Cara Foregess Mana Depth - 22 > 27 Mana - 2,300 > 2,800 Mana Ripple - 10 > 98 Mana Regen - 2.53 mana/s > 13.2 mana/s Mana Embers - 509 > 1,384

Waiting for everyone in front of us to go compete was proving to be frustrating. I kept looking at my grimoire bouncing my knee as I waited on the cold earth seating. I had been successful in having my grimoire show the changes since rescuing my dad. My mana regen was simply monstrous, though I feel that I don't have a lot for big spenders, the only way around that right now is to form some mana embers. I am becoming more and more nervous about how many mana embers I have on hand at any given time. I went ahead and spent more than half my mana to make some more. I’m uncomfortable with attempting to go down to nothing in public. It took me a while of introspection, but since the fight at the Ursa cave where the dark guilder and noble were, I’ve become more afraid. Afraid of shadows, not having mana available, and being weak.

I had spoken with Akira about it and he said that he understood that it was natural that as we have more to lose that we can become more fearful. It does not help with the unease I feel. It could also be due to just how many people are around and that there is a lot of magic being cast. Sure they are just throwing rocks and tiny bits of flame. Just every spell that goes off has my nerves taught.

I glance down into my grimoire several more times, watching my mana reserves slowly creep up as dusk is settling in. I now understand why more fire mages registered later, with it getting darker, the fire they are throwing around is more visible. I cannot help but think back to the flash of fire in the cave when I had tossed caution to the wind and pushed mana into that dark guilder’s fire magic.

Jessica reaches over and threads her fingers through my hand, stopping me from picking at my nails while I get a couple of pats on the top of my head from Violet. I look over at her and she gives me a small smile before she nods over to Zoe who is dragging a heavy-set gentleman over.

“Don’t worry Cara, I’m nervous for you too. But I know you’ll do great, just don’t get hit by a rock to the face.” Jessica whispers over to me and I cannot help but let a small chuckle escape.

“Hey, Guys! This is my uncle, I’ve explained things to him and he’ll front us some funds.” Zoe says, dragging the poor guy behind her.

“I’m not ‘fronting’ anything. I’ll be providing a loan at two percent interest per day to a max of twenty before I need to send people to break some knees. Jeez. Gambling of all things, you girls are too young for this, do your guardians know?” He starts to go off on a bit of a rant before our attention is pulled to the arena to see how the current walloping is progressing.

A pair of fire mages are setting alight a brick from what has been considered the predominant strategy and the flaming projectile is being thrown out. Their opponents are a pair of wind mages and an earth mage. The earth mage is obviously a black sheep as they were not picked up by a fire mage partner, though given the blush and glances he keeps giving one of the wind mages is probably answer enough. They were doing alright at simply using wind magic to try and push the fireballs away, but as soon as there was some weight behind it, they were completely countered. As for the earth mage, he had covered his arms with some earth and was tanking the bricks. However, now that there was fire, things were getting bad. Their flame seems to be sticky and doesn’t go away immediately. His arms now how patches of fire still burning on the rock armor. He’s also becoming slower and is having trouble keeping his arms up as they must weigh quite a bit.

The last projectile was made more brittle and it shattered, spraying them all with small chunks of flaming rock. They yelled that they conceded as the three dropped to the ground and started to roll around to put out the sticky flame. At least once it was smothered it went out.

“You three certain that you can go against something like that?” Zoe’s uncle asks while what appears to be some attendants of his have managed to catch up.

“Don’t worry uncle, we’ve got this in the bag, it is going to be easy,” Zoe says while rubbing her hands together.

“And you are certain you want me to have my employees split twenty thousand Dens bets between each of your fights?”

“Yup yup! It’ll be fine! You worry too much, you’ve not seen the two of them face off against charging guars without too much issue!”

I try to stealthily summon what Dens we’ve earned previously. My hand disappearing into the little circle of orange mana does not go unnoticed by some and Zoe’s uncle’s breathing hitches as he sucks some air in between his teeth.

“Could you maybe add this in as well, we are kind of stuck down here and need to be ready to go out at any time,” I say while handing over the pouch. Zoe’s uncle weighs the bag thoughtfully while also giving a small nod. He suddenly gives his head a small shake catching up on the conversation from the distraction of me summoning items from my soul space.

“Wait, you’ve done subjugation quests? Most of those that are classified as subjugation are normally handled or offered to silvers first or exclusively?”

“Yup, which is why we are going to rake in a killing!” I could see the same gleam in Zoe’s eye start to form in her uncle’s eyes at this new information. He quickly called over his people and gave them their instructions before they disappeared into the crowd to find some bookies.

“Anything else I should know?”

“Cara’s got a deal with mage Flow, the guild master’s right hand man to not be able to bring her familiar,” Zoe mentions while he looks up quizzically.

“Oh! This the human familiar that people have been debating about?”

“Ya, he almost killed mage Flow, broke his arm when he was going to attack us for having Akira defend us against a fire mage student that was going to lob a fireball into a classroom with us in it.”

“Interesting, the fire cun-ultists like to terrorize others with their hazings in the early years.” He said, catching himself in a slip up of what he really wanted to call them.

A paige at this time started to wave to us as the previous group vacated the field. I started to get up before an adamant Zoe jumped in front of me.

“Oh! No! You! Don’t! There’s no way we are following you showing people up. You are going without your familiar and that information needs to spread a bit for us to get some better odds. I’m going first, followed by Jessica. You are pulling up the rear and will be upset.” Zoe pushed me to sit back down before she did a cute little stretch and hop before skipping over to the paige who had a questioning look on his face. They then proceeded to whisper a bit to only have the paige show an aghast face before he scribbled some stuff down and just waved the girl on to her fate.

“Well if you’ll excuse me, I need to make sure I can milk this for everything little Zoe is claiming this will be. Don’t break my wallet, it is more fragile than my heart.” Zoe’s uncle said before he backed out and made some distance from Jessica and I. It was not long after we heard his booming voice from within the crowd.

“Look here, we got a young whipper snapper wanting to try and be a solo hero and make a name for themselves. We’ve got a solo wind mage attempting to go against a pair of fire mages and another wind mage.”

“If you’ve not managed to bet yet, get them in to see how long you think she’ll last before being forced to leave the arena.”

He continues to drum up interest and there’s an obvious shift in the crowd as people move to find bookies to try and earn what they think should be some easy money. Zoe, meanwhile, comes to a stop in the arena at the designated starting sides and seem to be further away than usual.

It takes a moment but I remember seeing another fight using a similar setup. Previously they’d use the distance to keep away from any thrown stones and have the wind mage help push the fire along to make up for the normally shorter range. If an opposing earth mage group sets up a defensive wall, they are normally too far to do anything and would get baked out of their defensive position.

Captain Davis checks in with both groups, the trio unhappy with them potentially being looked down on as not having earned their position and Zoe simply gives a curt nod. Captain Davis raises his arm and then quickly lowers it telling them to commence the fight.

Zoe appears to be concentrating while the other three begin to loaf around and start to walk toward her. There are still some last-second bets being made, but we are able to hear the trio start to jeer and catcall at Zoe. The wind boy seems to be joining in wanting to fit in with the group.

“Oy, Windbag, do something about the stench. I can still smell burnt pussy from the last time I cooked…” The one fire mage on the left side started to ridicule his partner, however upon mentioning Zoe’s trauma and what was as good as an admission was the beginning of this competition being upturned.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!” With a feral scream from Zoe, all sound around the trio stopped. Loose rocks all around them and up to some 50 feet away started to bounce and skitter on the ground, as though the very earth were vibrating. The trio stops dead in their tracks, still, outside of the normal range we’ve seen from fire and earth mages, and cover their ears with the primary culprit dropping to their knees.

We can see that they are screaming, but no sound is coming from around them except for the drumming of the stones as they continue to skitter and Zoe’s continued scream. One of the boys makes a break for it and starts to run backward, though after a couple of steps he stumbles backward, his head reeling as though he had tried to bash it through a wall and failed. We can see some blood trickling out from between their fingers, though the primary target of Zoe’s hatred has a bloody nose painting his teeth red as he silently screams.

I can start to feel the vibrations in the ground now and people in the audience also seem to be feeling what is going on. There are a long of hushed whispers here and there as various bronzes and silvers start to discuss amongst themselves. Zoe is clutching at her necklace, which I now remember is her artifact of power that she would have summoned the same day that Akira and I met.

The other fire mage briefly releases one hand from cupping his ear and tries to point toward Zoe, but nothing happens before he returns to cupping his ears and falls to his knees.

I see Captain Davis’ dumbstruck face look several times between the one-sided fight and the audience. I follow his gaze and see that he was looking toward the guild master who gives him a nod to proceed.

“The win goes to the solo challenger as the other team is unable to continue. Miss Brinks, stop, Miss Brinks! I said STOP!” He calls out the winner but Zoe is completely ignoring him as she is entirely focused on just one person. After only another breath or two of waiting, captain Davis charges out toward Zoe and once he gets within ten steps he slams his hands down and a dome of earth snaps up and around Zoe, cutting off a scream.

However, to the dismay of Captain Davis and from the reaction of several people in the crowd that suddenly stand up, the three boys are still being affected by Zoe’s spell. It is at this time that the dome starts to shrink in on Zoe and I let out a scream.

“STOP! You are going to hurt her!” I yell out and start running onto the field at Captain Davis. I’m not thinking properly and am simply yelling at captain Davis to stop hurting my friend. It is at this time that a shadow appears at my side and with the clear sound of a sword leaving its scabbard a blur passes in front of my eyes. Captain Davis reacts to something and as he is turning around he freezes. A chorus of yells and screams comes from the audience as everyone freezes. Captain Davis has a ring of rock around his neck as there is now a segmented blade wrapped around it.

“Release her or your head will go flying despite your best efforts.” Akira says in a detached voice, sending shivers up my spine. I can all of a sudden feel the killing intent coming from Akira, as though it were almost real. As for captain Davis, from the loss of color on his face, he seems to have seen or felt something. With a small raising of his hands, I can all of a sudden hear Zoe’s choking scream as the dome starts to cave in and deform as sand.

I quickly rush past the stalemate of the two men and rush over to Zoe and tackle her into a hug and start to wipe sand, snot, and hair away from her face.

“Shhhh, it's okay, they cannot hurt you. Let them go.” I do my best to console her, but I don’t seem to be able to get past the pain. I reach out with a mana tether to check on Zoe and I can see a giant red scar cutting through her entire being, from her neck to her thigh. I flash up the smallest locus of control I can around me and I can feel the tether that Zoe had formed snap like dried grass.

Zoe’s pained eyes finally see me, she lets go of her necklace that she was holding onto with bloody fingers and she falls into my arms crying. I cradle her as we both go down to the sand. I can somehow manage to catch the groans and screams of the trio coming back into existence.

Someone else calls for mage Larse and several people jump onto the field to look after Zoe’s victims and carry them away.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I wanted to kill him so badly.” Zoe is mumbling between hacking coughs and I simply rock her and tell her it is okay.

I hear four pieces of rock clatter to the ground as the sound of a sword can be heard re-entering its scabbard. I look over and see a still pale-faced captain Davis looking at Akira with mixed emotions.

Akira comes over and scoops Zoe up and we start to head back to the audience. Only now do a couple of awkward claps come from the crowd as we make our way back. There are one or two ecstatic cheers originating from the crowd as someone yells that they won it big, possibly placing some Dens on what must have been a losing bet and making out like a bandit.

Zoe’s uncle comes over to us to check on his niece and is hovering, not knowing what to do as I sit down with Zoe who is now hiccuping constantly.

“Due to the brazen behavior, we will be disqualifying the earlier results.” A mage Flow stands up and shouts out to the crowd, garnering some boos and heckles as people often enjoy some blood sport, and seeing something like this will provide good gossip in the town for quite some time.

I can hear the odd whisper of ‘fledgling monster’ and curses at losing some money on the unexpected initial results. However, mage Flow’s announcement will have people fighting with the bookies as to whether that fight should have counted or not. With a stiff lip and a scowl at the crowd, mage Flow yells at a paige to continue.

The boy looks over at us with an awkward look before I nudge Jessica.

“Your turn I guess.”

Biting her lower lip, she slaps her cheeks once and stands up, but flinches with a squeak of surprise as Violet mimics her and slaps her cheeks. Zoe’s uncle doesn’t stop hovering, but he does seem to flag and convey a message to someone as Zoe starts to walk towards the paige who after being told something gives her an odd look before he calls out to another group to head out.

“It looks like we have another daring individual who wants to follow that fight up. A plant mage from the same small group as our previous solo contestant, this one having a little Lasher familiar. Does she aspire to be the second coming of the monster class plant mage, the Scarred Poison Rose? The only plant mage to ever break out of bronze and surpass gold and gain the mythic title of a monster classer? A quick reminder that poison has been banned from competitions since her time three hundred years ago. Be sure to place your bets on how long you think the fight will last or if your conviction is strong enough that she’ll actually win.” Some employee of Zoe’s uncle took his place yelling out and trying to garner some support. His last statement at Jess winning, garnered a round of laughter.

I had never heard of this Scarred Poison Rose, it might be worth some research at some point as to who she was.

As Jessica walks out, her head is held low at being the center of attention. Though it probably does not help as Violet has now become the center of attention as she extends from her hidden place in Jessica’s clothes. Violet extends a dozen and a half vines some four to six feet out in a whipping fury. I see at this time that Jessica is holding a pair of vines down, and has simply given up on trying to stop her familiar from acting up.

Jessica’s body language speaks of no confidence to the entire audience despite Violet’s antics. I hear the current announcer egging people on to try and recoup their losses from their previous bets, while also hyping up her opponents. Another pair of fire mages with an earth mage this time.

Her opponents are a boy and a girl fire mage wearing red robes and a look of disdain as they look at Jessica. The earth mage has a single glove on that was just hyped up as being his artifact of power, a clear combat item. While his teammates do not seem to be taking this seriously, he’s taking things seriously. He’s flexing his hands and I can see the earth beneath each of his hands churning.

Captain Davis, while still a bit pale, asks if both sides are prepared. A chorus of laughter echoes out as Violet vibrates in excitement or in response to being ready.

“Ready? Ready? Okay, begin!” Captain Davis checks with both sides before he drops his arm and motions for both sides to begin.

The earth mage is taking no chances and he kneels down, thrusting his hands into the earth, pulling back two arms encrusted with rocks while pulling up he forms a small defensive thigh-high protective barricade. His two teammates are less than enthused with his over-cautiousness. The girl forms and throws a small fireball that while it appears pretty impressive in the fading light with how it pushes back some of the encroaching darkness of night, it doesn’t even make it halfway before it peters out.

With a huff, she and the other fire mage make their way out, looking to get closer to the plant mage to set her and her familiar on fire or to force Jessica to concede quickly before she and her familiar are endangered. The earth mage boy hesitates and simply shakes his head and mouths a ‘sorry’ to Jessica as he stays behind and doesn’t follow the two fire mages.

Violet is practically writhing in the air, a couple of vines moving out and digging into the earth, trying to pull Jessica closer. The fire mage pair cover only a quarter of the distance between them, still well outside of the range any fire mage had shown is when the earth opens up and eight or so vines or blades of grass shoot out of the ground around them, entangling their arms and legs in the blink of an eye, much to their surprise.

They both release a shriek and yell of surprise as their legs are pulled together and out from underneath them. The plants start to shrink back and pull them closer while a pair grabs them around the wrists pulling their arms away from Jessica and having the pair fall down away from her. The boy spins, trying to catch himself but instead manages to belly flop on the ground and a terrible wheeze comes from him as the girl screams and falls backward her head careens towards the ground, just for it to turn to sand and cushion the blow.

Captain Davis retracts an arm after obviously interceding and preventing the girl from cracking her skull open. The boy is stupid enough to light his own hands on fire and is now screaming from the pain. A dozen more vines snap out of the ground, smother the flame, and entomb his arms in grass and dirt, preventing him from setting at least that part of himself back on fire.

Jessica is starting to walk around the pair but Violet manages to pull her closer, then to the shock of the entire crowd, Jessica starts to actively fight with Violet, wrestling two armfuls of vines that are trying to reach for the girl. However, the boy is not so lucky as Violet somehow manages to pull his pants down and a pair of white buttocks is whipped repeatedly by Vines. Jessica is mortified and briefly tries to cover her face, forgetting about the armful of vines she had been previously wrestling with that quickly reach for the other girl.

With a panicked squeak, Jessica regains control over the vines that were going for the girl while the boy is screaming profanities as his fanny is whipped repeatedly and is lashed red. With a much more animated fight being between Jessica and her own familiar, the crowd is laughing at her antics as she is slowly stomping away from the duo towards the final guy in his little fort.

Once Jessica is far enough away that the duo is out of Violet’s range, she fans out all of her vines menacingly while Jessica comes to a stop and just points at the boy. Everyone looks over and can see that there is a vine or blade of grass tapping that boy’s shoulder and he just raises his two rocky arms into the air in surrender.

“Please, let me keep my dignity, and don’t let that little guy near me.” He pleads as he concedes to some boos from the crowd. Jessica stomps all the way back to us as she is declared the winner. Many in the crowd are grumbling angrily or in shock at what had just happened. However, Jessica is ignoring all of this attention and stomps right up to Akira who is still chuckling to himself before she just reaches up and grabs him by the ear.

“By the devourer! What did you teach Violet!” She starts to yell at Akira. I cannot help but also start to laugh as Jessica continues to berate Akira for corrupting her poor familiar.

“A very surprising turn of events! A display of power from a tiny familiar when they are possibly ignored or not taken seriously.” The previous announcer continues, attributing the entirety of Jessica’s hard work to Violet and not herself. I’m irked by the slight against my friend, but I see now that there was a lot of dissatisfied grumbling in the crowd at this turn of events.

People are more used to the fact that plant mages are simply meant to be growers, helping plants grow, and never capable of anything combat related.

“We’ve got another final treat for everyone. Due to some animosity between mage Flow and this group the final member, another plant mage, has agreed to go out without her familiar.” The announcer was trying to introduce me but was setting me at odds with mage Flow. Mage Flow also stood up, looking around for this person that was bad-mouthing him but the person was somehow able to project their voice while not revealing themselves.

“Apparently this group, with a powerful pair of familiars, the other familiar being the supposed human that you all saw interceded when captain Davis was trying to stop miss Brinks’ earlier... fight. Will this be another dark Devra? Or will we have an odd third wheel in this powerful group that mage Flow has been looking to remove credit for requisitions done? Supposedly they had managed to complete some subjugation requisitions of Guars and an Ursa with their powerful pair of familiars and wind mage coordinator that mage Flow is looking to remove credit for.”

Whomever the announcer was, they were doing a good job at riling up mage Flow, who started to curse and shove his way through the crowd now, in search of the current announcer. A female announcer picked up after him from a different area of the arena, trying to drum up people to win back any losses and making heavy mention that I, a plant mage, was going up next without my familiar.

I could see the paige look towards me with a resigned look and motion for me to come forward. The darkness of night was setting in and some mages went around the arena lighting up tall obelisks that an earth mage would raise up. Everything looked much eerier with the arena lit up like this as the devourer’s side of the pitch-dark sky was beginning to show through the almost non-existent clouds.

I made my way onto the field after Zoe and Jessica both gave me a thumbs-up and a small cheer. Akira was too busy pretending to be hurt as Jessica was still pulling his ear. I give them my best confident smile and look over to my opponents. Two girls and a boy, all three of them fire mages. It seems that they really wanted to be showcased in the dark.

Once we got to our respective positions, I saw the three of them do something that made goosebumps go up my arms and I could swear they were about to break into coordinated dance before they each pointed at the ground and spun as a circle of fire appears around each of them.

I’m shocked at the childish display and cannot help but think back to the fire mage in the cave. How with just a large push I had almost brought down an entire mountain on us and here, these three idiots were surrounding themselves with something I could just push a little bit of mana and do the same thing. I remember something Akira had told me previously about that encounter.

‘Next time, do not let anger cloud your ability to reason. If you want to stop a fire mage, use half the mana you think you need, then halve it again, and know, you’ll still be putting too much into it if you want to kill them and not bring yourself along with them.’

Captain Davis is reprimanding them for using skills prior to him telling them they could commence. He is also shooting me a couple of looks, I suppose he was wondering if I was just coming up here to concede, as Akira was not with me and while I have my own segmented sword on my hip, it seems like nobody is taking me seriously with it.

Thinking about it, how am I going to do this? I don’t want to kill the three dancing monkeys. I could do something similar to Jessica, but I want to be different. To show that I don’t need a powerful familiar to fight my fights. I can do this myself, so how am I going to do this? Pushing a Locus of control around the three will be anti-climatic, as the crowd would just see their stumped faces, and then what, I walk up to them and place my sword on their shoulders and demand they surrender?

I want to win with magic and I know I can do this.

“Ready?” Captain Davis asks, rousing me from my inner thoughts as I finally form an idea for a new spell.

“Yes!” I yell, taking him aback briefly before he turns to the trio and asks the same thing. The crowd is murmuring non-stop as I see captain Davis lower his arm.

“Begin!”

I reach down and grab mana and push it through a tether in the ground in front of me, summoning more and more iron grass. The trio starts to move towards me cautiously as they see a wall of green explode in front of me, cutting off their view.

I push some more and have the grass lift itself, pulling out a ball of earth that I’d barely be able to wrap my arms around. Using this as the core I summon more grass out from the entire thing and have the roots pull the entire agglomeration of earth into a sphere to act as the core.

It has been barely a breath of time and I’m not happy about also losing vision on my three opponents. I proceed to extend my mana tether out through the sphere of roots and grass. As I extend it, I start to burn through what mana embers I’ve managed to collect to ensure that I don’t use up my own reserves. I’ve managed to get my mana tether out some 12 meters (39.3 feet) before I touch the first person and can finally see them with my mana sense. This has cost me a little over 460 mana embers, maybe a third of what I have on hand.

I watch the person take their first step toward me as I move on to my next step. The announcer had reminded me about it and since mage Flow has problems believing, maybe this will help.

I call and shape my intent and have the wall of iron grass that is hoisting its own core up in the air start to take shape. I force it to grow some more and draw the grass to form a pair of strong hind legs, the top of the hips hovering at 2.4 meters (8 feet). More and more grass starts to wrap around, nothing but air, forming the outline of a strong pair of hind legs as wide as my arm span. I nestle the core into the chest cavity, giving it ribs and surrounding the gut as I form two menacing front arms. I realize that I do not have anything really for claws or teeth and make a mental note to maybe look at some rose thorns to see if I could maybe incorporate them.

I then form the large head of my oversized Ursa. Larger than the real one we encountered. Without claws or teeth, but looking powerful and menacing. The empty eye sockets give it a creepy ethereal look. I can feel that I’ve burned through another 600 embers forming my giant Ursa. She’s impractical, but I’m more going for shock and awe at this point.

I can feel something is missing deep down, like something in my soul wants to click into place and I’m missing whatever that would be. I can see that the person I am watching in my mana tether has stumbled on their second step and is trying to skid to a halt.

‘Go pin them gently to the ground!’ I try to convey with intent, pushing it through the tether that I have running through the core.

…

I wait for a solid two breaths as I see the person finish skidding to a halt and is now backing up. I can feel them moving their mana around preparing to most likely summon a fireball which I’ll need to make sure I don’t accidentally kill them with.

I look at my grass statue and instead will one paw to move. I get the paw to raise and lower in front of it and then am presented with my issue. I need to command each collection of grass to move. It is a stuttering mess but I finally get it to jerkily walk toward my opponents.

I follow behind it, taking ten steps for every one that I have it take. It is flowing more easily and I’m able to have the giant lumbering grass statue take individual steps like a terrible marionette with knotted lines. There are panicked screams from the other side and I peak around the leg I’m hiding behind to see the two girls having none of it and are just screaming as my jerky monstrosity lumbers toward them.

The boy manages to throw a fireball right at the face, he’s completely focused on my grass titan Ursa. He manages to set the face on fire, but green grass doesn’t like to burn that well and with a small thought, I shift the grass on the face to have it smother everything against itself, putting out the fire and leaving a very light burning smell.

They are all backing away now and I am able to finally get my grass titan to walk faster with alternating pairs of steps. I grab onto the back haunch as the steps are getting a bit much for me and I manage to catch up to the boy. He throws another fireball at a leg and I instantly put it out in the blink of an eye. The power behind it is really nothing compared to that ring of fire.

The crowd screams in horror as I have the now frozen boy in front of me and I simply have the Ursa scoop its head down and devour him in its toothless maw. I proceed to flare my [Locus of Control] with another 480 embers to make it 2 meters (6.6 feet) in size.

I move the panicking boy through the tangled grass and nestle him inside my [Locus of Control]. We can hear muffled screams of terror and I can feel small pushes against my [Locus of Control], but he’s panicking and unable to figure out a way to push through the resistance.

I climb up onto the back of my Ursa, realizing just how high it is. I make two pieces of grass extend and wrap around my ankles and lower calves to support me as I look down at the two girls. One has fallen down on her butt and the other has turned tail and is sprinting to the perimeter of the arena.

I have the Ursa take two giant steps towards the girl who fell down and have my new mount lower its head to gobble her up as well.

While lowering my Ursa’s head, there are a dozen earthen bricks that fly and blow several holes through the neck and head of my Ursa. With a small thought, the grass re-weaves itself and repairs the damage and small mana cost. I look over from my perch at a frowning captain Davis.

“I didn’t hear them concede!” I yell over to him, as my Ursa extends a paw and pulls the now fetal-position girl closer.

“Also, you could have killed the boy by accident!”

“Where is he!?” I hear captain Davis yell over and I realize that his earlier screams have now gone quiet.

I will the left flank to open and reveal the tangled boy who has fainted at some point. Now that I think about it, I had everything woven so tight in several layers that it must have been pitch black inside. I watch the third girl run out of the arena altogether.

“So is it my win!?”

Captain Davis looks over to the crowd where a mage Flow is quite unhappy and a small smirk is on the guild master’s face. I follow his gaze and I can now see that the crowd is roiling. I can hear accusations of cheating being directed at mage Flow. Demands for a review as to why bronzes were allowed to compete with leads.

I can see Zoe has recovered from her ordeal as she is dancing while holding four bags, most likely filled with Dens. Her uncle has a stiff smile, as though he just got cheated out of a deal of a lifetime if only he put some real skin in the game.

Many people who most likely lost a good amount are now cursing at mage Flow and demanding that the guild master do something. Some are demanding reimbursement and others are accusing simply cursing him as they can do some with some anonymity from the angry crowd.

The guild master stands up, while trying to say something, he’s also drowned out by people who do not care. He then waves his arm in a large motion and many loud pops and crackles sound out silencing some of the crowd enough for him to speak.

“The winner of this round is quite obvious. We will suspend the final free-for-all of the competition and if we’ll have an internal review as to why this incident was allowed to happen, that will be all.”

------------------

“Jeremiah, I told you to not get involved with that group as you did. Now, look at what has come of it.” The guild master said while he placed a hand on Jeremiah’s good shoulder.

“This can hardly be considered my fault! I am following rules and protocols.” He fumed.

“Rules and protocols are dead. They can guide the guild, and keep us safe from nobility, but at the end of the day, guilders are our lifeblood. Look at what your stunt has done to our lifeblood.” He said while motioning to the crowd that is boiling over, arguing, some fights have broken out and the entire thing is on the cusp of going into a full riot.

“You saw their display. That familiar could have killed Davis with a twitch and he’s a silver, he could have killed you and you are a silver. He’s most likely training these girls to be something more and if you think they are leads, you are dead wrong, if you think they are bronze, then I can only look down on you. Them becoming gold or monster class is not a matter of if, but when. You need to swallow your pride and get out of the way. Golds and monsters hold grudges like any man or woman and nobility will do anything to try and gain new specimens or make them grateful to themselves. I don’t, our guild doesn’t and you shouldn’t want to be the target that any nobility thinks to be a problem they could solve to make this group indebted to them.” He said with a final warning as he left Jeremiah to disperse and placate the burgeoning riot.