, who ignores the giant spider and is still writing in her notepad, only glancing up once as the spider’s size multiplies.

“I’m the great fairy of this planet. You know me as the fairy god. I am the great and powerful Anansi.”

The others look on in shock upon hearing his announcement. But within seconds, everyone besides Erica takes a fighting stance. They all emit a fighting aura, getting ready for battle. Well, I might have to step in. There is no way they can beat this opponent. I pull up my hands but aura force me to my knees. Everyone besides erica fall to the ground. I look up and Erica was the only one unaffect because she was the only one who wasn’t moving. The rabbit was glaring in my direction. Uh oh. She walks equally with the Shadow and Anansi. What did I do to piss her off?

“Alexander, why are these stupid humans trying to fight Anansi?” The rabbit asks in an angrily voice.

“Um…” I look at her nervously. Anansi is super powerful. He can destroy an entire universe with just a thought. And now I’m kneeling to someone whom he seems to respect.

“I’ve never told them about Ansai, and besides that, he told the fairy users about me. I can’t tell my team that the god responsible for my parents’ death is riding on top of my head every day.”

She stares deeply into my eyes. “Stop, don’t kill him, Isis.”

The man that calls himself the Shadow appears in front of me.

“Move out of the way, Shadow. He needs to learn his place in the universe. We get to decide who lives and who dies. He should have told his team about Anansi and got them all to understand the difference in power between them. They should be honored to be in his presence,” she yells angrily at the man.

The shadow takes a step back. “Isis, this isn’t like you. You don’t care about honor. Heck, the last time I saw you, you watching as some random drunk made fun of how I dress.” He talks to her with a questioning look. The surrounding pressure grows stronger. I can’t stay on my knees and fall to the ground head first.

“Um, Shadow, she doesn’t care about honor. She just doesn’t want Wendelin to lose to Alexander in the fight that is happening today,” Anansi says jumping up and down, answering the Shadow.

Isis shoots Anansi a glare that could kil. The weight on top of me intensifies.

“Isis, I’m sorry but don’t punish him because he is going against your baby girl.” Anansi says grimacing. The Shadow looks at me and then toward Anansi and Isis. “Isis, who is that girl to you? Why is she so freaking important that you are trying to kill Alexander here?” the Shadow asks in a confused voice.

“Can you pick her up and rub her head Shadow? It is taking a lot of power to keep Alexander alive, and you are the only person who can calm her down. She loves Wendelin like a child. So do I need to say any more?” Anansi asks.

I hear a purring noise, and the Shadow is behind Isis. He picks her up and starts rubbing her head. There is a purring sound coming out of the rabbit. With that, the force was on top of me evaporates. I stand up, and the rest of my team follows suit. They all look at the Shadow and others with fear in their eyes.

“You guys have nothing to worry about. If they wanted us dead, we’d be dead. I am sorry Miss Isis about my team. Next time when any of you show up, me and my team will address you with respect.” I get down on one knee and put my head down, submitting to her.

I heard voices of shock. “Alexander, you why are you bowing down?” Jacquelyn asks in a horrified voice.

The rabbit snorts. She jumps out of the Shadow ‘s arms turns her face away from me, and says, “My name is Isis a the name taken after an Egyptian goddess. If any of you should cross me, a spaceship that is over two light years long will appear before this planet and blow it out of the sky. Don’t take this threat lightly.” The Shadow picks up Isis up again and starts petting her.

I heard a moron sneer. Percy antagonizes these godlike being. I freeze him on the spot. I hear Isis snorts at me. My god, how can I get out of the doghouse?

Anansi speaks again. “Shadow, since today is your birthday, we are having a special event on the ship. A fight between Alexander, Wendelin and Wilfred. Everyone is going to be there. Isis and I woke up everyone that who wanted to sleep and we turn everyone that was going crazy during this time period back sane. Heck I’m even showing myself to Alexander’s team. We also invited them to see this grand event. I promise you it will be a fight of a lifetime. Our lifetime. It will be bigger than the original Hercules versus the god Hercules.”

The Shadow looks at the spider, uninterested. “Nah, it would be a brief fight in which my greatest descendant Alexander over here destroys them both within a matter of minutes. It would be nice seeing that girl getting destroyed in a fight. This is a great birthday gift.”

Isis leaps out of the Shadow’s arms and drop kicks him in the face. Boom! He is sent flying away so fast that I cannot see where he lands.

“My baby girl will surprise you. She might not beat Alexander, but she isn’t going down without a fight. Take that back, old man, or face my wrath!” Isis yells at the Shadow.

Anansi looks around sand says, “Welp, this is getting out of hand. Everyone, we are leaving.”

Pop. As soon as I hear it, we changed location. In front of me are two black teens, one male and the other female. They are standing a few meters away from me. I can see their two fairies, the female have with a Minotaur as a fairy, but this Minotaur differs from the one I fought last time. He is skinnier and fit. He doesn’t have the bulging muscles like the last one. The other fairy is a salamander. The boy was riding on its back, laying down on it. He lay look up at me and doesn’t seem to consider me a threat. These are two high-level fairies and with users so young. The other Minotaur, fairy user I fought, was in his 20s or even above his 30s but this girl was a teen and she already had a Minotaur as her fairy. I ignore them and look around the place.

I am in a giant stadium with an audience in numbers beyond comprehension. It is as if I can see everyone in every seat from my location, but there were so many people it hurts the eyes to look.

“Don’t look at the audience. There are trillions of beings on this ship, and they are all here to see this fight. Usually, we get one tenth of the audience, but it looks like today is a very special day. We have been waiting for you and practicing just to fight you. I hope you are as powerful as they say you are.” The girl looks at me and says.

“Sister, there is nothing to be worried about. It is two against one. I doubt he can beat you alone, and with me as your back-up there is no way we will ever lose. We can finally hit a dragon. This boy isn’t an enormous threat.” the boy says.

Wait, how are they brother and sister? They look just alike, I look at them with a confusedly.

“The Shadow says we somehow broke his programming. Yeah, no biological siblings look as much alike as we do. The Shadow doesn’t understand how it’s happened, but we are the only two family members that look alike.” the girl said, shrugging her shoulders as if she was reading my mind.

“Wow, that is interesting tell me more.” Erica's voice appears beside us.

I turn and look in the direction from which her voice comes. She and the rest of the team are on a flying bench that was hovering out of the stadium and to the left of me. Erica still has her notes out and is eyeing the girl with a gleeful expression.

The girl looks at Erica and asks, “What do you want to know?” Erica replies, “Everything.”

“Sister! These people are our enemies. Why are you talking to them?” the boy shouts.

The sister sighs “I have no grudge against anyone here, and they want to know about their history. I don’t mind telling them.”

She turns toward Erica and explains our history, “The spider was born a long time ago on our planet. It lived it life by itself for a few billion years, but who cares? It isn’t really important. The important part is when the Shadow was born. He had a family, blah blah blah. This doesn’t matter. What does matter he went to Mars made a friend, the friend betrayed him, and then he made it so nothing would ever live on that planet. He travels the multiverse doing random evil things that one can stop.”

“What do you mean evil things, little girl?” The Shadow appears in front of her and yells in her face.

The girl ignores him and walks between him and Erica, and starts talking again.

“Anyway, he comes back to Earth and finds out our people are raping, killing, going to war.”

Erica holds out her hand and asks, Wait a second I never heard of the word rape what does it mean?” The girl sighs, “Sometimes people use force to get sex. There are a few reasons for why people do this but it doesn’t matter anymore. The Shadow took away are ability to do this and is one of the good things he help us with. He also made us a lot smarter and more studious. Lastly, he got rid of nationality, race and other factors that would have caused us to splinter into distinct groups. That is why we don’t look alike from mother, father, sons, or daughters. In the rest of the universe kids look like their parents or someone else we related them to.”

Erica eyes are glowing. “This explains so much. Thank you. Also, thank you, Shadow. You have been a big help.”

The Shadow pushes the girl out of the way. See, I like her. She is the only one out of you ungrateful bunch that has been nice to me. Hey little girl, you forgot I made women and men as strong as each other so that one side wouldn’t bully the other.”

The girl rolls her eyes and says, “Good job, evil monster. You have done good. Do you want a treat for your excellent work?”

“I am going to ki” Before the shadow can finish his sentence, a giant rabbit kicks him in the face and drops him to the ground.

“Isis!” The girl runs up to the rabbit and gives it a big hug.

The Shadow gets up, “Ugh, I have done so much for you people and these are the thanks that I get. Heck, even my favorite didn’t give me thanks. He found out about this years ago and he shrugs his shoulders in response.”

The Shadow turns around and points to Erica. “You, girl. You are my new favorite. Alexander has moved down a spot.”

Erica looks ecstatic. “Thank you, sir! I will remember this forever.”

I lose my footing and fall to the ground. Wow, she actually is grateful to someone. This has never happened before. Also, she understands how powerful this guy is.

“Hey, you don’t need to be nice to him. He is a monster that does a few good things. Ask him how many trillions of people he has killed.”

The Shadow turns toward her and glares.

“It is fine,”she says. “I can see he is a really powerful and there is nothing we can do about it. I can see your fighting spirit, and even you can’t do anything about him. It is better to stay on the monster's good side than on the bad one. I enjoy living my life and I don’t have someone to protect me like you do.” Erica says with a smirk on her face.

The other girl laughs. “True, true. Nothing I can say about Mr. Shadow. We all think you are a terrible monster, so become a better person.”

The Shadow gives her another glare and turns away from her.

A microphone rises from the ground, and the Shadow picks it up. “Time for you to go” he says to the Isis and snaps his fingers. She disappears.

Anansi looks up at me and says, “Showtime.” He also disappears.

The Shadow turns toward the audience. The two siblings start light exercises. The Minotaur flexes, and the salamander breathes fire in my direction. Looks like playtime is over and it is almost time to fight, I stretch.

“All of you losers here today will be your lucky day. We have a full audience because Anansi and Isis have given me an outstanding birthday gift. Today we will watch my descendants show off their skills and power. The one to watch is this boy over here. His talent is outstanding. Everyone cheer for Alexander.” The shadow points to me. The silence was deafening.

There are trillions of creatures, monsters, animals, and people in the audience, and not one of them gives me a single cheer. It took a few seconds, and they heard the only sound of clapping from my teammates. Ok, this looks embarrassing. Well, at least my team kind of supports me. Only a few are clapping. I don’t know which is worse my teammates that are clapping or the ones that aren’t. It doesn‘t matter. Why should I care about what the audience thinks? This is a fight, and the people who are fighting have the fate of the world on their shoulders. Just like me,And they are going to bring everything they have in this fight.

The shadow yells, “Why aren’t you clapping?”

People and things jeer from the audience, “No one cares about him.”

“Yeah, who cares?“

“Get on with the introductions.”

“Hurry up!”

“Dummy!”

“Dummy!”

“Dummy!”

They’ve gone from yelling at the Shadow to chanting ‘dummy.’

The Shadow’s face contorts. “Shut up, all of you. You don’t see Alexander's greatness. Heck, you guys all should know Alexander is going to win this fight, so cheer for him!”

“Boo!” the audience hollers, and a wave of boos rings throughout the stadium.

“Shut up, ok? Next is the loser boy of the team, Wilfred.”

There were some cheers for the kid. At least he gets something good for him.

Wilfred looks at the Shadow and shouts, “Hey, that isn’t called for.”

The Shadow yells back, “No one cares, boy. Shut up and get ready for a beat-down of a lifetime.”

The boy yells back, “It’s two versus one, and that guy hasn’t been training with dragons for five freaking hard years. I really doubt he is stronger than me, not considering my sister. Watch us, Shadow. We are going to make you eat your words.”

The Shadow grins. He turns back to the audience and says, “And our last contest is Wen-.”

Before the Shadow even finishes saying her name, the crowd erupts cheering her name. “Wendelin! Wendelin! Wendelin!” repeatedly. The shadow looks bewildered.

I look at the young girl, trying to see how she would handle the crowd. She is just staring daggers in my direction with no hint of noticing the crowd. It impresses me to me seeing someone so young and not caring about the pressure of a crowd. Instead, it is her little brother that responds to the crowd. He moves his arms up and down, goading the crowd to get even louder, and louder they get. The crowd rises to their feet and are even stomping on the ground. I watch as my team, become not only confused but angry. Yes, this fight seems like the home -field advantage for their side. The crowd grows silent after a few minutes of cheering.

The Shadow speaks again “Looks like I have been away for a while. It’s taken only five years for this little one to win your hearts. Well, it will take five minutes for Alexander over here to break your hearts. Since today is a very special day, we have announcers. The first announcer is the true and first Hercules.”

A brown man appears next to the Shadow. He is over six feet tall and very fit. I wouldn’t call him muscular, but he is close to that description. I can see his strength from here. I doubt I can even scratch the man, let alone beat him in a fight.

“I don’t know why the next announcer is here. He doesn’t talk much. He only talks in grunts but since he is these two brats’ teachers and wants to join in on commentating, here is Goldfish.”

The Shadow announces the next man. The guy that has orange skin and gives off this terrifying aura. I can tell that he was almost as strong as Hercules perhaps slightly weaker. Yet, I would rather fight and lose to Hercules one billion time instead of fighting this Goldfish guy once. He looks towards me and grunts.

Suddenly two different colored flames spring up in the background one is white, and the other black. I feel a connection to the white flame, but I can hear the black flame calling my name. There are two creatures that were spewing the flames. They fly across the stadium in an arc, making a display over us. This is the first time I have seen dragons, and they are as terrifying and mystical as people think they are. They land on the ground and glance at my two opponents, and I can see them smirking. They turn towards me and their expressions are those of confusion. I don’t know how I can read their expressions. They walk around me. I can hear them sniffing the surrounding air. As they walk around, their confused grow ever more so each time they sniff the air. After circling around me, they look at each other and snort. The dragons speak to each other.

“You can have this one, brother.”

“No, brother, you can have him.”

The Shadow frowns and yells at the dragons “What’s the hold-up? We have things to do. Stop looking at Alexander like that, and come on.”

They both snort at the Shadow. “He smells like the Shadow… but doesn’t at the same time.” one dragon says.

“He is killing himself to be part of one faction when he should be the other. Tsk.” the other one continues.

The black dragon walks up to me and points his finger, saying, “You have committed a great sin trying to follow the light with so much darkness inside of your soul. I should kill you now to save you from the suffering you might experience later, but there is plenty of time for you to change your ways. You are really lucky that you are the Shadow’s decedent because if you where anyone else trying to do what you are doing you would die a horrible death. My brother and I have witnessed countless number of lives trying to overcome the darkness or the light, and, in the end, they wound up disfigured and dead. Don’t let this happen to you, boy. Either give up the light or give up your revenge.” T

The black dragons turn away from me and fly up to where both Hercules and Goldfish were sitting, waiting. The white dragon follows behind him.

Isis appears next to them as well and yells out to the audience, “Shut up, idiots. It is almost time for the fight. Shadow, do you want to make a bet?”

The Shadow looks at her and grins. “What is the bet, Isis? Should we see if Wendelin and Wilfred last longer than a three minutes? Wait, we need to give them a chance. one minute.”

Isis glares at the Shadow. The grass around me dies.

The Shadow glances around nervously. “I kid, I kid. Isis, ok, tell me the time limit, and we can see how long these two losers will last.” Isis looks at the girl and glares at the Shadow. “Five minutes. Not only would they both last that long, but they will also break records. When this fight is done, you will acknowledge them in a big way. You will warn Alexander after this fight.”

The Shadow laughs. “ha! Five minutes. That is impossible, ” Yet, he looks at the two kids. His eyes narrow. He turns and glances at me and smiling. “Sure, I‘ll take that bet. To the winner children. Alexander!”

The way he says my name, I know it is something important.

The Shadow yells, “Alexander, win under five minutes, and I will tell you who killed your parents.”

I can feel my heart stop. That information is top secret for everyone. The elders have kept this information from me since I broke into the Library of Knowledge right before the fight with Elder Jessie. The information is beyond top secret. I was lucky that the computer hadn’t destroyed my hard drive when I went looking for that information. I asked both Elder Jessie and Kyle, though neither of them would tell me anything. I even had to throw away my pride trying to get Elder Jessie to tell me that information. Yet they’ve kept their mouths shut. I asked my parents about it and even used their influence to try to get the answers, but they were both dead ends.

I can feel my heart beating again. Without noticing, I stop breathing, calming myself down, I take a deep breath and start breathing again. This is a chance of a lifetime. The Shadow must really want to win this bet. Now, this betting nonsense matters to me. I need to know this information. There is no reason to play around with these two kids, but now it has gotten personal. I still need to play this smart. The world freezes. Before this fight even starts, I need to play mind games. I will take every advantage that I can take. Pretending that my element is ice should catch them off guard when we fight.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The ice reaches both of my opponents. The boy laughs.

“Dude, the moment you appeared we could tell your element was fire. Please, this is such an easy trick for us notices for us. Come at us with you’re a-game, or we will beat you in under five minutes.”

Hmm, this is surprising. I’ve met no one that could see through this ruse. I can even trick the elders. Unless one already knew my powers, they could never guess which element is my best.

“Brother, you are mistaken. His best element isn’t fire but water. He doesn’t smell of the light but the dark. We must be careful. He is doing something that should be impossible.”

I raise an eyebrow at her, surprise not only that she could see through my ruse but also that she was able to figure out my true element.

She shrugs her shoulders reading my mind again. “I lost an arm trying to do what you did. So for you not to lose an arm or any body part still be standing in front of us well, I can guess that you are way stronger than me or my brother. You reject the dark because it doesn’t fit your motives. The dark is supposed to be for defense. You are offense-minded. How about letting go of the thing that is causing you to join the darkside? The light would welcome to you.”

I look at her questioningly.

“I can tell someone’s personality just by looking at them. You are on the light side. Straight forward, explosive, doesn’t like tricks, all qualities of the light. But you have darkness in your heart. Hatred I think something happens in your past that you can’t get over. This drives you. Well, revenge drives you. You want revenge for your parents. Therefore, you aren’t part of the light. So, either get rid of the revenge or join the darkness in which you belong. I would rather not have you pollute the light with your darkness.”

I stamp my foot in anger. “Who do you think you are? What do you think you understand about me?”

She holds out her hand and starts laughing. Her face turns crooked. “My life in a nutshell. Ever since I was born my family has been on the run from your people. If we ever got caught, they would throw us into slavery. Now, I am here on this ship training to fight you, or my entire planet will be destroyed. And if I lose this battle, they could wipe my people out or return us to slavery. I don’t care about your history. Your parents died. Boohoo. You don’t have to find out your parents are monsters. The only reason my brother and I were born because we are supposed to be the next leaders of the resistance. This is our duty. Tell me, boy. Did your parents have a child to become warriors in a war?”

I couldn’t say anything to her. Looks like I am acting like the world is only unfair to me, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t bring the criminals to justice. My parents weren’t killed because they were the leaders of our organization or that they wanted to breed a super-solder. They were killed to stop me from being born. I have to repay them. Their deaths are on my hands. She is fighting for her people, but I am being selfish. I know this. But I am to blame for their deaths, and I want revenge. There is no reason for kind people to die on my behalf. I must right this wrong, and no one will stop me.

The shadow grunts. “If you two kids are finished playing around, can you morons get ready to fight?” I look at her, and she gives me a grin. “I really don’t care about my people. So if you really want to get your revenge, go for it. But I will beat you and find a better life for my brother.”

She shrugs her shoulders and her Minotaur roars. It beats its chest and stomps its feet. “We are ready, all evil one. Call it at any time.”

The Shadow sneers at her and snaps his fingers. He disappears and reappears with the rest of the announcers. I turn toward my opponents and give them one last run down. The boy is riding his salamander without a care in the world, which isn’t surprising. He isn’t taking this fight seriously. But the girl isn’t ready either. She is tapping her foot and looking at her nails. I would think she would be in a fighting position if so much as she considered me a threat. Ever since I arrived to this place, I have shown no openings. Why would I trust anyone here not to be dangerous? But these two are not taking me seriously.

The Shadow shots, “Ok, ladies and gentlemen, this is the time for battle. The brats have stopped talking. Now, it is time to fight. Get ready, set…”

Before he can say ‘go’, the girl jumps into actions. She launches herself at me. There isn’t any way she as run as she is. It seems like her minotaur has launched her using the earth element catapulting her forward. As she is flying towards me, I wonder if she is attacking before the Shadow could say ‘go’ because it was him saying it, or if she wanted to catch me off guard, or both.

I dodge her attack, watching as she flies past me. I turn toward the other one. There is no reason to worry about attacking me from behind. She flew pass me, at the speed she was flying it would be impossible for he to stop. Also, her can’t help her from this distance so she will hit a wall before she is able to turn around. I feel the breeze on my neck and duck in the nick of time. She tries to backhand me. I turn and see a giant hand grabbing her legs to stop her movement. That is smart- instead of crashing into a wall which would make a lot of noise, she instead creates a giant hand from the ground to catch her. The only reason I could dodge her attack was because of the wind at my control. It surprises me that even from this far away, her fairy can still use its powers. I will have to determiner her maximum distance. I refuse to be surprised like that again.

An half second after the girl rush at me. The boy had his fairy to send out a huge fireball. It was time perfectly with her attack. As I dodge her back-hand, with my left hand, I slice the fire into two and it blows past me. They both hit the ground in a small puff. I can hear the audience cry out in disappointment. They must have to assumed the fire would have caused an explosion. Do they realize fire doesn’t explode willy nilly? What children! What, they only watch movies and never been to a physics class before? I swear, I’m on the most advanced ship that might have ever existed and there are still so many morons on here. The boy looked at surprised at how easily and how I’ve stopped his attacked. This is good. He might be paralyzed for most of the fight. The girl runs right at me. This is surprising. Most fairy users with minotaurs like to stay back and build a labyrinth, trapping people with the minotaur because the minotaur is way too slow to catch anyone. Therefore, her charging at me is surprising. I get ready for her attack. Her minotaur hasn’t moved an inch.

She is an arm's length away from me now. She throws her fist at my face. Wow, she isn’t wasting any time now. It’s was a straight punch; she doesn’t even have earth element in her hand. She really wants to either end this fight super-fast or is testing her own strength against me after what the Shadow and the others have said. No matter what, she is faster than anyone in my age groups besides maybe Erica. Dodging that punch with ease, she does a feint with her right arm and instead tries to kick me in my groin. I punch down, knocking her foot away. She follows that up with a punch to my jaw. Wow, she doesn’t stop attacking. She also has great footing. I try to knock her off her feet, but she instead positions herself in a way to throw another punch. This fight is finally getting interesting.

I dodge the next punch and kick her away. She flies back to her Minotaur. The Minotaur catches her in the air and throws her at me. The Minotaur then starts charging at me. It’s fast-the fastest Minotaur that on record, I think. I have been thinking this a lot today huh? The girl is flying fast at me, so I tried to take a step back to throw a punch. A wall stops me from getting into position. It seems she has decided that fighting hand to hand is a losing battle and is using her fairy and its powers against me. She has a level head to change strategies so fast. I use my elbow to break the wall behind me and get into position to throw out my attack. She can’t change directions and is flying straight towards me. As she reaches me, she throws a punch. I easily dodge it and punch her right in the face, causing her to fall straight down into the ground. The Minotaur is right next to me. It uses a club to attack me as I punch the girl into the ground. It is a good combination attack. I freeze its arm as it swings down its club. The girl grabs my leg as I am picking it up to kick the Minotaur. I kick her in the face to force her to let go of my leg. In the second it took me to kick her, the Minotaur frees itself from the ice. The Minotaur finishes swinging down the club, but by that time I am free.

I dodge the swing and kick the Minotaur back. The girl gets up and makes a wall between us. We both punch through the earth at the same time. It seems the girl's plan was to get dirt and rocks in my eyes. This is easy to take care of. With a bit of wind, I can sweep all the dirt from my eyes, making it so I don’t have to take my eyes off my opponent. Well, it is quite a sight to see. She took all the rocks and dirt right in the eyes. She doesn’t even try to dodge the attack. I know we won’t be blind from this attack, but it would hurt like hell. I can’t even believe my eyes. She doesn’t even blink as the particles go right into her eyes. I can barely dodge an uppercut coming my way. She even threw an attack while rocks pelt her eyes. This catches me off guard, but not for long. She throws everything until the uppercut, causing her to leave her feet. I kick her right in the stomach, causing her to fly away from the attack.

The Shadow’s POV

I can understand Isis not caring about him but everyone else. Hercules and Goldfish should know that the other two kids don’t have a chance at winning this fight, but they aren’t rooting for my boy. Wait, is no one interested in this fight? But how can that be? Anansi and Isis have gathered everyone to this event? They even got creatures that were comatose and woke them up for this fight. At least there are a few people cheering for him, his friends that Anansi has brought with them. This crowd is going to be hard to win over, but I know Alexander can do it. Now for the next brat.

“For Alexander’s opponent, we’ve got Wilfred, the boring little kid.” There were a few cheers here and there. The boy looks around and is seemingly surprised to get those cheers. He gives his little fan base a wave.

“I wish my disciple had more confidence. I, a mighty dragon, trained him.” The black dragon digs through his mouth with his finger. “Hey Shadow, why didn’t you tell the audience that my boy has the biggest salamander on record for his age?” he black dragon asks me with a glare.

Oh, does this stupid dragon dare glare at me? With one flick of my finger, I cause the dragon to slam his head on the desk.

“I said nothing about it because it doesn’t matter. Alexander is going to win this fight in less than minutes, and that stupid spider and the rabbit are going to eat their words.”

I smirk as the dragon lifts his head.

“Shadow, get on with it. My little girl is waiting to be announced.” Isis jumps on the table and is tapping her foot on it. Why is she so impatient?

Ok, ok, I will announce the last one. “For the last of my progeny, I give you Wendelin.” The crowded bursts into applause. Out of the corner of my eyes, I see Anansi put on some ear muffs on the side of his head. He is a spider but loves acting like a human. I am wondering why he has put them on. I would never have expected her to gained so much support over the years.

Her brother knew this was going to happen. He puts his fingers in his ears. What did I miss?

“So, how do you like my little girl now? Humph!” Isis speaks to me through my mind. “Instead of only paying attention to Alexander, you have missed the development of these two gems. Anansi picked them for a reason.”

I ignore her. “That is my disciple down there. How does it look, Blackie? Doesn’t she draw in a crowd? Wait, you guys like being in the shadow of greatness? How does it feel?”

The white dragon pulls in the black dragon by its neck. “I can’t believe I have to say this again. Being in the shadows is better than burning bright and fading quickly. Don’t worry about my disciple, but make sure yours doesn’t burn out too quickly.

” The black dragon turns towards me. “That goes for Alexander.”

I roll my eyes and ignore both stupid dragons.

“Ok, ladies and gentlemen, this is the time for battle. The brats have stopped talking. Now, it is time to fight. Get ready set go!”

With that one announcement, before the word go, the girl attacks Alexander. What a mean little girl I feel bad for the boy. He has such a poor match up with Alexander. I doubt he is going to be any use in this fight. Alexander, with one swing of his hand causes, the fireball to spilt into two and fall beside him.

“Boo! Where is the explosion? I wanted to see an explosion.”

There are members of the audience that want an explosion. What do they think this is a movie or something? Why would fire cause an explosion?

I turn to Isis and say, “Everyone that was looking for an explosion should be forced to take a bunch of different science classes. They should know better than this.” She nods her head in agreement.

“And right off the bat, Wendelin sends a message to Alexander. Who attack first wins the fight.” Hercules says into the mic. Oh yeah, we are supposed to be commentating on the match.

Erica’s POV

As the battle is starting, I’m getting a bad feeling. The Shadow is rooting hard for Alexander, but the other two seem to be up to something. Why did they easily agree to the five minutes? I can sense they are both as powerful as me, but the boy has a tremendous disadvantage. This fight would easily be over in less than three minutes, so why did those two take the bet? Let’s look back at what we know.

The Shadow ‘s POV

I’m surprised the boy isn’t doing half bad. Alexander has tried to bait him a few times, but he refuses to take the bait. He knows Alexander is waiting for his attack. He is stuck sitting back and watching his sister brutally beating. It must be tough, but I have to hand it to him for not attacking. The dragons trained these two well, but it is all for naught. The little girl tries to pull a little trick, but it backfires hard on her. Wait!

“What in the world was that!?” I angrily yell at Isis and Anansi. “Are you two trying to cheat in helping them win?”

Isis scoffs. “If we had cheated, you would have flown into the arena and stopped the fight right there and then. You refuse to watch their growth, and now look at them. Does the audience seems surprised by what’s happened? Look around. The only people that are surprised by what has happened are you, Alexander, and his friends.”

I glare at the rabbit and turn my attention back to the fight. I might have been wrong about these two, but I will never admit it in front of anyone.

Alexander’s POV

The girl does a flip and lands on her feet. Right as she lands, she charges once again. “Stop, sister. We have tried it your way. He’s too powerful. We are going to strategy D,” the boy says to his sister.

She snorts and replies, “Alright. We will try it a different way.”

Wilfred’s POV

Good thing I stop my sister. She would have lost all reasoning and tried to get into another fistfight with our opponent. He broke her nose and barely had to use his elemental powers. I might have to show my hand sooner rather than later. But before that, we must do everything in our power to not show him everything. He is going to be our opponent.

Alexander’s POV

The Minotaur falls back to its owner. She stands behind him and beckons me over. We are still under the time limit, and I want to know the people that killed my parents. I take off, wanting to meet them head-on. The Minotaur steps in front of me and swings his club. I initially intend dodge it when I notice it was getting larger. The Minotaur is gathering rocks, making his club bigger. Also, the girlis moving. She is waiting for me to move so she can counterattack. This isn’t all. The boy creates a flame rope tying me to the ground. If I were anyone else, this three-pronged attack would have done me in. I create ice beneath, my feet, causing me to slide on the ground. I fall backwards, causing the Minotaur to swing overhead and miss me. The girl has to dodge the Minotaur’s swing, giving me a chance to get ready for her attack. She swings downwards. In a moment of distraction I am able to manipulate the fire holding me, causing it to swing me to the right and dodge her attack. I freeze the fire holding me down and break free of the now frozen fire. I land on my feet.

It is time to get serious. Without hesitation, I summon a sword of fire in my hands, a spear of lightning behind me, and at last a collection of wind spears behind me. This fight has gone over a minute I have played with them for too long. With a single swipe of my sword, the grass catches on fire. I can see the blue aura from the burning grass in the eyes of my opponents. The girl smiles while the boy looks in horror at the display of my power.

Shadow’s POV

With one swing of Alexander’s mighty sword, the audience shuts up. They now understand the power he wields. There are only two creatures that are excited for the recent development: the crazy girl and also the white dragon.

The white dragon roars and says, “Yes, a new challenge for my disciple to face. Fight to the death. We are all here to witness your powers, girl. You have four more minutes to survive against this unbeatable foe.”

He roars again, looks up at the sky, and shoots out a huge blue fireball. I can guess what is going through the girl's head. She is like most people that are under the influenced of the light. They want conflict and battle. Not only that, but they must be the first one to charge into it. Looking at this fight once again reminds me that Alexander isn’t cut out to be in the light. He still refuses to take the initiative. He also doesn’t love the fight. It is something that he needs to do, not something he wants to do, as opposed to the girl who is captured by the light. Even now, against all odds, she is going to charge head forward in a fight in where there is no way to win. This is going to be brutal.

“For all of those that don’t want to see a terrible beating, turn away now. Wendelin might not survive this onslaught” I announce into the microphone. All of my crew nod their heads in agreement. Even Isis doesn’t fight against me on this.

Wilfred’s POV

I watch in horror as our opponent creates a blue flame sword like it’s nothing. With one swing, the entire arena is covered in blue flames. Against this kind of power, we are hopeless. We aren’t ready for this. I didn’t think that anyone on the planet could even be a challenge to my sister. Not only was that logic wrong but looking at this dude, we might not have a chance. I don’t want to show my trump card, but it might not matter now. My trump card is useless. I have a fairy that can control fire, and yet our opponent doesn’t even care. He breaks all logic and has brought out a blue-flaming sword, which breaks all reason. It isn’t close to white, but it is lighter than a dark blue, which should be impossible. Only elders are powerful enough to create a fire that burns hot enough to become blue. I think the strongest elemental user would have a much darker blue hue.

“Haha finally a fight” My sister laughs. Her eyes shrink and she runs at our opponent.

Alexander’s POV

This girl is insane. Does she really think she can beat me? She runs at me at full speed. Her speed catches me off guard. She is running faster than last time, but this doesn’t matter. While she was is six to seven feet away from me, I swing my sword. I also send one of my wind blades in front to extend the reach of my flame sword. She tries dodging the attack by leaping, but it still hits her in the legs. What surprises me is that she is able to block it with earth. She isn’t even looking at the sword. Her eyes were dead-set on me. I have to give it to her trainer. They’ve train her to defend herself without even looking. This is no small feat. She creates a stone wall behind her. With a tiny flip in the air, she can position herself to launch from the stone block. She creates cracks on the stone and launches from it. This attack makes no difference. This time before I attack her with my flame blade, I send both a wind blade and throw a lightning blade with my left hand. She once again tries to defend with stone in front of her body. The wind tears through the stone like it is nothing. The lightning spear strikes her, causing her to lose consciousness.

She doesn’t lose any speed and comes crashing down. She is still falling towards me. I kick her in the face as her body approaches and dislodge a tooth. She regains consciousness and tried to reorient herself. As she lands on the ground, I follow up with a sword strike to her face. She creates a stone shield in front of her. She may have blocked my blade, but it doesn’t stop the heat. Her face is burned. I keep swinging my sword, forcing her to back up. She tries to flee from me, but with the wind at my back there is nowhere she can escape.

While trying to run away, she switches strategies. Instead of trying to run with her full might, she instead covers herself in rocks. I throw up my fire sword and pull down two wind swords. Because she is covered in rocks, her speed drops dramatically. I swing one of my swords at her. The wind cuts through all the rocks leaving her skin exposed. I give her a punch in the area. This causes her to lose focus and weakens her cover. The stone become weak enough for my flame sword. I swing my sword at her chest. Causing the remaining rocks to break away from her. I continue to swing my sword. With each swing I smell burning flesh. I can’t see her burn because the clothes she is wearing are flameproof. That doesn’t stop the heat from causing her flesh to cook.

“Sister!” the boy yells in horror as I burn his sister alive.

Her minotaur also roars and comes charging at me. Without even looking at it I cause the wind to pick him up and stab my lightning spears into the Minotaur. This isn’t a fight anymore. These two are supposed to be my opponents in the future. There isn’t a need to kill them because they are so weak, but that doesn’t mean they might not be a threat to me in the future. I want to make sure that doesn’t happen. The girl falls to the ground. I kick her in the face, causing her to slide away. I will put the fear of god into these two.

I kick her face so hard I break her nose and shatter her front teeth. I create wind and wield it to pick her up. I look at her little brother. He is in shock and horrified at how I easily beat his sister. He can’t do anything with his fairy and has to watch as his sister drifts slowly my way. She drifts into my hand. I smile at the little brother. I am being heartless, but this has to be done. Fairy users are stronger than us in the later stages in life. And who knows if they will surpass me one day. I put pressure in my hands. As I put pressure in my hands, bones crack. The stadium is silent. As I break his sister's neck, he turns pale. Every bone I break, he hears. This is torture and I’m ashamed that I’m doing it, but it is for my people. They are kids and they done have nothing to me, but it has to be done. I’m not in the wrong. It is them or us. I finish breaking her neck. I look at her my eyes shedding sadness I throw her away. I look at the Shadow. This is finished. He should declare me the winner now.

Shadow’s POV.

Haha brutal. That is the only thing I can say about this matter. It was the right move as well. If he wants to win, destroy the head and move from there. I think the other two have great potential, but they are not on Alex’s level. Taking them both out now means smooth sailing later.

I raise my hand to signal the end of the match when Isis hits my hand and says, “It isn’t over yet keep watching. And to make it fair, I will stop the timer. Your boy right now is two minutes into the match. Waiting for a few moments isn’t going to hurt our deal.”

I give her a sideways glance, and I see how serious she is. Well, there is no harm in waiting.

“Sister, get up. This isn’t over yet.” The cries of a broken man yelling for hope filled the stadium. I just look on. Isis thinks something is going to happen. Let’s watch and see. I don’t mind watching someone losing their mind after a fight.

Erica POV.

Yes, something isn’t right. After Alexander beat that girl, they should have called it. But the rabbit stops the scary man from calling the fight. The boy is useless right now, and everyone can see there is no point in continuing. But looking at the dragons, the rabbit, and the spider, it looks like they are waiting for something to happen, but why? Why are they waiting for what could change the fate of this fight? Why did they agree to the five minute limit? It seems they are really close to the two fairy users. They should have known that five minute wasn’t enough. If Alexander was really going all out, it wouldn’t have taken a minute. So did they agree to this fight? It must be for them to improve, but if they knew a little about Alexander. They should know he doesn’t take any of his opponents lightly and aims to kill in every fight. So why did they agree to this fight in the first place?

“Wendelin!” The crowed starts chanting her name.

Oh, that what it was. She is that type of person. Do Alexander and the scary man understand? I look at both. Nope. When I look back up at the commentators, I can see the rabbit smiling. Looks like we have underestimated the children fighting Alexander. I wonder if she can cause Alexander to lose his footing? I really doubt it. The only thing about this change, is that Alexander will not paralyze his opponents. This war is still going to happen, whether, Alexander likes it or not. Him torturing that girl didn’t make a difference. It might have gotten them some hope of winning in the future.

Wilfred POV

My sister isn’t done. This fight was way too one-sided for my sister to give up now. I can see she is beaten and broken, but I doubt that will stop her. I look at my opponent once again. I underestimated his strength. I can’t believe that he could manhandle my sister like that and made me ineffective. I couldn’t do anything against him. Watching him beating up my sister was a surprise. We’ve lived on this ship for seven years and yet people that are billions of years old and have been fighting for million of years couldn’t beat my sister like he could. I knew she was a once-and-a-lifetime talent, but this is outrageous. Someone in our age group beside me not only could keep up with my sister but beat us both. No, my sister isn’t done. She has to get up.

“Sister, get up. Do you hear the crowd they are crying your name? This is my ace in the hole. I never thought I would use this, but it must be done if my sister doesn’t get up. I don’t think I could fight this man again.

Alexander POV

I watch as the girl’s brother cry her name. Then the audience chants her name. At, first slowly and softly, but it gets louder and louder. Do they really think this will change anything? I am standing here watching as someone is being cheered back up. The person they are cheering for is a broken piece of mess. She won’t be able to move for a week after that beating. I know it would take me that long to heal from those injuries. Yet, the little brother is crying her name and begging her to get back up. This is sad. I look back up to the announcers once again. I sigh. They will not call this match. I see a timer frozen in front of them. This begging section is going to count against me. This is good. I don’t need to worry about losing my five minutes because one announcer was playing favorites. I turn to walk away when I hear a yell.

“Stop, she will get up soon Alexander.” I raise my head towards my sister with a confuse look on my face, when suddenly water hits my shoes.

Shadow’s POV.

I can’t believe it. Water is sprouting from her fairy. Her Minotaur rises from the ground and shrinks. It turns into a female mermaid. Wait it isn’t stopping there. It is turning into a man. He lifts up his hand trident made of pure lighting is created. This is impossible where did she get this type of power from? The Poseidon creates more and more watch surrounding the arena. He slams his trident on the ground. The girl rises from the ground and heals. It only takes a few seconds, and the girl is back at full strength. The Poseidon looks at Alexander and growls.

“Demon, you be defeated today by the light. Not only are you someone of the dark side but you want to use light powers? Why aren’t you dead?” The Poseidon asks Alexander. Alexander doesn’t reply. I see this is worth the wait. I’m surprise. The world isn’t as it seems. I laugh. I thought this fight was going to give Alexander the win and for this whole contest to end, but I’m wrong. This was the spider and rabbit’s plan from the get-go. I see I really underestimate these two. The show has gone from one side to at least a fight now. Haha.

Wilfred POV

My sister has done it. She has broken into another level.

“Kid, I feel the cold from you. Bring it out. It might be the only way to beat this monster.”

I looked on, surprised. The hidden secret that I have been hiding has been exposed. This is something that I wanted to keep hiding. Yet my sister’s fairy just told everyone about it. I transform my fire salamander into one of ice.

The Poseidon nods in my direction and says, “You are a person of the night. This is not the time to hide your abilities. I understand why you would want to, but we need everything we have to beat back this monster and even more. Master, is there anything you want to say?” The Poseidon looks at my sister.

“My fairy, remember, we only have one opponent. I need you to listen well and throughout my soul. I don’t care about anyone’s head beside one.” She turns from our opponents and looks up at the announcers’ station.

She points her hand towards the shadow and says, “He is our one and only goal. I will fight through hell, heaven, and the earth just to beat that man.”

The Poseidon looks at the Shadow, nods his head, says, “The Shadow is our mortal enemy.”

The audience takes a deep gasp. Even the announcers also gasps. What is going on? The Shadow is laughing his head off. The two dragons look down at us and start flapping their wings. They both rush down to the stadium. The land before my sister, and six dark giant circles appears next to them. Three on the black dragon side and three on the white dragon side. Six dragons fly out of the dark circles. They all take a lap around the stadium before land right beside the other two dragons.

On the right, next to the white dragon, there was a yellow, orange, and red dragons. On the left of the black dragon there are blue, purple, and green dragons.

The white dragon speaks, “Little one, any fairy that is under tier one cannot go against the Shadow. No matter how much the person hates them, their fairy must always side with the Shadow. Even we mighty dragons have a hard time going against the Shadow, but here you are. A one-woman army can get her Poseidon to not only rebel against the Shadow, but we can feel that any fairy that connected to your soul be against him as well. If you win this match, we dragons will help you fight against the Shadow. I think you will make a great new Shadow. You are his kin. Are you sure you want to take down the Shadow no matter what?”

She looks at the white dragon and says, “Yes.” The dragons roar in unison. My sister turns her eyes back to our opponent with a new fire in them.

The dragons all fly back to the announcer's table. They look down as distinct elements come out of their snouts. I look down and notice that the water was at my knees. I look at both my sister and our opponent, and they were both standing are top of the water as it keeps flooding in. I jump out of the water and freeze it below me so I can stand on top of it.

The Shadow looks down at us and asks, “Are you three ready yet? Entertain me more.”

The Poseidon looks at the Shadow and replies, “No sir, wait a moment. Let me finish my preparations.”

A waterfall appears from thin air and gushes out water. The water goes from my knees to 20 feet above the ground in less than twenty seconds. The Poseidon is swimming under my sister while the rest of us are standing above the water. My fairy has also frozen the water beneath its feet.

The Poseidon looks at the Shadow and says, “Ready.”

The Shadow looks at Alexander and asks, “Are you find with these conditions?” Alexander just smiles. “Ok then three, two, one, fight!”

I freeze our opponent’s leg with the water. While my sister and her fairy rush at him. With one swing of his sword, the water boils and starts forming steam. The ice melts. He dives into the water. The Poseidon swims after him with my sister hot on their tail. I unfreeze the water beneath me and join them in the underwater fight. Our opponent unsummons his fire sword and his lightning spears. I tried to freeze the water ahead of him but each time the water freezes, he either slows down and change directions or speeds up. It is a two-way plan. Even if I can’t freeze him, I can get him into a pattern and force him toward my sister. He is fighting a Poseidon, not an average mermaid. He is fighting a Poseidon underwater. The Poseidon quickly catches up with him, with my sister right on his tail. The Poseidon tries to stab him with his trident. Our opponent catches it and punches the Poseidon in the face. The Poseidon flies back fast. Wait, what happened? There is no way the Poseidon should have flown back so fast, not while in the water. I notice that once he strikes the earth, blood comes out from his nose. Yet it isn’t dissipating in the water. Oh, I see. He uses the wind to separate the water, the Poseidon wasn’t in the water after our opponent hit him.

This monster is fighting better than a Poseidon underwater. My sister stays in the water and attacks him from above. To keep the same thing from happening to my sister. I freeze the surrounding water. This way, he has to stay in the water no matter what giving my sister the advantage. He tries to punch my sister, but she dodges the attack and punches him right in the face. Yes, our first real hit on him. She goes in for another punch, but this time he dodges and counters her. The Poseidon creates a whirlpool below both of them. He swims up it and snatches my sister from the underwater tornado. He swims away from it, leaving our opponent to face his fate. The whirlpool should cause devastating damage to even him. There is nothing he can do against this kind of power. Even though my sister is controlling a water fairy, even she can’t do anything against this phenomenon. We watch as it sucks him into the whirlpool. But then the impossible happens. He stops the whirlpool. He resummons his flame sword and causes the water to boil. The Poseidon looks at our opponent with a surprise, and the water recedes. The water disappears just as fast as it had appeared. The water goes from being twenty feet to two feet. We were all standing in ankle-high water.

My sister laughs. She looks at our opponent and asks, “Haha, looks like our parents were wrong. You guys were supposed to be specialists, not all-rounders. What made you guys change?”

“Yeah, our stupid elders thought it would make us more powerful if we only focused only on one element, but they didn’t understand how that limited us in fights. If a fire user fought a water fairy near the water well we would be totally out of luck.”

My sister laughs again, “Yeah, I heard that story from my parents. Your strongest fire elder decided to follow a mermaid fairy user into the ocean and got his butt kick. Good thing you took over. If your elders had stayed in charge, this would have been a one-sided fight. The time for talking is over. Let’s finish this monster.”

The Shadow’s POV

This is the fight I have been waiting for ages. After the girl stops talking, waves of water crash down against Alexander. With one swipe of his sword, the water turns into steam. The next moment his arm freezes. Water, ice, and fire are being thrown around like they are nothing. Each attack, each moment, is calculated and use precisely. You would never have known these children are only seventeen years old and older. When they hit the age of thirty, they can easily give some of the strongest people in this ship a run for their money. These are my progeny. Look at them go. Each attack is music to my ears. It is like a symphony. A graceful dance of attacks. I open my eyes and look at them fight. Isn’t this just beautiful? Haha. I might not destroy this world just because of this. Who knows what is that planet is hiding?

Wilfred’s POV

This is scary. We are throwing attacks that can destroy buildings. What if we decide to fight like this in a big city? Wouldn’t we destroy the entire place? My sister is throwing out attacks that are bigger than four- story buildings. Our opponent is burning liters and liters of water like it is nothing. I’m also freezing the environment like it is nothing. Yet, we aren’t even finished growing either. How strong are we going to become in eight years when the fire barrier is released? Should we even be allowed to fight with our powers? Even though we can’t kill anyone right now, but how long is until that no longer the case? Who says we can’t change the environment forever if we fought. Look at this arena. Could anything live after I take one step and freeze the entire earth twenty meters around me and twenty meters deep? When we started this fight, there was green grass coving the entire arena and yet there isn’t one blade of grass left. Not only that, but I am attacking our opponent with precision even though I’m thinking about something totally different. I look at my sister, and our opponent is smiling during this fight. Our entire world is at stake here, and yet, looking at these two, they are dancing. It is like a tango with two people. Also, they are monsters that are on another level, but I can keep up with them. Am I also a monster? Is our opponent stronger than the elders, the strongest elemental? Even though he is only loosely twenty, maybe a little older than that, they are in their seventies or eighties and in their prime. That is fifty years of experience over him and yet he took control of their institutions? When we finally leave, would we be stronger than our parents? The strongest fairies alive?

Erica’s POV

I can’t believe it. These two are giving Alexander a fight. Not only that, but it is fun for him. Well, it is fun for two of them. That girl is a different breed. Looking at the timer, it went past four minutes. Yes, there is a zero way for Alexander to beat them within the time as the fight is going now. Should I remind him of it? But he is having so much fun, and I doubt he will have fun fighting these two again. He is such a serious person, and it is nice for him to look this way. Today is his birthday and he shouldn’t worry about his revenge for today and have fun. But we don’t know the other two. I know Alexander has one more trick up his sleeve. Alexander is the best person to rule over the planet. If I knew the other two better, I might have a different opinion but right now, I don’t know either of them. In fewer than fifty seconds from now, I will remind Alexander of the time.

Alexander’s POV

This is fun. I didn’t think was anyone on my level in our age group or people that we so versatile. They could attack one-on-one or two-on-one. Each one could attack from a distance and close combat. Without saying a word, the sibling switch roles. The first time it surprises me because the boy has done nothing but attack from afar. But to keep me off balance, he switches with his sister seamlessly. And their fighting styles were completely different. Whereas she was straightforward and attacked me with speed, strength, and reflexes, the other one is calculating. He uses flints and tries to throw me off balance. At first, the girl stood back and watched. They were trying to catch me off guard. The moment the boy throws a flint and had his fairy strike with a freezing attack, the girl throws a lightning spear from behind. I dodge the attack in the direction that the boy predicted. He tries to hit me where I would dodge. Too bad I was better than he could even guess. I catch the lighting spear and slash at the boy. He has a surprised look on his face and can’t dodge the attack, causing him to get stabbed by the spear and electrifying his body. His sister kicks him away from the spear and change the shape of it, giving her the hilt back to her and the point prongs to form in my hand. I let go before the spear can cut me.

I give the little girl a smile, and she gives me a smile back. She goes back on the offense. Yeah, it was a better choice for her to attack me head on than the boy.

“Alexander, mind the time!” Erica yells from the audience.

I look up at the timer and panic. We were at four minutes and fifty seconds in. There was no way for me to beat them in ten seconds, but maybe if I do something drastic, the Shadow will tell me who killed my parents. I summon a flame sword in one hand and a water sword in another. Below my feet I create mini tornadoes to help me move faster. I jump after the boy. Using the tornadoes beneath my feet. I send myself at the kid, moving faster than sound. I move faster than Mach one. The boy is still recovering from the last attack. I slash at with both of my swords. His fairy jumps in front of him and takes the attack. No, that took one second, and it gives the boy enough time to recover. He jumps back and looks up. He sees the time and gives a smile. This smile is bad news. Ice forms all around him. I hope it doesn’t take long to break through this ice. I use both swords at the same time to destroy it. The ice breaks easier than I thought. He has a confused look on his face. I used that opportunity to finish him. With my full power, I cut him with the water sword and then cut him with the flame sword. The water sword causing water to flow through his entire body, and the flame sword heated the water up to over the boiling point, causing it all to turn into steam. It covers his body with third-degree burns, both inside and outside. It will take weeks for him to recover. I know because I’ve done it to myself. It took me over a month to recover. That took three seconds. That leaves six seconds to beat the other one. I turn toward the other one. She gives me a smile. She charges at me with her lightning spear. Her fairy also attacks. He is surfing on an enormous wave behind her. No, this is going to take longer than sex seconds but still, I have to try.

She creates a small wave behind her and leaps. I use my flame sword to block her attack and summon wind swords to cut her from all angles. Her fairy creates a water ball to protect her from the attacks. I stomp my foot, causing a drove of swords to form from the earth to shoot up at the girl. She dodges the attack. I drop the swords in my hand and pick up the swords that the girl dodges and throws them at the fairy. The fairy being is a Poseidon, it must think that with the swing of his arm, he can stop the attack. Nope I create the swords and control them. They don’t respond when he tries to force them in my direction. He learns out too late that he can’t take control of them, and if he knew this earlier he could easily have blocked both attacks. He blocks one, but the other one hits him squarely in the stomach sending him flying back thirty feet. The enormous wave he has been on disappears as the fairy falls on the ground. I fly towards the girl, and she swims towards me. She creates a wave so she can gather speed to meet me head-on. I recreate my flame sword and water sword. She is carrying her lightning spear. As we get close, the wave stops, and she comes shooting out of it. I meet her head-on. Boom! Our attacks meet head-on, causing water, fire, and lightning to raining all around us. That is when I unleash my ultimate trump card. I take a peek at the time see that and my five minutes are up so I hope this can please the Shadow for our agreement or will make me the winner. I am sorry, my two opponents. But here is where you die.

Wendelin’s Pov

I see his expression change for a moment. I know that expression. That stupid war test. Our commander always had that expression when we had to kill people. If I’m correct, then I’m going to die here, but commander you hate killing so much. What led you to this point?

Alexander’s POV

I unsummon both swords and create a sword of light. With a surprised look on her face, I hit away the trident and stab her in the heart. I turn around and throw the sword at the boy, hitting him in the heart as well. Snap!

“Oh, my boy, do you really think it will be so easy? But I have to give you a round of applause. You are the only person who can kill on my planet. This is great, and a surprise. You kids are my pride and joy.” The Shadow gives me a pat on the head.

“Don’t call us your kids! Knowing I’m related to you is disgusting.”

I turn around and both of the siblings are one hundred precent fine and are alive. This is impossible.

The girl looks at me and gives me a smile, “Dude, this is the tenth time dying in this place. Hey Shadow, do I get an award for dying ten times?”

The Shadow rolls his eyes and looks at me. “You beat them in five minutes and ten seconds. Sorry, but the deal was under five minutes. So Isis, what do you want for the bet?”

The rabbit appears in the girl’s arms and says, “Let Wendelin have the prize. Giver her anything she wants. She is the reason that they’ve lasted so long, isn’t that right Alexander and Wilfred.” We both nod our heads.

“Mean little girl, what do you want?” the Shadow sighs.

She takes a quick glance at me and replies, “Tell me, who are the only people that are alive responsible for Alexander’s parents’ death?”

That shakes me. Why did she ask that question? The Shadows laugh and with a snap of his fingers, two people's faces appear on the screen above us. Then he announces, “Your parents.” Wait, what? And with a snap-darkness.