Chapter 6:
Looking down at the crystal, I noticed it was glowing red, the fire attribute.
“I see,” I grinned to myself. “Lucifer, wake up.”
A few moments later I found myself in Lucifer’s world of white. Lucifer appeared in a plume of smoke and fire, sitting in his chair at his desk.
“Welcome back, Atch,” Lucifer smiled, leaning up on the desk. “I’m guessing you’re here to learn another spell?”
“Yeah, you’re right, that is what I’m here for,” I nodded, walking over to him. “My second element, it’s fire.”
“Ah… fire, huh?” Lucifer grinned. “Just what I like!”
“Got any ideas on how to combine the two?” I asked.
“It’s pretty simple,” Lucifer said holding out his hand. “Here, this is the basic Flame spell. While using the spell, combine your Devil magic with it, and you’ll see what happens.”
I grabbed the piece of parchment out of the air and looked at it, the spell ingraining into my memory. Letting out a deep breath, I gripped the paper tightly and thought of flames bursting from my fingertips and palm. At first, nothing happened, but then the parchment started smoking from where I was touching it. Grinning, I added my Devil magic, my hands becoming claws.
I let out a slight yelp as the parchment erupted into flickering dark purple and black flames. Looking over at Lucifer, I grinned, and he grinned back at me.
“Go show that world what you’re made of, kid,” Lucifer said as the pentagram appeared below me. “Make this world your own, my champion.”
The light consumed me and I found myself back in the classroom. Looking around, I noticed Rich’s crystal was glowing green, the wind element. Looking over at Maximus, I noticed his was glowing red, just like me, the flame element.
“Okay class, let’s go a little bit more in depth now,” Mrs Z said, writing on the board. “When using your secondary element, your main element will be more dominant.”
The class settled back down into their seats.
“Thus, even if your secondary element is water, like me,” Mrs. Z continued. “Your combination is more earth solid than liquid.”
The bell rang, and the class started packing their bags.
“Have a nice evening class!” Mrs. Z said. “We’ll pick up where we left off tomorrow.”
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After making it home, I walked over to the kitchen. Entering into the large room accompanied by a six burner stove, large island in the center, with cupboards lining the walls, I saw my father. He was a pretty average build with brown hair, a thick, curly mustache, and squinty eyes.
“Oh, welcome home, Atch,” he said, putting down the tomato he was cutting. “How was school?”
“Father, I have a question,” I said. “How did I get into Lotus Academy?”
“What do you mean?” He asked.
“All my friends either have alumni parents or people of high power, but you’re just a carpenter?” I said, confused. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
“Oh, see, your mother and I are good friends with the Academy’s headmaster,” he laughed. “We pleaded with him to let you in.”
“Ah, I… see,” I said, turning back around and heading up to my room. “By the way, I’m going out to train with my friends today, I’ll be back later.”
“Okay, have fun!” He said, turning back around for tonight’s meal.
I knew he wasn’t telling the truth, I could see it in his eyes. Something was being hidden, though that was for another day. There wasn’t much I could hold against him. Then it hit me, I had already changed so much from my old life. I had made friends that I could count on, people I trusted. Wait, was this the reason Lucifer brought me to this world? No, he wants me to take the world over, that has to be my final goal to get rid of my burning anger. But, I shook my head, but the anger, it feels like it has lessened.
Shrugging, I entered my room and headed into one of the many drawers. Opening it up, I took out the pills I had acquired from the day I won the slime tournament. Rich said his dad was a knight, so I had the feeling these would come in handy. Exiting the house, I ran down the streets, following the directions Rich had given me earlier today. Stopping in front of a large, white mansion, I checked the address. It checked out, walking up to the large black gate, I was stopped by two knights that stood guard outside.
“Halt, young man!” One of the knights said. “This is the property of General Breeze, what is your business here.”
I looked around the knight to see Rich running over from the courtyard, it seemed like the rest of my friends were already there.
“Emanuel!” Rich yelled over to the knight as he ran toward us. “He’s one of my friends, he’s here to train with us.”
“Oh, sorry Master Rich,” the knight nodded, allowing me entry.
As I entered into the large estate, Rich grinned at me.
“Everyone’s already here, we’re stretching out before training,” he said leading me over to the rest of the group. “My dad will be here soon.”
“Wait, I thought you said your dad was just a knight,” I frowned. “They said he was a General…”
“Oh, yea, he’s a General or something, but that doesn’t really matter,” Rich shrugged as we got to the pack.
“Yea, he’s a General!” Brett laughed. “We were all as surprised as you were, Atch.”
“So true,” Evan said. “And I thought he would be just some normie.”
“Oh, shut up,” Rich laughed. “I didn’t think you guys would care that much about my dad’s rank in the military.”
“Rich, General is the second-highest rank in our kingdom’s military!” Brett groaned. “What do you even mean he isn’t special! I mean, look at your huge house.”
“Uh, this house isn’t that big…” Evan said, scratching his head.
“Evan, we get it, your dad is probably the richest man in the world, we don’t care right now,” Brett rolled his eyes. “What we do care about is how come Rich’s dad is a General!”
“Hello there, children,” a loud voice boomed from behind us.
The pressure was immense, turning around I could already feel the difference in my power compared to his. Looking up at Rich’s father, I kneeled before him, Evan and Brett did as well. Rich’s father looked similar to Rich, though much stronger and taller. His father must have been around 6 foot 3 with a good build, long, spiky light brown hair, and brown eyes. He was out of armor, wearing white, noble clothes with blue striped pants.
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Name: General Breeze
Level: 174
Strength: 254
Power: 122
Speed: 199
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Just like Rich, his father was also “lacking” in the power stat, though he was still able to train it to over 100. Rich must have a lot of potential.
“Good Evening, General Breeze,” I said. “We’re Rich’s friends from school.”
“Oh come on now boys, no need for formalities,” he laughed, embarrassed, holding up his hands in front of him. “Just call me Abe.”
I stood up, as did Brett and Evan. It felt odd calling one of the generals by their first name, though I shrugged and nodded in confirmation to him. He nodded at each of us before walking past us to Rich.
“Hey dad, when do we get started?” Rich asked.
“We’ll get started right away,” Abe said. “Though I need to gauge all of your skills first, only then can I properly train you.”
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“Follow me, children, to the training center,” Abe said, leading us down a gravel path through the courtyard and behind the large house.
Not really to my surprise, there was a giant “arena” behind the house, though it was filled with many obstacle courses, pools of water, quicksand pits, dummies, weapons, fighting mats, and any other training-related item you could think of.
I looked in awe as we made our way down, too excited to put it into words. Quickly, when no one was looking, I slipped the few training pills I had in my mouth and swallowed them. With the effect of my pills, the training should boost me to amazing levels. I had high hopes for this afternoon, hopefully, today’s training would live up to my expectations. Entering into the arena, Abe led us over to the first obstacle course. The course was maybe two hundred or three hundred feet long, with thin walkways, slopes, and high walls. It seemed like this would only be the first of the ones we would encounter.
“Alright,” Abe said, turning to us. “Let’s do some speed and agility testing, all of you line up, it’s a race to the end.”
“Got it,” I said, getting pumped up as I walked over to the starting line.
As everyone got into line, Abe counted down from three. As he hit one we all dashed from the starting line, shooting for the first obstacle, a giant thirty-foot wall with small foot and handholds. Jumping up, I didn’t even use the holds. Instead I used my claws, climbing my way up quicker than the rest of the pack. Quickly, I made my way over the wall and landed softly on the ground at the other side. Looking forward I assessed the next obstacle, a small lake, with logs sticking up from it, giving a few steps to make it across. Grinning, I jumped to the first log, before realizing my mistake, the logs were slick with oil. I slipped, my feet going out from under me as I began to fall toward the water. Quickly, I clawed out, sticking my hand into the upright log and latching on, my feet dangling out. This time, I jumped around the sides of the logs, latching on to each one with my claws before eventually making it across. I took a small glance over my shoulder to see Evan and Rich clear the wall, just making it to the logs.
Chuckling I looked forward at the last obstacle. There was a thin bridge, with padded axes swinging from side to side, just like in the movies and video games I had played in my past life. Running through I stopped between each one before running to the next gap, taking my time. By the time I made it to the middle, the others had already gotten to the bridge. I would need to go faster if I were to win. As I saw the next opening I put on the speed, shooting past two gaps before coming to a stop. There were only a few more left on the bridge before the finish line, and I quickly made my way to the end.
The next to finish was Evan, who froze the log lake and glided over it, easily making it to the bridge. Next was Rich, who seemed to have done the obstacle course before, though he didn’t have any suitable powers to boost him. Last was Brett, he seemed to struggle the most with the wall, and after Evan had already frozen the lake there was no way for him to use the water to his advantage, thus, he came in last.
“Good work kids, on to the next test, Strength training,” Abe said, leading us back around the course and to the next station.
We stopped at a large punching bag with a magic meter hologram beneath it. The numbers on the meter currently read “000”, though, with a light tap from Abe, the numbers moved to “001”.
“Hit it with all you got,” Abe said, “And I forgot to say last time, though you did it anyway, but use your powers.”
“I’ll go first,” Brett said, stepping up to the bag, his orb moved in front of him, and he reeled back his fist.
Dropping into a low stance Brett flung his fist will all he had, his hand shooting through the orb of water and coming out even faster, the water propelling his hand into the bag. With a thud, the bag shook and the meter rose, going up to:
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581/999
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“Not bad,” Abe said as Brett took a few steps back, rolling his arm triumphantly. “Next!”
Rich walked up and readied his fist, I watched as sparks began to fly from it as he charged his attack. Swinging hard, a gust of wind shot his arm quickly into the bag, knocking it back half an inch. By the wind, it seemed like Rich’s secondary element was, well, wind. A very interesting combo to say the least.
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702/999
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Rich grinned, “Beat that, Evan.”
“Ehh, shouldn’t be too hard,” Evan shrugged, taking a few steps back and freezing the ground in front of the bag.
He took another few steps back before running forward, sliding across the ice at quick speeds. As he was about to hit the bag, his hand equipped the ice gauntlet, adding more weight to his punch. Colliding with the bag, it froze upon impact, before shattering. I watched as the meter rose to:
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677/999
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Evan sighed as the ice on his hands and the floor shattered.
“What can I say,” Rich boasted. “I’m just the strongest of the bunch.”
“We’ll see about that,” I said, stepping up to the plate.
Covering my hand in black flames and my claw, I held tight to the floor. Rotating my hips quickly and generating a massive amount of torque, I blasted my fist into the center of the bag, black flames spewing everywhere. The bag curled over backward and slightly nudged backward.
“Whoa,” I heard Rich say. “Black flames!”
“Hmph,” I grinned, turning back to my friends. “Pretty cool, huh. I guess no one can beat me!”
Everyone stared back at me as I held a dumb pose, hands out, and shrugging. Then, Brett started to laugh.
“Atch, you got 685!” Brett laughed. “Barely even stronger than Evan!”
“What!” I gasped, turning around to look at the meter.
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685/999
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He was right, I really did lose to Rich.
“Well,” I shrugged, slightly red from embarrassment. “Still better than you, Brett.”
“Strength’s not my specialty,” Brett said, making an “X” with his arms in front of him.
I felt my eyebrow twitch as I grinned at Brett. He grinned back, excitedly. Everyone else stayed silent.
“Okay... Next test!” Abe said, laughing a little as he led us back and to the next area of the arena. “We’ll be testing your Power levels now.”
We were lead around the backside of the arena to a grassy field. Scattered throughout the field were many large boulders, all exactly the same size
“Alright everyone, break the boulders, no using physical strength!” Abe smiled, crossing his arms.
“No physical strength, huh,” I thought to myself. “Wait, all of my abilities require physical strength…”
I sighed as I walked over to one of the many boulders. “Lucifer, wake up!”
I closed my eyes, and as I reopened them I was in the world of white. Lucifer was sitting at his desk, in his hand was some sort of cellular, touch screen device.
“Lucifer,” I said. “I ne-”
“Hold on!” Lucifer said, swiping madly across the screen. “I need to finish this game first!”
I sighed, audibly, “Fine.”
A few moments later, Lucifer groaned and threw his device across the room, shattering it against the white floor. The pieces plumed into flames and disappeared.
“What is it?” He asked. “Here for another power or something?”
“Yea,” I said. “I need a non-physical attack.”
“I see,” he said, tapping his chin. “This might work,”
He snapped and a piece of parchment appeared in his fingers, coming out of flames into existence.
“This is an ability called Shadow Strike,” he said, tossing me the paper. “I guess you’ll figure out what it does when you use it.”
“Thanks,” I said, looking at the parchment and burning it into my memory.
“Alright, alright,” he shooed me away as another device appeared in his hands. “Get out of here, I’ve been stuck on this boss for the past three hours.”
The pentagram portal appeared below me and I opened my eyes once more in the real world. Though, was this really the real world? Or was it just one of Lucifer’s creations. One of the many questions left unanswered by Lucifer.
Grinning I took a step back and pointed at the boulder. Focusing on Shadow strike in my mind, a pitch-black gash seemingly ripped the air above the boulder, widening out to a few feet in length of darkness. Then, a black “X” flashed on the boulder before quickly disappearing. With it, the gash also fixed itself up.
Scratching my head I walked up to the boulder, it seemed like nothing had happened to it. Tapping it, I took a step back. Suddenly, the boulder chunked apart, into parts separated by the black “X”. As the parts of the boulder crumbled to the grass, I grinned.
“Quite the strong ability,” I thought to myself, turning to see if any of my friends had also finished.
To my surprise, Evan had already finished, though it seemed slightly unbalanced as his ice element easily expanded the rock and destroyed it. Quickly after I finished, Brett did. After his water lances entered the cracks in the boulder he spread the water out, destroying it from the inside as Evan had. He let out a slight “hurrah” as he finished, fist-pumping the air. I could only watch pitifully as Rich tried to break the rock with his lightning, though it obviously didn’t work.
“Well, it seems like my son is still lacking in the power department,” Abe facepalmed, before beaming brightly. “Well, that’s much like his father! Isn’t that right, Rich!”
“Yes, father!” Rich grinned as he dumbly danced around a little.
“Is that something to be proud of?” I whispered to Evan, who had moved over to where I was standing.
“Uh, not really,” he said, looking at Brett who was also walking over.
“What’s up with them?” Brett frowned, watching as Abe joined in on Rich’s dancing.
“Who knows,” I facepalmed, then sighed. “Strong people are weird sometimes.”
“I guess so, huh,” Brett shrugged as we all stood side by side, watching their dancing.
A few moments later, they were done and joined up with us.
Abe cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed, “Anyway, after seeing your performances, I’ve decided on what to focus on for all of you.”
“Wait, who’s the strongest!” Brett clenched his fists, looking up at Abe expectantly.
“Oh, that’s easy,” Abe shrugged, holding out a list in one hand.
1. Yellow eyes, black fire magic boy
2. Big square head ice kid
3. Rich, best son
4. Annoying, stupid, waterboy
I laughed, “Look at that!”
“Wha-a-t!” Brett groaned. “Wha’d-you mean annoying and stupid?”
“It’s true!” I grinned at him, crossing my arms happily.
Brett punched the floor a few times and stood up, “Yea I don’t even care about the rankings.”
“Oh, for sure,” I shrugged. “I don’t really care either.”
“Second, not bad,” Evan nodded to himself triumphantly.
There was a pause as Abe looked at each of us quickly, then took back the paper.
“Alright, as I was saying, you will all be fighting a monster today!” He laughed as he walked away. “Follow me, to the arena!”
“Wait, I thought this was the arena…” Brett whispered to Rich.
“Nope, this is just part of it,” Rich said. “I’ve actually never been inside the monster arena before!”
We walked through the training grounds, passing by all the equipment and dangerous-looking courses before making it to a large, steel double door. The door was centered in a large, round, stone wall, going up more than three hundred feet into the sky.
“Here we are!” Abe said, pushing the large, heavy-looking doors open. “You guys go stand in the middle there, I’ll get the monster ready!”
As Abe quickly ran to the other side of the arena, I was able to take in our surroundings. The arena itself was much like a gladiatorial arena, with stands on the sides and a large circular shape. In the center was the dusty, yellowish-white floor. Sitting up in the stands at the side of the arena furthest from us were ten or fifteen people, all in expensive-looking armor.
“Huh, what’s going on here?” I asked Rich as we got to the center of the arena.
I looked over at where Rich’s dad was and saw him climbing the walls out of the arena. He looked over his shoulder at us and threw a thumbs up before a large, steel gate rumbled open.
“Aw, c’mon dad!” Rich groaned, facepalming. “Sorry guys, looks like my dad just turned this into some sort of entertainment for his military friends.”
“Wait, what!” Evan yelled, shocked. “So he’s just gonna let us die?”
“Hold on, Evan,” I said, patting his back. “Who ever said we were gonna die?”
There was a loud roar that came from the gate, and large, slanted, yellow eyes shone through the darkness.
“Ah, shit,” was all I could say as a giant, grey-scaled, horned monster slowly stepped out into the light.