Chapter 14- Trials

After finishing my tale everyone is silent. The light from the moon outside casts dark shadows into the room. The wind rattles the old wood. I sit in fear of what everyone will think of me.

I tell them about the dream I just had and everything it implies. That I was twenty four years old when I died in a car accident. In the back of a car I had my arms wrapped around two women that I was planning on sleeping with before it happened and we all died. So I guess I was some kind of playboy in the past. Being a playboy and also the age gap is probably a huge reason I have subconsciously been rejecting Aarushi.

I explained all my memories form before this world to them Like the two worlds I went to after I was resurrected. I explained how my first goal in this world was to find a cure for the pyromancers and if not Kill the god of fire Suzaku. I explained how over time I became attached to them and became their friends.

I told them the truth of what I saw when I touched the dagger. How I am afraid of Aarushi dying and of the man in the grey hood. I laid all of my cards on the table.

Lucarus stands from his chair knocking it to the ground after a minute of silence. The wooden chair thuds against the ground. He stomps toward the door without a word. I reach out to stop him but my voice gets stuck in my throat. A small whimper comes out instead. As Lucarus leaves the room he slams the door shut sending a gust of wind into the room.

Rhea stands and puts her hand on my shoulder. “I need to go on a walk and think about some things. I don’t know you very well yet but I do know my sister. I can’t believe she never told me these things before. I will tell you what I think in the morning and we can try to discover more about this purgatory.” She then leaves in a quite manner. At least I will still have her. Maybe she can convince Lucarus to forgive me. He really seems to like her.

I glance over to Aarushi who still has her head tilted sideways. She puts her finger on her lips and makes a small noise. “mmmm” she holds this pose for a second then tilts her head to the other side flipping her long red hair over her shoulder. She removes her finger and looks me in the eyes. In a very serious tone she says. “Pervert!” Then crosses her arms and looks away.

I sit back slightly in surprise by her response. “What?”

She holds her angry posture and repeats “Pervert!”

“Why pervert? I don’t understand, aren’t there a lot of other reasons to be mad at me?”

“Well didn’t you die going home with two girls? You’re a pervert! And on top of that your what almost forty years old now?” she uncrosses her arms and points at her chest. “You know I am only about to turn 16 years old, why didn’t you tell me this beforehand!”

Almost more surprised that Aarushi could approximate twenty four and fifteen together than anything I stutter on what to say next. “Yeah I guess you’re right. I’m sorry.”

Aarushi drops her hand and blinks at me a few times. “No! You’re supposed to argue back! Tell me that the reason you couldn’t date me is because you thought I was too young. The reason you denied Cecelia was because she was too young! Tell me that you’re not really a pervert and that all you want in this world is true love!” She angrily swings her arms around as she says all of this.

I sit and think for a moment. In this world I have never been thinking perversely like I did in my past life. I was too distracted by the magic and the people. But I can’t deny that I wasn’t a pervert sixteen years ago. I also can’t fix the age gap either. I really don’t know how to handle a situation like this. Physically we are perfect for each other, and even emotionally we work out great, but mentally I am much older than her. If only she would have just stayed a friend and never would have proclaimed her feelings for me.

I look up and smile. “I guess you took the words from my mouth. There was nothing wrong with you but your age. I used to be a pervert but in this life I believe I have stayed away from such thoughts. I am truly a different person than from my past life. Even though I hid such a large part of myself I want you to realize I am still me, I am still Deadra.”

Aarushi makes a loud humph noise and slouches back in her seat. She stares at me for a moment looking me up and down. “When?”

Not sure what she means I ask her. “What do you mean?”

“Uggghhh, when will I be old enough for you to stop thinking of me as a child?” She looks down shyly while blushing slightly before continuing. “When will you be able to date me for real?”

“I ugh well I mean dating is a lot more complicated than that.” I pause for a moment still not sure what to say. I care for her as a child hood friend, and I do find her very attractive.

She scrunches her face. “Tell me when!”

Not sure what to do I say the first thing that comes to mind. “Ugh eighteen. In my world eighteen is when one becomes an adult.”

Uncrunching her face she puts a beautiful smile on. “Well then I guess I better keep you on a leash tell then.” She leans her face close to me. Putting one hand on her hip and pointing a finger at me with the other she exclaims. “Promise me now that when I turn eighteen you will bring me on a date! And make sure you use all your knowledge, not just what you know in this world!” Calming down slightly she pokes my nose lightly. “If you promise that I will forgive you.”

A wave of relief rushes over me. I am truly happy she will forgive me. And when she turns eighteen I’m sure she will be amazingly beautiful. “I would love to take you on a date! I promise.” I place my hands behind me on the bed and lean back. Now I just need to fix things with Lucarus.

Aarushi sits down on the bed and stretches her arms in the air. “(yaaawwwn) All that story telling has made me tired, let’s go to bed.” She wraps her arm around me and kisses me on the cheek. She then slides her hand down my arm and onto the bed. She crawls behind me and lays her head down on the pillow. “I never said we could break up tell then either so don’t go around with other girls.”

I guess this means we will be taking things slow tell she is older? I don’t really know what she is thinking anymore, she is truly growing up. I will just be happy she forgave me for now.

…

Morning comes and Aarushi is till lying next to me in bed. I decide to get up early to see if I can find Lucarus. I slowly slide out of the green sheets but am stopped when Aarushi’s hand grabs my wrist. Her eyes are still closed. She mutters. “Monkey… got you.” I peel her hand from her wrist. Traversing the field of landmine like squeaky wood proves a difficult task. An explosion of creaking erupts from the floor boards every step I take. When I reach the silver door knob I turn around to see Aarushi still motionless. I creek the door open slightly and shuffle my way through.

When I knock on Lucarus’s room next door I hear a light moan. ”Lucarus are you in there? I want to talk please. ” A few seconds later I hear a person make an embarrassed squeak then lots of shuffling behind the door. I hear a low soft rumble then in response a higher pitched one.

After some low and high mumbling noises resonate back and forth I hear Lucarus speak through the door. “Hey Deadra… Ummm can you give me a minute? I’ll meet you down stairs at the inn’s dining room.”

“Yeah I’ll meet you there.” Having an idea about what is taking him so long I decide to stop by my room first. I open the door and pick Aarushi up in my arms. As my arms scoop under her I get a whiff of honey, Aarushi’s natural sent. She is lighter than she looks, probably because the pyromancer race is naturally light and agile. “Aarushi lets go eat breakfast.”

She slowly opens her eyes as I carry her in my arms. Rubbing sleep from her eye she responds. “Where are you taking me?”

“I am taking you to breakfast.”

“Oh, that’s sweat!” she smiles and wraps her arms around my neck. She whispers in my ear. “Thanks! But why are you carrying me?”

Half way down the stairs is when I realize that I don’t know why I decided to carry her. I shrug my shoulders and continue carrying her to the table. I set her down in a seat then grab one next to her. “Lucarus and Rhea should be joining us soon. Also don’t ask why I carried you here I don’t really know myself.”

Aarushi still half asleep slops her head onto my shoulder. “Ok monkey wake me when they get here.”

Is all she dreams about that strange monkey?

After a little bit Lucarus shows up with an uneasy look on his face. He sits down across the table from me. “Hey Deadra, how did you sleep?”

I look up at him and give him a small wink. “Why didn’t you bring your bed mate with you, I am sure Rhea is hungry too.”

The blood rushes from his face and is eyes shoot open. “No it’s not what you think. We didn’t. Ummm we were just talking last night and then fell asleep.”

I give him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry I am not judging. She is a very beautiful girl. Also I believe you, I am sure you were just talking. But can I ask if you like her?”

He sheepishly nods his head. “I do like her. When I stormed off last night she found me about ten minutes later walking around in the street. She brought me back to my room and we talked about you for a few minutes. We talked about her sister after that. Eventually we both stopped being upset and somehow got on a tangent about random things and eventually fell asleep talking. When I heard you knock and saw her still in the bed we kind of freaked out not knowing what happened.” By the end of his story he is rubbing the back of his head with a giant cheeky smile.

Not wanting to ruin the moment I stay silent for a moment and let him bask in the thought before asking. “So are you still mad at me? Do you have any questions for me?”

“Huh?” he stops rubbing the back of his head and lowers his hand. “Oh yeah, don’t worry about it. I was more shocked than anything. I guess I was upset that you took so long to tell me and felt lied to but now after looking at it from your point of view I understand. We wouldn’t have believed you if you didn’t have such weird circumstances happen first, and you were probably afraid of what we would think. So just forget about everything and let’s be friends again.”

I didn’t expect him to be so mature about this. I am glad I picked him as my friend so long ago. “So when Rhea gets here lets order some breakfast!”

Lucarus points at Aarushi’s face. “Haha, but first you might want to clean the drool off your shirt.” I look down and see Aarushi drooling all over my shirt. Crap. I shake her off and wipe my shirt.

…

It’s been three days since I told everyone the truth and everything is settling down nicely. The four of us have decided to enter the arena as a team and fight monsters for now. Rhea seems to know a lot about monsters and the arena and told us everything we needed to know.

Every six months is a tournament for individual fighters and for teams. These events call fighters from all over the world to come and fight at varying levels. There are beginner levels all the way to master levels. Anyone can participate in the beginner level but to go to a stronger rank you must prove your strength in the arena. Tournaments are the way to make the most money with hundreds of gold pieces being given to the top three places at just beginner levels. Rhea says until our team work gets better we should only do the individual tournaments. But the next one is six months away and we will run out of money before then.

A second method of gaining money from the coliseum is through fighting monsters. We found a bulletin of how each monster pays out.

*

Each point will reward you with a gold coin for victory and a silver coin for failure or draw. Upon death you will not receive any reward.

Wolves are one point each.

Bears are five points each.

Shieks are ten points each.

Small rock golems are twenty five points each.

Wyverns are thirty points each.

Trolls are fifty points each.

Medium rock Golems are fifty points each.

Small dragons are one hundred points each.

*

We are also told that sometimes special creatures will be displayed and will often be worth extra gold. With more gold we can by new items and equipment. Excluding my long dagger and everything Rhea owns our equipment is pitiful.

Aarushi has dagger edged gauntlets made of rock and wolf claws on each hand and a pair of heavy boots. Her armor mostly consists of brown leather and wolf hides. On her shoulders she has rock shoulder gear for tackling.

Lucarus has a two handed rock sword. He wears light leather and rock wrist guards. His fur boots and jacket are from the first bear I killed on the way to Twin Trees.

My gear is similar to Lucarus’s except I have the silver dagger I found inside the cave and five smaller rock daggers weighted for throwing.

Rhea has a mithral chain mail shirt and skirt with a ruby of elemental protection in the chest. She has diamond encrusted silk gloves. Her boots are high quality leather with cotton souls for comfort. She has mithral arm and leg bracers with designs carved into them similar to my dagger. She has a small silver canister at her waist with a symbol for water. This canister can store several dozen gallons of water. Her combined armor guards against all elements to a certain degree along with physical attacks greatly. The only thing we need to worry about is large heavy impact attacks that hit her. Her gloves increase her ability to heal and give an added bonus to water creation. The gloves improve upon her natural talents as a hydromancer. Her only down side is she can’t heal herself, and she is bad at fighting since Mica did all of the fighting for her.

Aarushi poking and prodding Rhea asks. “Why do you have such impressive gear?”

Rhea lets out a small giggle while covering her mouth. “Hehe, my sister made it for me. I never really thought about why she was so talented in everything she does but if her being reincarnated is true then I guess she was a blacksmith in a past life.” She points at the dagger I have in my waist. “Also I think that dagger is one she made as well.”

I glance over my dagger for a moment. The items she developed are truly amazing. How many life times has she lived to develop something like this? Was she the person who gave me the warnings? What kind of girl is Mica?

Lucarus pats me on the back to break me from thought. “Hey come on our match is about to start.” As he says this the black gates creak open for our impending battle.

We walk through the gates to see a small crowd on the bleachers cheering. From what I can hear they are hoping for our deaths from the onslaught of enemies. We chose to do the multiple enemies package. This entails that we will fight several waves of monsters until we either give up, we die, or they run out of monsters. Every five waves we survive we are rewarded extra gold. Since this is our first time fighting the crowd does not know our strength and they have only come to see our deaths.

We take our positions. Aarushi and I are at the front with Lucarus a few paces behind us to cover our backs and protect Rhea. Aarushi and I are the attackers and tanks. I have better skill and speed but Aarushi is far more fierce and ruthless. Lucarus is the eyes and ears and will warn us of any incoming attacks. Rhea is our healer with minimal fighting capability but because of her armor she could probably take more hits than any of us.

A woman in a white gown and bright pink hair standing on a podium above the crowd begins to announce what is happening. “Today we have a small fry beginner group with three Pyromancers from the fire tribe and one hydromancer from the water tribe. They call themselves The Eternal Flame.” We were thinking of calling ourselves team purgatory but did not want to attract any more attention from strong people like Mica. “Today they will be facing several waves of monsters; to start off we will send out the wolves!”

A large bronze bell rings out as the woman raises her hands. A black gate twenty paces in front of our formation opens up. Eight pairs of yellow eyes glowing in the darkness creeps out into the sunlight to reveal four large black and red four eyed wolves. Staggering themselves slightly they crawl out the door.

Showing no fear and having plenty of experience with wolves Aarushi and I charge into attack. Since we have a healer with us we can afford to be more risky. We each engulf our bodies in flames creating a protective armor around ourselves before splitting up. I attack the two on the right and Aarushi takes the two on the left.

I charge my left hand with a bomb. I pour power into the silver blade in my right and hand as it glows red like hot iron. I reach with in two paces of the wolves before they each dart in opposite directions around me. The wolf on my left lunges at me going in to bite my neck with its razor sharp black claws. I pivot my feet and back step to avoid its swipe while placing my left hand on its head. An explosion echoes from my hand and the wolf’s head caves in. The second wolf already started its attack before I killed the first. Unable to back step again I kick off the ground barely avoiding his black jagged teeth as he nips at my legs. With the momentum from the kick I go into a side flip over the second wolfs head. I stab my scolding hot blade into his snout mid arc. Finishing my flip I drag the blade across his skull killing him in a single blow. I can hear people yelling in the background.

I safely land at the same time the two wolves hit the ground. I turn over to Aarushi to see she has one of the wolves heads clamped down beneath her rock claw like weapons. She is burning the life from him with her iron like grip. The other wolf is staggering from a punch she threw earlier but is about to quickly retaliate. With her unaware of the second wolves recovery and concentrating on killing the one in her grasp she will get injured. I rush over to her side shooting flames behind me to accelerate my pace. I jump into the air toward the wolf like a cat pouncing on its pray. I position the blade between the wolf and I as I crash down onto its back. He slumps onto his belly with his legs spread eagle. I pull the blade from his back and thrust it in once more to prevent it from unneeded suffering.

I stand up and wipe dirt from my knees while checking my surroundings. Aarushi has finished her wolf off as it lies on the ground. She is giving a smile of bliss that she only gives off while fighting. Lucarus stands next to me with a serious face. It seems he was prepared to kill the wolf and protect Aarushi. But he is also still analyzing the surroundings; he is the eyes and ears of our team after all. Rhea stands in the back holding a glowing orb of blue water the size of a baseball in her hand. She smiles and yells. “Does anyone need healing?” We all shake our heads and return to our original positions.

The announcer bellows the results. “Wow in a split second the man with a silver dagger takes out two wolves then in another instance kills a third. The red haired beauty stuns two wolves before crushing one of their heads between her flaming claws. All of them ready to kill more at a moment’s notice. I think we under estimated this new team. The legends of pyromancers being one of the most powerful races may be displayed today. But will they be able to survive the next wave?” The crowd roars at her announcement. Men in black and white stripped outfits that remind me of referees run onto the field and remove the corpses. The black metal gates rise across the stadium once more. “The next challenge is two grizzly bears, a far more challenging opponent than a pack of wolves.”

Just as the announcer says two large brown bears come out of the gate each towering over ten feet. I take a deep breath and yell. “I will get the one on the right, everyone else focus on the other one.” I make my charge against my opponent.

He decides to stay on all fours and gallop my way. When we each get within two paces of each other we react explosively like a match dropped on gasoline. I blow a large flame from my left hand into his eyes to blind him while he lunges at me with his frying pan sized paws and thick jagged claws. With a second flame from my foot I spring myself nearly six feet off the ground above the bear. Floating in the air above the smoke and fire for a second I can see the bare swipe his other paw into the now empty space I once was. To accelerate my decent I shoot a blast of hot air and smoke behind me and lunge with the blade below my head with both hands. I fall into his back like a javelin into the ground. As the blade enters his flesh I hear a light snapping and cracking. Sending a wave of energy into the blade makes and explosion at its tip shooting me and the blade back in the air. The bear cries out in pain as I fly back into the air.

He tries to stand on his hind legs and reach me but instead collapses. I fall to the ground with a thud while bending my legs as I absorb the impact. I check on the others and see Aarushi using a flame thrower at the bears face while Lucarus has snuck up behind it. I assume he will slice the bears ankles and they will expose it’s under belly again. Rhea stands back a ways prepared to heal anyone who gets injured.

I decide to let them take their bear on and refocus on mine. He gives me a death stare as I approach his head. Using one paw to push himself up and forward he swings the other at me. I side step the attack slightly ducking. As the bear falls into me I jab the blade into its neck ending its life.

I take a sigh of relief before looking back over to my comrades. The bear lies on its back motionlessly. Aarushi is sitting on the ground next to the bear with a blissful smile. Lucarus is hunched over with his blade in its rib cage. Rhea is still holding her glowing ball of water not sure what to do. Either she is useless or just waiting for someone to heal. No she gives us confidence to move forward knowing we can be healed. This rids us of hesitation.

In the past we were always much more cautious and worried of injury. Without a healer a small injury could put you out of business for weeks impeding your ability to become stronger. This slowed us down in the past and made us hesitant, but now we can display our full strength without fear. With her on our team we could become stronger exponentially faster than before. In a world without medical science healers are truly an amazing thing for any life style.

The announcer chimes in. “Wow another amazing match by team Eternal Flames. How far will these beginners move into the multi wave matches!?” Once again the referee looking people pull away the traces of battle. The gates rattles open and one set of blue eyes looks out from it. “The next opponent is a single black shiek. This bird is known for its speed and agility. Will the change in opponent confuse the combatants?”

A black bird with blue eyes steps out bobbing its head with each step. It looks like a black rooster from a distance, but is actually eight feet tall with large talons the size of small daggers. Its beak is larger and harder, made to crack open rocks to help it tunnel. When it sees us it makes a war cry. “hhhhiiiieeeeeek.” It swipes its legs into the ground once before sprinting at us with frightening speed.

Its target is my head. Unable to dodge the attack I squat down and wave large flames from my hands. I rush my arms from my side up toward the sky. A large flame like a shield of fire emits stoping the bird and forcing it to jump into the air and flap its wings. Taking advantage of the moment I jump into the air after it shooting fire out of my feet to fling myself higher. I grab onto its right leg and immediately start to charge a bomb into my palm. Before I can gather enough energy the shiek slams its beak into my arm. The sound of shattering bone echoes in my ear as pain resonates from my arm. As my grip is forced open from pain I emit a small blast of energy and fire into its leg. I fall to the ground with a thud and curl into a ball around my arm.

Lucarus jumps over me to create a barrier between the shiek and I. Rhea slides in next to me and pours water onto my arm. The pain leaves my body as a slight ecstasy replaces it. The water glows white and cools my burning arm. I stare in amazement for a few moments at the wound. The black and purple bruise fades away.

Rhea yells. “This will take a minute so you guys need to keep it away.”

Aarushi yells back. “I think we can take it, Deadra injured its leg. Also were stronger then you think!”

I look up from my arm to watch the fight.

The shiek has all of its weight on its uninjured leg. Even so it still moves swiftly forward. Aarushi charges in retaliation. She throws two balls of fire the size of basket balls at the Shiek. It is forced to slow down and dodge each one properly. With the birds lowered momentum they collide and come to a standstill.

While holding it with one hand Aarushi punches at its neck with fire embroiled rock claws with the other hand. After three hits the bird flares its wings out with an ear splitting screech and bashes its head into Aarushi. She falls back several steps. The bird extends its injured leg out parallel to its body and begins to spin like a top.

Wind gusts around it like a tornado as it slowly comes closer toward us. Lucarus commands. “Don’t touch it! Try throwing compressed fire at it!” He and Aarushi each gather flames into their hands and launch a few flaming balls into the tornado. The flames are mostly extinguished before they hit the bird, but they still hit their mark and I can see the bird begin to slow down. “Keep it up, don’t stop!” They each throw several more balls of billowing flame until the bird stops spinning. The shiek stumbles a few steps closer then lets out one last shriek before collapsing next to me.

The announcer yells once more. “The Eternal Flame has passed the third round!” Rhea pats me on the head and stands up. I look at my arm and realize it is fully healed. “But will they be able to take on the next round. The next round has taken out many teams before. It is well known as the marathon round with twelve wolves and one bear!”

The shiek is quickly removed as the metal gate is open once more. If what she says is true we will be over whelmed in a few seconds. I gulp down my fear and grab two of my rock daggers. I have an idea of something I want to try. The creatures stagger out of the gate closely packed together. I pour an eighth of my remaining energy into each of the rock daggers. I hope this works.

I throw one charged dagger between three wolves on the end and the other in the center of the group between two wolves and the bear. An explosion three feet in diameter emanates from each dagger. The shock wave can be felt several yards away, all the wolves stagger slightly while some fall down. The three wolves directly in the blast radius whale and get flung away. The bear staggers away from the explosion falling on a wolf next to him. Five wolves were killed with that one attack while the bear was greatly injured. We only have seven more wolves and a bear to handle. I shout to the group “attack while their stunned!” Lucarus, Aarushi and I all charge at the wolves.

We cover the area in flames with our combined attack limiting visibility. Each of us takes a wolf out quickly before having any retaliation. Ignoring the wolf stuck below the bear we each need to only take one more out. Running through the flames I slide kick toward the wolf in my cross hairs. The wolf confused by all that is going on jumps backwards. I push off the ground throwing myself into the air above the wolf. Landing in front of the wolf I wrench my dagger at its face. I scratch its muzzle and one of its eyes as it whines from the pain. Continuing my momentum from the slash I spin around and back hand the wolf with my open hand. Stepping forward with the spin I reach closer to the wolf and end it with one more slash.

Not having time to check my comrades I run toward the downed bear. Seeing it regain its bearings along with the injured wolf below it I grab another rock dagger. Heating it up to improve its cutting ability I launch it at the wolf’s head killing him instantly. I jump at the bear with my silver dagger above my head but am swatted away. While I still fly backwards Lucarus sprinting from the other side of the bear slashes at its neck. Aarushi coming from behind me blasts a barrage of fire balls into the bears face. Lucarus strikes once more at the back of its head then jumps back. It slumps to the ground.

All of us heavily breathing gather around Rhea to have her heal our injuries. My stomach was cut slightly from the bear swiping me away. Aarushi had some claw marks on her arms. Lucarus had a scratch on his shoulder. I am truly thankful to Rhea and her ability to heal people. The water tribe may be weak fighters but they have amazing abilities.

The announcer screams out with excitement. “Woooow never have I seen such an explosive and fiery match before! I have no idea what the red haired boy threw to cause such an explosion but if it wasn’t for that they may have been over whelmed by the wolves. The combined attacks from the pyromancers has caused the very arena floor to be scorched.

This team is amazing! Pyromancers are a very strong race. For a first time team to get this far is unheard of!” Louder than ever before the crowd bellows with excitement. I guess after this we might build a name for ourselves.

“I do like this explosive group but I don’t think they have the strength to kill the next opponent. It is an elimination bonus round. The stakes are now increased. For reaching it this far they will receive a ten percent increase to their total winning if they can win the match. The monster they must take on now is a rock golem!” The crowd goes silent except for a few people whispering. The gates reopen and the rock Golem steps out. Never have I been so afraid for my life.