The arena was awash with a mix of shock and horror at the fight they had witnessed. Everyone in the arena had been left speechless by the sight of Tasha tearing her flesh off to crawl out of the frozen hole and scare Hannah into unconsciousness. The only one who had not been left speechless was Harry, who even the gods gave up trying to shut up.
“WHAT A FIGHT!!!! I HAVE JUST BEEN TOLD BY THE ARENA STAFF THAT THE ARRAY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RESET FOR THE TIME BEING. WE WILL BE TAKING A SHORT BREAK TO WAKE UP POOR HANNAH SO SHE CAN DISPELL HER CONJURED ICE AND WATER!!!” His declaration broke the audience from their stupor, and a smattering of cheers broke out around the stands.
“I think I speak for everyone when I say that I shall be having nightmares for the foreseeable future… Isn’t that right, Lincoln?” Harry turned to face his referee companion, who just gave a gruff grunt before returning to his referee’s booth.
“I hope you understand why we have done this, Elissa,” Alex said as he spoke to Elissa’s back. The elf, though, could only give a muffled response as she had been tied up in a bundle of blankets and rope and placed in the corner of the VIP booth facing the wall.
“Spend the rest of the tournament in time-out, and we will speak with Tasha to decide if any further punishments are needed.”
“Mhmhmhmm?!”
“Yes, punishments honey… There is training the kids, and then there is… there is whatever that was.”
“Mhmhmh mhm mhmhm mhmhmh mhm!”
“Not that bad? Hah, Elissa, I will be the first to admit I push them, but I wouldn’t go that far.” In response, Elissa just lowered her head and focused on counting the tiles that made up the wall in front of her.
“Alexander!” Michael said, finally seeing his opening to speak.
“Yes?”
“Don’t let this freak accident of a victory go to your head. My students are still far superior.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but may I ask who is up next?” one of the visiting nobles asked.
“Of course, my lord… I believe it is my student Ironsides and his student Maxwell. One of the great tragedies that he has sadly corrupted.”
“Corrupted?” The noble repeated.
“Yes, he used to be extremely studious and well-behaved. Since starting as a student under Alexander here, he has been getting odd ideas like his own opinions. Such strange notions are for after you graduate and have been informed by your parents what opinions you should have.”
“Here, here,” a few of the nobles said, raising a glass to toast Michael’s statement.
“Hells, this whole damned tournament is my attempt to free those children from his corrupting influence,” Michael continued.
“Am I a bad influence then, sir?” Sithy asked, looking up at Michael from his seat.
“You Insithrilax? Of course not; my surprise about learning your race is a dragon aside, you were always one of my favourite students. Well behaved and just as well-read. If anything, I wish you could be a professor here yourself,” Sithy began to pale at the notion.
“Of course, I wouldn’t recommend such an action,” Michael added.
“Why not?” a noble asked.
“Young Insithrilax here has a temperament best kept to researching texts then educating classes. It is why I made sure to get the librarians to provide him with the rarer texts that would usually be barred from students because I knew he would treasure them and gain a lot from them.”
“That was your doing? I was under the impression it was the chief librarian?” Sithy asked, surprised by the new information.
“Yes, It was my doing. I assessed your ability with my appraising eyes and could see books were your treasures and knew you would not misuse the knowledge I let you access. The Librarians kindly manage the books, but it is the professors' discretion to expand the access a student can have.”
“Wow, I had no idea,” Sithy muttered to himself.
“I have been an educator for many decades, boy. I have yet to be wrong with my appraisal of a student. Barring outside corruption,” Michael paused to shoot a glare Alex’s way. “Students near all proceed down the path I can foresee for them.”
“What about me then?” Alex piped up as he pointed to himself. “I seem to remember you were rather frosty ever since I first arrived. What did your appraisal of me show?” Alex asked, trying but failing to lean against Michael, who, in the end, let out a resigned sigh.
“I’ll be as blunt as you often are then. I saw a monster of untold depths. The only thing I ever feel when seeing you is death and destruction. That, young man, is why I am so adamant that you should be barred from teaching these children,” Michael said, gesturing to the audience in the seats around them.
“I would’ve had you removed through official channels If I could. But you are Sloth’s apprentice. Any suggestion would either be ignored or delayed indefinitely. When you returned after your graduation, it was even worse as your hold on a spot had exponentially grown. Not to mention you being made a co-regent. This, sadly, is the sole way I have to save these children.”
Alex, at this statement, couldn’t hide his surprise. He had always been under the impression Michael's main reason for hating him was personal rather than professional. Many of the teachers from the old guard, minus a few herbally enhanced exceptions, generally hated him just for being human.
“So it was not because I was human?”
“I won’t deny I find your race distasteful. But while you were a student here, I still did my duty. Now you’re a teacher; I will do my duty despite you.”
“What about my kindergarten class, then?”
“You know as well as I do that role is more bodyguard than that of a teacher. One thing I will willingly accredit you for is your skill as a combatant. If I fought you, I wouldn’t last a second. Those children need a defender like you. Especially as they by tradition reside with their teacher.”
“Yes, my tower has very much become a fun house now,” Alex replied with a chuckle thinking about the time he had the kids animate pair of rocking horses to have an indoor jousting tournament.
“This is why our deal does not include you being removed as a kindergarten teacher, as you sadly are the best suited to the role's requirements.”
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE BRING YOUR ATTENTION TO THE ARENA!!!!” Harry’s voice echoed around the arena. The audience all turned to look and saw the ice rapidly defrosting and the water dissipating from the arena.
“As I’m sure you can tell, Mana Hannah has regained consciousness and dispelled her conjured materials. WE CAN NOW GET ROUND THREE STARTED!!!!!” The audience began to cheer and go wild once more as Alex and Michael returned to their respective seats.
“Boy, do we have a treat for you kids up next!! This will be a fight that you will be telling your grandkids about!” Harry turned to his now ever-suffering companion and watched him gift a stiff grunt.
“How do I know that? I dunno, I gotta keep the crowd raring Linky,” Harry replied, having somehow become fluent in stoic since the end of the second round.
“For Team Alexander, we have MAXWELL, THE MAGICAL MIND MASTER!!!” Harry gestured to the left-hand tunnel out of which Maxwell walked, pulling his collar up to conceal his face from the stares of the audience embarrassed by the pseudonym that Harry had given him.
“For Team Michael, we have IDOMNITABLE IRONSIDES!!!” The crowd went as wild for Ironside’s arrival as they did for Maxwell’s. The two now stood opposite each other, and there was a clear height difference between Maxwell and Ironsides. The armoured giant was slightly taller than Gunter was in his full suit of armour, and that isn't including the frill on top of Ironsides’ helm.
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“First off, Ironsides, do you have anything to say to… Oh, sorry…” Harry began before realising his mistake, only to have the device snatched from his hand.
Ironsides proceeded to hold the device to the front of his helm as he gesticulated. The only sound entering the device and being amplified was the sound of his armour scraping against itself. Eventually, Ironsides finished his very physical speech of fist pumps and arm flexes. Finishing with a weird dance involving using your arms and twisting your hips before jumping a full ninety degrees to your right before he handed the device back to Harry.
“Ok… That was very enlightening… Maxwell, how about-” Harry didn’t even finish his question before Maxwell snatched the device from his hands.
“You may boast about being unbreakable, but we have seen that boast once already, and we both know nothing can truly be unbreakable. I need only a gesture to the bite mark in your armour to prove my point. Also, that point about my mother was very vulgar, and I will make you eat those words. But it matters little I will render your armour to scrap with techniques I have learnt about.”
The whole arena was left staring at Maxwell, whose retort had somehow referenced points that he had gleaned from Ironsides’ strange motions.
“You understood him?” Harry asked.
“Well yeah, he was using motion speak from the Gracefield.”
“How in the hells do you know about that?”
“I read about it. I have read a lot of books.”
“Heh, how many?” Harry asked half as a joke and half as a rhetorical question.
“Uh… Roughly eighty-seven… This past week… All memorised, comprehended without rest,” Maxwell said as his gaze began to go distant and his voice trailed off.
“A funny man,” Harry replied with a chuckle, only to recoil when Maxwell grabbed his jacket by the lapels.
“YOU THINK I WAS JOKING?!!! I KNOW A RECIPE FOR A SOUFLE?!! WHY DID I NEED TO LEARN THAT?!!!! SITHY NEVER SAID WHY?!!!! JUST THAT IT IS USEFUL TO KNOW!!!!” Most of the VIP box began slowly turning their attention to Sithy, who retreated as much as he could into his chair, feeling the pressure of their gazes.
“I thought it was a nifty skill to have…”
“Sithy… eighty-seven books?”
“More like ninety… I had him reading three books at a time, and he didn’t finish the last batch before coming here…”
“Without rest? Even I let Kline sleep at the end of the day…” Alex muttered.
“I prepared for this by trying out alchemy recipes and making memorisation potions, high-focus potions and energy potions, so he didn’t need to sleep.”
“Sithy… You do know those force you into sensory overload, right?” Sithy, at this explanation, paled at the very thought of what he must’ve done to Maxwell.
“I’ll apologise when he is done winning, ok!!!”
“Seriously, Sithy… it’s not as bad as Elissa, but it is up there…”
“What training did you put Kline through, by the way, Ali?”Mimi asked.
“That doesn’t matter. The fight is about to start,” Alex said, avoiding admitting the depths of his own sins as they returned their attention to the arena as the gong was rung.
In a near instant, Ironsides vanished and reappeared right in front of Maxwell, his arm already swinging to punch him. Deftly using fast thinking to increase the speed of his reaction Maxwell jumped backwards and dodged the strike.
He watched with his accelerated focus as the fist swung cleanly away from his face. Only as he watched the swing miss, he felt an overwhelming force collide with the side of his face. Flying through the air and falling to the floor, rolling as best as possible to dissipate the force, he came to a stop.
The agony was already shooting down his jaw as he spat a bloody glob onto the arena floor that consisted of too high a ratio of teeth to blood. Worse, he could feel his jaw had been entirely shattered, so he would be unable to chant even a basic spell till the array fixed it.
Ironsides, though, did not pursue Maxwell as he was slow in standing back up from his heavy swing. Facing Maxwell, he stood waiting for something till it dawned on Maxwell what it was. Making a wild selection of hand and arm gestures, he hoped Ironsides would reply.
Much to his relief, Ironsides responded with a mixture of gestures that those not fluent in Gracefield would assume to be something lewd. In fact, many of the crowd were assuming as such, and some of the girls were swooning at the suggestions they were coming to. Grabbing hold of his jaw and snapping it back in place while wincing in pain, Maxwell was finally able to speak.
“You must have an interesting enchantment then?” Ironsides nodded in response to the question.
Seeing a fresh opening, Ironsides wasted no time and once again went for an attack, but this time opting for a sweeping leg strike rather than a punch. Maxwell deftly jumped over the sweeping leg only to find a force collide with his ribs, cracking a few and sending him tumbling to the ground once more.
“Hrnnnggnn… I would call that enchanted gear cheating, but if I learnt anything from my teacher, it’s that in a real fight, there are no rules,” Ironsides nodded in agreement, internally interested in meeting such a teacher.
“Michael, explain what is going on?” one of the nobles observing demanded.
“I am as confused as you are. He told me his armour is a family heirloom, so I respected it and did not press to investigate it any further…” Michael replied.
“I can answer your question,” Yuu said, piping up as she watched Maxwell fling a few manashots at Ironsides, forcing him backwards.
“It is a displaced force enchantment.”
“Displaced force enchantment?”
“Yes… Never seen one not on an industrial tool, though. It is a very novel idea to put it on armour.”
“So it isn’t usually used as a weapon?”
“Gods no,” Yuu replied with a chuckle. “The way it works is that it displaces the force at a set range and direction from the object. Like If I hit here,” Yuu explained, gently tapping her fist into Alex’s stomach. The force may be displaced a foot above my fist so the damage would collide here,” Yuu added, gesturing to a point nearer Alex’s neck.
“Why don’t more people use it offensively, then”? The noble asked.
“Few reasons mainly is it removes all the force from the object itself. I could have a spear and thrust it in your face, and it would only be like I tapped your head while the force would fly over your head. They are hell to get used to using. As I said, they are mainly used in industrial equipment when dealing with hazardous mining setups where being too close to the ore when mining is dangerous.”
“So this is the remote mining Wrath uses?”
“Yes,” Yuu replied with a nod.
“The other issue is it is it can’t be switched off. Anyone using that armour must have monstrous manastores to keep running like that. That or there is something altered about it…”
“Yuu, you are drooling,” Alex warned.
“Ah, sorry,” Yuu hastily said as she wiped the trail of drool away.
“Regardless, that is a very difficult enchantment to actually use, especially if you have allies close to you, as it won’t differentiate between friend and foe. What Maxwell needs to do, though, is get in close. If he can get within the range of the active enchantment range, then he will be free to counterattack.”
As if by fate or because Yuu was speaking loud enough to be heard over the crowd's cheering. Maxwell began to do just that and close the distance to hand-to-hand combat rang.
Ironsides, with his heavy armour, was only able to make slow and clumsy swings that Maxwell, with his agility, was able to easily avoid. Transforming his hands into wolf claws, he dived onto Ironsides’ chest and began jabbing the claws into the joints and even the holes from the dragon's bitemark.
Like a terrifying fountain feature, Ironsides began spouting blood from the holes. Maxwell began to feel assured of his victory, only to suddenly feel a pair of metallic arms close around him in a titanic bear hug.
“Nyehhhh…. LET ME GO!!!” Maxwell shouted as he continued delivering strikes to the openings in Ironsides’ armour, failing to get him to loosen his grip.
In his flailing and strikes, Maxwell didn’t notice he had cut the strap used to keep Ironsides’ helmet on. So with a random strike, he knocked the helmet off the armoured giant, finally revealing his face to the crowd. The audience, the VIP box even Maxwell were left speechless by the sight before them.
Eventually, a number of the girls in the audience began screaming wildly while Maxwell, who was literally face to face with ironsides, tried his best to conceal his shock. Right before him was a face so handsome and chiselled that it looked like the gods had crafted him themselves. His elven ears came to perfect points; not a single feature left any bad impression. Even the small scar on his neck and above his eye only added to the mystique of his character. Three words began to cycle through the heads of all observing ’Sexy Buff Elf’.
He was handsome enough that even some of the boys in the audience began to have doubts o their orientation. Despite this, though, Ironsides started to go a deep shade of red as he roughly threw Maxwell away and went to retrieve his helmet.
Groaning on the floor as he felt his ribs mend themselves back into shape Maxwell unsteadily brought himself back to a standing position only to see Ironsides’ chagrin towards him with his arms crossed in front of him. Even with fast think, Maxwell was unable to react in time and found himself being repelled about a foot in front of Ironsides’ till he was pinned against the wall.
With his opponent pinned, Ironsides’ proceeded to keep Maxwell held with his left arm while swinging with his right. Eventually, after half a dozen swings, Ironsides retreated back and gestured to the referee booth.
Lincoln, trailed by Harry, stepped out into the ring and approached Maxwell. Checking him, Lincoln nodded to Harry, who ecstatically held the device to his mouth.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner by an actual battle knockout… OUR WINNER, IRONSIDES!!!!”
The crowd went wild with cheers, especially the female half of the audience, who were throwing their pantaloons into the arena for Ironsides, only for him to pick up and cradle Maxwell before retreating through the centre tunnel gently. This image burnt itself into the minds of the artists in the crowd, who had their imaginations voided by the sight of Tasha. A future artist trend was unknowingly set in motion that day.