Chapter 59 – Tensions & Trials (Patreon)

"What do you think all that means?" Titus asked once the dining hall had returned to normal following Miss Kane's exit. It had taken a little while for the Contestants – and the few Instructors present – to get back to a more regular breakfast, but when they had it was obvious that there really was only one topic of conversation.

"Probably just politics," Jordan said through a mouthful of multiple pieces of toast he'd stacked together to get the most bang for his bite. "Who knows... what really happens... behind the scenes."

"I don't think this is anything normal, or good for that matter," Petra said. "Did you see the look on the Grandmaster's face? She was worried. And to tell us not to rally to her side… she doesn't think she's coming back any time soon, does she?"

Titus shook his head. "Whatever this is, it's bigger than she wants us all to think. I just hope she can get out of it because something tells me that this place would be a lot worse off without her."

That was certainly something they could agree on, and the statement lingered as they finished their breakfast and made their way through the Arena hallways to the chambers that preceded the Arena sands proper.

Because today the three friends were preparing to fight in another public battle.

The night before, they'd been presented with three choices by the notice board in their room, and this time the choice had been far easier to make because they hadn't needed to know what the creatures were they were being offered. Of the three, one was level five, one was level seven, and one was level ten.

They knew that five was way too low for the three of them, and ten was a bridge they weren't ready to cross yet, so the enemy they chose to face together was a level seven Imp.

It sounded funny at first to be making preparations to face a creature that sounded a bit like a joke, but then Titus remembered the goblin and how it had almost caused Jordan to meet his maker. The Imp, which was going to be senior to the goblin in levels, needed to be thought of as a definite threat to the three friends.

Titus pushed any thoughts of the Grandmaster from his mind as he searched through the anywhere box before the arena sands to retrieve his mail overshirt and the sword that Jordan had gifted him when he'd appropriated his axe. Nobody really knew if he'd been allowed to keep the axe but in all the excitement of the incursion, it had fallen into the 'finders keepers' ruling, and nobody had had an issue with that.

Healed and full of Stamina and Mana, Jordan, Titus, and Petra walked up the short incline to the iron bars that allowed the Contestants entry onto the golden sands beyond, and it would be there that they faced the toughest opponent they'd been yet to face.

The three Contestants stood in the centre of the Arena as the crowds around them cheered for them. It was a cursory cheer, of course, with none of the Contestants having made a real name for themselves yet. Nevertheless, the fact that everyone in these crowds was here to see them made Titus feel warm inside.

Titus stood next to Jordan and Petra, holding his borrowed steel sword in one hand, leaving his other free. He felt a lot safer wearing his chainmail overshirt than he had done without it and safer still knowing that all three of them had tricks up their sleeves that could be useful in a good range of scenarios.

Jordan to Titus' left looked every bit the Defender in his plate cuirass, black-handled battleaxe, and round wooden shield. Petra played her part perfectly as the Rogue, ready with her poisonous stiletto to sap away at their enemy's health whilst all the while remaining just out of reach.

Titus took in the cheers of the crowds, the sunlight that poured down from above - which was becoming almost a distant memory as he and the rest of the Contestants spent almost all of their time underground now. Everything was just so perfect. So wondrous.

The time finally came for Miss Kane to make her announcement for the start of battle as she usually did. Titus had almost forgotten that she wasn't actually present in the Arena. He was actually surprised when the voice that echoed across the arena to silence the crowds was male. It was also heavily accented and when Titus looked up, he saw Mr Sinclair standing tall where the Grandmaster would usually stand.

"My friends, I thank you for joining us for this exhilarating arena battle!" he began, and his words were responded to with a loud cheer. "Now these three Contestants have been working hard to keep the City safe for you, so please, enjoy this battle and give this group the respect and thanks they deserve. Plus, one day, if this group makes it as far as many have in the Arena, they could be keeping you safe as Hunters!"

The crowd cheered again, but it was far less enthused than whenever Miss Kane made her announcements. Titus could see why too. Mr Sinclair was clearly not used to public speaking and his words had seemed forced, even if they were technically true.

But none of that mattered because Titus, Jordan, and Petra all placed a fist against their chests and made their proclamation.

"For the people!" they cried as one, and the iron bars on the far side of the Arena sands slid upwards to allow their enemy to make its entrance.

The thing that floated into the Arena was unlike anything that Titus had ever seen before. About four feet tall, it was purple all over and wore a kind of dingy cloth around its middle to hide whatever appendages it may have had down there. Sat in a perfect lotus pose too, it was floating three feet off the ground.

Its eyes were large and black and it had two horns atop its head that curled around once and finished behind itself. By the looks of it, it wasn't carrying any weapons but Titus knew that didn't mean much when it came to the monsters that they were expected to fight on a regular basis.

"You ready for this?" Jordan asked his friends.

"As ready as we'll ever be," Petra chirped.

"You seen one of these before?" Titus asked.

"Nope," Jordan admitted, "Standard tactics and we'll adapt as we go."

As though to punctuate its arrival into the arena, the Imp, who seemed to have no problem just floating there, unveiled two large black jagged wings from behind itself, which clearly weren't there to help it fly, even if it wasn't able to float mid-air; the thin skin that bridged their bony structure was ripped, torn, and looked to Titus pretty much useless.

Imp

Level: 7

HP: 200/200

Two hundred health was pretty high compared to the three Contestants, but it could have been far worse. It was more than the fragile goblin that almost took Jordan down had but less than the Treant Titus managed to survive. Regardless of how strong or resilient this thing was going to be, they would have to fight it as they had fought everything else.

"Spread out," Jordan ordered immediately. "Wait until it's focused on me before you do anything."

The move was well-rehearsed and the group had planned this fight as much as any other, so the order was quite unnecessary. Both Titus and Petra separated from Jordan, who stood there ready with his axe and shield in hand.

And then Jordan brought his axe handle and shield together in a loud, almost deafening crash as he cast his first ability. He had taunted the Imp.

Other creatures that Jordan had taunted had seemed to fall into a blind rage when he did so. They would drop everything they were doing and any plans they had for the battle and seek to take him out with tooth and claw.

The Imp was a new breed entirely.

With its wings still spread, the purple creature did a tight backflip, rising up into the air a few feet to take it just above head height. Then it raised both its hands beside its head with its fingers outstretched as if holding two goblets of water there.

It was strange to see such a reaction to a taunt, though as the group watched the Imp perform its strange dance, they all noticed that not once did it remove its gaze from Jordan.

Then Titus noticed something.

A tiny speck of light had sparked into existence between the Imp's fingertips, and within a second, within its two hands had grown two small glowing orbs. Another second passed and they were the size of the creature's head, now with a slight hue of red to them.

"I don't know what that is!" Titus shouted to his friends, "but it looks bad!"

"What is it?" Petra called back.

But Titus didn't have time to respond because the Imp, apparently done with growing its strange glowing balls, jerked its right hand directly at Jordan.

From its hand, a stream of orange and black fire burst through the air with a roaring intensity. Only by some miracle did Jordan manage to raise his shield in time to prevent himself from being entirely engulfed by the flames.

Jordan was thrown back to the ground as the flames dissipated but he managed to shout: "Now!" before he hit the ground and began righting himself. His shield was blackened, and his forehead was sweating from the heat, but thankfully it didn't look like he was hurt.

Titus turned his attention back to the Imp and could now see that one of its hands was empty. The jet of flames it had cast had used up the energy it had amassed to cast the spell. And then it hit him. The balls of energy were Mana, and only he could see them.

Petra, who hadn't had the revelation that Titus had but did hear Jordan's order to make their move, darted forward with her Stiletto at the ready.

Seeing Petra move up close eased something else, and Titus could only watch as his friend crossed the arena in a few moments. She looked as though she was about to jump into the air before she disappeared altogether. A split second later, she reappeared directly next to the Imp in mid-air and plunged her weapon into its chest.

There was a flash of golden light as Petra made her attack, and then she gracefully fell back down to the ground, rolling as she landed.

But when Titus looked back up at the Imp, the golden light had gone and Petra's attack had only damaged the creature for one single health point.

"It's immune to poison!" Petra shouted so both her friends could hear. "We're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way!"

She didn't sound concerned at her revelation, but this was just another way that the fight was going to be made more difficult.

Then it was the Imp's turn to attack again, this time repeating the action it had done before but with the ball of Mana held in its opposite hand.

The stream of fire billowed forth, aimed directly at Jordan again. And again, Jordan managed to defend himself with his shield. He was thrown back again, though this time his shield began to strain under the intense heat, and the Defender lost three of his own health points. It could have been so much worse.

The Imp had no more balls of Mana left in its hands, which surely meant that it couldn't attack Jordan again. Not yet, at least.

The Imp lowered its arms and cupped its hands on its lap, closing its eyes. It looked to Titus like some sort of horrific meditation, but then he saw the Mana within the creature beginning to build again.

It was like a stream of Mana was flowing freely from the Imp's stomach into its hands to reform the balls that it had held aloft and used to cast its attacks.

"It's recharging!" Titus shouted. "Hit it now!"

His friends didn't need to be invited twice, with Petra reaching the Imp in leaps and bounds before Jordan. She jumped into the air and slashed out at it with her Stiletto and again the golden light flashed in and out of existence. Then Jordan came into range, and he didn't bother jumping. Sliding his hands to the base of his axe, he used its full range of motion to swing the weapon in its most devastating arc.

The battleaxe smashed into the Imp causing it to be thrown a few feet higher into the air, but the golden glow had been momentarily so bright that Titus had to squint.

And then his heart sank. The Imp, for all the damage it should have sustained, only had its health pool reduced by a total of two points.

"It's got a shield, or it's resistant to physical attacks," Jordan said as he too saw the result of their attacks. "You know what that means, Titus?"

Titus nodded. If the Imp was resistant to physical attacks, then it was most likely weak against magical attacks. If that wasn't the case, then he really didn't know what they were supposed to do.

Titus watched as the Imp's glowing Mana balls reached the size they'd been before. He thought about sending a fireball towards the creature while it was recharging, but something held him back. He didn't know how any of this worked or really what the right thing to do was. But he thought about how bad it would be if his own attack helped overcharge the Imp's Mana.

So he waited, and a few seconds later the Imp opened its eyes and held both its hands up by its head again, ready to attack.

Then Titus let rip. He didn't want to go too crazy with his first attack, so he only empowered his fireball by seven points of Mana, leaving him twelve to spare. It wasn't a lot, but at least he knew he had something left in the tank if this didn't go to plan.

As soon as Titus let loose with his attack, the Imp turned towards him and lowered a grotesque hand, holding its ball of Mana out between it and Titus.

And in that moment, Titus realised with a sickening suddenness why the Imp's Mana seemed to be glowing slightly red once its empowered its spell.

Titus' fireball was already away and a second later it reached the Imp. But unlike against the training dummy where the attack had exploded against its target, this time the fireball seemed to disappear right into the Imp's own ball of swirling red Mana. Because that's what it was, the Imp had an affinity for fire – or at least, its Mana ball did.

The Imp seemed to pulsate with red energy once the fireball had been completely absorbed by the creature, and Titus could only watch with his mouth open as he saw the Imp's HP rise by one hundred points.

"I healed it!" Titus shouted to his friends in case they hadn't realised what had just happened. "What do we do?"

"There has to be something we can do," Jordan replied. "There's always a weakness!"

Petra leapt into the air again to try to drive her Stiletto into the Imp. The damage she caused was next to nothing, but it was better than no damage at all.

"No!" Jordan shouted, but it was too late. His taunt had worn off and he was yet to cast another.

The Imp shot its left hand towards Petra, who may not have even been able to jump high enough to reach the creature, and a blast of fire shot forth, throwing her back down to the ground.

Titus' stomach turned as he heard the yelp that came from his friend. The fire must've not only been painful but also a surprise, and as soon as she hit the ground Titus saw that over half of Petra’s health had faded away to nothing.

What was worse was that she seemed to be struggling to get back up too, her entire body smoking.

Jordan cast another Taunt on the Imp, bashing his axe and shield together again. He and Titus both knew it was a little too late, but if the Imp decided to attack Petra again then she'd be done for.

The creature immediately prepared another attack that was clearly aimed towards Jordan, and again the large Defender did his best to hide behind his waning shield. His health points dropped another handful of points as he too began smoking following the column of fire that blew him back onto the arena sands again.

Titus didn't know what to do. He knew he was the key to defeating this enemy, but he just didn't know how. The only weapon he had in his arsenal had backfired spectacularly, but Jordan had been right – for the Imp to seem so powerful, it must've had a weakness.

And then Titus saw something different. Something unexpected.

The Imp was again drawing Mana into its hands from its seated position, but where the Mana had been tinted red before, this time it was blue.

"It's blue!" Titus shouted at Jordan. "What does that mean?"

Jordan stared back at Titus for a moment while he processed what his friend had said, and then something seemed to click.

"It's cycling through affinities!" Jordan shouted back. "I've seen this before! Hit it with the same affinity spell, and it'll heal; hit it with the opposite affinity, and it'll do twice the damage!"

Blue. That was something that Titus didn't need explaining as it was clearly water – the opposing element to his own Fireball spell.

Then Titus quickly asked, "Do I attack while he's charging up his spells, or do I wait until he's fully charged?"

Jordan looked back at him and shrugged. He had already said he'd never heard of the things Titus could do, so it stood to reason that perhaps nobody knew how the Imp was actually casting its spells.

Titus thought for a moment. If he attacked early, then perhaps the Imp wouldn't have a total affinity for the water Mana. But perhaps if he waited until it was fully charged as it had been before, then perhaps the water Mana would all be on the outside, rendering his attack ineffective.

He couldn't decide. But Titus knew that he had to do something, so he split the difference.

Beginning to cast a new fireball at the floating Imp, Titus poured another seven Mana into his spell and let it fly with as much anger as he could manage while still remaining in control of his emotions. He blocked out as much as he could from around him: the warm sunlight above, the roaring crowds, the fact that if he couldn't do this, then he and his friends were going to die.

Everything disappeared because all that mattered in this entire world was that Titus hurt his opponent.

And then the fireball struck its target.

This time the blast wasn't quietly absorbed by the Imp and reapportioned to its health pool. This time there was an explosion much, much larger than Titus had been expecting.

As soon as the fireball collided with the blue-tinted Mana, it burst into flames three times larger than the Imp itself, and the creature screamed an ear-piercing scream. A moment passed, and then Titus peered up at the now blackened, smouldering Imp.

Imp

Level: 7

HP: 125/200

Titus' attack had dropped the Imp's health below where it had first started, and he saw just how effective it was to collide two opposing forces. But the battle was far from over.

Titus knew now though that if he could repeat this action once more, then the fight would be over, and they would win. But it meant timing everything just as it had happened before. Titus just had six Mana remaining, which would tick upwards any minute as his natural regeneration took effect. If he missed with his next fireball, there most likely wouldn't be another.

The Imp regained its composure again after a short moment, just as Titus was readying his next attack. But Titus stopped suddenly when he saw what the Imp was doing.

The blue Mana had dissipated, likely as a result of the last attack, and the Imp was again charging up its two Mana balls.

And this time they were red again. Titus' attack would be worse than useless if he cast it now. He would have to wait.

"It's red again!" Titus shouted to his two friends who'd recovered well thanks to the focus being on Titus. "I can't attack it!"

"Then we have to wait it out," Petra replied this time. Titus could hear the worry and fatigue in her tone, but he knew she was right. They had no choice. "We'll do what we can to damage it…" she began to say but as if in response to her words, the Imp made a large swooping backflip and raised itself ten feet into the air. Then Titus saw it readying its flamethrower attack again.

"Watch out!" He warned.

Jordan stepped forward and bashed his shield and axe together to taunt the creature, but something was wrong.

"I think it's too far away!" Jordan cried frantically. "Get out of the way!"

Petra was the first to move, diving from her position before Titus could even blink.

But she needn’t have. Because the Imp only had one target in mind. Titus was now the greatest threat to the creature, and that was where it sent its next attack. 

Titus was not nearly as quick as Petra. Had he have been then he might’ve been able to dodge the bulk of the stream of fire that engulfed him completely. The pain that every inch of his body experienced made him cry out and a part of him begged for death just so that this pain would end.

But then it did end. Titus could see again but only because the Imp’s spell had heeded and it hadn’t been powerful enough to take his life entirely.

Titus was clearly in a bad way though. His muscles, his joints, hell even his skin hurt and that said nothing for the twenty health points he still had remaining.

Titus managed to roll onto his side so that he could see everyone including the Imp again and the smell of burnt hair and flesh filled his nostrils. He had visions of himself with no hair and scarred skin but could only watch as the Imp prepared another spell.

With Titus down and Petra having been the next biggest threat – even if she was no threat at all to the creature, that’s where the Imp sent its next stream of flames.

Petra who’d already lost more than half her health from the Imp’s first attack couldn’t stand to be hit by another.

Petra couldn’t see it and Titus tried and failed to shout out to warn his friend, so he did the only thing he could: he called upon his very first and seldom used skill: Sacrifice.

By the time the stream of fire hit Petra, he would take half the damage on her behalf and if the Imp’s attack was the same as the last one that’d hit her it would mean she’d live.

And then Titus watched as the fire engulfed his friend, and the pain hit him.

It was like he’d been thrown into a river of lava as his already damaged and sensitive skin took another hit of the fire and even though it was only half the damage that he’d taken already, it was still as painful.

Titus screamed. But Petra screamed louder. He was momentarily blinded by the pain he was experiencing so he couldn’t see what was happening and then as abruptly as the burning sensation had started, it stopped again, signifying the end of the Imp’s attack.

It felt like Titus had been dipped into molten lava and then just left to rest.

The only good news they had now was that for the moment there would be a pause in the Imp’s attacks as it recharged itself.

The world around Titus was dark and quiet. It was like someone had filled his ears with water and coated his eyes with butter. He could see the Imp once again beginning its cycle. He could see the Mana as it transferred between its stomach and its hands and he could see Jordan rushing over to position himself between the creature and Petra, ready for the next attack.

But was the Mana blue or red? Titus couldn’t quite make out the hue but it was definitely… something? He squinted and peered but it all seemed so grey at the moment.

He knew he had no choice.

The Mana had to be blue it just had to be.

So Titus called upon his fireball spell and poured all the Mana he had left into it: a solid nine.

And then he let fly.