Rene spins the handle to open the door, and I hear the crowd roar as I walk up.

“Ladies and gentlemen, it is time.” Let’s get our soldiers out here! Come on, you two ladies!

Rene smiles. “It’s time.”

I nod, and Rene pulls the lever. Taking a deep breath, my nerves calm slightly, and I walk out the door and up the stairs to the coliseum above.

The roar of the crowd hits me like an ocean wave. The starlight bears down with its heavy midday heat. I can feel sweat already beading and sliding down my back. Dirt covers the coliseum floor, and the wind blows it away like powder. The crowd dies down until the other door creaks open, and up walks Alva.

The crowd cheering is much quieter this time.

Guess her reputation doesn’t get pushed to the side for fights. I shake my head.

Looking around, I spot the king in a glass box with an enchantment stone that amplifies sound.

“My people of Cardinal City, welcome to a battle of Heroes!” The king shouts.

“We have with us today our reigning champion, Alva Copper!” Some of the crowd goes wild, the others clap almost mutely.

“Then, the reason for our gathering today is our recruit, Emelia Shroud!” The crowd erupts with a thunderous roar of cheering.

“She is here to face Alva in a test of courage to see if she can handle the responsibility of being on the table of Nine.” There is more cheering as the king gives his speech.

“Now, let us begin with the battle. Are you ready, ladies and gentlemen?!” The king points to Alva and me as the crowd erupts in cheers.

Ezekiel holds up both hands above his head. The coliseum goes as quiet as a crypt, with no sound but the chirping of the birds.

I prepare for an attack in the agonizing wait for the king to drop his hands. Then they fall, and the battle begins.

For a moment, nothing happens. Alva just stands there on the other side of the floor. What is she waiting for? Most likely, she wants me to make the first move. Should I? My thoughts end when a gust of wind kicks up a cloud of dust. When it passes, Alva is gone.

“The first rule of fighting on the front line is. Do not overthink your actions.” Alva’s voice comes from behind me. I quickly plant my foot, summon the wind to my fists, and turn to strike her in the jaw. Alva kicks my legs out from beneath me. She grabs and twists my arm to stop my strike.

“Be faster,” Alva says.

An explosion of pain in my face sends me flying across the stadium. Skidding across the dirt floor, I use my boots to help slow me down. Her teleportation will be hard to overcome.

Pain in my back sends me flying face-first to the ground again.

“Think much more quickly.”

In a quick motion, I stop myself from kissing dirt and focus on the magic inside me. Warm, flowing energy rolls up through and out of my body. Picturing a stream, I shape the picture and feel as it runs through my Arconamy system. It flows up and through the veins in my hands, touching the Mzynes in the air. The magic causes the wind to pick up and blow through the coliseum, kicking up a plume of dust. I hear Alva’s feet skid to a halt.

“Trying to blind me, not a poor strategy.”

In a few quick motions, I position myself behind her. I try to use the wind wrapped tightly around my fist to strike her. But right before my strike hits, she disappears momentarily and appears behind me with her sword pushed against my throat.

“Not bad, except I fear you’re still too slow.”

She pushes me away, and I stumble, then turn to see a calm expression on her face.

Her calm exterior sends a wave of raw primal hatred wrapping around my brain like a coat. Magic courses through my body and back into my hands. I scream as the wind rushes in and spins rapidly around Alva. With a squeeze of my hand into a fist, the wind grips Alva.

She stops and stares at me, her ember-colored eyes smolder with magic.

“Using wind as a vice.” Good." Alva praises me, but her aura flares up, and my vice is shattered. The crowd claps, and some cheer. Alva doesn’t move. She stares at me, her eyes casting their heavy shadow on me.

“Emelia, do you blame yourself for the attack on your home?” Alva doesn’t blink; she holds me down with her weighted gaze.

Her words are sharp, like a needle ready to burst this bubble of loathing. Memories of the citizens’ screams dance around the front of my conscious mind.

“Don’t go there,” I tell her.

Alva begins to walk towards me. Her steps are heavy with magic as they crater the ground below each step she takes.

“You’re strong, yet you did not protect them. You were a coward who ran away as Janet and Lucy fought to their deaths to save the citizens.” Alva says.

*Step*

Every step she takes comes closer to poking a hole in the bubble. A problem I have is when I get emotional, my magic flares, and I can’t control what happens after.

*Step*

“You got saved while others died.”

*Step*

The voices, these damn voices haunting my every move, always screaming. “Stop! I wanted to help, but I froze!” I scream as I fall to my knees.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Alva shakes her head. “If you freeze on the battlefield, innocent people will die. When you’re one of the Nine, the people expect you to be the wall between them and danger.” Alva says.

*Step*

“A wall does not falter in the face of danger it holds until it finally gives way.”

*Step*

“A coward like you who couldn’t save her family or city isn’t fit to share the title of Nine or Wizard. Young or not, there is no excuse.”

*Step*

Pop!

A burst of wind shoots from my hands, launching me forward. I pull back my fist, using the wind to speed up my punch and make a crunching contact with Alva’s face. She slides back a few steps, her feet firmly planted on the floor. Without giving a moment for her to breathe, I wrap myself in the wind and use its power to swing a kick at her knees, almost making contact again. Except she jumps over it. Twisting my body in the opposite direction, I try to kick her in the face. She blocks it with her left hand on the right side.

She grabs my ankle, then swings me around, launching me into the wall on the left side.

The crowd roars to life. There are stars in my eyes. My head is fuzzy; I try to stand up but stumble to my knees.

“Get up, Emelia. Show me that you are not the sniveling coward I believe you to be! Stand and fight!” Alva shouts. Her Aura explodes with power as she pushes off with her foot, her sword poised to strike me.

I take a deep breath, slowly letting my aura build with power. My muscles constrict the magic in my Metacore spikes. The world slows to a crawl, and the wind in the stadium begins to blow madly. The familiar faint humming of my aura fills me with familiar strength.

The wind now in my hands, I form into a sword, grabbing the hilt with both hands. Using all the strength I just gathered, I swing at Alva as she blocks the attack. The force sends shockwaves cracking the stadium walls. Alva teleports away and stands a few steps away.

“You can break your physical limiter. You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?” I feel Alva’s magical power spike, and then she disappears from view in a blink.

The wind will let me feel where she’ll pop into existence. The wind allows me to feel the magic in the air. The wind begins to tickle my left side, and I turn to strike. Alva blocks my attack, which throws me off balance.

She vanishes again. The wind tickles the back of my neck. I turn to swing my sword again and again until she vanishes. The tickling scratches at my right arm but immediately switches to my left, and then I’m sent flying by a kick to my ribs. With my physical limiter active, I don’t buckle under the intense pain. I drop to the ground, place both palms on the floor, and use them to swing my legs into her knees. She jumps, and my attack misses.

Alva tries to bring her leg down onto my head, but I use my hands to blow a gust of wind to push myself back to my feet and away from her attack. The air tickles me, and Alva appears at my back. And I drop to the ground as her blade swings over my head. Before I hit the ground, I use the wind to level me out. Alva takes a swing at my face.

Ducking to the left causes Alva to miss her swing. I swing at her with my wind blade full of power, making contact with her sword knocks it out of her hands. I swing back with my blade, taking advantage of the opening as Alva disappears. She reappears, grabbing the sword and wrenching it from my hand. Then she grabs my armour and uses her forehead to slam into mine. Stars swirl around my vision as I shake them away.

When the stars disappear, Alva stands a few steps away, sword back in its sheath. She is breathing slightly more heavily than she was before.

“Not bad, Emelia. You seem to have some fire in you, after all. Now, I will step it up a bit. I wonder if you keep up?” Alva says, then vanishes.

Before I can act, my nose explodes with pain. I plant my feet, trying to keep myself balanced, but a kick to the back of my knees drops me like a sack of rocks. “Gah!” I shout as the pain wells up. Alva appears in front of me. She grabs at my armor again with both hands and then, in a blink of an eye, we’re in the air. For a single moment, I see the most of the city.

Then, with a massive amount of strength. Alva swings me around and with her strength and momentum, then throws me to the ground below. In a flash, pain wracks my entire body. Everything feels broken; a cloud of dust, rubble, and shame rain down around me. Alva stands above me, and then she speaks.

“There will always be an opponent stronger than you. If you are to sit at the table, then you must become stronger.” Alva walks away. But I think I can make a soldier out of you yet. “Welcome to the Table of Nine, Emelia.”

Rene appears above me next and reaches a hand down to me. “Need some help?” I nod, extending my hand. She shakes her head as I drag myself out of my hole.

Rene sits me on the edge of the hole and sighs. “She never holds back. I’m sorry for her.” I nod.

“She kicked me into the dirt, literally.” That gets a chuckle from Rene.

I sigh in contentment as a faint, warm feeling caresses my sore muscles. I spit out the dirt that got into my mouth.

“It should only take a few minutes,” Rene says.

After a few minutes of her healing, Rene reaches a hand down to me. “Welcome to the Table, Emmy.”

I reach for Rene’s hand, and she helps me stand up.

Finally, a feeling of happiness makes me feel hopeful.

Then the screaming begins.

A whizzing sound cuts through the air before I can look for the cause of the screams. I’m sent flying back into the wall behind me. The impact from the slam causes the wall to fracture upon impact. The pain makes me writhe in pure agony against my new constraints. Pain shoots through me, causing a foul scream to erupt from my throat.

“Graaaah” The scream makes my throat hoarse.

My body is on fire. It feels like lightning is in my blood.

I look at myself; my eyes are now blurry, and I see these crystal-like objects piercing my left and right shoulder, hands, and thighs, pinning me to the wall. Warm blood now drenches me in a dark crimson. Then I look above me to see multiple cloaked figures lined up on the coliseum walls. One man jumps at least two kilometers to land in front of me. He smiles, his white teeth glittering as much as his armor.

“Emelia Shroud, glad to finally meet you.” Says the man with a dramatic bow. His smile tells me otherwise.

“W-what do you want?” I ask the man weakly.

A blade is at the man’s throat right before he can speak.

“Alva, glad you’re here.” The man says, his eyes still transfixed on mine, a wide smirk on his chiseled chin.

“Not sure how this is possible, but hello, Jonathan. How are you alive?” Alva says, her blade still firmly pressed against the man’s throat.

“I was resurrected to have a chance to fix our dastardly world.”

“I have been given a second chance for the world to be reborn in his warm embrace just like I was,” He shouts.

Behind Alva appears Rene, Sakura, and Levi. They’re followed by a hundred or so soldiers.

“Tell me, what stops me from bleeding you out here?” Alva’s eyes burn with rage. Her Aura rises to incredible levels.

Johnathan bellows with laughter.

“I have hostages, that’s why.” He says, sneering.

Suddenly, the world around me begins to swirl. Darkness encroaches upon the corners of my vision.

The man slaps me before I pass out.

“Ah, ah, ah. Don’t pass out yet, Shroud.” He smiles that perfect smile again. Its perfection burns the image into me.

“What do you want with Emelia.” Asks Alva.

“Men, March on this traitor,” Sakura shouts as I see the group of soldiers.

Johnathan sighs and snaps his fingers.

One figure from the wall vanishes and appears right in the middle of the crowd, wearing a large cloak, hiding who they are. Suddenly, all one hundred soldiers drop. Their blood sprays and pools on the ground.

Rene shouts, and Alva turns.

“That’s on you. Do not advance on me or get in my way again, or I will kill everyone in this stadium,” Johnathan says softly.

The man’s eyes glow brightly with cold fury. His aura rattles the stadium.

Alva looks around the stadium and sees thousands of tiny spikes floating at each citizen’s temple.

“Bastard, there are thousands in here. You’d do such a thing!” Rene shouts, her hand firmly gripping double daggers.

My vision is going dark can’t stay awake much longer.

“What is your agenda, Johnathan?” Sakura asks.

He just points to me. “Her. We almost had her back in Bladesfall, but that one bitch flooded the city and then that black mist came.” He turns back to me.

They killed all those innocent people because of me!

“W-why m-me w-what did I d-do?” I cough up blood and spit it on the ground.

“You are a mistake, Emelia Shroud. You’re a blight on this world. A creature that should have never been born. You must die so the world can continue.” Then he wrenches the spikes deeper into my shoulder.

“Ahhhhh!” I scream as the blackness encroaches upon me, begging me to embrace its cool clutches. My eyes go blurry. The world slowly begins to fade away, and the darkness finally takes over.