The world shifted into golden hues as Olivia focused energy into her eyes and holy Ra'avah kicked in.

"How is he?" Drake asked from behind her.

She knelt beside Alf in a pile of snow and placed her hands on his chest. Tiny snowflakes settled on his nose and eyelashes, the snow a remnant of his shattered ice crystal. "He appears to be fine," she said in amazement. Alf's bones were all intact; his heart beat strong and steady, and his brain patterns appeared normal. "The spells here are unbelievable. An explosion like that must have hit him with the force of hundreds of thousands of newtons, yet there's not a scratch on him."

"I take it, it is safe to wake him?" Drake said.

"You can try."

Drake bent over, pulled a package of smelling salts from Alf's medallion, then broke it underneath his nose.

Nothing happened.

The prince snapped his fingers, and the smelling salts evaporated into a purple flash of fire, filling the air with a putrid stench.

Alf blinked in a daze then jerked back and scrambled to his feet, trying to get away from the awful smell. He glanced around, his brow scrunched and his eyes crossed in confusion, till he seemed to realize where he was at. "What in the world happened?" he blurted.

The youngest maid answered his question. "Whatever that weird guy did with his voice made your ice crystal go kaboom! It exploded everywhere," she said jumping and grabbing at the snowflakes still lazily floating down.

"And boy did it explode," the redheaded maid laughed. "It sent you flying and bouncing off the arena walls like some type of spinning fire cracker."

"Ow!" Alf said, rubbing his head. "I guess it's not always smart to store large amounts of water. Does anyone know how he did that?"

Olivia rose to her feet and shook her head. Alf looked at Drake.

The prince shrugged. "I don't know. To be honest with you, I can't understand how he did any of it. As far as I could tell, he didn't use magic at all."

"Same here," Olivia confessed. "His weapon has no spells embedded in it, and his armor only has a few light absorbing enhancements. Other than that, there wasn't anything."

"I don't understand then," Alf said in confusion. "How did he crush me like that without using magic when he obviously was?"

"Because I didn't," said a young man's voice from behind Olivia.

Olivia spun around to see the masked vice champion walking their way. Standing several inches taller than her, but shorter than Alf, the young man moved with the grace of an experienced warrior. His emerald green armor clung to his trim form, and golden scrollwork depicting serpentine dragons running along his forearms glinted in the sunlight. Dark eyes looked at them through a silver face mask.

"Are you okay?" the young man asked, his voice thick with concern as he jutted his chin at Alf. "I know the arena is supposed to stop anyone from taking any permanent damage, but my technique is a bit different, so I just wanted to make sure you're alright."

Alf stopped rubbing his head and nodded. "I'm fine. That weird ringing and nasty feeling in the back my head are gone. Though that's not an experience I want to repeat again. "

The warrior walked forward, laughed, and slapped Alf on the back. "That's good to hear. You're the first person I've met that can go toe to toe with me in a fight, and I'd love to have another go with you sometime. Maybe when you're a bit more trained," the vice champion added, a tinge of mirth in his voice.

"The only person that can go toe to toe with you?" Drake asked, his eyebrows furled. "What about Zaphaniea? I thought she was the grand champion. Doesn't that mean she can beat you?"

The masked warrior waved his hand dismissively. "The only reason she wins is because she can see the future. Every time I fight her, she cheats by looking ahead to see where I'm at then uses her weird magic to throw me around like a rag doll, but she can't see my movements or anywhere near match me in physical strength. If she wasn't born with both holy magic and dragon blood, she would never be able to beat me. It might be a man thing, but I just don't see her as a rival." He chuckled, "Which to be honest, I can tell kinda pees her off a lot, but the truth is the truth."

"Now you," he slapped Alf on the back once more, "on the other hand, can see my movements. I could tell. Like I said, maybe with a little bit more training, you may just be my equal."

Alf laughed nervously, "I don't know."

"Trust me, you will," he said then paused and touched the side of his mask. "Talking about training, in the middle of our battle, your sword talked and all of a sudden you became stronger. What in the world happened?"

"Really?" Olivia glanced back at Alf. From her perspective in the stands, it had looked like the fight had shifted at one point. She'd briefly wondered about it but then forgot in the excitement of the battle. "What happened?"

Alf glanced at his sword and mumbled, "Um, well you know."

"The stone?" she asked.

He nodded.

The vice champion followed Alf's eyes down to the violet jewel set in a gold inlay within his blade's pommel. "Ah, you have a skill extracting stone," he said in the tone of one finally figuring out a great mystery. "I've seen quite a few people with them around here. What'd you get?" he asked in enthusiasm.

Alf laid his hand on top of the stone and Olivia could tell he was uncomfortable with the stranger asking about it.

"Come on, tell me," the vice champion prodded. "They're not illegal or anything, so it's not like you cheated."

Alf smiled and laughed and finally relaxed, "I guess you're right. It's a skill called Defender, and it made it so I could easily see how to deflect your attacks."

"Now that sounds nifty." The warrior touched the hilt of his own sword. "Hmm, maybe I should have got myself one those gems instead of springing for a new weapon."

Slipping to the front, Drake pushed Alf's hand aside and gazed into the stone. "I see. The sword's previous owners must have used it for primarily defensive maneuvers, and the Sphaeron compiled that accumulated information into a skill. This should come quite handy in the future."

"I see your son is into this kinda stuff." The vice champion knelt beside the boy. "Did you know," he asked, his tone that of an adult teaching a child important information, "Sphaeras can hold up to 4 skills?"

"Of course I do," Drake said, his face scrunched in distaste. "And I am not Alf's son. I am his battle strategist."

Olivia hid a smile behind her hand as Drake responded to the young man's question. The prince clearly hated being treated as a child, though, Olivia thought, one would think—after forty years of being stuck in his current state—he would be used to it by now.

The warrior laughed and gracefully stood to his feet. "Cute kid," he said and turned to Alf. "You know what most people don't know though, it's possible to extract the skills from those gems and permanently learn them."

"I didn't know that," Alf said.

"I did," Olivia heard Drake mutter underneath his breath.

"I'm glad to hear you say that, because I have a proposition to make. I will teach you how to extract the skill from your stone, and how to permanently learn it... if you give me the skill afterwards."

Alf glanced down at the prince, "Think that's a good deal?"

"No," the boy answered.

"Why ask the kid?" the warrior asked. "Oh, wait ... he's not seriously your strategist is he?"

"He is," Olivia told him.

"Ah," the vice champion said and winked at her as if deciding to play along. He glanced down at the Stone of Kay, then sighed. "How about this then? What if I throw in my sword as part of the deal. I noticed you looking at it, and it's quite expensive. It should be an even trade."

Olivia narrowed her eyes at the masked man. "Don't you need your weapon?" she asked.

"Nope. You see, normally, I'd pay for the skill in cash, but I just spent every last crypto I had on buying a new blade. The arena blacksmith is putting a custom hilt on it as we speak. As soon as I get my new weapon back," he said patting his sword hilt. "I won't need this one anymore."

"In that case," Alf said before Olivia or Drake could respond. "If you're willing to trade, it sounds fair to me. I need a new sword anyway. Mine is really for more of a ceremonial purpose than for combat. Not to mention that it almost broke in your first attack."

"Cool beans," the vice champion said, his voice brimming with excitement. "Now, first of all, you have to remove the Sphaera from your weapon."

Alf removed the blade from its sheath and pulled on the Stone of Kay. Blue energy flashed over the purple gem and it slowly reshaped itself until it fell away from the hilt and into Alf's hand. "Okay, now what?" he asked.

"Now you—"

"You tell it to 'expel skill', then say the name of the skill you want it to expel," Drake said cutting the vice champion off. "Then you stick it against your head like you did with what I gave you earlier. After that, simply assign a section of your brain to it, though you might not have enough newly forming neural pathways to permanently learn it. Some skills can be quite demanding."

"Ya, like the kid said." He looked at Drake and said in a teasing tone, "Alf did a good job raising you. Hopefully you grow up to be as handsome as him." He rubbed the chin of his face mask in contemplation. "You never know, you might even be Zaphaniea's type someday. Then again, I don't think she's into robbing from the cradle."

"I was not raised by Alf and I have no interest in- Ugh." Drake turned away. "Never mind."

"Alf, if you would please?"

Alf held the Stone of Kay to his mouth and said, "Expel skill: Defender."

A female voice replied from the stone, "Expelling skill," and one of the two, green skill orbs inside the gem, slowly emerged until it dropped into Alf's hand. Alf handed his old weapon to Olivia and used his free hand to press the gem to his temple. Just like with the Kishron sphere, it melted and disappeared into his scalp.

Olivia felt a ting of jealousy—so many new technologies, and she hadn't even had a real chance to study them, much less look at them, while Alf literally got to stick them in his head.

"Hey, I have enough," Alf proclaimed.

"Sweet," the vice champion said rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Now, when you're done with it, just hold your hand against the side of your head and tell the green thingy to leave."

Alf placed his hand against his temple, and a brief moment later, the green orb reappeared.

Once the orb rematerialized, Alf gently handed it to the vice champion, and in return, the warrior handed Alf his sword.

Olivia startled in surprise as the masked man lifted his face mask just enough to put the green orb into his mouth.

"I don't think you're supposed to eat that," the brunette haired maid said.

The warrior started to laugh and almost choked on the orb. Holding up his finger, he signaled for them to wait. Regaining his composure, he said, "You can also install them by holding them against the roof of your mouth with your tongue."

"Oh," the maid replied.

As the man in green installed the orb, Alf held up his new weapon. Sunbeams danced along the length of its long, curved obsidian blade, and Alf smiled in satisfaction. The leather hilt looked a bit used, but despite that, there wasn't a scratch on the blade, which to Olivia meant it must be quite sturdy to withstand the constant abuse the vice champion's speed had afflicted upon it.

Finished admiring his new weapon, Alf pushed the Stone of Kay against the hilt. Once again, blue energy flashed and the stone melded itself to the sword. Alf held it up one last time, then hung the sword from his waist.

"Hey, now that you've learned it, shouldn't you give the skill ball back," the youngest maid said as she peered at the champion's mouth.

"Can't," he replied. "I haven't achieved Patuah yet, which means I can't permanently learn it." He tapped the side of his head and said, "It's got to stay in there in order for me to use it."

"Oh."

Olivia smiled and handed Zachariahs' old sword back to Alf. "You should hold on to this and put it away later," she whispered to him.

Alf nodded and addressed the vice champion. "Thank you so much for your help and for the fight."

"My pleasure. It was nice to meet you and even more fun to beat you. I look forward to doing so again," the vice champion said and turned to leave.

"Wait," Drake called after him. "I have seen hundreds of different types of magic and spells and read of thousands more, but in all my years of research, nothing describes what I've seen you do today."

The young man turned around and chuckled. "Taking this battle strategist to the extreme I see. But you're a bit young to be thinking you've seen and heard it all," he said. "I'm a fair bit older than you, and I've been in this arena for a long time, and still, I see new things every day. So if I were you, I would keep an open mind little fellow."

The youngest of the sisters giggled at the warrior's patronizing words and Drake scowled at her.

He chuckled again. "Don't worry. You won't be that little forever. And to answer your question, let's just say I got hit by dark magic when I was younger, and it did weird stuff to me."

Drake twisted his face in disbelief. "What are you saying?" he asked. "There is no way dark magic can give you 'powers'. It doesn't work that way."

"Like I said," the warrior reached down and ruffled Drake's hair. "You're a bit too young to be thinking you know it all."

Oliva hid a smile as Drake pulled away from the vice champion and glared up at him. However, inwardly, she felt conflicted with what the man was saying. Dark magic sucked the life and magic out of its victim, while at the same time distorting the user's mind and eventually causing them to go mad.

She focused energy into her eyes and once more looked at the warrior as holy Ra'avah kicked in. This close, and without the arena's shield's interference, she could distinctly see the vice champion's physical and magical composition.

To her bewilderment, it was apparent the man standing before her had not yet achieved Patuah, just as he had said. Now that's curious, she thought. The was no magical storage point around his core, and none of his energy lines were broken, which ruled out dark magic altogether.

If dark magic was used on someone who had not yet achieved Patuah, it would open their magic, but in such a way they would be unable to control their energy for the rest of their life. It was one of the cruelest things a dark magic user could do to anyone.

Suddenly, a pink blur flashed out of the corner of her eye, and Olivia spun around to see a pink mass of energy flying towards them. She blinked, dispelling holy Ra'avah, and looked again.

Zaphaniea, the grand champion, flew several feet above the ground, and shot straight towards them faster than any arrow flung from a bow.

Throwing up her hand, Olivia started to channel a shield to protect herself from the imminent oncoming crash, but right before the champion slammed into them, she put her hands in front of herself, pushed off an invisible object, and landed lightly on the ground. Coming to a complete halt, she leaned over and gasped for air.

Zaphaniea's clothes lay in disarray, and her fiery hair looked as if she had forgotten to comb it after she had slept. Her face shone as white as a sheet, and her eyes were the size of saucers. As she regained her breath, she managed to suck in a lung full of air, then gasp,

"THE BLOOD OATHS ARE COMING!"