Chapter 49:

Rine clutched his dagger a bit too firmly, suddenly he was reminded of the time he tried his hand at Shadewood’s entrance exam. Though in truth the two events were distinctly different, the piercing gazes of the crowd did nonetheless harken back to his previous failure.

A few days into their training, Sirocco had still been receiving a large number of adventurers reporting in; however, this all changed on the fourth day when instead of the hesitant pitter-patter of uninitiated adventurers fresh off the wagon, a formidable march was sounded instead. Loud beating drums heralded their approach and the stiff attention with which the Wind palace’s soldiers stood only reinforced the sight.

Rine could still vividly recall it. In the clear blue sky of a wonderfully sunny day, the sudden appearance of a foreign body sailing through it was mesmerizing.

‘Is that a carriage?’ He remembered thinking in disbelief. Little did he know that his guess was actually spot-on as the thing flying so effortlessly among the clouds that day did in fact turn out to be a carriage.

The ripping winds surrounding Sirocco parted ways in a grand gesture of welcome and the flying carriage gracefully entered its embrace before listlessly falling and landing softly on the ground.

All around Rine he could feel the adventurers residing within Sirocco gather without being told to. And though they differed much in appearances and skills, they all shared a distinct commonality that day, they stood stock-still not even daring to breathe.

The presence of the carriage, or rather the being residing within it was unearthly. Standing before it was akin to suddenly being plunged into the depths of the ocean, the pressure was unending.

After an unnaturally long pause, the carriage door opened and a surprisingly slim figure stepped out of it. His smooth gold hair was slicked back showing more of his face’s sharp features, this was further accentuated by his stiff, falcon-like eyes. In terms of age, he looked young but the wisdom contained within his eyes screamed experience. His name was Clint Rhodes and he was from the illustrious Rhodes family, a close ally to the Mend family. He was a noble who had a high rank in the wind palace’s army. Apparently, he would be serving as this war’s high commander.

Rhodes gave a short but eloquent speech that served to soothe the already fraying nerves of the adventurers but soon enough things took a turn.

Out of the blue, it was decided that exhibition matches would be held.

A few hours later and Rine found himself in the middle of a make-shift arena with his team beside him. Across them stood another team around the same value as theirs.

“Everyone prepare yourselves!” Rine’s team leader, whose name was Cass, said aloud in a commanding voice, her brave figure stood tall despite the pressure.

Cass was a warrior whose strength was even above that of Calvin’s, she was arrogant, yet with the skills to back it up, she was never overbearingly so.

At first Rine’s team doubted whether she truly had the ability to lead, furthermore it was customary for magicians to be party leaders. However after both magicians showed no willingness to take charge, she and Calvin fought for leadership and after a close match, she etched out a victory.

Now here she stood proudly at the helm of her party’s formation staring her foe down. Clavin stood beside her with the other warriors flanking them; Rine and Roe stood slightly behind in the safest position. This was the typical formation warriors and magicians often collaborated through. Warriors were generally more resilient, added on to that their ability to attack without buildup made it so they were perfect buffers for the magicians who despite having higher attack potential, needed time to execute them.

“Rine…” Roe muttered hesitantly.

“Calm yourself, Roe. A magician’s strength is his cool,” Rine said with a wink.

He did not know why but somehow he had managed to maintain a certain level of calmness throughout his stay in Sirocco. Even the appearance of Clint did not stir him much. He glanced to the top of a tall platform where the Rhode’s family member sat comfortably as he oversaw the matches. A light smile was always plastered on his face, yet Rine felt that the face was merely a mask.

“Begin!” The announcer stated all too suddenly and almost immediately Cass began dealing orders.

“Magicians, fire long-ranged spells, suppress the enemy’s movements. Men, Charge!” Though simple, the orders were enough and under the combined fireballs shot out by both Rine and Roe, the warriors charged forth, weapons at hand.

Alas, their tactic was not at all unique so it was natural that the enemy would take measures against it. Only instead of targeting the warriors, the other team’s magicians chose to attack Rine and Roe. As for the opponents' warriors, despite being rattled from the spells sent out by the Rine and co, they still plowed through and both team’s warriors forcefully clashed in between the four magicians.

The cheers of the crowd dazed Rine and the reality of the situation finally dawned on him.

“Rine! Shield!” Roe yelled as he set up a simple flame barrier spell, covering his entire body.

Rine stood stiffly in place, unsure of how to act.

‘I don’t know how to!’ He admitted to himself as he came to realize the fact that despite being a third-grade magician, he only knew one spell. A spell that wouldn’t help him in his current situation.

He stood like a statue as he stared down the spell barreling toward him.

…………………………………………

Cort winked at the sight of Rine being blown back.

“Rine! No!” Amelia, who sat beside him, screamed but she was drowned out by the crowd’s cheering.

The magician who managed to land a hit on Rine was smiling victoriously while waving his hands about, this only served to further the audience's ardor.

Cort watched the display for a few more seconds before turning to the true source of intrigue for him.

His question had finally been answered. Why was it that despite how seemingly outmatched the soldiers were against the adventurers’ strength and numbers, the adventurers still followed their every word?

The answer was the man seated on top of the tower; Clint Rhodes.

Cort rubbed his forehead and began to think. He now understood the true nature of this war. Unexpectedly, it served many purposes as not only was it a chance for each palace to exchange talents that suited the other more, it was also a chance to kill off any wastes. Logically speaking it was incredibly easy for any person to pick up a sword and call themselves a warrior, thus a filter of sorts was needed and this war was perfect for that. Furthermore, this war also served to keep the guilds in line as it was akin to blatantly robbing food from someone’s plate, only in this case the food was talented youths.

This war had many sides, each more complicated than the last, but to Cort, it was all just one large headache.

Thus to him, the best thing to do was obvious. Fulfill their objectives as discreetly as possible. In Cort's case that meant finding an opportunity during the war to fight an Aura user. For Rine, well his goal was a little vague; Cort doubted whether the youth himself knew what to aspire toward.

To lay low meant several things, but most importantly it meant keeping their rankings at an unnoticeable degree; not high enough to draw in the big guys’ attention, yet not low enough to fall behind.

This would be more difficult on Rine who was unfortunately placed in a very precarious situation. Them being flame magicians meant that the wind palace did not have the intention to recruit them, thus they were mainly meant to be tokens given to the other side in exchange for other magicians. Thus Rine was in an odd limbo state where despite not being very important to the wind palace, he was still being paid attention to.

‘As I thought. It’s best for the both of us to lay low…’ He thought to himself before smiling wryly.

However, it seemed luck was not on his side.

“Buy me time!”

…………………………………………

“Buy me time!” Calvin flinched slightly at the unexpected shout. He had been so engaged in combat that he failed to completely comprehend what happened to Rine, but he still recognized the tone through which he yelled.

He recalled the time with the wolves where he said the same exact words and a slight smile crept onto Calvin’s face. Rine was going to make a scene!

Instantly, he disengaged from the warrior he was fighting against and rocketed toward the other team’s magicians.

“What are you doing!” Cass yelled angrily as she was now forced to hold back double the amount of force. Yet despite her protests, the mere fact she was able to hold her own proved how much more skilled she was.

Finally, Calvin reached the other team’s magicians, and, using his sword, he barely deflected a fireball from hitting his face. Unfortunately, he was knocked out of balance and could not defend himself from the second magician’s attack.

It was then that a shield of flame suddenly enveloped him, boosting his defense and allowing him to regain his footing.

He looked to his back where a young Roe nodded in his direction.

Calvin gave a nod back before engaging one of the magicians, knowing full well he wasn’t alone.

…………………………………………

‘What is this guy thinking!’ Roe screamed to himself as he desperately cast spell after spell, attempting to curb the enemy magician’s attacks. The fact he had to defend both himself and Rine made his job difficult but he was somehow holding on.

But as time progressed, he felt more and more desperate, he could tell that their team was losing. Cass and the other warriors were slowly being pushed back and Calvin was making no headway with the other magician; as for Roe, well it was a miracle he was still standing.

“{Flame Wall}!” Roe screamed as he summoned a wall of fire large enough to block both his and Rine’s body.

“Argh,” He grunted as he felt the other magician’s attack land heavily against his wall, spreading cracks all around it. Mental fatigue was finally catching up with him and he knew that he was nearing his limit.

Just when the wall was about to break, Roe heard a quiet voice speak to him.

“Step back.”

…………………………………………

A few minutes prior as Rine was being blown away, all that existed in his mind was relief. Relief in the fact that the ordeal was over.

He landed hard on his side and continued rolling before skidding to a stop. Unconsciousness was creeping up on him and he knew that everything would soon be over.

But try as he might, he couldn’t quite sleep yet. The ruckus surrounding him was too loud.

Slowly opening his eyes, he saw the sight of many people cheering. Disgusting smiles splattered all across their faces as they jeered at him. Some openly mocked Rine while others just enjoyed the violence in general.

“Pathetic, out with one attack. As expected of newbies, tsk.” Rine heard one man say.

“Yeah, but these are just the lower rankings, just wait for the real heavy hitters later on. Those matches will surely be exciting,” The previous man’s friend replied.

‘Uninteresting….huh,’ Rine clenched his hands into fists.

‘What about you,’ Rine asked himself as he looked up, toward the man sitting at the highest seat of the arena.

Clint still had his customary mild smile on, but Rine could still tell that he was stifling a yawn.

Seeing this, a sudden rage overtook Rine. The dullness he had been experiencing lately was washed away and in its place now flowed an endless abyss of rage. He hated how pathetic he was, the crowd was right, he was useless.

Had they truly been for nothing? All those hours he toiled away practicing. Were they all useless?

Origin began to coalesce around him, despite him being unaware of it. Unlike the previous times, the Origin did not immediately enter his body but rather it collected inches away from him.

How many times had he burned his hands, how much blood had he spilled?

The Origin grew denser and denser.

Damn it all! Did they want a show? He’ll give them a show.

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