As the twins entered the arena and went to the ring Orsella had reserved, they could see a lot of students already on the bleachers near it. Others were still arriving. Among them were students from other years and classes, but the beast tamers stood out because of their pets. Artem noticed that almost all the students from the professional combat training elective class were there, except the Jamra boys. The Families didn’t let their members stay in school for the weekend as they needed to train in the Family’s secret arts.
That was why Miles’s presence on the bleachers was particularly noticeable.
“Yep, he got the insect beast on him,” Lyra announced without need to be asked about it.
“We knew that would be the case,” Artem thought to soothe his brother’s anxiety without attracting attention.
“I know. One breakdown a day is enough for me,” Galen answered with a poor attempt at humor. “I’ve got this. I wonder if I could see the insect with [Insight].”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea for today,” Lyra replied.
“At least, this put more weight on our parents’ warning against the Family,” Artem added to be positive. “The Third Elder’s branch is definitely suspicious. I wonder how Miles is linked with Mrs Bousrani. Are they working for the same spies, or is the Third Elder pulling their strings?”
“Let’s concentrate on one problem at a time,” Lyra said to keep the twins’ attention on Artem’s fight against Orsella and Crystal’s scheming.
One noticeable beast tamer in the crowd was Crystal. She was sitting proudly on the first row with her Gray Stone Wallaroo. Next to her, Cecelia was petting her Earth Mole with a deep frown on her face. Further, the twins saw Zane sitting with Julius and Bruno. The twins waved at them. Looking around, Galen and Artem saw that even Daniyal was present, sitting a little apart with his monkey. Almost twenty beast tamers were present.
Ignoring all of the others, the twins went to speak with Orsella. She was sitting on one of the contestant benches with her Cave Bear sprawled at her feet.
“Did you find a referee?” Artem asked her.
“After some consideration, I contacted Mr Duval,” the girl answered.
“That sounds appropriate since we’re fighting using our chi,” Artem nodded. “When is he coming?”
“He didn’t answer. He’s apparently out of the school.”
“So, you have no referee?” Galen asked in a tight voice.
Artem frowned. Having a referee was one of the preventive measures they agreed upon to keep people from criticizing the fight results.
“We do have one.”
Orsella pointed to Mr Tawil, who was coming in their direction. Lyra was glad that it wasn’t Mr Carter. How she hated that teacher! Mr Tawil was fair, and even if he wasn’t the teacher of the chi class, as a beast tamer, he was competent to judge this type of fight.
After confirming under which rules they wanted to fight, Artem and Orsella went to the equipment stand to put on their armor and protective gloves. They would be fighting without weapons.
As she saw the Fire Fairy going with Galen to the bench reserved for the contestant’s helpers and the Cave Bear staying sprawled on the floor, Crystal stood up and shouted, “What’s the meaning of this?”
Both fighters briefly looked at her without saying a word. They tacitly ignored Crystal and went on with their checks on their equipment.
“What’s the use of fighting without your pets?” Crystal insisted aggressively. “You’re beast tamers: fight like ones!”
They both continued to ignore her. Mr Tawil looked at the girl with disapproval but stayed silent.
“Why aren’t you answering?” Crystal went on stubbornly. “What happened, Orsella? This morning, you wanted a dual fight.”
“Did you hear me say that?” Orsella lazily retorted as she did some warm-up moves.
“Did the Eos twins bribe you? Is that why you changed your mind?” Crystal decided to go on the offensive since Orsella was staying impassive. “You’re an honorable beast tamer: don’t give in to them!”
Artem looked curiously at Orsella, who threw a scornful look at Crystal. Artem smiled slightly. How could the twins bribe anyone when they struggled to pay for food and lodging? Crystal needed to up her game.
Done with her brief warm-up, Orsella went on the ring. Artem followed her.
“Why aren’t any of you saying anything?” Crystal switched her target, trying to get the crowd on her side. “Don’t tell me you’re here to see a common fight!?”
“They’re going to use chi,” Marcus replied to her as he approached the bleachers, “that’s not a common fight.”
Marcus was in his training suit. Drops of water were still on his face, and his T-shirt was damp with sweat. His Magma Tortoise was slowly following him. The boy jumped to the bleachers and found a place next to Caleb. His tortoise stopped in front of the bleachers and lay down there. Crystal took a breath to argue, but Cecelia took hold of her arm.
“I told you it wouldn’t work,” Cecelia said as she pulled her back to her seat. “You don’t understand Orsella.”
“She enjoyed crushing her opponents yesterday,” Crystal countered her in a loud voice. “Why wouldn’t she want to crush Artem today?”
“You don’t understand-”
“Well, explain!” Crystal petulantly interrupted her.
“Orsella’s goal wasn’t to crush her opponents,” Cecelia said with a sigh. “She simply wanted to be done as fast as possible since she wasn’t interested in those fights. If she could, she would have skipped them.”
Flabbergasted, Crystal stared at Cecelia.
On the ring, the fighters signaled with a nod to Mr Tawil that they were ready.
“Orsella’s only interested in strong and challenging opponents. Everyone knows that,” Marcus added as he focused on the ring.
“What do you mean by ‘everyone’?” Crystal asked him in a nasty tone, feeling that Marcus was insulting her.
“It’s beginning,” Marcus said to shush her.
The chatters on the bleachers stopped as Artem and Orsella rushed at each other. The impact of their kicks and punches resonated in the arena as they were blocked. Both fighters were a match in strength.
Seeing that they weren’t using chi, Crystal tried again to stir the crowd. Some were frowning like her, but most were still focused on the ring and ignored her. Crystal regretted Jax’s absence. She was sure he would have supported her. Sadly, he had run to his parents’ house to hide from his humiliation.
After a particularly fast and fierce exchange of blows, Artem and Orsella separated simultaneously to stand several meters away from each other.
“Enough?” Artem asked.
Orsella simply nodded in agreement. Now that the warm-up was out of the way, they could begin the real fight.
Artem’s eyes glowed slightly in white as he prepared to use Ayden’s skills. Meanwhile, Orsella’s body gained a white glow. It was a lot thinner than Deborah’s or Caleb’s. It showed that her talent – while affecting her body – was more subtle than a stamina or strength buff. At the sight, the crowd cheered. At last, they would see what they had been waiting for.
Artem intended to use all of Ayden’s skills so he had instructed his fairy to watch the fight attentively. That was his other reason for accepting the fight: he wanted it to be teaching material for Ayden.
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Artem first ignited three [sparks] in succession on Orsella’s trajectory as they were rushing once more at each other. Orsella only dodged the one aiming at her face and ignored the other two. The dodge was neat and precise, making it look like Orsella had felt the ignition. Artem wondered if it was her choice to ignore the other two or if she didn’t feel them. To test her some more, Artem engaged her in close combat and maneuvered her while igniting two [sparks] in the dodging trajectory he forced her to take. She still dodged perfectly the [spark] that would have burnt her skin while ignoring the one igniting on her boot in an attempt to unbalance her, confirming Artem’s guess that her talent dealt with sense enhancement. It was a good talent.
Both of them knew that it was useless to drag the fight as their chi was still small in quantity, so they got all out. Artem switched skills and used [fire trail] in short bursts, only several seconds each time to throw off Orsella’s rhythm. Once again, Orsella’s talent proved its worth, allowing her to adapt quickly. Moreover, the girl managed to score a clean hit as Artem slowed down after cutting the [fire trail] skill. They both smiled at each other, ignoring the crowd’s loud comments and cheering. Artem could feel his chi getting low. He decided to preserve it for a [chain of blast].
The next exchange of blows saw Artem using his superior martial art to force Orsella to lean on her talent to compensate. He intended to make her spend her chi to prevent her from countering his last attack. Her talent allowed her to face attacks she would otherwise be unable to block. Artem didn’t think that he would have to wait long. Even if Orsella’s pet was of the notable rank and was born a week earlier than Ayden, Artem didn’t think she had much more chi than he. Nevertheless, he had to consider the fact that her talent – being more subtle than his – might not consummate as much chi.
As he felt that the appropriate moment was coming, Artem used [fire trail] briefly to start a complicated combo. Orsella had to scramble to block it. That was when Artem threw at her a [chain of blast]. Among the noise and light effects perturbing her senses, Artem went on with his offensive and managed to score a clean hit of his own.
With a tacit understanding of each other, they separated again.
“Out of chi?” Orsella asked.
Artem nodded to confirm Orsella’s guess. “You?”
“Same,” the girl answered with a shrug.
Having no more reason to fight, they saluted each other. Artem felt strangely empty to the point of having a sort of phantom ache around his core. He ignored it like he ignored the crowd, who was loudly protesting because they stopped fighting. He looked at Mr Tawil to hear his judgment, though he could already guess it.
“You both got a clean hit. I declared this match to be a draw,” Mr Tawil said in a booming voice across the loud crowd.
Artem and Orsella nodded in satisfaction. However, Crystal was furious.
“How can you stop so soon? You didn’t even fight for ten minutes! Did you throw the match?”
“Miss Petit, I’d ask you to shut up,” Mr Tawil interrupted the girl sternly. “I don’t like your insinuations about a match I refereed. They set their rules, they respected them.”
Crystal could only obey the teacher and shut up. She was angry and frustrated. She was feeling like a fool.
Hearing the teacher, most people slowly left the arena. Some beast tamers went down to talk with Orsella and Artem. Marcus was among them.
“That was a nice match,” Marcus said as soon as he was near them. “Does one of you want to fight me tomorrow? Same rules?”
“No problem,” Orsella immediately answered while looking at Caleb to see if he also wanted to fight.
“No, thanks,” Artem answered after a quick glance at his brother. Galen was discreetly keeping track of Miles while both fairies were hovering around him.
Marcus gave Artem a questioning look. Artem smiled wryly at him, but before he could explain himself, Mr Tawil spoke, “You brats, what are you planning? Do you think I’m at your beck and call?”
“No worries, sir,” Artem answered after a quick scan of the surroundings to check if Crystal was still around. It looked like she had left. “The reason we needed you shouldn’t be relevant to a fight between Marcus and Orsella.”
Mr Tawil had already guessed what had prompted this match, and Artem’s words only confirmed his idea. That was why Mr Tawil had accepted Orsella’s request even if he disagreed with their match. Nonetheless, that didn’t soften his stance, especially when he saw Orsella tapping on her connected bracelet to reserve a ring.
“I’m not done,” Mr Tawil said in a firm voice. “You’re going on your first training camp in one of Olympia’s military bases next weekend. I don’t want you messing around. Don’t waste chi you should be accumulating to rank up. Moreover, if your pets need to cultivate just to fill up your chi reserve again, they’re wasting time they should be using to train. I don’t think Mr Duval would approve of this kind of fight. You can be sure I’ll talk to him about it.”
Artem felt that what the teacher was saying made a bit of sense. First, Mr Duval let his students accumulate chi instead of practicing their talent during the chi lesson. Some said that was because he was a lazy teacher. However, Galen researched chi and found some manuals on chi training stating that having a solid reserve of chi first was more important, though it didn’t explain why.
Second, like Lyra said when the twins first questioned her about her energy, all these calculations about chi were complicated and involved a lot of criteria. Only the experts in this area completely understood the chi conversion and the exact minutiae needed for the rank-up, so most people rarely thought about it. A rare CSI like Artem’s or Orsella’s was able to convert 10% of the pet’s cultivation, but a notable CSI like Caleb’s could only convert 5%, while a common one like Zane’s could only convert 2%. If other students with common CSI imitated them and fought with chi until they emptied their pool, it would stunt their growth.
Moreover, another criterion was the pet rank since a common pet was logically less gifted in cultivation than a rare one. As such, Marcus would always fill his chi back up faster than Artem, thanks to his rare Magma Tortoise. That meant that while Ayden was still cultivating to fill up Artem’s chi, Marcus’ tortoise was free to train its skills. This only widened the gap between people of different ranks.
“Don’t be like that, sir!” Orsella protested in her eagerness to fight. “It’s excellent practice!”
Artem shook his head and left her to her argument with the teacher. As he walked to his brother, Marcus fell into steps with him.
“Why did you refuse?” the broad-shouldered youth asked.
“Seriously, Marcus? What would be the use? Your armament talent needs your pet on the ring with you, and we know that my fairy is no match for your tortoise. Moreover, your tortoise – and so your shield – has to have some resistance to fire. What do you expect some weak [sparks] to do to you?”
“I’d still like you to help me adjust to fighting with my tortoise as a shield. You’re almost a master of arms already,” Marcus said calmly and confidently.
“Don’t flatter me,” the black-haired teenager rebuked his classmate.
“Aren’t you a tutor? I can pay you, or I’d owe a favor.”
Artem thought about it. Tutoring Marcus was out since Artem was only allowed to instruct his underclassmen. So it came down to what favor Marcus could owe him.
Ayden’s training to learn the rare skill [heat detection] was halted because Artem couldn’t pay for the elemental training facilities. Without fire, how could the fairy detect heat? The human body heat was too low to begin the training with that, and Ayden’s fire was made of her own spiritual energy, so it messed up the training. Consequently, the Fire Fairy hadn’t progressed at all with this skill. That was why Artem had been mulling over getting a training book to teach Ayden the rare [fire arrow] instead.
Could Artem ask Marcus to rent the training facility for him? Artem wasn’t sure it was the best course of action because of the spies. The tortoise was a fire pet, so maybe Ayden could try to detect it to kick up her training. As these were only vague ideas, Artem refused to decide anything yet.
“Let me think on it first. And even if I agree, it wouldn’t be before the training camp. I don’t want to ignore Mr Tawil’s warning.”
Marcus grunted in agreement and returned to Orsella, leaving Artem with Galen. Miles had left the arena without trying to approach anyone.
“Lyra, do you think he had nothing to do with Crystal?”
“That’s hard to say. He could have taken her scheme as an opportunity to check on Artem’s talent without her knowledge.”
Frustrated to have so many questions without any answer, Galen turned his attention to his brother. Lucia went to check on Artem, but he wasn’t injured. As Orsella said, it was only a practice spar.
“Mr Tawil is right,” Lyra scolded Artem. “You had enough sense yesterday to not empty your pool like that. Why did you do it today? It’s bad for your health to do that.”
“How so?” Artem asked with a slight frown while putting a hand on his brother’s shoulder to keep him from hovering around him with worry.
“The chi will transform your body. It has already begun.”
“Yes, we know that. That doesn’t explain how emptying our pool of chi affects our health.” Galen retorted.
“To make things short, the chi is like a drug because humans are not made to handle spiritual energy,” Lyra tried to explain with a lousy comparison. “Artem should feel withdrawal effects. Weak effects, but still.”
Hearing Lyra’s explanation, Galen got a stubborn look on his face. He asked Lyra for more information, but she only knew the basics.
Galen thought about it some more. “That should be the main reason behind the advice to accumulate chi before using it. There is less chance of getting an empty pool.”
However, Galen could meditate on that later while researching more information. The important thing right now was his brother’s health. “You go to our room and rest. You are forbidden to train this evening.”
“Don’t exaggerate,” Artem immediately protested, “I-”
“Artem,” Galen sternly interrupted him.
It wasn’t his brother talking, but the healer. Artem knew that in times like this, he had to compromise. He negotiated to let Ayden train while he promised not to train himself. Galen grumpily agreed, so the twins went to a training hall.
Galen trained his shooting skills first as Artem went to sit on the side. Meanwhile, Lucia and Ayden did some basic training. Once they were done, Galen shared with Lucia the instructions from the encyclopedia to get her to learn the rare skill [light shield] and his ideas to evolve the skill [glow] to make it an attack skill. At the same time, Artem called Ayden to him to talk to her about his match.
Afterward, Artem looked critically at all of them while they trained and offered advice from time to time. Galen was practicing with his shield. Lucia was pursuing Ayden with her skill [glow] as the Fire Fairy used [fire trail] to escape. From time to time, the Fire Fairy cut off her skill to mess up her rhythm and applied what Artem showed her during his match. Lucia tried different tactics like overcharging her [glow] or trying to create several spheres of light. But for now, that messed up her control, making the spheres of light disappear or slowing them down.
They trained for two hours. Then they went back to their room after a light supper. With a tacit understanding, none of them spoke anymore of their problems. For now, they would concentrate on improving themselves.